ABD AL-HAMID AL-KATIB Jaser Khalil Salem
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UMAYYAD EPISTOLOGRAPHY, WITH SPECIAL REFERENCE TO THE COMPOSITIONS ASCRIBED TO <ABD AL-HAMID AL-KATIB Jaser Khalil Salem Abu Safieh Ph.D. Dissertation School of Oriental and African Studies 1982 ProQuest Number: 10731480 All rights reserved INFORMATION TO ALL USERS The quality of this reproduction is dependent upon the quality of the copy submitted. In the unlikely event that the author did not send a com plete manuscript and there are missing pages, these will be noted. Also, if material had to be removed, a note will indicate the deletion. uest ProQuest 10731480 Published by ProQuest LLC(2017). Copyright of the Dissertation is held by the Author. All rights reserved. This work is protected against unauthorized copying under Title 17, United States C ode Microform Edition © ProQuest LLC. ProQuest LLC. 789 East Eisenhower Parkway P.O. Box 1346 Ann Arbor, Ml 48106- 1346 ABSTRACT The object of this study, an analysis of Umayyad epistolography and chancery practice, is characterised by the more general problem of source material for the first century of Islamic history. The sources may be grouped as follows: (a) papyri; (b) inshia* balaqha, and adab; (c) history, biography, and geography; (d) hadith, fiqh, and haeresiography. My approach to the problem delineated here will be set out in three chapters: (1) An examination of the Umayyad chancery: its struc ture, its adaptation to Arabic, and its technical development (2) A critical analysis of specimen letters reported to have been composed during the Umayyad period. (3) A study of the compositions ascribed to the domi nant figure of *Abd al-Hamid al-Katib, traditionally acknow ledged as the major factor in the development of the Umayyad chancery. The conclusion of this study may be set out as follows: (1) It has been found that the Umayyad chancery format consists of (a) introductory formulae: the basmala, the inside address (al-unwan), the salam, the tahmid, and amma ba*d? (b) concluding formulae: in sha* Allah (if God wills) , repeating the formula of salam with the definite article "al" the name of the scribe, and the date. (2) It has been noticed that the records 'of Kharaj in the conquered countries used to be written in Arabic, while the demand letters issued from the bureau of Kharaj were written in Persian, Greek, and Coptic until the reign of 4Abd al-Malik b. Marwan who ordered his secretaries to write them in Arabic. (3) With regard to the letters ascribed to *Abd al-Hamid * al-Katib, it has been found that they are not authentic and they could not be regarded as representative of the Umayyad chancery practice, for they involve considerable Abbasid characteristics. ACKNOWLEDGMENT I would like to express my heart-felt gratitude to my supervisor, Dr. John Wansbrough, under whose supervision and guidance this thesis has been prepared. His kind help was always unfailing through the various stages of this work. Working with him was a pleasure and from him 1 have learnt much. 1 have discussed almost all the significant points in this research with my wife and these discussions were very useful in pointing out the line this work had to take. I am, therefore, greatly indebted to her for her help and for her inexhaustible patience throughout. I would also like to thank His Excellency Muhammad al-^rabi al-Khattabi, the director of the Royal Library in Rabat, for sending me a manuscript which was relevant to the subject matter of this thesis. To the University of Jordan go my thanks for granting me a scholarship to cover all the expenses of this work. My thanks are also due to all those friends who helped me in one way or another, in particular, His Excel lency, the Jordanian minister of al-Auqaf and the editor of al-Dustur newspaper. TABLE OF CONTENTS Abstract Acknowledgment Introduction ............................................... 1 Primary Sources: ................................ 2 - 8 A - The Papyri ....................................... 2 B - Ins ha * / Bafaqha / Adab ....................... 3 C - History / Biography / Geography - 6 D - Uadith / Fiqh / Haeresiography................... 8 From Yazld b. Mu^awiya to his governor at Medina ............................................ 10 From Smar II to Hayyan b. Zuraiq: The history of Maks in Islam 23 - 26 CHAPTER ONE The Umayyad Chancery I - Administrative expansion ............. 32 II - Orthography and diacritics ......................... 32 III - Regional modification and adaptation (The tale of arabization): ....................... 32 The Bureau of Syria ............................... 33 The Bureau of Iraq ................................ 33 IV - Epistolary format:.................................... 39 Introductory formulae .. 