Download IOWP_reinfandt_elite migration - Imperium and Officium Working

Imperium and Officium Working Papers (IOWP)
Regime Change and Elite Migration in the Islamic
Caliphate (642-969 AD)
Version 01
June 2014
Lucian Reinfandt (University of Vienna, Department of Near Eastern Studies)
Abstract: The heyday of the Muslim Caliphate during the first three centuries of Muslim rule
was anything but a coherent rule over vast territories. A chain of repeated civil wars caused
large devastation during the 7th to 9th centuries. The mid-8th century witnessed the overthrow of
the Umayyad ruling dynasty by the Abbasids. From the 9th century on, the empire’s territorial
integrity was put at stake by a trend towards regionalisation; from now on provinces became
factually independent from the central authorities in Baghdad. All these short-term political
events were surface phenomena but symptomatic for long-term processes in deeper layers of
society. Of these may be mentioned the Arabisation of the Middle Eastern and North African
populations; movements of religious conversion; the settlement of the progeny of the Arab
military class in the conquered lands; the import of Turkish military slaves from Central Asia.
All these transformations arose from, or were at least related to, migrations of considerable
geographic reach. Similarly, administrative elites and middle-ranking technocrats, ‘the
backbone of imperial rule’, were not at the mercy of short-term political events; they were
kept in place during the fall of their regimes and even after. Only one or two generations later
was the personnel effectively exchanged, as a result of profound ‘real’ changes at social levels
deeper than the political surface. The administrative personnel is of special interest, because
both elites and middle-level technocrats had considerable influence on local political decision
making. Their migration always meant an import of specific forms of control over the means
of government. These forms could change from group to group and would have lasting effects
on local conditions. My hypothesis is that the particular staff composition of regional
administrations not only affected adjacent social milieus and brought along technological
innovations, but was a causal link for provincial politics and, in the long run, the political fate
of the empire proper. Taking Egypt as an example, I will analyse the staff composition against
a backdrop of political events and on the basis of a categorisation of administrators into three
possible ideal types: the household official, the nobleman, the ‘humble clerk’.
© Lucian Reinfandt 2014
mailto:[email protected]
Lucian Reinfandt
1
Regime change and elite migration in the Islamic Caliphate (642-969 AD)
1. The Islamic caliphate: an empire of migration
The Islamic caliphate was an empire of migration par excellence, and one is tempted to ask
whether migration was the very backbone of imperial constituency (I will come back later to
this question). The nucleus, and Muslim archetype, for any kind of later migration to come,
was the hijra (literary “migration“) of the prophet Muhammad from Mecca to Medina in the
year 622 AD (parallels to the Biblical exodus motive?).1 During the Arab conquests of the 7th
and early 8th centuries, Arab tribes migrated and settled in all parts of the new empire as a
military and political elite separated by religion from non-Muslim population majorities. 2
Another widespread migration movement already at this early point of time were the longdistance traders; the proverbial Sindbad the Sailor is exemplary and representative for many
other real ones.3 Also, there is the famous zest for learning in Islamic culture, which is
summarised compactly by the saying of the prophet: “Seek knowledge even as far as China!”4
This is a phenomenon of intellectual globetrotters prevalent during the whole era of premodern Islam, and late medieval celebrities such as Ibn Khaldun of Ibn Battuta are only two
examples out of many. And finally, there is the obligation for every Muslim to make the
pilgrimage to Mecca and Medina at least one time in the life, which leads to an annual mass
movement of pilgrims through all parts of the Islamic world and beyond and which is an
organisational challenge even nowadays.
Traders and intellectuals remind us to the fact that we have to distinguish between
permanent and temporary migration (the latter including also other forms like travel and
pilgrimage). Permanent and temporary migration must have had very different consequences
for migrants and host societies alike.5 Another distinction that should be made is whether
migration was politically and militarily motivated, or whether it was a kind of labour
migration in the widest sense of the word (including all kinds of intellectual migration). While
politically motivated migration displayed phenomena such as the Arab conquests during the
1
For the meaning of hijra as “conversion to Islam” (in this way: Lapidus 1973, 27) cf. Crone, First-century
concept of hijra.
2
Ashtor 1976, 10-12; Donner 1981, passim; Berger 2013, 2254-2256. According to Gottschalk 1965, 327,
3.000 families of the Arab tribe of Qays were transferred to Egypt under the rule of Hishām in 109/727,
according to the historian al-Kindī. – One may ask whether the settlement of tribal Arabs in the course of the
conquest was perhaps a form of colonisation rather than migration. Cf. in this context Crone 2006.
3
Ashtor 1976,
4
Ashtor 1972, 194 n. 69.
5
Even nowadays Egyptian migrants in Europe distinguish between safar („travel“, i.e. the temporary
residence) and hijra („migration“, i.e. the permanent residence and the 'leaving behind' of the old life). I am
grateful to Lea Müller-Funk for this information.
Imperium & Officium: Comparative Studies in Ancient Bureaucracy and Officialdom
Regime Change and Elite Migration
2
7th and 8th centuries, or the Turkish domination of the empire during the 9 th and 10th centuries,
the more smooth forms of migration of Persian administrators inside the empire was basically
a form of labour migration.
2. Persian migration during the 9th and 10th centuries AD and the administration of empire
We may imagine the Arab conquests of the 7 th and 8th centuries, in a simplistic approach, as a
big movement from the Arabian Peninsula away into all parts of the Old World. But if we do
that, we similarly have to imagine the 9 th and 10th centuries as a big wave back from East to
West. In the same period, a specific Turkish military elite made its way to western lands of
the caliphate and took leading military and political positions there, including Syria and
Egypt.6 At about the same time, Persian-born administrative elites increasingly moved to the
west and settled in Syria and Egypt, partly at least in the wake of the political collapse of
central government in Iraq (especially during the 860s AD anarchy of Samarra) that brought
occupational insecurity and physical turmoil for many.7 From narrative sources we learn that,
once in Egypt, they occupied central posts of administration there. 8 Whole families, and even
dynasties, of administrators managed to keep being influential for generations, the most
famous of them being the al-Mādharāʾī, the Ibn Bistam, and the Banū al-Furāt families.9 The
long-term consequences of this trend were so overwhelming that it became a permanent
feature in the Islamic collective memory until today, and a topos in Arabic literature already
of that time: culture comes from the east, and administrators were Persian.
In fact, influences of this 'Persian' migration of the 9 th century have left their marks on the
material culture, such as architecture or administrative writings. Papyri from this time display
certain inventions that had come to life earlier in documents from eastern lands and
successively found their way, with a delay of decades to centuries, to the documentary
production of more western lands.10 Important features in this regard are a change of writing
6
Berger 2013, 2257 speaks of 'migrant soldiers'.
Ashtor 1972, 194; Brett 2010, 567.
8
The heads of the Tulunid chancery of Egypt were of Mesopotamian background. Examples: Ibn Abdkan
(his biography in Ṣafadī, Wafayāt); Isḥāq b. Nuṣayr (both cited in Hassan 1933, 280-283). Even the chronicler
Ibn ad-Dāya himself, from who we know much of the Tulunid era in Egypt, was of Mesopotamian background
(Hassan 1933, 11 citing himself Guest 1922, 170-171). There were not only single individuals but whole
families that came to Egypt and occupied the local administrative offices: famous examples are the
Mādharāʾiyyūn and the Banū Māhujīr (both cited in Hassan 1933, 284-287).
9
About the al-Mādharāʾī cf. the attestation in the papyri CPR III 184 = P.Cair.Arab. I 33). For the Ibn Bistam
and Banū al-Furāt families, on the other hand, I have found no attestations in the papyri. For all three families, of
which the Banū al-Furāt eventually became the most influential one in Egypt, cf. Ashtor 1972, 190-191; Brett,
2010, 567.
10
Khan 2007.
7
Imperium & Officium: Comparative Studies in Ancient Bureaucracy and Officialdom
Lucian Reinfandt
3
support from papyrus to paper;11 the proliferation of the cursive script at the cost of older and
more rectangular forms;12 changes in the formulary of documents;13 but also the introduction
of Arabic numeral letters,14 and a specific Persian calendar.
Who were the humans participating in this process? So far, I have drawn a picture of a
‘history without men’, but the other extreme which we find in historiography old and modern
is an over-individualisation of this cultural transformation. We doubtless have a challenging
source situation. Pre-modern Islamic history is predominantly represented by, and reflected
through, literary and non-documentary sources. These literary sources, which are for our
purpose at hand especially chronicles and collections of biographies but also administrative
manuals, depict the migration process of the 9th century almost exclusively in terms of an
elite-based view, that is: with a focus on 'Persian' administrators of male sex and in topadministrative functions, who were based in the provincial centre of Egypt (which was the
city of al-Fustat) and rarely left it (as it seems), while their dealings are depicted in an
episodic manner. To cut a long story short: it is not representative at all. (Or to put it
differently: what is missing in this picture is Bertold Brecht's famous cook that accompanied
the Macedon Alexander on his campaign through Asia.)
The pioneer study is Rhuvon Guest's “Relations between Persia & Egypt under Islam up to
the Fāṭimid Period” from 1922, which is in fact a wonderful compilation of all information
obtainable from literary sources about Persian elite migrants to Egypt during the 9 th century.
