RAZIA SULTANA
The
daughter of Iltutmish, the second of the
so-called ‘‘Slave Kings’’ of Delhi, Razia ruled the Delhi Sultanate from 1236 to
1240, thus becoming the first woman to rule a Muslim state in India. On his
death bed, Iltutmish had expressed his wish that he be succeeded by Razia, whom
he thought more capable for the position than any of his sons. In the intense competition
among the various factions of the court to fill the political vacuum left by
Iltutmish’s death, however, Razia was passed over in favor of her halfbrother,
Rukn ad-Din Firuz, Iltutmish’s eldest surviving son. Rukn ad-Din Firuz turned
out to be a ruler who was given to pursuing a life of pleasure and satisfying
his lust, being content to leave the affairs of state in the hands of his
mother, Shah Turkhan. Shah Turkhan used her newly acquired power to settle old
insults she had suffered in Iltutmish’s harem by either putting to death or
humiliating some of Iltutmish’s wives. Rukn ad-din Firuz’s debauchery, as well as
Shah Turkhan’s machinations, provoked further hostility at the court when they blinded
Iltutmish’s infant son, Qutb ad-Din, so that he could no longer be a contender
for the throne. When Shah Turkhan began making arrangements to execute Razia
because she deemed her to be a threat to her son’s authority, the people of
Delhi and some officers of the army revolted. Because of the high esteem with
which they regarded her, they raised Razia to the throne. Rukn ad-Din and his mother
were put to death. At the time there were apparently no religious objections to
a woman ruling a state. Only in the seventeenth century does a theologian,
Abdulhaqq Dihlawi (d. 1624), deem Razia’s appointment to be contrary to the
shari’a.
Although Razia came to power on the basis of popular
support in Delhi, the confederacy of nobles and regional governors who had been
responsible for excluding her from the throne in the first place refused to
acknowledge her authority. Through astute diplomacy and complex intrigues, she
was able to create dissension and mistrust in the ranks of the opposition, even
managing to convince some of the nobles to support her cause. Having
consolidated a shaky support base, she began appearing in public unveiled and
in male attire. The chronicler Minhaj as-Siraj
reports that she was a wise and just ruler, possessing all of the attributes
and qualifications necessary for a king. She conducted affairs of state in an
open court, marching in person with her armies when engaged in battles. Early
in her reign Razia, however, managed to arouse a great deal of hostility and
jealousy among the predominantly Turkish nobility when she appointed Jalal ad-Din Yaqut, an Abyssinian slave, to
the post of master of the stables, a position traditionally reserved for a distinguished
Turk. Her partiality for Yaqut has led later historians to speculate whether
there had been a sexual relationship between them, but contemporaneous sources do
not indicate that this was necessarily the case. In a society in which ethnicity
and race (i.e., Turkish ancestry) were the prime qualifications for holding office,
Razia’s advancement of Yaqut was deemed to be not only scandalous and improper
but also insulting to the Turkish oligarchy. It is very likely that, by appointing
Yaqut, Razia was attempting to cultivate a cadre of non-Turkish officers and
courtiers to counter the power held by nobles of Turkish ancestry at the court.
As a result of the Yaqut affair, Razia
encountered powerful opposition at the court in Delhi as well as from the
governors of the provinces. The governor of Punjab revolted but was subdued by
Razia’s forces. Fatal to Razia’s rule was the revolt of Ikhtiyar ad-Din Altuniyya,
the governor of Bhatinda. On April 3, 1240, Razia set out with her army to
subdue him. However, as the army reached Bhatinda, some officers killed Yaqut
and handed over Razia to Altuniyya. The confederacy of nobles in Delhi
proclaimed Muiz ad-Din Bahram, Razia’s half-brother, to be the new ruler. In
the meantime, Ikhtiyar ad-Din Altuniyya, feeling left out of the power sharing
taking place at the court in Delhi, released Razia from prison, and, after
marrying her, proceeded to Delhi to promote the claims of his wife to the
throne. Altuniyya’s army was defeated by Bahram’s forces, and, on October 14, 1240,
both Razia and Altuniyya were killed.
Further Reading
Haig, W.,
ed.Cambridge History of India, vol. 3, 56–60. Nizami, K.A.Some Aspects of
Religion and Politics in India during the 13th Century. Bombay, 1961.
RHETORIC
An interest in rhetorical practice and theory
has been an aspect of Islamic civilization since its inception. The Prophet
Muhammad s.a.w received his calling in a
cultural environment in which various kinds of
verbal arts, including poetry and oratory, were taken seriously and held
in high esteem, and the art of public speaking and oratory has played a very
important role in the history of Islam ever since. However, because the word rhetoric
may have different meanings in different contexts in Western languages, there
is no precise notional equivalent in Arabic. The closest equivalents are al-balagha and al-khataba, which are frequently
used in compounds such as‘ilm al-balagha
(the science of eloquence) and fann
al-khataba (the art of public speaking), respectively. ‘Ilm al-balagha parallels rhetoric in Western traditions in the
sense that it deals with tropes and figures of speech, thus corresponding with
what is called elocutio in Latin rhetoric. In general, however, ‘ilm al-balagha
shows little similarity with rhetoric in the sense of public speaking and
oratorical art. In this respect, fann
al-khataba is a closer counterpart to rhetoric.
To a significant degree, early preachers and
orators in Islam inherited their profession and position in society from the
pre-Islamic orator (khatib),
soothsayer (kahin), and poet (sha‘ir), and from traditions of
rhetoric current in the Near East in late antiquity and the early Middle Ages.
Speeches and sermons attributed to leading personalities during the first
centuries of Islam including the Prophet, the caliphs, governors, generals, and
others were subsequently recorded in writing and preserved in the classical works
of adab (edifying literature), such as the Kitab
al-Bayan wa‐l-Tabyin of
al-Jahiz
(d. 868) and ‘Uyun al-Akhbarby Ibn Qutayba (d. 889); in chronicles such as The History of al-Tabari (d. 923); and,
in the case of Muhammad’s sermons, in the hadith literature and biographies of
the prophet. These recorded speeches served as models for later orators.
Another important source in this respect, particularly in Shi‘i circles, was the
book Nahj al-Balagha, which
purportedly contained the speeches and letters of ‘Ali, the Prophet’s
son-in-law (d. 661). During subsequent centuries, sermons by eloquent preachers
and learned scholars (‘ulama) were also preserved in writing to form part of
this corpus of exemplary models, which have continued to exert an influence up
to modern times. Among the most important of these are the collections attributed
to the Hanbali scholar ‘Abd al-Rahman bin ‘Ali Abu ’l-Faraj Ibn al-Jawzi (d.
1200), who was also the author of a well-known handbook for preachers and
admonishers (see below).
Different names are applied to various kinds
of oratory or preaching in the sources: for example, khutba (official sermon in the mosque, referring specifically to
the Friday sermon), qasas (a ‘‘free’’
sermon based on edifying narratives) and wa‘z
(admonition, exhortation). Although the termkhutbatends to be reserved for
official preaching in the mosque by a preacher (khatib) approved by the authorities, qasas and wa‘z were applied
to less-regulated kinds of preaching. As such, the latter were the focus of much
controversy during the Middle Ages. Qasas came under particular attack, because
its practitioners, the qussas, were accused of leading people astray by
transmitting false hadiths, thus creating political turmoil and social unrest
among the ordinary people. Several well-known scholars contributed to this
criticism, including Abu Hamid alGhazali (d. 1111), who based his arguments on those
of Abu Talib al-Makki (d. 996). More generally, there was a tendency on the
part of the scholarly community to make a distinction between undesirable forms
of unofficial preaching (qasas) on
the one hand and praiseworthy or at least tolerable forms of the same practice
(wa‘z) on the other. Although there may be little difference between these
genres in reality, the term wa‘zthus came to be the preferred designation for a
more respectable kind of ‘‘free’’ preaching, whereas the term qasas fell into
disrepute and subsequently acquired the meaning of popular ‘‘storytelling.’’
One example of a collection of sermons that has been variously described as
wa‘z or qasas is al-Rawd al-Fa‘iq (The
Splendid Garden), attributed to Shu‘ayb al-Hurayfish (d. c. 1400).
