Startseite A Jewish Vizier and his Shīʿī Manifesto: Jews, Shīʿīs, and the Politicization of Confessional Identities in Mongol-ruled Iraq and Iran (13th to 14th centuries)
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A Jewish Vizier and his Shīʿī Manifesto: Jews, Shīʿīs, and the Politicization of Confessional Identities in Mongol-ruled Iraq and Iran (13th to 14th centuries)

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Veröffentlicht/Copyright: 9. Oktober 2019
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Abstract

This paper seeks to situate Jewish individuals from the upper echelons of the Mongol government in Iran and Iraq (1258‒1335) in relation to the process of confessional, Sunnī-Shīʿī polarization. Focusing on the case of the Baghdadi Jewish physician and vizier Saʿd al-Dawla (d. 1291), I explore how the Jewish minister sought to take advantage of Twelver-Shīʿī rise to prominence under the Mongols. I argue that the vizier attempted to strike an alliance with the Shīʿī communities in Iraq and with influential Shīʿī families with long-established ties to the Mongol regime, in order to curtail resistance to his policies and to the Jewish dominance in the realm’s bureaucracy. I consider Saʿd al-Dawla’s endeavors within the broader historical context of Shīʿī-Jewish relations. The article concludes by examining the two decades following Saʿd al-Dawla’s downfall, when a group of eminent Jewish physicians at the Mongol court converted to Islam. I show how these converts continued to exploit the process of politicization of confessional identities under the Mongols.

Keywords: Shīʿīsm; Jews; Ilkhans; sectarianism; conversion; political theory
Online erschienen: 2019-10-09
Erschienen im Druck: 2019-10-04

