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Imperium and Officium Working Papers (IOWP)

Regime Change and Elite Migration in the IslamicCaliphate (642-969 AD)

Version 01

June 2014

Lucian Reinfandt (University of Vienna, Department of Near Eastern Studies)

Abstract: The heyday of the Muslim Caliphate during the first three centuries of Muslim rule was anything but a coherent rule over vast territories. A chain of repeated civil wars caused large devastation during the 7th to 9th centuries. The mid-8th century witnessed the overthrow of the Umayyad ruling dynasty by the Abbasids. From the 9th century on, the empire’s territorial integrity was put at stake by a trend towards regionalisation; from now on provinces became factually independent from the central authorities in Baghdad. All these short-term political events were surface phenomena but symptomatic for long-term processes in deeper layers of society. Of these may be mentioned the Arabisation of the Middle Eastern and North African populations; movements of religious conversion; the settlement of the progeny of the Arab military class in the conquered lands; the import of Turkish military slaves from Central Asia. All these transformations arose from, or were at least related to, migrations of considerable geographic reach. Similarly, administrative elites and middle-ranking technocrats, ‘the backbone of imperial rule’, were not at the mercy of short-term political events; they were kept in place during the fall of their regimes and even after. Only one or two generations later was the personnel effectively exchanged, as a result of profound ‘real’ changes at social levels deeper than the political surface. The administrative personnel is of special interest, because both elites and middle-level technocrats had considerable influence on local political decision making. Their migration always meant an import of specific forms of control over the means of government. These forms could change from group to group and would have lasting effects on local conditions. My hypothesis is that the particular staff composition of regional administrations not only affected adjacent social milieus and brought along technological innovations, but was a causal link for provincial politics and, in the long run, the political fate of the empire proper. Taking Egypt as an example, I will analyse the staff composition against a backdrop of political events and on the basis of a categorisation of administrators into three possible ideal types: the household official, the nobleman, the ‘humble clerk’.

© Lucian Reinfandt 2014mailto:[email protected]

Lucian Reinfandt 1

Regime change and elite migration in the Islamic Caliphate (642-969 AD)

1. The Islamic caliphate: an empire of migration

The Islamic caliphate was an empire of migration par excellence, and one is tempted to ask

whether migration was the very backbone of imperial constituency (I will come back later to

this question). The nucleus, and Muslim archetype, for any kind of later migration to come,

was the hijra (literary “migration“) of the prophet Muhammad from Mecca to Medina in the

year 622 AD (parallels to the Biblical exodus motive?).1 During the Arab conquests of the 7th

and early 8th centuries, Arab tribes migrated and settled in all parts of the new empire as a

military and political elite separated by religion from non-Muslim population majorities.2

Another widespread migration movement already at this early point of time were the long-

distance traders; the proverbial Sindbad the Sailor is exemplary and representative for many

other real ones.3 Also, there is the famous zest for learning in Islamic culture, which is

summarised compactly by the saying of the prophet: “Seek knowledge even as far as China!”4

This is a phenomenon of intellectual globetrotters prevalent during the whole era of pre-

modern Islam, and late medieval celebrities such as Ibn Khaldun of Ibn Battuta are only two

examples out of many. And finally, there is the obligation for every Muslim to make the

pilgrimage to Mecca and Medina at least one time in the life, which leads to an annual mass

movement of pilgrims through all parts of the Islamic world and beyond and which is an

organisational challenge even nowadays.

Traders and intellectuals remind us to the fact that we have to distinguish between

permanent and temporary migration (the latter including also other forms like travel and

pilgrimage). Permanent and temporary migration must have had very different consequences

for migrants and host societies alike.5 Another distinction that should be made is whether

migration was politically and militarily motivated, or whether it was a kind of labour

migration in the widest sense of the word (including all kinds of intellectual migration). While

politically motivated migration displayed phenomena such as the Arab conquests during the

1 For the meaning of hijra as “conversion to Islam” (in this way: Lapidus 1973, 27) cf. Crone, First-centuryconcept of hijra.

2 Ashtor 1976, 10-12; Donner 1981, passim; Berger 2013, 2254-2256. According to Gottschalk 1965, 327,3.000 families of the Arab tribe of Qays were transferred to Egypt under the rule of Hishām in 109/727,according to the historian al-Kindī. – One may ask whether the settlement of tribal Arabs in the course of theconquest was perhaps a form of colonisation rather than migration. Cf. in this context Crone 2006.

3 Ashtor 1976,4 Ashtor 1972, 194 n. 69.5 Even nowadays Egyptian migrants in Europe distinguish between safar („travel“, i.e. the temporary

residence) and hijra („migration“, i.e. the permanent residence and the 'leaving behind' of the old life). I amgrateful to Lea Müller-Funk for this information.

Imperium & Officium: Comparative Studies in Ancient Bureaucracy and Officialdom

Regime Change and Elite Migration 2

7th and 8th centuries, or the Turkish domination of the empire during the 9th and 10th centuries,

the more smooth forms of migration of Persian administrators inside the empire was basically

a form of labour migration.

2. Persian migration during the 9th and 10th centuries AD and the administration of empire

We may imagine the Arab conquests of the 7th and 8th centuries, in a simplistic approach, as a

big movement from the Arabian Peninsula away into all parts of the Old World. But if we do

that, we similarly have to imagine the 9th and 10th centuries as a big wave back from East to

West. In the same period, a specific Turkish military elite made its way to western lands of

the caliphate and took leading military and political positions there, including Syria and

Egypt.6 At about the same time, Persian-born administrative elites increasingly moved to the

west and settled in Syria and Egypt, partly at least in the wake of the political collapse of

central government in Iraq (especially during the 860s AD anarchy of Samarra) that brought

occupational insecurity and physical turmoil for many.7 From narrative sources we learn that,

once in Egypt, they occupied central posts of administration there.8 Whole families, and even

dynasties, of administrators managed to keep being influential for generations, the most

famous of them being the al-Mādharāʾī, the Ibn Bistam, and the Banū al-Furāt families.9 The

long-term consequences of this trend were so overwhelming that it became a permanent

feature in the Islamic collective memory until today, and a topos in Arabic literature already

of that time: culture comes from the east, and administrators were Persian.

In fact, influences of this 'Persian' migration of the 9 th century have left their marks on the

material culture, such as architecture or administrative writings. Papyri from this time display

certain inventions that had come to life earlier in documents from eastern lands and

successively found their way, with a delay of decades to centuries, to the documentary

production of more western lands.10 Important features in this regard are a change of writing

6Berger 2013, 2257 speaks of 'migrant soldiers'.7 Ashtor 1972, 194; Brett 2010, 567.8 The heads of the Tulunid chancery of Egypt were of Mesopotamian background. Examples: Ibn Abdkan

(his biography in Ṣafadī, Wafayāt); Isḥāq b. Nuṣayr (both cited in Hassan 1933, 280-283). Even the chroniclerIbn ad-Dāya himself, from who we know much of the Tulunid era in Egypt, was of Mesopotamian background(Hassan 1933, 11 citing himself Guest 1922, 170-171). There were not only single individuals but wholefamilies that came to Egypt and occupied the local administrative offices: famous examples are theMādharāʾiyyūn and the Banū Māhujīr (both cited in Hassan 1933, 284-287).