The rhetorical science called ‘ilm al-balagha
developed through exegetical as well as linguistic and rhetorical practices. As
a scholastic discipline, it acquired a certain maturity during the thirteenth
century, epitomized in Talkh is al-Miftah
(Epitome of the Key) and al-Idah (The Clarification) by Muhammad bin ‘Abd
al-Rahman al-Qazwini (1268–1338). AlQazwini had important precursors,
particularly ‘Abd al-Qahir al-Jurjani (d. 1078) and Abu Ya‘qub Yusuf al-Sakkaki
(d. 1229). However, al-Qazwini provided a systematic presentation of the
subject that came to be most influential during subsequent centuries,
including, for instance, the common tripartite division of ‘ilm al-balagha into
the following categories: (1) ‘ilm
al-ma‘ani (the science of meanings); (2) ‘ilm al-bayan (the science of clarification); and (3) ‘ilm al-badi‘ (the science of
embellishments). Although the first of these may be seen as dealing with
pragmatic issues of language use, such as the distinction between informative
statements and performative speech acts, the second concerns the use and
interpretation of metaphorical language to clarify rather than obscure. The
third is about the art of embellishing an utterance with various modes of
beautification, including figures of meaning and figures of speech.
To a significant degree, the development of
‘ilm al-balagha was shaped by theological concerns, first and foremost the
interpretation of the Qur’an. Many of its illustrative cases and examples are
taken from the Qur’an, and there is a clear emphasis on the possibility of
reconstructing the intentions of the speaker, who in the case of the Qur’an is
God Himself. For this reason, it might be argued that ‘ilm al-balagha is a
hermeneutic discipline and an auxiliary to Qur’anic exegesis rather than
rhetoric proper. Apart from this, various forms of rhetorical theory and
practice were cultivated by bureaucrats and courtiers in more profane settings.
In the bureaucracies and erudite circles of the caliphate, it was important to
be able to master elegant prose as well as poetry in the composition of
official letters and documents. Over the centuries, handbooks and guides were
written about these subjects to serve a practical purpose, including, for
instance, the Subh al-a‘Sha fi Sina’at
al-Insha’, al-Qalqashandi’s (d. 1418) famous manual for bureaucrats and
clerks in the Mamluk administration. In addition, the art of public speaking and
oratory, including the art of preaching, was discussed and practiced in terms
of al-khataba rather than al-balagha.
The former was commented upon theoretically by the medieval Muslim
philosophers, such as al-Farabi (Alfarabius;
d. 950), Ibn Sina (Avicenna; d. 1037),
and Ibn Rushd (Averroes; d. 1198),
who treated it in the context of their studies
of the Aristotelian Organon (the
corpus of texts dealing with the various tools of logical reasoning to be used
in all the sciences). However, the philosophers were not the only ones to take
an interest in the art of public speaking. Quite naturally, the subject of al-khataba
also attracted the attention of Muslim preachers and theologians for other,
more practical reasons than those that motivated the philosophers. The primary
concern here was homiletic practice (the
preaching of religious truths and values) rather than philosophical and logical
debates. In addition to the collections of sermons, a few books with rules and guidelines
for preachers have also survived from the medieval period, such as ‘Ala’ al-Din
Ibn al-‘Attar alDimashqi’s (d. 1324) Kitab
Adab al-Khatib (The Book of the Preacher’s Etiquette) and ‘Abd al-Rahman
bin ‘Ali Abu’l-Faraj Ibn al-Jawzi’s (d. 1200) Kitab al-Qussas wa‐l-Mudhakkirin
(The Book of the Storytellers/Admonishers and Those Who Remind).
The medieval Muslim works of ‘ilm al-balagha,
like those devoted to the art of public speaking (fann al-khataba), show
significant similarities with rhetoric as discussed and practiced in European
traditions. Several concepts and notions are similar, such as the distinction
between figures of meaning and figures of speech. With regard to the art of
public speaking proper (fann al-khataba), it should be remembered that the
translation into Arabic of the Aristotelian Organon, including the book on
rhetoric, was a complex process that went through several phases, from the
early works based on Syriac translations of the editions current in late
antiquity to the final phase as represented in the scholarship of Christian and
Muslim Aristotelians in ‘Abbasid Baghdad. The commentaries that were
subsequently composed by Muslim philosophers are important contributions in the
history of rhetoric: not only did they provide the Muslim world with a
knowledge of Aristotelian rhetoric, they also came to have significance in the
West, where they were translated into Latin and provided with commentaries by
Christian scholars during the later Middle Ages. This process provided an
important impetus to the cultural development in Europe known as the
Renaissance.
Primary Sources
Aristotle.Ars
Rhetorica: The Arabic Version, 2 vols., ed. Malcolm C. Lyons. Cambridge:
Pembroke Arabic Texts, 1982.
al-Farabi.
Deux Ouvrages Ine´dits sur la Re´torique, eds. Jacques Langhade and Mario
Grignaschi. Beirut: Dar El-Machreq, 1971.
al-Hurayfish,
Shu’ayb. al-Rawd al-Fa‘iq fi’l-Mawa’iz wa’l-Raqa’iq, ed. Khalil al-Mansur.
Beirut: Dar alKutub al-‘Ilmiyya, 1997.
Ibn
al-‘Attar al-Dimashqi. Kitab Adab al-Khatib, ed. Mohamed Ibn Hocine Esslimani.
Beirut: Dar al-Gharb al-Islami, 1996.
Ibn
al-Jawzi.Kitab al-Qussas wa’l-Mudhakkirin, ed. Merlin L. Swartz. Beirut: Dar
El-Machreq E´ diteurs, 1971.
Ibn
Rushd.Averroes’ Three Short Commentaries on Aristotle’s ‘Topics,’ ‘Rhetoric,’
and ‘Poetics’, ed. and transl. Charles E. Butterworth. Albany, NY: State
University of New York Press, 1977.
Ibn Sina.
Al-Shifa’: al-Khatabah, vol. 1, pt. 8, rev. I, ed.Muhammad Salim. Cairo:
Imprimerie Nationale, 1954.
al-Qazwini,
Muhammad bin ‘Abd al-Rahman. Talkhis al-Miftah fi’l-Ma‘ani wa’l-Bayan
wa’l-Badi‘. Cairo: Mustafa al-Babi al-Halabi, 1938.
Further Reading
Berkey,
Jonathan P.Popular Preaching & Religious Authority in the Medieval Islamic
Near East. Seattle and London: University of Washington Press, 2001.
Black,
Deborah.Logic and Aristotle’sRhetoricandPoetics in Medieval Arabic Philosophy.
Leiden and New York: E.J. Brill, 1990.
Bohas,
George, Jan-Patrick Guillaume, and Djamel Eddin Kouloughli.The Arabic
Linguistic Tradition. London and New York: Routledge, 1990.
Butterworth,
Charles E. ‘‘The Rhetorican and his Relationship to the Community: Three
Accounts of Aristotle’s Rhetoric.’’ InIslamic Theology and Philosophy. Studies
in Honor of George F. Hourani, ed. Michael E. Marmura. New York: State
University of New York Press, 1984.
Hallde´n,
Philip. ‘‘What is Arab Islamic Rhetoric? Rethinking the History of Muslim
Oratory Art and Homiletics.’’ International Journal of Middle East Studies 37
(2005): 19–38.
Heinrichs,
Wolfhart. ‘‘Poetik, Rhetorik, Literaturkritik, Metrik und Reimlehre.’’
InGrundriss der Arabischen Philologie, vol. 2, ed. Helmut Ga ¨tje. Wiesbaden:
Reichert, 1987.
Jenssen,
Herbjorn.The Subtleties and Secrets of the Arabic Language: Preliminary Investigations
into al-Qazwini’s Talkhis al-Miftah. Bergen: Centre for Middle Eastern and
Islamic Studies, 1998.
Larcher,
Pierre. ‘‘Quand, en Arabe, on Parlait de l’Arabe...(I): Essai sur la Me
´thodologie de l’Histoire des ‘Metalangages Arabes’.’’ Arabica35 (1988):
117–42.
Larcher,
Pierre. ‘‘Quand, en Arabe, on Parlait de l’Arabe... (II): Essai sur la Cate ´gorie
deIsha’(vsKhabar).’’Arabica 8 (1991): 246–73.
