Political speeches are particularly well known to us in the twenty-first century. The business of campaigning for elections and steering people toward policies depends largely on forceful public speaking. Eminent United States presidents have been eloquent orators, from George Washington and Abraham Lincoln in yesteryears, to Barack Obama in our time.1 Among activists, the speeches of Martin Luther King promoting racial equality are legion. Worldwide, in East and West, politicians today use the microphone to direct their populations. In the early Islamic period, caliphs and governors also used the vehicle of oratory to engage with political issues.2 As a broad-strokes canvas, some of their public-speaking categories are familiar to us in our own times. Others were distinct to their age and culture.
An important medium for developing policy among elite groups, the early Islamic political speech was also a primary means of communicating policy to the masses. Its most prominent theme was leadership, and this theme played out in various tracks. Speeches attributed to the pre-Islamic period interlocked with issues of tribal leadership, particularly regarding genealogical superiority. In the early Islamic period, their political purview expanded to include speeches of succession, policy, and control. Moreover, many battle orations, as well as Friday and Eid sermons and pious-counsel sermons, contained political material, and conversely, urgings to piety and military themes bolstered arguments for leadership and policy in political speeches—a clear nod to the essentially intertwined nature of religion, politics, and war in this period. Drawing closely on texts and contexts, this chapter analyzes the themes, functions, and language of the political speech, and assorted negotiations of leadership. A speech to his Kufan subjects by the Umayyad governor Ḥajjāj—with text, translation, and analysis—completes the chapter.
1 Themes and Functions of Political Speeches
The early Islamic political speech contained five major themes: (1) succession, (2) accession, (3) threats and maintenance of order, (4) fiscal policy, and (5) pious counsel.
1.1 Succession Speeches
A number of speeches in the early Islamic period are proclamations announcing a successor and soliciting a pledge of allegiance to him. They point us toward electoral and appointment practices of this time. Moreover, they exhibit the prime use of oration, alongside testaments and private conversations, for this crucial aspect of the period’s religio-political life. The most famous (and perhaps the most contentious) is the oration of Ghadīr Khumm attributed to Muḥammad, in which, according to the Shiʿa, he appointed ʿAlī as his successor. The basic elements of the speech are accepted as genuine by most medieval Sunni scholars, but they interpret it differently, maintaining that the speech extolled ʿAlī but had no succession content.3 The following excerpt from Sharḥ al-akhbār by Qāḍī l-Nuʿmān (d. 363/974) provides the text, context, and Shiʿa interpretation of the oration:4
[Zayd ibn Arqam narrated:] We accompanied God’s messenger on the farewell pilgrimage. On our return, when we came to the oasis of Khumm, he struck camp. It was a sweltering hot day, and he instructed palm branches to be collected and positioned for shade. He then gave the call among the people to gather, “Prayer unites.” They gathered together, their largest gathering ever, for there were few among the Muslims who had not come to perform the pilgrimage with the messenger. When they had all gathered, he stood up and spoke. After praising God, he said:
People … my time has drawn near, but I leave with you two weighty things: God’s book and my descendants. As long as you hold on to them, you shall not go astray.
أيّها الناس … وإنّي أوشك أن أدعى فأجيب وإنّي تارك فيكم الثقلين ما تمسّكتم بهما لن تضلّوا كتاب الله وعترتي.
Then he took ʿAlī’s hand and brought him up next to him, raising ʿAlī’s hand with his own so high that people glimpsed the white in his armpits. He asked them: Who is your master? They replied: God and his messenger know best. He said: Am I not your master? For God has said «The Prophet is the believers’ master».5 They responded: By God, you are.
ثمّ أخذ بيد عليّ فأقامه ورفع يده بيده حتّى رؤي بياض [إبطيه]. وقال من أولى بكم من أنفسكم. قالوا الله ورسوله أعلم. قال ألست أولى بذلك لقول الله عزّ وجلّ ﴿النَّبِيُّ أَوْلَى بِالْمُؤْمِنِينَ مِنْ أَنفُسِهِمْ﴾. قالوا اللّهمّ نعم.
He then said: For whomever I am master (mawlā), ʿAlī is his master. God, befriend those who befriend him, and challenge those who challenge him! [Help those who help him. Demean those who demean him. Keep the true religion by his side, wherever he may go.]6 Do you listen and obey? They replied: Yes, we do. He exclaimed: Bear witness, God!
قال فمن كنت مولاه فعليّ مولاه. اللّهمّ وال من والاه وعاد من عاداه [وٱنصر من نصره وٱخذل من خذله وأدر الحقّ معه حيث دار]. هل سمعتهم وأطعتم قالوا نعم قال اللّهمّ ٱشهد.
Nuʿmān follows the text with an explanation of the succession content of the speech:
The messenger of God’s words, “For whomever I am master (mawlā), ʿAlī is his master,” means: For whomever I am a religious leader (walī—same root and meaning as mawlā) in religion, ʿAlī is his religious leader, referring to the person upon whom he should rely in matters of religion and in all matters. This is the station of God’s prophets among their communities, and the station of each Imam after them among the people of his age.
Another Shiʿa text describes the pledge of allegiance that Muḥammad solicited for ʿAlī, asserting that all the Muslims there, beginning with the leading Emigrants, came forward at the end of the oration to clasp Muḥammad’s hand and offer their covenant to ʿAlī. The process took three full days.7
Muḥammad died soon thereafter, and Abū Bakr was nominated the first Sunni caliph.8 Two years later, he fell ill, and he too made a declaration of succession, appointing ʿUmar. Rather than orating, however, he is said to have dictated a testament to ʿUthmān ibn ʿAffān in which he said:9
This is the testament of Abū Bakr ibn Abī Quḥāfah in his last moments in this world, as he is leaving it upon his entry into the hereafter … I appoint over you after me ʿUmar ibn al-Khaṭṭāb, so listen to him and obey him … if he is just, that is what I expect from him. If he changes the accepted practice, he will answer for his deeds. My intention is good, but I do not know the unseen.
He then sent this testament to be read out to the people who had gathered around and commanded them to pledge allegiance to ʿUmar.
