Michael Chamberlain focuses on medieval Damascus to develop a new approach to the relationship between the society and culture of the Middle East. The author argues that historians have long imposed European strictures onto societies to which they were alien. Western concepts of legitimate order were inappropriate to medieval Muslim society where social advancement was dependent upon the production of knowledge and religious patronage, and it was the household, rather than the state agency or the corporation, that held political and social power. An interesting parallel is drawn between the learned elite and the warriors of Damascus who, through similar strategies, acquired status and power and passed them on in their households. By examining material from the Latin West, Sung China, and the Sinicized empires of Inner Asia, the author addresses the nature of political power in the period and places the Middle East within the context of medieval Eurasia. Cambridge Studies in Islamic Civilization Knowledge and social practice in medieval Damascus, 1190-1350 Cambridge Studies in Islamic Civilization Editorial board DAVID MORGAN (general editor) JOSEF VAN ESS BARBARA FLEMMING METIN KUNT W. F. MADELUNG ROY MOTTAHEDEH BASIM MUSALLAM Titles in the series B. F. MUSALLAM. Sex and society in Islam: birth control before the nineteenth century SURAIYA FAROQHI. Towns and townsmen of Ottoman Anatolia: trade, crafts and food production in an urban setting, 1520-1650 PATRICIA CRONE. Roman, provincial and Islamic law: the origins of the Islamic patronate STEFAN SPERL. Mannerism in Arabic poetry: a structural analysis of selected texts, 3rd century AH 19th century AD-5th century AH/11th century AD BEATRICE FORBES MANZ. The rise and rule of Tamerlane AMNON COHEN. Economic life in Ottoman Jerusalem PAUL E. WALKER. Early philosophical Shiism: the Ismaili Neoplatonism of Abu Yacqub al-Sijistani BOAZ SHOSHAN. Popular culture in medieval Cairo STEPHEN FREDERIC DALE. Indian merchants and Eurasian trade, 1600-1750 AMY SINGER. Palestinian peasants and Ottoman officials: rural administration around sixteenth-century Jerusalem Knowledge and social practice in medieval Damascus, 1190-1350 MICHAEL CHAMBERLAIN University of Wisconsin CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS PUBLISHED BY THE PRESS SYNDICATE OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CAMBRIDGE The Pitt Building, Trumpington Street, Cambridge, United Kingdom CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS The Edinburgh Building, Cambridge CB2 2RU, UK 40 West 20th Street, New York NY 10011-4211, USA 477 Williamstown Road, Port Melbourne, VIC 3207, Australia Ruiz de Alarcon 13,28014 Madrid, Spain Dock House, The Waterfront, Cape Town 8001, South Africa http://www.cambridge.org © Cambridge University Press 1994 This book is in copyright. Subject to statutory exception and to the provisions of relevant collective licensing agreements, no reproduction of any part may take place without the written permission of Cambridge University Press. First published 1994 First paperback edition 2002 A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Library of Congress Cataloguing in Publication data Chamberlain, Michael Knowledge and social practice in medieval Damascus, 1190-1350 / Michael Chamberlain. p. cm. - (Cambridge studies in Islamic civilization) Includes bibliographical references. ISBN 0 52145406 9 1. Damascus (Syria) - Politics and government. 2. Damascus (Syria) - Intellectual life. 3. Elite (Social science) - Syria - Damascus - History. I. Title. II. Series. DS99.D3C48 1994 956.9 l'4402-dc20 93-46181 CIP ISBN 0 52145406 9 hardback ISBN 0 52152594 2 paperback To my family Contents Preface page xi List of abbreviations xiii Maps 1 Damascus and its surrounding region xiv 2 Damascus in the thirteenth century xv Introduction 1 1 The acyan of Damascus, 590/1193-750/1350 27 2 Madrasas, the production of knowledge, and the reproduction of elites 69 3 Mansabs and the logic of fitna 91 4 Social and cultural capital 108 5 Truth, error, and the struggle for social power 152 Summary 176 Bibliography 179 Index 193 Preface It is sad but unavoidable that a single book can never pay off all the debts its production has incurred. This study began as an attempt to understand the social uses of knowledge by the learned elite of Damascus, and took me in directions I originally had no intention of pursuing. The book is aimed at a number of audiences, in part to acknowledge that it could never have been completed without borrowing from other disciplines. Having taken much from anthropologists, sociologists, comparative historians, and historians of China and the Latin West, I hope they will find something here to interest them in turn. The notes are at the bottom of the page, not to give an impression of scholarly formidableness, but to allow the book to be read in two ways. Scholars of medieval Islamic history will notice that the notes not only are intended to support the argument, but in many cases to advance it. Scholars of other fields may read the narrative without reference