Larcher,
Pierre. ‘‘Quand, en Arabe, on Parlait de l’Arabe... (III): Grammaire, Logique,
Rhe ´torique dans l’Islam Post-classique.’’Arabica39 (1992): 358–84.
Larcher,
Pierre. ‘‘Ele´ments de Rhe´torique Aristote ´licienne dans la Tradition Arabe
Hors laFalsafa.’’ In Traditions de l’Antiquite´ Classique, eds. Gilbert Dahan
and Ire `ne Rosier-Catach. Paris: Vrin, 1998.
Larkin,
Margaret.The Theology of Meaning: ‘Abd al-Qahir al-Jurjani’s Theory of
Discourse. New Haven, Conn: American Oriental Society, 1995.
Mehren,
August F.Die Rhetorik der Araber. Hildesheim, New York: G. Olms, 1970 (1853).
Pedersen,
Johs. ‘‘The Criticism of the Islamic Preacher.’’ Die Welt des IslamsII (1953):
215–31.
Simon, Udo
Gerald.Mittelalterliche Arabische Sprachbetrachtung Zwischen Grammatik und
Rhetorik: ‘ilm al-Ma‘ani bei as-Sakkaki. Heidelberg: Heidelberger Orientverlag,
1993.
Smyth,
William. ‘‘Rhetoric and ‘Ilm al-Balagha: Christianity and Islam.’’The Muslim
WorldLXXXII (1992): 242–55.
Swartz,
Merlin L. ‘‘The Rules of the Popular Preaching in Twelfth-Century Baghdad,
According to Ibn al-Jawzi.’’InPreaching and Propaganda in the Middle Ages:
Islam, Byzantium, Latin West, eds. George Makdisi, Dominique Sourdel, and
Janine Sourdel-Thomine. Paris: Presses Universitaires de France, 1983.
Swartz,
Merlin L. ‘‘Arabic Rhetoric and the Art of the Homily in Medieval Islam.’’
InReligion and Culture in Medieval Islam, eds. Richard Hovannisian and Geroges Sabagh.
Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1999.
Wansbrough,
J. 1968. ‘‘Arabic Rhetoric and Qur’anic Exegesis.’’Bulletin of the School of
Oriental and African Studiesxxxi (1968): 469–85.
ROAD NETWORKS
The roads of the medieval Middle East were
largely a continuation of the preexisting road systems of the Roman and Partho-Sasanian
empires, which in turn were often continuations of more ancient routes. Although
paved streets had existed in towns before the Roman period, paved roads between
settlements were a Roman innovation. Under the Romans, the development of the
road network was dictated by military and, to a lesser extent, commercial
considerations. During the Islamic period, the existing road system was
supplemented by new routes that were developed to provide easy access to Mecca
and Medina.
Principal Hajj routes ran from Damascus (Darb al-Hajj al-Shami), Cairo (Darb al-Hajj al-Misri), and Baghdad (Darb Zubayda), with subsidiary routes from
Yemen and Oman and trans-Saharan routes from West Africa. The majority of these
routes were unpaved (except in places where they used preexisting Roman roads),
although they were provided with facilities such as milestones, wells, cisterns
(burak), caravansaries, and mosques. The best‐documented route is the Darb Zubayda, which was constructed by the
‘Abbasid caliph Harun al-Rashid during the eighth century and which included
palatial residences in addition to the usual facilities. The Syrian pilgrimage
route via Medain Saleh and Petra is of the greatest antiquity and was of
primary importance during the Umayyad period and later under the Ottomans. Some
idea of the political importance of this route can be gauged by the fact that
the ‘Abbasid revolution was organized from Humayma, a small town on the road
midway between Damascus and Medina. The Egyptian route via Aqaba/ Ayla is the
least well-known route, although it appears to have been the most important for
much of the Medieval Period, when it was used by the Mamluk sultans.
There is little evidence that major new roads
were constructed during the Islamic period, although improvements were made to
existing routes, such as the construction of bridges, rock cut passes, and the provision
of milestones. One of the earliest known examples of road improvements is a
rock cut pass near Lake Tiberias in Palestine, which is recorded on a milestone
(now in the Israel Museum) dated to the reign of the Umayyad Caliph ‘Abd
al-Malik. Other examples of rock cut passes include two at Aqaba/Ayla: one on
the Arabian side dated to the tenth century and one on the Egyptian side dated to
the Mamluk period.
Numerous bridges are known both through
historical sources and through archaeology. Bridges were of two types: arched masonry
structures (qantara) and wooden floating structures ( jisr). The former were used
for rivers of limited span, whereas the latter were used on wide rivers or
where there was a significant variation in seasonal water levels. Often
caravansaries or khans were located next to bridges, such as at al-Harba south
of Samarra in Iraq and at Lajjun in Palestine. Rivers also functioned as routes
in their own right; the Tigris and Euphrates rivers provided important links
between Anatolia and the [Persian] Gulf, just as the Nile connected upper Egypt
with the Mediterranean.
One innovation of the Islamic period was the increased
use of camels for transport (c.f. Bulliet), which opened up trans-desert routes
for commercial use but which also meant that roads did not have to be
maintained to the same standards that were needed for wheeled vehicles. There
was, however, some revival of wheeled transport in the eastern Islamic world during
the thirteenth century, when the Mongols established an imperial road network.
Also during the thirteenth century, the
Mamluk rulers of Egypt and Syria revived and improved the postal routes of
early Islamic times. The revival took place in two stages. During the first
phase, the route was provided with khans that could be used both by the members
of the official postal service and by merchants traveling the route. During the
later period, special postal stations were built where horses and riders could
be exchanged. The most important route was the road linking Cairo with
Damascus, the so-called Via Maris, which was provided with a number of bridges,
the most famous of which is Jisr Jindas in Palestine, which carries carvings of
panthers. Other routes included a special road into the Lebanon mountains to
bring ice to Damascus.
As in other cultures, settlements often
developed around road systems. Thus, the caliphal city of Samarra was built
along a main arterial route leading north from Baghdad to Mosul. Similarly, the
city of Ramla in Palestine, founded during the early eighth century, was built
at the intersection of the Cairo– Damascus route (Via Maris) and the
Jaffa–Jerusalem roads.
Primary Sources
Ibn
Khudadhbih. al-Masalik wa-l-Mamalik (The Book of Routes and Provinces).
Further Reading
Birks,
J.S.Across the Savannas to Mecca: The Overland Pilgrimage Route from West
Africa. London, 1978.
Petersen,
A.D. ‘‘Early Ottoman Forts on the Darb al-Hajj.’’ Levant21 (1989): 97–118.
al-Rashid,
S.A.Darb Zubayda. Riyadh, 1980.
Sauvaget,
Jean. ‘‘Les Caravanserais Syriens du Hadjdj de Constantinople.’’Ars Islamica4
(1937).
———.La Poste
aux Chevaux dans l’Empire des Mamelouks. Paris: Adrien-Maisoneuve, 1941.
ROMANCE LANGUAGES AND
LITERATURES OF IBERIA
For centuries after the settlement of Muslims
in parts of the Iberian Peninsula (beginning in 711 CE), the vernacular
literature produced by Christians in Spain displayed various signs of
cross-fertilization with Arabic. Contact with Arabic occurred not only through
actual Muslim kingdoms on the peninsula but also through Muslim minorities
living at different times under Christian rule. There is much debate today,
especially among Hispanists, regarding the extent of the influences brought
about by this contact. Although some consider the role of Islamic civilization
central to the literary history of medieval Spain, others interpret it as a marginal
detail; other opinions cover the vast range in between. To consider the nature
of the contact between Arabic and Romance literatures, one naturally has to
raise questions about the appropriate ways to gauge how one culture affects
another and what the actual definition ofinfluenceis; such issues are
increasingly being addressed by scholars.
Attention must be paid to the fact that the
languages of the Iberian Peninsula are not limited to Castilian (commonly referred
to as Spanish): Basque (not a Romance language), Catalan, and GallegoPortuguese
enjoy a rich heritage in the literary history of Spain. However, because of its
frequent contact with Muslim communities, Castile appears to show the stamp of
encounter more visibly.
Certain facts about the interaction between
Castilian literature and the cultural world of Islam are clear. Castilian contains
numerous words of Arabic origin. In the realm of nonfiction, the constant
movement of Arabic medical, philosophical, and scientific treatises into the
vernacular, enabled by events such as the massive translation projects of King
Alfonso X of Castile (r. 1252–1284 CE), embedded Arabic terms into Castilian
vocabulary and even syntax, much of which is visible today.
