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The public role of Dhimmīs during ʿAbbāsid times

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 June 2011

Mun'im Sirry
Mun'im Sirry*
Affiliation:
The University of Chicago
*
msirry@uchicago.edu
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Abstract

This article examines how and why non-Muslim dhimmīs were employed in a variety of important posts during the ʿAbbāsid period, notably as viziers (wuzarā') and secretaries (kuttāb). One of the aims is to show that Jews and Christians were employed in the state administration to the extent that some of them were able to achieve the second highest office after the caliph: the vizier. It is argued that, despite certain legal restrictions outlined by Muslim jurists, dhimmī employment in the government had long been an established policy. The first section discusses the juristic debate on whether non-Muslims could be appointed to public office. The second examines examples of non-Muslim viziers and the nature of their political power. The final section offers possible explanations as to why non-Muslims were needed to help the caliphs administer this governmental office. The article concludes with a brief reflection on the significance of this study for the discussion of the nature of state–religion relations in early Islam.

Keywords

ʿAbbāsidDhimmīsFātimidNon-Muslim viziersReligion and stateVizierate
Type
Articles
Information
Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies , Volume 74 , Issue 2 , June 2011 , pp. 187 - 204
Copyright
Copyright © School of Oriental and African Studies 2011

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References

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6 Abū al-Ḥasan ʿAlī ibn Muḥammad ibn Ḥabīb al-Māwardī, , al-Aḥkām al-sulṭāniyya (Cairo: Matbaʿa muṣtafā al-bābī al-ḥalabī, 1966)Google Scholar, 23.

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9 Ibid.

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11 Abū al-Maʿālī ʿAbd al-Mālik ibn ʿAbdillah al-Juwaynī, , Ghiyāth al-umam fī iltiyāth al-zulam (ed. Abd al-ʿAẓim al-Dayb, ) (Cairo: Matbaʿa al-nahḍa, 1981)Google Scholar, 156.

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22 The disjunction between dhimmīs' political rights in theory and the reality of their political participation in the state administration has been discussed by Fattal, Antoine in his Le statut légal des non-musulmans en pays d'Islam (Beirut: Imprimerie Catholique, 1958), 232–63Google Scholar. See also Cohen, Under Crescent and Cross, 65–8.

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24 A. S. Tritton, The Caliphs and Their Non-Muslim Subjects, 22.

25 See Abū al-ʿAbbās Aḥmad ibn ʿAlī al-Qalqashandī, Subh al-aʿshā fī sinā'a al-inshā (Cairo: al-Muassasah al-Miṣriyya al-ʿāmma, n.d.), 13:368.

26 ʿAlī Ḥusnī al-Kharbūtī, al-Islām wa ahl al-dhimma (United Arab Emirates: Lajna al-taʿrif bi al-Islam, n.d.), 144.

27 Al-Abb Suhayl Qāshā, al-Masīḥiyyūn fī al-dawla al-Islāmiyya, 81.

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29 Ibid. See also Camille Hechaime in his introduction to Louis Cheikhu, Wuzarā' al-Naṣrāniyya wa-kuttābuhā, 18.

30 ʿAlī Ḥusnī al-Kharbūtī, al-Islām wa ahl al-dhimma, 144.

31 See Suhayl Qāshā, al-Masīḥiyyūn fī al-dawla al-Islāmiyya, 322.

32 Abū al-Ḥasan al-Hilāl ibn al-Muḥassin ibn Ibrāhīm al-Ṣābī, , Tārīkh al-wuzarā' (ed. Amedroz, H. F.) (Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1904)Google Scholar, 95.

33 Fattal, Le statut légal des non-Musulmans.

34 T.W. Arnold, The Preaching of Islam, 63.

35 Abū al-ʿAbbās Shams al-Dīn Ibn Khāllikān, Wafayāt al-a'yān wa anbā' abnā' al-zamān, (ed. Iḥsān ʿAbbās) (Beirut: Dār al-sādir, 1984), 4: 45.

36 On Faḍl ibn Marwān, Ibn Nadīm (d. 995) notes: “al-Faḍl ibn Marwān ibn Māsarjis, the Christian. He served al-Ma'mūn and al-Muʿtaṣim, acting as vizier. After these two, he also served several other caliphs. Although he had little grasp of learning, he showed great intelligence in the service of the caliphs. Among his books were: Things Observed and Traditions Known by Eye Witness, Seen and Quoted”. See The Fihrist of al-Nadim, tr. Dodge, Bayard (New York: Columbia University Press, 1970)Google Scholar, 278. For a detailed discussion of Faḍl ibn Marwān, see al-Ṭabarī, Tārīkh al-rusul wa al-mulūk, 9: 18–22; Dominique Sourdel, Le Vizirat ʿAbbāside de 749 à 936 (132 à 324 de l'hégire) (Damascus: Institut français de Damas, 1959–60), 28–35.