After Abū Bakr, the next two caliphs did not make an individual appointment of succession. ʿUmar appointed a committee of six members to choose the next caliph from among themselves, and they chose ʿUthmān, who, in his turn, did not make any public comments naming a successor; given the circumstances of his killing, he was not in a position to do so. After them, ʿAlī appointed his son Ḥasan, and several testaments and personal statements to that effect are recorded in the sources.10
During the Umayyad caliphate, Muʿāwiyah spoke in Medina among its leaders, urging them to accept his nomination of his son Yazīd, saying:11
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I have reached an advanced age, my bones have weakened, and my end is near. I shall soon be called, and I must answer the call. I have seen fit to appoint Yazīd over you after me. |
فإنّي قد كبر سنّي ووهن عظمي وقرب أجلي وأوشكت أن أدعى فأجيب. وقد رأيت أن أستخلف عليكم بعدي يزيد. |
The sources record a series of follow-up speeches by Umayyad partisans and Medinan nobles arguing for and against the appointment. From the Umayyad side we find speeches by Ḍaḥḥāk ibn Qays al-Fihrī, ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn ʿUthmān al-Thaqafī, Thawr ibn Maʿn al-Sulamī, ʿAbdallāh ibn ʿIṣām al-Ashʿarī, ʿAbdallāh ibn Masʿadah al-Fazārī, ʿAmr ibn Saʿīd al-Ashdaq, Yazīd ibn al-Muqniʿ, and Marwān ibn al-Ḥakam, all proposing Yazīd. On the Medinan/Iraqi side we find speeches by Ḥusayn ibn ʿAlī, ʿAbdallāh ibn al-ʿAbbās, ʿAbdallāh ibn Jaʿfar, ʿAbdallāh ibn al-Zubayr, Aḥnaf ibn Qays, and ʿAbdallāh ibn ʿUmar, all of them opposing Yazīd.12
1.2 Accession Speeches
Caliphs, governors, and commanders regularly delivered speeches upon accession to the post. As in speeches of appointment, they solicited a pledge of allegiance, expounded on their own righteousness, and laid out broad policies regarding their mode of governance. The focus in our texts is on obedience to authority. Also highlighted are treasury disbursements, anti-corruption measures, and law and order issues. Another refrain specific to the socio-military ethos of the period is not keeping troops too long in the field.
1.2.1 Caliphal Accession Speeches
In the first speeches they gave as head of the community, the earliest Muslim caliphs laid out their broad policies and delineated the foundations and nature of their authority. They stressed the importance of obedience, drove home the necessity of jihad, and intertwined remarks on policy with injunctions to piety. This is the speech attributed to the first Sunni caliph, Abū Bakr, immediately after he accepted the pledge of allegiance:13
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People, I have become your leader, but I am not the best of you. If you see that I am righteous, help me. If you see that I am unjust, set me aright. Obey me as long as I obey God in ruling you. If I disobey him, I forego your obedience. Listen! The strongest of you in my eyes is the weak, and I wish to wrest for him his rights. The weakest among you in my eyes is the strong, and I wish to wrest from him what he owes. I speak these words, and I beg God for forgiveness for me and for you. |
أيّها الناس إنّي قد وليت عليكم ولست بخيركم. فإن رأيتموني على حقّ فأعينوني وإن رأيتموني على باطل فسدّدوني. أطيعوني ما أطعت الله فيكم فإذا عصيته فلا طاعة لي عليكم. ألا إنّ أقواكم عندي الضعيف حتّى آخذ الحقّ له وأضعفكم عندي القويّ حتّى آخذ الحقّ منه. أقول قولي هذا وأستغفر الله لي ولكم. |
Abū Bakr was tentative in asserting his authority. He declared that his jurisdiction would depend on his righteousness, and asked the Medinan Muslims to admonish him if he erred. The Shiʿa read this as an acknowledgment of ʿAlī’s superior right to the caliphate. The Sunnis read it as a mark of Abū Bakr’s humility. In any case, because of Abū Bakr’s diffidence, the audience comes across as peers rather than subjects. In addition to the politics of rule, moreover, the terminology focuses on the Qurʾanic terms “right,” “wrong,” and “obedience.” Interestingly, as mentioned earlier, this speech may have been delivered as part of a Friday sermon: In Ibn Hishām’s version, the speech ends with the words, “stand up for your ritual-prayer,” perhaps referring to the Friday prayer.
Several accession speeches are attributed to ʿUmar, either parts of a single speech, or separate speeches he gave early in his caliphate. True to the sources’ portrayal of his sternness, ʿUmar took a stance tougher than Abū Bakr in his speeches right from the beginning. In one of these, he says:14
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The Arabs are like a haughty, pierce-nosed camel led by a driver. Let the driver be alert as to where he drives them. As for me, by the lord of the Kaʿbah, I shall keep you on the path! |
إنّما مثل العرب مثل جمل أنف ٱتّبع قائده فلينظر قائده حيث يقوده. وأمّا أنا فوربّ الكعبة لأحملنّهم على الطريق. |
In another speech, after a few lines of pious counsel, ʿUmar declared that he would maintain a transparent relationship with the public treasury. Using another striking camel image, he promised restraint and clean dealings:15
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Recite the Qurʾan and you will be known by it. Act according to its guidance and you will be counted among its people. No one who disobeys God has a right to obedience from others. |
اقرءوا القرآن تعرفوا به وٱعملوا به تكونوا من أهله. إنّه لم يبلغ حقّ ذي حقّ أن يطاع في معصية الله. |
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Listen! With regard to the treasury, I consider myself a guardian, like one who is in charge of on orphan. If I can do without, I shall restrain myself entirely from touching it. If I am in need, I will take a little, as is allowed to me, just as a camel nibbles thorny bushes with the edges of its teeth, rather than grinding down on them with its molars. |
ألا وإنّي أنزلت نفسي من مال الله بمنزلة والي اليتيم إن ٱستغنيت عففت وإن ٱفتقرت أكلت بالمعروف تقرّم البهمة الأعرابيّة القضم لا الخضم. |
In yet another speech, ʿUmar promised to be a strong leader and deal with matters of governance personally. If delegation became necessary, he vowed to ensure his appointees carried out their duties with fairness:16
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God has tested you with me, and tested me with you after my friend’s passing. By God, any matter that is brought before me and is within my physical purview, I shall deal with it myself. Any matter that is outside my physical purview, I shall delegate to people of honesty and integrity. If they do their job well, I shall be good to them. If they are wayward, I shall punish them and make an example of them. |
إنّ الله ٱبتلاكم بي وٱبتلاني بكم بعد صاحبي. فوﷲ لا يحضرني شيء من أمركم فيليه أحد دوني ولا يتغيّب عنّي فآلوا فيه عن أهل الجَزء والأمانة. ولئن أحسنوا لأحسننّ إليهم ولئن أساؤوا لأنكلنّ بهم. |
Distinct from ʿUmar’s, ʿUthmān’s accession speech is reminiscent of Abū Bakr’s in its reticence. Reflecting his acceptance of the election council’s condition—that he would follow the practices of Abū Bakr and ʿUmar—he declared that he was a follower and not an innovator:17