to the notes. This book, not to mention the greater part of my education, would not have been possible without my teacher Ira Lapidus. Without his example, I would have not tried to become a historian; without his guidance and support, I would never have made it thus far. I am also grateful to my teachers, William Brinner, Eugene Irschick, Hamid Algar, Andre Ferre, and others. I must also thank the history departments at Berkeley, Stanford, and Wisconsin. This book would not have been possible without the support and good conversation I found in these three places. I am especially indebted to Peter Duus, Richard Roberts, and Joel Beinin for their support and encour- agement at Stanford. I am also very grateful to Andre Wink, whose ideas entered the dissertation upon which this book is based before either of us knew we would find ourselves in Madison, and who has given me much advice and support since my arrival here. As much as anything else, this book is a product of talks with friends, the support of friends, and thoughts about friends, so I would like to thank Rikki Allanna Zrimsek, Irene Keller, Margaret O'Brien, Lisa Saper, Margaret Malamud, Wendy Verlaine, Mia Fuller, James Ketelaar, David McDonald, Mary Conn, Peter Flood, Holly Huprich, and Brendan Phipps. To Krystyna xi xii Preface von Henneberg, who helped me through the dissertation upon which this book is based, I owe more than space allows me to express. I would also like to thank readers of various versions of the manuscript, who pointed out errors and infelicities and suggested new ways of thinking about these problems and presenting them: Richard Bulliet, William Courtenay, Patricia Crone, Dale Eickelman, Jan Heesterman, Krystyna von Henneberg, Anatoly Khazanov, David McDonald, Margaret Sommerville, Andre Wink, Lynne Withey, and the readers for the Press whose names are unknown to me. I am much appreciative of the efforts my editors, Marigold Acland and Mary Starkey, have put into the production of the book. It goes without saying that all errors are my own. Also many thanks to the Ecole des hautes etudes en sciences sociales, where some of these ideas were first presented. The libraries in which I have worked, and where I have always been happy, include the University of California, Stanford University, the Hoover Institu- tion, the University of Wisconsin, Cambridge University, the British Library, the Bibliotheque Nationale, the Vatican Library, and the Siileymaniye, Kopriilu, and Topkapi libraries in Istanbul. To the staff of the Kopriilu, where often I worked long periods alone, I am especially grateful for many small kindnesses. To the people in Damascus and Aleppo who have helped me with this project, and shown me so much kindness, I have not the words to express my gratitude. I am also grateful to Donald Little for supplying me with microfilms of manuscripts that have been withdrawn from circulation in Istanbul. Finally, I can hardly express enough my thanks to Jacqueline Sublet and the Institut pour Phistoire et la recherche des textes, both for their kindly reception and their incomparable collection of microfilmed manuscripts. For the money that supported this project I thank the US taxpayer (trebly), the Mellon Foundation (doubly), the Graduate School at Berkeley, The Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation (doubly), and the Middle East Study Center of the University of California and the history department at Stanford (both multiply). Abbreviations Annales: ESC Annales: economies, societes, civilisations BEO Bulletin d'etudes orientates BSOAS Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies, Univer- sity of London CSSH Comparative Studies in Society and History El (I) Encyclopedia of Islam, 1st edn. (Leiden, 1913-38) El (2) Encyclopedia of Islam, 2nd edn. (Leiden, 1954—) IC Islamic Culture IJMES International Journal of Middle East Studies JA Journal Asiatique JARCE Journal of the American Research Institute in Egypt JAOS Journal of the American Oriental Society JESHO Journal of the Economic and Social History of the Orient JSS Journal of Semitic Studies MIFD Melanges de VInstitut Franqais de Damas MW The Muslim World RAA Revue des Arts Asiatiques REI Revue des etudes Islamiques REMMM Revue du monde musulman et de la Mediterranee RSO Revista degli studi orientate SI Studia Islamica ZDMG Zeitschrift der Deutschen Morgenldndischen Gesellschaft Xlll Description de liariw JJbn'AtHfr WJIIUSOUS. | 1 Damascus and its surrounding region Legend 1 al-'Adiliyya al-Kubra 2 al-Nuriyya / al-cImadiyya 3 Dar al-Hadith al-Nuriyya 4 al-Duwiaciyya s Nur al-DIn's Hospital 6 al-Aminiyya 7 al-Mujahidiyya s al-Ghazaliyya 9 al-Shamiyya al-Barraniyya 10 al-'Aziziyya n Tomb of Saladin 12 al-Taqawiyya 13 al-Rawaljiyya 14 al-Ashrafiyya is al-Qaymaziyya 16 al-Adhra'wiyya 17 al-§arimiyya is al-Shamiyya al-Juwaniyya 19 al-cIzziyya al-Barraniyya 20 al-Nasiriyya al-Barraniyya 21 al-Badhara lyya 22 Mosque and Tomb of Tankiz 23 al-Zahiriyya al-Barraniyya 24 al-Qaymariyya 25 Tomb of Umm §alih 26 Horse Market 27 Dar al-Su"a"da (palace) Compiled by Sara Arscott.