9 About the al-Mādharāʾī cf. the attestation in the papyri CPR III 184 = P.Cair.Arab. I 33). For the Ibn Bistamand Banū al-Furāt families, on the other hand, I have found no attestations in the papyri. For all three families, ofwhich the Banū al-Furāt eventually became the most influential one in Egypt, cf. Ashtor 1972, 190-191; Brett,2010, 567.

10 Khan 2007.


Lucian Reinfandt 3

support from papyrus to paper;11 the proliferation of the cursive script at the cost of older and

more rectangular forms;12 changes in the formulary of documents;13 but also the introduction

of Arabic numeral letters,14 and a specific Persian calendar.

Who were the humans participating in this process? So far, I have drawn a picture of a

‘history without men’, but the other extreme which we find in historiography old and modern

is an over-individualisation of this cultural transformation. We doubtless have a challenging

source situation. Pre-modern Islamic history is predominantly represented by, and reflected

through, literary and non-documentary sources. These literary sources, which are for our

purpose at hand especially chronicles and collections of biographies but also administrative

manuals, depict the migration process of the 9th century almost exclusively in terms of an

elite-based view, that is: with a focus on 'Persian' administrators of male sex and in top-

administrative functions, who were based in the provincial centre of Egypt (which was the

city of al-Fustat) and rarely left it (as it seems), while their dealings are depicted in an

episodic manner. To cut a long story short: it is not representative at all. (Or to put it

differently: what is missing in this picture is Bertold Brecht's famous cook that accompanied

the Macedon Alexander on his campaign through Asia.)

The pioneer study is Rhuvon Guest's “Relations between Persia & Egypt under Islam up to

the Fāṭimid Period” from 1922, which is in fact a wonderful compilation of all information

obtainable from literary sources about Persian elite migrants to Egypt during the 9 th century.

At the other end of the range I would see Ehsan Yarshater's monumental article on the

“Persian Presence in the Islamic World” from 1998, which is an ardent appreciation of the

Persian contribution to Islamic civilisation by one of the leading historians of Islam (and a

11 Paper is a Chinese invention that was imported by eastern Muslim lands in the mid-8th century andsuccessively found its way to western lands during the 9th and 10th centuries. According to Eva Grob, the oldestdatable Arabic paper from Egypt is from the year 873 AD. Other early papers are: P.Vind.inv. A.Ch. 1 (= PERF917, unpublished; private letter, late 8th/early 9th century); P.Vind.Arab. II 17 (= PERF 918; private letter, 9th-10th century). Cf. Grob's study on the earliest paper documents known from Egypt.

12 Khan 2008. An example of very cursive script in a comparatively early document is P.Vind.Arab. I 27 (=PERF 958; private letter, Egypt, 329/940-41); but see also CPR XVI 32 (= PERF 751; business letter, Egypt,3rd/9th c).

13 Reinfandt 2014. An example of the new formulary in the papyri is CPR XXI 74 (= PERF 884).14 Arabic numeral letters (Arabische Zahlbuchstaben). Early examples of their use are: P.Vindob.inv. G

39754 (formerly P.Vind.inv. A.P. 575 = PERF 605; unpublished?); P.Prag.Arab. Beilage II = P.World p. 136 (=PERF 761); P.GrohmannWirtsch. 12 (= PERF 798); P.Vind.inv. A.P. 1255 (= PERF 830; unpublished);P.Vind.inv. A.Ch. 11 (= PERF 927; unpublished). For the introduction and use of Arabic numeral letters cf.Nabia Abbott, Arabic Numerals, Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society (1938), 277-280; R.A.K. Irani, ArabicNumeral Forms, Centaurus 4 (1955), 1-12, in: M. H. Kennedy, D. A. King, (eds), Studies in the Islamic ExactSciences, Beirut 1983, 710-721; Paul Kunitzsch, The Transmission of Hindu-Arabic Numerals Reconsidered, in:J. P. Hogendijk, A. I. Sabra (eds), The Enterprise of Science in Islam: New Perspectives, Cambridge (Mass.)2003 (Dibner Institute Studies in the History of Science and Technology), 3-21; Giorgio Levi della Vida,Appunti e questi di storia letteraria araba. 7: Numerali grechi in documenti arabo-spagnoli, Rivista degli StudiOrientali 14 (1934), 281-283.



Persian himself), but like Guest before him without taking into consideration the actual social

processes that stood behind this transformation. A very recent study by Lutz Berger from

2013, in the leading actual reference work on migration, shows best to my mind the dilemma

scholars have to face with. Berger gives an illuminating picture on the role of Arabs and

Turks in the history of the Umayyad and Abbasid caliphates, that is: military migrations, and

the role of slavery, but he omits the migration of Persian administrators. He could not have

done otherwise though with the sources available to him: his bibliography quotes not a single

specialised study on the subject of non-military migration under the Abbasids.

In fact the whole subject of migration in the pre-modern Islamic world is understudied.

This is evident not only from the lack of specific titles of research literature, but from the lack

of the very term “migration” in the research literature.15 A glance through the indices of

monographs on the history of Islam shows that the term “migration” shows up only recently

and not before the 1990s, with but few exceptions like Eliyahu Ashtor or Ira Lapidus. Lapidus

has a strong sociological focus, while Ashtor was a migrant himself... There had of course

been migration at all times, but it had become a concept and an analytical term for research

only recently; and I have the strong suspicion that this new interest in an 'old' subject is a

response to the fact that our own world has become a world of migration, and that academics

themselves have more and more become a (precarious) society of migrants.

I have mentioned the lack of studies especially for the earlier caliphate, and in fact the only

one known to me which is going a little bit more in-depth is Eliyahu Ashtor's article “Un

mouvement migratoire au haut Moyen Age: Migrations de l’Irak vers les pays

méditerranéens” from 1972.16 His sources are biographical collections but also documents

from the Cairo Geniza archive, but these documents are not older than the 10th century AD.

From his study we do know that migrating elites brought their entourage of courtesans and

counsellors with them, who successively also took high posts in the administration of Egypt.17

What we do not know, however, is whether more common entourage came as well, such as

workers and serving people, but also all those attracted by the new 'Persian' elite in Egypt

with the hope for money and employment.18 But other important questions must remain

unanswered, such as: what kind of people migrated westwards? How many were they, and

15 Netton 1993 is a pioneer book and explicitly dealing with migration, but is omitting our subject at hand,which is the 'Persianisation' of the Middle East during the Abbasid caliphate.

16 The basic results are repeated in Ashtor 1976, 149; 170.17 Ashtor 1972, 190.18 Also theologians and other intellectuals came to Egypt as entourage of high administrative officials; cf.

Ashtor 1972, 192. Ashtor 1972, 190 mentions the fact, that also more 'humble' migrants from Persia arementioned in the literary sources (in his case especially al-Balawi), but the basic methodological challengeremains that we are not informed by literary sources about the 'how exactly' circumstances of non-elitistmigrants.


