IFAO

The Al-Basra cadi ‘Ubayd Allâh b. al-Ḥasan al-‘Anbarî (d. 168/784-785) maintained relations with Al-Mahdî. His chronic disobedience, like his refusal to let the caliph intervene in the lawsuits of his district, find an echo in the letter that he addressed to him into 159/775. The following discussion proposes a possible translation. This epistle, the conceptual background of which confirms its seniority, diverts official Abbasid propaganda skillfully proposing another political model. By limiting the legal role of the sovereign, it rejects any absolutist vision of the caliphate and contributes to the emergence of an order where the ‘ulamâ’ seem the true heirs to prophecy.