TY - JOUR
AU - Hassan, Mona
AB - Abstract Although Ibn Ḥajar al-ʿAsqalānī is primarily known for his seminal scholarship in the field of prophetic traditions or ḥadīth studies, he was also an accomplished poet. In fact, as this article reveals, one of the poems that Ibn Ḥajar included in his carefully crafted collection from the ninth/fifteenth century struck a deep chord of Muslim memories surrounding a restored Islamic caliphate. Far from the image of complete apathy to the Cairene ʿAbbasids that has long been conventional wisdom, Ibn Ḥajar’s panegyric for al-Mustaʿīn (r. 808–16/1406–14) lauded the ʿAbbasid caliph’s assumption of the Mamluk sultanate as a restoration of legitimate rule to the blessed family of the Prophet (ahl al-bayt). In crafting his poem, Ibn Ḥajar draws upon a deep reservoir of devotional love for the Prophet’s family in the late Mamluk era, embodied by al-Mustaʿīn as the descendant of the Prophet’s uncle al-ʿAbbās, and upon a dynamic and evolving Islamic legal tradition on matters of governance. Even though al-Mustaʿīn’s combined reign as sultan and caliph lasted only a matter of months, Ibn Ḥajar’s commemoration of it became a famous piece of cultural lore down through the last years of the Mamluk Sultanate and past the Ottoman conquest of Egypt. Through exploring the intertwined histories of Ibn Ḥajar, al-Mustaʿīn, and their contemporaries, as well as analysing published and manuscript recensions of Ibn Hajar’s poetry, topographies of Cairo, Mamluk chancery documents, and treatises on Islamic law and ḥadīth literature, this interdisciplinary article elucidates the religious and socio-political complexity of veneration for the ʿAbbasid caliphate in the late Mamluk era. The mosque of Ibn Ḥajar lies nestled mid-way along the street of Bayn al-Sayārij inside the old city walls of Cairo (Figure 1). Local residents, beholding this modern structure standing on the street that was once known for its sesame oil refineries or sayārij (sing., sirja), like to think that perhaps the original mosque was sponsored by Ibn Ḥajar al-ʿAsqalānī (773–852/1372–1449) long ago—centuries before it was rebuilt in 1398/1978. After all, his student, the famous historian Shams al-Dīn al-Sakhāwī (830–902/1427–97), lived nearby in this dense urban core that constituted Egypt’s seat of power during the late Mamluk era. Recalling Ibn Ḥajar’s own historical contributions as a renowned traditionist, residents of Bayn al-Sayārij fondly call the mosque Gāmiʿ Abū Ḥagar, according to local idiom and pronunciation.1 Yet the memories of Ibn Ḥajar al-ʿAsqalānī and other late Mamluk-era scholars resonate far beyond the old city streets of Cairo, drenched in history. Ibn Ḥajar is primarily known for his seminal scholarship in the field of prophetic traditions or ḥadīth studies. However, he was also an accomplished poet. In fact, as this article reveals, one of the poems that Ibn Ḥajar included in his carefully crafted collection from the ninth/fifteenth century struck a deep chord of Muslim memories surrounding a restored Islamic caliphate. Far from the image of complete apathy to the Cairene ʿAbbasids that has long been conventional wisdom about Mamluk Egypt and Syria, Ibn Ḥajar’s panegyric for al-Mustaʿīn (r. 808–16/1406–14) lauded the caliph’s assumption of the sultanate as a restoration of legitimate rule to the blessed family of the Prophet. And although al-Mustaʿīn’s combined reign as sultan and caliph was short-lived, Ibn Ḥajar’s commemoration of it became a famous piece of cultural lore down through the last years of the Mamluk Sultanate and past the Ottoman conquest of Egypt. Figure 1 View largeDownload slide ‘Shāriʿ Bayn al-Sayārij’. Cairo, Egypt. Photographs © Mona Hassan. Figure 1 View largeDownload slide ‘Shāriʿ Bayn al-Sayārij’. Cairo, Egypt. Photographs © Mona Hassan. Ibn Ḥajar, The Poet On 22 Shaʿbān 773 / 29 February 1372, Ibn Ḥajar was born in the oldest parts of Cairo that predated the Fatimids, otherwise known as Miṣr al-ʿatīqa, as al-Sakhāwī refers to it in his biography of his teacher. Ibn Ḥajar, who was called by his first name Aḥmad during his childhood, was raised there as an orphan, after his father Nūr al-Dīn ʿAlī passed away in his late fifties on 13 Rajab 777/ 8 December 1375. Young Aḥmad had not yet reached his fourth birthday, and he had already lost his mother Nijār bint Fakhr al-Dīn Abī Bakr al-Ziftāwī beforehand. Later on, the little he was able personally to remember of his father was him saying: ‘The kunyā of my son Aḥmad is Abū l-Faḍl.’ Nūr al-Dīn ʿAlī had been a minor judge who had studied both law and literature and composed excellent poetry of his own. He was the author of multiple dīwāns and even hosted the famous poet Ibn Nubāta (d. 768/1366) in one of his nearby houses for a spell. Ibn Nubāta, moreover, noted down and appreciated his poetry. Nūr al-Dīn ʿAlī had also given his son Aḥmad the kunyā Abū l-Faḍl in emulation of the Judge of Makka during the time that they visited the holy city together. Aḥmad had been born following the death of another, older son who had been studying Islamic jurisprudence, and Shaykh Yaḥyā al-Ṣanāfīrī (d. 772/1371) had consoled the bereaved Nūr al-Dīn ʿAlī that God would bless him with another boy who would grow up to be a scholar. Accordingly, before his own death, Nūr al-Dīn ʿAlī selected guardians, one a wealthy merchant and the other a jurist, who would ensure a good literary and scholarly education for his offspring.2 Ibn Ḥajar began his schooling at a kuttāb around the age of five and completed his memorization of the Qurʾān by the age of nine; he also memorized introductory educational texts and listened in on the lessons of scholars. His sister, Sitt al-Rakb (770–98/1369–96), who had been seven when their father died, doted on him like a mother, even though she was only a few years older. She too received a good education at the hands of their guardians as well as multiple ijāzas procured by her father; Ibn Ḥajar himself later commended her intellect, character, and abilities highly.3 She married among the prosperous Kharrūbī mercantile elite—apparently a relative of their guardian, Zakī al-Dīn Abū Bakr b. Nūr al-Dīn ʿAlī al-Kharrūbī, who was the head of a prominent family of Kārimī merchants in the profitable Red Sea trade. When Ibn Ḥajar was twelve, it was Zakī al-Dīn al-Kharrūbī who took the boy to Makka and (belatedly by Mamluk standards) arranged for him to lead the tarāwīḥ prayers in the holy sanctuary as a young memorizer of the Qurʾān. After al-Kharrūbī’s death in 787/1385, Ibn Ḥajar continued his education and adhered to his other scholarly guardian Shaykh Shams al-Dīn Muḥammad b. ʿAlī Ibn al-Qaṭṭān (737–813/1337–1411), learning from him jurisprudence, Arabic, and mathematics, among other subjects. He became interested in history and the backgrounds of narrators of the prophetic tradition, and in 792/1390 Ibn Ḥajar pursued the literary arts and began composing poetry of his own, especially in praise of the Prophet. Then, in Ramaḍān 796/July 1394, Ibn Ḥajar met the preeminent traditionist al-Ḥāfiẓ Zayn al-Dīn al-ʿIrāqī (725–806/1325–1403), who kindled the twenty-three-year old’s abiding interest in ḥadīth studies and afforded him a decade-long tutelage.4 Toward the beginning of the ninth/fifteenth century, Ibn Ḥajar married well (with the involvement of his guardian Ibn al-Qaṭṭān) in Shaʿbān 798/May 1396 and moved at the age of twenty-five from his father’s house along the Nile in Old Cairo to the former residence of a Mamluk deputy-sultan along the Cairene lane of Bahāʾ al-Dīn.5 Ibn Ḥajar’s new abode used to belong to the deputy-sultan Sayf al-Dīn Mengu-Tīmūr al-Ḥusāmī, whose fortunes had risen dramatically with those of his Mamluk superior and eventual ruler al-Malik al-Manṣūr Husām al-Dīn Lājīn in the seventh/thirteenth century. Mengu-Tīmūr also built next to his home a college, known as al-Madrasa al-Mankūtīmūriyya that was completed in Ṣafar 698/November 