Lucian Reinfandt 5

what kind of ethnical and social background did they have? What were their professions? Did

they bring their families and peers along? How did the population of Egypt react to

newcomers?19

3. Attestations for a presence of 'Persians' in Egypt

What are sources available for the work on non-military migration in the early caliphate?

Archaeology would of course be good, with settlement patterns, the use of ceramics etc., but

the archaeology of early Islam is still in its beginnings.20 Instead, we have to make do with

Arabic papyri. They seem well-suited not least because of their specific non-elitist character.

What is more, they have a peripheral and mostly non-urban provenance, that is: they belong

to the few textual sources available from outside al-Fustat. Finally, all of the papyri have an

archaeological provenance, if not context, which gives additional information about the

details of the presence of Persians in the Egyptian hinterland. We can expect with reasonable

certainty that the papyri depict persons that do not appear in literary sources, thus serving

some sort of litmus test for lower strata of the society. This is substantiated by the fact that the

papyri, on the other hand, keep silent about those 'historical' individuals from upper and

central echelons of the society that appear in the literary sources. We may thus say that the

papyri are a textual source that is 'uncontaminated' by centralist and elite-based perspectives.21

I undertook a tentative consultation of the papyrus material in three different ways. In a

first step, I was looking for Persian and Turkish personal names in the papyri. If there were,

that was my hope, I could draw a preliminary map of the settlement and professional

occupations of easterners in Egypt and thus follow the traces of eastern migration to, and

inside, Egypt during the 9th and 10th centuries.22 In a second step I was looking for changes in

administrative terminology that may hint to a presence of Persian officials also not only in

high but also middle and low levels of administration and in regions outside the capital city

19 Moreover, migrants that do appear in the sources are those who settled in the urban places of Egypt,especially in the capital al-Fustat. What we do not know is whether there was settlement in other, especially ruralparts, of Egypt.

20 Research has been undertaken for example about settlement patterns in 9 th century, i.e. Abbasid, Qatar byGuérin/Al-Na'imi 2009. Although the outcome does not seem immediately relevant for our purpose here, similarstudies in other parts of the Near East, especially in Egypt and Syria, would be of high interest.

21 Also, the great administrative families of eastern background being in power in Egypt during the late 9 th

and through the 10th centuries are but rarely mentioned in the papyri: al-Mādharāʾī (CPR III 184 = P.Cair.Arab. I33, r5, “Protocoll“); Ibn Bistam (no attestation); Ibn Furat (no attestation)

22 In P.RagibPressoir line 15 = Chrest.Khoury I 65 line 18 (PERF 698), which is a sales-deed from Aqnā inthe Fayyum from the year 205/821, Karabacek 1894 has read the Persian name Šahrzār as name of one of thewitnesses of the legal transaction; however, both Ragib and Khoury have convincingly read the name Nimrāninstead.



al-Fustat. In a third step, finally, I was looking for consumer goods with a specific non-

Egyptian, and ideally Mesopotamian or Persian, provenance.23

3.1 Onomastics

Names of Persians are indeed attested in Egyptian papyri already from the early 9th century

on. We hear of both traders and administrators of agricultural domains in the Fayyum with

possible Persian names.24 We also come across Persians who held middle-ranking posts in the

financial administration outside the capital al-Fustat at the beginning of the 10th century AD;

in other words: these easterners had to a significant extent settled and had become ordinary

members of the Egyptian society.25 Suggestive are also the Persian personal names used in a

writing exercise from the 9th century.26 Moreover, we hear about Turkish migrants:

remarkable is the mentioning of a certain Bakīš (or Tikīš) as early as the year 172-173/789.27

Other attestations of individuals with an alleged Turkish background are attested in the 9th and

23 Another approach would be to look for specific Persian toponyms in Syria or Egypt that indicate a Persianpresence, perhaps even a majority of Persians, in certain regions. This is a task, however, that could not beaccomplished here.

24 Traders with possible Persian names are mentioned in: P.Marchands V/1 7, r5 (Salmān ibn Dāwūd);P.Marchands V/1 2, r8 (Rastān/Raysān). Other attestations for Salmān in the papyri are: P.Marchands V/1 1; 11(both al-Fayyum, 3rd/9th century, both Salmān); P.Cair.Arab. IV 234 (al-Fayyum, 270/883-884, Salmān ibn al-Mufaḍḍal; IV 243 (al-Bahnasa, 3rd/9th century, Salmān); I 94 (Egypt, 3rd/9th century, Aḥmad ibn Salmān); V 383(al-Ushmunayn, 4th/10th century, Ḥamūd ibn Salmān). Another attestation for Rastān/Raysān is P.Marchands I 12(al-Fayyum, 3rd/9th century, Raysān). An administrator of agricultural domains is menitoned in P.RagibPressoirline 15 = Chrest.Khoury I 65 line 18 = PERF 698 from Aqnā in the Fayyum from the year 205/821, ʿUṣfūr). Onthe other hand, common Persian names such as Zunbur (cf. Abu Zunbur in Ashtor 1972, 191) are not attested inthe papyri.

25 One of them was the tax-official Yālawayh who was working in the southern Egyptian provincial centre al-Ushmunayn in the year 291/903-904. Cf. P.GrohmannUrkunden 12 = PERF 867. Possibly related is the case ofanother tax-official in the Egyptian hinterland, a certain Abū l-Faḍl Hibatallāh b. al-Muhtadī billāh, who was inoffice in the year 297/909-10; cf. P.Vind.inv. A.P. 16089, unpublished = PERF 888 =P.GrohmannGrundsteuerquittung. In the same time, a certain Ismāʿīl, or Yishmāʿēl, ibn Fatḥ, was a tax-officiali n the Fayyum; his patronym possibly pointing to a Persian or Turkish father, whereas the personal nameYishmāʿēl (as it seems written in the document) suggests a Jewish background; cf. CPR XXI 74 (= PERF 884;293/905-06).

26 A.P. 3004 r+v = PERF 786 (unpublished). Karabacek for his part suggests a specific Persianisedgrammatical construction in Arabic in A.P. 3800r+v = PERF 785 (unpublished; Waṣīf), something which I havenot verified yet.

27 Bakīš (or Tikīš/Tégiš) freedman of Ṭulayb ibn Abī Ṣāʾim who sold a certain amount of wheat for the priceof one gold dinar to a woman named ʿAqīla bint Yūsuf . Cf. CPR XXVI 16, 2 = PERF 617; according toKarabacek 1894, 159 this is the earliest attestation to a person of Turkish descent in Arabic papyri from Egypt.Unfortunately we do not know about the provenance of the papyrus, but there is a certain probability that it isfrom the Fayyum, from Ihnas, or from al-Ushmunayn (since the vast majority of the Viennese material comesfrom one of these three places). His is indeed an early mentioning if we compare the attestation to the firstTurkish governor of Egypt, al-ʿAbbās ibn ʿAbdallāh, in the year 242/856; cf. P.GrohmannAperçu p. 27 =P.World p. 119 = PERF 763.