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I have been given a burden to carry, which I have accepted. Listen! I am a follower and not an innovator. Listen! In addition to following God’s book and his prophet’s practice, I promise you three things more: I shall follow the practice of those who went before me, a practice which you have accepted. In things which [previous caliphs] have not left a legacy, I shall follow the practice of the pious. And I shall not demand from you except those things that are mandatory obligations. |
أمّا بعد فإنّي قد حمّلت وقد قبلت. ألا وإنّي متّبع ولست بمبتدع. ألا وإنّ لكم عليّ بعد كتاب الله عزّ وجلّ وسنّة نبيّه صلّى الله عليه وسلم ثلاثًا ٱتّباع من كان قبلي فيما ٱجتمعتم عليه وسنّتهم وسنّ سنّة أهل الخير فيما لم تسنّوا عن ملأ والكفّ عنكم إلّا فيما ٱستوجبتم. |
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Listen! This world is green and tempting, and many have turned to it. Do not depend on the world, do not trust it. It is not trustworthy. Know that it will not leave alone any except those who abjure it. |
ألا وإنّ الدنيا خضرة قد شهيت إلى الناس ومال إليها كثير منهم فلا تركنوا إلى الدنيا ولا تثقوا بها فإنّها ليست بثقة وٱعلموا أنّها غير تاركة إلّا من تركها. |
In contrast to ʿUthmān’s, ʿAlī’s accession speech was marked by an absence of references to his predecessors’ practices. He opened the oration by asserting his own veracity and acknowledging the divided state of the community in the wake of ʿUthmān’s murder. He then stated that right was right and wrong was wrong, implying that he was in the right and his opponents were wrong, and that his righteousness was the foundational basis of his authority:18
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I guarantee the truth of what I say and stand by my pledge: Those who are cautioned by history’s lessons are protected by their piety from galloping headlong into the abyss of doubt. |
ذمّتي بما أقول رهينة وأنا به زعيم إنّ من صرّحت له العبر عمّا بين يديه من المثلات حجزته التقوى عن تقحّم الشبهات. |
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Listen! You are being tested today, as you were on the day God sent his Prophet. I swear by the one who sent him with the truth that you will be tossed about, sifted as in a sieve, and mixed and melded as in a boiling pot. Many lowly folk will rise, and others who are in high positions will fall. Some who had straggled behind will race to the front, and others who were way ahead will fall behind. |
ألا وإنّ بليّتكم قد عادت كهيئتها يوم بعث اللّه نبيّه. والّذي بعثه بالحقّ لتبلبلنّ بلبلة ولتغربلنّ غربلة ولتساطنّ سوط القدر حتّى يعود أسفلكم أعلاكم وأعلاكم أسفلكم وليسبقنّ سابقون كانوا قصّروا وليقصّرنّ سبّاقون كانوا سبقوا. |
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By God, I have never held back a true word, or spoken a single lie. I was told of the coming of this station and this day. |
واللّه ما كتمت وشمة ولا كذبت كذبة ولقد نبّئت بهذا المقام وهذا اليوم. |
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Listen! Sins are recalcitrant steeds, reins slack, galloping with their riders speedily into the fire. Listen! Piety is a compliant mount, steadily carrying its riders, reins firmly in their hands, to paradise. |
ألا وإنّ الخطايا خيل شمس حمل عليها أهلها وخلعت لجمها فتقحّمت بهم في النار. ألا وإنّ التقوى مطايا ذلل حمل عليها أهلها وأعطوا أزمّتها فأوردتهم الجنّة. |
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There is truth and there is falsehood. Each has its folk. If falsehood prevails, that would be nothing new. If truth has few followers, that is entirely possible. Seldom does something which has turned away come back. |
حقّ وباطل ولكلّ أهل. فلئن أمر الباطل لقديمًا فعل. ولئن قلّ الحقّ لربّما فلربّما ولعلّ. ولقلّما أدبر شيء فأقبل. |
In the version of ʿAlī’s accession speech recorded by Jāḥiẓ, ʿAlī went on to rebuke the community, and then in the following lines, he reminded them of the virtues and precedence of the Prophet’s family:19
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Listen! Truly, my virtuous descendants and pure kin are the most mature in childhood and the most knowledgeable as adults. Listen! We are the people of a family who receive knowledge from God, who judge according to his judgment, and who give ear to true words. If you follow our traces, you will be guided by our vision. If you do not, God will destroy you at our hands. The banner of truth is with us. Whoever follows it will catch up and whoever holds back will drown. Listen! Through us the believers’ defeat is repelled. Through us the yoke of shame is removed from your necks. Through us the prize is won. Through us God has granted victory, not through you. And through us all things will end, not through you. |
ألا إنّ أبرار عترتي وأطايب أرومتي أحلم الناس صغارًا وأعلم الناس كبارًا. ألا وإنّا أهل بيت من علم الله علمنا وبحكم الله حكمنا ومن قول صادق سمعنا. وإن تتّبعوا آثارنا تهتدوا ببصائرنا وإن لم تفعلوا يهلككم الله بأيدينا. معنا راية الحقّ من تبعها لحق ومن تأخّر عنها غرق. ألا وإنّ بنا تردّ دبرة كلّ مؤمن وبنا تخلع ربقة الذلّ من أعناقكم وبنا غنم وبنا فتح الله لا بكم وبنا يختم لا بكم. |
Going forward into the Umayyad period, we find a number of speeches of accession recorded for various caliphs. Walīd buried his father, ʿAbd al-Malik, then spoke in the mosque in Damascus, praising him and praying for him. Then he spoke of his own accession, with a typical Umayyad warning against revolt:20
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People, obey me and stay with the community. Satan is the companion of the stray, while he steers wide of the community. Know that whosoever exposes himself to us, we will strike off the part of his body that holds his eyes. Whosoever remains silent [and does not protest] dies in his illness [without the government hurting him]. |
فعليكم أيّها الناس بالطاعة ولزوم الجماعة. فإنّ الشيطان مع الفذّ وهو من الجماعة أبعد. وٱعلموا أنّه من أبدى لنا ذات نفسه ضربنا الّذي فيه عيناه ومن سكت مات بدائه. |
ʿUmar ibn ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz in his accession speech broke the mold. Instead of warning against insubordination, he explained the uprightness of his governance and voiced the expectation that any who sought to participate in it must also be upright:21
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People, those who wish to partake of my company must adhere to five principles, or else stay away: They must convey to me the petitions of those who cannot do so themselves; help me to [govern justly]; inform me of avenues of good [governance] that I may be unaware of; not say spiteful things to me about my subjects; and not meddle in things which do not concern them. |
يا أيّها الناس من صحبنا فليصحبنّا بخمس وإلّا فلا يقربنا. يرفع إلينا حاجة من لا يستطيع رفعها. ويعيننا على الخير. ويدلّنا من الخير على ما لا نهتدي إليه. ولا يغتابنّ عندنا الرعيّة. ولا يعترض فيما لا يعنيه. |
Ibn al-Jawzī writes that poets and preachers fell away from him after this speech, and only jurists and renunciants stayed by his side.22