39 Concluding formulae .............................. 43 CHAPTER TWO Specimens of Chancery Practice Arabic and Greek Papyri...... ............................. 46 1 - From Qurra b. Sharik to Basil concerning intrusion into a private dwelling ............. 47 2 - From Qurra to Basil concerning poll-tax ...... 52 3 - From Qurra to Basil concerning the _jaliya 57 Insha, Adah, and Balaqha: ................................ 62 1 - From Hajjaj to Qutaiba b. Muslim concerning the public welfare ................. 62 2 - From Sulaiman b. Abd al-Malik to his governor in Jordan concerning Adi b. Al-Riqa .. 65 3 - From Qutaiba b. Muslim to Sulaiman b. Abd al-Malik concerning the deposition of Sulaiman ........................................ 68 4 - From Umar II to the Amsar: .................... 75 Al-tila ......................................... 77 A l - n a b i d h ................................. ...... 78 5 - From Hisham b. Abd al-Malik to his brother Maslama concerning purging the army ... 81 The Historical and Biographical Works: .................. 84 1 - From Abd al-Malik to his brother Bishr concerning the Kharijites .................... 84 2 - From Hajjaj to Abd al-Malik concerning Rutbil ..... 88 3 - From Abd al-Malik to Hajjaj concerning rebuilding the Ka b a ........................... 92 4 - From Hisham b. Abd al-Malik to Yusuf b. Umar concerning Zaid b. Ali...................... 99 5 - From Isa b. Abi Ata to the treasurers of the exchequer ............................... 108 Hadith............ and Fiqh Works: ....................... Ill 1 - From Mu awiya to Marwan b. al-Hakam concerning homicide by a mad m a n .............. Ill 2 - From Zaid b. Thabit to Mu awiya concerning the legal inheritance of a grandfather ....... 114 3 - From Abd al-Malik to the governor of Mecca concerning the mukatab ......................... 118 4 - From Ziyad b. Abi Sufyanto A isha concerning hadi ................................ 122 5 - From Umar II to Ibn Hazm concerning writing the traditions ............. 125 Conclusion: ................................. 130 a - The problem of authenticity of the letters ... 130 b - The format ......................... 130 c -,The style ......... ............. 131 d - The language ...... 133' e - Tadmin ..... 133 f - Verbosity and brevity ........................ 133 CHAPTER THREE Abd al-Hamid al-Katib I - Biography: .............. 135 Name and descent .......................... 135 His profession ...... 136 The end of Abd al-Hamid .......................... 137 II - The Culture of Abd al-Hamid: ..................... 143 Persian Culture ............................ 143 Greek Culture ..................................... 148 Salim and G r e e k .............................. 148 The military influence ...................... 150 The circumstantial phrase ................... 151 Arabic Culture .................................... 152 Abd al-Hamid as a calligrapher................... 155 Abd al-Hamid as a p o e t ............... ............ 156 III - The Style of Abd al-Hamid as a Scribe at Marwan1 s Chancery .................. 162 IV - The Letters Ascribed to Abd Al-Hamid : 165 1 - From Abd al-Hamid to the son of Marwan . 166 2 - From Abd al-Hamid to the secretaries ........ 182 Appendix: 1 - The Arabic text of Abd al-Hamid1s letter to the son of Marwan ......................... 195 2 - The Arabic text of Abd al-Hamid1s letter to the secretaries ............................... 245 Abbreviations ........................................... 251 Bibliography ............................................ 252 - 1 - INTRODUCTION The object of this study, an analysis of Umayyad epistolography and chancery practice, is characterized by the more general problem of source materials for the first century of Islamic history. With the exception of the accidentally preserved papyri from Egypt and elsewhere, these sources are accessibly only in later literary works of the cAbbasid period. Not merely the authenticity but also the bias of the several and often conflicting reports of a single event are matters susceptible of different solu tions according to the method of source criticism applied. For the products of the Umayyad chancery, the primary criterion must of course be the papyri. But since these deal with or represent only a limited spectrum of chancery activity, it must be assumed that some gaps at least can be filled from the material of admittedly later manuals of rhetoric and protocol. The actual texts of letters preserved for the most part in historical and biographical works, as well as in hadith and adab anthologies, may thus be assessed with reference both to the papyri and the manuals, but also to the intrinsic plausibility of their political and social origins. Now, the anti-Umayyad bias of ^Abbasid sources is notorious (1) , but it can hardly be doubted that some