37 Tafarraʿta yā Faḍl bin marwān faʿtabir * fa qablaka kāna al-Faḍl wa al-Faḍl wa al-Faḍl

Thalātha amlākin madaw li-sabīlihim * abādathum al-aqyātu wa al-habs wa al-qatl

Wa-innaka qad asbaḥta fi al-nās ẓulman * satūdiya kamā ūdiya al-thalāthatu min qabl

According to Ibn Khāllikān, the three Faḍls mentioned in these lines were: Faḍl ibn Yahyā al-Barmākī, Faḍl ibn al-Rabīʿ, and Faḍl ibn Sahl. See Ibn Khāllikān, Wafayāt al-aʿyān, 4: 45.

38 Sourdel, Le Vizirat ʿAbbāside de 749 à 936, 247.

39 Al-Ṭabarī, Tārīkh al-rusul wa al-mulūk, 9: 19.

40 Ibid.

41 Staffa, Susan Jane, Conquest and Fusion: The Social Evolution of Cairo A.D. 642–1950 (Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1977)Google Scholar, 70.

42 Zaydan, Jurji, Umayyads and ʿAbbāsids, tr. Margoliouth, D.S. (Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1907)Google Scholar, 167.

43 See al-Imad, Leila S., The Fātimid Vizierate, 969–1172 (Berlin: Klaus Schwarz Verlag, 1990)Google Scholar, p. 71. Such a period of high favour led to jealousy and hatred on the part of Muslims, many of whom could not bear to see unbelievers in authority. Sarcasm is plain in a quotation from a contemporary poet: “Become Christian, for Christianity is the true religion! Our time proves it so. Worry not about anything else: Yaʿqūb, the vizier, is the Father: al-ʿAzīz, the Son, and Faḍl, the Holy Ghost”. See al-Athīr, Ibn, al-Kāmil fī al-tārīkh, (ed. Tornberg, C.J.) (Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1876)Google Scholar, vol. ix, 117. Jalāl al-Dīn al-Suyūṭī cites a similar lampoon: “The Jews of our times have reached the goal of their desire and come to rule. Theirs is the dignity, theirs the money! Councillors of the state and princes are made from them. O people of Egypt! I give you advice: become a Jew, for Heaven has become Jewish!” See al-Suyūṭī, , Ḥusn al-muḥāḍara fī tārīkh Miṣr wa al-Qāhira (Cairo: Matbaʿa idārat al-watan, 1968)Google Scholar, 2: 201.

44 Ibid., 80.

45 Cohen, Mark R. and Somekh, Sasson, “In the court of Yaʿqūb ibn Kīllis: a fragment from the Cairo Geniza”, The Jewish Quarterly Review 80/4, 1990CrossRefGoogle Scholar, 248.

46 Al-Imad, The Fātimid Vizierate, 89–91.

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48 Lev, “The Fātimid vizier Yaʿqūb ibn Kīllis and the beginning of the Fatimid administration in Egypt”.

49 Ibn Khāllikān, Wafayāt al-aʿyān wa anbā' abnā' al-zamān, 7: 34.

50 Mark R. Cohen and Sasson Somekh argue that, according to a Geniza document, members of the Jewish community were upset with him for allowing ridicule to be made of a Jewish prayer book during one of his majlis (the vizier's weekly court). Their dismay shows that usually he was, or was expected to be, an advocate for the Jewish community. See Cohen and Somekh, “In the court of Yaʿqūb ibn Kīllis: a fragment from the Cairo Geniza”, 283–314.

51 Lev, “The Fātimid vizier Yaʿqūb ibn Kīllis and the beginning of the Fātimid administration in Egypt”, 247–8.

52 See al-Suyūṭī, Ḥusn al-muḥāḍara fī tārīkh Miṣr wa al-Qāhira, 2: 129.

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56 Quoted in Al-Imad, The Fātimid Vizierate, 48. Here we can see that there is a disjunction between the theoretical vizierate outlined by Ismaili scholars and the Fātimid experience. In theory, there can be no delegation of imāmī powers in the Fātimid state, but in reality, the Fātimid experience was in many respects very different from al-Kirmānī's theory of the theocratic state. Both Ibn Kīllis and Bahram were exercising unlimited powers that fitted the category of vizierate of delegation, rather than vizierate of execution. This was also the case with Faḍl ibn Marwān during the ʿAbbāsid era, as discussed earlier.