Yazīd III delivered his accession speech in the strident aftermath of internal revolt, and it is again different in tone. With the support of the tribal Yemeni faction and the religious Ghaylānī, Yazīd had taken up arms against his cousin, the incumbent Umayyad caliph, Walīd II, notorious among his subjects for his lavish desert palaces, and killed him. Upon taking up the caliphate in Damascus, he gave a speech which, in the words of Gerald Hawting, “he concluded by stating that, if he failed to live up to his promises, the people would have the right to depose him if he did not respond to their calls to change his ways. Furthermore, if they wished to give allegiance to someone whom they thought better fitted for office, Yazīd offered to be the first to give him allegiance and accept his commands.”23 Hawting cites the speech as a possible indication that Yazīd was one of the proponents of free will (Qadariyyah), in contrast to the generally predestinarian (Jabriyyah) Umayyads.24 Yazīd prefaced these avowals with lines defending the righteousness of his revolt, and a list of abuses he promised to avoid, presumably abuses of power attributed by the dissatisfied populace to his predecessor, which he cataloged as follows:25
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People, I promise you this: I shall not place stone upon stone, or brick upon brick. I shall not build new canals. I shall not hoard revenues or bestow them to a wife or a son. I shall not transfer them from one town to another, until all poverty in that town is eliminated. If there is a surplus, I shall transfer it to the adjoining town. I shall not keep soldiers for long periods in remote postings, such that they and their families may be harmed by it. I shall not close my door in your face, such that the strong subjugates the weak. I shall not burden jizyah payers [Christians and Jews] so heavily that they have to leave their lands and their line is cut off. I shall pay your stipends every year, and your sustenance money every month, such that the livelihoods of all Muslims will stabilize. The noble will be treated like the humble among you. |
أيّها الناس إنّ لكم عليّ ألّا أضع حجرًا على حجر ولا لبنة على لبنة ولا أكري نهرًا ولا أكنز مالًا ولا أعطيه زوجًا ولا ولدًا ولا أنقل مالًا من بلد إلى بلد حتّى أسدّ فقر ذلك البلد وخصاصة أهله بما يغنيهم فإن فضل فضل نقلته إلى البلد الّذي يليه ممّن هو أحوج إليه منه. ولا أجمّركم في ثغوركم فأفتنكم وأفتن أهليكم. ولا أغلق بابي دونكم فيأكل قويّكم ضعيفكم. ولا أحمل على أهل جزيتكم ما أجلّيهم به عن بلادهم وأقطع به نسلهم. ولكم عندي أعطياتكم في كلّ سنة وأرزاكم في كلّ شهر حتّى تستدرّ المعيشة بين المسلمين فيكون أقصاهم كأدناهم. |
The Abbasid caliph Manṣūr is reported to have delivered an accession speech to a semi-public audience of his family members and generals, in which he declared his personal disinterest in the caliphate and his resolve, nevertheless, to govern by the Sunnah of the Prophet.26
1.2.2 Governor Accession Speeches
Similar to caliphal accession speeches but at a local level, the sources record speeches by newly appointed governors. In some cases, a new governor is sent by a new caliph to assume charge of a major town. His accession speech lays out policies, enjoins obedience to the caliph and to him, and solicits the pledge of allegiance for both. In other cases, a caliph who is already in power sends a new governor to bring a recalcitrant populace under control. His accession speech contains threats for disobedience, reminders that he holds the sword, and promises of just government.
ʿUthmān appointed his cousin Saʿīd ibn al-ʿĀṣ as governor of Kufa after his former governor, Ibn Abī Muʿīṭ, had garnered complaints for drinking wine, an act considered a grave sin in Islam. In Saʿīd’s tough accession speech, he warned the Kufans against sedition:27
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By God, I am an unwilling appointee sent to you, who had no recourse once commanded but to take up the charge. Listen! Sedition has raised its snout and opened its eyes. By God, I shall strike its face until I crush it, or it crushes me. Today, I shall be my own guide. |
والله لقد بعثت إليكم وإنّي لكاره ولكنّي لم أجد بدًّا إذ أمرت أن أئتمر. ألا إنّ الفتنة قد أطلعت خطمها وعينيها ووالله لأضربنّ وجهها حتّى أقمعها أو تعييني. وإنّي لرائد نفسي اليوم. |
ʿAlī’s governors in their accession speeches echoed his claims to righteousness. In a speech set in the wake of ʿAlī’s accession to the caliphate, Qays ibn Saʿd in Egypt solicited the pledge of allegiance to his master, praising his virtue, and promising fair Islamic governance based on the Qurʾan and the practice of the Prophet. Qays’s choice of these particular motifs may be understood in the immediate aftermath of ʿUthmān’s last few years, and the accusations made against him for supporting corrupt and degenerate governors:28
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People, we have given the pledge of allegiance to the best person we know after our Prophet Muḥammad. Stand up and pledge him allegiance for a rule based on God’s book and his messenger’s practice. If we do not rule thus, you shall be absolved of your pledge. |
أيّها الناس إنّا قد بايعنا خير من نعلم بعد محمّد نبيّنا. فقوموا أيّها الناس فبايعوا على كتاب الله عزّ وجلّ وسنّة رسوله. فإن نحن لم نعمل لكم بذلك فلا بيعة لنا عليكم. |
Three years later, the last of ʿAlī’s three governors to Egypt, Muḥammad ibn Abī Bakr, echoed the same themes in his accession speech as Qays had, promising just, godly governance:29
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Praise God who guided me and you when others left the path of truth; who gave me and you the discernment to see the reality the ignorant were blind to. |
الحمد لله الّذي هدانا وإيّاكم لما ٱختلف فيه من الحقّ وبصّرنا وإيّاكم كثيرًا بما عمي عنه الجاهلون. |
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Listen! The commander of the faithful has put me in charge of your affairs, and he has given me a testament that you have just heard. He also counselled me with many of its points orally and face to face. I shall do my best to govern you well, seeking guidance from no one but God, placing my trust in him, and seeking forgiveness from him. If you see my governorship and my tax collection to conform with obedience to God and consciousness of him, then praise God for it, for he is my guide. If you find any of my agents to be corrupt, bring the matter to me with a rebuke—I will be happier if you do, and you have a right to do so. May God in his mercy guide me and you to perform good deeds. |
ألا إنّ أمير المؤمنين ولّاني أموركم وعهد إليّ ما قد سمعتم وأوصاني بكثير منه مشافهة. ولن آلوكم خيرًا ما ٱستطعت وما توفيقي إلّا بالله عليه توكّلت وإليه أنيب. فإن يكن ما ترون من إمارتي وأعمالي طاعة لله وتقوى فٱحمدوا الله عزّ وجلّ على ما كان من ذلك فإنّه هو الهادي. وإن رأيتم عاملًا لي عمل غير الحقّ زائفًا فٱرفعوه إليّ وعاتبوني فيه فإنّي بذلك أسعد وأنتم بذلك جديرون. وفّقنا الله وإيّاكم لصالح الأعمال برحمته. |
