In the medieval period Baghdad, the “city of peace” founded by the Abbasid Caliph al-Mansur in 762, experienced a high number of popular revolts. The latter either opposed different popular factions, or a social group to the government. In the Sejukid period alone, around sixty cases of “fitan” ("fitna" refers to an episode of violence initiated by the urban population) have been noted in the medieval sources. This paper investigates a certain type of “fitna”, that which took place between Sunnis and Shi'a, and particularly between the Sunni neighbourhood of Bab al-Basra and the (mostly Shi‘i populated) neighbourhood of al-Karkh. A micro history of social relations within the city, the paper examines a number of Arabic primary sources produced in the medieval period by historians, bureaucrats, and religious scholars, among which: the journal of Ibn al-Bannā’ (translated and edited by Makdisi); Ibn al-Jawzī (Kitāb al-Muntaẓam); Ibn al-Athīr (Al-Kāmil fī al-Tārīkh); Ibn al-Sā‘ī (Tārīkh al-Khulafā’ al-‘Abāssiyin); Ibn Kathīr (Al-Bidāya wa al-Nihāya); Sibt ibn al-Jawzī (Mir’āt al-Zamān). In terms of methodology, I have selected a few case studies to be analysed, many of which took place under different political rule: 946, 965, 1030, 1056, 1069, 1089, and 1256. What are the most common causes the medieval writers ascribe to these violent episodes? Can we establish patterns of violence in the city, particularly under a specific ruler (Buyid, Seljuk) or caliph? To what extent was violence an outcome of political decisions? When and how was the local population affected by intellectual debates through the role of local preachers and religious scholars? How did sultans and caliphs cooperate when sending their troops to appease the tensions? The paper argues that the sectarian clashes in Baghdad between the Bab al-Basra and al-Karkh quarters had a variety of factors, the most common being the freedom to perform certain Shi'i rituals in the city such as ‘Ashura’, which was encouraged under Buyid rule and banned under the Seljuks. Political rulers had a particularly critical influence on social peace – the rule of Caliph al-Nasir (1180-1225) saw a significant drop in violence. On a historiographical level, this research sheds light on the different ways in which the historical chronicles, biographical dictionaries, and theological treatises deal with these episodes and how they describe them. In theological treatises for example, these examples of sectarian conflict often serve to underline a point on theology and orthodoxy.

A newly discovered anonymous manuscript preserved in the Süleymaniye Library in Istanbul, Turkey, sheds light on the previously almost completely unknown early life and career of the pen-ultimate Mamluk Sultan Qānṣawh al-Ghawrī (r. 1501-1516). This source (written in Arabic and Ottoman Turkish) bears the title al-ʿUqūd al-jawhariyya fī l-nawādir al-Ghawriyya (The Jewel Necklaces on al-Ghawrī’s Anecdotes). Importantly, it includes a comprehensive discussion of the Sultan’s birth and childhood in Circassia, his transport to Egypt, his education as a mamlūk, and his early military career. Based on information which comes, as the text claims, from the Sultan himself, the source presents the Sultan’s early days as a series of preordained events of cosmic significance which find their logical culmination in al-Ghawrī’s ascension to the sultanate. In presenting the results of a close reading of this manuscript, the paper will: (1) provide a first analysis of the contents of al-ʿUqūd al-jawhariyya in view of this text’s importance as a new source on late Mamluk history; (2) study the literary specifics of the work in comparison with related texts from the Mamluk period; and (3) tackle the question whether and to what extent al-ʿUqūd al-jawhariyya can be used as a historical source on the early life of Qānṣawh al-Ghawrī. The paper concludes that the parts of the text that deal with the Sultan’s biography are best viewed as a previously unknown example of the genre of Mamluk “literary offerings” as described in earlier studies on Mamluk courtly literature. Thus, a literary analysis of the work has to pay due attention to issues such as authorial intention, communicative functions and the performative aims which stand behind the composition of the text. Moreover, the paper shows that, if the above-mentioned aspects of a close (con-)textual analysis are properly taken into account, al-ʿUqūd al-jawhariyya can be used to arrive at a new and far more complete picture of Sultan al-Ghawrī’s early life and career than hitherto deemed possible.

The northern provinces of Armenia and Caucasian Albania were caliphal territory from the time of the Marwānid Reforms to the death of al-Mutawakkil in 247/861. Caliphal armies protected the frontier from Khazaria and Byzantium, caliphal governors minted Arabic-Islamic coins in Dabīl/Dwin and Bardhʿa/Partaw, and local Muslims built mosques and networks of knowledge in the North. Modern scholars have long employed the word ostikan, an Armenicized version of the Middle Persian ōstīgān, meaning “trustworthy,” to refer to the caliphal governor over the North. The incumbents of this position have occupied a premier place in the historiography of caliphal Armenia, as scholar after scholar attempts to account for every scrap of extant literary and numismatic evidence about the governors. Admittedly, it is an enticing project to try to unravel the inconsistencies in the data provided by texts and coins; presumably there is a “right answer” that scholars should be able to uncover with close study of the sources. The recurrent problem is that these lists do little to contextualize the information. Accordingly, the heart of this paper is not to untangle the discrepancies of dating the tenure of each governor. It will focus instead on broader questions concerning the identity of the governors, their familial connections, and their interregional ties. Drawing mainly on Arabic and Armenian sources, this paper will first provide a brief introduction to the position of ostikan, including the responsibilities of caliphal representatives and their relationship with the noble Albanian and Armenian families. Subsequently, the heart of this paper analyzes the choice of governor by focusing on issues of identity. Modern studies frequently describe the ostikan as the “Arab governor” of the North, but there were a number of Central Asian and Iranian incumbents who represented caliphal interests. Further, this paper identifies the bonds of kinship, i.e. tribes and family lines that recur in the study of the governors of the caliphal North. The goal is to understand how individuals exerted power in early Islamic governance of a frontier region and how the minutia of caliphal administration can inform the modern scholar about the connectivity of medieval Islam.