Some Notes on the Representation of Non-Muslim Officials in al-Ǧahšiyārī’s (d. 331/942) Kitāb al-Wuzarāʾ wa-l-kuttāb
Rather than a handbook or chronological history of secretaries and viziers, or a straightforward guide to administrative terminology, the Kitāb al-Wuzarāʾ wa-l-kuttāb by Muḥammad b. al-ʿAbdūs al-Ǧahšiyārī (d. 331/942) is a collection of ʿAbbāsid-era narratives on the history of early Islamic admini...
| Published in: | Arabica |
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| Main Author: | |
| Format: | Electronic Article |
| Language: | English |
| Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
| Journals Online & Print: | Drawer...
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| Fernleihe: | Fernleihe für die Fachinformationsdienste |
| Published: |
Brill
2015
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| In: |
Arabica
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| Further subjects: | B
secrétaires
non-musulmans
al-Ǧahšiyārī
kuttāb
abbasside
B Secretaries Non-Muslim al-Ǧahšiyāri kuttāb ʿAbbāsid |
| Online Access: |
Volltext (Verlag) |
| Summary: | Rather than a handbook or chronological history of secretaries and viziers, or a straightforward guide to administrative terminology, the Kitāb al-Wuzarāʾ wa-l-kuttāb by Muḥammad b. al-ʿAbdūs al-Ǧahšiyārī (d. 331/942) is a collection of ʿAbbāsid-era narratives on the history of early Islamic administration. Related to other works in the genre adab al-kātib, the Kitāb al-Wuzarāʾ wa-l-kuttāb provides insight into one compiler’s literary techniques as well as his social/cultural agenda. The portion of al-Ǧahšiyārī’s work analyzed here focuses on key events in the Umayyad period and illustrates his apologetic stance on the non-Muslim foundations of ʿAbbāsid administrative structures especially well. Using short anecdotes that contain pithy, repetitive tropes of non-Muslim administrative officials’ arrogance or incompetence, al-Ǧahšiyārī polemically mythologized a foundations narrative for early Islamic administrative history. Several studies of another portion of this text, on the ʿAbbāsid caliphs and the Barmakids, have determined the literary/historical value of al-Ǧahšiyārī’s work. In these brief comments, four short anecdotes from a relatively understudied portion of the Kitāb al-Wuzarāʾ wa-l-kuttāb are assessed in order to demonstrate al-Ǧahšiyārī’s mode of representation for the earliest stages of Islamic administration. |
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| ISSN: | 1570-0585 |
| Contains: | In: Arabica
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| Persistent identifiers: | DOI: 10.1163/15700585-12341359 |