At the other end of the range I would see Ehsan Yarshater's monumental article on the
“Persian Presence in the Islamic World” from 1998, which is an ardent appreciation of the
Persian contribution to Islamic civilisation by one of the leading historians of Islam (and a
11
Paper is a Chinese invention that was imported by eastern Muslim lands in the mid-8 th century and
successively found its way to western lands during the 9th and 10th centuries. According to Eva Grob, the oldest
datable Arabic paper from Egypt is from the year 873 AD. Other early papers are: P.Vind.inv. A.Ch. 1 (= PERF
917, unpublished; private letter, late 8th/early 9th century); P.Vind.Arab. II 17 (= PERF 918; private letter, 9th10th century). Cf. Grob's study on the earliest paper documents known from Egypt.
12
Khan 2008. An example of very cursive script in a comparatively early document is P.Vind.Arab. I 27 (=
PERF 958; private letter, Egypt, 329/940-41); but see also CPR XVI 32 (= PERF 751; business letter, Egypt,
3rd/9th c).
13
Reinfandt 2014. An example of the new formulary in the papyri is CPR XXI 74 (= PERF 884).
14
Arabic numeral letters (Arabische Zahlbuchstaben). Early examples of their use are: P.Vindob.inv. G
39754 (formerly P.Vind.inv. A.P. 575 = PERF 605; unpublished?); P.Prag.Arab. Beilage II = P.World p. 136 (=
PERF 761); P.GrohmannWirtsch. 12 (= PERF 798); P.Vind.inv. A.P. 1255 (= PERF 830; unpublished);
P.Vind.inv. A.Ch. 11 (= PERF 927; unpublished). For the introduction and use of Arabic numeral letters cf.
Nabia Abbott, Arabic Numerals, Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society (1938), 277-280; R.A.K. Irani, Arabic
Numeral Forms, Centaurus 4 (1955), 1-12, in: M. H. Kennedy, D. A. King, (eds), Studies in the Islamic Exact
Sciences, Beirut 1983, 710-721; Paul Kunitzsch, The Transmission of Hindu-Arabic Numerals Reconsidered, in:
J. P. Hogendijk, A. I. Sabra (eds), The Enterprise of Science in Islam: New Perspectives, Cambridge (Mass.)
2003 (Dibner Institute Studies in the History of Science and Technology), 3-21; Giorgio Levi della Vida,
Appunti e questi di storia letteraria araba. 7: Numerali grechi in documenti arabo-spagnoli, Rivista degli Studi
Orientali 14 (1934), 281-283.
Imperium & Officium: Comparative Studies in Ancient Bureaucracy and Officialdom
Regime Change and Elite Migration
4
Persian himself), but like Guest before him without taking into consideration the actual social
processes that stood behind this transformation. A very recent study by Lutz Berger from
2013, in the leading actual reference work on migration, shows best to my mind the dilemma
scholars have to face with. Berger gives an illuminating picture on the role of Arabs and
Turks in the history of the Umayyad and Abbasid caliphates, that is: military migrations, and
the role of slavery, but he omits the migration of Persian administrators. He could not have
done otherwise though with the sources available to him: his bibliography quotes not a single
specialised study on the subject of non-military migration under the Abbasids.
In fact the whole subject of migration in the pre-modern Islamic world is understudied.
This is evident not only from the lack of specific titles of research literature, but from the lack
of the very term “migration” in the research literature.15 A glance through the indices of
monographs on the history of Islam shows that the term “migration” shows up only recently
and not before the 1990s, with but few exceptions like Eliyahu Ashtor or Ira Lapidus. Lapidus
has a strong sociological focus, while Ashtor was a migrant himself... There had of course
been migration at all times, but it had become a concept and an analytical term for research
only recently; and I have the strong suspicion that this new interest in an 'old' subject is a
response to the fact that our own world has become a world of migration, and that academics
themselves have more and more become a (precarious) society of migrants.
I have mentioned the lack of studies especially for the earlier caliphate, and in fact the only
one known to me which is going a little bit more in-depth is Eliyahu Ashtor's article “Un
mouvement migratoire au haut Moyen Age: Migrations de l’Irak vers les pays
méditerranéens” from 1972.16 His sources are biographical collections but also documents
from the Cairo Geniza archive, but these documents are not older than the 10 th century AD.
From his study we do know that migrating elites brought their entourage of courtesans and
counsellors with them, who successively also took high posts in the administration of Egypt. 17
What we do not know, however, is whether more common entourage came as well, such as
workers and serving people, but also all those attracted by the new 'Persian' elite in Egypt
with the hope for money and employment.18 But other important questions must remain
unanswered, such as: what kind of people migrated westwards? How many were they, and
15
Netton 1993 is a pioneer book and explicitly dealing with migration, but is omitting our subject at hand,
which is the 'Persianisation' of the Middle East during the Abbasid caliphate.
16
The basic results are repeated in Ashtor 1976, 149; 170.
17
Ashtor 1972, 190.
18
Also theologians and other intellectuals came to Egypt as entourage of high administrative officials; cf.
Ashtor 1972, 192. Ashtor 1972, 190 mentions the fact, that also more 'humble' migrants from Persia are
mentioned in the literary sources (in his case especially al-Balawi), but the basic methodological challenge
remains that we are not informed by literary sources about the 'how exactly' circumstances of non-elitist
migrants.
Imperium & Officium: Comparative Studies in Ancient Bureaucracy and Officialdom
Lucian Reinfandt
5
what kind of ethnical and social background did they have? What were their professions? Did
they bring their families and peers along? How did the population of Egypt react to
newcomers?19
3. Attestations for a presence of 'Persians' in Egypt
What are sources available for the work on non-military migration in the early caliphate?
Archaeology would of course be good, with settlement patterns, the use of ceramics etc., but
the archaeology of early Islam is still in its beginnings. 20 Instead, we have to make do with
Arabic papyri. They seem well-suited not least because of their specific non-elitist character.
What is more, they have a peripheral and mostly non-urban provenance, that is: they belong
to the few textual sources available from outside al-Fustat. Finally, all of the papyri have an
archaeological provenance, if not context, which gives additional information about the
details of the presence of Persians in the Egyptian hinterland. We can expect with reasonable
certainty that the papyri depict persons that do not appear in literary sources, thus serving
some sort of litmus test for lower strata of the society. This is substantiated by the fact that the
papyri, on the other hand, keep silent about those 'historical' individuals from upper and
central echelons of the society that appear in the literary sources. We may thus say that the
papyri are a textual source that is 'uncontaminated' by centralist and elite-based perspectives.21
I undertook a tentative consultation of the papyrus material in three different ways. In a
first step, I was looking for Persian and Turkish personal names in the papyri. If there were,
that was my hope, I could draw a preliminary map of the settlement and professional
occupations of easterners in Egypt and thus follow the traces of eastern migration to, and
inside, Egypt during the 9th and 10th centuries.22 In a second step I was looking for changes in
administrative terminology that may hint to a presence of Persian officials also not only in
high but also middle and low levels of administration and in regions outside the capital city
19
Moreover, migrants that do appear in the sources are those who settled in the urban places of Egypt,
especially in the capital al-Fustat. What we do not know is whether there was settlement in other, especially rural
parts, of Egypt.
20
Research has been undertaken for example about settlement patterns in 9 th century, i.e. Abbasid, Qatar by
Guérin/Al-Na'imi 2009. Although the outcome does not seem immediately relevant for our purpose here, similar
studies in other parts of the Near East, especially in Egypt and Syria, would be of high interest.
21
Also, the great administrative families of eastern background being in power in Egypt during the late 9 th
and through the 10th centuries are but rarely mentioned in the papyri: al-Mādharāʾī (CPR III 184 = P.Cair.Arab. I
33, r5, “Protocoll“); Ibn Bistam (no attestation); Ibn Furat (no attestation)
22
In P.RagibPressoir line 15 = Chrest.Khoury I 65 line 18 (PERF 698), which is a sales-deed from Aqnā in
the Fayyum from the year 205/821, Karabacek 1894 has read the Persian name Šahrzār as name of one of the
witnesses of the legal transaction; however, both Ragib and Khoury have convincingly read the name Nimrān
instead.
Imperium & Officium: Comparative Studies in Ancient Bureaucracy and Officialdom
Regime Change and Elite Migration
6
al-Fustat. In a third step, finally, I was looking for consumer goods with a specific nonEgyptian, and ideally Mesopotamian or Persian, provenance.23
3.1 Onomastics
Names of Persians are indeed attested in Egyptian papyri already from the early 9 th century
on. We hear of both traders and administrators of agricultural domains in the Fayyum with
possible Persian names.24 We also come across Persians who held middle-ranking posts in the
financial administration outside the capital al-Fustat at the beginning of the 10 th century AD;
in other words: these easterners had to a significant extent settled and had become ordinary
members of the Egyptian society.25 Suggestive are also the Persian personal names used in a
writing exercise from the 9th century.26 Moreover, we hear about Turkish migrants:
remarkable is the mentioning of a certain Bakīš (or Tikīš) as early as the year 172-173/789. 27
Other attestations of individuals with an alleged Turkish background are attested in the 9th and
23
Another approach would be to look for specific Persian toponyms in Syria or Egypt that indicate a Persian
presence, perhaps even a majority of Persians, in certain regions. This is a task, however, that could not be
accomplished here.