© 2019 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston

Artikel in diesem Heft

  1. Titelseiten
  2. Recompense and Reward: The Scholarly Contributions of Michael David Bonner (1952‒2019)
  3. Articles
  4. “Who are the Aṣḥāb al-Ukhdūd? Q 85:4‒10 in Near Eastern Context.”
  5. Whence Diyār Bakr? An Inquiry into Early Jazīran Administrative Geography
  6. The Uniqueness of the Fāṭimid State
  7. A Jewish Vizier and his Shīʿī Manifesto: Jews, Shīʿīs, and the Politicization of Confessional Identities in Mongol-ruled Iraq and Iran (13th to 14th centuries)
  8. Zur Diplomatik mamlūkischer Verwaltungsdokumente
  9. Crossing Borders: ʿĀʾisha al-Bāʿūniyya and Her Travels
  10. Reviews
  11. Annotated Bibliography “Arabic Papyrology and Diplomatics” New publications 2018 and addenda 2017
  12. George Archer, A Place Between Two Places: The Qurʾānic Barzakh, Piscataway: Gorgias Press, 2017,458 Seiten, ISBN 978-1-4632-0612-3.
  13. Yavuz Aykan, Rendre la justice à Amid: Procédures, acteurs et doctrines dans le contexte ottoman du XVIIIème siècle, Leiden: Brill, 2013, 274 p., ISBN: 978-90-04-30579-3.
  14. Andrew Bannister, An Oral-Formulaic Study of the Qurʾan, Lanham: Lexington Books, 2014, 332 pp., ISBN 978-0-7391-8357-1.
  15. Frédéric Bauden, Catalogue of the Arabic, Persian and Turkish Manuscripts in Belgium, Vol. 1, Handlist Part 1, Université de Liège, Leiden/Boston: Brill 2016, ISBN 9789004326453 / Efraim Wust, Catalogue of the Arabic, Persian, and Turkish Manuscripts of the Yahuda Collection of the National Library of Israel, Vol.1, Leiden/Boston: Brill 2016, ISBN 9789004262621.
  16. Peri Bearman, A History of the Encyclopaedia of Islam, Atlanta: Lockwood Press, 2018 (Resources in Arabic and Islamic Studies 9), 299 p., ISBN 9781948488006.
  17. Sohbi Bouderbala, Sylvie Denoix, Matt Malczycki (Hrsg.), New Frontiers of Arabic Papyrology: Arabic and Multilingual Texts from Early Egypt (Islamic History and Civilization 144), Leiden: Brill 2017, 196 S. + Index, ISBN 978-90-04-34517-1.
  18. Christiane Czygan and Stephan Conermann, eds., An Iridescent Device: Premodern Ottoman Poetry, Ottoman Studies vol. 5, Göttingen: Bonn University Press/V&R Unipress 2018, 268 pp., 10 Figures, 3 Indeces, ISBN: 978-3-8471-0855-9.
  19. Mathieu Eychenne, Astrid Meier, Élodie Vigouroux (eds.), Le waqf de la mosquée des Omeyyades de Damas: le manuscrit ottoman d’un inventaire mamelouk établi en 816/1413, Beirut/Damascus: Presses de l’ifpo, 2018, 741 p. + maps, ISBN: 978-2-35159-737-8.
  20. Adam Gaiser, Shurāt Legends, Ibāḍī Identities: Martyrdom, Asceticism and the Making of an Early Islamic Community, Columbia: University of South Carolina Press, 2016, 223 pp. (including bibliography and index), ISBN 978-1-61117-676-6.
  21. Alain George and Andrew Marsham (eds.), Power, Patronage, and Memory in Early Islam: Perspectives on Umayyad Elites, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2018, xx + 348 pp. + 8 color plates, ISBN-13: 9780190498931.
  22. Julia Gonnella und Jens Kröger (Hrsg.), Wie die islamische Kunst nach Berlin kam. Der Sammler und Museumsdirektor Friedrich Sarre (1865‒1945). Für das Museum für Islamische Kunst – Staatliche Museen zu Berlin herausgegeben, Berlin: Reimer Verlag 2015, 160 S., ISBN 978-3-496-01544-4.
  23. Harald Motzki, Reconstruction of a Source of Ibn Isḥāq’s Life of the Prophet and Early Qurʾān Exegesis: A Study of Early Ibn ʿAbbās Traditions, Piscataway, NJ: Gorgias Press, 2017, 144 pp., ISBN: 9781463206598.
  24. Miriam Ovadia, Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyya and the Divine Attributes: Rationalized Traditionalistic Theology, Leiden: Brill, 2018, 324 pp., ISBN 978-90-04-37251-1.
  25. Sebastian R. Prange, Monsoon Islam. Trade and Faith on the Medieval Malabar Coast, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2018, Series: Cambridge Oceanic Histories, xvi + 344 pp., 4 Maps, 22 Figures, 4 Tables, Index and Bibliographical Information, ISBN 978-1-108-42438-7 (Hardback).
  26. Ahmed Ragab, The Medieval Islamic Hospital: Medicine, Religion, and Charity, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2015, 281 pp., ISBN 9781107524033.
  27. Nevin Reda, The al-Baqara Crescendo: Understanding the Qurʾan’s Style, Narrative Structure, and Running Themes, Montreal: McGill-Queen’s University Press, 2017, xi + 264 p., ISBN 9780773548862 (paperback).
  28. Florian Sobieroj, Arabische Handschriften. Teil 12: Arabische Handschriften der Bayerischen Staatsbibliothek zu München unter Einschluss einiger türkischer und persischer Handschriften. Beschrieben von Florian Sobieroj. Band 5. (VOHD Band XVII, B, 12), Stuttgart: Franz Steiner Verlag 2018, XXXII + 780 S. + 36 Taf. ISBN 978-3-515-12112-5.
  29. Maaike van Berkel, Léon Buskens and Petra M. Sijpesteijn (eds.), Legal Documents as Sources for the History of Muslim Societies. Studies in Honour of Rudolph Peters (Studies in Islamic Law and Society 42), Leiden: Brill 2017, 303 pp. + Index, ISBN: 978-90-04-34372-6.
https://doi.org/10.1515/islam-2019-0028
Schlagwörter für diesen Artikel
Shīʿīsm; Jews; Ilkhans; sectarianism; conversion; political theory

