Ibn Khaldūn, Ibn al-Khaṭīb and Their Milieu: A Community of Letters in the Fourteenth-Century Mediterranean

2014 ◽  
Vol 20 (4-5) ◽  
pp. 288-305
Author(s):  
Allen Fromherz

Despite the calamities of the fourteenth century, the Black Death, the disintegration of political power, and the destructive rivalry between North African and Andalusī rulers, the correspondence of two scholars and ministers, Ibn al-Khaṭīb and Ibn Khaldūn, reveals a network of intellectual contacts maintained above the fray. As Ibn al-Khaṭīb’s famous essay, the “Art of Being a Minister,” made clear, the intelligentsia saw itself as both within and above the political milieu. The conferring of diplomas from teacher to student was based as much on personal loyalty as on scholarship. In the same century, however, many members of the intellectual club, including Ibn Khaldūn and his teachers, complained that rulers limited the traditional freedoms of the scholars and ministers. Ibn Khaldūn articulated these moves as assaults on true scholarship. The intellectuals writing the history of the fourteenth-century Mediterranean were not simply agents of the rulers they worked for; rather, even as rivals they saw themselves as guardians in a family of letters, linked more by the ijāza than by blood. They were, or at least aspired to be, members of an intellectual class that transcended political and, sometimes, religious boundaries.

Author(s):  
Peter Linehan

This book springs from its author’s continuing interest in the history of Spain and Portugal—on this occasion in the first half of the fourteenth century between the recovery of each kingdom from widespread anarchy and civil war and the onset of the Black Death. Focussing on ecclesiastical aspects of the period in that region (Galicia in particular) and secular attitudes to the privatization of the Church, it raises inter alios the question why developments there did not lead to a permanent sundering of the relationship with Rome (or Avignon) two centuries ahead of that outcome elsewhere in the West. In addressing such issues, as well as of neglected material in Spanish and Portuguese archives, use is made of the also unpublished so-called ‘secret’ registers of the popes of the period. The issues it raises concern not only Spanish and Portuguese society in general but also the developing relationship further afield of the components of the eternal quadrilateral (pope, king, episcopate, and secular nobility) in late medieval Europe, as well as of the activity in that period of those caterpillars of the commonwealth, the secular-minded sapientes. In this context, attention is given to the hitherto neglected attempt of Afonso IV of Portugal to appropriate the privileges of the primatial church of his kingdom and to advance the glorification of his Castilian son-in-law, Alfonso XI, as God’s vicegerent in his.


2020 ◽  
pp. 46-55
Author(s):  
ZUKHRA ARIPOVA

This article is dedicated to the life and work of historians of the Mamluk period (1250-1517) in Egypt and the rich heritage left by them. In the XIII-XV centuries, Egypt had a special place among the countries of the Middle East due to the activities of the Mamluks. The prestige of the Mamluk sultans increased due to their victories in the fght against the Crusaders and the Mongols in the Middle East. The establishment of Mamluk rule in the history of Egypt, the growth of the superiority of military Mamluks in the country, the rise of the Bakhrit Mamluk sultans (1250-1382) and the political processes of the Burjit (Circassian) Mamluk period (1282-1517) are of particular interest for s this study. This article provides extensive information on the activities and works of medieval historians such as Abu alMahasin, Ibn Daud Al-Sayraf, Abd Ar-Rahman As-Sahawi, Jalal ad-Din As-Suyuti, Ibn Iyas Muhammad ibn Ahmad and Ibn Zanbal Ar-Rummal, Ali ibn Ahmad Ibn al-Asir, Abd Ar-Rahman Ibn Khaldun, al-Umari, Shahab ad-din alKalkashandi, Taki ad-din Al-Makrizi, Az-Zahiri, Khalil ibn Shahin. Relevance: After Uzbekistan gained independence, orientalists have new opportunities to search, study and disseminate information about Islam and the history of Islam among the general public. When studying the period of the history of the Mamluks in Egypt, many aspects of the history of Mavaraunnahr of that time are also revealed. Studying the primary sources containing information on this topic makes it possible to objectively evaluate the political, social and economic processes of this period. Methods. The article uses generally accepted historical methods based on the principles of historicity, structurality and objectivity. Conclusions: Also, it must be pointed out that objective coverage of the history of this period, in addition to the historical works of the above authors of the 13th-15th centuries, is facilitated by the study of various scientifc treatises, commentaries, shortened versions of works (almukhtasar), dictionaries, prose and poetic works.


