Tasneem Project

Mapmaker Research 1

Hodgson, M. (1977) The Venture of Islam: The Expansion of Islam in the Middle Periods, Volume 2: Conscience and History in a World Civilization (Chicago University Press)
 

C1 - The Formation of the International Order, 945-1118

"From the point of view of what had preceded, the political developments of the tenth century can be looked on as the disintegration of the Caliphal empire...

"...the Caliph became a mere cipher in an empire parcelled out among usurpers." (p.12)

In these notes, focus is on 10-12 Century power formations relevant to The Mapmaker, either because they are historical close to al-Idrisi's life, or politically/culturally significant to the plot, themes and/or  central characters of the novel. Geographically, the focus will be largely on the lands surrounding the Mediterranean.

 

Fatimids

Headed by an Ismaili sect seeking to unite the Muslim world under an 'Alid Caliphate. Cairo/Egypt "...a centre of commerce and of the arts and sciences, which rivalled Baghdad in the 11th century." (p.21)

Relevant MM character: Taj al-Din

See: Daftary, F. (2005) Ismailis in Medieval Muslim Societies (London: I B Tauris). Fatimids claimed Sicily until 11th century, when Normans nicked it off 'em.

Iberia

"Spain, perhaps, developed its autonomy on the basis of sheer geographical isolation." (p.29)

Relevant MM characters: Abraham Ibn Ezra; al-Idrisi
See: Menocal, M. R. (2003) The Ornament of the World: How Muslims, Jews and Christians Created a Culture of Tolerance in Medieval Spain (Little, Brown & Company)

Persian Provincial Successor States

"In the central areas, the Fertile Crescent and the Iranian Plateau -- and in the Oxus basin ... the new powers merely continued, more or less skilfully, the administrative and social patterns bequeathed them by the Caliphal government." (p.32/33)

The Shi'i Century

"Between the end of the lesser Ghaybah and the Seljuq occupation of Baghdad (940-1055), cluster the great names in early doctrine, both Twelver and Ismaili." (p.37)
al-Sharif al-Radi, (d.1016), assembled Nahj al-Balaghah.
"A disproportionate number of the scholars and litterateurs of the time were Shi'is" (p.37)

Ghaznavids

Became centre of culture. Under Mahmud of Ghazni (971-1030, r.997-1030), arguably the most prominent member of the Ghaznavid dynasty, Ferdowsi authored the classic Shahnameh.

Ferdowsi, A., D. Davis [Trans] (2006) Shahnameh: The Persian Book of Kings (London: Penguin)

Seljuqs:
"The most nearly successful attempt at the restoration of Muslim unity was that made under the Seljuq sultans..." (p.42) See especially Vizier Nizamulmulk/Nizam al-Mulk (1018-1092), celebrated as a founder of the Nizamiyyah schools, including the famous Al-Nizamiyya of Baghdad (established 1065), where al-Ghazali was appointed professor. Persian poet Sa'di was also a student of the Baghdad Nizamiyyah. Also known for his treatise on kingship, Siyasatnama (The Book of Government). He was stabbed to death, reputedly by an Ismaili assassin.

The 'Ulama and the Amirs in the International Political Order

Nizamulmulk's policies "...furthered the evolution of two crucial social classes toward playing their roles in the emerging international order of the Middle Periods. These classes were the religious scholars, the ulama, and the military, particularly the military captains, the amirs: ulama and amirs together formed the core of authority in the new society, with its minimal dependence on formal political structures." (p.46)

"...the ulama asserted a claim to intellectual primacy which was hard to enforce. But now arose a new instrument of recruitment and discipline which helped them establish that primacy..." (p.47)

"...the madrasah became an important medium for perpetuating, in a still more strongly institutional form, that homogeneity in the Muslim community which had begun with the pristine community in Medina." (p.48)

"...the duty of protest against an unjust ruler had been played down by the Hadith folk, and did not receive an explicit revival by other Jama'is." (p.48)

Iqta' - often mistranslated, preferably rendered as "revenue assignment" or "land grant"

"It was in the Seljuq period that the custom of putting landholdings into the form of waqf, pious endowments, inalienable and not subject to government seizure, became common." (p.51)

The Break Up Of Seljuq Power

"Thus a split was made down the middle of Muslim political life that remained, in most important Muslim lands, at least till the end of the fifteenth century: a split between the military rule of the amirs, on the one hand, in whose hands lay the decisive political force, and on the other, all the other institutions of civil life, economic or legal or religious." (p.53)

The Latter Day Caliphate And The Legitimation of the Amirs

Theory of a siyasah shar'iyyah: e.g. al-Mawardi (d.1058)

