{"id":127,"date":"2018-10-13T19:01:05","date_gmt":"2018-10-13T19:01:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/projects.history.qmul.ac.uk\/ruralsocietyislam\/?page_id=127"},"modified":"2019-05-03T14:06:43","modified_gmt":"2019-05-03T14:06:43","slug":"author-and-work","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/projects.history.qmul.ac.uk\/ruralsocietyislam\/sample-page\/author-and-work\/","title":{"rendered":"Author and Work"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u02bfAl\u0101\u02be al-D\u012bn, Ab\u016b \u02bfAmr, \u02bfUthm\u0101n ibn Ibr\u0101h\u012bm ibn Kh\u0101lid al-Qurash\u012b Ibn al-N\u0101bulus\u012b was born in Cairo on 19 of Dh\u016b al-\u1e24ijja 588 AH (26 December 1192).[1]<\/a> Al-N\u0101bulus\u012b\u2019s maternal grandfather, a \u1e24anbal\u012b preacher from Damascus called Zayn al-D\u012bn al-An\u1e63\u0101r\u012b, migrated to Egypt during the late Fatimid period, when \u1e6cal\u0101\u02bei\u02bf ibn Ruzz\u012bk was an all-powerful vizier (1154\u201361). After the overthrow of the Shi\u02bfa dynasty, the staunchly Sunni preacher served under Saladin.[2]<\/a> Al-N\u0101bulus\u012b himself was initially trained as a religious scholar but then joined the Ayyubid administration, where he advanced rapidly and gained the personal trust of the Sultan al-K\u0101mil (r.\u00a01218\u201338).[3]<\/a> By the late 1220s, al-N\u0101bulus\u012b became a chief financial advisor to al-K\u0101mil, and participated in his daily private council, together with the amir Fakhr al-D\u012bn \u02bfUthm\u0101n, who was then in charge of all bureaus and taxation.[4]<\/a> Al-N\u0101bulus\u012b kept his position at the top of Egyptian administration until he was arrested in 1237, on what he claimed were false charges. He spent over a month in jail, during which time his family house was expropriated and sold.<\/p>\n

Left outside the corridors of power, and also, according to his own testimony, with limited sources of revenue, al-N\u0101bulus\u012b turned to writing as means of currying favour with al-K\u0101mil\u2019s son and successor, al-Malik al-\u1e62\u0101li\u1e25 (r.\u00a01240\u201349). His first major work was an anti-Coptic treatise, Tajr\u012bd sayf al-himma li-istikhr\u0101j m\u0101 f\u012b dhimmat al-dhimma<\/em> (Unsheathing Ambition\u2019s Sword to Extract what the Dhimm\u012bs Hoard), where he lashed out at the dishonesty of Copts employed by the Ayyubid administration.[5]<\/a> The second treatise, Kit\u0101b luma\u02bf al-qaw\u0101n\u012bn al-mu\u1e0diyya f\u012b daw\u0101w\u012bn al-diy\u0101r al-mi\u1e63riyya<\/em> (A Few Luminous Rules for Egypt\u2019s Administrative Offices), outlines key problems in the fiscal administration of Ayyubid Egypt and sets out recommendations for increased efficiency and the prevention of fraud. The personal tone of these two works is very marked and allows us to reconstruct al-N\u0101bulus\u012b\u2019s career prior to his Fayyum mission. Another work, which survives only in fragments, is \u1e24usn al-sul\u016bk f\u012b fa\u1e0dl malik Mi\u1e63r\u02bfal\u0101 s\u0101\u02beir al-mul\u016bk<\/em> (A Seemly Demonstration of the Superiority of Egypt\u2019s King above All Others), apparently extolling the virtues of Egypt and its rulers.[6]<\/a><\/p>\n