1298. Within a month, however, Mengu-Tīmūr was assassinated in a coup, shortly after the death of the sultan Lājīn.6 But his grand dwelling stayed in the family, and when Ibn Ḥajar married the great-great-granddaughter of Mengu-Tīmūr, Uns Khātūn (ca. 780–867/ca. 1378–1462), it became their marital home.7 Additionally, Ibn Ḥajar assumed responsibility for al-Madrasa al-Mankūtīmūriyya next door and began giving lectures there in Jumādā al-Thānī 812/October 1409. Among the multiple anecdotes discussing Ibn Ḥajar’s activities inside the college, we know that one scribe by the name of ʿAlī b. Muḥammad al-Qayyim read back a manuscript copy of Ibn Ḥajar’s own compilation of poetry to him for approval there in the year 838/1434–5.8 Similarly, Ibn Ḥajar dictated his important work Lisān al-mizān inside al-Madrasa al-Mankūtīmūriyya in the mid-to-late 840s/1440s.9 And as Ibn Ḥajar’s fame and eminence grew substantially, the college was no longer attributed to Mengu-Tīmūr. It eventually became known as Madrasat Ibn Ḥajar—as Nūr al-Dīn ʿAlī al-Sakhāwī attests in 889/1484, a few decades after Ibn Ḥajar’s death.10 With even greater passage of time, the remains became known as Gāmiʿ Abū Ḥagar. The residents of Bayn al-Sayārij Street were right; Ibn Ḥajar had been intimately associated with their mosque during his lifetime—only in his day it was part of a series of buildings encompassing a college, a mosque, and his residence11 (Figure 2). Figure 2 View largeDownload slide ‘Masjid Shaykh al-Islām Aḥmad Ibn Ḥajar al-ʿAsqalānī’. Cairo, Egypt. Photographs © Mona Hassan. Figure 2 View largeDownload slide ‘Masjid Shaykh al-Islām Aḥmad Ibn Ḥajar al-ʿAsqalānī’. Cairo, Egypt. Photographs © Mona Hassan. Moreover, the street itself, where Ibn Ḥajar lived from his mid-twenties until his death in his late seventies, reflects a microhistory of Egypt. In the Fatimid era, it was named after the military contingents stationed there, originally outside Bāb al-Futūḥ: al-Rayḥāniyya and al-Wazīriyya.12 With the end of the Fatimid caliphate and beginning of the Ayyubid dynasty under Saladin, the caliph’s former chamberlain al-Amīr Bahāʾ al-Dīn Qarāqūsh b. ʿAbdillāh al-Asadī moved there and lent the avenue his name. This amīr is the same figure who built the citadel for Saladin and extended the city walls of Cairo in the sixth/twelfth century—and who has been on the receiving end of popular Egyptian jokes and uncomplimentary metaphors ever since the Ayyubid era.13 Thankfully, the lane came to be known as Bahāʾ al-Dīn after the respectful honorific of its high-ranking resident—and not arāʾūsh in apocryphal disparagement of his judgment. In the early Mamluk Sultanate, this prestigious Bahāʾ al-Dīn Lane boasted the residence and madrasa of the deputy sultan Mengu-Tīmūr.14 And by the late Mamluk era, it vaunted buildings associated with the eminent jurist Sirāj al-Dīn al-Bulqīnī (724–805/1324–1403) and his scholastic family (including their madrasa and mausoleum) as well as Ibn Ḥajar al-ʿAsqalānī (namely his home, adjacent mosque, and madrasa), along with other important sites.15 But by the late nineteenth century, Egypt’s political and intellectual elites had moved off the street to more economically prosperous neighborhoods outside the historic city walls, and the madrasa was crumbling.16 The street’s grand sheen had worn off, and it had become populated with local refineries producing oil from sesame seeds. By the 1940s, only one small-scale refinery remained, now also shuttered, although the street continues to retain its nominal affiliation with the production of sesame oil.17 Around the time Ibn Ḥajar moved to Bahāʾ al-Dīn Lane, now known as Bayn al-Sayārij Street, he was still occupied with composing poetry. In fact, most of the poems that Ibn Ḥajar deemed as the best among his corpus were written before the turn of the century,18 even as he continued to generate new compositions. In writing the biography of his teacher, al-Sakhāwī notes how Ibn Ḥajar used to recite his poetry from the pulpits and at special occasions to the immense literary appreciation of his contemporaries.19 Taqī al-Dīn al-Maqrīzī (766–845 /1365–1442), for one, extols Ibn Ḥajar’s poetry as sweeter than pure water and more amazing than magic yet still licit, and Ibn Fahd al-Makkī (787–871/1385–1466) describes Ibn Ḥajar’s poetry as more elegant than a spring breeze.20 Among the generation that followed, Jalāl al-Dīn al-Suyūṭī (849–911/1445–1505) referred to Ibn Ḥajar as one of the era’s seven shooting stars (shuhub) who excelled in poetry—itself a literary pun on their shared honorific ‘Shihāb al-Dīn’.21 By his early forties, Ibn Ḥajar set about to craft a dīwān of his most eloquent poetry divided by genre, sometimes referred to by variations on the title ‘al-Sabʿ al-Sayyāra al-Nayyirāt’.22 In each of seven categories—about the Prophet, rulers, members of the military and civil elite, love, various subjects (including elegies), strophic poetry (muwashshaḥāt), and epigrams—Ibn Ḥajar included seven choice poetic specimens, or more precisely in the case of the last category, seventy epigrams as the equivalent of seven full-length poems.23 His seventh and final selection for the section on rulers, or mulūkiyyāt, was the panegyric he composed to mark the ʿAbbasid caliph al-Mustaʿīn’s assumption of the sultanate in Cairo. The Cairene ʿAbbasid al-Mustaʿīn Ibn Ḥajar was 34 when the ʿAbbasid Caliph al-Mutawakkil’s son, al-ʿAbbās, assumed the caliphate in Cairo at the beginning of Shaʿbān a few days after the death of his father on 27 Rajab 808/ 18 January 1406. The new caliph had been personally named after his ancestor al-ʿAbbās b. ʿAbd al-Muṭṭalib, who was the Prophet’s uncle and namesake of the ʿAbbasid dynasty. He was the only one of the caliphs to bear al-ʿAbbās’ given name—and he likewise shared his kunyā Abū l-Faḍl. Following dynastic protocols for caliphs in Cairo, al-ʿAbbās also adopted the regnal name al-Mustaʿīn Billāh, indicating his reliance on God and his ancestral heritage. This regnal title harkened back to the twelfth ʿAbbasid caliph of Baghdad, al-Mustaʿīn who reigned from 248/862 to 252/866, and it was first bestowed upon al-ʿAbbās when he was designated his father’s caliphal successor around the year 800/1398. The renowned Shihāb al-Dīn Aḥmad al-Qalqashandī (756–821/1355–1418) wrote out the lengthy document of designation (ʿahd) on al-Mutawakkil’s behalf, utilizing an earlier chancery document designating al-Mustakfī’s successor in the eighth/fourteenth century as a model. Both sets of official documents frame the designation of a caliphal successor through the praise of God, following what had become Egyptian chancery practice under the Mamluk Sultanate.24 Yet al-Qalqashandī expands beyond the earlier Cairene ʿAbbasid chancery model to elaborate upon the virtuous merits of the ʿAbbasids in general, and of al-Mutawakkil and al-Mustaʿīn in particular, and ensure the prospect of a smooth caliphal transition from father to son. The specific points of gratitude to God have multiplied from one to several. To recapitulate them in truncated form: firstly, praise is due to God for preserving the Islamic system of governance, elevating the household of the caliphate, and arranging for the appointment of a leader (ʿaqd al-imāma al-muʿaẓẓama). Secondly, praise is due to God for placing leadership of the Muslim community among its most highly regarded and sagacious representatives. Thirdly, praise is due to God for comforting the Commander of the Faithful al-Mutawakkil with the best of heirs in his son al-Mustaʿīn. Fourthly, praise is due to God for creating consensus around al-Mutawakkil’s choice of a successor and filling people’s hearts with love for al-Mustaʿīn. Fifthly, praise is due to God for renewing the blessing upon the proverbial flock of believers by establishing leadership in the descendants of the chosen Prophet’s uncle and engendering reverence in people’s hearts for