Routledge Revivals: Medieval Islamic Civilization (2006)

An Encyclopedia - Volume II

Josef Meri

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2018
• eBook ISBN: 9781351668132
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: European Medieval History
• Index: History

Islamic civilization flourished in the Middle Ages across a vast geographical area that spans today's Middle and Near East.

First published in 2006, Medieval Islamic Civilization examines the socio-cultural history of the regions where Islam took hold between the 7th and 16th centuries. This important two-volume work contains over 700 alphabetically arranged entries, contributed and signed by international scholars and experts in fields such as Arabic languages, Arabic literature, architecture, history of science, Islamic arts, Islamic studies, Middle Eastern studies, Near Eastern studies, politics, religion, Semitic studies, theology, and more. Entries also explore the importance of interfaith relations and the permeation of persons, ideas, and objects across geographical and intellectual boundaries between Europe and the Islamic world.

This reference work provides an exhaustive and vivid portrait of Islamic civilization and brings together in one authoritative text all aspects of Islamic civilization during the Middle Ages. Accessible to scholars, students and non-specialists, this resource will be of great use in research and understanding of the roots of today's Islamic society as well as the rich and vivid culture of medieval Islamic civilization.

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LAND TENURE AND OWNERSHIP, OR IQTA‘

Iqta‘ is an Arabic term designating the land or tax revenues allocated by the great amir or sultan to soldiers in return for military service (khidma). Khubz (bread) was synonymous with this term in Ayyubid and Mamluk Egypt and in Syria. Its holder was called muqta‘ in Arabic and iqta‘dar in Persian.

Qati‘a and Day‘a in the Early Islamic Period

Three Sunnite schools of law (the Shafi’is, Malikis, and Hanbalis), but not the Hanafis, regard that the land conquered by force belonged to the Muslim community as fay’, which was not to be assigned to the Arabs. However, since the early Islamic period it was often granted as qati‘a to the people who rendered distinguished services to the state. According to al-Mawardi (d. 1058 CE), the iqta‘s in Islamic law are classified into two types. The first type is an “iqta‘ of private ownership” (iqta‘ al-tamlik), which means privately owned land assigned by the state, provided that owners pay the land tax (kharaj) or the tithe (‘ushr) according to land category. The second type is an “iqta‘ of usufruct” (iqta‘ al-istighlal), by which revenue from a piece of land is apportioned in place of a salary (al-Ahkam al-sultaniya: 190–198). The first type of iqta‘ is termed qati‘a in the early historical sources, while the second type of iqta‘ designates the military iqta‘ since the middle of the tenth century.

Apart from the qati‘a, the privately owned land that was valid for the duration of life was called tu‘ma, and other privileged landownership appeared, such as ighar, carrying with it partial immunity from taxation, and taswigh, having complete immunity from taxation. As C. Cahen suggests, based on such privileged landownership, large-scale landownership developed gradually from the Umayyad to the ‘Abbasid periods. A.A. al-Duri further advanced this topic, showing that the land system was connected closely with the origin of the iqta‘ system (1969:3–22). He states that in the early Islamic period there rose a new aristocracy who held the qati‘a assigned from treasury lands (sawafi). Besides, since the cultivated land was evaluated as a source for stable income during the ‘Abbasid period, tax collectors aimed at obtaining private domains (day‘a), and merchants also invested their commercial profits to purchase day‘a. According to J. Shimada, large-scale day‘as were invented by such means as reclamation, promise of protection, and enclosure (hawz), whereas small-scale qati‘as were apportioned by the person superior in rank (caliph or provincial governor). The state coffers thus suffered as such privileged landownership by merchants, high officials, and the Turkish commanders developed, particularly in Iraq after the ninth century.