In 642\/1245, eight years after his forced retirement from government service, al-N\u0101bulus\u012b was called to the Fayyum by orders of the Sultan al-Malik al-\u1e62\u0101li\u1e25, who was travelling with his entourage through the province. The chronicles for this period in the reign of al-\u1e62\u0101li\u1e25 are relatively sparse, and we have no independent testimony of such a royal visit or firm idea of its purpose.[7]<\/a> According to al-N\u0101bulus\u012b, when al-Malik al-\u1e62\u0101li\u1e25 passed through the Fayyum and inspected it, he noticed that the province was less prosperous than it had been, and decided to call al-N\u0101bulus\u012b out of retirement and appoint him to audit the province and its cultivation.<\/p>\n

Following his appointment, al-N\u0101bulus\u012b spent more than two months in the Fayyum. This was in the spring of 642\/1245, almost certainly from March to May.\u00a0The exact time of his stay is referred to only once, when he mentions the number of waterwheels in operation in the Fayyum at the time of writing, which is \u2018the month of Dh\u016b al-Qa\u02bfda of 642\u2019, corresponding to 31 March\u201329 April, 1245.<\/p>\n

Al-N\u0101bulus\u012b\u2019s main effort was to record the tax obligations in each settlement. This involved collecting fiscal documents from local tax-officials, or, when the tax-collectors were not in situ, from village headmen. His survey includes records for about 125 different settlements, and his description of the villages\u2019 appearance suggests he must have visited them all. At least for part of this time, al-N\u0101bulus\u012b was accompanied by the provincial irrigation official, the khawl\u012b al-ba\u1e25r<\/em> (overseer of the canal), who furnished him with information about the complex irrigation system and local history. Al-N\u0101bulus\u012b complemented the information gathered locally by accessing some of the records of the central government in Cairo.<\/p>\n

The striking omission from al-N\u0101bulus\u012b\u2019s account is any record of actual payments. Al-N\u0101bulus\u012b compiled tax obligations but not the balance of payments at the end of the year. Sporadic information on unpaid or withheld payments is given only in seventeen villages, all of which either belonged to the royal domain of the Sultan at the time of al-N\u0101bulus\u012b\u2019s visit, or had been part of the royal domain at some point over the previous decade. Otherwise, the absence of a record of actual payments gives the treatise a somewhat idealized tone. It is essentially the record of what should have been paid, not of what was actually delivered.<\/p>\n

The Villages of the Fayyum fits no familiar genre in medieval Arabic literature, and there is no obvious model al-N\u0101bulus\u012b was trying to emulate.<\/a> The desire to bring a region to life through detailed description belongs to the discipline of geography, and several Abbasid authors included fiscal data in their geographical accounts.<\/a> But the ‘Abbasid geographers were interested in the imperial and the global, and their works are far removed from this micro-study of one individual province.<\/p>\n

The treatise is a closer match with the genre of historical topography, which later culminates with al-Maqr\u012bz\u012b\u2019s famous fifteenth-century account of Egypt and Cairo, the Khi\u1e6da\u1e6d<\/em>. An early representative of this tradition is a younger contemporary of al-N\u0101bulus\u012b, \u02bfIzz al-D\u012bn Ibn Shadd\u0101d (d.\u00a0684\/1285). Ibn Shadd\u0101d had a career reminiscent of al-N\u0101bulus\u012b, serving under various Ayyubid rulers. He was also sent to conduct a financial audit of an individual province, \u1e24arr\u0101n, in 640\/1242\u201343.<\/a> His historical topography of Syria and the Jaz\u012bra, known as al-A\u02bfl\u0101q al-kha\u1e6d\u012bra<\/em>, was composed in the 670s\/1270s for the Mamluk sultan Baybars. It similarly contains summaries of tax revenues and numbers of troops, but it lacks the fiscal focus of al-N\u0101bulus\u012b\u2019s work, not to mention the minute detail at the level of the individual village.<\/p>\n