them. Sixthly, praise is due to God who has let creation rejoice with the existence of al-ʿAbbās and elevated him through the act of caliphal designation. And lastly, praise is due to God for commanding obedience to those entrusted with authority (ūlūl-amr) among the imams and obligated people to pledge their allegiance to an imām and follow him.25 The entire passage is couched in the language of religious obligation, precedent, and reverence. Likewise, speaking on al-Mutawakkil’s behalf throughout the rest of the document, al-Qalqashandī interweaves references to the undeniably venerable status of the ʿAbbasids and asserts the wisdom of al-Mustaʿīn’s designation as future caliph. For one, the ʿAbbasids have inherited the caliphate one after another. Moreover, the Prophet Muḥammad pronounced his uncle’s nobility and reportedly assured al-ʿAbbās of his progeny’s leadership. Turning to the task at hand, al-Qalqashandī elaborates how al-Mutawakkil, in his wisdom and foresight, follows the precedent of Abū Bakr in selecting a successor. And who better to assume that responsibility than his son al-ʿAbbās who fulfills all the stipulations and admirable traits of a caliph? Implicit in the document’s carefully chosen phrasing, al-Mutawakkil is comparable to the Prophet Zachariah in praying for a worthy heir, thereby also rendering al-Mustaʿīn comparable to the Prophet John (cf. Q. 19: 5–7). Furthermore, in crafting an overwhelming aura of approbation, the document explains how al-Mutawakkil’s appointment of al-Mustaʿīn stems from his kindly concern for the Muslim community—and it specifies that he undertook this course of action after consulting judges, scholars, amīrs, viziers, relatives, sons, notables, and lay people who affirmed the soundness of this designation. Furthermore, al-Qalqshandī asserts, al-Mutawakkil prayed for God to help him form the best of decisions before finally proceeding with the designation of al-Mustaʿīn as his caliphal successor. Al-Qalqashandī also records that al-Mustaʿīn accepted this designation in the presence of the leading judges and scholars of his day.26 The remaining portion of this official document, consisting of fatherly advice to the presumptive heir, also reveals how contemporaries like al-Qalqashandī among the scholarly and bureaucratic elite conceived of al-Mustaʿīn’s personal responsibilities as caliph. Here, too, the analogy is made to prophetic precedents—al-Mutawakkil issues his advice to elicit God’s blessings the way that the prophets Abraham and Jacob advised their sons who also assumed divinely sanctioned missions from God (Q. 2: 132). The overwhelming emphasis is on personal piety that ultimately benefits al-Mustaʿīn as well as those under his pastoral care. Therefore, al-Mustaʿīn should be mindful of God in all his actions to be saved and prompt divine assistance, while he should also seek refuge in the truth in order to assure his success. He should hold fast to the Book of God and follow sound, upright methodology, along the straight path, through emulating God’s prophet, Muḥammad. He should attend to the affairs of the country and his proverbial flock to the best of his abilities as well as select his associates wisely. Additionally, al-Mustaʿīn should extend the rights of familial relations to the direct descendants of the Prophet Muḥammad; all acts of nobility and generosity toward them are a reflection of one’s regard for their forebear. And he should closely adhere to the way of his righteous predecessors among the caliphs, specifically the first few Rightly Guided Caliphs, in aiming to achieve the greater good. Thus, al-Mustaʿīn should strive to establish justice in his reign as caliph and seek to earn the commendation and protection of God on the Day of Judgment. In short, al-Mustaʿīn should conduct all matters with pure sincerity toward God combined with awareness of his accountability. As the future imām, al-Mustaʿīn will bear greater responsibility for his individual actions—his potential rewards will be multiplied for the good that he achieves or, alternatively, his potential punishments will be multiplied for the evil precedents he may establish. Humility and obedience to God, as the document avers, should guide al-Mustaʿīn’s actions and attitude as caliph.27 At the time that al-Qalqashandī crafted this official document of succession, he had no way of predicting that, in roughly fifteen years, al-Mustaʿīn, as ʿAbbasid caliph, would also assume the position of sultan. As it happened, al-Mustaʿīn was unwillingly swept up in a rebellion against the Mamluk sulṭan al-Nāṣir Faraj (791–815/1389–1412) in 815/1412. Unable to achieve victory on their own or to convince the caliph to join their cause, the rebellion’s two Mamluk leaders Shaykh al-Mahmūdī (d. 824/1421) and Nawrūz al-Ḥāfiẓī (d. 817/1414) resorted to a ruse. They had the caliph’s half-brother publicly declare al-Mustaʿīn’s support for the revolt—thereby presenting the reluctant caliph with a fait accompli. As he joined their side of the dispute, al-Mustaʿīn was elevated as a contender for the sultanate to avert competition between the two Mamluk leaders as well as to raise morale and garner broader support. Upon their ultimate victory, al-Mustaʿīn assumed the office of sultan in Damascus on Monday, 27 Muḥarram 815/ 9 May 1412 and after reaching Cairo on Tuesday, 2 Rabīʿ al-Ākhir 815/ 12 July 1412 took up his royal residence in Saladin’s Citadel. For the first time since the bygone era of the early ʿAbbasids, al-Mustaʿīn served as both caliph and sultan—combining the legitimizing authority and executive powers of rule in one person.28 The coinage, both dinars and dirhams, were issued in his name alone, and the letters that the Mamluk state chancery prepared for al-Mustaʿīn as sultan-caliph followed royal precedent, with the addition of further glorified titles indicating al-Mustaʿīn’s unique embodiment of both caliphate and sultanate.29 The epigraphic inscription commissioned by al-Mustaʿīn on ‘a marble lintel of the small eastern gate of the Great Mosque of Gaza’ declared his abolishment on 18 Rabīʿ al-Awwal 815 / 28 June 1412 of the illicit taxes that the previous sultan al-Nāṣir Faraj had levied on the vineyards and plantations of Gaza.30 Described in chancery documents and inscriptions alike as ‘al-nabawī’ or from the family of the Prophet, al-Mustaʿīn was projected as the just and righteous ruler from the prophetic household who rectified the wrongs of the past. For his part, Ibn Ḥajar, in his early forties by this point, was overjoyed with the end of al-Nāṣir’s tyrannical reign and his replacement as sultan by the ʿAbbasid Caliph al-Mustaʿīn. In commemoration, Ibn Ḥajar composed what would become his famous poetic panegyrics to celebrate the dawn of an auspicious era with the ʿAbbasid Sultan-Caliph al-Mustaʿīn at the helm of governance in 815/1412. Ibn Ḥajar’s Poetic Themes In crafting his poem, Ibn Ḥajar draws upon a deep reservoir of devotional love for the Prophet’s family, embodied by al-Mustaʿīn. Egypt had long harboured saintly descendants of the Prophet in its midst as well as their shrines. The mosque-shrines of Sayyidunā al-Ḥusayn, the Prophet’s grandson, and Sayyida Zaynab, the Prophet’s granddaughter, were major centres of religious life in Cairo—as were those of Sayyidunā Zayn al-ʿĀbidīn and Sayyida ʿĀʾisha among others. And after the Prophet’s descendant Sayyida Nafīsa sought refuge in Egypt with her family in the second/ninth century; she became a major source of solace and inspiration among religious scholars and the general populace. Imam al-Shāfiʿī, eponymous founder of one of the main Sunni legal schools, was known to consult her and composed eloquent poetry of his own elaborating on the profound love due to the Prophet’s family.31 The emergence of the Shādhilī path in the seventh/thirteenth and its subsequent development solidified this reverence for the prophetic household as essential to one’s spiritual