24
Traders with possible Persian names are mentioned in: P.Marchands V/1 7, r5 (Salmān ibn Dāwūd);
P.Marchands V/1 2, r8 (Rastān/Raysān). Other attestations for Salmān in the papyri are: P.Marchands V/1 1; 11
(both al-Fayyum, 3rd/9th century, both Salmān); P.Cair.Arab. IV 234 (al-Fayyum, 270/883-884, Salmān ibn alMufaḍḍal; IV 243 (al-Bahnasa, 3rd/9th century, Salmān); I 94 (Egypt, 3 rd/9th century, Aḥmad ibn Salmān); V 383
(al-Ushmunayn, 4th/10th century, Ḥamūd ibn Salmān). Another attestation for Rastān/Raysān is P.Marchands I 12
(al-Fayyum, 3rd/9th century, Raysān). An administrator of agricultural domains is menitoned in P.RagibPressoir
line 15 = Chrest.Khoury I 65 line 18 = PERF 698 from Aqnā in the Fayyum from the year 205/821, ʿUṣfūr). On
the other hand, common Persian names such as Zunbur (cf. Abu Zunbur in Ashtor 1972, 191) are not attested in
the papyri.
25
One of them was the tax-official Yālawayh who was working in the southern Egyptian provincial centre alUshmunayn in the year 291/903-904. Cf. P.GrohmannUrkunden 12 = PERF 867. Possibly related is the case of
another tax-official in the Egyptian hinterland, a certain Abū l-Faḍl Hibatallāh b. al-Muhtadī billāh, who was in
office in the year 297/909-10; cf. P.Vind.inv. A.P. 16089, unpublished = PERF 888 =
P.GrohmannGrundsteuerquittung. In the same time, a certain Ismāʿīl, or Yishmāʿēl, ibn Fatḥ, was a tax-official
i n the Fayyum; his patronym possibly pointing to a Persian or Turkish father, whereas the personal name
Yishmāʿēl (as it seems written in the document) suggests a Jewish background; cf. CPR XXI 74 (= PERF 884;
293/905-06).
26
A.P. 3004 r+v = PERF 786 (unpublished). Karabacek for his part suggests a specific Persianised
grammatical construction in Arabic in A.P. 3800r+v = PERF 785 (unpublished; Waṣīf), something which I have
not verified yet.
27
Bakīš (or Tikīš/Tégiš) freedman of Ṭulayb ibn Abī Ṣāʾim who sold a certain amount of wheat for the price
of one gold dinar to a woman named ʿAqīla bint Yūsuf . Cf. CPR XXVI 16, 2 = PERF 617; according to
Karabacek 1894, 159 this is the earliest attestation to a person of Turkish descent in Arabic papyri from Egypt.
Unfortunately we do not know about the provenance of the papyrus, but there is a certain probability that it is
from the Fayyum, from Ihnas, or from al-Ushmunayn (since the vast majority of the Viennese material comes
from one of these three places). His is indeed an early mentioning if we compare the attestation to the first
Turkish governor of Egypt, al-ʿAbbās ibn ʿAbdallāh, in the year 242/856; cf. P.GrohmannAperçu p. 27 =
P.World p. 119 = PERF 763.
Imperium & Officium: Comparative Studies in Ancient Bureaucracy and Officialdom
Lucian Reinfandt
7
10th centuries AD.28 All these attestations, interesting as they are, are not many, however,
when compared with the much larger number of Egyptians mentioned in the papyri, Coptic
and Muslim alike; but the fact that Persians are mentioned at all and away from the capital alFustat is proof for their early distribution over the whole county.
After this first random examination of the papyrus material I made a second attempt by
systematically looking for specific search words that should be representative for migrants
from the east in general. One of these was the epithet an-Naṣrānī “the Christian“. By this I
was hoping to find specific Persianates from Iraq, because Egyptian Christians would have
been called by epithets such as an-Nabaṭī instead, while Christians with a descent from Syria
or Asia Minor would rather have been called ar-Rūmī. Indeed, I have found such attestations,
albeit from the 10th and 11th centuries and thus too late for our purpose.29 (The only earlier
attestation known to me is a certain Mūsā an-Naṣrānī from the 8 th century and in relation of
ships belonging to, or used by, Christian traders. 30) Other epithets that are denoting 'Persians'
and that are common in literary sources are ʿajam or ʿajamī on the one hand, and fārisī on the
other, are conspicuously absent in the papyri.31 Similarly absent were important epithets such
as al-Farghānī (“the one from Farghāna” in eastern Iran), or al-Wāsiṭī (“the one from alWāsiṭ” in Iraq).32 More successful, on the other hand, was my search for personal names that
have the specific Persian ending -wayh, of which I found some in papyri from the 9th and early
10th centuries, one of them even being a taxpayer settling in the countryside.33
28
Cf. a certain Buġā/Bogha in P.Vind.inv. A.P. 9014, unpublished = PERF 855 (3 rd/9th century) as well as a
certain Aḥmad ibn Abī l-Lawḥ ibn Sīmā in CPR XXI 77 with emendations in Diem 2006, 99; provenance
unknown, which is a tax quittance from the year 311/923-24. The latter gives an impression of Egyptians with a
third-generation Turkish descent, provided that the name Sīmā (the grandfather) was indeed Turkish. A Turkishborn ruler (ʾamīr) from the Egyptian local dynasty of the Ikhshidids, on the other hand, is mentioned in a lease
contract from 328-33/939-44: Abū l-Muẓaffar al-Ḥasan ibn Ṭuqaj/Ṭuġj/Thogadsch; cf. P.GrohmannUrkunden 2
= PERF 967. Another papyrus that is mentioning the same name (P.Vind.inv. A.Ch. 7816) is still unpublished .
Cf. also P.Harrauer 61 = PERF 793 which is mentioning Egyptian agricultural domains in the possession of the
caliph's mother and a Turkish chief armourer with the name (according to Frantz-Murphy 2001a, 246;
Karabacek, for his part, had provisionally read Amadschwer). Other upper-class attestations to Irakians in Egypt
in the Arabic papyri are to the family of the governor of Ahwāz (in south-eastern Irak); this family owned large
estates in Egyptian al-Fayyum, but we do not know anything else about their presence in the country; cf.
P.Vind.inv. A.P. 8744R = PERF 671 (unpublished). A female slave of 'Slavic' origin (ḫādim ṣaqlabiyya) is
mentioned in a papyrus from the 3 rd/9th century. She had been purchased at the slaves-market in al-Fustat under
the premise that she would be taken away from al-Fustat to the destination of the letter, which presumably was
the Fayyum, but the document gives no additional information about the background of this individual; CPR
XVI 19, 20-21 = PERF 738.
29
Qīriqah(?) ibn Thiyudur ibn Samawīl an-Naṣrānī (P.AbbottMarriageContracts 2, 5 = Chrest.Khoury I 15, 5
= P.Eheurkunden 41, 5; Aswan, 989 AD); Isiṭōrās ibn Bīyisa at-Tinnīsī (= from Tinnis in the Nile Delta) anNaṣrānī (P.Cair.Arab. I 68, 2; 9; al-Ushmunayn, 1067 AD); Abū s-Sarī ibn Hiliya ibn Rafrafīl an-Naṣrānī
(P.Cair.Arab. I 54, 3 = P.World p. 203, 3; al-Fayyum, 1056 AD; Sāra bint Qulta al-qazzāz (= the silk-mercer) anNaṣrāniyya (P.Cair.Arab. I 69, 3; al-Ushmunayn, 1066-67 AD); Yuḥannis ibn Buqtur ibn Yuḥannis an-Naṣrānī
(P.AbbottMarriageContracts 1, 11 = Chrest.Khoury I 10, 11 = P.Eheurkunden 11, 11; Aswan, 948 AD); Qulta
ibn Kayl ibn Jurayj an-Naṣrānī al-qazzāz (= the silk-mercer) (P.Cair.Arab. I 65, 2; al-Ushmunayn, 1050 AD).
Imperium & Officium: Comparative Studies in Ancient Bureaucracy and Officialdom
Regime Change and Elite Migration
8
All these attestations, interesting as they are, are not many, however, when compared with
the much larger number of Egyptians mentioned in the papyri, Coptic and Muslim alike; but
the fact that Persians are mentioned at all is a certain proof of their presence in different parts
of Egypt, especially since a part of them seems to have settled in the countryside and away
from the capital al-Fustat already during the 9th century.
3.2 Administrative terminology
My second approach was administrative terminology. During the 9 th century we see a partial
change of terminology in the Egyptian documents from Arabised Greek to Persian words.
This is evident from the terminology for 'tax-collector', who was an official very central to the
demands of a caliphal administration and who was working in immediate contact with the
local population.34 In documents of the 9 th century, his designation gradually changed from
30
P.Khalili I 7, 2 = P.Khalili II 4, 2; Egypt, 2nd/8th century.
The term ʿajam (o r ʿajamī) was used either for ashhur al-'ajam (or similarly), i.e. in Egypt to denote
Coptic instead of Muslim names of months (P.RagibPressoir = Chrest.Khoury I 65; P.RagibColombine;
P.Terminkauf 1; P.Marchands I 7; 8; P.David-WeillContrat; P.Cair.Arab. 89; 96 = P.World p. 208 =
Chrest.Khoury I 61; P.Cair.Arab. 97; 369); or it was used to denote non-Arabic but not necessarily 'Persian'
individuals, such as e.g. African slaves (P.Vente 6); or it could be used to denote non-Arabic languages, e.g. the
Coptic language (P.Frantz-MurphyComparison I 1; 2; P.FahmiTaaqud 9. For the term fārisī to denote Persianborn officials in literary sources cf. the examples in Ashtor 1972, 189.
32
Cf. for these names Ashtor 1972, 189.
