No description available.

Under the Umayyads, Muslims came into direct contact with Turks in their homeland which lay east of Khurasän and Transoxania. However, after the Turks had submitted to the Islamic state, the Caliphs, in particular the Abbasid Caliphs, began to employ them in various roles such as guards and soldiers. They served alongside the veteran Arabs and Iranians, because the Turks, unlike these others, did not so pride themselves on their nationality that they behaved exclusively. The Turks were valued for their bravery and fidelity. The Caliph Mu'tasim, in fact, increased their number, and his reliance on them was a result of his needs and of certain other circumstances. After the death of Mu'tasim, the Turks rose to positions of considerable importance in all the affairs of state. They had an even greater influence on the running of the Caliphate when they began to interfere in the appointing of the Caliph, which they did for the first time in the case of Mutawakkil. Nevertheless, none of the Abbasid Caliphs from Mutawakkil onwards seemed to acquiesce readily in Turkish control, and indeed they resisted the Turks vigorously. They tried to eliminate them and their power entirely, and to restore the dignity of the Abbasid Caliphate. As the first step in escaping the interference of the Turks, the Caliphs decided to move the state capital. But when the Turks realized the Caliphs' intentions, they began to plot against them and to assassinate them. In the course of this struggle between the Turks and the Caliphate the civil war of 251 H occurred. As a result, government authority weakened, particularly in those outlying regions furthest from its power and influence. Therefore, popular movements and attempts to gain independence emerged in many provinces, such as Hijaz, Armenia, Syria and Iran. In fact, most of these movements were not aimed against the Caliphate itself, but against the Turks who dominated affairs of state. At the same time the power of the (Wazir) minister of state began to diminish, and his remaining in office was closely linked with the desires of the Turks. In addition, the Turks attempted to take over the Vizirate itself. Therefore, some of them, such as Waif and Autamish, occupied this office although they were quite unqualified for it. In consequence, the Vizirate deteriorated and became powerless, just as the Caliphate had done.

The struggle for power between the military class and state officials in the 'Abbasï court on governmental affairs had assumed serious proportions by the time of Munis' rise to power (296/908). There was a similar struggle among the ghilman, the class to which Munis belonged. From the start, those ghilman particularly the Hujariya and the Masaffiva appeared as armed political groups rather than apolitical military units. The purpose of this thesis is to deal with Munis' political and military career at the 'Abbasi court between 296-321/908-933. Three focal areas were chosen for this study. (1) The struggle for power between the military class and the kuttab as exemplified by Munis' struggle with the wazir Ibn al-Furat. (2) The struggle for power within the military class itself as it appears through Munis' struggle with Harun b. Gharib and Yaqut. (3) The struggle between the military class and the khalifa as shown hy Munis' conflict with al-Muqtadir and al-Qahir.

This dissertation studies the evolving relationship of the early 'Abbasid caliphs with the proto-Sunni 'ulama'. By the time of Harun al-Rashid, the 'Abbasids had aligned themselves with the emergent proto-Sunnitrends; a pattern of state - 'ulama' relations, with the caliph's view of his function approaching that of the 'ulama ', had begun to emerge. al-Ma'mun was uncharacteristic of the early 'Abbasids in claiming religious authority for himself, apparently to challenge the 'ulama's influence and authority. That effort proved abortive, and confirmed in its failure the earlier pattern of state - 'ulama' relations. The pattern was one of collaboration between the caliphs and the 'ulama'. Proto-Sunni scholars were among the beneficiaries of extensive caliphal patronage, and it was their viewpoints which caliphal interventions in religious life upheld. Owing perhaps to the effects of 'Abbasid patronage, but also to the implications of certain proto-Sunni viewpoints, proto-Sunnis were generally favourable towards the 'Abbasids. A convergence is discernible in the interests of the Caliphs and the 'ulama', and partly explains not only the latter's pro-'Abbasid sentiment but also why it was the proto-Sunni viewpoints that the 'Abbasids came to patronize.

No description available.

No description available.

No description available.

Gemlike objects are a nearly ubiquitous phenomenon in the medium of glass, although culturally specific studies remain scarce. This dissertation considers the production of such works in the early medieval period, primarily in association with Abbasid rule. The first half attends to several accessory issues, including glass-related terminology, glass-coloring treatises, the lives of glassworkers, gemstone connoisseurship, and the legal status of such products. These demonstrate a range of coexisting attitudes, including the desirability of such works for their own sake rather than as surreptitious substitutes for “true” gemstones. The second half focuses on an exemplary object, an opaque turquoise glass bowl from the Treasury of San Marco in Venice, which I propose was produced in Baghdad for the caliph al-Mutawakkil just after the year 850. I then consider this work’s changing reception from late medieval Venice to modern scholarship, including ways in which “correct” interpretations of its material and/or origin have been repeatedly supplanted by false leads. The fundamental argument is that gemlike vessels like the San Marco turquoise were not deceptive stand-ins but rather intended to exercise complex discursive practices, both political and connoisseurial in nature, a function that ultimately remains in effect today.

The thesis examines the level of historical analysis in the works of two third/ninth century Muslim historians, al-Baladhuri and at-Tabari, including their underlying legal, political and socio-economic concerns as manifested in their narratives. By comparing and contextualising their histories regarding the caliphate of ‘Umar, in relation to their social institutions and scholarly disciplines, the purpose is to highlight the subjective agency of the historians as well as the structure of the historiographical discourse in which they formulated their narratives. Based on the notion of discourses as well-defined areas of social fact that defines the forms of (historical) knowledge in societies, the thesis applies de Certeau’s theory of discourses in order to analyse the formation of historical discourses in relation to social institutions and scholarly traditions. By linking the narrative differences to the historians’ scholarly contexts and political concerns, the thesis also show their subjective agency to form certain narratives of history depending on political and scholarly interests, although expressed in the form of the khabar-tradition of ‘Abbasid period. It is argued that the narratives represent attempts to explain social and economic factors involved in civilisational history by means of the accumulated body of what in modern scholarship is labeled “religious knowledge”. Thereby, it also problematises current debates on the level of analytical thinking in early Muslim historiography and suggest new approaches to the subject by discourse analysis.

The history of Banu Umayya has since the collapse of the caliphate occupied a major part in Islamic historiography. The present thesis analyses the presentation of the Umayyads in Ibn Khaldun’s al-Muqaddima and its relation to previous historical traditions. The thesis examines the social and intellectual context in which Ibn Khaldun stood and how it is represented in his historiography, while also providing an overview of the various socio-political, intellectual and historiographical developments in Islam. The theoretical perspectives are based on the concept of agency, examining the intellectual room for manoeuvre that the historian disposed of while composing the works. The relation between the past-as-history and the historical past is emphasised and analysed by examination of narrative arrangements and content in relation to the historians’ contexts. Rather than viewing Ibn Khaldun as an exception, the study clarifies his contextual representativity by analysing his views on the Umayyads. The thesis also discusses the historiographical significance of the Umayyad history for the later development of Islam, while thereby attempting to open the field of research regarding the Umayyad history and its importance as self-definitions among later movements, historians and traditions of Islam.