Mamluk History

A complex systems approach to the evolutionary dynamics of human history: the case of the Late Medieval World Crisis

by Johannes Preiser-Kapeller

Working Paper for the European Meetings on Cybernetics and Systems Research (EMCSR) 2012, Vienna, University Campus, April 10th 2012 (http://www.emcsr.net/symposium-b-evolution-throughout-the-sciences-and-humanities/) (Slides of the presentation here: http://oeaw.academia.edu/JohannesPreiserKapeller/Talks/78041/A_complex_systems_approach_to_the_evolutionary_dynamics_of_human_history_the_case_of_the_Late_Medieval_World_Crisis)

„There are few theoretical approaches to which historian respond so negatively as to the explanation of historical... more „There are few theoretical approaches to which historian respond so negatively as to the explanation of historical processes by such theories“, the German historian Rainer Waltz states most accurately in his study on „Theories of Social Evolution and History“; there he also presents two main causes for this rejection: a moral one, the perversion of evolutionary thinking in so-called Social Darwinist theories in the 19th and 20th centuries, and a scientific one, the fear of a biologistic interpretation of human history by adopting evolutionary models (Walz, 2004). This distinguishes historical studies from other social sciences and humanities such as anthropology or sociology and even other historical disciplines such as archaeology, where evolutionary models have become part of the methodological toolkit (Renfrew & Bahn, 2008; for a rare example from the field of history of literature cf. Moretti, 2009).
Although most historians are reluctant to adopt evolutionary models (yet alone in their mathematized or sociobiologist form) for the interpretation of human past (respectively the larger or smaller period of time they are specialised in), terms such as “evolution” and concepts of evolutionary thinking such as “adaption” or “selection” are used in numerous descriptions of historical events and processes, albeit often in a metaphorical way (Walz, 2004). At the same time it is evident that major developments in human history such as the emergence of the human kind itself, of human culture and of complex social structures such as states as well as phenomena of long duration (up to the scale of “Big History” from the Big Bang until present times as it has been attempted in the last decades, Spier 2010) cannot be explained without the help of evolutionary concepts (cf. Blute, 2010; Voland, 2009); but again, these subjects refer mainly to the fields of evolutionary biologists and psychologists, anthropologists, sociologists or (prehistoric) archaeologists (cf. Yoffee, 2004). Some specialists from these disciplines have also tried to adapt such concepts for the entire human history beyond its “beginnings”, but have equally found mixed reception among historians, especially if they try to demonstrate some kind of progress in the development of humanity as for instance Steven Pinker has done most recently in his study on “Why Violence has declined” (Pinker, 2011; see also Atran, 2002; Boyd & Richerson, 2005; Morris, 2010).
In contrast to this (non)-use of evolutionary concepts for historical studies, we intend to demonstrate the benefit of a complex evolutionary approach for the analysis of a specific period of late medieval/early modern history between 1200 and 1500 CE, which has been attributed central importance for the so-called “Rise of the West”, since it saw the beginning of European overseas expansion at its end (cf. Goldstone, 2009; Morris, 2010).
