Islam (English)

38 ONE GOD: ABRAHAM’S LEGACY ON THE NILE THE THREE RELIGIONS IN EGYPT Islam 39 29 Bilingual document (SB XVIII 13218) Egypt. 22 November 713 (12th Indiction, 26th Hathur) Papyrus. 22 × 23.7 cm Egyptian Museum and Papyrus Collection, Berlin State Museums. P 13352 Petra Sijpesteijn This document contains instructions in Arabic and Greek, with the same content. The Arab governor of the Umayyad Caliphate in Egypt, Qurra bin Scharik, asks the inhabitants of the farmstead Bubaliton in the Peri Polin district of the city of Antinoe for a contingent of sailors for ships that are to be sent to `Abdallah bin Musa bin Nusair, and to agree to pay the costs of 2.5 sailors and their wages and travels expenses as far as Pentapolis (in Cyrenaica in modern-day Libya). Musa bin Nusayr was the Umayyad governor in Ifriqiya (Libya, Tunisia and eastern Algeria) from 703 to 714. He took part in the conquest of Spain in 712/713 and returned to Ifriqiya in 713. [GH] T HE entry of the Arab armies into Egypt in 639 followed a long period of cultural, economic and political engagement. Muhammad had already recognized the patriarch of Alexandria, Cyrus (in oice 630–41), as one of the political leaders of his day, inviting him to join Islam. The patriarch’s polite refusal was accompanied by precious gifts, including two slave-girls, one of whom would bear the prophet his only (short-lived) son, Ibrahim. Sayings attributed to Muhammad predict the Muslims taking control of Egypt and emphasize the special relationship that existed between Egyptians and Muslims. The great Arab general and irst governor of Egypt, ‘Amr bin al-‘As (died 664), knew Egypt from his commercial travels – ‘the wealthiest of lands and least well defended’1 – thus convincing the caliph ‘Umar (reigned 634 – 44) in Medina to conquer it. Raiding, and possibly a treaty under which the Egyptians kept the Arabs at bay by paying them a yearly tribute, preceded the invasion, while the presence in ‘Amr’s army of (Christian) Arabs who had resided on Egypt’s eastern border under the Byzantine empire would also have increased familiarity with the country. Once ‘Amr crossed into Egypt at al-‘Arish, his limited and ill-equipped troops did not encounter much resistance. The Roman fortress Babylon, located at the entrance of the Delta, was taken, after which the Arabs advanced on the Fayyum oasis and the Delta, taking Alexandria in 641 and reducing Upper Egypt by stages in the years that followed. For the next ifty years, however, their position remained precarious with continuous Byzantine counterattacks, most famously occupying Alexandria in 645.2 A numerical minority, afraid of diluting their faith and customs by mingling with the Egyptian population, the Arabs were conined to garrisons, and made only temporary, military related forays into the countryside.3 The Arabs did not introduce into Egypt, let alone impose, a fully developed and worked-out religion, nor did they initiate a complete overhaul of Byzantine administration and culture. Only the highest administrative positions were taken over by Arabs, while the daily management remained in the hands of Christian Egyptians (see also ch.26). The Arabs did, however, implement some signiicant changes, displaying the authentically diferent administrative, linguistic and cultural traditions that they brought with them. Babylon was renamed Fustat, and a huge volume of building materials was shipped there from the rest of Egypt to construct the new capital.4 For the irst time since the reforms of the emperor Justinian (reigned 527– 65), Egypt had one political centre.5 A poll tax was introduced, and other administrative and political–military organizational measures launched. Arabic was instituted as an administrative language next to Greek and Coptic, and the Arabs initiated distinctive documentary practices.6 References to Muslim institutions and ideas that appear in fully developed form in later literary works already appear in the documentary record in this early period. The basmala (‘in the name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful’) heads the earliest Arabic document dated 22 AH / AD 643, and was also used in Greek and Coptic texts.7 The statement of faith, ‘there is no god but God,’ also appears in the earliest Arabic texts. The Hajj (Muslim pilgrimage to Mecca) is irst mentioned in a text dating to 705–09.8 In a will dated to 721 a hubs (pious endowment) – consisting of a house – was set up by a woman for her female slave to live on after her mistress’ 40 ONE GOD: ABRAHAM’S LEGACY ON THE NILE 30 Abbasid coin (dinar) Egypt. 790–91 (174 H). Gold. Diameter 1.8 cm; weight 4.09 g Coin Cabinet, Berlin State Museums. 