Lucian Reinfandt 7

10th centuries AD.28 All these attestations, interesting as they are, are not many, however,

when compared with the much larger number of Egyptians mentioned in the papyri, Coptic

and Muslim alike; but the fact that Persians are mentioned at all and away from the capital al-

Fustat is proof for their early distribution over the whole county.

After this first random examination of the papyrus material I made a second attempt by

systematically looking for specific search words that should be representative for migrants

from the east in general. One of these was the epithet an-Naṣrānī “the Christian“. By this I

was hoping to find specific Persianates from Iraq, because Egyptian Christians would have

been called by epithets such as an-Nabaṭī instead, while Christians with a descent from Syria

or Asia Minor would rather have been called ar-Rūmī. Indeed, I have found such attestations,

albeit from the 10th and 11th centuries and thus too late for our purpose.29 (The only earlier

attestation known to me is a certain Mūsā an-Naṣrānī from the 8 th century and in relation of

ships belonging to, or used by, Christian traders.30) Other epithets that are denoting 'Persians'

and that are common in literary sources are ʿajam or ʿajamī on the one hand, and fārisī on the

other, are conspicuously absent in the papyri.31 Similarly absent were important epithets such

as al-Farghānī (“the one from Farghāna” in eastern Iran), or al-Wāsiṭī (“the one from al-

Wāsiṭ” in Iraq).32 More successful, on the other hand, was my search for personal names that

have the specific Persian ending -wayh, of which I found some in papyri from the 9th and early

10th centuries, one of them even being a taxpayer settling in the countryside.33

28 Cf. a certain Buġā/Bogha in P.Vind.inv. A.P. 9014, unpublished = PERF 855 (3rd/9th century) as well as acertain Aḥmad ibn Abī l-Lawḥ ibn Sīmā in CPR XXI 77 with emendations in Diem 2006, 99; provenanceunknown, which is a tax quittance from the year 311/923-24. The latter gives an impression of Egyptians with athird-generation Turkish descent, provided that the name Sīmā (the grandfather) was indeed Turkish. A Turkish-born ruler (ʾamīr) from the Egyptian local dynasty of the Ikhshidids, on the other hand, is mentioned in a leasecontract from 328-33/939-44: Abū l-Muẓaffar al-Ḥasan ibn Ṭuqaj/Ṭuġj/Thogadsch; cf. P.GrohmannUrkunden 2= PERF 967. Another papyrus that is mentioning the same name (P.Vind.inv. A.Ch. 7816) is still unpublished.Cf. also P.Harrauer 61 = PERF 793 which is mentioning Egyptian agricultural domains in the possession of thecaliph's mother and a Turkish chief armourer with the name (according to Frantz-Murphy 2001a, 246;Karabacek, for his part, had provisionally read Amadschwer). Other upper-class attestations to Irakians in Egyptin the Arabic papyri are to the family of the governor of Ahwāz (in south-eastern Irak); this family owned largeestates in Egyptian al-Fayyum, but we do not know anything else about their presence in the country; cf.P.Vind.inv. A.P. 8744R = PERF 671 (unpublished). A female slave of 'Slavic' origin (ḫādim ṣaqlabiyya) ismentioned in a papyrus from the 3rd/9th century. She had been purchased at the slaves-market in al-Fustat underthe premise that she would be taken away from al-Fustat to the destination of the letter, which presumably wasthe Fayyum, but the document gives no additional information about the background of this individual; CPRXVI 19, 20-21 = PERF 738.

29 Qīriqah(?) ibn Thiyudur ibn Samawīl an-Naṣrānī (P.AbbottMarriageContracts 2, 5 = Chrest.Khoury I 15, 5= P.Eheurkunden 41, 5; Aswan, 989 AD); Isiṭōrās ibn Bīyisa at-Tinnīsī (= from Tinnis in the Nile Delta) an-Naṣrānī (P.Cair.Arab. I 68, 2; 9; al-Ushmunayn, 1067 AD); Abū s-Sarī ibn Hiliya ibn Rafrafīl an-Naṣrānī(P.Cair.Arab. I 54, 3 = P.World p. 203, 3; al-Fayyum, 1056 AD; Sāra bint Qulta al-qazzāz (= the silk-mercer) an-Naṣrāniyya (P.Cair.Arab. I 69, 3; al-Ushmunayn, 1066-67 AD); Yuḥannis ibn Buqtur ibn Yuḥannis an-Naṣrānī(P.AbbottMarriageContracts 1, 11 = Chrest.Khoury I 10, 11 = P.Eheurkunden 11, 11; Aswan, 948 AD); Qultaibn Kayl ibn Jurayj an-Naṣrānī al-qazzāz (= the silk-mercer) (P.Cair.Arab. I 65, 2; al-Ushmunayn, 1050 AD).



All these attestations, interesting as they are, are not many, however, when compared with

the much larger number of Egyptians mentioned in the papyri, Coptic and Muslim alike; but

the fact that Persians are mentioned at all is a certain proof of their presence in different parts

of Egypt, especially since a part of them seems to have settled in the countryside and away

from the capital al-Fustat already during the 9th century.

3.2 Administrative terminology

My second approach was administrative terminology. During the 9th century we see a partial

change of terminology in the Egyptian documents from Arabised Greek to Persian words.

This is evident from the terminology for 'tax-collector', who was an official very central to the

demands of a caliphal administration and who was working in immediate contact with the

local population.34 In documents of the 9th century, his designation gradually changed from

30 P.Khalili I 7, 2 = P.Khalili II 4, 2; Egypt, 2nd/8th century.31 The term ʿajam (o r ʿajamī) was used either for ashhur al-'ajam (or similarly), i.e. in Egypt to denote

Coptic instead of Muslim names of months (P.RagibPressoir = Chrest.Khoury I 65; P.RagibColombine;P.Terminkauf 1; P.Marchands I 7; 8; P.David-WeillContrat; P.Cair.Arab. 89; 96 = P.World p. 208 =Chrest.Khoury I 61; P.Cair.Arab. 97; 369); or it was used to denote non-Arabic but not necessarily 'Persian'individuals, such as e.g. African slaves (P.Vente 6); or it could be used to denote non-Arabic languages, e.g. theCoptic language (P.Frantz-MurphyComparison I 1; 2; P.FahmiTaaqud 9. For the term fārisī to denote Persian-born officials in literary sources cf. the examples in Ashtor 1972, 189.