In the “calamitous” 14th century, as Barbara Tuchman called it (1978), the medieval world entered a period of severe crisis in demography, economy, politics and religion. This crisis took hold in all regions, ranging from China in the East to England in the West. Even before the catastrophic pandemic of the Black Death (1346-1352), deteriorating climatic conditions had ended the period of demographic and economic expansion that began in the 10th century (Behringer, 2007; Atwell, 2001; Benedictow, 2004; Brook, 2010).
The local and regional impacts and consequences of these general crisis-laden conditions may have differed; outcomes ranged from actual societal collapse to the emergence of powerful new polities. But these conditions provide a framework for global perspective on this period and allow us to use the 14th century-crisis as a field of “natural experiments of history”, as Jared Diamond and James A. Robinson have called them (Diamond & Robinson, 2011); accordingly, we analyse how similar crisis phenomena influenced the development of societies with different (or similar) traditions, religions, institutions, geographies or ecologies (cf. also Borsch, 2005). In particular, we will analyse and compare five polities in the “Old World”, England, Hungary, Byzantium, Egypt and China, of which three disappeared around the end of this period due to the expansion of the most successful newly emerged Ottoman Empire (Byzantium in 1453, Mamluk Egypt in 1517, Hungary in 1526/1541; cf. also Preiser-Kapeller, 2011).
In order to be able to capture variations and complexities within this sample, we adopt concepts and tools provided by the field of complexity science. We understand complex systems as large networks of individual components, whose interactions at the microscopic level produce “complex” changing patterns of behaviour of the whole system on the macroscopic level. In the last decades, historians and social scientists also tried to use concepts of complexity theory for the description of phenomena in their own fields, but again often only in a “metaphoric” way (Gaddis, 2002; Hatcher & Bailey, 2001). Less frequently, though, historians have tried to make use of the mathematical foundations of complexity theory or of quantitative tools provided by this field (Kiel & Elliott, 1997; Preiser-Kapeller, 2012). Recent scholarship has implemented some of these tools especially for the construction of macro-models of socio-economic development (Goldstone, 1991; Turchin, 2003; Turchin & Nefedov, 2009).
In addition, we combine complexity theory with the analytical framework of “systems theory” developed by the German sociologist Niklas Luhmann (1927-1998) in order to capture the interdependencies between politics, economy and religion within a polity and with the political, economic and ecological environment (Luhmann, 1997; Becker & Reinhardt-Becker, 2001; Becker, 2004). Luhmann´s theory is valuable for our analysis in various aspects; it makes us aware of the reduction of environmental and social complexity which is reflected in our historical sources, and it provides a framework to approach complex mechanisms within and the dependencies between various social spheres and their environment. Its evolutionary aspects have also been analysed by Walz (2004). In addition, we employ methods and tools of network analysis, which allow us to capture, analyse and model linkages and cause-effect correlations in society, economy, politics and religion on the macro- and micro-level down to groups and individuals (Gould, 2003; Lemercier, 2005).
Overall, our analytical approach allows us to capture the “diversité véritable” without losing track of essential commonalities (the “strange parallels”, as Victor Liebermann has called them, 2009) with regard to the transformation of polities and societies and their adaption to this “first world crisis”. Thereby, the value of a framework of evolutionary dynamics for the exploration of human history will be demonstrated

