Rulers as Authors in the Islamic World

Knowledge, Authority and Legitimacy
Erscheinungsjahr 2024
ISBN: 978-90-04-69060-8
Verlag: Brill

Buch, Englisch, Band 213, 672 Seiten, Format (B × H): 163 mm x 242 mm, Gewicht: 1474 g

Reihe: Islamic History and Civilization

How widespread was authorship among rulers in the premodern Islamic world? The writings of different types of rulers in different regions and periods are analyzed in this book, from the early centuries in the central lands of Islam to 19th century Sudan. The composition of poetry appears as the most fertile area for authorship among rulers. Prose writings show a wide variety, from astrology to bookmaking, from autobiography to creeds. Some of the rulers made claims to special knowledge, but in all cases authorship played a special role in the construction of the rulers' authority and legitimacy.

Contributors: Ahmed Ibrahim Abushouk, Sean W. Anthony, María Luisa Ávila†, Teresa Bernheimer, Philip Bockholt, Sonja Brentjes, Christiane Czygan, David Durand-Guédy, Anne-Marie Eddé, Sinem Eryilmaz, Maribel Fierro, Adam Gaiser, Angelika Hartmann†, Livnat Holtzman, Maher Jarrar, Robert S. Kramer, Christian Mauder, Matthew Melvin-Koushki, Letizia Osti, Jürgen Paul, Petra Schmidl, Tilman Seidensticker.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Weitere Mitwirkende

Fierro, Maribel

Brentjes, Sonja

Seidensticker, Tilman

Fachgebiete

• Geisteswissenschaften Literaturwissenschaft Literaturgeschichte und Literaturkritik
• Geisteswissenschaften Geschichtswissenschaft Weltgeschichte & Geschichte einzelner Länder und Gebietsräume Geschichte einzelner Länder Naher & Mittlerer Osten
• Geisteswissenschaften Islam & Islamische Studien Islam: Leben & Praxis

Inhaltsverzeichnis

List of Figures

List of Tables

Notes on Contributors

Introduction

Maribel Fierro, Sonja Brentjes and Tilman Seidensticker

Part 1 The Early Period

1 Rulers as Authors: ?Ali b. Abi ?alib and the Other Twelver Imams

Teresa Bernheimer

2 Eloquent Exchange: Asceticism and Shira? in the Poetry of Qa?ari b. al-Fuja?a

Adam Gaiser

3 A ‘Rediscovered’ Letter of the Umayyad Caliph ?Umar b. ?Abd al-?Aziz (r. 99–101/717–720)

Caliphal Authorship and Legal Authority in al-Risala fi l-fay?

Sean W. Anthony

4 Abbasid Rulers and Their Standing as Authors

Letizia Osti

Part 2 Caliphs and Messianic Figures

5 Zaydi Rulers as Authors: A Quest for Legitimacy

Maher Jarrar

6 The Caliph al-Qadir bi-llah and the Qadiri Creed

Livnat Holtzman

7 Do Caliphs Write? The View from the Islamic West

María Luisa Ávila?† and Maribel Fierro

8 Authority, ijazat and Politics: Caliph al-Na?ir li-Din Allah’s Kitab Ru? al-?arifin (7Th/13th Century, Baghdad)

Angelika Hartmann?†

9 The Pen and the Sword: The Case of the Sudanese Mahdi (1844–1885)

Ahmed Ibrahim Abushouk and Robert S. Kramer

Part 3 Emirs and Sultans

10 Entre l’épée et le calame?: Abu l-Fida?, prince et savant ayyoubide

Anne-Marie Eddé

11 The Quatrains of Toghrïl III. Some Reflections about the Literacy and Culture of the Saljuqs

David Durand-Guédy

12 Royal Quatrains: Rulers of the Anushteginid Line of Khwarazmshahs as Poets

Jürgen Paul

13 Rulers as Authors in 13th-Century Yemen: the Oeuvre of al-Ashraf ?Umar

Petra Schmidl

14 Non-caliphal Rulers and Their Writings in the Islamic West (2nd–9th/8th–15th Centuries)

Maribel Fierro

15 Legitimating Sultanic Rule in Arabic, Turkish and Persian—Late Mamluk Rulers as Authors of Religious Poetry

Christian Mauder

Part 4 The Great Empires: Timurids-Mughals, Ottomans, Safavids

16 The Ottoman Ruler Poet Sultan Süleyman I, His Third Divan, and His Reception beyond the Palace Walls

Christiane Czygan

17 The Power of Poetry in the Ottoman Context

Fatma Sinem Eryilmaz

18 Timurid-Mughal Philosopher-Kings as Sultan-Scientists

Matthew Melvin-Koushki

19 Shah ?ahmasp and the Ta?kira: A Sixteenth-Century Ruler’s Justification of His Policies

Philip Bockholt

Index

Über Autor(innen)

Maribel Fierro, Ph.F. (1985), Instituto de Lenguas y Culturas del Mediterráneo, is Research Professor at the Spanish Council for Scientific Research (CSIC). She has published on the political and intellectual history of the Medieval Islamic West, including co-editing Ibn Hazm of Cordoba. The Life and Works of a Controversial Thinker (Brill, 2012).

Sonja Brentjes, Ph.D. (1977), Visiting scholar at the Max Planck Institute for the History of Science (MPIWG), is a historian of science who has published on mathematical sciences at courts and in madrasas; cross-cultural exchange of knowledge, mapmaking and historiography. She is the author of Teaching and Learning the Sciences in Islamicate Societies (800–1700) (Brepols, 2018).

Tilman Seidensticker, Ph.D. (1983), is Professor at Hamburg University, Cluster of Excellence 'Understanding Written Artefacts'. He has published on Ancient Arabic poetry and Arabic manuscripts and is author of Islamismus - Geschichte, Vordenker, Organisationen (Munich, 5th ed. 2023).