In the realm of fiction, literature produced
in Castilian by Christian authors of the Middle Ages provides evidence of
intimate engagement with the Islamicate cultures that coexisted on the Peninsula
for centuries. The tradition of prose narrative in Castilian was enriched by
translations or close retellings from Arabic and other non-Western languages (e.g.,
the tales of Kalila and Dimna). The didactic narratives of Don Juan Manuel (14
CE) and Petrus Alfonsus (12 CE) show ample evidence of Indian, Persian, and Arabic
sources, among others. The early popular lyric of Castilian, often expressing
the laments of a young lovesick girl, is injected with Arabic words and
metrical sensibilities.
The question of Arabic poetics as an integral
part of Castilian literary history becomes more complex in cases in which the
works being studied are no longer obvious retellings or translations. Here,
scholarship is divided with regard to the Western or Eastern derivation of medieval
masterpieces such as Juan Ruiz’sEl Libro de Buen Amor(c. 1330 CE), Fernando de
Rojas’La Celestina(1499 CE), and mystical poetry. Much debate has been
generated by questions of a strong Islamic versus Western and Latin presence in
the motifs, patterns of composition, and general thematics in these and other
works. No consensus has been achieved, but a useful discussion about the nature
of the fundamental hybridity of Spanish culture transcending mere categories of
Eastern or Western identification has been generated. At the same time, increasing
attention is being paid to Spain’s intricate ties to Islamic civilization.
Further Reading
Brann, Ross,
ed.Languages of Power in Islamic Spain. Bethesda, Md: CDL Press, 1997.
Cacho
Blecua, Juan Manuel, and Marı´a Jesu´s Lacarra, eds. Calila e Dimna. Madrid:
Castalia, 1984.
Castro,
Ame´rico.De la Edad Conflictiva. Madrid: Taurus, 1961.
Constable,
Olivia Remie, ed.Medieval Iberia: Readings from Christian, Muslim, and Jewish
Sources. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1997.
Hook, David,
and Barry Taylor, eds.Cultures in Contact in Medieval Spain: Historical and
Literary Essays Presented to L.P. Harvey. London: King’s College Medieval Studies,
1990.
Khadra
Jayussi, Salma, ed.The Legacy of Muslim Spain. Leiden: Brill, 1992.
Lo´pez
Baralt, Luce.Huellas del Islam en la Literatura Espan˜ola: de Juan Ruiz a Juan Goytisolo.
Madrid: Hiperio ´n, 1985.
Ma´rquez
Villanueva, Francisco. ‘‘The Alfonsine Cultural Concept.’’ InAlfonso X of
Castile: The Learned King (1221–1284): An International Symposium: Harvard University
17 November 1984, eds. Francisco Ma ´rquez Villanueva and Carlos Alberto Vega,
76–109. Cambridge, Mass: Department of Romance Languages, Harvard University,
1990.
Menocal,
Marı´a Rosa. Shards of Love: Exile and the Origins of the Lyric. Durham, NC:
Duke University Press, 1994.
Rouhi,
Leyla. ‘‘Trotaconventos, Don˜a Garoc¸a and the Dynamics of Dialectical
Reasoning in theLibro de Buen Amor.’’Bulletin of Hispanic Studies76 (1999):
21–33.
Smith,
Colin. Christians and Moors in Spain, 3 vols. Warminster: Aris and Philips,
1988.
SA‘ADYAH GAON
Born in Egypt in 882 CE, Sa‘adyah ben Joseph al-Fayyumi
emigrated to Palestine around the beginning of the tenth century, studying with
a leading Hebraist in Tiberias before migrating to Iraq. His incisive mind,
erudition, and forceful personality were early apparent and his intervention on
behalf of Iraqi Jewish authorities in a calendar dispute with the Palestinian
Jewish leadership (921–922) brought him wide recognition. In 928, the Exilarch,
or Head of the Babylonian Jewish community, David ben Zakkai, appointed him Gaon(Head)
of theYeshiva(academy) of Sura in Baghdad. Within two years, however, Sa‘adyah
and the Exilarch became embroiled in a politico-economical dispute that quickly
escalated into a community-wide affair, with each side issuing bans of
excommunication. When reconciliation between the parties was effected some six
years later, Sa‘adya again became the undisputed Gaon of Sura, continuing in
this post until his death in 942.
Styled ‘‘the first and foremost of scholars
everywhere’’ by the twelfth-century polymath Abraham Ibn Ezra, Sa‘adyah
pioneered many disciplines. Immersed from an early age in such traditional
Jewish subjects as Bible and Talmud, he was also well versed in Muslim and Christian
scholarship. Indeed, his greatest innovation was to synthesize many different areas
of Jewish and Arabic learning. Impressed by Arab grammarians, he composed the
first Hebrew Lexicon, Sefer ha-‘Egron
(902) and wrote a pioneering work on
Hebrew grammar, Kutub al-Lugha (Books of the
Language), which bears the imprint of Arabic linguistic theory. He translated the Bible into Arabic to make it
more accessible to Jewish readers; noted for its idiomatic qualities, this
translation (Ar.tafsir) served as the basis for numerous other Arabic versions,
some of them Christian. Sa‘adyah also wrote Arabic commentaries on many, if not
all, of the books of the Bible. These commentaries, which have only survived in
part, are notable for their long, programmatic introductions, their attention
to thematic and structural issues, and their incorporation of Arabic exegetical
terminology. A gifted liturgical poet, he also edited the Jewish prayer book.
Sa‘adyah tirelessly defended rabbinic Judaism, polemicizing against the
Karaites, a Jewish sect that denied the authority of the Oral Tradition, and
refuting the freethinker, Haywayhi of
Balkh (ninth century).
Sa‘adyah’schef d’oeuvreis his Kitab al-amanat wa’li‘tiqadat (Book of
Doctrines and Beliefs), composed toward the end of his life. One of the
earliest Jewish works of systematic theology, it is firmly grounded in the
Bible and rabbinic literature on the one hand, and the Mu‘tazilite kalamon the
other, while incorporating certain philosophical doctrines. From the outset,
Sa‘adyah argues that knowledge is grounded in revelation and reason, and that
these two sources are complementary. The book covers such topics as creation,
the proof of God’s existence and unity, divine revelation, divine command and
prohibition, obedience to God and rebellion, human merits and demerits, the
essence of the soul and the afterlife, resurrection, redemption, reward and
punishment, and ethics. It was translated into Hebrew by Judah Ibn Tibbon
(Provence, 1186).
Primary Sources
Gaon,
Sa‘adyah.The Book of Beliefs and Opinions. Transl. Samuel Rosenblatt. New
Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1948.
Sa‘adyah ben
Joseph al-Fayyumi.The Book of Theodicy: Translation and Commentary on the Book
of Job. Transl. L.E. Goodman. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1988.
Further Reading
Brody,
Robert.The Geonim of Babylonia and the Shaping of Medieval Jewish Culture. New
Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1998.
Malter,
Henry.Saadia Gaon: His Life and Works. New York: Hermon Press, 1969.
Stroumsa,
Sarah. ‘‘Saadya and JewishKalam.’’ InThe Cambridge Companion to Medieval Jewish
Philosophy, eds. D.H. Frank and O. Leaman, 71–90. Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press, 2003.
SACRED GEOGRAPHY
Sacred geography refers to notions of the
world centered on the Ka‘ba in Mecca [q.v.] with the specific purpose of finding
theqibla[q.v.], or direction toward the Ka‘ba, without any calculation
whatsoever, that is, with the framework of folk science. It is quite distinct
from the Islamic tradition of mathematical geography [q.v.], in which the qibla
was calculated from available geographical coordinates using a complicated
trigonometric formula. Sacred geography was developed by Muslim scholars
working exclusively in the folk astronomical tradition.
Some twenty different schemes of this kind of
sacred geography sometimes beautifully illustrated in manuscripts, sometimes
described in words are known from some thirty different medieval sources. In
most of the illustrations, the Ka‘ba is accentuated and its various features
identified. The world is divided in sectors around the Ka‘ba that are defined by
specific segments of its perimeter. The qiblas for each sector are then defined
in terms of specific astronomical horizon phenomena, such as the risings and settings
of the sun and various qibla-stars. In some schemes the qibla is defined in
terms of the winds, whose limits were defined in Islamic folklore in terms of
such horizon phenomena.