References
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Atwell, W. S. (2001). Volcanism and Short-Term Climatic Change in East Asian and World History, c. 1200–1699. Journal of World History 12/1, 29-98.
Becker, F. & Reinhardt-Becker, E. (2001). Systemtheorie. Eine Einführung für die Geschichts- und Kulturwissenschaften. Frankfurt, New York: Campus Verlag.
Becker, F. (Ed.). (2004). Geschichte und Systemtheorie. Exemplarische Fallstudien. Frankfurt, New York: Campus Verlag.
Behringer, W. (2007). Kulturgeschichte des Klimas. Von der Eiszeit bis zur globalen Erwärmung. Munich: C. H. Beck.
Benedictow, O. J. (2004). The Black Death 1346–1353. The Complete History. Woodbridge: Boydell & Brewer Inc.
Blute, M. (2010). Darwinian Sociocultural Evolution. Solutions to Dilemmas in Cultural and Social Theory. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Borsch, St. J. (2005). The Black Death in Egypt and England. A Comparative Study. Austin: University of Texas Press.
Boyd, R. & Richerson, P. J. (2005). The Origin and Evolution of Cultures. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Brook, T. (2010). The troubled Empire. China in the Yuan and Ming Dynasties. Cambridge (Mass.), London: Harvard University Press.
Diamond, J. & Robinson, J. A. (Eds.). (2011). Natural Experiments of History. Cambridge (Mass.), London: Harvard University Press.
Gaddis, J. L. (2002). The Landscape of History. How Historians map the Past. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Goldstone, J. A. (1991). Revolution and Rebellion in the Early Modern World. Berkeley: University of California Press.
Goldstone, J. A. (2009). Why Europe? The Rise of the West in World History, 1500–1850. New York: Mcgraw-Hill Higher Education.
Gould, R. V. (2003). Uses of Network Tools in Comparative Historical Research. In: J. Mahoney & D. Rueschemeyer (Eds.). Comparative Historical Analysis in the Social Sciences (p. 241-269). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Hatcher, J. & Bailey, M. (2001). Modelling the Middle Ages. The History and Theory of England´s Economic Development. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Kiel, L. D. & Elliott, E. (Eds.). (1997). Chaos Theory in the Social Sciences. Foundations and Applications. Ann Arbor, Michigan: University of Michigan Press.
Lemercier, Cl. (2005). Analyse de réseaux et histoire. Revue d’histoire moderne et contemporaine 52/2, 88-112.
Lieberman, L. (2009). Strange Parallels. Southeast Asia in Global Context, c. 800–1830. Vol. 2: Mainland Mirrors: Europe, Japan, China, South Asia, and the Islands. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Luhmann, N. (1997). Die Gesellschaft der Gesellschaft. 2 Vols., Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp Verlag.
Moretti, F. (2009). Kurven, Karten, Stammbäume. Abstrakte Modelle für die Literaturgeschichte. Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp Verlag.
Morris, I. (2010). Why The West Rules For Now: The Patterns of History and what they reveal about the Future. London: Profile Books.
Pinker, S. (2011). The Better Angels of our Nature. Why Violence has declined. London: Viking.
Preiser-Kapeller, J. (2012). Complex historical dynamics of crisis: the case of Byzantium. In: A. Suppan (Ed.). Krise und Transformation (in print). Vienna: Austrian Academy Press (pre-print online: http://oeaw.academia.edu/JohannesPreiserKapeller/Papers/506625/Complex_historical_dynamics_of_crisis_the_case_of_Byzantium).
Preiser-Kapeller, J. (2011). (Not so) Distant Mirrors: a complex macro-comparison of polities and political, economic and religious systems in the crisis of the 14th century. In: A. Simon (Ed.). Proceedings of the International Conference "The Angevin Dynasty (14th Century)" in Târgoviște (Romania), October 21st-23rd 2011 (forthcoming). Vienna: Peter Lang (working Paper online: http://oeaw.academia.edu/JohannesPreiserKapeller/Papers/506595/_Not_so_Distant_Mirrors_a_complex_macro-comparison_of_polities_and_political_economic_and_religious_systems_in_the_crisis_of_the_14th_century)
Renfrew, C. & Bahn, P. (2008). Archaeology: Theories, Methods and Practice. London: Thames & Hudson.
Spier, F. (2010). Big History and the Future of Humanity. Chichester: John Wiley & Sons.
Tuchman, B. (1978). A Distant Mirror. The calamitous 14th Century. New York: Alfred A. Knopf.
Turchin, P. & Nefedov, S. A. (2010). Secular cycles. Princeton, Oxford: Princeton University Press.
Turchin, P. (2003). Historical Dynamics. Why States Rise and Fall (Princeton Studies in Complexity). Princeton, Oxford: Princeton University Press.
Voland, E. (2009). Soziobiologie. Die Evolution von Kooperation und Konkurrenz. 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Spektrum Akademischer Verlag.
Walz, R. (2004). Theorien sozialer Evolution und Geschichte. In: F. Becker (Ed.), Geschichte und Systemtheorie. Exemplarische Fallstudien (p. 29-75). Frankfurt, New York: Campus Verlag.
Yoffee, N. (2004). Myths of the Archaic State. Evolution of the Earliest Cities, States, and Civilizations. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Le Pentateuque de la Bibliothèque nationale de France: Un manuscrit copte-arabe du 8e/XIVe siècle