growth. Concurrently, the resurrection and evolution of the ʿAbbasid caliphate in Cairo came to be closely associated with the mosque and mausoleum complex of Sayyida Nafīsa, which the Cairene ʿAbbasids began to supervise as its official caretakers, and adjacent to which many of them were buried upon their death.32 As an Egyptian Shāfiʿī scholar, who esteemed the Shādhilī master Muḥammad al-Ḥanafī33 (d. 847/1443) and lived in the late Mamluk era with its long restored and symbolic ʿAbbasid caliphate in Cairo, Ibn Ḥajar poetically harnesses and directs these deep currents of abiding affection for the Prophet’s family toward their contemporary descendant and exemplar, al-Mustaʿīn. Other works that Ibn Ḥajar composed further indicate his general appreciation for the Cairene ʿAbbasids as the rightful caliphs of his era. In one, called ‘Ladhdhat al-ʿaysh bi-ṭuruq ḥadīth al-aʾimma min Quraysh’, Ibn Ḥajar devoted copious pages (in what al-Sakhāwī noted was juzʾ ḍakhm) to trace the many chains of narrations associated with the tradition assigning communal leadership to the Prophet’s kinship group of Quraysh34—to which the ʿAbbasids eminently belonged. In another, titled ‘al-Īnās bi-manāqib al-ʿAbbās’, Ibn Ḥajar elaborates on the merits of the ʿAbbasids’ progenitor, al-ʿAbbās, who was the Prophet Muḥammad’s virtuous uncle. Even though al-Sakhāwī remarks in his lengthy biography of Ibn Ḥajar, al-Jawāhir wa-l-durar, that this composition remained in draft form (mujallada fī-l-musawwada),35 both al-Sakhāwī’s and al-Suyūṭī’s subsequent compositions on similar topics offer an indication of the overall tenor of veneration for the Cairene ʿAbbasids as beloved members of the Prophetic household during the late Mamluk era36—which is a far different image than the total indifference projected by previous historians of the period. Academic rivalries between the two men aside, both al-Sakhāwī and al-Suyūṭī drew prestige from their associations with Ibn Ḥajar,37 and all three authors extolled the merits of the contemporaneous ʿAbbasid caliphs of their era. Moreover, Ibn Ḥajar’s own choice of titles, such as ‘Ladhdhat al-ʿaysh’ and ‘al-Īnās’, affectively convey the sense of solace and pleasure he personally derived from their exposition. Grounding his poem in this religious and cultural wellspring, Ibn Ḥajar repeatedly draws auspicious connections between al-Mustaʿīn and his ancestor, the Prophet’s uncle al-ʿAbbās, as well as the ʿAbbasid dynasty. In a poem full of double entendres, Ibn Ḥajar omits the amatory prelude typical of the genre of panegyrics38 and instead launches the poem with a succinct poetic argument that he proceeds to expound upon line after line. In one reading of it, he directly begins, ‘The foundations of political rule have become sound, / with the just ʿAbbasid al-Mustaʿīn’, and, in another reading, ‘The foundations of political rule have become sound, / with the just al-Mustaʿīn al-ʿAbbās’ (line 1). Here, the play is on ‘al-Abbāsi’ as both the caliph’s first name ‘al-ʿAbbās’ in its genitive grammatical form and as the poetic abbreviation of his dynastic affiliation ‘al-ʿAbbāsī’ (ʿAbbasid) at the end of the first stanza. As the first word that Ibn Ḥajar symbolically selected—with both of its meanings—to establish the poetic rhyme or qāfiya for the rest of the poem, ‘al-Abbāsi’ is like a lynchpin that anchors both its structural rhyme and its deeper meaning. Or, in other words, the ʿAbbasid heritage embodied by al-Mustaʿīn al-ʿAbbās shapes the poem’s form as well as its content. The second stanza then connects both al-Mustaʿīn al-ʿAbbās and his ʿAbbasid dynasty to the third greater meaning of al-ʿAbbās—their ancestor. Here, though, the reference is indirect: ‘The rightful standing of the family of al-Muṣṭafā’s uncle / has been restored after long neglect’ (line 2). And the indirectness of the rhetorical reference elevates its prestige. Instead of attributing the caliph and his dynasty to al-ʿAbbās directly through his personal name, Ibn Ḥajar connects them back to the Prophet Muḥammad himself who was chosen by God. Hence, Ibn Ḥajar’s decision to describe the Prophet in this stanza as al-Muṣṭafā (the chosen one) explicitly associates al-Mustaʿīn with the blessings of divine favour and envelops him in the hallowed family of God’s Messenger. This virtuous heritage of al-Mustaʿīn as an ʿAbbasid from the Prophet’s family is elaborated over the next nine stanzas as Ibn Ḥajar explains the turn of events that set political affairs aright. On Tuesday, 2 Rabīʿ al-Ākhir 815/12 July 1412, al-Mustaʿīn entered Cairo victoriously as its Sultan-Caliph following the defeat of the Mamluk sultan al-Nāṣir (line 3).39 People joyously celebrated his arrival as mahdī, amīn, maʾmūn, and ṭāhir—in Ibn Ḥajar’s poetic descriptions (line 4)—which are not only linguistic and religious references to his salvific role, trustworthiness, protection, and purity, but also allusions to his ʿAbbasid predecessors by those regnal names in Baghdad. Moreover, al-Mustaʿīn hails from the blessed household of the Prophet (ahl al-bayt) from among the pure and virtuous children of Hāshim (Banū Hāshim)—replete with botanical allusions to the paradisiacal garden (rawḍa) metaphysically attained in the Prophet’s mosque between his pulpit and tomb (lines 5–6).40 Al-Mustaʿīn descends from this noble family (usra) that is destined to lead, which Ibn Ḥajar refers to as asarū al-khuṭūb (line 8) in a play on the tripartite root of usra. Their household is typified by strength and bravery, like that of lions, as well as beauty and poise, like that of gazelles (line 9). And against the backdrop of these luminous stars signifying his blessed family, al-Mustaʿīn is like the full moon (al-badr) (line 10)—an analogy typically drawn for the Prophet Muḥammad thereby strengthening the associative bonds between them. The twelfth stanza shifts to the fourth understanding of al-ʿAbbās—connecting the personal name with its original linguistic meaning. ‘Because of his cheerfulness to the delegations [to him], he is called smiling (bāsim), / and out of reverence, he is [also termed] frownful (ʿabbās)’ (line 12). Here, al-Mustaʿīn is depicted as a magnanimous ruler inspiring joy and awe in his subjects. He warmly welcomes the delegations sent to him, and is thus described as smiling or bāsim, but out of reverence for him, al-Mustaʿīn is also described as grave. The poetic pun centres on the linguistic origins of the name al-ʿAbbās as the emphatic form of ʿābis or frowning—which, it should be noted, is also a common epithet for the majestic lion. From another angle, the verse also hints at deep reverence for the person of al-ʿAbbās, intertwining the meanings of the Cairene sultan-caliph, the Prophet’s uncle, and their linguistic connotations in Ibn Ḥajar’s poetry. The next part of the poem focuses on God’s rectification of affairs in the sultanate through al-Mustaʿīn and the Mamluk amīrs who supported his ascension to the throne. Gratitude is due to God who has elevated his religion through their valiant efforts after it had been in a woeful state (lines 13–14). These Mamluk leaders rightfully foreground al-Mustaʿīn as their imām (in a poetic reference to the lengthy juridical tradition on leadership), similar to how one necessarily writes the basmala first on a piece of parchment (line 17). Building on this juridical tradition of the imamate, Ibn Ḥajar’s artistically asserts that placing the organization of the Mamluk dominion in the hands of a capable ruler has ameliorated its governance and alleviated people from the tyranny of the deposed Mamluk sultan al-Malik al-Nāṣir (lines 18–29). Recognizing divine control of affairs, Ibn Ḥajar comments how God ultimately brought al-Nāṣir to account for his oppression and transferred leadership from him as a former slave (al-malīk) to al-Mustaʿīn as a master (mālik) (lines 30–31). This transition of power launches Ibn Ḥajar’s next set of poetic exaltations over news of the virtuous ʿAbbasid al-Mustaʿīn’s role as head of state and its joyful reception, near and far. Makka as the mother of cities, al-Atheeb (al-Udhayb) in the east, and Fes in the west are personified in their elation (line 32). It is only the malevolent ignoramus who denies the glory and majesty of al-Mustaʿīn as sultan-caliph (line 33). And in lauding that ‘the traits of al-ʿAbbās are gathered only / in his grandson, the king of humankind al-ʿAbbās’, Ibn Ḥajar once more plays on the multiple meanings of ‘al-ʿAbbās’, this time by using it as a personal name twice in the same stanza to refer to different individuals (line 34): first for the Prophet’s blessed uncle and second for his descendant the Cairene sultan-caliph. To elaborate on the latter’s contemporary preeminence, Ibn Ḥajar further deploys intriguing historical poetics: al-Mustaʿīn has assumed dominion after the cruel Mamluk Sultan al-Nāṣir shirked his moral obligations similar to how the glorious ʿAbbasids came to power after the oppressive Umayyads (lines 35–6). And lest one forget the righteous reign of the Umayyad caliph ʿUmar b. ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz, Ibn Ḥajar works in a comparison to him as well.41 Al-Mustaʿīn has come to power the way that this most courageous of the Umayyad caliphs spread justice and redressed the wrongs of his predecessors (line 37). Thus, al-Mustaʿīn’s auspicious reign is rendered analogous in Ibn Ḥajar’s poetry to ʿUmar b. ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz’s virtuous caliphate as well as to the earlier bygone days of the ʿAbbasid caliphate of Baghdad. By way of conclusion, Ibn Ḥajar articulates his willing servitude toward al-Mustaʿīn as a deserving master and patron (mawlā) (line 38). He apologizes for the brevity of his panegyrics but suggests that it is his awe of al-Mustaʿīn’s extensive merits that has withheld him from giving the sultan-caliph his poetic due (line 39). Ibn Ḥajar further prays for God, the Lord of all people, to increase al-Mustaʿīn’s glory amid divine protection and also expresses his appreciation that al-Mustaʿīn has lent Ibn Ḥajar’s poetic praise a sympathetic ear (lines 40–1). Without al-Mustaʿīn’s assuring presence, Ibn Ḥajar avers that he would have been tormented by anxiety—for Ibn Ḥajar positions himself as the sultan-caliph’s faithful servant (khādim) and slave (ʿabd) (lines 41–2). In elaborating on this willing subjugation, Ibn Ḥajar weaves in linguistic allusions to the sacred rites of pilgrimage and the holy sanctuary in Makka. Ibn Ḥajar is a wholeheartedly devoted servant who has raised his voice in recitation of al-Mustaʿīn’s praises and striven to serve him readily—but the verbs in this verse, ṣafā, zamzama, and saʿā, evoke the Mount Ṣafā, the waters of Zamzam, and the ritual running between the two mounts of Ṣafā and Marwa in imitation of Hagar’s emblematic quest for water and her utter reliance and dependence on God (line 42). Ibn Ḥajar’s poetic efforts are thus enveloped in the aura of sacrality. Further emphasizing the sanctity of his poetic aspirations, Ibn Ḥajar concludes with a Qurʾānic allusion. The breaths he exhales in praising the family of the Prophet Muḥammad (āl bayt Muḥammad), as represented by the ʿAbbasid al-Mustaʿīn, are comparable to musk (miskiyyat al-anfās) (line 43)—in other words, among the most precious and appealing ways to spend one’s time. As for the literary allusion embedded in this line to the Qurʾānic verse 83: 26 khitāmuhu misk or ‘its seal is musk’, Ibn Ḥajar expressively signals that he too has reached the end of his poem. Reception AND Circulation of IbnḤajar’s Poem Based on many extant manuscripts, we know that copies of Ibn Ḥajar’s collection of poetry—and with it his panegyric dedicated to al-Mustaʿīn—travelled from their point of origin in Egypt at least as far as to Spain in the west, to Mesopotamia and India in the east, to Istanbul in the north, and to Arabia further south. Some of these manuscripts were copied during Ibn Ḥajar’s own lifetime from his original dīwān or other authorized copies of it, and additional versions were copied out by hand as late as the eleventh/seventeenth century. One of the early manuscripts copied out during Ibn Ḥajar’s lifetime in 14 Dhū l-Ḥijjah 847/ 3 April 1444 based on his 815/1412 compilation bears ownership marks from an Aleppan in 916/1511 and another proprietor in 964/1556, both before and after the Ottoman conquests, until the manuscript eventually made its way into the library collection established by the Köprülü family in Istanbul in the eleventh/mid-seventeenth century. The stamp of the Ottoman Grand Vizier Köprülüzade Fazıl Ahmed (1045–87/1635–76), as ‘al-Wazīr Abū l-ʿAbbās Aḥmad b. al-Wazīr Abī ʿAbdillāh ʿurifa bi-Kūprulī’, ensured the manuscript’s inalienable designation as a charitable endowment or waqf (Figure 3). Other copies of the manuscript continued to change hands among private owners well into the twelfth/eighteenth and thirteenth/nineteenth centuries.42 Figure 3 View largeDownload slide ‘al-Sabʿ al-Sayyāra’, Köprülü Library Manuscript. Courtesy of Süleymaniye Kütüphanesi, Istanbul, Turkey. Figure 3 View largeDownload slide ‘al-Sabʿ al-Sayyāra’, Köprülü Library Manuscript. Courtesy of Süleymaniye Kütüphanesi, Istanbul, Turkey. The far-reaching circulation of al-Suyūṭī’s Tārīkh al-khulafāʾ and Ibn Iyās’s Badāʿiʿ al-zuhūr, each of which incorporated Ibn Ḥajar’s poem into their histories of al-Mustaʿīn, further ensured that his panegyric was well-preserved among a broad readership in manuscript form for centuries. Already, al-Suyūṭī indicates that Ibn Ḥajar’s poetic commemoration of al-Mustaʿīn’s reign had achieved and retained great fame several decades after its composition.43 And another generation later, al-Suyūṭī’s own student Ibn Iyās (852–930/1448–1524) recorded the poem’s opening section reflecting back on al-Mustaʿīn’s short-lived reign as both sultan and caliph even as he also chronicled the Ottoman conquest of Egypt and the Ottoman sultan’s removal of its ʿAbbasid caliph from Cairo.44 Numerous manuscript copies of both authors’ well-received historical works spread widely.45 The subsequent publication of al-Suyūṭī’s Tārīkh since 1857,46 Ibn Iyās’s Badāʿi since 1884,47 and Ibn Ḥajar’s Dīwān since 1962 has transmitted these materials in new printed formats for modern audiences—even as the passage of time has obscured many of its poetic references and deeper meanings. One of these subtle references extols the critical role of the day’s foremost Mamluk officer in bolstering the ʿAbbasid caliphate of his day—and briefly its sultanate too. In avowing, ‘Without the system of rule (niẓām al-mulk) in his hand, / the situation of people in the kingdom would not be set aright’ (line 18), Ibn Ḥajar constructs a rather ironic double entendre. On the one hand, in the most obvious meaning of the verse, Ibn Ḥajar asserts that the rule of al-Mustaʿīn has rectified people’s affairs in his dominion; al-Mustaʿīn is the rightful caliph who metaphysically elicits and spreads divine blessings among his subjects and legitimates the state’s military and civil administration—and as deserving sultan al-Mustaʿīn governs over it too. Yet in the less apparent reading of this poetic verse, Ibn Ḥajar also commends the critical role of the Mamluk amīr Shaykh al-Maḥmūdī in enabling al-Mustaʿīn’s rule. As sultan, al-Mustaʿīn delegated the administration of Egypt (tadbīr al-mamlaka bi-l-diyār al-miṣriyya) to Shaykh al-Maḥmūdī and bestowed on him the title of ‘Niẓām al-Mulk’.48 Thus, the succeeding verses also appear to praise him as the worthy amīr (lines 19–20), equal to the occasion—who successfully deposed al-Nāṣir in favour of al-Mustaʿīn as well as continued to facilitate the sultan-caliph’s administration. The irony, of course, lies in Shaykh al-Maḥmūdī’s eventual usurpation of the sultanate from al-Mustaʿīn within a matter of just six months, yet it does not end