This tradition began in Baghdad in the ninth century.
It was particularly popular in the medieval Yemen, not least because a faqıh of
Basra of Yemeni origin named Ibn Suraqa proposed three serious schemes with
eight, eleven, and twelve sectors around the Ka‘ba. In various later works,
such as the geographical writings of Yaˆquˆt (Syria ca. 1200 CE ) and
al-Qazwını (Iraq ca. 1250), the information on the qibla in twelve sectors,
sometimes eleven, is suppressed. In yet later works, such as the nautical atlas
of Ahmad al-Sharafıˆ al-Safaqusı (Tunis ca. 1550) and various other Ottoman
compilations, forty or seventy-two sectors are uniformly distributed on a ring
around the Ka‘ba with no specific qibla values.
Underlying all of these schemes is the notion
that to face the Ka‘ba in any region of the world, one should face the same
direction in which one would be standing if one were directly in front of the
appropriate segment of the perimeter of the Ka‘ba. Since that sacred edifice is
itself aligned in astronomically significant directions, the directions adopted
by the legal scholars for the qibla were toward the risings and settings of the
sun at the equinoxes or the solstices or of various significant qibla stars.
The astronomical orientation of the Ka‘ba major axis aligned with the rising of
Canopus, and minor axis toward summer sunrise and winter sunset is implicit in statements
about the directions of the winds by a series of medieval Muslim scholars.
The various directions adopted for the qibla
in these schemes would necessarily be different from the qiblas that were
calculated by the Muslim astronomers. Indeed, the various qibla directions
proposed in the medieval sources account for the wide range of orientations of
religious architecture in each region of
the Muslim world.
Further Reading
———. ‘‘The
Orientation of Medieval Islamic Religious Architecture and Cities.’’Journal of
the History of Astronomy26 (1995): 253–274.
King, David
A.World-Maps for Finding the Direction ad Distance to Mecca. Leiden: Brill and
London: AlFurqan Islamic Heritage Foundation, 1999.
———.In
Synchrony with the Heavens. 2 vols. Leiden: Brill, 2004–2005, esp. vol. 1,
Parts VIIa–c.
———.The
Sacred Geography of Islam. Leiden: Brill, inNpress. [A summary is in the
article ‘‘Makka. iv. As centre of the world’’ in Enc. Islam.] King, David A.,
and Gerald S. Hawkins. ‘‘On the Orientation of the Kaaba.’’Journal for the
History of Astronomy 13 (1982): 102–109. [Reprinted in King.Astronomy in the
Service of
Islam. Aldershot: Variorum, 1993, XII.]
SAFAVIDS
The Safavids are the longest ruling of Iran’s
Islamic period’s dynasties. The dates of the Safavids are often given as 1501
CE, from the capture of Tabriz by the first shah, Isma’il I, to 1722, the
Afghan capture of the capital of Isfahan.
Within ten years of the former, Safavid
forces, spearheaded by a confederation of Turkic tribal forces called the Qizilbash
(Turkish, meaning ‘‘red heads’’) after their distinctive red headgear, secured territories
previously ruled by eight different rulers and roughly contiguous with
modern-day Iran. The allegiance of these tribal elements with which Isma’il himself
of both Christian and Turkic noble descent had already intermarried, was
further bolstered with the allotment of key territories and military–political
posts. The much-needed support of the Tajik, native Iranian, administrative
class, many of whom had served the region’s earlier polities, was secured by
appointing them to key posts at the central and provincial levels and by
patronage of distinctly Persian cultural traditions. A complex spiritual
polemic identified Isma’il with the region’s key Christian and Muslim, Tajik,
Persian, Shi‘i, and Turkish and Sufi discourses and traditions; indeed, although
Twelver Shi‘ism was the new realm’s established faith, Isma’il was also the
latest head of the Safavid Sufi order, whose militantly messianic appeal to his
tribal followers he also promoted. Sunnism also was tolerated following a
nominal conversion to Shi‘-ism. The strong attachment of Turk and Tajik to Isma’il
and to each other ensured the polity’s survival in the face of both internal
challenges and military defeat by the Ottomans at Chaldiran in 1514. So based
was the polity on the person of Isma’il, however, that at his death in 1524,
the confederation’s members, and their Tajik allies, fell to fighting among
themselves for dominance of Isma’il ’s son and heir, Tahmasp.
After a twelve-year civil war that encouraged
repeated Uzbek and Ottoman invasions, a new Turkish-Tajik hierarchy established
itself around Tahmasp. The center repelled the Uzbeks and sued for peace with
and ceded territory to the Ottomans, and projected a heterodox spiritual
cultural discourse that, as under Isma’il, both spoke to and legitimized the
interests of the polity’s key constituencies, including Georgian and Circassian
elements to the north, and promoted Tahmasp as representing each and leader
over all. Tahmasp’s death in 1576, which again removed the focal point of this
alliance, engendered an eleven-year struggle between and among the Qizilbash
tribes and their Tajik and Northern supporters, in support of Tahmasp’s sons,
Isma’il II (r. 1576–1577) and Khudabandah (r. 1578–1587) and, again, left the
polity vulnerable to Ottoman and Uzbek attacks. Even with the enthronement in 1587
of the latter’s son, ’Abbas I (d. 1629) [q.v.], backed by a new alliance, the
future of the polity was threatened by ongoing internal military political and
spiritual-religious challenges, as well as foreign occupation.
A 1590 treaty ceding further territories to
the Ottomans allowed ‘Abbas to secure victory over his internal rivals and
commence a series of military campaigns that, by the end of his reign,
recovered territories lost to the Ottomans and Uzbeks.
The new alliance secured these victories by
expanding the center’s core constituencies to include ghulam or qullar corps non-Qizilbash Arab and Persian tribal
volunteers and captured Georgian, Circassian, and Armenian youth converted to
Islam at both the central and provincial military and political levels, albeit
subordinate to the Qizilbash and Tajik elites, and, more importantly, by
expanding the Qizilbash confederation. The center also reinvigorated its
heterodox, spiritual cultural discourse, further emphasizing the dynasty’s
Shi‘i, Sufi, and distinctly Persian associations, and undertook to develop the
realm’s spiritual, secular, and economic infrastructure, the latter including the
removal of eastern Turkey’s Armenians, especially its long-distance merchants, to
the new capital of Isfahan, and projecting the center’s credentials at all
these levels. New efforts were undertaken to construct an anti-Ottoman alliance
by expanding contacts with European political, commercial, and religious
interests.
The prominence of this expanded
Turk-Tajikghulamalliance at the center remained a feature of Safavid politics
for the remainder of the period, even if specific personnel changed. While the
1639 treaty of Zuhab with the Ottomans, and the access to the overland route to
Mediterranean ports for Iran’s silk it guaranteed, produced growing economic prosperity
and increasingly smoother accessions; struggles for preeminence between
factions at the courts of ‘Abbas’ grandson Safi (r. 1629–1642) and great-grandson
‘Abbas II (r. 1642–1666) did not assume the proportions of the civil wars thta
marked the earlier deaths of Isma’il and Tahmasp.
In the middle and late seventeenth century, a
series of natural disasters disease, famine, and drought together with a growing
drain of specie, exacerbated the economic decline of urban craft and artisanal
and other marginal elements, and contributed to a rising interest among these
in Sufi-style messianic discourse and a corresponding growth in anti-Sufi and
antiphilosophical polemics. The center, although occasionally scapegoating
minority communities, adopted a variety of economic and social welfare measures
in response to these crises, and further promoted the identification of successive
shahs with Shi‘i religious orthodoxy, other alternative messianic or otherwise ‘popular’
spiritual and cultural discourses, and other religious traditions, and combined
with continued patronage of the realm’s spiritual and secular infrastructure,
further asserted the legitimacy of the center’s authority. The smooth
accessions of ’Abbas II’s elder son Sulayman (r. 1666–1694) and the latter’s eldest
son Sultan Husayn (r. 1694–1722), aided by an otherwise relatively healthy
economy, attest to the overall success of such efforts.
