Translating al-Jahshiyari’s Kitab al-Wuzaraʾ wa al-Kuttab into English

Translating al-Jahshiyārī’s Kitāb al-Wuzarāʾ wa-l-Kuttāb into English

Before beginning my English translation of Abū ʿAbd Allāh Muḥammad b. ʿAbdūs al-Jahshiyārī’s Kitāb al-Wuzarāʾ wa-l-Kuttāb, “The Book of Ministers and Secretaries,” it is worth saying a few words about the importance of this work and its author.
Al-Jahshiyārī, who died in 331 AH / 942 CE, belonged to the Abbasid period and wrote at a time when the caliphate had already passed through major political and administrative changes. He was deeply interested in the history of government, administration, ministers, secretaries, and court culture. His work is therefore not merely a biographical record of officials; it is an important source for understanding how power actually functioned in the early Islamic world.
Kitāb al-Wuzarāʾ wa-l-Kuttāb opens a window onto the political, administrative, social, and economic life of the Muslim world, especially during a period when the authority of the caliphs began to weaken and the influence of ministers, scribes, palace circles, women, concubines, and court officials became increasingly visible. Through accounts of ministers and secretaries, al-Jahshiyārī preserves valuable details about the machinery of government, the conduct of officials, the habits of the ruling class, and the relationship between power and society.
I felt it was important to translate this entire book into English because works of this kind remain inaccessible to many readers who are interested in Islamic history but cannot read Arabic. Bringing it into English allows a wider audience to appreciate the richness of early Arabic historical writing and to see how Muslim historians preserved not only major political events, but also the social realities, administrative practices, and human relationships that shaped them.