XXIII. Jāḥiẓ of Baṣra to al-Fatḥ ibn Khāqān1 on the “Exploits of the Turks and the Army of the Khalifate in general”

C. T. Harley Walker

doi:10.1017/S0035869X00048784

XXIII. Jāḥiẓ of Baṣra to al-Fatḥ ibn Khāqān1 on the “Exploits of the Turks and the Army of the Khalifate in general”

Published online by Cambridge University Press: 15 March 2011

C. T. Harley Walker

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The treatise of Jāḥiẓ, of which a translation is given in the following pages, was published at Leyden in 1903 by Brill. The editor was Van Vloten. But he died before completing the work; it was continued and sent to the press by de Goeje. Since then another edition has appeared at Cairo from the “Maẓba'a al-Taqaddum” by Muḥammad Effendi al-Sāsy al-Maghriby. I have used the Cairene edition for my translation. In the Leyden edition there are two other opuscula (rasā'il) besides the one translated here, namely those entitled “The Boast of Black People over White” and “The forming of Squares and Circles”. In the Cairene edition there are eleven rasā'il in all, including the three of the Leyden edition, the titles of the remainder being as follows:—

The Envious Man and the Object of his Envy.

The Superiority of Speech to Silence.

The Praise of Merchants and the Blame of the Work of Government. Love and Women. Keeping One's Promise.

Exposition of the Practices of the “Faction”. Gradations of the Competent.

Type: Articles
Information: Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society , Volume 47 , Issue 4 , October 1915 , pp. 631 - 697

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/S0035869X00048784 [Opens in a new window]
Copyright: Copyright © The Royal Asiatic Society 1915

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^{page 636 note 1} This is an allusion to the , or as it is also called , which Lane explains as follows: “That whereof the observance is obligatory on the collective body of the Muslims, and, in consequence of the observance thereof by some, becomes of no force in respect of the rest.” Cf. Tanbīh, Shirāzy, ed. Juynboll, p. 287:Google Scholar

^{page 636 note 2} “The sons of the cause.” These are the supporters of the 'Abbāsid claims. “The faction,” i.e. the 'Alids.

^{page 637 note 1} The Banawys. These were immigrant barbarians living in Arabia Felix.

^{page 638 note 1} A northern tribe dwelling in Tayma and the surrounding district.

^{page 638 note 2} A tribe to the south-east of Mecca.

^{page 638 note 3} A tribe between Baṣra and Yemāma.

^{page 638 note 4} A tribe bordering on Tamīm.

^{page 638 note 5} A tribe in the neighbourhood of Medina.

^{page 638 note 6} Qaḥṭān and 'Adnān were the reputed ancestors of all the Arab tribes. 'Adnān was supposed to be the descendant of Ismā'īl (Ishmael) and Abraham. To 'Adnān belonged the so-called immigrant Arabs (Musta'riba), to Qaḥṭān the tribes of Yemen.

^{page 639 note 1} i.e. there exists greater identity between different tribes than between certain members of one family.

^{page 639 note 2} i.e. to be an Arab is the same as to be an actual cousin; “wanted disintegration …,” i.e. wanted to establish diversity.

^{page 640 note 1} Al-Akhnas, etc. All three were contemporaries of the Prophet. Ya'la b. Munya was an important authority on the early history of Islam. He was appointed a commander in a.h. 11.

^{page 640 note 2} Having one-fifth of the booty the Prophet's family did not need alms.

^{page 640 note 3} The pedigree is as follows:—

^{page 640 note 4} Ḍorār is mentioned in the Dictionary of the Contemporaries of the Prophet as having dwelt at Kufa. According to the same authority 'Ukkāsha was present at Badr and was a confederate of the B. 'Abd Shams.

^{page 642 note 1} Cf. Qur'ān, Sura iii. In Umayad times it was dangerous to be a 'Alid or 'Abbāsid.

^{page 642 note 2} i.e. as good as those who fought for the Prophet at the Battle of the Moat, a.h. 5. The “peers” are the champions at Badr accepted by the Meccans. The “twelve nobles and seventy chiefs” are an allusion to the negotiations of the Prophet with the people of Yarib preceding the flight. At the first 'Aqaba (b. Ishāq, , p. 288)Google Scholar the Prophet appointed each of the twelve, who swore allegiance to him, naqīb, over his own tribe for the purpose of converting them. They were all Anṣār, one of them being 'Ubāda b. Ṣāmiṭ. The seventy (actually seventy-three) chiefs were similarly appointed to promote the cause of the Prophet in Yarib at the second 'Aqaba (b. Ishāq, p. 305).