The accession speeches of the Umayyad governors of Iraq and the Ḥijāz are punitive, and their harsh tone reflects the uneasy relationship between the caliph in Damascus and his recalcitrant subjects in these two heartlands. One famous, lengthy speech attributed widely to Ziyād ibn Abīhi when he arrived in Basra as Muʿāwiyah’s governor is set against the larceny and immorality rampant at the time, and articulates Ziyād’s attempt to control the situation of deteriorating law and order. Ziyād was a powerful orator. Following are several excerpts from his speech that speak to various policies of governance, especially proper security and effective punishment for delinquency. He opens the speech with strong lines of chastisement, then goes on to delineate tribal protectionism as the source of Basra’s high incidence of urban crime:30
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You do not realize that your innovations defile Islam. You have let the weak be subjugated in your midst, their property seized, brothels set up, women robbed in broad daylight! Your numbers are not small! Are there not among you those who could prevent offenders from going abroad at nightfall and attacking in the day? No, you protect your relatives and reject religion! You proffer excuses and avert your eyes from the thief! Each man among you defends his own fool, this being the act of a person who does not fear a reckoning or hope for paradise. You are not mature people. No, you follow the path of the fools, continuing to shield them, while they violate the inviolable and creep into hiding behind you. May food and drink be unlawful for me, until I level the wrongdoers’ edifice to the ground, demolishing and burning! |
ولا تذكرون أنّكم أحدثتم في الإسلام الحدث الّذي لم تسبقوا اليه من ترككم الضعيف يقهر ويؤخذ ماله وهذه المواخير المنصوبة والضعيفة المسلوبة في النهار المبصر والعدد غير قليل. ألم يكن منكم نهاة تمنع الغواة عن دلج اللّيل وغارة النهار. قرّبتم القرابة وباعدتم الدين تعتذرون بغير العذر وتغضون على المختلس. كلّ ٱمرئ منكم يذبّ عن سفيهه صنيع من لا يخاف عاقبة ولا يرجو معادًا. ما أنتم بالحلماء ولقد ٱتّبعتم السفهاء. فلم يزل بكم ما ترون من قيامكم دونهم حتّى ٱنتهكوا حرم الإسلام ثمّ أطرقوا وراءكم كنوسًا في مكانس الريب. حرام عليّ الطعام والشراب حتّى أسوّيها بالأرض هدمًا وإحراقًا. |
He then declares that he will punish any who shelter the criminals:
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By God, I shall punish the owner for the offense committed by his slave, the resident for the offense committed by the absconder, the one present for the offense committed by the fugitive, the obedient for the offense committed by the disobedient, the sound for the offense committed by the ill. When you meet your brother, this is what you will say: ⟨Save yourself, Saʿd, for Saʿīd has perished!⟩31 This will be your fate unless you straighten your spear shaft. But if your property is breached, I will be the guarantor for anything stolen. |
إنّي أقسم بالله لآخذنّ الوليّ بالمولى والمقيم بالظاعن والمقبل بالمدبر والمطيع بالعاصي والصحيح منكم في نفسه بالسقيم حتّى يلقى الرجل منكم أخاه فيقول ٱنج سعد فقد هلك سعيد أو تستقيم لي قناتكم. من نقب منكم عليه فأنا ضامن لما ذهب منه. |
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Beware of going abroad at nightfall! If such a person is brought to me, I shall spill his blood … Beware of evoking tribal solidarity of the age of ignorance! If anyone calls to it, I shall cut out his tongue. |
فإيّاي ودلج الليل فإنّي لا أوتى بمدلج إلّا سفكت دمه … وإيّاي ودعوى الجاهليّة فإنّي لا أجد أحدًا دعى بها إلّا قطعت لسانه. |
Next, he outlines forms of retribution in some extraordinarily strong, parallel, anaphora-based lines:
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You have come up with bad innovations, and I too shall prescribe for every transgression a creative punishment: Whoever drowns people, I shall drown him. Whoever burns people, I shall burn him. Whoever breaches a house, I shall breach his heart. Whoever digs up a grave and robs it, I shall bury him in it alive. Restrain your hands and tongues from me and I will restrain my hand and tongue from you. If anyone challenges the majority position, I shall strike his neck. |
وقد أحدثتم أحداثًا لم تكن ولقد أحدثنا لكلّ ذنب عقوبة. فمن غرّق قومًا غرّقناه ومن أحرق قومًا أحرقناه ومن نقب بيتًا نقبنا عن قلبه ومن نبش قبرًا دفنّاه حيًّا فيه. فكفّوا عنّي أيديكم وألسنتكم أكفف عنكم يدي ولساني. ولا تظهر من أحد منكم ريبة بخلاف ما عليه عامّتكم إلّا ضربت عنقه. |
In the next part, Ziyād promises oversight and availability, and he vows to ensure his subjects’ real-world well-being by disbursing regular stipends from the treasury and instituting a compassionate program of military draft:
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Know that whatever my faults, I shall not fail to provide three things: I shall not veil myself from any among you who brings a petition, even if he knocks on my door in the night. I shall not delay the payment of salaries and stipends. I shall not unduly detain your battalions in enemy lands. |
وٱعلموا أنّي مهما قصّرت عنه فلن أقصّر عن ثلاث لست محتجبًا عن طالب حاجة منكم ولو أتاني طارقًا بليل ولا حابسًا عطاء ولا رزقًا عن إبّانه ولا مجمّرًا لكم بعثًا. |
In the last few lines, he stresses the obedience due to him and his masters. The severe disciplinary measures for criminal behavior that Ziyād outlined in this speech appear to have been effective—Ṭabarī reports that “a [coin] would fall from someone’s hand, and no one would approach it until its owner returned for it. A woman would sleep without locking her door.”32
A large number of speeches similarly threatening would-be rebels are attributed to other Umayyad governors. Ḥajjāj gave a famous speech when he arrived in Kufa as its governor and threatened death and destruction for as much as a whiff of disobedience (this text is cited in full in the final segment of this chapter).33 ʿUthmān ibn Ḥayyān al-Murrī gave a lengthy speech in Medina soon after he arrived there as governor, in which he warned the Medinans against colluding with the Iraqis, and against being taken in by their promotion of ʿAlī’s family. Here is an excerpt:34
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People, I have seen you conspire against the commander of the faithful in past times and recent ones. Moreover, you have given refuge to men who will bring you misery and ruin—Iraqis, all dissenters and hypocrites. By God, they are hypocrisy’s nest and the egg from which it emerges. By God, I have never found an Iraqi who does not find the best of men to be one who believes what he believes about Abū Ṭālib’s descendants. But they are not real followers of the Ṭālibids. No indeed, they are enemies to them and to everyone else. God has not yet willed that their blood be spilled, but this will come. If I find that any of you have given any of them shelter, or rented them a house, or put him up in his own, I will demolish his home and give him his proper due. |
أيّها الناس إنّا وجدناكم أهل غشّ لأمير المؤمنين في قديم الدهر وحديثه وقد ضوى إليكم من يزيدكم خبالًا أهل العراق هم أهل الشقاق والنفاق. هم والله عشّ النفاق وبيضته الّتي تفلّقت عنه. والله ما جرّبت عراقيًّا قطّ إلّا وجدت أفضلهم عند نفسه الّذي يقول في آل أبي طالب ما يقول وما هم لهم بشيعة وإنّهم لأعداء ولغيرهم ولكن لمّا يريد الله من سفك دماءهم. فإنّي والله لا أوتي بأحد آوي أحدًا منهم أو أكراه منزلًا أو أنزله إلّا هدمت منزله وأنزلت به ما هو أهله. |
Ibn Ḥayyān goes on to castigate the Iraqis and their country in language closely resembling that used by his contemporary Ḥajjāj.
