English Translation of Seminal Islamic Texts

During the Time of Yazīd b. Mu ʿ ā wiyah ʿUbayd Allāh b. Aws al-Ghassānī—who had previously written for Muʿāwiyah—served as a scribe for Yazīd b. Muʿāwiyah. Sarjūn b. Manṣūr continued to manage the dīwān al-kharāj during his reign. When news reached Yazīd b. Muʿāwiyah of al-Ḥusayn’s journey toward Kūfah, he was distressed and troubled by it. He consulted Sarjūn b. Manṣūr about whom to appoint over Iraq to confront al-Ḥusayn. Sargūn said: “ʿUbayd Allāh b. Ziyād.” Yazīd would dislike ʿUbayd Allāh, and therefore, replied: “There is no good in him. Name someone else.” Sarjūn then said: “If Muʿāwiyah were alive and had advised you to appoint him, would you have followed his advice?” Yazīd said: “Yes.” Sarjūn then presented him with a written appointment from Muʿāwiyah to ʿUbayd Allāh, designating him governor of Kūfah, bearing Muʿāwiyah’s seal. He said: “I had this in my possession all along, and the only reason I did not mention it earlier was my awareness of your dislike for ʿUbayd A...

  During the time of Mu ʿ ā wiyah b. Ab ī Sufy ā n ʿUbayd Allāh b. Aws al-Ghassānī used to write Muʿāwiyah’s correspondence, and Sarjūn b. Manṣūr al-Rūmī handled the tax bureau ( dīwān al-kharāj ) for him. ʿAmr b. Saʿīd b. al-ʿĀṣ wrote on behalf of the military register ( dīwān al-jund ).  Mu ʿ ā wiyah also had a scribe named ʿ Abd al-Ra ḥ mān b. Darrāj, whose brother was ʿ Ubayd All ā h b. Darr ā j — both were his freedmen ( mawālī ). He appointed [ ʿ Ubayd All ā h] over the tax administration   ( kharāj ) of Iraq, taking the responsibility from al-Mughīrah, who had been in charge of military affairs there. ʿ Ubayd All ā h asked the villagers to offer gifts during Nawr ū z and Mihrj ā n, and they did so. The total of these offerings reached ten million dirhams in a single year. Muʿāwiyah was the first to establish the seal register ( dīwān al-khātam ). The reason for this was that he once wrote a letter to ʿAmr b. al-Zubayr authorizing a payment of o...

  During the time of Abū Bakr [rta] ʿUthmān b. ʿAffān  and Zayd b. Thābit  used to write for Abū Bakr . It has also been narrated that ʿAbd Allāh b. al-Arqam  wrote for him, and that Ḥanẓalah b. al-Rabīʿ  also served as his scribe.   During the time of ʿ Umar b. al-Kha ṭṭ āb [rta] Zayd b. Thābit  used to write for ʿUmar , as did ʿAbd Allāh b. al-Arqam . He also appointed Abū Jubayrah b. al-Ḍaḥḥāk al-Anṣārī as scribe over the records of Kūfah (i.e., the dīwān of Kūfah). ᶜ Umar’s Advice to His Scribes ʿUmar  used to say to his scribe, and he wrote to his governors: Power over work means not postponing the task of today until tomorrow. For if you do that, your duties will accumulate ( tadākkat ), and you will no longer know which to begin with or which to attend to first. Reason for Devising the Registers ʿUmar  was the first to organize the administrative registers ( dawāwīn ) among the Arabs in Islam. This [decision] was...

The First to Use ʿAmmā Baʿd It is also reported that David, Prophet Dāwūd, was the first to say “ammā baʿd” — “as for what follows” — and that this is the separator in speech. Another riwāyah attributes the phrase “ammā [baʿd]” to Qus b. Sāʿidah. Names of Those Authentically Known as Scribes of the Messenger of God ʿAlī and ʿUthmān ʿAlī b. Abī Ṭālib and ʿUthmān b. ʿAffān used to write the revelation. When they were absent, it was written by Ubayy b. Kaʿb and Zayd b. Thābit. Khālid and Muʿāwiyah Khālid b. Saʿīd b. al-ʿĀṣ and Muʿāwiyah b. Abī Sufyān wrote correspondence on his behalf regarding his needs. Al-Mughīrah, al-Ḥuṣayn, Ibn Arqam, and al-ʿAlāʾ Al-Mughīrah b. Shuʿbah and al-Ḥuṣayn b. Numayr wrote documents involving transactions between people. ʿAbd Allāh b. al-Arqam b. ʿAbd Yaghūth and al-ʿAlāʾ b. ʿUqbah used to write documents concerning the tribes, their watering rights, and residential matters among the Anṣār, inc...

The Scribes Among The Persians The kings of Persia were exceedingly strict with anyone who forged or engraved a seal resembling the royal seal. They considered such a crime equal to the gravest offenses and punished it accordingly. The Persian kings referred to the letter-writers as “the interpreters ( tarājimah ) of kings.” They used to say to them: “Do not let your desire to make speech concise lead you to omit meanings, abandon proper structure and clarity ( al-iblāgh ) in it or weaken the strength of argument.” It was the established practice in the days of the Persians that the younger generation ( aḥdāth al-kuttāb ) of scribes, and those newly emerging among them, would gather at the palace gates seeking employment. The king would then command the heads of his chancery to test them and examine their intellects. Those found worthy would have their names presented to the king and would be instructed to remain at the gate so they could be called upon when needed. The king w...

In the name of God, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful Abū ʿAbd Allāh Muḥammad b. ʿAbdūs al-Jahshiyārī said in the book in compiled on The Accounts of Viziers and Scribes :   It has been narrated that Kaʿb al-Aḥbār said: The first to devise the Syriac script—and all other scripts—was Ādam (pbuh), three hundred years before his death. He inscribed them onto clay and then baked it. When the great flood that had afflicted the earth came to an end, every people found their script and wrote in it. Thus, Ismāʿīl (Ishmael) found the book of the Arabs. And it is also narrated: Idrīs (Enoch) was the first to write with a pen after Ādam. Devising the Arabic Script And it has also been narrated: The first to devise Arabic script was Ismāʿīl b. Ibrāhīm. He was also the first to speak Arabic, and he composed the script based on his pronunciation and speech. In another report it is said: The first to write in Arabic were three men from the tribe of Bawlān. One...

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 in...