^{page 642 note 3} Emend as follows:—

(whence ) being a field tent of camel's hair, Jūratān being a place in Ispahān.

^{page 642 note 4} The two tribes of Yarib.

^{page 643 note 1} Trustworthy traditions, i.e. a definite body of Sunna as opposed to the secret tradition of the Shī'y party. “People of trustworthy traditions,” i.e. people referred to in such traditions. The “black standards” refers to a tradition of the Mahdy. Cf. b. Mājah, , ii, 269Google Scholar. Black was the colour of the 'Abbāsids, white of the Umayads, red of the Khawārij, green of the 'Alids.

^{page 643 note 2} 'Amorium, conquered by Mu'taṣim in war against Byzantium 223 a. h.

^{page 643 note 3} Father of Ibrahīm the Imām, Saffāḥ and Manṣūr.

^{page 643 note 4} The death of the “pious Khalif” 'Umān was a standing example of “passive resistance”. Cf. b. Faqīh in Bibl. Geogr. Ar., ed. de Goeje, , v, 315.Google Scholar

^{page 644 note 1} B. Marwān, etc., i.e. the Umayads.

^{page 644 note 2} Ḥarūrys, a group of Khawārij, from Ḥarūra, a village near Kufa, where they assembled. Shurāt, i.e. those who buy Paradise with their swords.

^{page 644 note 3} “Dawning of the day.” This is also a reference to Tradition.

^{page 644 note 4} Ṣaḥṣaḥiya, etc., the final helpers of Marwān, “The Ass,” when the Umayads were overthrown in a.h. 132. Naṣr b. Sayyār was the governor of Khorasān under Marwān, when Abu Muslim raised the standard of revolt in the name of the 'Abbāsids. Naṣr b. Sayyār at that time had his hands full in dealing with b. Judī' the Kirmāny and Shaybān the Ḥarūry leader, who succeeded Al-Ḍaḥḥāk as leader of the Khawārij. Nubāta b. Ḥanẓala and 'Āmir b. Ḍobāra were generals of Marwān against 'Abdullah b. Mu'āwiya at Kufa in 127 a.h. b. Hubayra was a general of Marwān, who fought the Khawārij in 'Irāq.

^{page 645 note 1} According to Yāqūt, , Geographical DictionaryGoogle Scholar, an island at the extreme east of India between India and China.

^{page 645 note 2} Rebel commander of cavalry in Africa in a.h. 152. Ṭābary, , iii, 369.Google Scholar

^{page 645 note 3} Emend for .

^{page 646 note 1} Those who attack women, a reference to the excesses of the Khawārij.

^{page 648 note 1} Some of the eminent persons here referred to are mentioned by Ṭābary, (ii, p. 1358)Google Scholar as naqībs appointed to carry on the 'Abbāsid propaganda in 'Irāq by Muḥammad b. 'Aly in 100 a.h. For Lāhiz b. Ṭurayz, Ṭabary has Lāhiz b. Qurayz.

^{page 648 note 2} i.e. the patience of an ass or a camel is not necessarily the best.

^{page 649 note 1} Manṣūr, i.e. the Khalif. Muḥammad b. 'Aly, either the father of Manṣūr mentioned before or his brother imprisoned and slain at Ḥarrān by Marwān.

^{page 649 note 2} This is in contrast with what Khuda Bakhsh (tr. of Von Kremer, , Contributions to the History of Islamic Civilization) says (p. 79)Google Scholar—“a client was not allowed to perform the funeral prayer over a deceased Muslim, if an Arab was present, however distinguished the client might be.”

^{page 649 note 3} Zayd b. Ḥāritha, the Prophet's freedman and adopted son slain at Mūta. His son Osāma was confirmed in his command after the Prophet's death by Abu Bekr and sent to the Syrian border, a.h. 11. According to Ṭābary, (i, 1165)Google Scholar Zayd was said to have been the first convert.

^{page 650 note 1} Abu Muslim was entrusted by Ibrahīm the Imām with the Abbāsid propaganda. He spread the conspiracy in Khorasān and started the rebellion. Abu Salama, a client of the B. Ḥāritha b. Ka'b, was the first Wazir of the first 'Abbasid Khalif Saffāh.

^{page 650 note 2} Some of these naqībs again are mentioned in the list of Ṭabary, (ii, 1358).Google Scholar

^{page 651 note 1} Emend for .

^{page 652 note 1} Emend for .

^{page 652 note 2} Khulaydia, etc. I have not succeeded in identifying these references.

^{page 653 note 1} Cf. the saying, “He who has not seen Baghdad has not seen the world.” Quṭṭu-'l-Qulūb, p. 249.

^{page 655 note 1} As the 'Abbāsids claimed.

^{page 655 note 2} Cf. the Tanbīh of al-Shirāzy, Abu Isḥāq, ed. Juynboll, p. 236Google Scholar. When a child was born of a woman accused of adultery, her husband in doubtful cases might repudiate it by cursing it. The child then had to reckon his descent from his mother.

^{page 657 note 1} Mentioned in the Dictionary of the Contemporaries of the Prophet. He was pasturing sheep near Medina, when a wolf approached and attacked one of the sheep. Uhbān shouted to scare away the wolf, and the wolf sat upon its tail and spoke to him. A variant account attributed this story to another Uhbān.

^{page 657 note 2} 'Adnān was a prophet. Hence it is not surprising that God should have taught him a supernatural language like Arabic.

^{page 660 note 1} Of the poets quoted here three are mentioned in Guidi's Index to the A any. Nābigha is probably N. al-ubyāny, the famous poet of the court of Ghassān. Another Nābia is mentioned as having met the Prophet. A third, less eminent, was a poet in the time of the Umayads. Bashshār composed satires against Manṣūr and Abu Muslim and Jarīr. Muṭī' b. lyās belonged to the time of the last Umayads and the first 'Abbāsids. Ḥarīsh al-Sa'dy is mentioned in Yāqūt's Geographical Dictionary.

^{page 662 note 1} Muḥammad b. al-Jahm was a poet of the time of Ma'mūn. For the sect of the Jahmites see p. 693, n. 1. Thumāma b. Ashras is classified by Shahrastāny like Jāḥiẓ himself among the Mu'tazilites. He was an authority of Ṭābary imprisoned by Rashīd. Qāsim b. Sayyār is mentioned in the Fihrist (p. 164, 1. 24)Google Scholar as a secretary of state. Ḥumayd b. 'Abdulḥamīd was a general of Ma'mūn, who besieged Baghdad in 202 a.h., when that city seceded to Ibrahīm al-Mahdy. Yaḥya b. Mu'ā was sent by Rashīd to suppress a rebellion in Syria in 191 a.h. The other two persons named here appear to be otherwise unknown.

^{page 662 note 2} The or public reception-room as distinguished from the for grandees. Cf. Ṭābary on Muktadir in Kosegarten, Chr. Ar. 107, 11. 4, 14.

^{page 664 note 1} The Azāriq were a sect of Khawārij named from the founder Abu Rāshid Nāfī' b, al-Azraq. He went from Baṣra to Persia and Kirmān in the time of 'Abdullah b. al-Zubayr. They said that 'Aly was an unbeliever and that b. Muljam was blessed in Qur. Sur. ii, 203Google Scholar. They killed the wives and children of those who did not accept their tenets. Cf. Letter I above, p. 646, n. 1. An account of them is to be found in Shahrastāny and b. Ḥāzm.

^{page 665 note 1} . This is a reference to the principle of the Khawārij, first formulated at the battle of Ṣiffīn, that the decision belongs to God alone, not to arbitrators like 'Abdullah b. 'Abbās appointed by 'Aly.

^{page 667 note 1} Al-Muhallab b. Abu Ṣufra is frequently mentioned in the Kāmil of Mubarrad. Shahrastāny mentions that he fought the Azāriq for nineteen years till the time of Al-Ḥajjāj. Ḥuraysh b. Hilāl is mentioned in connexion with Muhallab in the Kāmil of Mubarrad (ed. Wright, , pp. 630, 631)Google Scholar as fighting against the Khawārij. The same author (p. 136, 1. 18) says of 'Abbād that he was accounted by Muhallab his bravest officer.

^{page 668 note 1} The Eunuchs are mentioned in the Zoology of Jāḥiẓ as fierce enemies of Byzantium.

^{page 670 note 1} Emend as in Van Vloten's edition for .

^{page 670 note 2} This list is based on a cross division. The classes are partly geographical (Sijistāny, Jazary, Yemāny, Mariby, 'Umāny, and Nejdy). Others are sects of the Khawārij (Azraqy, Ibāḍy, Ṣufry). Others are based on social and political distinctions. Further information about the Khawārij is contained in Shahrastāny and b. Ḥazm. The latter speaks of Khawārij in Andalusia. For the Azāriq see note, p. 664. above. The Ibāḍys still exist as a sect of 'Umān and French Africa. They were the followers of 'Abd Allah b. Ibāḍ, and appear in history from about a.h. 60 onwards. They were the moderate party among the Khawārij. For the Ṣufrys see b. Ḥazm, pp. 190, 191, vol. iv.

^{page 670 note 3} It is clear from Ḥarīry, Maq. 47, that cuppers had a bad reputation.

^{page 671 note 1} Cf. Qur. xxi, 104.Google Scholar

^{page 672 note 1} Usually the reference is to the grammarian Mufaḍḍal al-Ḍabby, who collected the Mufaḍḍalīyat. He was probably earlier than Jāḥiẓ, being a contemporary of Mahdy, , circ. 180.Google Scholar

^{page 673 note 1} Emend for .

^{page 673 note 2} Associated with Ma'mūn in his quarrel with Amīn.

^{page 673 note 3} An Arab tribe.

^{page 673 note 4} Abu-'l-Baṭ was associated in command with Ḥumayd b. 'Abdulḥamīd in 201 a.h.

^{page 673 note 5} A city on the Tigris not far from Baṣra.

^{page 674 note 1} Abu Zubayd al-Ṭā'y is mentioned in the Kāmil of Mubarrad, 298, 1. 10.Google Scholar

^{page 674 note 2} Cf. A any, x, 195, 107; xviii, 205.Google Scholar

^{page 675 note 1} Yazīd b. Mazyad is mentioned in Guidi's Index to the A any as belonging to the court of Hārūn al-Rashīd, and as being sent by him against Walīd.

^{page 675 note 2} Emend for .

^{page 675 note 3} In 'Iraq between Baghdad and Ḥamadān.

^{page 675 note 4} Emend for

^{page 676 note 1} Al-Faḍl b. Sahl is associated with Ma'mūn, (A any, iii, 49).Google Scholar

^{page 677 note 1} On the Tigris.

^{page 679 note 1} Qur, 'an, Sura lvi, 34.Google Scholar

^{page 679 note 2} North of Kashgar.

^{page 680 note 1} This name occurs in Guidi's Index and in the Ansāb of Sam'āny early in the history of tradition.

^{page 680 note 2} For B. al-Zubayr see Guidi's Index.

^{page 680 note 3} For Jum'a al-Iyādia see Bala at al-Nisa' (ed. Cairo, 1908), p. 58.Google Scholar

^{page 680 note 4} Qutayba b. Muslim was sent to Khorasān in 30 a.h.

^{page 681 note 1} 'Abd Allah b. Wahab al-Rāsiby is mentioned by Shahrastāny as a Ḥarūry leader and an Imām among the Khawārij.

^{page 681 note 2} See Guidi, Index.

^{page 683 note 1} The distinction between jizyah, poll-tax, and kharāj, land-tax, belongs to a comparatively late time in the history of Islam. The papyri of the first century a.h. know only of jizyah, mainly as a land-tax. The development of the poll-tax is to be explained partly from conversion, partly from the acquisition of land by Moslems, partly from the enforcement of the poll-tax on monks. Eventually the theory was that all paid land-tax, while the tolerated sects also paid poll-tax. Cf. Encyclopœdia Britannica, art. “Egypt (Moslem)”.

^{page 683 note 2} i.e. to keep for selling at a later date in expectation of a rise in price.

^{page 684 note 1} Al-Jawbary, , “Revelation of Secrets,”Google Scholar mentions as a trick of the trade the employment of a magnet to tamper with the tongue of the balance.

^{page 686 note 1} See Guidi, Index to the A āny.

^{page 687 note 1} A poet of the time of Harun al-Rashīd. See Guidi.

^{page 688 note 1} A tribe of Syrian Arabs.

^{page 689 note 1} See Guidi.

^{page 689 note 2} See Guidi. He is said to have fabricated verses (Jacob, , Studien in Arab. Dichtern, iii, p. 18).Google Scholar

^{page 689 note 3} Also quoted as an authority of Jāḥiẓ in the Kāmil of Mubarrad, p. 737.Google Scholar

^{page 689 note 4} Ṭabary mentions war between Khāqān and Junayd in the neigh bourhood of Samarqand in 112.

^{page 693 note 1} Jahm b. Ṣafwān (without, however, the nisba here added) is mentioned in Shahrastāny as the founder of a Jabarite sect, named Jahmites after him, at the end of the Umayad period, and as having been killed at Merv.

^{page 694 note 1} Verses by him are quoted in the Kāmil of Mubarrad, pp. 143, 736.Google Scholar

^{page 695 note 1} Appointed governor of 'Irāq by 'Umar and governor of Kufa by 'Uthmān.

^{page 695 note 2} Several persons of this name are quoted in Guidi's Index.

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XXIII. Jāḥiẓ of Baṣra to al-Fatḥ ibn Khāqān1 on the “Exploits of the Turks and the Army of the Khalifate in general”

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