32 Cf. for these names Ashtor 1972, 189.33 E.g. of specific Persian names like Sibawayh or Dashwayh. Cf. P.Cair.Arab. 173, 6 (“Letter respecting the

payment of taxes perhaps from a farmer of state-land“; Egypt, 883-896): Khumārawayh ibn Aḥmad (ibn Ṭūlūn);P.Cair.Arab. 247, r5 (“Fragment of a list of taxpayers with their individual payments and the total of theamoungts concerned“; Egypt, 3rd/9th c): Tamīm ibn Jubbawayh/Ḥabbawayh/Ḥannawayh; P.GrohmannUrkunden12 Siegel (“Grundsteuerquittung“; al-Ushmunayn, 291/903/04): Yalawayh (tax official); P.Prag.Arab. Beilage 1,v11 with the possible reading ʾ...swayh, which would be yet another person appearing as a tax-payer in 9 th

century AD al-Ushmunayn. – There are also attestations of other seemingly Persian names such as Salmān(P.Marchands V/1 7, r5) or Rishdayn (ibid.), as well as Rastān (P.Marchands V/1 2, r8). – On the other hand, mysearch for names that are containing typical Turkish elements such as kara “black“, or tughan, wereunsuccessful, there was not a single attestation. There is not a single attestation in the papyri to this part of names(der in P.Prag.Arab. 37, 3 und 5 genannte Name Karākū (in P.Prag.Arab. 45, pagina 2, 11 taucht der Namewieder auf und wird diesmal von Grohmann als Kerikū gelesen) ist nach Grohmann (ebd. Kommentar zu Zeile3) nicht türkischer, sondern koptischer Herkunft. Ein grundsätzliches Problem könnte sein, dass das türkische“kara“ wohl als karā, d.h. mit langem a, transkribiert wurde, was bei den hier vorliegenden beiden Belegen nichtder Fall ist). Ansonsten gibt es sehr seltene Belege von anderen persischen und türkischen Namen in den Papyri,so etwa „Sankar“ (?) in P.Prag.Arab. Beilage I, r6 (“Kontoauszug für Kopf-, Weide- und Wiesensteuer(Kassaliste)“; al-Ushmunayn, 7th-10th c CE (mit wichtigem Kommentar über die Tatsache, dass die hier jaliya-zahlenden Steuerzahle allesamt Muslime waren); außerdem „Takin“ (P.Prag.Arab. 40, v1 (“Zwei Bruchstückeaus einem Steuerbuche“; al-Fayyum1010/11 CE).

34 A similar approach, which cannot be undertaken here, would be to look for the terms ṭabl and sijill in thepapyri and how the term daftar “register, account book“ came into the documents during the 9 th century (cf.Frantz-Murphy 2007a, 222). The respective attestations are the following: P.Cair.Arab. 285 (Egypt, 2nd-3rd/8th-9th

century); P.Cair.Arab. 309 (Egypt, 3 rd/9th century); P.Cair.Arab. 419 (Egypt, 3 rd/9th century);P.GrohmannUrkunden 9 (Ihnās, 223/838; “Steuerkataster”). Also interesting is the appearance of the Persianword dihqān for “village headman” (formerly: māzūt or ṣāḥib al-qarya); cf. Lev 2012, 332.


Lucian Reinfandt 9

qusṭāl to jahbadh.35 The term qusṭāl meant something like “paymaster” and originally came

from the Greek term ζυγοστάτησ (according to other opinions: αὐγουστάλιος; κυαίστωρ; cf.

Dietrich 1955, 79) and was a reminiscence of the pre-Islamic financial administration of

Egypt inherited by the Arabs.36 The Persian term jahbadh, with the meaning of „paymaster“,

on the other hand is a consequence of the Persianisation of the caliphate.37 We cannot be

entirely sure whether qusṭāl and jahbadh actually denoted the same administrative function,

but it seems so at least from administrative manuals and the original documents alike.38 But

what does that mean on a social level? The term jahbadh came gradually into the documents

which seems to be evidence for a factual rather than an officially launched change of

nomenclature. But was this a consequence of an ethnic change among the administrators, in

other words: a replacement of Arabic tax-collectors by ethnic Persians? From narrative

sources we know that „ethnic Persians had come to dominate Egypt's agrarian fiscal

administration by the mid-9th century“.39

What did that mean in practice? Did Persian-born administrators, for example in the

position of jahbadhs, hold office in peripheral towns in Egypt's hinterland, and did they

become members of a middle-level administration that had until then been reserved for

locals? Or did they remain on the top-level of administration and inside the capital? This is in

fact new ground for research, and an answer can only be given on the basis of the papyrus

35 Frantz-Murphy 2007b, 103 with a short discussion of the termns qusṭāl and jahbadh. The fact that the termjahbadh became common in documents of the second half of the 9th century AD is already mentioned in Dietrich1955, 87.

36 For the meaning of qusṭāl cf. Dietrich 1955, 79-80. Other possible forms in the papyri are: qustāl, jusṭāl,qusṭār. Cf. for example the unnamed jusṭāl in P.BeckerNPAF 3 = P.Cair.Arab. 149 (Ishqawh, 90-96709-714).

37 Cf. Frantz-Murphy 2007a, 222; Frantz-Murphy 2001b, 121-123. According to her, qusṭāl can be translatedinto Engllish as “receiver“ and jahbadh as “cashier“. For the meaning of jahbadh. cf. Dietrich 1955, 87 withresearch literature. According to Dietrich 1955, 66 and Grohmann 1964, 132 the jahbadhs of the 9th century ADmostly had a Christian background.

38 Grohmann 1932, 279 remarks that the description in the administrative manual of Ibn Mammātī (12th

century AD) of the tasks of the jahbadh are identical to those of the qusṭāl. Dietrich 1955, 66 does not explicitelymention whether the term jahbadh directly replaced the term qusṭāl in the documents. According to Grohmann1964, 127; 132 qusṭāls took the tax-money that had been collected from (Christian) local heads of districts(pagarchs), and weighed and rated them. Similarly, they collected the taxes paid in grain and forwarded them tothe state granaries. In return, they were responsible for the assignment of tax payments to administrative districts.Insofar Grohmann understood the qusṭāls, at least in the Umayyad period (661-750 AD) as being superior to thelocal pagarchs, while Foss 2009, 12 maintains that the qusṭāls were subordinate to the pagarchs. I believe thelatter, too, on the basis of P.BeckerNPAF 3 = P.Cair.Arab. 149 and P.World p. 130 = P.DiemAphrodito p. 261.During the Abbasid caliphate, the qusṭāl was part of the office of the financial director, ʿāmil, of anadministrative district, kūra, and appears in the documents as an issuer of tax-quittances; Dietrich 1955, 80. Forthe meaning of jahbadh on the basis of Mesopotamian sources cf. Løkkegaard 1950, 158-160. Furthermore, theterm jahbadha is explained by Løkkegaard 1950, 159-160 and especially by Claude Cahen, Quelques problèmeséconomiques et fiscaux de l'Iraq buyide, Alger 1952 (Annales de l'Institut d'Études Orientales de la Faculté desLettres d'Alger 10). Kosei Morimoto understands both terms as being synonymous; according to him, the Persianterm jahbadh emerged only under the Abbasids and gradually came to supersede qusṭāl (Morimoto 1981, 214-215 and 243 ).