there. The honorific title of ‘Niẓām al-Mulk’ that al-Mustaʿīn bestowed on his Mamluk atabeg Shaykh al-Maḥmūdī harkened back to that of the famous Seljuq vizier and atabeg Niẓām al-Mulk (408–85/1018–92); both powerful men served under ʿAbbasid caliphs. Yet as Imām al-Ḥaramayn al-Juwaynī (419–78/1028–85) had argued, it was in fact Niẓām al-Mulk who fulfilled the role of head of state or imām of Islamic jurisprudence rather than the ceremonial caliph. Was Ibn Ḥajar’s play on words an even subtler allusion to this legal discourse? After all, Ibn Ḥajar later acknowledges, ‘In reality, he [al-Mustaʿīn] only had the title, sermon, and gold and silver coinage in his name’. Such speculation aside, with Shaykh al-Maḥmūdī’s assumption of the sultanate, Ibn Ḥajar legally endorsed and validated this historical precedent that had differentiated between the distinctive roles of a blessed caliph and an executive sultan throughout the Mamluk era. As official mufti of the Court of Justice (Dar al-ʿAdl), Ibn Ḥajar selected ‘Abū l-Naṣr’ (‘the father of victory’) as a fitting kunyā for Shaykh al-Maḥmūdī as the new Mamluk sultan, al-Malik al-Muʾayyad, in Shaʿbān 815/ November 1412. In doing so, Ibn Ḥajar upheld the resumption of the centuries-old Islamic legal tradition acknowledging the actual head of state’s duties and responsibilities in lieu of the ʿAbbasid caliph.49 Arabic Poem   English Translation 1 The foundations of political rule (al-mulk) have become sound,with the just ʿAbbasid al-Mustaʿīn; 2 The rightful standing of the family of al-Muṣṭafā’s uncle has been restored after long neglect; 3 In the second of the blessed [month of] Rabīʿ al-Ākhir on Tuesday, was celebrated 4 the coming of the saviour of all people, their trustworthy one, safe from blemish, and pure of breath, 5 from the household (bayt) encircled by hopes (ṭāfa bihi al-rajāʾ); so can any one hesitant or despondent (qāṣid mutaraddad fī-l-yaʾs) be seen? 6 A branch growing from Hāshim in the garden (rawḍa), pure in origins (zākī al-manābit), wholesome in roots (ṭayyib al-aghrās), 7 with al-Murtaḍā and al-Mujtabā and al-Mushtarī adorned and cloaked in praise, 8 From a family (usra) who captivated affairs (asarū al-khuṭūb) and are purified from the impurities (adnās) that afflict others; 9 They are lions in the presence of tumult (usdun idhā ḥaḍarū al-waghā),and when they withdraw, they are gazelles in their gatherings (wa-idhā khalaw kānū bi-majlisihim ẓibāʾa kinās); 10 They are like the stars (kawākib), and his light among them is like the full moon (badr) rising in the darkness of night, 11 In his palm is a manifest sign (ʿind al-alāmati āya), a pen that illumines like the light of agarwood incense (al-miqbās); 12 Because of his cheerfulness (bishrihi) to the delegations [to him], he is called smiling (bāsim),and out of reverence, he is [also termed] frownful (ʿabbās) [a common epithet of the lion]; 13 So praise belongs to God who elevates His religion (al-Muʿizz li-dīnih) after it had been in a state of despair (iblās), 14 through the notable leaders (al-sādat al-umarāʾ), the foundations of heights (arkān al-ʿulā), among those who avenge and console (min bayn mudrik thaʾrihi wa-muwāsī); 15 They hoisted (nahaḍū) the burdens of virtuous traits (manāqib) and were elevated to the most honourable, preeminent lofty station (manṣib al-ʿalyā al-ashamm al-rāsī) 16 They left behind hostility (tarakū al-ʿidā) felled on the battleground of ruin (sarʿā bi-muʿtarak al-radā), So God protects them from evil insinuations (al-waswās), 17 And their leader (imāmuhum) with his majesty is put forward (mutaqaddim) the way that starting with the name of God is uppermost on a piece of parchment (al-qirṭāṣ); 18 Without the reins of rule (niẓām al-mulk) in his hand the situation of people in the kingdom would not be set aright; 19 How many leaders (amīr) before him aspired to heights (al-ʿulā) and returned with efforts rendered bankrupt, 20 Until the one equal to it approached the heights (al-maʿālī) and it submitted to him (khaḍaʿat lahu) after much withholding (farṭ shimās), 21 the hands of kings (aydī al-mulūk) obeyed him, and from obtaining Egypt the measurements of the Nilometer (aṣābiʿ al-miqyās) surrendered (adhʿanat), 22 and he removed oppression that had overwhelmed everyone wearing a turban (muʿammam) of all sorts and types (min sāʾir al-anwāʿ wa-l-ajnās), 23 for he is the one who removed from us despair (buʾs) in an age that without him would be full of detriment (bās = baʾs), 24 from the abased one who carries a name that is the opposite of his deeds, al-Nāṣir, who is incompatible with the foundation (al-mutanāqiḍ al-asās) [of governance]; 25 How many blessings of God did he have as if they were in exile and forgotten; 26 The secret of evil remains between his ribs (ḍulūʿ) like a fire or [one] that escorts him to the grave (ṣaḥibathu li-l-armās); 27 How many wrongs did he initiate for which the sins fall upon him until the Day of Judgment; no one grieves for him (mā lahu min ās); 28 He laid the basis for schemes that were developed without foundation because of [his] treachery; 29 Every man forgets and remembers at times but one does not forget evil; 30 The Lord of humankind gave him [al-Nāṣir] leave (amlā lahu) until they captured him and the bitterness of the cup did not escape him; 31 He transferred rule from the owned (adālanā minhu al-malīk, play on mamlūk) to the owner (mālik), whose days commenced (ṣadarat) without comparison; 32 Makka, the mother of cities (umm al-qurā), and the earth rejoiced in the East and the West, like al-Atheeb and Fes (al-Udhayb wa-Fās) 33 Only the insinuating ignoramus (al-jāhil al-khannās) among people tries to deny the signs of [al-Mustaʿīn’s] glory, 34 And the traits of al-ʿAbbās are gathered only in his grandson, the king of humankind al-ʿAbbās; 35 Do not deny al-Mustaʿīn’s eminence (riʾāsa) in state affairs (mulk) after the [preceding] cruel evasion (al-juḥūd al-qāsī) [of duty], 36 For after the Umayyads came the ʿAbbasids in the days of old (fī sālif al-dunyā), 37 And the most courageous of the Umayyads came spreading justice after the perditious and disgraceful (al-mubīr al-khāsī) 38 My master, your slave has come to you full of hope in acceptance by you, so he does not see any harm (fa-lā yarā min bās=baʾs); 39 If it were not for [my] (being in) awe, his praises would have been extolled at length, but they suit him with due justice; 40 May the Lord of (all) people always increase your glory (ʿizzak)with truth, protected by the Lord of (all) people; 41 You still (baqīta) listen to the praise of a servant (khādim), who would have been tormented by worries without you (lawlāka kāna min al-humūm yuqāsī), 42 A servant (ʿabd) wholeheartedly devoted, who raised his voice in recitation, (ʿabdun ṣafā wuddan wa-zamzama ḥādiyan) and strove to serve readily (wa-saʿā ʿalā al-ʿaynayni qabl al-rās = raʾs); 43 His praises for the family of Muḥammad among creation are the precious fragrance among breaths (miskiyyat al-anfās). بالمستعين العادل العبّاسِ  الملك أصبح ثابت الأساس  ١  لمحلّها من بعد طول تناسِ  رجعت مكانة آل عمّ المصطفى  ٢  يوم الثّلاثا حفّ بالأعراسِ  ثاني ربيع الآخر الميمون في  ٣  مأمون عيب طاهر الأنفاسِ  بقدوم مهدي الأنام أمينهم  ٤  من قاصد متردّد في الياسِ  ذو البيت طاف به الرّجاء فهل ترى  ٥  زاكي المنابت طيّب الأغراسِ  فرع نما من هاشم في روضة  ٦  للحمد والحالي به والكاسي  بالمرتضى والمجتبى والمشتري  ٧  ممّا بغيرهم من الأدناسِ  من أسرة أسروا الخطوب و طهّروا  ٨  كانوا بمجلسهم ظباء كناسِ  أسْدٌ إذا حضروا الوغى وإذا خلوا  ٩  كالبدر أشرق في دجى الأغلاسِ  مثل الكواكب نوره ما بينهم  ١٠  قلم يضيئ إضاءة المقباسِ  وبكفّه عند العلامة آية  ١١  يدعى وللإجلال بالعبّاسِ  فلبشره للوافدين بباسم  ١٢  من بعد ما قد كان في إبلاسِ  فالحمد المعزّ لدينه  ١٣  من بين مدرك ثأره و مواسي  بالسّادة الأمراء أركان العلا  ١٤  في منصب العليا الأشمّ الراسي  نهضوا بأعباء المناقب وارتقوا  ١٥  فا يحرسهم من الوسواسِ  تركوا العدى صرعى بمعترك الرّدى  ١٦  تقديم بسم ا في القرطاسِ  وإمامهم