Conclusion

Summary

The preceding chapters illustrate in different ways a central point of this study, namely that the historical accounts of the early ʿAbbāsid caliphs were originally intended to be read not for facts, but for their allusive power. Their descriptions of the lives of caliphs may seem realistic, but the narrators intended their anecdotes to form a frame for social, political, and religious commentary. We have examined how the historical records of the caliphs have an orderly literary structure. Although the information about the caliphs is scattered in diverse sources, such as Ṭabarī, Yaʿqūbī, and Masʿūdī, one can discern linkages in theme, style, and narrative motif across these texts, suggesting the existence of a unified atmosphere of narrative composition at some point before these chronicles were written down. Repetition of certain events and statements in the chronicles has generally been seen as an indicator of their fictiveness. The present study has argued, however, that it is not repetition per se that provides proof of a rhetorical embellishment of the text, but the existence of a dialogue among various layers of narratives that are centered on specific historical problems and upon actors who have a clearly defined set of characteristics and roles. From a basic event of historical interaction, such as the case of al-AmĪn and al-Maʾmūn, narrators extended the dialogue to encompass other aspects of the lives of the characters, developing in the process a whole new universe of interaction between these characters and among other historical personages, whose eras revolved around key religious, political, or moral crises, whether they were previous caliphs, Sasanian rulers, or prophets.