39 Frantz-Murphy 2007a, 222.



documentation. These give a picture as follows: The older term qusṭāl is attested in papyri

from the years 709 to 919 AD, while the younger term jahbadh, on the other hand, is first

attested in the year 863 and from then until the 11th century.40 From this we can see that

jahbadh indeed replaced qusṭāl in Egypt, but with a transitional phase of no less than 50 years

of parallel use in the documents. Was there a certain geographic direction of dissemination

then? Of course, the evidence is patchy, but it seems that jahbadh appeared first in the

Fayyum and only later spread to the more southern district of Ushmunayn.41 From the

documents is evident that qusṭāls were by a majority of two third Coptic Christians, while

40 (a) The following persons are explicitely mentioned as qusṭāls (treasurer) in the papyri: Qusta/Kostas(P.GrohmannQorra-Brief, Fayyum, 90/709); Buṭrus/Petros Jirja/Georgios (P.World p. 130 = P.DiemAphrodito p.261, Ishqawh, 91/710); Ibīmak/Abīmak/Epimak (P.Cair.Arab. 285, Egypt, 2nd-3rd/8th-9th century); Isḥāq/Isaak ibnSimʿūn/Shimon (P.GrohmannUrkunden 8, Ushmunayn, 223/838); [Ibrāh?]īm (P.Steuerquittungen 4,Ushmūnayn, 227/841-842; Mīnā/Menas b. Ibrāhīm (P.Cair.Arab. 181 +Emendation Diem, Ushmunayn,233/847-848; he must be identical with the qusṭāl Mīnā mentioned without patronym in the following papyri:CPR XXI 41 +Emendation Diem, Ushmunayn, 224/839; CPR XXI 42 +Emendation Diem, Ushmunayn,225/840; P.Cair.Arab. IV 261, Ushmunayn?, 3rd/9th century); ʿĪsā ibn ʿAlī (P.GrohmannUrkunden 13,Ushmunayn, 241/855; P.Philad.Arab. 11, Egypt, 255/868-869); Qūrīl/Kyrillos ibn ʿīsā/Jesus(P.GrohmannProbleme 11, Egypt, 244/858-859; he is perhaps identical with the qusṭāl Qūrīl inP.GrohmannProbleme 16, Egypt, 248/862); Ibrāhīm/Abraham ibn Mīnā/Menas (P.GrohmannProbleme 11,Egypt, 244/858-859); Dāwūd/David (P.Cair.Arab. 198, Egypt, 246/860); N.N. ibn Apaheu (P.Cair.Arab. 184,Egypt, 249/863-864); Andūna/Antonius ibn Qūrīl/Kyrillos (CPR XXI 55, Ushmūnayn, 248/862; CPR XXI 57,Ushmunayn, 251/865; P.Steuerquittungen 5, Ushmunayn, 252/866; CPR XXI 58, Ushmunayn, 253/867; CPRXXI 59, Ushmunayn, 253/867; CPR XXI 65 +Emendation Diem, Ushmunayn, 264/878; P.GrohmannUrkunden14, Ushmunayn, 265/878; P.Vind.inv. A.P. 3498 unpublished, Ushmunayn, 270/883-884; perhaps the tax officialAndūna mentioned without a further patronym in CPR XVI 6 (Egypt, 3rd/9th century) is indentical with Andūnaibn Qūrīl; Muḥammad ibn Jaʿfar (CPR XXI 56 = P.Berl.Arab. I 6, Ushmunayn, 259/872-873); Baqām/Pachomibn Buqṭur/Viktor (P.Cair.Arab. 185, Egypt, 261/875; P.Vind.inv. A.P. 3498 unpublished, Egypt, 270/883-884;PERF 676 = A.P. 11234 unpublished, Egypt, 3rd/9th century; the qusṭāl Baqām mentioned without patronym inP.Cair.Arab. 421 (Ushmunayn, 3rd/9th century) and CPR XVI 21 (Egypt, 3rd/9th century) is problably identicalwith Baqām ibn Buqṭur, in which case the latter's papyri can be assigned to Ushmunayn as well; and perhaps thequsṭāl Iṣṭifān ibn Buqṭur mentioned P.Prag.Arab. 14 (Egypt, 261/874-875) was his brother, which seems notunlikely due to the similar time and office; ʿAlī ibn Sulaymān (P.Cair.Arab. 196, al-Fayyum, 262/875); Ḍimād b.Ziyād (P.Philad.Arab. 12, Ushmunayn, 275/889); Yuḥannis/Ioannes ibn Kayl/Chael (P.GrohmannUrkunden 11,Egypt, 287/900); Shanūda/Senouthios (P.GrohmannUrkunden 12, Ushmunayn, 291/903-904) N.N. (P.Vind.inv.A.P. 13986 = PERF 896, 306/918-919, this being the latest attestation of qusṭāl known so far (as has alreadybeen mentioned by Grohmann 1932, 278); Bisbinūda/Pespnute (P.Giss.Arab. 2, Madinat al-Fayyūm, 3rd/9th

century); Aḥmad (P.Hamb.Arab. II 12, presumably Bahnasā/Oxyrhynchos, 3rd/9th century; he is perhaps identicalwith the qusṭāl Aḥmad ibn Jarīr (P.Cair.Arab. 277, Egypt, 3rd/9th century), in the case of which the provenancecan also be defined as Bahnasā); Yaʿqūb (CPR XVI 19, Egypt, 3 rd/9th century); Mūsā ibn Ayyūb (P.Prag.Arab.26, Egypt, 1st-4th/7th-10th century). – (b) The following persons are explicitely mentioned as jahbadhs (paymaster)in the papyri: Sahl ibn Dāwūd (P.GrohmannProbleme 14, Egypt, 249/863); Aḥmad ibn ʿĪsā ibn Manṣūr(P.Harrauer 61 +Emendation Diem, Fayyūm, 253/867); Isrāʾīl/Israel ibn Mūsā/Moses (P.Harrauer 61+Emendation Diem, Fayyūm, 253/867); Kayl/Chael (P.Harrauer 61 +Emendation Diem, Fayyūm, 253/867);Sulaymān/Salomo ibn Zakariyāʾ/Zacharias (P.Harrauer 61, al-Fayyum, 253/867); Abū Buqṭur/Viktor ibnThiyudūr/Theodoros (P.Steuerquittungen 6, Fayyum, 257/870-871); Sawirus/Severos ibn Jirja/Jurayj/Georgios(CPR XXI 70 +Emendation Diem, Fayyum, 286/899-900); Apaheu ibn Māʿa (P.Cair.Arab. 189, Egypt,287/900); Menas/Minyā/Mīnā ibn Shanūda/Senouthios (P.Cair.Arab. 189, Egypt, 287/900; P.Ryl.Arab. II 3,Ushmunayn?, 292?/904-905; P.Cair.Arab. 190, Egypt, 293/906; P.DietrichTopkapi 2, Ushmunayn, 294/906-907;he seems indentical with the jahbadh Mīnā ibn Shanūda mentioned in P.Vind.inv. A.P. 12916 = PERF 893unpublished (Egypt, 301/913-914); Sawīrus ibn Zakariyyā (P.Cair.Arab. 190, Egypt, 293/906); Niqla/Nicholas


Lucian Reinfandt 11

only one third were Muslims. Interestingly, we finde the same ratio among the later

jahbadhs.42 This continuity of Coptic Christians in the middle levels of administration is a

remarkable fact if one takes into consideration that the caliphal empire had reorganised its

provincial administration a century earlier with an adjustment to Arab Muslims at the expense

on non-Muslim local elites. It seems that during the 9th century this process of Arabisation

was somehow reversed, and that this new development was related to the new Persian

administrative elite in Egypt that was looking for reliable allies among the local population.