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61 Hitti, History of the Arabs, 318. The list of authors holding the same opinion could be easily extended. In this regard I should like to mention one book especially devoted to the question; Bowen, Harold, The Life and Times of ʿAli ibn ʿĪsā: “The Good Vizier” (1928)Google Scholar. In his book Bowen states: “The designation vizier, of Persian origin, had been introduced by the ʿAbbāsids, who had modeled their Court procedure as closely as possible on that of the Sassanians” (p. 14).

62 Morony, Michael G., Iraq after the Muslim Conquest (New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 1984)Google Scholar, 71; cf. Nizam al-Mulk, The Book of Government or Rules for Kings, 178–80. For a detailed discussion of the historical development of the vizierate during ʿAbbāsid times, see al-Yuzubkī, Tawfīq Sultān, al-Wizāra: Nash'atuhā wa-taṭawwuruhā fī al-dawla al-ʿAbbāsiyya (132–447) (Baghdad: Mosul University Press, 1975)Google Scholar.

63 Goitein, S. D., “The origin of the vizierate and its true character”, Islamic Culture 16, 3–4 (1942)Google Scholar, and reappears in his Studies in Islamic History and Institutions (Leiden: E.J. Brill, 1968)Google Scholar, 169.

64 Goitein, “The origin of the vizierate and its true character”, 182.

65 Ibid., 191.

66 Sourdel, Le Vizirat ʿAbbāside de 749 à 936 (132 à 324 de l'hégire), 41–61.

67 For a discussion of the early development of the vizierate, see Kimber, R. A., “The early ʿAbbāsid vizierate”, Journal of Semitic Studies 38/1, Spring 1992, 65–85CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

68 Kimber, “The early ʿAbbāsid vizierate”, 84.

69 It is related that the caliph al-Manṣūr formally ordered his entourage to wear the Persian tall, black, conical hat (qulansuwa) and banned the use of the turban, which was worn previously. Meanwhile, the costumes of the Sassanid kings were imitated and garments decorated with golden inscriptions were introduced. Government officials were also encouraged to wear black, which was a symbol of the ʿAbbāsids (the Umayyad colour had been white). For a detailed discussion of how Persian culture found its way into the early ʿAbbāsid court and society, see Shakib, Mahmood, The Influence of Persian Culture during the Early ʿAbbāsid Times, unpublished Ph.D dissertation (University of Washington, 1982)Google Scholar.

70 Hugh Kennedy is right when he says: “Umayyads had had secretaries, and under the early ʿAbbāsids this office developed into the office of vizier”. See Kennedy, Hugh, When Baghdad Ruled the Muslim World: The Rise and Fall of Islam's Greatest Dynasty (Cambridge, MA: Da Capo Press, 2005)Google Scholar, 36.

71 Tritton, The Caliphs and Their Non-Muslim Subjects, 25. In fact, there were fewer Ismaili viziers than the other religious groups combined: twenty-nine non-Ismailis to twenty-three Ismailis. Among the non-Ismailis were seven Christians, three Jews, eleven Sunnis, six Shiis, one “Unitarian” (tawḥīdī, perhaps Druze?), one Muslim without a madhhab and eight unknown. See Al-Imad, The Fātimid Vizierate, 71.

72 Lev, Yaacov, State and Society in Fātimid Egypt (Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1991)Google Scholar, 190.

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75 Mary ibn Sulaymān, Akhbār fatārika kursi al-mashriq, 84; see also Louis Cheikhu, Wuzarā' al-Naṣrāniyya wa kuttābuhā fi al-Islām, 27.

76 See Lapidus, Ira M., “The separation of state and religion in the development of Early Islamic society”, International Journal of Middle East Studies 6, 1975, 363–85CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Crone, Patricia, Slaves on Horses: The Evolution of the Medieval Polity (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1980)CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

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78 I would like to thank Professor Mark Cohen for driving me to this important point. It would be interesting to discuss the significance of dhimmī viziers and secretaries for the non-Muslim communities themselves, but this would make another article.

79 Lewis, Bernard, The Arabs in History (London: Hutchinson's University Library, 1950)Google Scholar, 58.