Al-Mawardi, Wafaa Wahba [Trans] (2000) The Ordinances of Government (Garnet Publishing Ltd)

"The hopeful theory of al-Mawardi was not, in fact, put into practice, though the idea of delegation of powers by the caliph was used to justify the system that did arrive." (p.56)

"Yet the caliph's presence afforded a central standard to which the Muslim political conscience could appeal." (p.56)

"The political order, as it grew out of the Seljuq experience, subsequently became the norm almost everywhere, in one form or another, in the Muslim society of the middle periods. By about 1100, the broad lines of it had appeared: from this point on, political interference played relatively little role in the cultural blossoming of the autonomous life of local centres, tied together not so much by the amirs as by the ulama scholars and their Sufi pirs ... In one way, these political forms represented an effective international order in a society growing too large to be held together by a political organism of the usual kind." (p.57)

The Ismaili Revolt

Nizari Isma'ilis -- Hasan-i-Sabah

"But the Ismaili revolt had had both intellectual and imaginative consequences as well. Their doctrine helped to form the intellectual synthesis of the great Jamaa i-Sunni, Ghazali, who in turn helped Sunnism to find itself in the new age." (p.61)

See: Daftary, F. (2005) Ismailis in Medieval Muslim Societies (London: I B Tauris).

C2 - The Social Order: Mercantile Interests, Military Power, Liberty

"The everyday life of the less privileged classes -- the folk culture -- might vary almost as much within Islamdom as among the several agrarianate-level societies." (p.62)

Lindsay, J (2005) Daily Life in the Medieval Islamic World (Oxford: Greenwood Press)
Oldfield, P. (2009) City and Community in Norman Italy (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press)

"Nevertheless, the common problems of agrarianate-level society took a special form in Islamdom in the Middle Periods, which helped to form Islamicate civilization as such." (p.62)

The Liberty Of The Muslim And The Open Structure Of His Social Order

Middle period: "...relative openness of the social structure and the mobility, or insecurity, of the individual within it."
"...perhaps the most distinctive feature of the Middle Islamic periods in general, as compared with other times and areas in the Agrarian age: its militarization. This was not the militarization of society as a whole, but that of final government power." (p.64)

a'yan-amir system of social power (has to be viewed as a Weberian 'ideal type')

The advent of Islam (and the High-Caliphal State) broke the power of the agrarian gentry in Nile-Oxus region, part of... "the attrition of the pre-Islamic cultural traditions and the reconstitution of not just the empire but the whole society on a more openly structured, more egalitarian and contractual bases appealing to Islam for legitimation." (p.65) Also in part facilitated also by egalitarian ethos inspired by the earlier Abrahamic faiths.

"This sense of personal liberty on the part of the ordinary Muslim doubtless contributed to the strength of what we we shall call the a'yan-amir system. That system was able to carry the Irano-Semitic culture, in Islamicate form, around the hemisphere; but it was also vulnerable to repeated military conquests, and rarely allowed for sustained industrial growth alongside the often exceedingly active commercial life." (p.67)

Little in the way of the development of high bureaucracy or any equivalent.

Middle period led to a "culmination" (p.69) of early Islamic cultural developments.

A. THE REGIONAL ECOLOGY

"The tales of the Thousand and One Nights form a comprehensive image of the social order, especially on the level of urban private life." (p.69)

"It is not easy to distinguish between the traits of Mediterranean Europe and those of the Nile-Oxus region on the level of basic traits such as market orientation and cosmopolitanism." (p.71)

"It is not too much, for some purposes, to refer to an 'Irano-Mediterranean' culture zone." (p.73)

But this contrasts with Irano-Semitic lands in the mid-Arid zone, which were distinct from the above as follows: "...aridity of agricultural lands; convergence of long-distance trade; the accesibility to conquest by land; the antiquity of agriculture and of empire." (p.72)

Led to emergence of a culture "...favouring cosmopolitan mobility rather than civic solidarity ... moralistic, populistic tendencies carried in communal traditions not tied locally to the land ... relatively open social structuring and the relative individual freedom from either prescriptive custom or hierarchical authority." (p.74)

"Islamicate culture was also heavily conditioned by an urban populism which held a monopoly of cultural legitimation." (p.79)

The Pastoralists As Holding A Balance of Power

"From very early, nomadic pastoralism of various sorts seems to have played an unusually great role between Nile and Oxus; then with the development of complete horse nomadism and then camel nomadism, that region came to be the only one of the great citied cultural core areas in which nomadic pastoralism played a steady and major political role." (p.81)

Population Shifts and Ethnic Change

"It was especially three major scourges that served to supplement normal mortality with special calamities: warfare, pestilence, and famine." (p.87)

Population movement currents:

"...while the more adventurous or more desperate of the peasants near cities went into the cities to make up the steady losses there, the peasantry of the countryside itself was steadily recruited from the remoter areas." (p.89) Remoter areas less prone to major scourges listed above.