بجلاله متقدّم  ١٧  لم يستقم في الملك حال الناسِ  لولا نظام الملك في تدبيره  ١٨  و بجهده رجعته بالإفلاسِ  كم من أمير قبله خطب العلا  ١٩  خضعت له من بعد فرط شماسِ  حتّى إذا جاء المعالي كفؤها  ٢٠  من نيل مصرَ أصابع المقياسِ  طاعت له أيدي الملوك وأذعنت  ٢١  من سائر الأنواع والأجناسِ  وأزال ظلماً عمّ كلّ معمّم  ٢٢  دهر به لولاه كلّ الباسِ  فهو الذي قد ردّ عنّا البؤس في  ٢٣  بالنّاصر المتناقض الآساسِ  بالخاذل المدعوّ ضدّ فعاله  ٢٤  و كأنّها في غربة وتناسي  كم نعمة كانت عنده  ٢٥  كالنّار أو صحبته للأرماسِ  ما زال سرّ الشرّ بين ضلوعه  ٢٦  حتّى القيامة ماله من آسِ  كم سنّ سيّئةً عليه إثمها  ٢٧  للغدر قد بنيت بغير أسا سِ  مكراً بنى آركانه لكنّها  ٢٨  لكنّه للشرّ ليس بناسي  كلّ امرئ ينسى ويذكر تارةً  ٢٩  أخذوه لم يفلته مرّ الكا سِ  أملى له ربّ الورى حتّى إذا  ٣٠  أيامه صدرت بغير قيا سِ  وأدالنا منه المليك بمالك  ٣١  شرق وغرب كالعذيب وفا سِ  فاستبشرت أمّ القرى والأرض من  ٣٢  في النّاس غير الجاهل الخنّا سِ  آيات مجد لا يحاول جحدها  ٣٣  لحفيده ملك الورى العبّا سِ  ومناقب العبّاس لم تجمع سوى  ٣٤  في الملك من بعد الجحود القاسي  لا تنكروا للمستعين رئاسةً  ٣٥  في سالف الدنيا بنو العبّا سِ  فبنو أميّةَ قد أتى من بعدهم  ٣٦  للعدل من بعد المبير الخاسي  وأتى أشجّ بني أميّةَ ناشراً  ٣٧  منك القبول فلا يرى من با سِ  مولاي عبدك قد أتى لك راجياً  ٣٨  لكنّها جاءته بالقسطا سِ  لولا المهابة طوّلت أمداحه  ٣٩  بالحقّ محروساً بربّ النّا سِ  فأدام ربّ الناس عزّك دائماً  ٤٠  لولاك كان من الهموم يقاسي  وبقيت تستمع المديح لخادم  ٤١  وسعى على العينين قبل الرّا سِ  عبد صفا ودّاً وزمزم حادياً  ٤٢  بين الورى مسكيّة الأنفا سِ  أمداحه في آل بيت محمّد  ٤٣  بالمستعين العادل العبّاسِ  الملك أصبح ثابت الأساس  ١  لمحلّها من بعد طول تناسِ  رجعت مكانة آل عمّ المصطفى  ٢  يوم الثّلاثا حفّ بالأعراسِ  ثاني ربيع الآخر الميمون في  ٣  مأمون عيب طاهر الأنفاسِ  بقدوم مهدي الأنام أمينهم  ٤  من قاصد متردّد في الياسِ  ذو البيت طاف به الرّجاء فهل ترى  ٥  زاكي المنابت طيّب الأغراسِ  فرع نما من هاشم في روضة  ٦  للحمد والحالي به والكاسي  بالمرتضى والمجتبى والمشتري  ٧  ممّا بغيرهم من الأدناسِ  من أسرة أسروا الخطوب و طهّروا  ٨  كانوا بمجلسهم ظباء كناسِ  أسْدٌ إذا حضروا الوغى وإذا خلوا  ٩  كالبدر أشرق في دجى الأغلاسِ  مثل الكواكب نوره ما بينهم  ١٠  قلم يضيئ إضاءة المقباسِ  وبكفّه عند العلامة آية  ١١  يدعى وللإجلال بالعبّاسِ  فلبشره للوافدين بباسم  ١٢  من بعد ما قد كان في إبلاسِ  فالحمد المعزّ لدينه  ١٣  من بين مدرك ثأره و مواسي  بالسّادة الأمراء أركان العلا  ١٤  في منصب العليا الأشمّ الراسي  نهضوا بأعباء المناقب وارتقوا  ١٥  فا يحرسهم من الوسواسِ  تركوا العدى صرعى بمعترك الرّدى  ١٦  تقديم بسم ا في القرطاسِ  وإمامهم بجلاله متقدّم  ١٧  لم يستقم في الملك حال الناسِ  لولا نظام الملك في تدبيره  ١٨  و بجهده رجعته بالإفلاسِ  كم من أمير قبله خطب العلا  ١٩  خضعت له من بعد فرط شماسِ  حتّى إذا جاء المعالي كفؤها  ٢٠  من نيل مصرَ أصابع المقياسِ  طاعت له أيدي الملوك وأذعنت  ٢١  من سائر الأنواع والأجناسِ  وأزال ظلماً عمّ كلّ معمّم  ٢٢  دهر به لولاه كلّ الباسِ  فهو الذي قد ردّ عنّا البؤس في  ٢٣  بالنّاصر المتناقض الآساسِ  بالخاذل المدعوّ ضدّ فعاله  ٢٤  و كأنّها في غربة وتناسي  كم نعمة كانت عنده  ٢٥  كالنّار أو صحبته للأرماسِ  ما زال سرّ الشرّ بين ضلوعه  ٢٦  حتّى القيامة ماله من آسِ  كم سنّ سيّئةً عليه إثمها  ٢٧  للغدر قد بنيت بغير أسا سِ  مكراً بنى آركانه لكنّها  ٢٨  لكنّه للشرّ ليس بناسي  كلّ امرئ ينسى ويذكر تارةً  ٢٩  أخذوه لم يفلته مرّ الكا سِ  أملى له ربّ الورى حتّى إذا  ٣٠  أيامه صدرت بغير قيا سِ  وأدالنا منه المليك بمالك  ٣١  شرق وغرب كالعذيب وفا سِ  فاستبشرت أمّ القرى والأرض من  ٣٢  في النّاس غير الجاهل الخنّا سِ  آيات مجد لا يحاول جحدها  ٣٣  لحفيده ملك الورى العبّا سِ  ومناقب العبّاس لم تجمع سوى  ٣٤  في الملك من بعد الجحود القاسي  لا تنكروا للمستعين رئاسةً  ٣٥  في سالف الدنيا بنو العبّا سِ  فبنو أميّةَ قد أتى من بعدهم  ٣٦  للعدل من بعد المبير الخاسي  وأتى أشجّ بني أميّةَ ناشراً  ٣٧  منك القبول فلا يرى من با سِ  مولاي عبدك قد أتى لك راجياً  ٣٨  لكنّها جاءته بالقسطا سِ  لولا المهابة طوّلت أمداحه  ٣٩  بالحقّ محروساً بربّ النّا سِ  فأدام ربّ الناس عزّك دائماً  ٤٠  لولاك كان من الهموم يقاسي  وبقيت تستمع المديح لخادم  ٤١  وسعى على العينين قبل الرّا سِ  عبد صفا ودّاً وزمزم حادياً  ٤٢  بين الورى مسكيّة الأنفا سِ  أمداحه في آل بيت محمّد  ٤٣  Footnotes 1 Fieldwork, July 2016. 2 Shihāb al-Dīn Aḥmad b. ʿAlī b. Muḥammad Ibn Ḥajar al-ʿAsqalānī, Rafʿ al-iṣr ʿan quḍāt Miṣr (ed. ʿAlī Muḥammad ʿUmar; Cairo: Maktabat al-Khānjī, 1998), 62; id., Inbāʾ al-ghumr fī abnāʾ al-umr bi-l-tārīkh (Beirut: Dār al-Kutub al-ʿIlmiyya, repr. 1986 [Hyderabad, 1967–76]), i. 174–5; id., al-Durar al-kāmina fī aʿyān al-miʾa al-thāmina (Beirut: Dār al-Jīl, repr. 1978 [1931]) iii. 117, iv. 431–2; Shams al-Dīn Muḥammad b. ʿAbd al-Raḥmān al-Sakhāwī, al-Jawāhir wa-l-durar fī tarjamat Shaykh al-Islām Ibn Ḥajar (ed. Ibrāhīm ʿAbd al-Majīd; Beirut: Dār Ibn Ḥazm, 1999), i. 101–22; id., al-Dawʾ al-lāmiʿ li-ahl al-qarn al-tāsiʿ (Beirut: Dār Maktabat al-Ḥayāh, repr. 1966 [Cairo 1934–6]), ii. 36. Ibn Ḥajar’s maternal uncle Ṣalāḥ al-Dīn Aḥmad al-Ziftāwī was an affluent Kārimī merchant, while Ibn Ḥajar also studied in 793 ah with another Ziftāwī by the name of Ṣalāḥ al-Dīn Abū ʿAlī Muḥammad b. Muḥammad (d. 794 ah); see al-Sakhāwī, al-Jawāhir wa-l-durar, i. 116, 125. In their 1986 edition, Ḥāmid Abd al-Majīd and Ṭāhā al-Zaynī affirm the name of Ibn Ḥajar’s mother as Nijār (and neither Tijār nor Tujjār) based on the manuscripts and meaning; al-Sakhāwī, al-Jawāhir wa-l-durar fī tarjamat Shaykh al-Islām Ibn Ḥajar (eds. Ḥāmid ʿAbd al-Majīd and Ṭāhā al-Zaynī; Cairo: Wizārat al-Awqāf, 1986), i. 59–60. 3 al-Sakhāwī, al-Jawāhir wa-l-durar, i. 114–16. 4 Ibn Hajar al-ʿAsqalānī, Rafʿ al-iṣr, 62–4; al-Sakhāwī, al-Jawāhir wa-l-durar, i. 121–8; id., al-Dawʾ al-lāmiʿ, ii. 36–7, viii. 217, ix. 9 10; Aḥmad b. ʿAlī al-Maqrīzī, Durar al-ʿuqūd al-farīda (ed. Maḥmūd al-Jalīlī; Beirut: Dār al-Gharb al-Islāmī, 2002), i. 194; Muḥammad Ibn Fahd al-Makkī, Lahẓ al-alḥāẓ bi-dhayl Ṭabaqāt al-ḥuffāẓ (Damascus: Maṭbaʿat al-Tawfīq, 1347 [1928]), 326–9. 5 al-Sakhāwī, al-Jawāhir wa-l-durar, i. 104, iii. 1207–8. 6 Taqī al-Dīn Aḥmad b. ʿAlī b. ʿAbd al-Qādir al-Maqrīzī, al-Mawāʿiẓ wa-l-iʿtibar fī dhikr al-khiṭaṭ wa-l-āthār (ed. Ayman Fuʾād Sayyid; London: al-Furqān Islamic Heritage Foundation, 2003), iv. 552–6; Ibn Taghrībirdī, Mawrid al-laṭāfa fī man waliya al-salṭana wa-l-khilāfa (ed. Nabīl Muḥammad ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz Aḥmad; Cairo: Maṭbaʿat Dār al-Kutub al-Miṣriyya, 1997), ii. 52–4. Lājīn and Mengu-Tīmūr were assassinated in Rabīʿ al-Awwal 698 / December 1298. 7 al-Sakhāwī, al-Jawāhir wa-l-durar, i. 104, iii. 1207–8. Ibn Ḥajar’s guardian Ibn Qaṭṭān helped arrange this advantageous marriage to the daughter of the Army Inspector (nāẓir al-jaysh) al-Qāḍī Karīm al-Dīn ʿAbd al-Karīm b. Aḥmad al-Lakhmī (d. 807 ah) and Mengu-Tīmūr’s great-grandaughter Sārah bint Nāṣir al-Dīn Muḥammad b. Uns bint Mengu-Tīmūr (d. 821 ah). For more on their living arrangements and marriage, see Yossef Rapoport, ‘Ibn Ḥaǧar al-ʿAsqalānī, His Wife, Her Slave-Girl: Romantic Triangles and Polygamy in 15th Century Cairo’, Annales Islamologiques, 47 (2013): 331–6, at 342–4. 8 Ibn Ḥajar al-ʿAsqalānī, Dīwān (ed. Firdaws Nūr ʿAlī Ḥusayn; Cairo: al-Faḍīa, 2000), 78. 9 Ibn Hajar al-ʿAsqalānī, Lisān al-mizān (ed. ʿAbd al-Faṭṭāḥ Abū Ghudda; Beirut: Dār al-Bashāʾir al-Islamiyya, 2002), i. 128. 10 Abū l-Ḥasan Nūr al-Dīn ʿAlī b. Aḥmad b. ʿUmar al-Sakhāwī, Tuḥfat al-aḥbāb wa-bughyat al-ṭullāb fī-l-khiṭaṭ wa-l-mazārāt wa-l-tarājim wa-l-biqāʿ al-mubārakāt (eds. Maḥmūd Rabīʿ and Ḥasan Qāsim; Cairo: Maktabat al-ʿUlūm wa-l-Ādāb, 1937), 74–5; Khayr al-Dīn al-Ziriklī, al-Aʿlām: Qāmūs Tarājim li-ashhar al-rijāl wa-l-nisāʾ min al-ʿarab wa-l-mustaʿribīn wa-l-mustashriqīn (Beirut: Dār al-ʿIlm li-l-Malāyīn, 7th edn., 1986), iv. 258. 11 al-Sakhāwī also mentions the adjacent masjid in his al-Ḍawʾ al-lāmiʿ, vii. 31. 12 al-Maqrīzī, al-Mawāʿiẓ wa-l-iʿtibar, iii. 3–6. 13 Ibid; also see, for example, the discussion in M. Soberhnheim, ‘Ḳarāḳūsh’ in EI2. 14 al-Maqrīzī, al-Mawāʿiẓ wa-l-iʿtibar, iv. 552–6 15 al-Sakhāwī, Tuḥfat al-aḥbāb, 71–5. 