by Mathilde Cruvelier

Qalāwūnid discourse, elite communication and the Mamluk cultural matrix: interpreting a 14th-century panegyric

by Jo Van Steenbergen

Journal of Arabic Literature 43/1 (2012): 1-28

This article analyses a brief panegyric text from mid-14th-century Egypt, authored by the court scribe Ibrāhīm b. al-... more This article analyses a brief panegyric text from mid-14th-century Egypt, authored by the court scribe Ibrāhīm b. al- Qaysarānī (d. 1352) and dedicated to the Qalāwūnid Mamluk sultan al-Malik al-Ṣāliḥ Ismāʿīl (r. 1342-5). It challenges this panegyric’s standard treatment as a work of history and as a product of court propaganda and connects it to wider issues of Mamluk literary production and social organisation. In doing so, a new understanding of this panegyric emerges within a specific context of Mamluk elite communication and social performance, demonstrating at the same time how such a social semiotic reading of Mamluk cultural expressions generates further insights into the symbiotic interactions between Mamluk culture and society.

Ritual, Politics and the City in Mamluk Cairo. The Bayna l-Qasrayn as a Dynamic 'lieu de mémoire'. 1250-1382

by Jo Van Steenbergen

in Court Ceremonies and Ritual of Power in the Medieval Mediterranean, eds. Alexander Beihammer et al. [in publication]

Just as is true for any other pre-modern polity, rituals of power were a defining feature of the political culture of... more Just as is true for any other pre-modern polity, rituals of power were a defining feature of the political culture of the Mamluk sultanate of Egypt and Syria (1250-1517). Firmly dominating the eastern-Mediterranean-to-Red-Sea area from its capital Cairo, this great power of the late medieval world experienced the public representation of power, status and identity at various social levels through the varied and complex prism of protocol and ceremonial. This chapter discusses one particular set of such Mamluk rituals that was performed in the 13th and 14th centuries, the investiture of new members of the political elites, reconstructing in particular its spatial and semiotic frameworks as a revelatory mnemonic process connecting Cairo’s city centre of the Bayna l-Qasrayn with Mamluk ideas of legitimate kingship.

The amir Yalbughā al-Khāṣṣakī (d. 1366), the Qalāwūnid sultanate, and the cultural matrix of Mamluk society. A re-assessment of Mamluk Politics in the 1360s.

by Jo Van Steenbergen

JAOS 131/3

This article focuses on surprisingly traditional aspects of Mamluk political culture in the 1360s. It presents a... more This article focuses on surprisingly traditional aspects of Mamluk political culture in the 1360s. It presents a first, detailed account of the life and times of the military slave (mamlūk) Yalbughā al-Khāṣṣakī, who rose to prominence in the later 750s/1350s and who dominated the Mamluk political arena in the 760s/1360s. Instead of approaching this from the perspective of Yalbughā’s career as an exponent of Mamluk decline, his historical role is assessed within the remit of surprising continuities of 1360s elite politics with past practices of royal loyalty and wide-ranging patronage —of the Qalāwūnid sultanate and the Mamluk cultural matrix—, as an important stepping stone in the larger process of identifying an alternative paradigm for that of Mamluk decline.

History's Hinge: The Battle of Ain Jalut

by David Tschanz

Originally published in Saudi Aramco World

The Battle of Ain Jalut pitted a Mamluk army against a larger Mongol army near present Ramallah. The resulting Mamluk... more The Battle of Ain Jalut pitted a Mamluk army against a larger Mongol army near present Ramallah. The resulting Mamluk victory shook the Mongols’ belief in themselves and ‘Ain Jalut marked the end of any concerted campaign by the Mongols in the Levant. In saving Cairo from the fate of Baghdad, the battle of ‘Ain Jalut also sealed the doom of the relatively weaker remaining Crusader states. Mamluk Egypt rose to the pinnacle of Islamic political, military and cultural power, a position it maintained until the rise of the Ottomans some 200 years later.

