Notes on Anti-Christian Propaganda in the Mamlūk Empire

M. Perlmann

doi:10.1017/S0041977X00090078

Notes on Anti-Christian Propaganda in the Mamlūk Empire

Published online by Cambridge University Press: 24 December 2009

M. Perlmann

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The Mamlūk empire contributed decisively to the crushing of the Copt element in Egypt. Nevertheless, the public offices and the offices of the management of the estates of the emirs, were full of Coptic scribes, who often drew upon themselves the hatred of the population, and became the scapegoats when popular passions ran high. The Jihād spirit of the closing stages of the struggle against the Crusader and the Mongols also played its part in creating agitation against the Christians. It is instructive to find that after about 1250 the tide of theological polemical literature against Christians and Christianity rose to its highest. These movements were fostered with the express purpose of whipping up popular antagonism. Speeches, pamphlets, fatwas were used to stir the people in the struggle against the Copts, and in particular those holding office.

Type: Papers Contributed
Information: Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies , Volume 10 , Issue 4 , February 1942 , pp. 843 - 861

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/S0041977X00090078 [Opens in a new window]
Copyright: Copyright © School of Oriental and African Studies 1942

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^{page 843 note 1} Wiet, G. in El., ii, 996 seq., s.v. ḲibṭGoogle Scholar

^{page 843 note 2} Weil, G., Gesch. d. Abbass., i, 368–9;Google ScholarWiet, , Hist. de la nation Eg., iv, 395Google Scholar. Khiṭaṭ, i, 69;Google Scholar Baibars Jāshangīr was a chief dimmī-baiter in 701 A.H. But a Christian managed his affairs. Istaulā ‘aiā jamī umūrihi, kamā hiya ādat mulūk miṣr wa-umarā’-hā min al atrāk fi-l-inḲiyād li-kutāabihim min al-Ḳibṭ. Both Christian Copts and such as pretend to be Moslems are referred to. Sometimes, the outbreaks would sweep over the other Ḍimmis (Jews, Karaites), too. In 721, “ nothing was said of the Jews ” (Khiṭ., ii, 516). But Joseph Sambary (wrote in 1673) accuses the Christians of having involved the Jews in the calamity of the year 700. “ The accursed Christians were too extravagant, used to walk with a proud gait, dress in silk attire … ride on horseback like the Muslim emirs, passing Azhar on horseback. They also had built many churches ” (Neubauer, , Med. Jew. Chron., 1887, pp. 135–6).Google Scholar

^{page 843 note 3} Especially on account of the negotiations for a Christian-Mongol alliance. The war against the Mongols is jihad (658 H., Sulūk, i, 429). In 707 a decree was read in Damascus on fighting the Mongols and the scribes, Christian. Cat. Leyden, i, 153–1.Google Scholar

^{page 843 note 4} It remains to connect these outbreaks of the populace with other movements of that time, as treated by Poliak, A. N. in REI, viii., 251 ff.Google Scholar It is not clear how he arrives at the conclusion (pp. 269 f.) that there were almost no outbreaks against minorities.

^{page 843 note 5} Zettersteen, , Beiträge z. Gesch. d. Mamluhensultane, pp. 84Google Scholar

^{page 844 note 1} Goldziher, , Rev. d. Et. Juives, 30.Google ScholarWeston, , JAOS., 24.Google Scholar

^{page 844 note 2} Ed. Gottheil, , JAOS., 41.Google Scholar

^{page 844 note 3} Schreiner, , ZDMG., lii, p. 559;Google Scholar EEJ., 32, pp. 212 ff.; Fritseh, E., Islam u Christ., pp. 25 ff.Google Scholar

^{page 844 note 4} Cat. Leyden, i, 154–8.Google Scholar

^{page 844 note 5} Belin, , JA., 1851–1952.Google Scholar

^{page 844 note 6} GAL., ii, 90–1 and suppl.; Sarkis, 445–6.Google Scholar

^{page 844 note 7} Suyūṭī, Bwjhya, p. 304.

^{page 844 note 8} Nujūm, v, 265. On p. 119 we learn that when the emir Shaykhū appointed a reader, in 753, he fixed for him a monthly salary of 300 dirhams.

^{page 844 note 9} Kalk., , iv, 36–7;Google ScholarKhiṭ., i, 464, 1. 6;Google Scholar the muḥtasib gets 30 dinars a month. The Manhal (Wiet, N., 1402) and ‘Ayni (MS. B.M., Add. 22360, f. 84b) mention Asnawl's work in the dār at-tirāz.

^{page 844 note 10} Nujūm, v, 250 f.; he was in high esteem for “ having done relatively little injustice”. Ibn Iyfāis, i, 219 f.; Manhal., p. 291.

^{page 845 note 1} Ibn ‘Imād, Shaḏarāt aḏ-ḏahab, vi, 223–4.Google Scholar

^{page 845 note 2} Ḥusn, , i, 242 ff. Here with reference to his native town a jeu de mots occurs (p. 244): wa-baldatuhu Asnā maḥallan wa-maḥitidan wa-manziluhu fī-l-khuldi asnā-lmatiāzili.Google Scholar

^{page 845 note 3} Khalifa, Ḥājī, vi, 447. GAL. The MS. of Ibn Kādī Shuhba gives the date of the writing of most of his works.Google Scholar

^{page 845 note 4} Registered in Steinschneider's Pol, Lit., n. 82.