33
E.g. of specific Persian names like Sibawayh or Dashwayh. Cf. P.Cair.Arab. 173, 6 (“Letter respecting the
payment of taxes perhaps from a farmer of state-land“; Egypt, 883-896): Khumārawayh ibn Aḥmad (ibn Ṭūlūn);
P.Cair.Arab. 247, r5 (“Fragment of a list of taxpayers with their individual payments and the total of the
amoungts concerned“; Egypt, 3rd/9th c): Tamīm ibn Jubbawayh/Ḥabbawayh/Ḥannawayh; P.GrohmannUrkunden
12 Siegel (“Grundsteuerquittung“; al-Ushmunayn, 291/903/04): Yalawayh (tax official); P.Prag.Arab. Beilage 1,
v11 with the possible reading ʾ...swayh, which would be yet another person appearing as a tax-payer in 9 th
century AD al-Ushmunayn. – There are also attestations of other seemingly Persian names such as Salmān
(P.Marchands V/1 7, r5) or Rishdayn (ibid.), as well as Rastān (P.Marchands V/1 2, r8). – On the other hand, my
search for names that are containing typical Turkish elements such as kara “black“, or tughan, were
unsuccessful, there was not a single attestation. There is not a single attestation in the papyri to this part of names
(der in P.Prag.Arab. 37, 3 und 5 genannte Name Karākū (in P.Prag.Arab. 45, pagina 2, 11 taucht der Name
wieder auf und wird diesmal von Grohmann als Kerikū gelesen) ist nach Grohmann (ebd. Kommentar zu Zeile
3) nicht türkischer, sondern koptischer Herkunft. Ein grundsätzliches Problem könnte sein, dass das türkische
“kara“ wohl als karā, d.h. mit langem a, transkribiert wurde, was bei den hier vorliegenden beiden Belegen nicht
der Fall ist). Ansonsten gibt es sehr seltene Belege von anderen persischen und türkischen Namen in den Papyri,
so etwa „Sankar“ (?) in P.Prag.Arab. Beilage I, r6 (“Kontoauszug für Kopf-, Weide- und Wiesensteuer
(Kassaliste)“; al-Ushmunayn, 7th-10th c CE (mit wichtigem Kommentar über die Tatsache, dass die hier jaliyazahlenden Steuerzahle allesamt Muslime waren); außerdem „Takin“ (P.Prag.Arab. 40, v1 (“Zwei Bruchstücke
aus einem Steuerbuche“; al-Fayyum1010/11 CE).
34
A similar approach, which cannot be undertaken here, would be to look for the terms ṭabl and sijill in the
papyri and how the term daftar “register, account book“ came into the documents during the 9 th century (cf.
Frantz-Murphy 2007a, 222). The respective attestations are the following: P.Cair.Arab. 285 (Egypt, 2 nd-3rd/8th-9th
century); P.Cair.Arab. 309 (Egypt, 3 rd/9th century); P.Cair.Arab. 419 (Egypt, 3 rd/9th century);
P.GrohmannUrkunden 9 (Ihnās, 223/838; “Steuerkataster”). Also interesting is the appearance of the Persian
word dihqān for “village headman” (formerly: māzūt or ṣāḥib al-qarya); cf. Lev 2012, 332.
31
Imperium & Officium: Comparative Studies in Ancient Bureaucracy and Officialdom
Lucian Reinfandt
9
qusṭāl to jahbadh.35 The term qusṭāl meant something like “paymaster” and originally came
from the Greek term ζυγοστάτησ (according to other opinions: αὐγουστάλιος; κυαίστωρ; cf.
Dietrich 1955, 79) and was a reminiscence of the pre-Islamic financial administration of
Egypt inherited by the Arabs.36 The Persian term jahbadh, with the meaning of „paymaster“,
on the other hand is a consequence of the Persianisation of the caliphate.37 We cannot be
entirely sure whether qusṭāl and jahbadh actually denoted the same administrative function,
but it seems so at least from administrative manuals and the original documents alike. 38 But
what does that mean on a social level? The term jahbadh came gradually into the documents
which seems to be evidence for a factual rather than an officially launched change of
nomenclature. But was this a consequence of an ethnic change among the administrators, in
other words: a replacement of Arabic tax-collectors by ethnic Persians? From narrative
sources we know that „ethnic Persians had come to dominate Egypt's agrarian fiscal
administration by the mid-9th century“.39
What did that mean in practice? Did Persian-born administrators, for example in the
position of jahbadhs, hold office in peripheral towns in Egypt's hinterland, and did they
become members of a middle-level administration that had until then been reserved for
locals? Or did they remain on the top-level of administration and inside the capital? This is in
fact new ground for research, and an answer can only be given on the basis of the papyrus
35
Frantz-Murphy 2007b, 103 with a short discussion of the termns qusṭāl and jahbadh. The fact that the term
jahbadh became common in documents of the second half of the 9 th century AD is already mentioned in Dietrich
1955, 87.
36
For the meaning of qusṭāl cf. Dietrich 1955, 79-80. Other possible forms in the papyri are: qustāl, jusṭāl,
qusṭār. Cf. for example the unnamed jusṭāl in P.BeckerNPAF 3 = P.Cair.Arab. 149 (Ishqawh, 90-96709-714).
37
Cf. Frantz-Murphy 2007a, 222; Frantz-Murphy 2001b, 121-123. According to her, qusṭāl can be translated
into Engllish as “receiver“ and jahbadh as “cashier“. For the meaning of jahbadh. cf. Dietrich 1955, 87 with
research literature. According to Dietrich 1955, 66 and Grohmann 1964, 132 the jahbadhs of the 9th century AD
mostly had a Christian background.
38
Grohmann 1932, 279 remarks that the description in the administrative manual of Ibn Mammātī (12 th
century AD) of the tasks of the jahbadh are identical to those of the qusṭāl. Dietrich 1955, 66 does not explicitely
mention whether the term jahbadh directly replaced the term qusṭāl in the documents. According to Grohmann
1964, 127; 132 qusṭāls took the tax-money that had been collected from (Christian) local heads of districts
(pagarchs), and weighed and rated them. Similarly, they collected the taxes paid in grain and forwarded them to
the state granaries. In return, they were responsible for the assignment of tax payments to administrative districts.
Insofar Grohmann understood the qusṭāls, at least in the Umayyad period (661-750 AD) as being superior to the
local pagarchs, while Foss 2009, 12 maintains that the qusṭāls were subordinate to the pagarchs. I believe the
latter, too, on the basis of P.BeckerNPAF 3 = P.Cair.Arab. 149 and P.World p. 130 = P.DiemAphrodito p. 261.
During the Abbasid caliphate, the qusṭāl was part of the office of the financial director, ʿāmil, of an
administrative district, kūra, and appears in the documents as an issuer of tax-quittances; Dietrich 1955, 80. For
the meaning of jahbadh on the basis of Mesopotamian sources cf. Løkkegaard 1950, 158-160. Furthermore, the
term jahbadha is explained by Løkkegaard 1950, 159-160 and especially by Claude Cahen, Quelques problèmes
économiques et fiscaux de l'Iraq buyide, Alger 1952 (Annales de l'Institut d'Études Orientales de la Faculté des
Lettres d'Alger 10). Kosei Morimoto understands both terms as being synonymous; according to him, the Persian
term jahbadh emerged only under the Abbasids and gradually came to supersede qusṭāl (Morimoto 1981, 214215 and 243 ).
39
Frantz-Murphy 2007a, 222.
Imperium & Officium: Comparative Studies in Ancient Bureaucracy and Officialdom
Regime Change and Elite Migration
10
documentation. These give a picture as follows: The older term qusṭāl is attested in papyri
from the years 709 to 919 AD, while the younger term jahbadh, on the other hand, is first
attested in the year 863 and from then until the 11 th century.40 From this we can see that
jahbadh indeed replaced qusṭāl in Egypt, but with a transitional phase of no less than 50 years
of parallel use in the documents. Was there a certain geographic direction of dissemination
then? Of course, the evidence is patchy, but it seems that jahbadh appeared first in the
Fayyum and only later spread to the more southern district of Ushmunayn. 41 From the
documents is evident that qusṭāls were by a majority of two third Coptic Christians, while
40
(a) The following persons are explicitely mentioned as qusṭāls (treasurer) in the papyri: Qusta/Kostas
(P.GrohmannQorra-Brief, Fayyum, 90/709); Buṭrus/Petros Jirja/Georgios (P.World p. 130 = P.DiemAphrodito p.