The treatise has traditionally been considered as part of the uniquely rich administrative tradition of the Ayyubid and Mamluk dynasties, and its study was often ancillary to the study of administrative manuals. <\/a>There is no doubt that the Ayyubid period saw the rise of a rich and novel type of administrative literature, and it is surely not a coincidence that the Villages of the Fayyum was composed in that period and in reference to it. The first work in this cluster, the administrative manual of al-Makhz\u016bm\u012b, Kit\u0101b al-minh\u0101j<\/em>, was composed in 565\/1169\u201370 and revised circa 581\/1185. The surviving sections of this work deal with military organization and the regulation of international trade. <\/a>Al-N\u0101bulus\u012b consulted al-Makhz\u016bm\u012b\u2019s work, as he notes in his administrative treatise, the Luminous Rules.<\/a> The next administrative work in this group was Qaw\u0101n\u012bn al-daw\u0101w\u012bn<\/em>, composed by the chief administrator Ibn Mamm\u0101t\u012b (d.\u00a0606\/1209). This work, of which a complete manuscript survives, is especially valuable for its explanation of agricultural taxation.[8]<\/a> Unlike the Villages of the Fayyum<\/em>, however, both al-Makhz\u016bm\u012b and Ibn Mamm\u0101t\u012b wrote prescriptive works, manuals of the procedures to be followed and not records of actual fiscal obligations.<\/p>\n

We do not know whether the Villages of the Fayyum made any impression on the Sultan al-\u1e62\u0101li\u1e25. It is also noticeable that the Villages of the Fayyum is not cited by any other medieval author.[9]<\/a> We have no further information about al-N\u0101bulus\u012b\u2019s career, and it therefore seems unlikely that he regained a prominent position in the administration. He died in Cairo about twenty years later, on 25 Jum\u0101d\u0101\u00a0I 660 (17 April 1262), and was buried in the Muqattam Cemetery.[10]<\/a><\/p>\n

<\/a>[1]<\/a> For the biography of al-N\u0101bulus\u012b, see also Luke Yarbrough, \u2018Introduction\u2019 in al-N\u0101bulus\u012b, Sword of Ambition<\/em>.<\/p>\n

[2]<\/a> Yarbrough, \u2018Introduction\u2019, p.\u00a0xix; Al-N\u0101bulus\u012b, ‘Kit\u0101b luma\u02bf al-qaw\u0101n\u012bn al-mu\u1e0diyya f\u012b daw\u0101w\u012bn al-diy\u0101r al-mi\u1e63riyya’, ed.\u00a0by Carl Becker and Claude Cahen, Bulletin d\u2019\u00e9tudes Orientales<\/em>, 16 (1960), 1\u201378, 119\u201334 (p.\u00a0120 [Introduction], pp.\u00a027, 43 [Arabic]).<\/p>\n

[3]<\/a> On al-K\u0101mil, see Hans\u00a0L. Gottschalk, Al-Malik Al-Ka\u0304mil Von Egypten Und Seine Zeit: Eine Studie Zur Geschichte Vorderasiens Und Egyptens in Der Ersten Ha\u0308lfte Des 7.\/13. Jahrhunderts<\/em> (Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, 1958).<\/p>\n

[4]<\/a> Al-N\u0101bulus\u012b, Sword of Ambition<\/em>, ed. and trans. by Yarbrough, p.\u00a0131.<\/p>\n

[5]<\/a> Here and elsewhere, we follow Yarbrough\u2019s elegant translations of the titles of al-N\u0101bulus\u012b\u2019s works.<\/p>\n

[6]<\/a> See ‘Kit\u0101b luma\u02bf’, ed. by Becker and Cahen, pp.\u00a031\u201334.<\/p>\n