In a twist on the governor accession speech, we find the Basran speech of Ziyād’s son, ʿUbaydallāh ibn Ziyād, notorious for his leading role in killing Ḥusayn ibn ʿAlī, ostensibly offering to resign from his position as governor when his patron, the caliph Yazīd, died in Damascus.35 The speech vaunts the strength and prosperity he has brought to the Iraqis, underscores his humble origins as a man of the people, and is followed by the Basrans insisting on renewing their pledge of allegiance to him. The narrator appends an ironic note about the swift decline of ʿUbaydallāh’s authority among the Iraqis following the pledge.
1.3 Threat and Intimidation
Many of the accession speeches you have just read contain threats. Barring the addresses of ʿUmar ibn ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz, “sword” and “whip” are among the most commonplace items in the lexicon of Umayyad caliphs and governors. From an orality perspective, we may view these stylized verbal lashings through the lens of Ong’s characterization of orally based articulations as “extraordinarily agonistic in their verbal performance.”36 But extreme expressions of violent retribution are mostly found only in the speeches of the Umayyad governors. Other speeches of the time, and those by earlier rulers, are agonistic in their strong engagement with lifeworld situations, but they do not verbally wield sword and whip. In the face of a recalcitrant populace, usually of Iraq and also the Ḥijāz and Egypt, the Umayyads buttressed the political and military authority they wielded on the ground with threats of physical violence made from the pulpit. As the following further examples abundantly demonstrate, intimidation was a hallmark of Umayyad speeches.
The Umayyad governor in Egypt, ʿUtbah ibn Abī Sufyān, chastised the Egyptians in a speech, saying “People of Egypt, beware lest you become a harvest for the sword” (يا أهل مصر إيّاكم أن تكونوا للسيف حصيدًا).37 In another speech, he expands on the theme, adding mention of the whip:38
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Bearers of the basest noses mounted between eyes! I clipped my talons to make my touch gentle. I asked you to be law-abiding, or else your rot would return to hurt you. But if you insist on maligning your rulers and slandering your forebears and caliphs, by God, I shall split the bellies of whips upon your backs. I hope that will contain your spreading illness. If not, then the sword is coming up right behind you. How many of my counsels have you listened to with deaf ears! How many of my rebukes have your hearts chewed upon and spit out! If you are generous with disobedient acts, I shall not be stingy with punishment! But there is no need to despair. You can still have a good life if you follow the road of righteousness and piety. |
يا حاملي ألأم أنوف ركبّت بين أعين إنّما قلّمت أظفاري عنكم ليلين مسّي إيّاكم وسألتكم صلاحكم لكم إذ كان فسادكم راجعًا عليكم. فأمّا إذا أبيتم إلّا الطعن على الأمراء والعتب على السلف والخلفاء فوﷲ لأقطعنّ بطون السياط على ظهوركم. فإن حسمت مستشري دائكم وإلّا فالسيف من ورائكم. فكم من عظة لنا قد صمّت عنها آذانكم وزجرة منّا قد مجّتها قلوبكم. ولست أبخل عليكم بالعقوبة إذا جدتم علينا بالمعصية ولا مؤيسًا لكم من المراجعة إلى الحسنى إن صرتم إلى الّتي هي أبرّ وأتقى. |
Strong speeches are attributed to Yazīd’s governor ʿUbaydallāh in the lead up to the Battle of Karbala. As he was leaving Basra for Kufa, ʿUbaydallāh gave a speech in which he echoed the language of his father Ziyād’s famed accession speech there, warning the Basrans against stepping out of line:39
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By God, a willful camel is no match for a rider like me. I am not one to be spooked by the rattling of dry water skins. I am a scourge for any who challenge me and poison for any who fight me. ⟨Qārah has given full measure to the tribe that began shooting arrows.⟩40 … Beware of opposition. By the one God, if I hear that any man among you has disobeyed [my deputy], I shall kill him, and his aide, and his friend. I shall hold the man nearby accountable for the transgression of the distant, until you toe the line and no opposer or challenger remains. I am Ziyād’s son. Out of all who have walked the earth, it is he whom I resemble, a resemblance undiluted by uncle or cousin. |
أمّا بعد فوﷲ ما تقرن بي الصعبة ولا يقعقع لي بالشنان وإنّي لنكل لمن عادانى وسمّ لمن حاربنى أنصف القارة من راماها … وإيّاكم والخلاف والإرجاف فوالّذي لا إله غيره لئن بلغني عن رجل منكم خلاف لأقتلنّه وعريفه ووليّه ولآخذنّ الأدنى بالأقصى حتّى تستمعوا لي ولا يكون فيكم مخالف ولا مشاقّ. أنا ٱبن زياد أشبهته من بين من وطئ الحصى ولم ينتزعني شبه خال ولا ٱبن عمّ. |
Arriving in Kufa, ʿUbaydallāh found that 18,000 men had pledged allegiance to Ḥusayn, at the hands of his emissary, Muslim ibn ʿAqīl, and that Hāniʾ ibn ʿUrwah, a leading Kufan chieftain, was a key supporter. Stepping up to the pulpit, ʿUbaydallāh gave a warning speech, in which he said, “I shall be a kind father to those among you who obey. Any who challenge me and disobey will taste my whip and my sword.”41 Then under ʿUbaydallāh’s orders, a Kufan noble named Kathīr ibn Shihāb instructed Muslim’s supporters to disperse, also using vocabulary from Ziyād’s speech—which appears to have resonated strongly with the Iraqis—saying the governor would “penalize the innocent for the crimes of the guilty, and the present for the crimes of those absent.”42
The Umayyad governor Khālid ibn ʿAbdallāh al-Qasrī made similar threats in the wake of an insurgency in Mecca:43
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People, you reside in the most sacred of God’s lands, which he selected from among all locations on earth for his own house. Then he decreed that his servants should perform the pilgrimage to it, whosoever has the wherewithal to do so. People, be obedient and stay with the unified community. Beware of doubt and dissent. By God, if any person is brought to me having slandered his Imam, I shall crucify him in the sacred mosque. God has placed the caliphate in a [high] station, so conform and obey. Do not whisper this and that. If the caliph commands, there is no option for you but to execute his orders. If revolutionaries come to you and set up residence in your towns, beware of granting refuge to anyone who has left the unified community. Know that if I find any one of them in any one of your homes I shall demolish it. Be careful whom you invite to stay. Cleave to the unified community and to obedience. Dissension is a great trial. |
يأيّها الناس إنكّم بأعظم بلاد الله حرمة وهي الّتي ٱختار الله من البلدان فوضع بها بيته ثمّ كتب على عباده حجّه من ٱستطاع إليه سبيلًا. أيّها الناس فعليكم بالطاعة ولزوم الجماعة وإيّاكم والشبهات فإنّي والله ما أوتي بأحد يطعن على إمامه إلّا صلبته في الحرم. إنّ الله جعل الخلافة منه بالموضع الّذي جعلها فسلّموا وأطيعوا ولا تقولوا كيت وكيت. إنّه لا رأي فيما كتب به الخليفة أو رآه إلّا إمضاؤه. وٱعلموا أنّه بلغني أنّ قومًا من أهل الخلاف يقدمون عليكم ويقيمون في بلادكم فإيّاكم أن تنزلوا أحدًا ممّن تعلمون أنه زائغ عن الجماعة فإنّي لا أجد أحدًا منهم في منزل أحد منكم إلّا هدمت منزله فٱنظروا من تنزلون في منازلكم. وعليكم بالجماعة والطاعة فإنّ الفرقة هو البلاء العظيم. |