^{page 845 note 5} Another copy is extant in Tunis and is entitled Risāala fī ‘adm istikhdām ahl aḏ-ḏimma wa ‘adm tauliyatihim al-muslimīn (GAL., Supp. ii, 107). Hājī Khalīfa quotes the title in a different form (vi, 354): Naṣīḥat uli-al-albāb fī man’ istikhdām an-naṣārā. But he adds that some call it: “ Al-intiṣātāt al Islamīya.” Again, Syūtī mentions another title: ar-Riyāsa an-Nāṣirīya fi-r-radd ‘alā man yu‘aẓẓim ahl aḏ-ḏimma wastakhdamahum alā-l-muslimiu (Husn, i, 242). This rather bewildering variety of titles seems to be as old as the tract itself. At any rate, Samhfūldī wrote as early as 886 that he had perused the tract which some people called Intṣārāt, etc., whilst a disciple of the author inscribed it Naṣīhat, etc. Although the author had not cared at all about a title, he nevertheless, after having seen the suggested title, approved of it (Wafā al-wafā, i, 466). From Hājī Khalīfa we learn that Suyūṭī prepared an abridgment of the tract entitled Jahd al-Karīḥa fī tajrīd an-Naṣīḥa

^{page 846 note 1} E.g. the “māt an-Xafirānī” story.

^{page 848 note 1} Ḳalḳ., xiii, 369 f. Wiet, Hist., iv, 262 ff. Lane-Poole, Najāḥ Abū Kannā became tax-farmer (ḏamin) in 1126 and was beaten to death after four years of service.

^{page 848 note 2} B.M. Or. 23293, fol. 190B.

^{page 848 note 3} JA., 1851, p. 461.

^{page 848 note 4} JAOS., 41, pp. 383–57. Here ‘Amr b. al-‘āş saw in his dream Christians reading the verses. He awoke frightened, and dismissed the Christian scribes. Gottheil remarks on this his translation of the verses: “ I am told these are popular verses sung over the wine-cups. The vine is apostrophized as a girl, and sung to as such.”

^{page 849 note 1} Sīra, p. 3: ‘Abd al-Ḥakam, pp. 2–4, 84–90. The choice is free (89, 11. 14–151): to go over to the umrna or to become ḏimma.

^{page 849 note 2} Ḳalḳ., xiii, 378 seq. Now Mayer, L. A. in Sefer Magnes, 1938, pp. 161 seq.Google Scholar

^{page 850 note 1} Ḳalḳ., i, 61–2.

^{page 850 note 2} Ibid., xii, 427.

^{page 850 note 3} Kanūn dīwāar-rasā'il, pp. 95–6.

^{page 850 note 4} Zettersteen, p. 88.

^{page 850 note 5} Sulūk, 425. 432, Wāsiṭī also dwells on the case.

^{page 850 note 6} Ibid., 151.

^{page 851 note 1} Zett., p. 88

^{page 851 note 2} Khiṭaṭ, ii, 511.

^{page 851 note 3} Strict theologians developed a general aversion and opposition to bowing to human beings whatever their position. Goldziher, RHR., 1887, pp. 157 seq.

^{page 851 note 4} Khiṭ., i, 90, 11. 6 ff., on makr al-aḳbāt.

^{page 852 note 1} Cf. Gottheil, R., Dhimmis and Moslems in Egypt (Old Test.) and Sem. St. in mem. of W. R. Harper, ii, Chicago, 1908;Google ScholarTritton, A. S., The Caliphs and their non-Moslem subjects, ch. iii;Google ScholarSchreiner, M., ZDMG., 45.Google Scholar

^{page 852 note 2} Khiṭ., ii, 497 f.; Sulūk, i, 425, 429, 432, 535, 667 f.

^{page 853 note 1} Sulūk, 909–12; Quatremẻre, ii, 2, pp. 177 seq.; Khiṭ., ii, 498; Ḳalḳ., 13, pp. 377 f.

^{page 853 note 2} Steinschneider, nn. 41, 85, 5Td

^{page 854 note 1} Tritton, eh. 4; Wiet, 484 ff.

^{page 854 note 2} Cat. Leyden, i, 154–8;Google Scholar Zettersteen., 209; Weil, i, 361 ff. and 383 ff.; Ḥabib, Ibn, Durrat al aslāk, Abstracts in Orientalia, ii (Amst., 1846), p. 372.Google Scholar

^{page 855 note 1} Nujūm, v, 133;Google Scholar Ibn Iyās, i, 200 f.; Ḳalḳ., xiii, 378; Quatrẻmere, Mẻmoires, ii, 254.

^{page 855 note 2} Schreiner, BEJ., 29.

^{page 856 note 1} Mann, J., Texts and Studies, ii, 201 seq.Google Scholar

^{page 857 note 1} Yalbugā as-Sālimī (d. 811) once told Makrīẓī that as vizier, he knew that through mukūs the Copts rob Egypt of seventy thousand dihams daily.

^{page 858 note 1} Poliak, REI., 1938.

^{page 858 note 2} Cf. Nujūm, vii, 269;Google Scholar vi, 823.

^{page 858 note 3} The story might have arisen under the impression made by the schemes of Renaud de Chatillon to strike at Medina( 578/1183), thwarted by al-’ ādil, Saladin's brother. Cf. Wiet, Hist., 323–4; Abū Shāma, ii, 35 ff; Samhūdī, i, 466–472.

^{page 858 note 4} Sulūk, 911: ḥirṣan minhum ‘alā bakā’i riyāsatihim.

^{page 858 note 5} Khiṭ., ii, 498.

^{page 859 note 1} Zett., 90 f.

^{page 859 note 2} i, 63, quoting Abū-l-Faḍl aṣ-ūrī.

^{page 860 note 1} Quatremẻre, Mẻm., ii (Sulūk).

^{page 860 note 2} Nujūm, vi, 398 ff., 559.

^{page 861 note 1} Nujūm, vii, 160.

^{page 861 note 2} Ibid., 721 f.

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