Mamluk Elite on the Eve of an-Nasir Muhammad's death (1341): A Look behind the Scenes of Mamluk Politics

by Jo Van Steenbergen

Mamluk Studies Review 9/2 (2005), pp. 173-199

(Not so) Distant Mirrors: a complex macro-comparison of polities and political, economic and religious systems in the crisis of the 14th century

by Johannes Preiser-Kapeller

Paper for the International Conference "THE ANGEVIN DYNASTY (14TH CENTURY)" in Targoviste (Romania), October 21st-23rd 2011.
Slides here: http://oeaw.academia.edu/JohannesPreiserKapeller/Talks/58247/_Not_so_Distant_Mirrors_a_complex_macro-comparison_of_polities_and_political_economic_and_religious_systems_in_the_crisis_of_the_14th_century

In the “calamitous” 14th century, as Barbara Tuchman called it in her classic „A Distant Mirror“ (1978) , the medieval... more In the “calamitous” 14th century, as Barbara Tuchman called it in her classic „A Distant Mirror“ (1978) , the medieval world entered a period of severe crisis in demography, economy, politics and religion. This crisis took hold in all regions, ranging from China in the East to England in the West. Even before the catastrophic pandemic of the Black Death (1346-1352), deteriorating climatic conditions had ended the period of demographic and economic expansion that began in the 10th century.
The local and regional impacts and consequences of these general potentially crisis-laden conditions may have differed; outcomes ranged from actual societal collapse to the emergence of powerful new polities – while Byzantium´s power dwindled away, Hungary entered a period of strong rulership and external power in the reign of Louis I of Anjou (1342-1382), for instance. But these conditions provide a framework for global perspective on this period and allow us to use the 14th century-crisis as a field of “natural experiments of history”, as Jared Diamond and James A. Robinson have called them ; accordingly, we analyse how similar crisis phenomena influenced the development of societies with different (or similar) traditions, religions, institutions, geographies or ecologies.
In order to be able to capture the local variations and complexities, we adopt concepts and tools provided by the field of complexity science. Mono-causal or linear explanations are inadequate for the analysis and the description of crisis, transformation or collapse of pre-modern polities. Within this framework, complex systems are understood as large networks of individual components, whose interactions at the microscopic level produce “complex” changing patterns of behaviour of the whole system on the macroscopic level. In the last decades, historians and social scientists who became interested in complexity theory tried to use its concepts and terminology for the conceptualisation and description of phenomena in their own fields, but often only in a “metaphoric” way. Less frequently, though, historians have tried to make use of the mathematical foundations of complexity theory or of quantitative tools provided by this field. Recent scholarship has implemented some of these tools especially for the construction of macro-models of socio-economic development. While these studies help us construct analytical tools for the macro-level of our own research, they run the same risk as earlier scholarship of neglecting complex variations at the local and regional levels.
Therefore, we combine complexity theory with the analytical framework of „systems theory“ developed by the German sociologist Niklas Luhmann in order to capture the interveawements between politics, economy and religion within a polity and with the political, economic and ecological environment. In addition, we employ the methods and tools of network analysis, which allow us to capture, analyse and model linkages and cause-effect correlations in society, economy, politics and religion on the macro- and micro-level down to groups and individuals.
Overall, as a complement to earlier studies our analytical
approach shall allow us to capture the “diversité véritable” of our period without losing track of essential commonalities (the “strange parallels”, as Victor Liebermann has called them in his remarkable study on Southeast Asia in Global Context, 2009 ) of this “first world crisis” across all cultures and societies. The scientic value of this approach will be demonstrated for some specific cases.

