This paper analyzes the Qur??nic usage of the term mawl? (pl. maw?l?) to reveal the term’s fundamental importance as an expression of early Islamic community formation. While this term is commonly understood as referring to clients and clientage, I argue that its meaning in the Qur??n is far more capacious. More specifically, mawl? designates the bonds of help, support, and cooperation that united the earliest Islamic umma as a functional faith community. Indeed, by connecting the term mawl? to the creation of the umma’s social structure, the Qur??n lays the foundation for both the importance and the ambivalence of the term mawl? throughout Islamic history. In this paper, I demonstrate the significance of the Qur??nic term mawl? by performing two unprecedented tasks. First, I show how the word mawl? relates to other variations of the Arabic root WLY in the Qur??n. This exercise is inspired by the language of the Qur??nic text itself: the Qur??n sometimes uses mawl? interchangeably with other WLY variants, and at other times in close proximity to them. Thus, by exploring the meaning and usage of the root WLY in the Qur??n, I provide a semantic background against which to understand the word mawl?. Second, I show that the twenty-one attestations of the term mawl?/maw?l? in the Qur’?n form a coherent discourse about communal identity construction. This discourse culminates in the statement in verse 33:5: “if you do not know their fathers, they are your brothers in religion and your maw?l?.” I argue that, when verses 33:4¬–6 are read together as a conceptual and literary unit, they reveal a connection between the term mawl? and host of pivotal ideas, including the Qur??nic concept of Law, the proper use of language, the boundaries of communal belonging, and the role of genealogy in structuring the umma. Hence, we should read these verses as some of the Qur??n’s most explicit and highly developed statements about the relationship between religious bonds, genetic bonds, and social bonds in the Islamic community. This complex connection between religion, genealogy and wal?’ persisted into the early Islamic period, and it provides a clear conceptual link between Qur??nic rhetoric and later debates about the role and status of maw?l? in early Islamic society.

This comparative historiographical project examines the roles of dream narratives in Persian and Arabic language local histories. Specifically, this paper considers dreams as tools of legitimation and prophecy in Arabic and Persian language city, regional, and conquest histories from the 10th-13th centuries. I argue that through dream narratives, which often involve the Prophet or other pious exemplars, authors posit a powerful form of non-biological lineage and heirship to the Prophet. I integrate dream narratives into the broader mosaic framework of literatures – including the rich corpus of literature about dreams in the Qur’an, hadith, tafsir, and oneirocritical manuals – that informs but is not always explicit in these histories. My goal is to uncover the contexts and functions of dream narratives and expand the use of local histories by incorporating their treatments of dreams into a broader framework that encompasses the discourse of authority, piety, and literary self-representation. My sources are Persian and Arabic language city and regional histories, including but not limited to T?r?kh-i Bukhara by Narshakhi (d. 959), T?r?kh-i Tabaristan by Ibn Isfandiyar (d. after 613/1217), and T?r?kh Iftit?ah al-Andalus by Ibn al-Qutiyah (d. 977). Much of the previous literature on these histories has focused on administrative, political, and social history, and dream narratives have been overlooked. These dream narratives assert a supra-biological pedigree and form of legitimation for individuals, actions, regions, and cities through dream narratives involving the Prophet, Companions, abdal, Khidr, and pious characters. Claims of heirship or association with the Prophet through dreams transcends time and space, and dream episodes are one amongst multiple literary strategies employed in local histories to forge links with foundational moments and characters in Islamic history. In this paper I also consider how and when dreams gained traction in local historical writing as tools of legitimation and prophecy. I address whether certain elements – such as dreams and visions of Khidr and Muhammad – gained currency in historical writing through the popularization of Sufism. I use a functionally skeptical methodology that understands dream narratives as literary artifacts of early Islamic social life and cultural production. I approach the historiography of this period in a way that is attuned to structural differences in the production of historical writing, including issues of patronage, translation, and commissioned works. I also identify patterns common to historical writing of the same or relate genres written in disparate regions along the geographic peripheries of the Islamic empire.

During the 8th and 9th centuries of the Abbasid era, the expansion of the Islamic empire brought foreign musicians, new musical styles, and new instruments to the court. These were soon integrated with existing musical traditions, and music became an essential part of courtly entertainments. As standards for musicianship and performance were negotiated, a new class of celebrity musicians emerged whose exploits, accomplishments and artistic output inspired a diverse range of literary reaction. Literary representations of musicians and their status within the court culture of the 9th and 10th century Abbasid courts reflect varying degrees of social discomfort between the fact of their fame and the stigma of their chosen profession. The profession of music was regarded as unmanly and ignoble, as, prior to Islam, the majority of professional musicians were women. When it became acceptable for men to be professional musicians, their choice of profession still carried social limitations. These limitations can be seen not only in accounts of performances, but in descriptions of individual musicians and texts on musical training, all of which frequently include specific social instruction. Narratives of musicians follow a distinct path. Those who wished to be regarded with respect managed their fame through a careful performance of propriety. After a successful career, musicians then would renounce their profession and retire from public life. This renunciation did not always prevent them from performing; rather, it allowed them to step back into that role when it suited them, or when asked, without stigma. This transition is a common thread in stories of respected musicians, and the sources represent this transition as a form of penitence. The act of removing oneself from public life was especially important to former singing girls (qayna, pl. qiyan), who were frequently (in)famous for their dual role as musician and courtesan. Representations of singing girls often relate their passage from slave origins to celebrity, culminating in the ending of their professional career through a redemptive event such as retirement, repentance or death. In this paper, I will outline the basic themes which appear in 9th and 10th century musician narratives, and then compare representations of celebrity, propriety and repentance in the stories of five well-known musicians. I will then discuss the function and purpose of this type of narrative in the social contract between audience and musician, and how social performance was intrinsically linked to musical performance.