The Turk has with him at the moment of attack everything he needs for himself, his weapons, his mount, and equipment for it. His endurance is quite amazing for long riding, continuous travel, lengthy night trips, and crossing a land. For one thing, the horse of the Khariji [a warrior identified with a radical Muslim rebellion in southern Iraq] does not have the endurance of the Turk's mount. The Khariji is not good at caring for his horse except as riders care for their steeds. The Turk is more skilled than the veterinarian and better at teaching his mount what he wants than trainers. He bred it and raised it as a foal. It followed him if he called and galloped behind him when he galloped. . . . If you sum up the life of the Turk and reckon his days you will find he sits longer on the back of his mount than on the face of the earth. The Turk rides a stallion, or a mare, and goes off on a raid, a trip or hunting expedition or some other project.
Then the mare and her foals follow him. If he is unable to hunt people, he hunts wild animals. If he is unsuccessful in that or needs nourishment, he bleeds one of his riding animals. If thirsty he milks one of his mares. If he wants to rest the one under him he mounts another without touching the ground. There is no one on earth besides him whose body would not reel against eating only meat. His mount is likewise satisfied with stubble, grass, and shrubs. He does not shade it from the sun or cover it against the cold. . . .
The Turk is a herdsman, groom, trainer, trader, veterinarian, and rider. A single Turk is a nation in himself.
Rhough rulers, warriors, and religious scholars dominate the traditional narratives, the society that developed over the early centuries of Islam was remarkably diverse. Beggars, tricksters, and street performers belonged to a single loose fraternity: the Banu Sasan, or Tribe of Sasan. Tales of their tricks and exploits amused staid, pious Muslims, who often encountered them in cities and on their scholarly travels. The tenth-century poet Abu Dulaf al-Khazraji, who lived in Iran, studied the jargon of the Banu Sasan and their way of life and composed a long poem in which he cast himself as one of the group. However, he added a commentary to each verse to explain the jargon words that his sophisticated court audience would have found unfamiliar.
We are the beggars' brotherhood, and no one can deny us our lofty pride. . .
And of our number if the feigned madman and mad woman, with metal charms strung from their necks.
And the ones with ornaments drooping from their ears, and with collars of leather or brass round their necks. . .
And the one who simulates a festering internal wound, and the people with false bandages round their heads and sickly, jaundiced faces.
And the one who slashes himself, alleging that he has been mutilated by assailants, or the one who darkens his skin artificially pretending that he has been beaten up and wounded. . .
And the one who practices as a manipulator and quack dentist, or who escapes from chains wound round his body, or the one who uses almost invisible silk thread mysteriously to draw off rings. . .
And of our number are those who claim to be refugees from the Byzantine frontier regions, those who go round begging on pretext of having left behind captive families. . .
And the one who feigns an internal discharge, or who showers the passers-by with his urine, or who farts in the mosque and makes a nuisance of himself, thus wheedling money out of people. . .
And of our number are the ones who purvey objects of veneration made from clay, and those who have their beards smeared with red dye.
And the one who brings up secret writing by immersing it in what looks like water, and the one who similarly brings up the writing by exposing it to burning embers.
QUESTIONS FOR ANALYSIS
1. Why might the ruling elite have found the descriptions of diverse social groups entertaining?
2. What role does religion appear to play in the culture that patronized this type of literature?
3. How does the personality of the author show up in these passages?
Sources: First selection excerpts from Nine Essays of al-Jahiz, trans. William M. Hutchins (New York: Peter Lang, 1989), 56, 64, 196. Reprinted by permission of Peter Lang Publishing. Second selection excerpts from Clifford Edmund Bosworth, The Mediaeval Islamic Underworld: The Banu Sasan in Arabic Society and Literature (Leiden: E. I. Brill, 1976), 191-199. Copyright © 1976. With kind permission of © Koninklijke Brill N. V. Leiden, the Netherlands.
To new areas. Cotton became a major crop in Iran and elsewhere and supplied a diverse and profitable textile industry. Irrigation works expanded. Diet diversified. Abundant coinage made for a lively economy. Intercity and longdistance trade flourished, providing regular links between isolated districts and integrating the pastoral nomads, who provided pack animals, into the region’s economy. Manufacturing expanded as well, particularly the production of cloth, metal goods, and pottery. Urban economies grew under the strong influence of Islamic ethics and law, overseen by religiously sanctioned market inspectors.
Science and technology also flourished (see Environment and Technology: Chemistry). Building on Hellenistic traditions and their own observations and experience, Muslim doctors and astronomers developed skills and theories far in advance of their European counterparts. Working in Egypt in the eleventh century, the mathematician and physicist Ibn al-Haytham° wrote more than a hundred works. Among other things, he determined that the Milky Way lies far beyond earth’s atmosphere, proved that light travels from a seen object to the eye and not the reverse, and explained why the sun and moon appear larger on the horizon than overhead.
Ibn al-Haytham (IB-uhn al-HY-tham)
World History