The Mamluk sultanate as a military patronage state: household politics and the case of the Qalawunid bayt (1279-1382)

by Jo Van Steenbergen

Journal of the Economic and Social History of the Orient (2012)

This article purports to offer new insights into the longue durée of the late medieval Islamic sultanate that once... more This article purports to offer new insights into the longue durée of the late medieval Islamic sultanate that once dominated the area between the Eastern Mediterranean and the Arabian Sea: the Syro-Egyptian Mamlūk Sultanate (1250-1517). The argument presented here endeavours to make more historical sense of recent research findings on Mamlūk socio-political history by developing and applying the revisionist conceptual framework of the early Mamluk sultanate as a military patronage state. Breaking free from the heuristic reins imposed on Mamluk studies by the paradigm of the Mamluk political elite as defined by the normative exclusivism of elite military slavery —the so-called ‘Mamluk System’—, it is demonstrated that the apparent royal, dynastic attitudes of early Mamluk politics were no mere façade for that Mamluk System, but rather powerful discursive, institutional and practical representations of a long-standing political culture of military leadership, patronage ties, household bonds, and unsteady devolved authorities, coalescing between 1279 and 1382 in the Qalāwūnid sultanate of Egypt and Syria.

"Mamluk Eunuchs, Habashis and Waqf in the 1340s"

by Jo Van Steenbergen

in U. Vermeulen & K. D'hulster (eds.), Egypt and Syria in the Fatimid, Ayyubid and Mamluk Eras - V , ( Orientalia Lovaniensia Analecta ), Leuven 2007.

Is Anyone my Guardian ...?' Mamluk Under Age Rule and the Later Qalawunids

by Jo Van Steenbergen

al-Masaq 19/1 (2007), pp. 55-65

Succession to the Mamlūk sultanate is one of those thorny issues that keep bothering historians. Within an environment... more Succession to the Mamlūk sultanate is one of those thorny issues that keep bothering historians. Within an environment that did not generally favour heredity of military/political status, a frequent tendency towards dynasticism remains difficult to explain, the Qalāwūnids (678-784/1279-1382) offering a case in point. This article analyses the age of accession of the later Qalāwūnids (741-784/1341-1382) and challenges the generally accepted view that they were mostly politically weak minors and mere stopgaps to a failing political system. It argues that there was a dynastic reflex at work, which combined with the specific political circumstances of the mid-fourteenth century and which resulted in the paradox of a very active, but continuously contested Qalāwūnid sultanate.

On the Brink of a New Era. Yalbugha l-Khassaki (d. 1366) and the Yalbughawiyya.

by Jo Van Steenbergen

Mamluk Studies Review 15 (2011): 117-152

This article focuses on incipient changes in Mamluk political culture of the 1360s by analyzing the December 1366... more This article focuses on incipient changes in Mamluk political culture of the 1360s by analyzing the December 1366 conflict that brought down the dominant Mamluk amir Yalbugha al-Khassaki. It is claimed that prosopography, and a more accurate identification of Yalbughā’s opponents and of their relationship with Yalbughā in general, opens up very interesting new perspectives. This eventually allows for a more positive reading of the causes and consequences of this conflict, moving towards a better understanding of the process of change and transformation which the Mamluk sultanate clearly was undergoing by the latter half of the fourteenth century, and which was to ensure its continued existence well into the sixteenth century!

Online article : Ibn Taymiyya : une condamnation du soufisme ?

by Qais Assef

Ibn Taymiyya : une condamnation du soufisme ?
- Part 1 : http://www.oumma.com/Ibn-Taymiyya-une-condamnation-du
- Part 2 : http://www.oumma.com/Le-soufisme-selon-Ibn-Taymiyya

Jurisconsulte et théologien hanbalite, Ibn Taymiyya (1263-1328) est une des figures majeures de l’histoire islamique.... more Jurisconsulte et théologien hanbalite, Ibn Taymiyya (1263-1328) est une des figures majeures de l’histoire islamique. Il peut, sans conteste, être comparé aux « monuments » de l’histoire islamique, tels Shâfi‘î (m. 820) et Ghazâlî (m. 1111).