The Umayyad caliph ʿAbd al-Malik is said to have thundered in Mecca, presumably after his governor Ḥajjāj had defeated Ibn al-Zubayr:44
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People, by God, I am not the weak caliph (he meant ʿUthmān ibn ʿAffān), or the cajoling caliph (he meant Muʿāwiyah ibn Abī Sufyān), or the feebleminded caliph (he meant Yazīd ibn Muʿāwiyah). Whosoever signals with his head thus, I’ll reply with my sword so. |
أيّها الناس إنّي والله ما أنا بالخليفة المستضعف يريد عثمان بن عفّان ولا بالخليفة المداهن يريد معاوية بن أبي سفيان ولا بالخليفة المأفون يريد يزيد بن معاوية. فمن قال برأسه كذا قلنا له بسيفنا كذا. |
In another speech, he said:45
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People, God has prescribed certain boundaries and mandated certain actions. You keep increasing in sin, and I keep increasing the punishment, until the sword has brought us together. |
أيّها الناس إنّ الله حدّ حدودًا وفرض فروضًا فما زلتم تزدادون في الذنب ونزداد في العقوبة حتّى ٱجتمعنا نحن وأنتم عند السيف. |
Ḥajjāj’s threatening speeches in Iraq are legion. Arriving in Basra as its governor, he gave a menacing speech set in in powerful imagery and parallel, rhymed phrases:46
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People—Whoever is debilitated by illness, I have the cure. Whoever expects a long road to the end, I shall make him reach it sooner. Whoever finds his head to be heavy, I shall relieve him of its weight. Whoever has lived a long life, I shall shorten the remainder. Satan shows his specter, and the ruler shows his sword. Whoever conceals diseased intent, his punishment shall be sound. Whoever is debased by his sin shall be elevated by his crucifixion. Whoever is not encompassed by well-being [in cleaving to the community], perdition will not find it hard to gather him in. Whoever is outraced by the words escaping his mouth, his body will race toward its bloody end. I give you clear warning and shall offer no further respite. I give you cautionary notice and shall offer no forgiveness. I give you strong admonition and shall offer no pardon. The cause of your corruption is the weakness of your governors. If someone wears a loose breast-halter, his manners degenerate. Determination and resolve have snatched away my whip and given me in its stead the sword. Its hilt is gripped in my hand, its scabbard is slung around my neck, and its blade shall ornament the neck of whoever disobeys me. By God, if I command one of you to use this door to leave the mosque and he uses the one next to it, I shall strike off his head. |
أيّها الناس من أعياه داؤه فعندي دواؤه ومن ٱستطال أجله فعليّ أن أعجّله ومن ثقل عليه رأسه وضعت عنه ثقله ومن ٱستطال ماضي عمره قصرت عليه باقيه. إنّ للشيطان طيفًا وللسلطان سيفًا. فمن سقمت سريرته صحّت عقوبته ومن وضعه ذنبه رفعه صلبه ومن لم تسعه العافية لم تضق عنه الهلكة ومن سبقته بادرة فمه سبق بدنه بسفك دمه. إنّي أنذر ثمّ لا أنظر وأحذّر ثم لا أعذر وأتوعّد ثمّ لا أعفو. إنمّا أفسدكم ترنيق ولاتكم ومن ٱسترخى لببه ساء أدبه. إنّ الحزم والعزم سلباني سوطي وأبدلاني به سيفي فقائمه في يدي ونجاده في عنقي وذبابه قلادة لمن عصاني. والله لا آمر أحدكم أن يخرج من باب من أبواب المسجد فيخرج من الباب الّذي يليه إلّا ضربت عنقه. |
1.4 Fiscal Policies
A few speeches in the historical record delineate fiscal policies. These generally focus on the distribution of stipends to those who were active participants in the state and fought in the conquests. They also address the matter of the caliph’s share, and the need for clean and transparent accounting. We have fleetingly encountered these issues earlier in accession speeches by ʿUmar ibn al-Khaṭṭāb and Yazīd III. The most pertinent oration in this regard is a speech attributed again to ʿUmar, in which he lays out a new system for distributing treasury money. Beginning with lines naming individuals who should be approached for information on various matters, he goes on to state that all questions regarding the treasury should be directed to him. He then declares that henceforth all stipends would be disbursed according to a scale based on early conversion to Islam, which would be set up in his new register of names (dīwān), thus privileging Arabs over later converts, many of whom were Persians. Here is the text of the speech:47
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People, whoever wishes to ask about the Qurʾan should approach Ubayy ibn Kaʿb. Whoever wishes to ask about inheritance shares should approach Zayd ibn Thābit. Whoever wishes to ask about religious practice should approach Muʿādh ibn Jabal. And whoever wishes to ask about the treasury should come to me, for God has made me its keeper and distributor. |
أيّها الناس من أراد أن يسأل عن القرآن فليأت أبيّ بن كعب ومن أراد أن يسأل عن الفرائض فليأت زيد بن ثابت ومن أراد أن يسأل عن الفقه فليأت معاذ بن جبل ومن أراد أن يسأل عن المال فليأتني فإنّ الله جعلني له خازنًا وقاسمًا. |
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First on the list to receive stipends, I place the messenger’s widows. Then the first Emigrants who were displaced from homes and property, [that is] me and my companions. Then the Allies who settled in this town earlier and who accepted Islam. Then according to the order of a man’s immigration. For those who hastened to immigrate, I shall hasten to give them stipends. For those who tarried, I shall tarry in giving them stipends; if they wish to place blame, they can blame the timing of their camel’s arrival. |
إنّي بادئ بأزواج رسول الله صلّى الله عليه وسلّم فمعطيهنّ ثمّ المهاجرين الأوّلين الّذين أخرجوا من ديارهم وأموالهم أنا وأصحابي ثمّ بالأنصار الّذين تبوّؤوا الدار والإيمان من قبلهم ثمّ من أسرع إلى الهجرة أسرع إليه العطاء ومن أبطأ عن الهجرة أبطأ عنه العطاء فلا يلومنّ رجل إلّا مناخ راحلته. |
ʿUmar’s detailed speech is an anomaly, but copious material on early fiscal policies may be found in narrative records of early practice, and in treaties and testaments. The most important precedent was the record of Muḥammad’s mode of collection and distribution in the early community, especially with regard to the universal alms levy, the “fifth” of the war booty, and land tax on the conquered territory of Khaybar. The monetary dealings of the first four historical caliphs are also considered sound precedents by Sunnis. For ʿAlī’s reign, we have an extraordinary amount of documentary material transmitted by historical and literary sources, which lay out policies curbing the reach of the state’s collection agents and urging them to fair and compassionate practice. Uways Karīm Muḥammad has a chapter on ʿAlī’s fiscal pronouncements in letters to his governors.48 In ʿAlī’s speeches, moreover, we see much urging to pay the alms levy and give generously in charity and interest-free loans. For the Umayyad period, the testament that is now called the Fiscal Rescript of ʿUmar ibn ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz is important.