In 1722, the Afghan seizure of Isfahan did
not immediately dent the Safavids’ popular standing. For example, tribal
contingents stationed throughout the realm rushed to the shah’s rescue, and
even Nadir Shah (d. 1747), a member of one of the original Qizilbash tribes, as
commander of the army of Sultan Husayn’s son, placed the latter on the throne
in Isfahan in 1729 and married into the Safavid house before himself seizing
power in 1736. The political, especially cultural, achievements of the period
were key points of reference for later generations.
Further Reading
Newman,
forthcoming
SALADIN, OR SALAH AL-DIN
Salah al-Din Yusuf b. Ayyub (d. 1193 CE) was
a Kurdish warrior who established the Ayyubid confederation that dominated
Egypt, Syria, and the Jazira (upper Iraq) from the late twelfth to the
mid-thirteenth centuries. The career of Saladin (as his name was rendered by
Europeans) was marked by concerted military campaigns against the Crusader
states of the Syrian littoral. These military activities culminated in his
decisive victory over Crusader forces at the Horns of Hattin on July 4, 1187,
which brought about the near elimination of the Frankish states centered around
Jerusalem, Tripoli, and Antioch.
Little is known of Saladin’s early life. His
father Ayyub (the Arabic form of the prophetic name Job) was for a time in the
military service of Zangi (d. 1146), the Turkish military leader who controlled
Mosul and Aleppo. In 1152, at age fourteen, Saladin joined his uncle Shirkuh in
Aleppo in the service of Zangi’s son, Nur al-Din. Nur al-Din had emerged by
then as the most powerful figure of the Muslim opposition to the Crusader
states. When the Fatimid caliphate of Egypt was troubled with succession struggles
and threatened by several Frankish invasions, Nur al-Din sent armies under the
command of Shirkuh to aid the Fatimids. Saladin accompanied his uncle, and thus
was in Egypt when Shirkuh died in 1169. Taking advantage of the internal chaos
of the Fatimid state, Saladin took control of Egypt, first as a vizier of the
Fatimids and subsequently, in 1171, by displacing the Fatimids and ruling in
the name of his sovereign, Nur al-Din. Saladin’s relations with Nur al-Din grew
strained, however, and when the latter died in 1174, Saladin quickly marched to
Damascus to take that city from Nur al-Din’s heirs. By May 1175, Saladin was
invested by the ‘Abbasid Caliph al-Mustadi’ (r. 1170–1180) as the Sultan of Egypt
and Syria. Over the next decade, Saladin’s forces were frequently engaged with
fighting the Franks. Saladin was also concerned, however, with solidifying his
rule (by 1175 he had survived two assassination attempts) and expanding the
land under his control. In 1183, Aleppo submitted to him, and in 1186, Mosul
recognized him as well. Having thus brought the collective resources of Egypt,
Bilad al-Sham (Syria), and the Jazira under his control, Saladin renewed his
efforts against the Crusaders. His campaign in the summer of 1187 resulted in
the surrender of Jerusalem three months after his victory at Hattin. Saladin’s
subsequent campaigns left the Crusader states reduced to the coastal enclaves
of Tyre, Antioch, and Tripoli.
Saladin’s capture of Jerusalem resulted in
the call for the Third Crusade in Europe. Those Crusader forces, including
Kings Richard I of England and Phillip II of France, arrived on the Syrian
coastal plain in the summer of 1191. While Phillip soon departed, over the next
year Richard’s forces engaged those of Saladin in a series of military
maneuvers. Two Crusader marches on Jerusalem failed, yet the two significant
battles at Arsuf in 1191 and Jaffa in 1192 resulted in Frankish victories. A
truce was negotiated between Saladin and Richard in September 1192, and Richard
left the Levant a month later, the Third Crusade having thus expanded and
strengthened the Crusader kingdom of Jerusalem so weakened by Saladin in 1187–1189.
Saladin died a few months later in March 1193. His Ayyubid relatives who
succeeded him in control of Egypt and Syria were unable to duplicate his degree
of success against the Franks.
The life of Saladin has resonated for many
audiences since his death. Members of his administration penned biographies celebrating
his achievements, and eulogists commemorated him as the epitome of a mujahid fi sabilIllah, a fighter for the
cause of God. A dissenting view, however, is found in the works of Ibn al-Athir
(d. 1233), who wrote in the service of Nur al-Din’s descendants displaced by
Saladin. His struggles against Richard became the stuff of chivalry in medieval
Europe and the fodder for Sir Walter Scott’s historical fiction in the
nineteenth century. More significantly, Saladin’s unification (forcibly or otherwise)
of the Muslim lands surrounding the Crusader states, as well as his success
against those states, are major reasons why he has been celebrated by many
subsequent Muslim authors and rulers, and his example has been appropriated
into the ideas of twentieth-century Arab nationalism and contemporary Islamist
thought. Within modern Western scholarship about Saladin, a dissenting
interpretation of his achievements is found in the biography by Ehrenkreutz.
Primary Sources
Ibn Shaddad,
Baha’ al-Din.The Rare and Excellent History of Saladin. Transl. D.S. Richards.
Crusade Texts in Translation 7. Aldershot: Ashgate Publishing, 2001.
Al-Maqrizi.A
History of the Ayyubid Sultans of Egypt. Transl. R.J.C. Broadhurst. Boston: Twayne
Publishers, 1980.
Further Reading
Ehrenkreutz,
Andrew S.Saladin. Albany: State University of New York Press, 1972.
Gibb,
H.A.R.The Life of Saladin. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1973.
Hillenbrand,
Carole.The Crusades: Islamic Perspectives. Chicago: Fitzroy Dearborn, 1999.
Lyons,
Malcolm Cameron, and D.E.P. Jackson.Saladin: The Politics of Holy War.
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1982.
SALMAN AL-FARISI
Salman al-Farisi was a Persian companion of Muhammad
S.A.W who plays a large role in the self-image
of the nascent Shi‘i, and later a cosmic role for some of theghulatextremists;
little is known about his life before his arrival in Medina. Hagiographies
describe his provenance from a courtly family in Isfahan, who dissatisfied with
the religion of his ancestors sought the ‘‘true’’ religion. This account may
have some roots in the religious conflicts of the later Sasanian period in
which Mazdaian orthodoxy was under threat. Having tried out other religious
options such as Nestorian Christianity in Iran, Mosul, and Chalcis, Salman was
sold as a slave into Arabia, where he ended up in Medina. Meeting the Prophet,
he became a Muslim, recognizing the seal of prophecy on Muhammad s.a.w back. He later became famous as the one who
devised the strategy of building a ditch (khandaq)
to defend Medina.
After the death of the Prophet, he was a
staunch supporter of the rights of ‘Ali and was regarded as one of the four
pillars of the early Shi‘i. The Prophet is reported to have honored him by
describing him as a member of his family. Following Abu Bakr’s selection at
Saqifa Bani Sa‘ida, he was reported to have said to the Quraysh, ‘‘kardid o nakardid’’ (‘‘They have selected
a successor to the Prophet but failed to recognize the true successor, ‘Ali’’).
This phrase is a key example of New Persian fragments in early Islamic texts.
Popular Twelver tradition commemorates his death on AH 9 Safar 35/17 August 655
CE. In some forms of later extremist Shi‘ism, Salman became the part of the
tripartite divine hypostasis, along with nabi Muhammad s.a.w and sayyidina ‘Ali ra.
Primary Source
Ibn Ishaq.
Sirat Rasul Allah [The Life of Muhammad]. Transl. A. Guillaume. Karachi: Oxford
University Press, 1955, 95–98.
Further Reading
Crone, P.
‘‘Kavad’s Heresy and Mazdak’s Revolt.’’Iran29 (1991): 21–42.
Kosky, A.,
and M. Bar-Asher.The ‘Alawi-Nusayri Religion. Leiden: Brill, 2002.
Massignon,
L.Salman Pak et les pre´mices spirituelles de l’islam iranien. Tours: Arrault
et die, 1934.
Stroumsa,
G.G. ‘‘Seal of the Prophets: The Nature of a Manichean Metaphor.’’Jerusalem
Studies in Arabic and Islam7 (1986): 61–74.
SAMANIDS
The Samanids were a semiautonomous eastern Iranian
dynasty, based in Bukhara, that ruled Transoxiana, Khurasan, Tabaristan, and
Tukharistan between 819 and 999 CE. They are largely recognized for ushering in
the New Persian linguistic and literary renaissance of the tenth and eleventh
centuries.