[7]<\/a> Richards, \u2018al-\u1e62\u0101li\u1e25\u2019. See Mu\u1e25ammad ibn S\u0101lim Ibn W\u0101\u1e63il, Mufarrij al-kur\u016bb f\u012b akhb\u0101r ban\u012b ayy\u016bb<\/em>, ed.\u00a0by Jam\u0101l al-D\u012bn al-Shayy\u0101l, \u1e24asanayn al-Rab\u012b\u02bf, and Sa\u02bf\u012bd \u02bf\u0100sh\u016br (Cairo, 1977), v, 323\u201347; Shih\u0101b al-D\u012bn Ab\u016b Sh\u0101ma, Tar\u0101jim rij\u0101l al-qarnayn al-s\u0101dis wa\u02bel-s\u0101b\u201b al-ma\u02bfr\u016bf bi\u02bel-dhayl \u201bal\u0101 al-raw\u1e0datayn<\/em>, ed.\u00a0by Mu\u1e25ammad al-Kawthar\u012b (al-Q\u0101hira: Maktab Nashr al-thaq\u0101fa al-Islamiyya, 1947), pp.\u00a0168\u201374.<\/p>\n

[8]<\/a> Ibn Mamm\u0101t\u012b, Kit\u0101b qaw\u0101n\u012bn al-daw\u0101w\u012bn, ed. \u02bfA\u1e6diya; Richard\u00a0S. Cooper, \u2018Ibn Mammati\u2019s Rules for the Ministries: Translation with Commentary of the Qaw\u0101n\u012bn al-Daw\u0101w\u012bn\u2019 (unpublished doctoral dissertation, University of California, Berkeley, 1973)\u200f.\u200f<\/p>\n

[9]<\/a> Later authors of encyclopaedic works probably did not find it as useful as the works of Ibn Mamm\u0101t\u012b and al-Makhz\u016bm\u012b. See the comments by Cahen in his introduction to al-N\u0101bulus\u012b, Kit\u0101b luma\u02bf, ed. by Becker and Cahen, p.\u00a0123; and by Sayyid in his edition of al- Maqr\u012bz\u012b, al-Mawa\u0304\u02bdiz\u0323<\/em>, i, 231 n. 3.<\/p>\n

[10]<\/a> \u02bfAbd al-Mu\u02bemin al-Dimy\u0101\u1e6d\u012b, Le dictionnaire des autorit\u00e9s<\/em> (Mu\u02bf\u011fam al-\u0160uy\u016b\u1e25), ed. by Georges Vajda (Paris: CNRS, 1962), p.\u00a0164.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u02bfAl\u0101\u02be al-D\u012bn, Ab\u016b \u02bfAmr, \u02bfUthm\u0101n ibn Ibr\u0101h\u012bm ibn Kh\u0101lid al-Qurash\u012b Ibn al-N\u0101bulus\u012b was born in Cairo on 19 of Dh\u016b al-\u1e24ijja 588 AH (26 December 1192).[1] Al-N\u0101bulus\u012b\u2019s maternal grandfather, a \u1e24anbal\u012b preacher from Damascus called Zayn al-D\u012bn al-An\u1e63\u0101r\u012b, migrated to Egypt during the late Fatimid period, when \u1e6cal\u0101\u02bei\u02bf ibn Ruzz\u012bk was an all-powerful vizier (1154\u201361). […] Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":60,"featured_media":0,"parent":2,"menu_order":2,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-127","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/projects.history.qmul.ac.uk\/ruralsocietyislam\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/127","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/projects.history.qmul.ac.uk\/ruralsocietyislam\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/projects.history.qmul.ac.uk\/ruralsocietyislam\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/projects.history.qmul.ac.uk\/ruralsocietyislam\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/60"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/projects.history.qmul.ac.uk\/ruralsocietyislam\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=127"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/projects.history.qmul.ac.uk\/ruralsocietyislam\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/127\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":257,"href":"https:\/\/projects.history.qmul.ac.uk\/ruralsocietyislam\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/127\/revisions\/257"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/projects.history.qmul.ac.uk\/ruralsocietyislam\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/2"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/projects.history.qmul.ac.uk\/ruralsocietyislam\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=127"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}