18205161 This dinar was minted under Dawud bin Yazid al-Muhallabi, who was briefly governor of Egypt under Caliph Harun al Rashid. The inscriptions in upright Kufic script represent the Muslim confession of faith, the declaration of the oneness of God and part of the 33rd verse of the 9th Sura of the Qur‘an. The year of minting and the forename of the governor also appear on the reverse. The Caliph and the place where it was minted are not named. [GH] death.9 The dhimma (protection), which non-Muslim subjects possessing a Holy Book were entitled to in exchange for paying a tax (according to the Qur’an), appears for the irst time in a papyrus dated AD 680 from Nessana.10 Without a narrative context, however, it is diicult to determine to what extent these references form a coherent and consciously distinctive religious practice.11 The mosque of ‘Amr in Fustat (see ch.14) is said to have been extended several times to house growing numbers of Muslims in the decades following the conquest. Serving not only religious goals, mosques were also built in Alexandria and in other administrative centres. Arabic inscriptions, including religious ones with paraphrases of the Qur’an, were used on these buildings. The architecture, although drawing upon pre-Islamic traditions, was strikingly new. Some important changes took place in the irst half of the eighth century, coinciding with empire-wide Islamicizing and Arabicizing measures.12 Arabs started to take over administrative posts outside the garrisons, leading to permanent Arab settlements in the Egyptian countryside. Greater interaction with a more selfconscious and self-conident Arab population led to an increasing Arabicization and Islamicization – and even conversion – of the Egyptian population, albeit still on a small scale at this time. The irst attestation of Muhammad and of ‘the people of Islam’ also dates from this period.13 Islamic legal institutions, including the qadi (judge) and other expressions of Islamic law, appear more widely. Dating from the eighth century are the earliest preserved literary and semi-literary texts, such as amulets and pious writings containing Qur’anic verses and Hadith (reported teachings, sayings and deeds of the prophet Muhammed), as well as historical and literary narratives.14 As a result of the administrative reforms under caliph ‘Abd al-Malik, exclusively Arabic (as opposed to bilingual or non-Arabic) texts occur on measurements and coins, the latter containing also selected Qur’anic verses (Fig. 30). The earliest fragments of Qur’anic codices from Egypt – all on parchment – date to the early Abbasid period (750 to the ninth century) (Fig. 31).15 Alexandria had always been a centre for study in the classical world, and it seems to have continued to be so into the Islamic period. Under Islamic rule Egypt again developed into an important scholarly centre. Egypt developed its own Hadith tradition and history schools.16 Indeed, it was to Egypt that two famous biographers of Muhammad – Ibn Ishaq (died 768) and Ibn Hisham (died c.833) – came to collect accounts about the prophet’s life.17 The great Muslim lawyer al-Shai‘i (died 820) moved from Baghdad to Egypt, where his works of legal reform were written down.18 By the ninth century the use of Arabic had also become widespread amongst Egypt’s non-Muslim inhabitants. The close interaction of indigenous and Arab written culture resulted in the introduction of terms and expressions from Greek and Coptic into Arabic’s legal and administrative language. Egypt continued THE THREE RELIGIONS IN EGYPT to have a majority non-Muslim population for centuries to come, but some literary expressions point to an increased Muslim presence. The so-called rescript (legal response) of ‘Umar – attributed to the Umayyad caliph (reigned 717–20) but more probably a product of the ninth century – prescribes distinctive clothing and behaviour for non-Muslims, while also prohibiting public expressions of nonMuslim religious rituals. These rules express an anxiety about the loss of a distinctive Muslim identity resulting from increasing numbers of converts. At the same time, local Egyptian Muslims cultivated a stronger regional identity, articulated in the literary genre of describing fada’il misr (Egypt’s wonders) and regional histories.19 Local identiication was also advanced by Arab Muslims in Egypt, especially those who could trace their descent to the irst conquerors. They felt entitled to a special status and a generous share of the land and its income. The relationship between the caliphal court and the province had always been subject to tensions, 41 31 Leaf from a Qur‘an Middle East. c.8th century Parchment. Leaf: 12 × 20 cm; leather binding: 20 × 28 cm Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation, Berlin State Library. Inv. No. Wetzstein II 1916 Parts of the 4th, 5th