"...Nile to Oxus came to be dotted with groups of different ethnic backgrounds..." (p.91)

Population dynamics contributed to "..the extension of common lingua francas over vast areas of citied countryside ... thus most of the vast zone from Egypt to the headwaters of the Oxus but two languages prevailed, Arabic and Persian, varied only in a minor way by dialects; and while Turkic was replacing Persian in the north, Arabic was replacing Berber tongues further west throughout the Maghrib." (p.91)

B. THE A'YAN-AMIR SYSTEM

"Between Nile and Oxus ... the bulk of the population ... lived in villages." (p.91)
Village included agriculturalists, specialist artisans, religious expert(s), perhaps political leadership from a wealthier family, and landlords (if not absentee). Might have Headman.
Trade largely c/o market, usually in a nearby town.
A'yan (village notables) controlled affairs, but final say with landlords.

Two forms of revenues recognised by Shariah:
     (1) Landowner-tenant, which was contractual not feudal;
     (2) Landowners dues to the common fisc (ie. the Amir).

"The gap in wealth and in standing between the ordinary villager and the privileged man in the city was severe." (p.95) Imbalance in wealth justified by wealthy serving society as a whole (supposedly), but also by the idea that the peasantry needed only subsistence -- viewed as backward.

"Respect for the Shariah, on the part of the actual administrators who kept records, in itself helped ensure that the forms of contracts and of authorized taxation were always maintained, even if the substance was often evaded by the powerful." (p.97) 
"...too many revenue takers were quite unscrupulous..." (p.99)
"...to a considerable degree local custom ... was able to maintain a viable balance between the claims of those who exacted revenue and the needs of the cultivators who produced it." (p.100)

"...villagers had means of defending themselves ... concealing their produce ... outright revolt" (p.102)

"It is only in the towns that one can speak of the a'yan-amir system in any full sense." (p.106)

"In the Early Middle Period, a distinctive Islamicate type of town developed, differing from any that had preceded." (p.108)

The cosmopolitan Muslim outlook did not facilitate development of corporate, boundaried, parochial towns as were found in Europe.

"A large part of any town was normally built of mud brick, which was hard to keep in good repair; always there were a great many buildings more or less in ruins. It was simpler to abandon the debris and move to a new site." (p.109)

"The establishment of the amirs and ulama ... were essentially independent of each other, forming alternative channels of authority." (p.110)

A'yan: some urban groups built around patrilinear family specialising and excelling in some craft over several generations.

Civic decisions - appointment/contest (bandwagoning)

"The system of notables, with the pattern of consultation and consensus among them, was thus established at various levels within the social body ... Without either a bureaucratic chain of command or an immemorial fixing of customary status (either for individuals or groups), the a'yan-amir system made possible decisions possible that would be supported effectively by those concerned, despite the cosmopolitanism and personal fluidity of the expanding Islamicate society." (p.115)

The fluidity of urban life

"...multiplicity of focuses of interest in a town..." (p.116)
"...towns were split up into mutually closed quarters..." (p.116)
Public spaces - maydaan (plaza); musalla (outside walls, for special salat, id celebrations, etc)

"Corresponding to the fragmentation of the towns was the relative mobility of individuals from one social niche to another." (p.117)

Travel by townsmen common: "Practically every well-known Muslim lived in many cities.." (p.117)

"There were always opportunities for new men. A poor man, if endowed well above average, could find ways to make good." (p.118)

But barriers existed, e.g. prejudice against people in trades considered inferior.

Most families, both in towns and villages, would include at least one literate adult (more likely male)

The Shariah as a civic force

"The Shari'ah was supported by deep-rooted public sentiment." (p.119)
"The solidarity among the Muslims as a body was felt very personally." (p.119)
...commanding the right and forbidding the wrong...
"The Shari'ah was only one source of authority, though the most unimpeachable." (p.121)
"...a constant pressure for local patterns to be assimilated to the idealized Shar'i norms." (p.123)

