IFAO

In this two part article, the author firstly analyses four published Mamluk chancellery manuals in terms of topics, organisation, their relationship to other works, and usefulness to modern historians. Secondly, evidence from these manuals and chronicles will be used to argue that diplomatic and ceremonial etiquette in the Mamluk Sultanate could be read by contemporary observers. This enabled the readers to understand important information with regard to politics both within the Sultanate itself and how the Mamluks approached relations with outsiders.

This study focuses on the question of form and protocol that underline “the written connections” between the Mamluks and the Chinggisids of the Golden Horde. Our aim is to establish if the chancellery rules of the Jochids influenced the Mamluks and whether we are entitled to speak of a “cross-influence” between the Turkic, Mongols and Arabic epistolary practices of the time. The address to the khan by the sultans was governed by a strict set of rules. In order to shed light on these structures, the author wishes to make use of a corpus of letters that have until now remained an under exploited source. Although this source comprises of copied letters, it is reliable enough to enable us to recover part of the correspondence between the Muslim rulers. Moreover, it informs us about models and forms used by the chancellery secretaries, when constructing such diplomatic letters. This corpus is made of abstracts from chancellery handbooks written by three kuttāb al-inšā’ of the Mamluk Saltanate: al-Taʿrif fī-l-muṣṭalaḥ al-šarīf by Ibn Faḍl Allāh al-ʿUmarī (d. 749/1349), al-Taṯqif fī-l-taʿrif by Taqī al-dīn Ibn Nāẓir al-Ǧayš (d. 786/1384) and the Ṣubḥ al-aʿšā fī ṣinaʿat al-inšā’ by al-Qalqašandī (d. 821/1418).

This article explores the extent to which the Islamic diplomatic practice of elevatio has permeated the chanceries of the Malay world in South East Asia. This honorific ‘elevation’ of a name or phrase from its normal position in the text to a more prominent position on the document, is described by V. Ménage in his seminal article published in 1985. In fact, no ‘true’ examples of elevatio can be found in the letters written in Malay, and although numerous examples illustrating the honorific elevation of the name of God can be documented in Malay seals from all over the archipelago, this practice appears to stem from a different source of authority. Nonetheless, a clear example of elevatio in a letter in Arabic from Sultan Alauddin Johan Sayah of Aceh serves to confirm that during the mid 18th century, the royal chancery of Aceh was fully aware of both principle and practice of this diplomatic nicety. Especially significant is the implication that different diplomatic traditions were deemed appropriate for documents in different languages issued from the same chancery, an important factor for consideration in any study of the diplomatic conventions of the Islamic world.

The Nogay ulus (appanage) seceded from the Golden Horde in the 1390s under the leadership of Edigü, a well known military commander and chief of the Turco-Mongol Mangit tribe. Up until this point Nogay Horde had occupied a vast territory between the Yayik (Ural) and the Lower Volga River. Consequently during the 15th – 16th centuries they became the significant Tatar successor state of the Golden Horde. After the Russian conquest of the Khanates of Kazan and Astrakhan (1552, 1556), it was only the Nogay Horde and the Crimean Khanate that represented any real danger to the eastward expansion of the Muscovite state. Similar to their Crimean Tatar relatives, by the 16th – 17th centuries the Nogays were able to pursue large scale diplomatic correspondence with Moscow. This correspondence has been mostly preserved within the Russian State Archives of Old Documents (RGADA) in Moscow. Fourteen volumes of the so-called “envoy books” (posol’skie knigi) and thousands of letters written in separate sheets (stolbtsy) are kept in fond 127 of the RGADA archive. Although the material contains numerous contemporary Russian translations of Tatar documents, the originals of which have been lost; a few dozen of the original Nogay letters have survived. These letters are written in Tatar using the Arabic alphabet. The Nogay-Tatar documents of the 16th – 17th centuries, virtually unstudied by scholars, form the core material from which the author wishes to present his findings. These documents provide important descriptions of how the Nogay chancellery functioned and in particular, associated diplomatic and linguistic characteristics.

Due to the scarcity of documents that were exchanged between Muslim powers prior to the 16th century, the historian, in order to study the nature of these relations, is compelled to rely upon secondary sources such as copies that might have survived. A particularly fruitful and yet underused genre is represented by the collections of letters compiled, for the most part, by secretaries employed at the chancery of state. Of particular interest to the author and known since the 19th century is ms. ar. 4440 now held at the Bibliothèque nationale in Paris. This manuscript contains several copies of letters exchanged by powers pertaining to the Dār al-islām and the Mamluk Sultanate. The study of these documents provides the opportunity to understand the nature of relations between the Muslim powers and in particular the protocols that prevailed at the chancery. The aim of this paper is to draw attention to the importance of this manuscript as well as to construct an inventory of the material that the document provides.

The National Library of Cairo, the Royal Library of Copenhagen and the Fayzullah Library of Istanbul have volumes 2, 4, 11, 13, 17, 19 and 20 of a manuscript containing a miniature on the frontispiece of each volume. Recently, the author of this article discovered two new volumes of the same manuscript also written with the hand of Muḥammad b. Abî Ṭâlib al-Badrî between 614-1217/616-1219 at the Royal Library of Rabat which also has two new miniatures unknown by specialists in Arab painting.

This essay deals with Ḥammâdid muqarnas at al-Qal‘â city, located thirty-six kilometres north-east of al-M’sila Tower in Algeria. These muqarnas have been neglected by historians since their discovery during 1908-1967 by the greatest German historian of the muqarnas style, J. Rosintal in the first half of 20th century and his compatriot Yvonne Dold Samplonius currently one of the most well-known specialista in al-Kashi muqarnas.

This article begins with a survey of the opinions of historians of Islamic art about the Ḥammâdid muqarnas ; presentation of excavations and the deteriorating condition of the remains ; interpretation and re-composition of its original order ; and its technical influence on the sites in the Mediterranean, especially those found in Morocco, Andalus and Normand Sicily.

Ritual inscriptions on monuments found on the route of pilgrims through Egypt and the remains of ‘Araqîb al-Baghl in Sinai are significant and rare in type and nature. The evidence presented in this article dates the second comprehensive architectural project on the route constructed during the time of Sultân Qânṣûh Al-Ghûrî and carried out by Prince Khayr Bik Al- Mi‘mâr. The work began at ‘Ajrûd to the north-west of Suez, passed several springs and fountains along the route before finally reaching its destination at Mecca and Al-Medina. The dating of the inscriptions have been subjected to damage both in antiquity and in more recent times.

Therefore, they are of uncertain date. Those who have conducted studies on this topic have attempted to establish chronologies for the dating of these inscriptions include Shmuel Tamari who concluded that the architecture was constructed some time between 914 and 915 H /1508-1509 AD.

The dawâdâr is the official responsible for bearing and keeping the royal inkwell. This office was created by the Seljuqs and it became well known in Egypt in the Mamluk era. During the Bahari period the dawâdâr did not rank among the important amirs, but under the Circassians he became one of the first-ranking amirs of the kingdom. His duties and responsibilities increased to the extend that they were distributed among several amirs ; dawadar kabîr, dawâdâr thânî (second dawâdâr) and so on.

The Circassian Mamluk era witnessed the rise of power and influence of some of the second dawâdâr-s such as : Qurqumâs al-Sha‘bânî, Janibek al-dawâdâr al-thânî and Bardabek al-Ashrafî. Most of the second dawâdâr-s of that period held the rank of amîr tablakhânah but some held the rank of amir of thousand.