261, Ishqawh, 91/710); Ibīmak/Abīmak/Epimak (P.Cair.Arab. 285, Egypt, 2nd-3rd/8th-9th century); Isḥāq/Isaak ibn
Simʿūn/Shimon (P.GrohmannUrkunden 8, Ushmunayn, 223/838); [Ibrāh?]īm (P.Steuerquittungen 4,
Ushmūnayn, 227/841-842; Mīnā/Menas b. Ibrāhīm (P.Cair.Arab. 181 +Emendation Diem, Ushmunayn,
233/847-848; he must be identical with the qusṭāl Mīnā mentioned without patronym in the following papyri:
CPR XXI 41 +Emendation Diem, Ushmunayn, 224/839; CPR XXI 42 +Emendation Diem, Ushmunayn,
225/840; P.Cair.Arab. IV 261, Ushmunayn?, 3rd/9th century); ʿĪsā ibn ʿAlī (P.GrohmannUrkunden 13,
Ushmunayn, 241/855; P.Philad.Arab. 11, Egypt, 255/868-869); Qūrīl/Kyrillos ibn ʿīsā/Jesus
(P.GrohmannProbleme 11, Egypt, 244/858-859; he is perhaps identical with the qusṭāl Qūrīl in
P.GrohmannProbleme 16, Egypt, 248/862); Ibrāhīm/Abraham ibn Mīnā/Menas (P.GrohmannProbleme 11,
Egypt, 244/858-859); Dāwūd/David (P.Cair.Arab. 198, Egypt, 246/860); N.N. ibn Apaheu (P.Cair.Arab. 184,
Egypt, 249/863-864); Andūna/Antonius ibn Qūrīl/Kyrillos (CPR XXI 55, Ushmūnayn, 248/862; CPR XXI 57,
Ushmunayn, 251/865; P.Steuerquittungen 5, Ushmunayn, 252/866; CPR XXI 58, Ushmunayn, 253/867; CPR
XXI 59, Ushmunayn, 253/867; CPR XXI 65 +Emendation Diem, Ushmunayn, 264/878; P.GrohmannUrkunden
14, Ushmunayn, 265/878; P.Vind.inv. A.P. 3498 unpublished, Ushmunayn, 270/883-884; perhaps the tax official
Andūna mentioned without a further patronym in CPR XVI 6 (Egypt, 3 rd/9th century) is indentical with Andūna
ibn Qūrīl; Muḥammad ibn Jaʿfar (CPR XXI 56 = P.Berl.Arab. I 6, Ushmunayn, 259/872-873); Baqām/Pachom
ibn Buqṭur/Viktor (P.Cair.Arab. 185, Egypt, 261/875; P.Vind.inv. A.P. 3498 unpublished, Egypt, 270/883-884;
PERF 676 = A.P. 11234 unpublished, Egypt, 3rd/9th century; the qusṭāl Baqām mentioned without patronym in
P.Cair.Arab. 421 (Ushmunayn, 3rd/9th century) and CPR XVI 21 (Egypt, 3 rd/9th century) is problably identical
with Baqām ibn Buqṭur, in which case the latter's papyri can be assigned to Ushmunayn as well; and perhaps the
qusṭāl Iṣṭifān ibn Buqṭur mentioned P.Prag.Arab. 14 (Egypt, 261/874-875) was his brother, which seems not
unlikely due to the similar time and office; ʿAlī ibn Sulaymān (P.Cair.Arab. 196, al-Fayyum, 262/875); Ḍimād b.
Ziyād (P.Philad.Arab. 12, Ushmunayn, 275/889); Yuḥannis/Ioannes ibn Kayl/Chael (P.GrohmannUrkunden 11,
Egypt, 287/900); Shanūda/Senouthios (P.GrohmannUrkunden 12, Ushmunayn, 291/903-904) N.N. (P.Vind.inv.
A.P. 13986 = PERF 896, 306/918-919, this being the latest attestation of qusṭāl known so far (as has already
been mentioned by Grohmann 1932, 278); Bisbinūda/Pespnute (P.Giss.Arab. 2, Madinat al-Fayyūm, 3 rd/9th
century); Aḥmad (P.Hamb.Arab. II 12, presumably Bahnasā/Oxyrhynchos, 3rd/9th century; he is perhaps identical
with the qusṭāl Aḥmad ibn Jarīr (P.Cair.Arab. 277, Egypt, 3rd/9th century), in the case of which the provenance
can also be defined as Bahnasā); Yaʿqūb (CPR XVI 19, Egypt, 3 rd/9th century); Mūsā ibn Ayyūb (P.Prag.Arab.
26, Egypt, 1st-4th/7th-10th century). – (b) The following persons are explicitely mentioned as jahbadhs (paymaster)
in the papyri: Sahl ibn Dāwūd (P.GrohmannProbleme 14, Egypt, 249/863); Aḥmad ibn ʿĪsā ibn Manṣūr
(P.Harrauer 61 +Emendation Diem, Fayyūm, 253/867); Isrāʾīl/Israel ibn Mūsā/Moses (P.Harrauer 61
+Emendation Diem, Fayyūm, 253/867); Kayl/Chael (P.Harrauer 61 +Emendation Diem, Fayyūm, 253/867);
Sulaymān/Salomo ibn Zakariyāʾ/Zacharias (P.Harrauer 61, al-Fayyum, 253/867); Abū Buqṭur/Viktor ibn
Thiyudūr/Theodoros (P.Steuerquittungen 6, Fayyum, 257/870-871); Sawirus/Severos ibn Jirja/Jurayj/Georgios
(CPR XXI 70 +Emendation Diem, Fayyum, 286/899-900); Apaheu ibn Māʿa (P.Cair.Arab. 189, Egypt,
287/900); Menas/Minyā/Mīnā ibn Shanūda/Senouthios (P.Cair.Arab. 189, Egypt, 287/900; P.Ryl.Arab. II 3,
Ushmunayn?, 292?/904-905; P.Cair.Arab. 190, Egypt, 293/906; P.DietrichTopkapi 2, Ushmunayn, 294/906-907;
he seems indentical with the jahbadh Mīnā ibn Shanūda mentioned in P.Vind.inv. A.P. 12916 = PERF 893
unpublished (Egypt, 301/913-914); Sawīrus ibn Zakariyyā (P.Cair.Arab. 190, Egypt, 293/906); Niqla/Nicholas
Imperium & Officium: Comparative Studies in Ancient Bureaucracy and Officialdom
Lucian Reinfandt
11
only one third were Muslims. Interestingly, we finde the same ratio among the later
jahbadhs.42 This continuity of Coptic Christians in the middle levels of administration is a
remarkable fact if one takes into consideration that the caliphal empire had reorganised its
provincial administration a century earlier with an adjustment to Arab Muslims at the expense
on non-Muslim local elites. It seems that during the 9 th century this process of Arabisation
was somehow reversed, and that this new development was related to the new Persian
administrative elite in Egypt that was looking for reliable allies among the local population.
3.3 Consumer goods
A third and last approach to indicators for a 'Persian' presence in Egypt is the consumption of
goods of a specifically eastern provenance. The unpublished Vienna papyrus P.Vind.inv. A.P.
5584 is a list of luxury textiles, some of which being made of a specific Mesopotamian and
Persian handicraft. It is an evidence for the existence of, and the demand for, such eastern
textiles in the Fayyum oasis as early as the 9thcentury. Other papyri from the same time and
provenance mention similar items, such as a Sharābī-headscarf (in the unpublished
P.Vind.inv. A.P. 2112).43 It is quite astonishing to find Persian textiles being mentioned in
ibn Andūna/Antonios (P.Ryl.Arab. II 2, Ushmunayn?, 295/907-908); Iṣṭifān/Stephanos ibn Jurayj/Georgios
(P.Cair.Arab. 278 +Emendation?, Ushmūnayn, 3rd/9th century); Ḥamdān ibn ʿUmar ibn Muhājir (P.Cair.Arab. I
43, Ushmūnayn?, 306/918); Yuḥannis/Ioannes ibn Mīnā/Menas (P.Cair.Arab. 193, Egypt, 314/926);
Marqūra/Merkure ibn Mīnā/Menas (P.Cair.Arab. 19, Egypt, 318/930; P.Cair.Arab. VII 446 unpublished, Egypt,
319/931, he may be identical with the jahbadh Abū Jamīl Marqūra ibn Mīnā mentioned in P.Cair.Arab. 199
(Egypt, 347/958); Jurayj/Georgios ibn Marqūra/Merkure (P.Steuerquittungen 28, Fayyūm or Ushmūnayn, 311399/923-1008); Baqām/Pachom ibn Šanūda/Senouthios (P.Cair.Arab. 194, Ushmunayn, 405/1015); N.N.
(P.KarabacekPapier 5 +Emendation Diem, 427/1036); Abū l-ʿAlāʾ (P.Prag.Arab. 47, Ushmunayn, 440/10481049; P.Prag.Arab. 48(Fayyum, 447/1055); Yāsir (P.Prag.Arab. 48, Fayyum, 447/1055); Jirja/Georgios ibn
Isiṭūrus/Isidoros (P.Prag.Arab. 48, Fayyum, 447/1055; P.Prag.Arab. 49, Ushmunayn, 449/1057);
Marqūra/Merkurios (P.Prag.Arab. 48, Fayyum, 447/1055); Ṣubḥ ibn ʿAbdalmasīḥ (P.Prag.Arab. 49, Ushmunayn,
449/1057); Ṣāliḥ ibn ʿImrān (P.Prag.Arab. 49, Ushmunayn, 449/1057); N.N. (P.Ryl.inv. Arabic Add. no. 351
unpublished, al-Ushmunayn, 292/904; P.Cair.Arab. 290, Egypt, 3 rd/9th century; P.Hamb.Arab. II 14, presumably
Edfu, 3rd/9th century; P.Cair.Arab. 280, Egypt, 342/953-954; P.Ryl.Arab. I, II 2, Egypt, 7th-10th century).
41
Already Gladys Frantz-Murphy mentioned the fact that jahbadhs are only attested in documents from
Ushmunayn and the Fayyum. Cf. Frantz-Murphy 2001a, 247.
42
Muslims among the qusṭāls were ʿĪsā ibn ʿAlī in Ushmunayn in 855 and 869; Muḥammad ibn Jaʿfar in
Ushmunayn in 872; ʿAlī ibn Sulaymān in the Fayyum in 875; Ḍimād b. Ziyād in Ushmunayn in 889; Aḥmad ibn
Jarīr in Bahnasā; moreover a certain Yaʿqūb and a Mūsā ibn Ayyūb, both with unclear provenance and time.