Dynastic History
The origins and early history of the Samanids
as familial governors of Transoxiana on behalf of ‘Abbasid Baghdad are far from
clear, but most nearcontemporary historians are fond of repeating the tradition
that Saman-Khuda a prominent dihqan (Iranian noble landowner) and eponymous
founder of this governorial dynasty was a direct descendant of the Sasanian hero-cum-general
Bahram Chubin. It would appear that Saman-Khuda and his son, Asad, served the
‘Abbasid authorities efficiently in Transoxian, and in recognition of their
campaigns against local rebels, a number of prestigious posts in the region
were appointed to the four sons of Asad: Nuh received Samarqand; Ahmad was
appointed to Farghana; Yahya received control of Shash; and Ilyas was granted
the city of Herat. It would appear that Samanid control of the southern reaches
of Herat could not contend with the rise of another local regional power, the Saffarids
under Ya’qub al-Laith, and Ilyas was defeated and captured in 867. By 875, Ahmad’s
son, Nasr I, was more or less the sole governor of all of Transoxiana, a
reality that was ceremonially acknowledged by the ’Abbasid caliph in 875 when
he named Nasr as governor of the region. Samanid control of the region extended
to Bukhara thanks to the campaigns of Nasr’s brother, Isma’il, but fraternal
civil war soon ensued. By 892, Isma’il had displaced Nasr as the sole Samanid
governor of
Transoxiana.
The emergence of a centralized Samanid state with a lively court culture,
consistent bureaucracy, and efficient provincial administrations is typically
dated to the reign of Isma’il (892—907). This might be at least partially
rationalized by the fact that Isma’il is touted by later scholars—most notably Nizam
al-Mulk as a paragon of justice and responsible rule. He invested considerable
energy toward building up the urban infrastructure of Bukhara, and numerous
traditions describe his equitable treatment of artisans, peasants, and
sharecroppers. However, we must acknowledge that Isma’il was also an efficient
military campaigner, and no doubt his exemplary status as a Muslim ruler was
bolstered by his defeat of the disruptive Saffarid dynasty in 900 and his
extension of control into central Iran, along with his jihad against the pagan Turkic areas north of Samarqand.
After the death of Isma’il in 907, and the
assassination of his immediate successor, Ahmad, in 914, the Samanid house was
placed under control of eight-yearold Nasr b. Ahmad (Nasr II). Politically, the
Samanids were at their most vulnerable as various familial rebellions, revolts,
and external invasions dominated much of the 910s and 920s. By 926, however,
Nasr II was able to consolidate control of his territory, and mounted a number
of successful expeditions against central Iran and Tabaristan. Despite these
menaces, the reign of Nasr II is widely acknowledged as the apogee of Samanid
literary and cultural activity. This is undoubtedly explained by Nasr’s decision
to appoint two key Persians Abu ’Abd Allah al-Jaihani and Abu al-Fadl Muhammad
al-Bal’ami to the office of vizier. Henceforth, we see the development of a centralized
administration based largely on its Baghdadi counterpart but with some
interesting influences from Sasanian Iranian and Central Asian Culture with
various offices for land assessment, tax collection, financial accounting,
bureaucratic correspondence, agronomical improvements, and military maintenance.
This administrative confidence was only reinforced by the fact that Transoxiana
was no longer the subordinate, weaker province to the great region of Khurasan and
henceforth was considered a productive and culturally sophisticated component
of the Dar al-Islam. Indeed, the Siyasat nama holds up Samanid administration
as a model for the Seljuks to emulate in their own administrative organization.
Religiously, there is no substantial evidence to suggest that the Samanids were
anything but orthodox Hanafi Sunnis; it should be noted that there was a brief
flirtation by certain elements of the Samanid military (particularly a general
named al-Husain al-Marwazi) with Isma’ili Shi‘i preachers in the 920s, but by
and large Shi‘is and heterodox groups were considered anathema by the
authorities.
Medieval geographers such as Ibn Hawqal, who had
extensive experience traveling across Spain and the Maghrib, presents a Samanid
Bukhara replete with legal scholars, Qur’anic exegetes, tradition compilers,
Arab grammarians, philosophers, and other classes of intellectuals. The
relative proximity of Bukhara to eastern Asia and the increased access to paper
and papermaking technology (especially in Samarqand), fostered a certain
bibliophilia among the Samanids; Ibn Sina (Avicenna), originally from the
region of Balkh, talked glowingly of the library in Bukhara, noting that it was
there he had been first introduced to the political philosophical writings of al-Farabi.
The infusion of scholarly and courtly Arabic at the expense of local idioms of
Soghdian and Khwarazmian is attested to by the large number of poets listed in
the Yatimat al-dahr by Abu Mansur
al-Tha’alibi and the Lubab al-albab
by Muhammad ’Aufi. Nonetheless, the majority of the subject population was
unable to digest such highbrow Arabic, and many translation projects were initiated
under Nasr II, most notably the monumental Persian translation of the history
of al-Tabari by al-Bal’ami (son of the aforementioned vizier).
The remaining years of the Samanid dynasty
were occupied chiefly with contending with the Buyid ‘‘heretical’’ threat to the
west and the restoration of the ‘Abbasid caliph in Baghdad to nominal Sunni control.
However, overextension in Tabaristan and financial mismanagement only
exacerbated the devolution of power that had begun to characterize the Samanid
court under the amir-ships of Nuh I (r. 943–954) and ‘Abd al-Malik (r. 954–961).
Like the ‘Abbasid caliphs, Samanid military commanders had begun to look to the
vibrant slave trade of Samarqand and Bukhara, and the arrival of prodigious
numbers of Oghuz Turks into the Farghana and Zarafshan valleys, as new and
skilled sources of military power. By the 960s and 970s, Turks had risen to
considerable levels of military and courtly power, so much so that rivalries
and competing claimants began soliciting the political support of these
recently empowered Turkish military elite. A good example of this trend is the
career of the Turkish general Alp Teghin, who had manipulated court
machinations to secure an appointment as governor of Khurasan and developed
ultimately sufficient prestige to relocate to Ghazna and establish the first
independent Turkic dynasty in Central Asia: the Ghaznavids. Samanid impairment
was at its highest during the reign of Nuh II (976–997) who, in addition to
contending with the Shi‘i Buyids and a politically precocious Turkish elite,
was now attempting to fight off numerous invasions from the north by the
Qarakhanid Turks of Kashgar and Balasghun. Their leader, Bughra Khan, would
conquer Bukhara temporarily in 992, and by 997, Samanid dominion had shrunk considerably.
Thecoup de graceinvasion of 999 by the Qarakhanids was so quick and successful
that some historians have suggested that key personages of the Samanid court might
have collaborated with the Qarakhanids.
Ascendancy of New Persian
Language and Literature
While the Samanid court and administration
was ostensibly conducted in Arabic, nonetheless, we see the emergence of a new
and stylized Persian language that, in turn, replaced local Iranian idioms of Soghdian
and Khvarazmian. This New Persian fused older vocabulary and concepts of
pre-Islamic Sasanian and Achaemenian Iran with the energetic and robust stylistic
motifs and imagery found not just in the Qur’an but also in traditions of the
Prophets, hagiographies of Companions, and of course the popular poetic Bedouin
tradition. The eminent Iranologist Richard Frye has always contended that it
was the New Persian ‘‘renaissance’’ under the Samanids and other eastern
Iranian states all beneficiaries to millennia of pre-Islamic Zoroastrian, Manichean,
Buddhist, and Nestorian Christian traditions that ‘‘liberated’’ Arab, Bedouin
dominated Islam from its parochial roots and brassbound worldview. The bulk of
what was produced in New Persian for this period were translations of key
Arabic texts (al-Tabari’s history or translations of the Qur’an, for example), but
within time we see the rise of an independent and vigorous Persian literary tradition.
In its infancy, New Persian was established and cemented in the increasingly
famous court of Bukhara by such legendary poets as Abu ’Abd Allah Ja’far b.