L’empreinte de son réformisme politico-religieux se retrouve notamment chez les salafistes, les wahhabites, ainsi qu’auprès des réformistes comme Jamâl al-Dîn al-Afghânî (m. 1897), Muhammad ‘Abduh (m. 1905) et Rashîd Ridâ (m. 1935). Cependant, la pensée d’Ibn Taymiyya ne peut être restreinte aux seuls aspects juridiques et politiques de son œuvre. Replacé dans son contexte historico-politique, Ibn Taymiyya pose, à bien des égards, des questions fondamentales pour l’ensemble de la religion musulmane : foi et raison, éthique et politique, etc.

Toutefois, un des aspects majeurs de son œuvre semble avoir été négligé tant par la recherche académique que par les penseurs musulmans : il s’agit du rapport entre la « Loi » (charia) et la « Voie » (tarîqa). Autrement dit la relation du docteur hanbalite à la mystique musulmane, plus communément appelée le soufisme (en arabe : al-tasawwuf). En effet, le rapport du savant hanbalite au soufisme fait l’objet d’un troublant paradoxe. Il a certes porté des critiques envers certaines doctrines et pratiques soufies, mais il ne s’agissait à aucun moment de jeter l’anathème sur l’ensemble de la mystique musulmane. Pour mesurer le désordre régnant autour de la perspective taymiyyenne du soufisme, il nous suffirait de parcourir les nombreux forums en ligne où les adversaires du soufisme s’illustrent en détournant, hors contexte, les arguments du savant hanbalite pour jeter l’anathème sur le soufisme dans sa globalité.

Cette distorsion n’est malheureusement pas l’exclusivité du grand public. À notre grand regret, la position d’Ibn Taymiyya vis-à-vis du soufisme reste encore un sujet à l’état embryonnaire dans les milieux académiques. Néanmoins, les rares études sur le sujet ont permis de souligner les affinités d’Ibn Taymiyya et de son école hanbalite avec la mystique musulmane.

Information : Ibn Taymiyya's grave / La tombe d'Ibn Taymiyya

by Qais Assef

Ibn Taymiyya (d. 1328) is buried in the Sufi cemetery in Damascus. Attached is a photo of his grave taken in August... more Ibn Taymiyya (d. 1328) is buried in the Sufi cemetery in Damascus. Attached is a photo of his grave taken in August 2009, below the location of his grave on Google Maps.

Ibn Taymiyya (m. 1328) est enterré dans le cimetière soufi de Damas. Ci-joint une photo de sa tombe, prise en Août 2009, ci-dessous la localisation de sa tombe sur Google Maps.

http://maqbara-sufiyya.ibntaymiyya.org

An analysis of Taqī al-Dīn al-Subkī's fatwá on Shīʿīs

by Aun Hasan Ali

unpublished

In 755/1354-55 a man named ʿAlī b. Abī Faḍl caused a disturbance in the Umayyad mosque. Taqī al-Dīn al-Subkī (d.... more In 755/1354-55 a man named ʿAlī b. Abī Faḍl caused a disturbance in the Umayyad mosque. Taqī al-Dīn al-Subkī (d. 756/1355), the Shāfiʿī chief justice of Damascus, was present and took part in the proceedings that led to his execution. Apparently, some people claimed that this man was unjustly killed. Subkī wrote a lengthy fatwā explaining his stance on the matter. This paper is an analysis of the arguments in this fatwā, which is an important bit of evidence about the situation of Shīʿīs in Mamlūk Syria. The fatwā itself can be divided into three parts: a summary presentation of the principal argument and objections to it; a detailed discussion of numerous arguments and counter-arguments; and a summary of the main points. As such the fatwā can be redundant, however I have included as much detail as possible for the reader to appreciate the style in addition to the substance of Subkī’s argumentation.

"Slaves, Wealth and Fear: An Episode from Late Mamluk-Era Egypt" Oriens (2009), 155-161

by Nur Sobers Khan