16 ʿAlī Mubārak, al-Khiṭaṭ al-tawfīqiyya al-jadīda li-Miṣr al-Qāhira wa-mudunihā wa-bilādihā al-qadīma wa-l-shahīra (Cairo: al-Maṭbaʿa al-Kubrā al-Āmīriyya, 1886–88), vi. 15–16. 17 Fieldwork, July 2016. 18 One manuscript scribe comments in the marginal notes of the best selections: ghālib mā nuẓẓima hāhunā mimmā nuẓẓima qabl al-qarn; see Ibn Ḥajar al-ʿAsqalānī, Dīwān (ed. Firdaws Nūr ʿAlī Ḥusayn), 89. Al-Sakhāwī himself notes that most of Ibn Ḥajar’s poetry was written before 816 ah; al-Sakhāwī, al-Jawāhir wa-l-durar, i. 126. 19 al-Sakhāwī, al-Jawāhir wa’l-durar, i. 126; id., al-Dawʾ al-lāmiʿ, iii. 38. 20 al-Maqrīzī, Durar al-ʿuqūd al-farīda, i. 199; Ibn Fahd al-Makkī, Lahẓ al-alḥāẓ, 327. 21 Jalāl al-Dīn ʿAbd al-Raḥmān b. Abī Bakr al-Suyūṭī, Naẓm al-ʿiqyān fī aʿyān al-aʿyān (As-Suyuti’s Who’s Who in the Fifteenth Century) (ed. Philip Hitti; New York: Syrian–American Press, 1927), entries 20, 34, 37, 39, 42, 43, 50, cited in Thomas Bauer, ‘Ibn Ḥajar and the Arabic Ghazal of the Mamluk Age’ in Thomas Bauer and Angelika Neuwirth (eds.), Ghazal as World Literature. Volume 1: Transformations of a Literary Genre (Würzburg: Ergon, 2005), 35. 22 The scribes of at least two manuscripts place the completion of Ibn Ḥajar’s selective compilation around 816 ah, and a third specifies the date of Jumādā al-ākhir 815/January 1412; see Ibn Ḥajar al-ʿAsqalānī, Dīwān (ed. Firdaws Nūr ʿAlī Ḥusayn), 79, 83, 89. 23 For further details in English on this recension’s structure, see Bauer, ‘Ibn Ḥajar and the Arabic Ghazal’, 36-40. 24 Shihāb al-Dīn Aḥmad al-Qalqashandī, Maʾāthir al-ināfa fī maʿālim al-khilāfa (ed. ʿAbd al-Sattār Aḥmad Farrāj; Kuwait: Wizārat al-Irshād wa-l-Inbāʾ, 1964), ii. 337–9. 25 Ibid, ii. 340–2. 26 Ibid, ii. 343–9. 27 Ibid, ii. 350–2. 28 For these details and more on al-Mustaʿīn’s caliphate and sultanate see: ibid, ii. 202–6; Ibn Hajar al-ʿAsqalānī, Inbāʾ al-ghumr, vii. 1–116, 8: 213–14; al-Maqrīzī, Durar al-uqūd, ii. 206–15; Ibn Taghribirdī, Mawrid al-laṭāfa, i. 255–7, ii. 133–5; id., Manhal al-ṣāfī wa-l-mustawfī baʿd al-wāfī (ed. Muḥammad Muḥammad Amīn; Cairo: Maṭbaʿat Dār al-Kutub wa-l-Wathāʾiq al-Qawmiyya, 2008), vii. 60–4; id., al-Nujūm al-zāhira fī mulūk Miṣr wa-l-Qāhira (ed. Fahīm Muḥammad Shaltūt; Cairo: al-Hayʾa al-Miṣriyya al-ʿĀmma li-l-Taʾlīf wa-l-Nashr, 1970–1), xiii. 189–208, xiv. 1–3, 16–17; al-Sakhāwī, al-Ḍawʾ al-lāmiʿ, iv. 19–20; al-Suyūṭī, Tārīkh al-khulafāʾ (Beirut: Dār al-Jīl, 1994), 575–8; id., Ḥusn al-muḥāḍara fī akhbār Miṣr wa-l-Qāhira (ed. ʿAlī Muḥammad ʿUmar; Cairo: Maktabat al-Khānjī, 2007), 74–7; Muḥammad b. Aḥmad Ibn Iyās, Badāʿiʿ al-zuhūr fī waqāʿiʿ al-duhūr (= Die Chronik des Ilm Ijās; ed. Muḥammad Muṣṭafā; Wiesbaden: Franz Steiner, 1975), i. 747, 823–8; Ibn al-ʿImād, Shadharāt al-dhahab fī akhbār man dhahab (eds. ʿAbd al-Qādir al-Arnaʾūṭ and Maḥmūd al-Arnaʾūṭ; Damascus: Dār Ibn Kathīr, 1993), ix. 295–6. 29 al-Qalqashandī, Maʾāthir al-ināfa, ii. 206, iii. 193, 264–5. 30 L. A. Mayer, ‘A Decree of the Caliph al-Mustaʿīn Billāh’, Quarterly of the Department of Antiquities in Palestine, 12 (1945): 27–9, plate X. 31 See, for example, ʿAbd al-Wahhāb al-Shaʿrānī, Ṭabaqāt al-kubrā, al-musammā Lawāqih al-anwār al-qudsiyya fī manāqib al-ʿulamāʾ wa-l-ṣūfiyya (eds. Aḥmad ʿAbd al-Raḥīm al-Sāyiḥ and Tawfīq ʿAlī Wahba; Cairo: Maktabat al-Thiqāfa al-Dīniyya, 2005), i. 125 and Muḥammad b. Idrīs al-Shāfiʿī, Dīwān al-Shāfiʿī, ḥabr al-umma wa-imām al-āʾimma (ed. Muḥammad ʿAbd al-Munʿim Khafājī; Cairo: Maktabat Kulliyat al-Azhariyya, n.d.). 32 Aliaa Ezzeldin Ismail El Sandouby, ‘The Ahl al-bayt in Cairo and Damascus: The Dynamics of Making Shrines for the Family of the Prophet’ (Ph.D. diss, University of California Los Angeles, 2008), 230–8. For a modern example of Shādhilī training with reference to Ahl al-Bayt, see Nuh Ha Mim Keller, Sea Without Shore: A Manual of the Sufi Path (Beltsville, MD: Amana Publications, 2011), 81. 33 ʿAli b. ʿUmar Ibn al-Batanūnī, Kitāb al-Sirr al-ṣafī fī manāqib al-sultan al-Ḥanafī Quṭb al-Ghawth Shams al-Din Sayyidī Muḥammad al-Tamīmī al-Bakrī al-Shādhilī al-Ṣiddīqī raḍiya Allāhu taʿālā ʿanhu (Cairo: Maṭbaʿat Muḥammad Muṣṭafā, 1888), i. 7; al-Ziriklī, al-Aʿlām, vi. 88. 34 al-Sakhāwī, al-Jawāhir wa-l-durar, ii. 675. 35 Ibid, ii. 681. 36 Mona Hassan, Longing for the Lost Caliphate: A Transregional History (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2016), 126–41. 37 al-Sakhāwī, al-Ḍawʾ al-lāmiʿ, ii. 40 and al-Suyūṭī, Dhayl Ṭabaqāt al-huffāẓ li-l-Dhahabī (Damascus: Maṭbaʿat al-Tawfīq, 1347 [1928]), 381. 38 As also noted by Shihāb al-Dīn Abū ʿAmr in his Uns al-ḥujar fī abyāt Ibn Ḥajar (Beirut: Dār al-Rayyān, 1988), 172, and Bauer, ‘Ibn Ḥajar and the Arabic Ghazal’, 37–8. 39 Ibn Hajar al-ʿAsqalānī, Inbāʾ al-ghumr, vii. 61. 40 mā bayna baytī wa-minbarī rawḍatun min riyāḍ al-janna in Abū ʿAbdillāh Muḥammad b. Ismāʿīl al-Bukhārī, Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī (Stuttgart: Thesaurus Islamicus Foundation, 2000), i. 223, 353 (#1204–5, 1921), iii. 1333, 1480–1 (#6668, 7421) and Abū-l-Ḥusayn Muslim b. al-Ḥajjāj, Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim (Stuttgart: Thesaurus Islamicus Foundation, 2000), i. 564–5 (#3434–6). 41 Abū ʿAmr, Uns al-ḥujar, 177. 42 ‘al-Sabʿ al-Sayyāra’, Arşiv Numarası 34 Fa 1282, Fazıl Ahmed Paşa Koleksiyonu, Köprülü Yazma Eser Kütüphanesi, İstanbul, Turkey; Katip Çelebi, Kashf al-ẓunūn ʿan asāmī al-kutub wa-l-funūn (Beirut: Dār Iḥyāʾ al-Kutub al-Turāth, n.d.), i. 765, ii. 977; Carl Brockelmann, Geschichte der Arabischen Litteratur (Leiden: Brill, 1938), SII 75; Ibn Ḥajar al-ʿAsqalānī, Dīwān (ed. al-Sayyid Abū al-Faḍl; Hyderabad: Jāmiʿat al-ʿUthmāniyya, 1962), 46–7; id., Dīwān (ed. Firdaws Nūr ʿAlī Ḥusayn), 48–68; Abū ʿAmr, Uns al-ḥujar, 33–5, 39–44; Ibn Ḥajar al-ʿAsqalānī, Dīwān al-sabʿ al-sayyāra al-nayyirāt (ed. Muḥammad Yūsuf Ayyūb; Jeddah: Nādī Abhā al-Adabī, 1992), 59–76; Nāṣir b. Suʿūd b. ʿAbdillāh al-Salāma, Muʿjam Muʾallafāt Ibn Ḥajar al-ʿAsqalānī al-makhṭūṭa bi-maktabāt al-Mamlaka al-ʿArabiyya al-Suʿūdiyya (Fayyūm, Egypt: Dār al-Falāḥ, 2002), 87–90. 43 al-Suyūṭī, Tārīkh al-khulafāʾ, 575–7; id., Ḥusn al-muḥāḍara, ii. 75–6. 44 Ibn Iyās, Badāʿiʿ al-zuhūr fī waqāʿiʿ al-duhūr, i. 747, 823–8. 45 Katip Çelebi goes so far as to describe al-Suyūṭī’s Tārīkh al-khulafāʾ as the best work of its genre. See his Kashf al-ẓunūn, i. 293. 46 al-Suyūṭī, The Tarīkh al-Kholfāa, or History of the Caliphs: From the Death of Mohammad to the Year 900 of the Hijrah (eds. W.N. Lees and Mawlawi Abd al-Haqq; Calcutta: W. Nassau Lees, 1857). 47 Ibn Iyās, Badāʿiʿ al-zuhūr (Cairo: Mạbaʿat Sharaf Mūsā, 1884); Ibn Iyās, Kitāb Tārīkh Miṣr al-mashhūr bi-badāʿiʿ al-zuhūr fī waqāʿiʿ al-duhūr (Cairo: al-Mạbaʿa al-Kubrā al-Amīriyya, 1893–4). 48 al-Suyūṭī, Tārīkh al-khulafāʾ, 577. 49 Ibn Ḥajar al-ʿAsqalānī, Inbāʾ al-ghumr, viii. 213; al-Sakhāwī, al-Jawāhir wa-l-durar, ii. 600; Mubārak, al-Khiṭaṭ, vi. 38. Ibn Ḥajar assumed the official position of mufti at Dār al-ʿAdl in 811/1408 and held it until his death; for additional context, see Aftab Ahmad Rahmani, The Life and Works of Ibn Hajar al-Asqalani (Dhaka: Islamic Foundation Bangladesh, 2000), 87–8, and Anne Broadbridge, ‘Academic Rivalry and the Patronage System in Fifteenth-Century Egypt: al-ʿAynī, al-Maqrīzī, and Ibn Ḥajar al-ʿAsqalānī’, Mamlūk Studies Review, 3 (1999), 85–107, at 90–1. On al-Juwaynī’s seminal legal precedent regarding the head of state as imām, see Hassan, Longing for the Lost Caliphate, 101–11, 118, 120. © The Author (2017). Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Oxford Centre for Islamic Studies. All rights reserved. For Permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oup.com
TI - Poetic Memories of the Prophet’s Family: Ibn Ḥajar al-ʿAsqalānī’s Panegyrics for the ʿAbbasid Sultan-Caliph of Cairo al-Mustaʿīn
JF - Journal of Islamic Studies
DO - 10.1093/jis/etx064
DA - 2018-01-01
UR - https://www.deepdyve.com/lp/oxford-university-press/poetic-memories-of-the-prophet-s-family-ibn-ajar-al-asqal-n-s-yYS2QOCNbj
SP - 1
EP - 24
VL - 29
IS - 1
DP - DeepDyve
ER -