3.3 Consumer goods

A third and last approach to indicators for a 'Persian' presence in Egypt is the consumption of

goods of a specifically eastern provenance. The unpublished Vienna papyrus P.Vind.inv. A.P.

5584 is a list of luxury textiles, some of which being made of a specific Mesopotamian and

Persian handicraft. It is an evidence for the existence of, and the demand for, such eastern

textiles in the Fayyum oasis as early as the 9thcentury. Other papyri from the same time and

provenance mention similar items, such as a Sharābī-headscarf (in the unpublished

P.Vind.inv. A.P. 2112).43 It is quite astonishing to find Persian textiles being mentioned in

ibn Andūna/Antonios (P.Ryl.Arab. II 2, Ushmunayn?, 295/907-908); Iṣṭifān/Stephanos ibn Jurayj/Georgios(P.Cair.Arab. 278 +Emendation?, Ushmūnayn, 3rd/9th century); Ḥamdān ibn ʿUmar ibn Muhājir (P.Cair.Arab. I43, Ushmūnayn?, 306/918); Yuḥannis/Ioannes ibn Mīnā/Menas (P.Cair.Arab. 193, Egypt, 314/926);Marqūra/Merkure ibn Mīnā/Menas (P.Cair.Arab. 19, Egypt, 318/930; P.Cair.Arab. VII 446 unpublished, Egypt,319/931, he may be identical with the jahbadh Abū Jamīl Marqūra ibn Mīnā mentioned in P.Cair.Arab. 199(Egypt, 347/958); Jurayj/Georgios ibn Marqūra/Merkure (P.Steuerquittungen 28, Fayyūm or Ushmūnayn, 311-399/923-1008); Baqām/Pachom ibn Šanūda/Senouthios (P.Cair.Arab. 194, Ushmunayn, 405/1015); N.N.(P.KarabacekPapier 5 +Emendation Diem, 427/1036); Abū l-ʿAlāʾ (P.Prag.Arab. 47, Ushmunayn, 440/1048-1049; P.Prag.Arab. 48(Fayyum, 447/1055); Yāsir (P.Prag.Arab. 48, Fayyum, 447/1055); Jirja/Georgios ibnIsiṭūrus/Isidoros (P.Prag.Arab. 48, Fayyum, 447/1055; P.Prag.Arab. 49, Ushmunayn, 449/1057);Marqūra/Merkurios (P.Prag.Arab. 48, Fayyum, 447/1055); Ṣubḥ ibn ʿAbdalmasīḥ (P.Prag.Arab. 49, Ushmunayn,449/1057); Ṣāliḥ ibn ʿImrān (P.Prag.Arab. 49, Ushmunayn, 449/1057); N.N. (P.Ryl.inv. Arabic Add. no. 351unpublished, al-Ushmunayn, 292/904; P.Cair.Arab. 290, Egypt, 3rd/9th century; P.Hamb.Arab. II 14, presumablyEdfu, 3rd/9th century; P.Cair.Arab. 280, Egypt, 342/953-954; P.Ryl.Arab. I, II 2, Egypt, 7th-10th century).

41 Already Gladys Frantz-Murphy mentioned the fact that jahbadhs are only attested in documents fromUshmunayn and the Fayyum. Cf. Frantz-Murphy 2001a, 247.

42 Muslims among the qusṭāls were ʿĪsā ibn ʿAlī in Ushmunayn in 855 and 869; Muḥammad ibn Jaʿfar inUshmunayn in 872; ʿAlī ibn Sulaymān in the Fayyum in 875; Ḍimād b. Ziyād in Ushmunayn in 889; Aḥmad ibnJarīr in Bahnasā; moreover a certain Yaʿqūb and a Mūsā ibn Ayyūb, both with unclear provenance and time.Muslims among the jahbadhs were Sahl ibn Dāwūd in 863; Aḥmad ibn ʿĪsā ibn Manṣūr in the Fayyum in 867;Ḥamdān ibn ʿUmar ibn Muhājir in Ushmunayn in 918; Abū l-ʿAlāʾ in both Ushmunayn in 1049 and in theFayyum in 1055; Yāsir in the Fayyum in 1055; Ṣubḥ ibn ʿAbdalmasīḥ and Ṣāliḥ ibn ʿImrān in Ushmunayn in1057. The fact that both qusṭāls and jahbadhs were by their majority Christians fits to an observation alreadymade by Albert Dietrich and Adolf Grohmann; cf. Dietrich 1955, 66; Grohmann 1964, 132.

43 P.Vind.inv. A.P. 15045 (unpublished) = PERF 642 mentions, next to several consumer goods, also thearrival of 40 trading ships from Syrian Antiochia (if Karabacek's reading is correct?). It seems that at least partthe goods mentioned in the papyrus had a provenance from Syria of farther east. P.GrohmannProbleme 3 (recto)or A.P. 11416v (unpubl.) mentions on its verso, among other things, perfume and four drinking glasses (of a



Egyptian papyri; it is less a consequence, I would say, of a sufficient purchase power and a

fashionable phenomenon prevalent among the local Egyptian population. Rather it was a

consequence of the presence of ethnic Persians in the Egyptian hinterland, at least in the

Fayyum oasis.

Like textiles, foodstuffs are similarly informative. Apples, for example, had been raised in

Egypt since antiquity, but their low quality was proverbial. On the other hand, apples from

Syria and Iraq were famous for their high quality, and good apples were also raised in Iran

and Central Asia.44 Apples of a good quality showing up in Egypt could therefore be an

indicator for a group of consumers in Egypt with a specific Mesopotamian and Persian

background. In fact, a number of Arabic papyri from the 9th century mention apples of a high

quality degree unknown before.45 These again seem to have been raised, or imported, for a

specific demand group with eastern consumer habits.

4. Regime change and elite migration in the Islamic Caliphate

The study of the documents has led to the following results: Literary sources draw a picture of

large migrations of administrative personnel from Iran and Iraq to Egypt during the 9th

century. This is confirmed by local documents from Egypt, but with important additional

details about the ‘who and where and why’. The presence of Persian administrators in Egypt

can be seen by the introduction of a new Persian terminology in local documents. Persians

often settled in the capital al-Fustat and took high positions in the administration, but others

settled in more remote parts of the country as well. These must have brought their families

and peers along, as is evident from the demand for specific eastern consumer goods expressed

in the papyri. The settlement started in the Fayyum and spread more southward to the centre

Syrian or otherwise eastern provenance?). P.Vind.inv. A.P. 7718r (unpublished) = PERF 890? mentions severaltextiles and garments in the possession of a trader with the name Abū Jaʿfar (Egypt, 9 th-10th century). P.Vind.inv.A.Ch. 3637 = PERF 975 (Egypt, mid-10th century, unpublished) is a list of products and linguistically interesting(Karabacek 1894, 254) with its partly Persian names for good, e.g. jafneh (platter, dish) or tābūt (coffin, woodenbox). An example for a papyrus mentioning textiles without a specific Persian or Mesopotamian provenance isP.Vind.inv. A.P. 1290 (unpublished) = PERF 574.