Artikel in diesem Heft

  1. Titelseiten
  2. Recompense and Reward: The Scholarly Contributions of Michael David Bonner (1952‒2019)
  3. Articles
  4. “Who are the Aṣḥāb al-Ukhdūd? Q 85:4‒10 in Near Eastern Context.”
  5. Whence Diyār Bakr? An Inquiry into Early Jazīran Administrative Geography
  6. The Uniqueness of the Fāṭimid State
  7. A Jewish Vizier and his Shīʿī Manifesto: Jews, Shīʿīs, and the Politicization of Confessional Identities in Mongol-ruled Iraq and Iran (13th to 14th centuries)
  8. Zur Diplomatik mamlūkischer Verwaltungsdokumente
  9. Crossing Borders: ʿĀʾisha al-Bāʿūniyya and Her Travels
  10. Reviews
  11. Annotated Bibliography “Arabic Papyrology and Diplomatics” New publications 2018 and addenda 2017
  12. George Archer, A Place Between Two Places: The Qurʾānic Barzakh, Piscataway: Gorgias Press, 2017,458 Seiten, ISBN 978-1-4632-0612-3.
  13. Yavuz Aykan, Rendre la justice à Amid: Procédures, acteurs et doctrines dans le contexte ottoman du XVIIIème siècle, Leiden: Brill, 2013, 274 p., ISBN: 978-90-04-30579-3.
  14. Andrew Bannister, An Oral-Formulaic Study of the Qurʾan, Lanham: Lexington Books, 2014, 332 pp., ISBN 978-0-7391-8357-1.
  15. Frédéric Bauden, Catalogue of the Arabic, Persian and Turkish Manuscripts in Belgium, Vol. 1, Handlist Part 1, Université de Liège, Leiden/Boston: Brill 2016, ISBN 9789004326453 / Efraim Wust, Catalogue of the Arabic, Persian, and Turkish Manuscripts of the Yahuda Collection of the National Library of Israel, Vol.1, Leiden/Boston: Brill 2016, ISBN 9789004262621.
  16. Peri Bearman, A History of the Encyclopaedia of Islam, Atlanta: Lockwood Press, 2018 (Resources in Arabic and Islamic Studies 9), 299 p., ISBN 9781948488006.
  17. Sohbi Bouderbala, Sylvie Denoix, Matt Malczycki (Hrsg.), New Frontiers of Arabic Papyrology: Arabic and Multilingual Texts from Early Egypt (Islamic History and Civilization 144), Leiden: Brill 2017, 196 S. + Index, ISBN 978-90-04-34517-1.
  18. Christiane Czygan and Stephan Conermann, eds., An Iridescent Device: Premodern Ottoman Poetry, Ottoman Studies vol. 5, Göttingen: Bonn University Press/V&R Unipress 2018, 268 pp., 10 Figures, 3 Indeces, ISBN: 978-3-8471-0855-9.
  19. Mathieu Eychenne, Astrid Meier, Élodie Vigouroux (eds.), Le waqf de la mosquée des Omeyyades de Damas: le manuscrit ottoman d’un inventaire mamelouk établi en 816/1413, Beirut/Damascus: Presses de l’ifpo, 2018, 741 p. + maps, ISBN: 978-2-35159-737-8.
  20. Adam Gaiser, Shurāt Legends, Ibāḍī Identities: Martyrdom, Asceticism and the Making of an Early Islamic Community, Columbia: University of South Carolina Press, 2016, 223 pp. (including bibliography and index), ISBN 978-1-61117-676-6.
  21. Alain George and Andrew Marsham (eds.), Power, Patronage, and Memory in Early Islam: Perspectives on Umayyad Elites, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2018, xx + 348 pp. + 8 color plates, ISBN-13: 9780190498931.
  22. Julia Gonnella und Jens Kröger (Hrsg.), Wie die islamische Kunst nach Berlin kam. Der Sammler und Museumsdirektor Friedrich Sarre (1865‒1945). Für das Museum für Islamische Kunst – Staatliche Museen zu Berlin herausgegeben, Berlin: Reimer Verlag 2015, 160 S., ISBN 978-3-496-01544-4.
  23. Harald Motzki, Reconstruction of a Source of Ibn Isḥāq’s Life of the Prophet and Early Qurʾān Exegesis: A Study of Early Ibn ʿAbbās Traditions, Piscataway, NJ: Gorgias Press, 2017, 144 pp., ISBN: 9781463206598.
  24. Miriam Ovadia, Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyya and the Divine Attributes: Rationalized Traditionalistic Theology, Leiden: Brill, 2018, 324 pp., ISBN 978-90-04-37251-1.
  25. Sebastian R. Prange, Monsoon Islam. Trade and Faith on the Medieval Malabar Coast, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2018, Series: Cambridge Oceanic Histories, xvi + 344 pp., 4 Maps, 22 Figures, 4 Tables, Index and Bibliographical Information, ISBN 978-1-108-42438-7 (Hardback).
  26. Ahmed Ragab, The Medieval Islamic Hospital: Medicine, Religion, and Charity, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2015, 281 pp., ISBN 9781107524033.
  27. Nevin Reda, The al-Baqara Crescendo: Understanding the Qurʾan’s Style, Narrative Structure, and Running Themes, Montreal: McGill-Queen’s University Press, 2017, xi + 264 p., ISBN 9780773548862 (paperback).
  28. Florian Sobieroj, Arabische Handschriften. Teil 12: Arabische Handschriften der Bayerischen Staatsbibliothek zu München unter Einschluss einiger türkischer und persischer Handschriften. Beschrieben von Florian Sobieroj. Band 5. (VOHD Band XVII, B, 12), Stuttgart: Franz Steiner Verlag 2018, XXXII + 780 S. + 36 Taf. ISBN 978-3-515-12112-5.
  29. Maaike van Berkel, Léon Buskens and Petra M. Sijpesteijn (eds.), Legal Documents as Sources for the History of Muslim Societies. Studies in Honour of Rudolph Peters (Studies in Islamic Law and Society 42), Leiden: Brill 2017, 303 pp. + Index, ISBN: 978-90-04-34372-6.
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