Muslims among the jahbadhs were Sahl ibn Dāwūd in 863; Aḥmad ibn ʿĪsā ibn Manṣūr in the Fayyum in 867;
Ḥamdān ibn ʿUmar ibn Muhājir in Ushmunayn in 918; Abū l-ʿAlāʾ in both Ushmunayn in 1049 and in the
Fayyum in 1055; Yāsir in the Fayyum in 1055; Ṣubḥ ibn ʿAbdalmasīḥ and Ṣāliḥ ibn ʿImrān in Ushmunayn in
1057. The fact that both qusṭāls and jahbadhs were by their majority Christians fits to an observation already
made by Albert Dietrich and Adolf Grohmann; cf. Dietrich 1955, 66; Grohmann 1964, 132.
43
P.Vind.inv. A.P. 15045 (unpublished) = PERF 642 mentions, next to several consumer goods, also the
arrival of 40 trading ships from Syrian Antiochia (if Karabacek's reading is correct?). It seems that at least part
the goods mentioned in the papyrus had a provenance from Syria of farther east. P.GrohmannProbleme 3 (recto)
or A.P. 11416v (unpubl.) mentions on its verso, among other things, perfume and four drinking glasses (of a
Imperium & Officium: Comparative Studies in Ancient Bureaucracy and Officialdom
Regime Change and Elite Migration
12
Egyptian papyri; it is less a consequence, I would say, of a sufficient purchase power and a
fashionable phenomenon prevalent among the local Egyptian population. Rather it was a
consequence of the presence of ethnic Persians in the Egyptian hinterland, at least in the
Fayyum oasis.
Like textiles, foodstuffs are similarly informative. Apples, for example, had been raised in
Egypt since antiquity, but their low quality was proverbial. On the other hand, apples from
Syria and Iraq were famous for their high quality, and good apples were also raised in Iran
and Central Asia.44 Apples of a good quality showing up in Egypt could therefore be an
indicator for a group of consumers in Egypt with a specific Mesopotamian and Persian
background. In fact, a number of Arabic papyri from the 9 th century mention apples of a high
quality degree unknown before.45 These again seem to have been raised, or imported, for a
specific demand group with eastern consumer habits.
4. Regime change and elite migration in the Islamic Caliphate
The study of the documents has led to the following results: Literary sources draw a picture of
large migrations of administrative personnel from Iran and Iraq to Egypt during the 9 th
century. This is confirmed by local documents from Egypt, but with important additional
details about the ‘who and where and why’. The presence of Persian administrators in Egypt
can be seen by the introduction of a new Persian terminology in local documents. Persians
often settled in the capital al-Fustat and took high positions in the administration, but others
settled in more remote parts of the country as well. These must have brought their families
and peers along, as is evident from the demand for specific eastern consumer goods expressed
in the papyri. The settlement started in the Fayyum and spread more southward to the centre
Syrian or otherwise eastern provenance?). P.Vind.inv. A.P. 7718r (unpublished) = PERF 890? mentions several
textiles and garments in the possession of a trader with the name Abū Jaʿfar (Egypt, 9 th-10th century). P.Vind.inv.
A.Ch. 3637 = PERF 975 (Egypt, mid-10 th century, unpublished) is a list of products and linguistically interesting
(Karabacek 1894, 254) with its partly Persian names for good, e.g. jafneh (platter, dish) or tābūt (coffin, wooden
box). An example for a papyrus mentioning textiles without a specific Persian or Mesopotamian provenance is
P.Vind.inv. A.P. 1290 (unpublished) = PERF 574.
44
The trope of 'Persian' apples even found its way to 19 th century Professorenliteratur such as Felix Dahn's
notorious but popular Ein Kampf um Rom. Cf. http://gutenberg.spiegel.de/buch/80/5 [accessed 2 June 2014]. For
apples in Egypt and those of a superior quality in Syria and Irak cf. Albert Dietrich 1999; Müller-Wodarg 195458, 71. Watson 1983, on the other hand, does not mention the apple at all. According to Hehn 1911, 628, the
Arabic world for „apple“, tuffāḥ is related to the Hebrew tappūḥ and the Old Egyptian dpḥ.
45
E.g. the „big apples“ metioned in P.Vind.inv. A.P. 8031 = PERF 805 (Egypt, 3 rd/9th century; unpublished,
res. Reinfandt). Other attestations are: P.Marchands II 24 (Fayyum, 3rd/9th century); P.Khalili I 17 = P.Khalili II
74 (Egypt, 3rd/9th century); P.Heid.Arab. II 55 (Egypt, 3rd/9th century); P.Prag.Arab. 78 (Ausgabenaufstellung;
Egypt, 3rd-4th/9th-10th century); P.Berl.inv. 15150, 2, 4, 7; P.Cair.Arab. 427 (Egypt, 3 rd/9th century); P.Vind.inv.
A.P. 8992 (unpublished); P.Vind.inv. A.P. 11186, PERF 873 (Egypt, 3 rd-4th/9th-10th century) (unpublished);
P.Vind.inv. A.P.1029 (Egypt 198/813) (unpublished).
Imperium & Officium: Comparative Studies in Ancient Bureaucracy and Officialdom
Lucian Reinfandt
13
of al-Ushmunayn with a delay of decades. Those Persians that were settling in the Egyptian
countryside were administrators of agricultural domains in caliphal possession, or they were
traders, while the financial administration in the proper sense of the word remained executed
by Coptic Egyptians on the local level.
The reasons for the migration are partly to be found in the political collapse of central
government in Iraq during the 860s AD that brought occupational insecurity and physical
dangers to many. Those who had the financial means to afford the travel, and had the strength
of mind (Ashtor calls it “esprit d'initiative”) to carry out, left the land for better opportunities
elsewhere. Insofar it was an elite phenomenon, as has appropriately been noted already by
Ashtor.46 But this is only half the story, I would say. Firstly, administrators did not come
alone but brought families, peers, and entourage along. Secondly, administrative elites had
migrated not only during the tumultuous 860s AD but already, and they continued doing so
after the caliphal centre had stabilised again in the 10 th century. It seems therefore that the
'Persian' migration of the 9th century had wider implications for the caliphal empire. When
bringing our evidence into line with the larger socio-political setting, it becomes clear that the
staff composition of regional administrations not only affected the host societies and brought
along technological innovations but was a key factor for provincial politics and, in the long
run, the political fate of the empire altogether. The staffing of the financial administration of
Egypt with Persian experts took place at the same time when the civil administration was
taken over by members of the Turkish military elite. This led to a rivalry between the Turkish
military and the Persian financial elite over the control of Egypt's agricultural revenues. In its
effort to maintain its influence over the province of Egypt, the Abbasid imperial centre
appointed ethnic Persians on key positions both in the offices of al-Fustat and as overseers of
caliphal estates in the countryside.47 The latter settled in large agricultural centres such as the
Fayyum and al-Ushmunayn, while the core-business of tax-collection on the ground level
remained in the hand of Coptic Egyptians. These proved to be trustful allies, for the
continuous Coptic tax-revolts of the 8th and early 9th centuries now came to an end.48 But the
staffing of the Egyptian administration on middle and low levels with Muslim Arabs that had
begun in the early 8th century under the Umayyad rule now had come to an end as well.
The 'advent of Persians' in Egypt was in fact a shift in imperial provincial politics. If we
are to see it from a Weberian perspective, the scenario is as follows: The Umayyad governors
46
Ashtor 1972, 197. In further consequence, he characterises this migration phenomenon, in accordance to
simultaneous migration phenomena in Europe, as 'medieval' (ibid.).
47
Cf. Frantz-Murphy 2001a, 246 with a very similar opinion. About the arrival of Turkish troops in Egypt in
829 AD, cf. Lev 2012, 316.
48
There had been tax-revolts in Egypt in the years AD 725, 739, 749, 752, 767, 783, 810, 819, 829, 831-32.
The last rebellion that took place in Egypt in 252/866 significantly was an Arab rebellion. Cf. Lev 2012, 319-320
and passim.
Imperium & Officium: Comparative Studies in Ancient Bureaucracy and Officialdom
Regime Change and Elite Migration
14
had had, during the first half of the 8 th century, successively exchanged Coptic officials by a
class of Arab Muslim 'household officials'. This was part of their efforts to eliminate the
financial control of the old Coptic aristocracy on the local levels. One and a half centuries
later, however, the situation had changed after a new Arabic landholding (and landowning)
elite had established itself on the local levels. This new (and unwelcome) elite had to be kept
in control by the central caliphate by the import of new 'household officials' on the top-level
of administration (Turkish military, Persian administrators) as well as by a reactivation of
Copts, now as 'part-time officials', on the ground levels.49 This renewed social influence of
parts of the Coptic population finds its expression in a renaissance of the Coptic language in
Egyptian papyri from the 9th and 10th centuries50 , but also in a rising awareness of a local
Egyptian identity which found its expression in a blossoming of local histories from Egypt
from the 9th century on.51
49
On this 'Arabisation' of Egypt during the 8th century AD cf. now especially Sijpesteijn 2013. According to
Ashtor 1972, 196, collections of biographies from the Ta'rikh Baghdad show that during the 9th and 10th
centuries intellectual migrants from Irak to Egypt were predominantly from the professions of traders and
judges, but only in very few cases working as artisans, notaries, or copyists. It seems that the latter crafts and
occupations were reserved for 'part-time officials' of a local Coptic-Egyptian background. The Mesopotamian
intellectuals, for their part, seem to have belonged to the social group of 'household officials' instead, as can be
seen by the many nominations of judges in Egypt which was in fact prerogative of the Abbasid caliphs in Irak.