As Turkish soldiers (mamluks or ghulams) extended their power after the middle of the ninth century, the authority of the ‘Abbasid caliphate declined significantly. In addition, the independence of local governors—for example, the Samanids (875–999) in Iran and the Tulunids (869–905) in Egypt—led to decreases in state revenue, which caused great fiscal difficulties. Other than the development of privileged landownership, pecuniary waste by the ‘Abbasid court also added to these difficulties. Al-Maqrizi (d. 1442), an Egyptian historian, explains that the ‘ata’ (salary) system was conducted in the early Islamic period, paying salaries to the soldiers and officials out of the state treasury (Khitat I:95). However, these serious problems made it more difficult to maintain the ‘ata’ system by the early tenth century. Accordingly, when the Buwayhid army entered Baghdad at the beginning of the year 946, the military iqta‘ system was first introduced in Islamic history.

Establishment and Development of the Iqta‘ System

Miskawayh (d. 1030) relates that Mu‘izz al-Dawla, the Buwayhid great amir, granted iqta‘s to his officers (quwwad), his associates (khawass), and his Turkish chivalry (Tajarib al-Umam, II, 96). A few years later, when the whole of Iraq came to be apportioned into iqta‘, small iqta‘s were granted to Daylamite foot soldiers as well. The peasants under the iqta‘ system, who now paid the land tax not to the government but to their muqta‘ (iqta‘ holder), had to bear hardships of the unjust rule of the muqta‘. According to B. Johansen, the distinction between tax (kharaj) and rent (ujra) first became vague through the spread of the iqta‘ system, which led to the fundamental changes of the rural society in the Middle East.

The Seljukids, who entered Baghdad in 1055, inherited the Buwayhid iqta‘ system almost as it was. When Tughril Bek advanced from Nishapur to Baghdad, he consolidated his authority through iqta‘ assignments to the local rulers and their subordinates.A. K. S. Lambton observes that the iqta‘ system in Islamic society was quite different from feudalism in Europe, in the sense that the element of mutual obligation inherent to European feudalism was notably absent in the iqta‘ system. Under the Seljukid rule the administrative iqta‘s, as opposed to the military iqta‘s, were granted to amirs who conducted both rights of administration and tax collection. As disclosed in Siyasat nama, Nizam al-Mulk, a Persian vizier of the Seljukids, intended to clarify the muqta‘s rights and duties, to change their iqta‘s every 2 to 3 years, and to send, if needed, supervisors to the local provinces. However, as the sultan’s authority decreased after Malik Shah died in 1092, the atabeks and amirs gained independence by means of inheriting iqta‘s from their ancestors.

In Syria and Jazira, iqta‘ grants by the Zankid rulers followed the breakup of the Seljukid empire. ‘Imad al-Din Zanki (1127–1146), who entered Mosul in 1127, allocated iqta‘s to his amirs and soldiers and introduced similar allotments into Jazira and northern Syria. I. Khalil relates that each amir was assigned a district including local towns, while soldiers were granted small iqta‘s. The rights of muqta‘ during the Zankid period, as in the Seljukid period, was legally restricted to the levying of taxes on their iqta‘s; but soldiers, who wished to hold stable iqta‘s, insisted that iqta‘s were privately owned land (milk) to be inherited from father to son. Accepting this argument, Nur al-Din al-Zanki (1146–1174) consented to the inheritance of iqta‘ holdings and ordered that a guardian be chosen if the heir was still a child (Ibn al-Athir, al-Ta’rikh al-bahir, 169). This Zankid iqta‘ system was soon introduced into Egypt by Saladin (Salah al-Din).

In Fatimid Egypt, amirs and high officials held privately owned lands called qati‘a or iqta‘. According to H. Rabie, the muqta‘s were not required to provide military service except in a few cases, but they had to pay the tithe to the government. In this sense the Fatimid iqta‘ system was still different from the military iqta‘ system during the Buwayhid or Seljukid periods. When Salah al-Din was installed as the Fatimid vizier in March 1169, he began to confiscate the iqta‘s held by the Fatimid soldiers and assigned the confiscated lands to his followers in the form of iqta‘ (Abu Shama, Kitab al-rawdatayn, II, 450). As al-Maqrizi relates, from the reign of Salah al-Din, all the Egyptian lands have been distributed to the sultan, amirs, and soldiers as iqta‘s (Khitat, I, 97). In Ayyubid Syria also, the iqta‘ assignment was the most crucial factor for maintaining the Ayyubid state order. However, one of the characteristics peculiar to the Ayyubid iqta‘ system was that demands to the sultan were made concerning iqta‘ holdings. This was due to the fact that the rules and regulations of granting iqta‘s were not yet established, particularly at the early stages of the Ayyubid period.