and 10th Suras are reproduced on the 50 leaves of this early Qur‘an. The beautiful, regular script (Kufic) is large and spread out, so that only around 14-18 characters appear on each page. Vowel signs are often present in the form of red dots, and the diacritical marks, which make it possible to distinguish between characters with similar forms, appear as small lines. The page illustrated contains parts of verses 162 and 163 of the 4th Sura on the revelation of the divine word: ‘(and believe) in God and the last day, to these We will surely give a great reward./Surely, We have sent revelation to thee, as we sent revelation to Noah and the Prophets after him, and We sent revelation to Abraham and Ishmael and Isaac and Jacob, and his children and to Jesus…’ [GH] Bib: Ahlwardt 1887, no. 316 42 ONE GOD: ABRAHAM’S LEGACY ON THE NILE especially over the division of iscal revenue and the degree of independence of the (local) ruling Arab elite vis-à-vis the caliph. Egyptians were instrumental in opposing the centralizing policy of the caliph ‘Uthman (reigned 644 –56), which threatened to infringe upon provincial autonomy, and eventually in murdering him.20 During the Umayyad period rivalry over the caliphal seat gave rise to interferences in Egypt’s governing elite.21 The threat to their privileged position perceived by the irst generation of Arabs in Egypt at the arrival of new elite populations was expressed in the irst history of Egypt, written by Ibn ‘Abd al-Hakam (died 870).22 Turkish rule and Persian administrative practice and culture were introduced into Egypt with the arrival of governors and their oicials from the Abbasid court – after the army of the caliph al-Ma’mun (reigned 813–33) had reconquered the province in 825–26 in the aftermath of the great civil war with his brother al-Amin (reigned 809–13). Slave soldiers had long started to ill other functions at the Abbasid court in Samarra, with members of the Turkish elite being appointed governors over Egypt. Ahmad bin Tulun, of Turkish origin, arrived in 868. He founded Madinat al-Qata’i‘ – a new capital to house his troops – of which the mosque of Ibn Tulun is the most conspicuous and only remaining display of Samarran inluence (Fig. 32; see also ch.14). Ibn Tulun stopped forwarding Egypt’s taxes to Samarra, although he continued to use the Abbasid caliph’s name in the Friday prayers and on coins. Making use of the Abbasid court’s preoccupation with dynastic quarrels and the African Zanj slave uprising (869–83), the Tulunid dynasty was one of several local dynasties that rose up against the empire. Financially independent, Ibn Tulun used his growing army to extend control over Syria, building on a long-standing relation between the two provinces.23 Increased spending of the local iscal income made Egypt prosper under the 135 years of Tulunid rule, but in 905 an Abbasid army re-established central control. The pattern was repeated under another governor appointed in 935, who obtained the right to use the title ikhshid (prince) commonly used by Central-Asian rulers and whose family, thus known as the Ikhshidid dynasty, ruled in Egypt until the arrival of the Fatimids in 969. Abbasid administrators, bearing Persian names, accompanied the armies and governors sent from the East introducing their administrative practices in Egypt.24 The use of star-shaped signatory signs at the bottom of administrative and legal documents from Egypt resembles similar practices attested earlier in documents from the eastern empire.25 Eastern inluences can also be traced in iscal and legal technical terms introduced at this time.26 From their new capital city of Cairo (al-Qahira, meaning ‘the victorious’), the Shi‘ite Fatimids established an empire that extended at its height in the eleventh century from North Africa throughout Palestine and the Upper Red Sea coast. The Fatimid caliphs were acknowledged in the prayers in Mecca and Medina. In spite of an ambitious and wide-ranging missionary programme extending throughout the Muslim Empire, and energetic building activity in Egypt, religious rituals and doctrines of the Egyptian population were hardly afected. New openings arose for non-Muslim religious minorities in the expanding Fatimid administration, while economic opportunities were provided by the intensifying and extending of trade networks that reached from the western Mediterranean to South Asia, in which Egypt played a central role. The writings produced by the Jewish communities of Cairo, as preserved in the Genizah in the city’s Ben Ezra synagogue, are witness to such activities (see ch.18). 32 Mosque of Ibn Tulun, Cairo Completed in 879 and built in Samarran style, the Mosque of Ibn Tulun was the focal point of the new Tulunid capital, today part of modern Cairo.