1.5 Pious Counsel
Religious themes, as we have amply observed, bolstered political speeches. Injunctions to piety, invocation of prayers, and testamentary Qurʾan (and sometimes hadith) citations shored up a leader’s authority in a general fashion, and they helped him persuade the audience to accept and deploy his policies. The connection of pious counsel with the political message at hand was made through a variety of modes. Frequently orators stitched pious counsel loosely onto a polythematic oration. Examples include Abū Bakr’s speeches in Medina early in his caliphate, which disparaged material wealth and pomp,49 ʿUmar’s intonation in one of his first caliphal speeches of a series of prayers for himself to be a good caliph and a good Muslim,50 and ʿUthmān’s accession speech, which included censure of the world, along with a large number of Qurʾan quotations.51 ʿAlī’s speeches are exemplars that project the permeation of pious counsel into all aspects of life and governance. Zamakhsharī says that ʿAlī “seldom ascended the pulpit without saying at the beginning of his oration the following words [of counsel]:”52
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People, always remain conscious of God. Humans are not created in vain—you must not waste your lives in frolic. You are not given an indefinite reprieve—you must not expend your time in idle chatter. This world that you find so pleasing is no substitute for the hereafter that you find distasteful. Indeed, the fool who wins the largest share of this world falls far short of the man who wins the smallest part of the hereafter. |
أيّها الناس ٱتّقوا الله فما خلق أمرؤ عبثًا فيلهو ولا ترك سدى فيلغو وما دنياه الّتي تحسّنت له بخلف من الآخرة الّتي قبّحها سوء النظر عنده وما المغرور الّذي ظفر من الدنيا بأعلى همّته كالآخر الّذي ظفر من الآخرة بأدنى سهمته. |
In a second mode of usage, religious material was closely integrated into the oration’s political structure. Orations by ʿAlī, again, and by Khārijite leaders—such as Qaṭarī, ʿAbdallāh ibn Yaḥyā al-Ibāḍī, and Ṣāliḥ ibn Musarriḥ—mixed copious amounts of religious material with political and military matters. Similarly, the speech of ʿUtbah ibn Ghazwān contained a political message couched in a religious frame. Arriving in Iraq as ʿUmar ibn al-Khaṭṭāb’s envoy, with a mandate to cut off the Persian enemy’s supply lines, ʿUtbah rallied the Basrans with pious counsel, hadith citations, and declarations of his own and his companions’ service to Islam:53
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People, this world has turned back and informed its residents of its impending end. What remains from it is the measure of the remaining drops of water in an emptied vessel. Listen! There is no doubt that you will leave her, so make sure you leave her with the best of provisions. Listen! I have heard something wondrous from God’s messenger: ⟨A huge rock is thrown into the fire from its lip and it continues to fall for seventy years. Hell has seven doors, and the time to journey between any two doors is five hundred years. A crowded, choking hour shall soon come upon you.⟩ |
أمّا بعد فإنّ الدنيا قد تولّت حذّاء مدبرة وقد آذنت أهلها بصرم وإنّما بقي منها صبابة كصبابة الإناء يصطبّها صابّها. ألا وإنّكم مفارقوها لا محالة ففارقوها بأحسن ما يحضركم. ألا وإنّ من العجب أنّي سمعت رسول الله يقول إنّ الحجر الضخم يلقى في النار من شفيرها فيهوي فيها سبعين خريفًا ولجهنّم سبعة أبواب ما بين البابين منها مسيرة خمسمائة سنة ولتأتينّ عليها ساعة وهي كظيظ بالزحام. |
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I was with God’s messenger, the seventh of the seven [who were the first to accept Islam]. We had no food other than the serrated leaves of the balsam tree that cut the insides of our mouths. Saʿd ibn Mālik and I found a date and we split it between us, each taking half. I found a piece of cloth, and tore it into two. I used one half as a loincloth and he used the other half. And each of us is today commander over a populous town. Prophecy has never come to a community except that predestinarians have sought its invalidation. I ask God to protect me from thinking myself great, while I am lowly in others’ eyes. Indeed, you will experience other commanders after me. You will be pleased with some, and displeased with others. |
ولقد كنت مع رسول الله سابع سابعة مالنا طعام إلّا ورق البشام حتّى قرحت أشداقنا فوجدت أنا وسعد بن مالك تمرة فشققتها بيني وبينه نصفين وٱلتقطت بردة فشققتها بيني وبينه فٱتّزرت بنصفها وٱتّزر بنصفها وما منّا أحد اليوم إلّا وهو أمير على مصر من الأمصار. وإنّه لم يكن نبوّة قطّ إلّا تناسختها جبريّة. وأنا أعوذ بالله أن أكون في نفسي عظيمًا وفي أعين الناس صغيرًا. وستجرّبون الأمراء من بعدي فتعرفون وتنكرون. |
In a third mode of usage, orators frequently framed their pieces with the concept of obedience to God, sometimes with, at other times without, an associated injunction to general piety, going on to translate obedience to God into obedience to the orator himself or his party. The Khārijite Abū Ḥamzah, after the pious opening injunction “I enjoin you to be conscious of God and obey him,” went on to encourage the audience to “disobey God’s servants [the Umayyad rulers] in order to obey God, for [and what follows is a Prophetic hadith] ⟨no obedience is due to a creature of God if it means disobeying God⟩.”54 He further declaimed that he and his companions “called to God’s book and the Prophet’s practice,” and they “heard a caller [their leader, ʿAbdallāh ibn Yaḥyā al-Kindī] calling to the merciful God’s obedience and the Qurