al-Ja¿i¿

The Turks and the Caliphal Army (eBook, ePUB)

• Format: ePub

Produktbeschreibung

A defense of Abbasid military policy from a powerhouse of Arabic letters

In the aftermath of a bitter civil war in 3rd/9th-century Baghdad, the Abbasid caliph al-Mu¿täim began purchasing Turkish slaves to create a highly trained private militia loyal only to him. In doing so, al-Mu¿täim introduced an enduring tradition of enslaved soldiers that became widespread across the region. The incorporation of these Turkish troops into the caliph's army, however, threatened to throw fuel on the fires of factional strife. With this text, written at the request of a high-ranking official, the legendary polymath and "father of Arabic prose" al-Jäi¿ defends the Turkish soldiers' effectiveness and importance, and in so doing defends the unity and integrity of the army and the value of allegiance to the Abbasid state.

Using the epistolary essay as a rhetorical device, al-Jäi¿ conceives a debate between his patron, al-Fat¿ ibn Khaqan, and an unnamed adversary. With al-Fat¿ as a mouthpiece, al-Jäi¿ skillfully contrasts his own reasoned argument for harmony and understanding with his adversary's impassioned partisan polemics, drawing attention to the common ground-history, geography, religion, and devotion to the Abbasid cause-shared by the Turks and their rivals. While extolling the Turks' merits as soldiers, al-Jäi¿ stresses unity and reconciliation over discord and division. The result is a remarkable essay offering insight into social and political cohesion in the Abbasid empire at its height, and the rifts that threatened its stability.

A bilingual Arabic-English edition.

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Produktdetails

• Verlag: University of Pittsburgh Press
• Erscheinungstermin: 4. November 2025
• Englisch
• ISBN-13: 9781479840632
• Artikelnr.: 74334687

Autorenporträt

Abu ¿Uthman ¿Amr ibn Bär al-Fuqaymi al-Kinani, known as al-Jäi¿, "Goggle-Eyes," as a result of an eye defect, was born in Basra in the last half of the second/eighth century. A man of insatiable curiosity, he wrote over two-hundred and fifty works on a variety of subjects from theology to law and zoology, the majority of them as commissions for powerful members of Abbasid society. After a career at the caliphal courts of Baghdad and Samarra, he moved back to Basra, paralyzed by a stroke, where he died in 255/868 or 869. Legend has it that he met his end when crushed under a collapsing book shelf.