Because iqta‘s in the early Mamluk period were often granted according to the amir’s requests, iqta‘ assignments had features similar to those of the Ayyubid period. However, by the end of the thirteenth century the power of the royal Mamluks had eventually emerged. The sultans saw the necessity of getting rid of the old amirs and strengthening the basis of their power by means of their own Mamluks. To achieve this objective they twice carried out countrywide cadastral surveys, al-Rawk al-Husami (1298) and al-Rawk al-Nasiri (1313–1325). These rawks, especially al-Rawk al-Nasiri, resulted in the iqta‘ revenue (‘ibra) of the royal Mamluks being increased sharply at the expense of the freeborn (halqa) chivalry (al-Maqrizi, Khitat, I, 88). Amirs from these Mamluks operated advantageous iqta‘ holdings, which they used as a basis of strengthening their control over the agricultural communities in Egypt and Syria. Al-Rawk al-Nasiri has considerable historical significance in the sense that it brought about great change in the organization of the iqta‘ system and prescribed the state structure during the middle of the Mamluk period.

TSUGITAKA SATO

See also Waqf

Further Reading

Cahen, C. “L’evolution de l’iqta‘ du IX au XIII siecle.” Annales: ESC 8 (1953): 25–52.

Al-Duri, A. A. “The Origins of Iqta‘ in Islam.” al-Abhath 22 (1969): 3–22; do. Ta’rikh al-‘Iraq al-iqtisadi al-‘Arabi. Beirut, 1974.

Humphreys, R. S. Saladin to the Mongols. Albany, NY, 1977.

Johansen, B. The Islamic Law on Land Tax and Rent.London, 1988.

Khalil, I. ‘Imad al-Din Zangi. Beirut, 1967.

Lambton, A. K. S. Landlord and Peasant in Persia. London, 1953; do. “Reflections on the IQTA‘.” In Arabic and Islamic Studies in Honor of Hamilton, edited by G. Maqdisi, 358–376. Leiden: A.R. Gibb, 1965.

Lev, Y. State and Society in Fatimid Egypt. Leiden, 1991.

Rabie, H. The Financial System of Egypt A.H. 564-741/A. D. 1169-1341. London, 1972.

Sato, T. The State and Rural Society in Medieval Islam: Sultans, Muqta‘s and Fallahun. Leiden, 1997.

Shimada, J. Studies on the Early Islamic State (in Japanese: Shoki Isuramu Kokkano Kenkyu). Tokyo, 1996.

Turkhan, I. A. al-Nuzum al-iqta‘iyya fi ’l-sharq al-awsat fi ’l-‘usur al-wusta. Cairo, 1968.

LAW AND JURISPRUDENCE

Law (fiqh, lit. “understanding”) and jurisprudence (usul al-fiqh, lit. “roots of understanding”). Fiqh is the technical term for Islamic substantive law. Developed largely by scholars, Islamic law has been described as a paradigmatic example of “jurists’ law.” Medieval treatises of Islamic law typically began with ritual law (purity [tahara], ritual prayer [salat], fasting [siyam], alms-tax [zakat], and pilgrimage [hajj]) and then proceeded to various topics of private law, such as family law, transactional law, and tort law, and various topics of public law, such as criminal law, the law of war, and constitutional law. Jurists of the medieval period also authored specialized treatises that addressed particular topics in much greater detail than could be done in the generalized treatises that were the foundational texts of both legal education and the administration of the law.