44 The trope of 'Persian' apples even found its way to 19 th century Professorenliteratur such as Felix Dahn'snotorious but popular Ein Kampf um Rom. Cf. http://gutenberg.spiegel.de/buch/80/5 [accessed 2 June 2014]. Forapples in Egypt and those of a superior quality in Syria and Irak cf. Albert Dietrich 1999; Müller-Wodarg 1954-58, 71. Watson 1983, on the other hand, does not mention the apple at all. According to Hehn 1911, 628, theArabic world for „apple“, tuffāḥ is related to the Hebrew tappūḥ and the Old Egyptian dpḥ.

45 E.g. the „big apples“ metioned in P.Vind.inv. A.P. 8031 = PERF 805 (Egypt, 3 rd/9th century; unpublished,res. Reinfandt). Other attestations are: P.Marchands II 24 (Fayyum, 3rd/9th century); P.Khalili I 17 = P.Khalili II74 (Egypt, 3rd/9th century); P.Heid.Arab. II 55 (Egypt, 3rd/9th century); P.Prag.Arab. 78 (Ausgabenaufstellung;Egypt, 3rd-4th/9th-10th century); P.Berl.inv. 15150, 2, 4, 7; P.Cair.Arab. 427 (Egypt, 3rd/9th century); P.Vind.inv.A.P. 8992 (unpublished); P.Vind.inv. A.P. 11186, PERF 873 (Egypt, 3rd-4th/9th-10th century) (unpublished);P.Vind.inv. A.P.1029 (Egypt 198/813) (unpublished).


http://gutenberg.spiegel.de/buch/80/5

Lucian Reinfandt 13

of al-Ushmunayn with a delay of decades. Those Persians that were settling in the Egyptian

countryside were administrators of agricultural domains in caliphal possession, or they were

traders, while the financial administration in the proper sense of the word remained executed

by Coptic Egyptians on the local level.

The reasons for the migration are partly to be found in the political collapse of central

government in Iraq during the 860s AD that brought occupational insecurity and physical

dangers to many. Those who had the financial means to afford the travel, and had the strength

of mind (Ashtor calls it “esprit d'initiative”) to carry out, left the land for better opportunities

elsewhere. Insofar it was an elite phenomenon, as has appropriately been noted already by

Ashtor.46 But this is only half the story, I would say. Firstly, administrators did not come

alone but brought families, peers, and entourage along. Secondly, administrative elites had

migrated not only during the tumultuous 860s AD but already, and they continued doing so

after the caliphal centre had stabilised again in the 10th century. It seems therefore that the

'Persian' migration of the 9th century had wider implications for the caliphal empire. When

bringing our evidence into line with the larger socio-political setting, it becomes clear that the

staff composition of regional administrations not only affected the host societies and brought

along technological innovations but was a key factor for provincial politics and, in the long

run, the political fate of the empire altogether. The staffing of the financial administration of

Egypt with Persian experts took place at the same time when the civil administration was

taken over by members of the Turkish military elite. This led to a rivalry between the Turkish

military and the Persian financial elite over the control of Egypt's agricultural revenues. In its

effort to maintain its influence over the province of Egypt, the Abbasid imperial centre

appointed ethnic Persians on key positions both in the offices of al-Fustat and as overseers of

caliphal estates in the countryside.47 The latter settled in large agricultural centres such as the

Fayyum and al-Ushmunayn, while the core-business of tax-collection on the ground level

remained in the hand of Coptic Egyptians. These proved to be trustful allies, for the

continuous Coptic tax-revolts of the 8th and early 9th centuries now came to an end.48 But the

staffing of the Egyptian administration on middle and low levels with Muslim Arabs that had

begun in the early 8th century under the Umayyad rule now had come to an end as well.

The 'advent of Persians' in Egypt was in fact a shift in imperial provincial politics. If we

are to see it from a Weberian perspective, the scenario is as follows: The Umayyad governors

46 Ashtor 1972, 197. In further consequence, he characterises this migration phenomenon, in accordance tosimultaneous migration phenomena in Europe, as 'medieval' (ibid.).

47 Cf. Frantz-Murphy 2001a, 246 with a very similar opinion. About the arrival of Turkish troops in Egypt in829 AD, cf. Lev 2012, 316.

48 There had been tax-revolts in Egypt in the years AD 725, 739, 749, 752, 767, 783, 810, 819, 829, 831-32.The last rebellion that took place in Egypt in 252/866 significantly was an Arab rebellion. Cf. Lev 2012, 319-320and passim.



had had, during the first half of the 8th century, successively exchanged Coptic officials by a

class of Arab Muslim 'household officials'. This was part of their efforts to eliminate the

financial control of the old Coptic aristocracy on the local levels. One and a half centuries

later, however, the situation had changed after a new Arabic landholding (and landowning)

elite had established itself on the local levels. This new (and unwelcome) elite had to be kept

in control by the central caliphate by the import of new 'household officials' on the top-level

of administration (Turkish military, Persian administrators) as well as by a reactivation of

Copts, now as 'part-time officials', on the ground levels.49 This renewed social influence of

parts of the Coptic population finds its expression in a renaissance of the Coptic language in

Egyptian papyri from the 9th and 10th centuries50 , but also in a rising awareness of a local

Egyptian identity which found its expression in a blossoming of local histories from Egypt

from the 9th century on.51

49 On this 'Arabisation' of Egypt during the 8th century AD cf. now especially Sijpesteijn 2013. According toAshtor 1972, 196, collections of biographies from the Ta'rikh Baghdad show that during the 9th and 10th

centuries intellectual migrants from Irak to Egypt were predominantly from the professions of traders andjudges, but only in very few cases working as artisans, notaries, or copyists. It seems that the latter crafts andoccupations were reserved for 'part-time officials' of a local Coptic-Egyptian background. The Mesopotamianintellectuals, for their part, seem to have belonged to the social group of 'household officials' instead, as can beseen by the many nominations of judges in Egypt which was in fact prerogative of the Abbasid caliphs in Irak.Merchants, on the other hand, were specifically dependent on their own international networks and certainlybenefited from a high degree of local flexibility.

50 For the 'late renaissance of the Coptic language' cf. especially the research of T. Sebastian Richter passim.51 For local histories of 9th and 10th century Egypt (especially Ibn ʿAbdalhakam, but also al-Kindī, al-Balawī,

and Ibn ad-Dāya) in their function as documents of a specific local consciousness. Cf. Haarmann 1980;Sijpesteijn 2011 and especially Kennedy 1998. Local reactions on migrations from Iraq itself, in this caseTurkish military slaves, find their expression also in al-Jahiz' famous “Epistle of the Turks” (9 th century AD); cf.Hutchins 1989, 175-218 (in English); Pellat 1967, 148-158 (in German). Further consequences of the Persianmigration in different lands of the caliphate was an increase in Islamisation. This is at least evident from the caseof Egypt where the immigration of Persian and Turkish elites (and their entourage) resulted in a growth of theMuslim sector of society. Cf. Brett 2010, 556.


Lucian Reinfandt 15

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