Merchants, on the other hand, were specifically dependent on their own international networks and certainly
benefited from a high degree of local flexibility.
50
For the 'late renaissance of the Coptic language' cf. especially the research of T. Sebastian Richter passim.
51
For local histories of 9 th and 10th century Egypt (especially Ibn ʿAbdalhakam, but also al-Kindī, al-Balawī,
and Ibn ad-Dāya) in their function as documents of a specific local consciousness. Cf. Haarmann 1980;
Sijpesteijn 2011 and especially Kennedy 1998. Local reactions on migrations from Iraq itself, in this case
Turkish military slaves, find their expression also in al-Jahiz' famous “Epistle of the Turks” (9 th century AD); cf.
Hutchins 1989, 175-218 (in English); Pellat 1967, 148-158 (in German). Further consequences of the Persian
migration in different lands of the caliphate was an increase in Islamisation. This is at least evident from the case
of Egypt where the immigration of Persian and Turkish elites (and their entourage) resulted in a growth of the
Muslim sector of society. Cf. Brett 2010, 556.
Imperium & Officium: Comparative Studies in Ancient Bureaucracy and Officialdom
Lucian Reinfandt
15
Bibliography
al-Qāḍī 2007. Wadād al-Qāḍī, An Umayyad Papyrus in al-Kindī's Kitāb al-quḍāt?, Der Islam 84, 200245.
Ashtor 1972. Eliyahu Ashtor, Un mouvement migratoire au haut Moyen Age: Migrations de l’Irak
vers les pays méditerranéens, Annales. Histoire, Sciences Sociales 27, 185-214. Reprint in: idem, The
Medieval Near East: Social and Economic History , London 1978 (Variorum Series IV).
Ashtor 1976. Eliyahu Ashtor, A Social and Economic History of the Near East in the Middle Ages,
London.
Athamina 1987. Khalil Athamina, Aʿrāb and Muhājirūn in the Environment of Amṣār, Studia Islamica
66, 5-25.
Bæk-Simonsen 1988. Jørgen Bæk-Simonsen, Studies in the Genesis and Early Development of the
Caliphal Taxation System, with Special References to Circumstances in the Arab Peninsula, Egypt
and Palestine, Copenhagen.
Becker 1907. Carl Heinrich Becker, Das Wiener Quṣair ʿAmra-Werk, Zeitschrift der Deutschen
Morgenländigschen Gesellschaft 20, 355-379.
Becker 1909. Carl Heinrich Becker, Papyrusstudien, Zeitschrift für Assyriologie 22, 137-154.
Berger 2013. Lutz Berger, Art. “Muslim World, Medieval Era Migrations”, in: Immanuel Ness et al.
(ed.), The Encyclopedia of Global Human Migration. Vol. 4: Ind-Rem, Chichester, 2253-2261.
Bianquis 1998. Thierry Bianquis, Autonomous Egypt from Ibn Ṭūlūn to Kāfūr, 868-969, in: Carl Petry
(ed.), The Cambridge History of Egypt. Vol. 1: Islamic Egypt, 640-1517, Cambridge, 86-119.
Bosworth 1969. Clifford Edmund Bosworth, Abū ʿAbdallāh al-Khwārazmī on the Technical Terms of
the Secretary's Art: A Contribution to the Administrative History of Mediaeval Islam, Journal of the
Economic and Social History of the Orient 12, 113-164.
Bosworth 1978. Clifford Edmund Bosworth, The Heritage of Rulership in Early Islamic Iran and the
Search for Dynastic Connections with the Past, Iranian Studies 11, 7-34.
Brett, 2011, Egypt, in: Chase Robinson (ed.), New Cambridge History of Islam. Vol. 1: The
Formation of the Islamic World, 6th-11th Centuries, Cambridge, 541-580.
Bulliet 2009. Richard W. Bulliet, Cotton, Climate, and Camels in Early Islamic Iran: A Moment in
World History , New York and Chichester.
Crone 2006. Patricia Crone, Post-Colonialism in Tenth-Century Islam, Der Islam 83, 2-38.
Daniel 2011. Elton L. Daniel, The Islamic East, in: Chase Robinson (ed.), Chase F. Robinson (ed.),
The New Cambridge History of Islam. Vol.. 1: The Formation of the Islamic World, 6 th-11th Centuries,
Cambridge, 448-505.
Diem 2006. Werner Diem, Philologisches zu arabischen Steuerquittungen, Wiener Zeitschrift für die
Kunde des Morgenlandes 95, 55-111.
Dietrich 1955. Albert Dietrich, Arabische Briefe aus der Papyrussammlung der Hamburger Staatsund Universitäts-Bibliothek, Hamburg (Veröffentlichungen aus der Hamburger Staats- und
Universitäts-Bibliothek 5).
Dietrich 1999. Albert Dietrich, Art. “Tuffāḥ“, in: Peri J. Bearman et al. (eds), The Encyclopaedia of
Islam. New Edition. Vol. 10: T-U, Leiden, 587.
Imperium & Officium: Comparative Studies in Ancient Bureaucracy and Officialdom
Regime Change and Elite Migration
16
Donner 1981. Fred M. Donner, The Early Islamic Conquests, Princeton.
Faroqhi 2010. Suraiya N. Faroghi, Demography and Migration, in: Robert Irwin (ed.), The New
Cambridge History of Islam. Vol. 4: Islamic Cultures and Societies to the End of the 18th Century,
Cambridge 2011, 306-331.
Foss 2009. Clive Foss, Egypt under Muʿāwiya. 1: Flavius Papas and Upper Egypt. 2: Middle Egypt,
Fusṭāṭ and Alexandria, Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies 72, 1-24; 259-278.
Frantz-Murphy 1984. Gladys Frantz-Murphy, Land Tenure and Social Transformation in Early
Islamic Egypt, in: Tarif Khalidi (ed.), Land Tenure and Social Transformation in the Middle East,
Beirut, 131-139.
Frantz-Murphy 1999. Gladys Frantz-Murphy, Land-Tenure in Egypt in the First Five Centuries of
Islamic Rule (Seventh-Twelfth Centuries AD), in: Alan K. Bowman, Eugene Rogan (eds), Agriculture
in Egypt: From Pharaonic to Modern Times, Oxford et al. (Proceedings of the British Library 96),
237-266.
Frantz-Murphy 2001a. Gladys Frantz-Murphy, Record of Tax from Imperial Estates in Ushmūnayn,
in: Bernhard Palme, (ed.), Wiener Papyri als Festgabe zum 60. Geburtstag von Hermann Harrauer
(P. Harrauer), 243-248.
Frantz-Murphy 2001b. Gladys Frantz-Murphy, Arabic Agricultural Leases and Tax Receipts from
Egypt, Vienna (Corpus Papyrorum Raineri 21).
Frantz-Murphy 2007a. Gladys Frantz-Murphy, The Corpus and Context: Agrarian Fiscal
Administration and State Formation in Early Islamic Egypt, 717-1035 A.D./99-427 A.H., in: Bernhard
Palme (ed.), Akten des 23. Internationalen Papyrologen-Kongresses, Wien, 22.-28. Juli 2001, Wien
(Papyrologica Vuindobonensia 1), 221-231.
Frantz-Murphy 2007b. Gladys Frantz-Murphy, The Economics of State Formation in Early Islamic
Egypt, in: Petra M. Sijpesteijn, Lennart Sundelin, Sofía Torallas Tovar, Amalia Zomeño (eds.), From
al-Andalus to Khurasan: Documents from the Medieval Muslim World, Leiden and Boston (Islamic
History and Civilization 66), 101-114.
Goldin/Cameron/Balarajan 2011. Ian Goldin, Geoffrey Cameron, Meera Balarajan (eds), Exceptional
People: How Migration Shaped our World and Will Define our Future, Princeton.
Gordon 1999. Matthew S. Gordon, The Turkish Officers of Samarra: Revenue and the Exercise of
Authority, Journal of the Economic and Social History of the Orient 42, 466-493.
Gordon 2001a. Matthew S. Gordon, The Khāqānid Families of the Early ʿAbbasid Period, Journal of
the American Oriental Society 121, 236-255.
Gordon 2001b. Matthew S. Gordon, The Breaking of a Thousand Swords: A History of the Turkish
Military of Samarra (A.H. 200-275/815-889 C.E.), Albany (SUNY Series in Medieval Middle East
History).
Gottschalk 1931. Hans Ludwig Gottschalk, Die Māḏarāʾiyyūn. Ein Beitrag zur Geschichte Ägyptens
unter dem Islam, Berlin and Leipzig.
Gottschalk 1965. Hans Ludwig Gottschalk, Art. “Dīwān. ii. Egypt“, in: Bernard Lewis et al. (eds), The
Encyclopaedia of Islam. New Edition. Vol. 2: C-G, Leiden and London, 327-331.
Grohmann 1938. Adolf Grohmann, Zum Steuerwesen im arabischen Ägypten, in: Fondation
Égyptologique Reine Élisabeth (ed.), Actes du ve congrès international de papyrologie, Oxford, 30
août–3 septembre 1937, Bruxelles, 122-134.
Imperium & Officium: Comparative Studies in Ancient Bureaucracy and Officialdom
Lucian Reinfandt
17
Grohmann 1932. Adolf Grohmann, Griechische und lateinische Verwaltungstermini im arabischen
Ägypten, Chronique d'Égypte 7, 275-284.
Grohmann 1964. Adolf Grohmann, Der Beamtenstab der arabischen Finanzverwaltung in Ägypten in
früharabischer Zeit, in: Horst Braunert (ed.), Studien zur Papyrologie und Antiken
Wirtschaftsgeschichte, Friedrich Oertel zum Achtzigsten Geburtstag gewidment, Bonn, 120-134.
