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Humphreys, Stephen
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The Vizier and the Raʾīs in Saljuq Syria: the Struggle for Urban Self-Representation
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 29 January 2009
Extract
Syria was one of the few areas of medieval Islam where cities emancipated themselves from centralized rule to a certain degree by shaping local self-representative institutions and by transforming “classical” government offices according to their special needs. For nearly two hundred years—from about the second half of the 10th century to the middle of the 12th century—Syrian cities possessed urban heads (ru'asā') and militias of young men (ahdāth) that, in a way, complemented or even replaced the rulers and garrisons representing the Fatimid and Saljuq central governments; in time, they became institutionalized collaborators within the Saljuq regimes. This development is most evident in Damascus and Aleppo, although things evolved differently in the two cities. By gaining the rulers' recognition, the urban forces (ru'asa' and ahdath) not only managed to take over the functions of the police (shurta) and partake in the rulers' military and political tasks, but they also controlled—to a certain degree—the economic, administrative, and financial affairs of the city (these, it will be argued, can be substantiated only with regard to Damascus, not to Aleppo). It is significant, for example, that the Arabic sources reporting on Damascus do not mention the muhiasib, the “classical” official for the urban administration and economy, when there was a ra'īs. Even more striking is the fact that sometimes the ra'īs also functioned as the vizier installed by the ruler. Thus, one can see that the ra'īs, the holder of a local urban office, became a very important member of the central ruling system, normally represented by a foreign-born elite that also supplied the vizier.
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References
Author's note: A preliminary version of this article was presented at the 19th Annual Meeting of the Middle East Studies Association in New Orleans, November 22–26, 1985.
1 For the larger Context see, for example, my book Ri'āsa und qadā'. Instilutionen als Ausdruck wechselnder Kräfteverhältnisse in syrischen Städten vom 10. bis zum 12. Jahrhundert (Freiburg, 1975); Hoffmann, Gerhard, Kommune oder Staatsbürokratie? Zur politischen Rolle der Bevölkerung syrischer Städte vom 10. bis zum 12. Jahrhundert (Berlin, GDR, 1975), ch. 4;Google ScholarCahen, Claude, “Mouvements populaires et autonomisme urbain dans l'Asie musulmane du Moyen Age,” Arabica, 5 (1958), 225–50;CrossRefGoogle Scholar and idem, Arabica, 6 (1959), 25–56, 233–65; Ashtor-Strauss, E., ‘L'administration urbaine en Syrie médiévale,” Rivista degli Studi Orientali, 31 (1956), 73–128;Google ScholarAshtor-Strauss, E., “L'urbanisme syrien à la basse-époque,” Rivista degli Studi Orientali, 33 (1958), 181–209.Google Scholar For an earlier period see: von Sivers, Peter, “Military, Merchants and Nomads: The Social Evolution of the Syrian Cities and Countryside During the Classical Period, 780–969/164–358,” Der Islam, 56 (1979), 212–44.Google Scholar
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6 E.g., the works by al-Jahshiyārī, al-Sābi', and al-Sūlī.
7 An anonymous “mirror for wazīrs” has been edited and studied by Heinecke, Regina, Tuhfat al-wuzarā'. Der Wesirs-Spiegel eines unbekannten Kompilators aus der ersten Hälfte des 7./13. Jahrhunderts (Beirut, 1975).Google Scholar
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14 Havemann, Ri'āsa und qadā', pp. 129–30, 135–36, 146; cf. the different interpretation suggested by Hoffmann, Kommune oder Staarsbürokratie?, pp. 88–91, 107–9, based on the (Marxist) assumption of a struggle between feudal and nonfeudal forces.
15 Ibn al-Qalanisi, Dimashq, pp. 215, 222–24, 227, 229.
16 Lambton, “The Internal Structure,” p. 249.
17 Ibid., p. 247 (quotation from Nizām al-Mulk's Siyāsat-Nāma).
18 lnterestingly enough, the jurists also did not insist particularly on the secretarial qualifications of the vizier in this period; see, e.g., al-Māwardī, , al-Ahkām al-sultāniyya Wa-'l-wil¯yāt al-dīniyya (Cairo, 1386/1966 edition), ch. 2, where the emphasis is laid on the degrees of power delegated to the vizier.Google Scholar
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21 al-Qalanisi, Ibn, Dimashq, p. 278;Google Scholar for the total events, see Ibid., pp. 261–62, 277–78.
22 Ibid., pp. 307–8.
23 Ibid., pp. 309–10, 314, 319. For Nur al-Din, see the three-volume study by Elisséeff, Nikita, Nūr ad-Dīn, un grand prince musulman de Syrie au temps des Croisades (511–569 H./1118–1174) (Damascus, 1967);Google Scholar see also Sivan, Emmanuel, L'Islam et la Croisade. Idéologie et propagande dans les réactions musulmanes aux Croisades (Paris, 1968), ch. 3.Google Scholar
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31 See my interpretation in Ri'āsa und qadā', pp. 140–41. It would appear that Damascene ru'asa' were not only responsible for the economic functions of the muhtasib. Ibn al-Qalanisi reports of one ra'is of the Sufi family as “commanding (the good) and prohibiting (the evil)” (amara wa-nahā), obviously a reference to the moral function of the muhtasib: al-amr bi-'l-ma'rūf wa'l-nahy 'an al-munkar (Dimashq, p. 321).
32 For the multiple functions of the ra'is: Havemann, Ri'āsa und qadā', pp. 135–41.
33 al-Qalanisi, Ibn, Dimashq, p. 261.Google Scholar For the dar al-wakala see, Goitein, Shiomo D., A Mediterranean Society, Vol. 1, Economic Foundations (Berkeley and Los Angeles, 1967), pp. 186–92.Google Scholar
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35 al-'Adim, Ibn, Halab, 1, 276, 294.Google Scholar
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