Muhammad Rudaki (d. 940) and Abu Mansur Muhammad b. Ahmad Daqiqi (d. 977). Rudaki
spent much of his professional career in Bukhara, under the auspices of the
ruler Nasr b. Ahmad, and is widely recognized for developing the panegyric form
of poetry (qasida); indeed, Rudaki was the foundation for later great
panegyrists of the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries such as ’Unsuri,
Mu’izzi, and Anvari. Likewise, Daqiqi’s lyrical poetry is considered to be a forerunner
of Ferdowsi’sShahnama, and historians of Persian literature agree that many of
the great literary accomplishments of the Ghaznavid and Seljuk periods would
not have been possible if not for the Samanid program of encouraging New
Persian at both the elite and popular levels.
Primary Sources (in Arabic and
Persian)
’Abd
al-Malik Tha’alibi. Yatimat al-dahr. Ed. M.M. Qumyhah. 6 vols. Beirut, 2000.
Abu ’Abd
Allah Ja’far b. Muhammad Rudaki.Asar-i manzum. Ed. I.S. Braginskii. Moscow,
1964.
Abu Mansur
Muhammad b. Ahmad Daqiqi.Daqiqi va ash’ar-i u. Ed. M. Dabir-Siyaqi. Tehran,
1964.
Ibn
Hawkul.Kitab surat al-’ard. Ed. J.H. Kramers. Leiden, 1938.
Muhammad ibn
Ja’far Narshaki.Tarikh-i Bukhara. Ed. M. Razavi. Tehran, 1972.
Further Reading
Bartold, W.
Turkestan Down to the Mongol Invasion. London, 1928.
Bosworth,
C.E. ‘‘Samanids—History, Literary Life and Economic Activity.’’ InEncyclopedia
of Islam. 2d ed. Vol. 9, 1025–1029.
Browne, E.G.
A Literary History of Persia. 4 vols. Cambridge, 1958.
Frye,
Richard. Bukhara: The Medieval Achievment. Norman, 1965.
———.The
Golden Age of Persia: the Arabs in the East. London, 1975.
———. ‘‘The
Samanids.’’ InCambridge History of Iran. Ed. R. Frye, 136–161. Vol. 4. London,
1975.
Muhammad ibn
Ja’far Narshaki.The History of Bukhara. Transl. R. Frye. Cambridge: 1954.
Paul,
Ju¨rgen.Herrscher, Gemeinwesen, Vermittler: Ost Iran und Transoxanian in vormongolischer
Zeit. Stuttgart, 1996.
Rypka,
Jan.History of Iranian Literature. Ed. K. Jahn. Dordrecht, 1968.
Soucek,
Svat.A History of Inner Asia. Cambridge, 2000.
Spuler,
B.Iran in der fru ¨h-islamischer Zeit: Politik, Kultur, Verwaltung und
o¨ffentliches Leben 633–1055. Wiesbaden, 1952.
SAMARQAND
Samarqand has always been the leading city(misr al-iqlim) of Transoxiana (Ma-wara al-nahr: the land beyond the
Oxus River in Arabic). Its importance is explained chiefly by its position at
the junction of the main trade routes crossing Central Asia (the name ‘‘Silk
Road’’ was coined in the nineteenth century by Baron Ferdinand von Richthofen),
and its situation on the banks of the Zarafshan (Sughd) River (nahr). The
elaborate irrigation system (ariq)
that watered the city and its environs caused many people to settle in the
district of Samarqand.
As the Soghdanian wordkand(settlement)
attests, the place was an urban center long before the coming of Islam. The traditional
historiography of the Islamic conquests narrates that in the early Umayyad period,
Muslim armies penetrated the Zarafshan River Valley. The Arabs, the people of
Sogdia (sughd), and the Turks fought
over the territory. The fighting ended when Sa‘id Ibn Uthman seized the castle (quhnduz) of Samarqand. Muslim chronicles
narrate, in line with the Islamic conquest (futuhat) literary genre, that Kutham Ibn ‘Abbas, the
Prophet’s cousin and companion, died during this raid (AH 56/676 CE). Even if this
event actually took place its importance would be marginal, since other
historical traditions describe later Islamic onslaughts against the city. In
this narrative a second person plays a role: Umm Muhammad bint ’Abd Allah
joined the armies of Islam and by doing so gained fame as the first Muslim
woman to cross the Oxus River.
When Qutayba Ibn Muslim arrived (in 87/706), Samarqand
was governed by a local chief, named by the Arab source as Ghurak, who bore the
title Ikhshid. The victorious Muslim commanders did not remove him from his
post—they accepted his surrender and were satisfied with his payments, an
arrangement that lasted until his death in 737. As in other quarters of
Transoxiana, this local force served as a buffer between the caliphate and the
indigenous inhabitants. Hoping to take advantage of the crisis in the Umayyad
administration, the people of Samarqand joined forces with the Turks (Targesh)
and fought the Muslim armies. It was only during the term in office of Nasr b.
Sayyar (738–748) that the authority of the Umayyad caliphate was firmly
reinstalled.
With the emergence of the ‘Abbasid caliphate,
Samarqand, like other settlements in the Zarafshan Valley, was deeply affected
by the revolt of theal-mubayyida (safid jamgan; the white-clad ones). This was a
coalition of heretical forces led by a person nick named al-Muqanna’ (the Veiled). A generation after the suppression of
this revolt Rafi’ ibn Layth killed the governor of Samarqand and seized the
territory (190/806). The difficulties of the central government in Baghdad to
control the remote frontier lands in Central Asia and the relationships that
al-Mam’mun established between the periphery and the caliphate paved the way
for the Samanids.
Nuh b. Asad b. Saman became the ruler of Samarqand
in 204/819. On his death the city passed to his brother Ahmad
(227–250/842–858). His son Nasr was virtually the independent ruler of Ma-wara al-Nahr
(Transoxiana, 260–279/874–892). Samarqand served as the capital of Islamic
Central Asia until Isma’il b. Ahmad removed the province’s headquarters to
Bukhara (279–287/892–907). Following the disintegration of the Samanid dynasty,
Samarqand fell into the hands of the Qarakhanids (382/992). Under Ali Tegin (d.
1034) it served as the center of the western khanate of this dynasty.
Following their defeat at Katwan (536/1141), Samarqand
came under the lordship of the Kara Khitay, who installed a collaborating force
as governor of the city. They lost it to Khwarazm Shah (in 608/ 1212), who
failed to defend it against the Mongols (Chingiz/Genghis Khan 617/1220). After
Chingiz Khan died, his son Chagatay inherited the city. Samarqand was the
capital of his offspring (the Chagatay ulus). The fighting and siege devastated
the city. It was not until the days of Timur Leng (Tamerlane) that Samarqand
reemerged as the major city of Central Asia. It then became the seat of the
Timurid dynasty (1370–1507).
It seems that only after the successes of Abu
Muslim and the emergence of the ‘Abbasids that Islam able to gain ground in
Samarqand, driving out Buddhism and Nestorian Christianity. From the biographies
collected by ‘Umar al-Nasafi it seems that Islam then became firmly established
in the city and the countryside. He mentions scholars who originated in
villages and towns, and illuminates a local tradition of Islamic learning and
transmission of knowledge and history, a process facilitated by the diffusion
of a new material: paper. Samarqand became a center of Islamic studies, as attested
to by biographies of many Muslim scholars.
The economy of Samarqand was strongly connected
to the central Islamic lands. The city served as an emporium for goods,
including furs from Inner Asia and Eurasian slaves. The Qarakhanids further developed
it as a cultural center. Descriptions of the city are preserved in geographical
and travel literature. They tell of a fortified city populated with scholars.
Another source that bears evidence to the past glory of Samarqand are several
illustrious buildings including mausoleums, schools, mosques, and an observatory.
From the late ‘Abbasid period the tomb of Kutham b. al-‘Abbas in Afradiyab
attracted pilgrims to the shrine of Shah-i zinda (the living prince; also
called Shah-i javanan, or the prince of the youth).
Further Reading
Collins,
B.A.Al-Muqaddasi—The Best Divisions for Knowledge of the Regions. Reading,
1994.
Le Strange,
Guy.The Lands of the Eastern Caliphate. London, 1905.
Najm al-Din
Umar b. Muhammad al-Nasaf (d. 1142). Al-Qand fi dhikr ’ulama Samarqand. ed. Y.
al-Hadi. Tehran, 1420/1999.
Paul, J.
‘‘The Histories of Samarqand.’’Studia Iranica22 (1993): 69–92.
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