Guérin/Al-Na'imi 2009. Alexandrine Guérin, Faysal Al-Na'imi, Territory and Settlement Patterns
During the Abbasid Period (Ninth Century AD): The Village of Murwab (Qatar), in: Proceedings of
the Seminar for Arabian Studies. Vol. 39, Papers from the Forty-Second Meeting of the Seminar for
Arabian Studies Held in London, 24-26 July 2008, Oxford, 181-196.
Guest 1922. Rhuvon Guest, Relations between Persia & Egypt under Islam up to the Fāṭimid Period,
in: Thomas W. Arnold and Reynold A. Nicholson (eds), A Volume of Oriental Studies, presented to
Edward G. Browne on his 60th Birthday (7 February 1922), Amsterdam, 163-174.
Haarmann 1980. Ulrich Haarmann, Regional Sentiment in Medieval Islamic Egypt, Bulletin of the
School of Oriental and African Studies 43, 55-66.
Hassan 1933. Zaky Mohamed Hassan, Les Tulunides. Étude de l'Égypte musulmane à la fin du ix e
siècle, 868-905, Paris.
Hehn 1911. Victor Hehn, Kulturpflanzen und Haustiere in ihrem Übergang aus Asien nach
Griechenland und Italien sowie in das übrige Europa, Berlin (Historisch-Linguistische Studien).
Reprint Hildesheim 1963.
Ḥitti, Philip Khūri, The Origins of the Islamic State, being a Translation from the Arabic
Accompanied with Annotations' Geographic and Historic Notes of the Kitāb Futūḥ al-Buldān of alImām abu-l ʿAbbas Aḥmad ibn-Jābir al-Balādhuri, London 1916 (Studies in History, Economics and
Public Law 68).
Hoerder 2002. Dirk Hoerder, Cultures in Contact: World Migrations in the Second Millennium,
Durham.
Humphreys 2010. R. Stephen Humphreys, Syria in Regionalism, in: Chase F. Robinson (ed.), The
New Cambridge History of Islam. Vol.. 1: The Formation of the Islamic World, 6 th-11th Centuries,
Cambridge, 506-540.
Hutchins 1989. William M. Hutchins (transl.), Nine Essays of al-Jahiz, New York et al. (American
University Studies. Series VII: Theology and Religion 53).
Karabacek 1894. Josef Karabacek, Papyrus Erzherzog Rainer. Führer durch die Ausstellung, Wien.
Kennedy 1981. Hugh Kennedy, Central Government and Provincial Élites in the Early 'Abbasid
Caliphate, Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies 44, 26-38.
Kennedy 1998. Hugh Kennedy, Egypt as a Province of the Caliphate, in: Carl Petry (ed.), The
Cambridge History of Egypt. Vol. 1: Islamic Egypt, 640-1517, Cambridge, 62-85.
Kennedy 2004. Hugh Kennedy, The Decline and Fall of the First Muslim Empire, Der Islam 81, 3-30.
Khan 2007. Geoffrey Khan, Newly Discovered Arabic Documents from Early Abbasid Khurasan, in:
Petra M. Sijpesteijn, Lennart Sundelin, Sofía Torallas Tovar, Amalia Zomeño (eds.), From al-Andalus
to Khurasan: Documents from the Medieval Muslim World, Leiden and Boston (Islamic History and
Civilization 66), 201-215.
Imperium & Officium: Comparative Studies in Ancient Bureaucracy and Officialdom
Regime Change and Elite Migration
18
Khan 2008. Geoffrey Khan, Remarks on the Historical Background and Development of Early Arabic
Documentary Formulae, Asian Studies/Études asiatiques 62, 885-906.
Kindi 1912. Al-Kindi, Governors and Judges of Egypt, ed. R. Guest, Leiden.
Kubiak 1987. Władysław Kubiak, al-Fusṭāṭ: Its Foundation and Early Urban Development, Cairo.
Lapidus 1973. Ira Lapidus, The Evolution of Muslim Urban Society, Comparative Studies in Society
and History 15 (1973), 21-50.
Lapidus 2012. Ira M. Lapidus, Islamic Societies to the Nineteenth Century: A Global History,
Cambridge et al.
Lev 2012. Yaacov Lev, Coptic Rebellions and the Islamization of Medieval Egypt (8 th-10th Century):
Medieval and Modern Perceptions, Jerusalem Studies in Arabic and Islam
39, 303-344.
Løkkegaard 1950. Frede Løkkegaard, Islamic Taxation in the Classic Period, with Special Reference
to Circumstances in Iraq, Copenhagen.
Manning 2005. Patrick Manning, Migration in World History, New York and London.
Morimoto 1981. Kosei Morimoto, The Fiscal Administration of Egypt in the Early Islamic Period,
Kyoto (Asian Historical Monographs 1).
Morony 2004. Michael G. Morony, Economic Boundaries? Late Antiquity and Early Islam, Journal of
the Social and Economic History of the Orient 47, 166-194.
Müller-Wodarg 1954-58. Dieter Müller-Wodarg, Die Landwirtschaft Ägyptens in der frühen
'Abbasidenzeit, Der Islam 31 (1954), 174-227; 32 (1955), 141-167; 35 (1958), 310-321.
Naqvi 2013. Tahir H. Naqvi, Art. “Islam and Migration”, in: Immanuel Ness et al. (ed.), The
Encyclopedia of Global Human Migration. Vol. 4: Ind-Rem, Chichester, 1873-1875.
Netton 1993. Ian Richard Netton (ed.), Golden Roads: Migration, Pilgrimage and Travel in
Mediaeval and Modern Islam, Richmond.
Onimus 2005. Clément Onimus, Les mawālī en Égypte dans la documentation papyrologique, Ier-Ve
s. H., Annales Islamologiques 39, 81-107.
Pellat 1953. Charles Pellat, Le Milieu basrien et la formation de Ǧāḥiẓ, Paris.
Pellat 1967. Charles Pellat, Arabische Geisteswelt. Ausgewählte und übersetzte Texte von al-Ǧāḥiẓ
(777-869), unter zugrundelegung der arabischen Originaltexte aus dem Französischen übertragen
von Walter W. Müller, Zürich (Bibliothek des Morgenlandes).
Pfister 1948. Rudolphe Pfister, Le Rôle de l'Iran dans les textiles d'Antinoé, Ars Islamica 13, 46-74.
Potts 2013. Daniel T. Potts, Art. “Mesopotamian and Persian Migrations“, in: Immanuel Ness et al.
(ed.), The Encyclopedia of Global Human Migration. Vol. 4: Ind-Rem, Chichester, 2173-2179.
Reinfandt 2014. Lucian Reinfandt, Empireness in Arabic Letter Formulae, in: Stephan Procházka,
Lucian Reinfandt, Sven Tost (eds), Official Epistolography and the Language(s) of Power.
Proceedings of the 1st International Conference of the NFN Imperium and Officium, Vienna, 333-346.
Robinson 2000. Chase Robinson, Empires and Elites after the Muslim Conquest: The Transformation
of Northern Mesopotamia, New York (Cambridge Studies in Islamic Civilization).
Imperium & Officium: Comparative Studies in Ancient Bureaucracy and Officialdom
Lucian Reinfandt
19
Robinson 2011. Chase Robinson, Conclusion: From Formative Islam to Classical Islam, in: New
Cambridge History of Islam. Vol. 1: The Formation of the Islamic World, 6 th-11th Centuries,
Cambridge, 683-695.
Sijpesteijn 2011. Petra M. Sijpesteijn, Building an Egyptian Identity, in: Asad Q. Ahmed, Behnam
Sadeghi, Michael Bonner (eds), The Islamic Scholarly Tradition. Studies in History, Law, and
Thought in Honor of Professor Michael Allan Cook, Leiden and Boston (Islamic History and
Civilization 83), 85-105.
Sijpesteijn 2013. Petra M. Sijpesteijn, Shaping a Muslim State: The World of a Mid-Eighth-Century
Egyptian Official, Oxford (Oxford Studies in Byzantium).
Sprengling 1939-40. Martin Sprengling, From Persian to Arabic, The American Journal of Semitic
Languages and Literatures 56 (1939), 175-224; 325-336; 57 (1949), 302-305.
Tabari 2010. Al-Tabari, Ta’rikh ar-rusul wa-l-muluk, ed. M.J. De Goeje, 10 vols., Leiden, reprint.
Tillier 2011a. Mathieu Tillier, Scribes et enquêteurs. Note sur le personnel judiciaire en Égypte aus
quatre premiers siècles de l’hégire, Journal of the Economic and Social History of the Orient 54, 370404.
Tillier 2011b. Mathieu Tillier, Premiers cadis des Fusṭāṭ 219 (die Abbasiden waren anfangs selbst
fremd im Iraq, ihrer neuen Machtbasis des Empires)
Watson 1983. Andrew M. Watson, Agricultural Innovation in the Early Islamic World: The Diffusion
of Crops and Farming Techniques, 700-1100, Cambridge et al. (Cambridge Studies in Islamic
Civilization)
Yarshater 1998. Ehsan Yarshater, The Persian Presence in the Islamic World, in:
Hovannisian, Richard G. and Georges Sabagh (eds), The Persian Presence in the Islamic
World, Cambridge (Giorgio Levi Della Vida Conference 13), 4-125.
Imperium & Officium: Comparative Studies in Ancient Bureaucracy and Officialdom