Futuwwah, clubs, town militias, and garrison government

Futuwwah (Arabic)/Javanmardi (Persian):
Initially upper class when Arabic speakers = minority, but lower class by end of period
"men's clubs, ceremonially devoted to manly duties." (p.126)
varied in terms of male demographic and purpose
   *  sports/mutual aid/trade
   *  eat/lived in common clubhouse
   *  some bachelors only
   *  behind riots that usually targeted rich
   *  some operated protection rackets
"...probably some were essentially youth gangs, bands of adolescents and young men asserting their independence..." (p.126)
commonalities
   *  possibly most served a militia purpose
   *  idealistic, high level of group loyalty (ritualised - drinking of salted water)
   *  distinctive dress -- trousers
   *  clubs organised into smaller units, with total obedience to head of unit
   *  high ethical standards, esp. hospitality
   *  some admitted dhimmis, slaves, eunuchs
   *  tax collectors, henchmen, etc excluded from membership
Generally represented interests of non-notables, putting equality above cultural privilege
Political power of futuwwah not evident by 1150, except Ismailis

"By the end of the Middle Periods, the futuwwah had become, at least in some places, essentially the Sufi dimension of guild organizations." (p.131)

Military despotism and interstitial anarchy

"In the absence of an extensive and self-perpetuating bureaucracy, or any agrarian or bourgeois alternative, power was held on a strictly military basis." (p.131) arbitrary/brutal
"The justice of the court of the amir was ... martial law." (p.131)

B. DAILY LIFE

International trade and economic conditions

LAND: "The amount of investment in land ... was limited by the iqta systems ... But both Shariah and state policy encouraged the use of capital to put previously unworked land under tillage." (p.136)

INDUSTRY: "...craftsmen preferred to work singly or in small partnerships..." (p.136) -- but some industry on larger scale evident, e.g. Damascus steel, and "...a certain degree of technical innovation..." (p.136) was evident, e.g. sugar refining, paper making, porcelain manufacture, windmills; a high number of manufactured goods were also imported from Europe, India and China, and "...a good many manufactures were simply undertaken by the state..." (p.137)

"With investment in agriculture and industry variously limited..." (p.138), better option often = trade

TRADE: two kinds - (1) staples (bulk), & (2) luxury goods (smaller quantities). Banking structures, private postal services, and camel caravans assisted. "...maintenance of highways ... was minimal ... wheeled vehicles were displaced by the camel for most purposes in Arab lands..." and "...even elsewhere in the Arid Zone ... for long distance transport" (p.139) hostels = caravanserai

"Except in the realm of commerce, which continued to be socially crucial, the overall pattern of the economy remained that of local subsistence in the countryside and individual craftwork in the towns, capped by extraction of revenue from the peasantry for the benefit of an increasingly military upper class and its dependents." (p.139-40)

Sex, slavery, and the harem system: the cult of masculine honour

"The slave household (or 'harem system') characteristic of upper-class Islamdom presupposed the social mobility of the society..." (p.140)
"The harem system was fully developed only in the wealthiest households, but it was imitated as far as possible at lower social levels." (p.144)

Gender segregation

Personal honour - male 'honour (determined in part by his woman's honour') throughout Irano-Mediterranean zone - formal vengeance, feuding, factions, highly institutionalised sexual jealousy.

Sex - masculine triumph along with sexual privacy
"...even the mention of a man's wife was regarded as indecorous..." (p.142)

"Complementary to the harem system was a conventional pattern of homosexual relations, especially among males, that sometimes became highly formal." (p.145)
"Despite strong Shar'i disapproval, the sexual relations of a mature man with a subordinate youth were so readily accepted in upper-class circles that there was often little or no effort to conceal their existence." (p.146)

Private fears and pleasures

"...injustice and cruelty, ugliness and falsehood were abundantly built into the life that each individual inherited. They were often fixed in customary institutions which the kindliness of individuals could not set aside." (p.146)

People "...often hungry and very commonly physically ill with a variety of endemic disorders." (p.147)

Problems of famine, pestilence etc common to subsistence living.

Belief in superstitions, e.g. "evil eye", amulets (blue), magic, although perhaps not merchants (and the Shariah condemning of charlatanism and magic).

Wealthier classes' diversions e.g. hunting, war -- "...both of which we commonly enough at the expense of the poor" (p.150)

Villages continued to celebrate pre-Islamic festivals esp. linked nature, eg. Nawruz

Ramadan/Eid major events, and also Eid linked to Hajj.
Also Mawlid of Prophet and of Saints and pilgrimages to Saints' tombs.

The greater shrines "...served as places of asylum for those who must flee their homes ... Society could be cruel, but it provided points of escape from its worst cruelties for those fortunate enough to find them." (p.151)

 

C3 - Maturity and Dialogue among the Intellectual Traditions, c.945-1111