Fiqh should not be confused with Islamic ethical norms or morality. Legal treatises are principally concerned with the positive rules of Islamic law (al-ahkam al-wad‘iyya), in contrast to rules of obligation (al-ahkam al-taklifiyya). Whereas the latter category of rules speaks to the status of an act (such as obligatory, forbidden, favored, disfavored, or indifferent), the former speaks to the consequences of an act (such as valid, invalid, binding, void, voidable). They are addressed not to the generality of believers but rather to legal specialists (fuqaha’) for use in resolving judicial cases (qada’), and the delivery of formal legal opinions (fatwa).

Usul al-fiqh is, in the first instance, a philosophical and epistemological discipline that seeks to understand the source of moral obligation (for example, reason or revelation), how moral judgments may be reached (legitimate methods of moral reasoning), and the reliability of moral judgments (for example, certain or probable).

Revelation, all Muslim scholars agreed, was an infallible source of moral knowledge and as a general matter. They also agreed that the divine commands could be found in three sources: the Qur’an (the revealed word of God), the teachings and practice of the Prophet Muhammad (known generically as the sunna), and consensus (ijma‘). Only the contents of the Qur’an, however, were universally acknowledged. Otherwise, significant differences—both doctrinal and empirical—characterized Muslim approaches to the sunna and the doctrine of ijma‘.

Usul al-fiqh also included techniques of practical reason that were to be used to determine the moral status of an act. The most important such tool was analogy (qiyas). Various utility-related arguments were also widely discussed (and often used), but their legitimacy was more controversial.

Finally, because of the primacy of revelation as a source of ethical knowledge, hermeneutics was a matter of central concern in usul al-fiqh. As a general matter, Muslim scholars accorded only presumptive weight to the apparent meaning of revelation, which was sufficient, in their moral theory, to give rise to moral obligation. The apparent meaning of revelation, however, could be overcome if other evidence existed demonstrating that the apparent sense was not intended. It is only the rare revelatory text that is considered, from a hermeneutical perspective, to be conclusive.

MOHAMMAD H. FADEL

See also Customary Law

Further Reading

Hallaq, Wael B. Authority, Continuity and Change in Islamic Law. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2001.

———. A History of Islamic Legal Theories. Cambridge:Cambridge University Press, 1997.

Schacht, Joseph. An Introduction to Islamic Law. Oxford: The Clarendon Press, 1964.

LIBRARIES

Maktaba is the Arabic word normally used to mean “library,” but in classical Islam, corresponding appellations were used: “treasure house of books” (khizanat al-kutub) or “abode of books” (dar al-kutub, an expression that is still in favor for a national library, such as the one in Cairo). In Iran, kitab-khana, and in modern Turkey, kütüphane, are the equivalents. These institutions were never one and the same in the Middle Ages as real public libraries, but the most important were part of institutions of learning created on the initiative of sovereigns or officials of the caliphal government and the different dynasties. For that reason they were also often designated by the name of institutions: House or Abode of Wisdom (bayt or dar al-hikma), Abode of Knowledge (dar al-‘ilm). From the AH fifth/eleventh CE century onward, they were often a part of the higher colleges, called madrasas. Individual scholars or officials, sometimes families, had also private libraries.

Since antiquity, small libraries existed in the great mosques of the most important towns of the empire, and many a scholar bequeathed his library to the mosque of his city. With time, however, many mosques also had large libraries. We shall only mention three of them. In Baghdad, we have considerable information of the library of the mosque of Abu Hanifa. Among many other famous people who bequeathed their private book collections, the grammarian, Mu‘tazilite theologian, and exegete al-Zamakhshari can be mentioned (d. 538/1143).

The library of the mosque of Qayrawan in Tunisia had its time of glory under the Zirid al-Mu‘izz b. Bads (r. 406–54/1015–1062), but the tribesmen of Banu Hilal destroyed most of the book collections.

Built in 245/859, the Qarawiyyin mosque of Fez had a library founded by the Marinid sultan al-Mutawakkil Abu ‘...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Table of Contents
• Maps
• Introduction
• Editorial Board
• Contributors
• List of Entries A to Z
• Thematic List of Entries
• Entries A to Z
• Index