Author(s):  
Stephen Cory

Although the fourteenth century Marīnids openly acknowledged their Berber identity, by the end of the sixteenth century, sharīfian descent had become a requirement for Moroccan rule. This chapter examines the political propaganda of the Marīnid sultan Abū’l-Ḥasan ʿAlī (r. 731–752/1331–1351) and the Saʿdī sultan Aḥmad al-Manṣūr al-Dhahabī (r. 986–1012/1578–1603). It considers similarities and differences between their political propaganda in light of their differing historical circumstances, particularly the relative power of sharīfian movements during their respective reigns, as well as the importance of holy lineages, monarchical treatment of the shurafāʾ, and the role of ceremonies in political legitimation. It argues that the Saʿdī ability to convince Moroccans of their sharīfian lineage connected with a larger trend to equate political power with descent from the Prophet and reinforced their authority. In contrast, the Marīnids contributed to their own downfall through their inconsistent policies towards honouring the shurafāʾ.


1947 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 51-68 ◽  
Author(s):  
K. B. McFarlane

The problem that I am going to discuss this afternoon is one which must surely have exercised the minds of all those who have given a moment's thought to the financing of the Hundred Years' War. What conclusions have been reached it would be hard to say. For apart from two or three illuminating though hardly conclusive pages by Mr A. B. Steel, to whom my indebtedness should soon be obvious, nothing seems to have been printed on this subject in recent times. Yet unless we have some idea why men lent large sums of ready money to the English kings of the later Middle Ages, we must approach the political history of the period at a considerable disadvantage. To an increasing extent as the fourteenth century advanced and preponderantly throughout the course of its successor these lenders were natives and drawn from all sections of the propertied classes. The king's treatment of his creditors was therefore bound to affect his relations with his most powerful subjects. It would be surprising if his success or failure in meeting his obligations did not markedly influence their attitude towards his rule.


Antiquity ◽  
1931 ◽  
Vol 5 (19) ◽  
pp. 277-290
Author(s):  
Flinders Petrie

When we look at the great diversity of man’s activities and interests, it is evident how much space they afford for reviewing his history in many different ways. To most of our historians the view of the political power and course of legislation has seemed all that need be noticed; others have dealt with history in religion, or the growth of mind in changes of moral standards, as in Lecky’s fine work. In recent years the history of knowledge in medicine, in the applied sciences, and in abstract mathematics, has been profitably studied, as affording the basis of civilization. The purely mental view is shown in the social life and customs of each age, and expressed in the growth of Art. This last expression of man’s spirit has great advantages in its presentation; the material from different ages is of a comparable nature, and it is easily placed together to contrast its differences. Moreover it covers a wider range of time than we can et observe in man’s scope, but it is as essential to his nature as any of the other aspects that we have named.


2011 ◽  
Vol 1 (3) ◽  
pp. 364-366
Author(s):  
Guy Baeten

This comment on Larner's (2011) article deals with the political power of certain conceptualisations of neoliberalism and questions the Anglo-American ways of reading the history of neoliberalism. The inclusion of key moments of neoliberalisation and crisis outside the Anglo-American world would provide different readings of the processes of neoliberalisation. The ‘choice’ of crises matters for our understanding of the contemporary neoliberal condition.


ICL Journal ◽  
2015 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Sanaa Ahmed

AbstractDespite a rich history of judicial review, the activism witnessed during the tenure of former Chief Justice of Pakistan Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry (2005-2013The Chaudhry court’s activism is mapped against the historic trajectory of judicial review in Pakistan, particularly the cases pertaining to military takeovers and administrative law. It is contended that the seeming expansion of the frontiers of judicial review merely mark the renegotiation of political power between the judiciary, the military as well as political and economic elite. Further, it is argued that the economy was the most convenient amphi­theatre for this battle for greater political relevance by and among the political actors in contemporary Pakistan and not, as alleged, what was actually being fought over.


2010 ◽  

This book is a collection of seven essays with an introduction by the editor. The contributions propose first-hand studies of some of the less researched aspects of the history of the Italian communes: the practices of conflict, vendetta and pacification. The variety of different ways of resolving conflicts brought to light by the studies for the various civic and rural contexts (Mantua, Parma, Pisa, Lucca, Florence and the Valdinievole), between the beginning of the thirteenth and the mid fourteenth century, indicate how normal such social relations were, the widespread nature of the feud and the legitimisation and centrality of the culture of the vendetta within the political arena of the commune. The book hence offers a precious contribution for a review of the prevalent narration of the vendetta in late mediaeval Italian society.


Author(s):  
C. C. TOLENTINO ◽  
Paulo Eduardo A. SILVA

Records on the trial and sentencing for heresy of French warrior Joan of Arc dating to 1431 have been studied by a variety of fields. The present work explores the primary sources and several of these studies in the aim of analyzing the political significance of the forms adopted during the trial. From a perspective poised between the history of law and procedural law, the article clarifies aspects of the practical functioning of the Roman Canon inquisitorial procedure at the end of the Middle Ages, and, more widely, the phenomenon of the capillarization of the political power by means of the production of truth. The article concludes that, although Joan of Arc’s trial was clearly politically motivated, several of its dimensions correspond to the procedural practices of the time, leading us to an understanding that the influence of power over trials does not necessarily manifest in a direct violation of procedural rules, but rather in their very design and the ways in which they are put into operation.


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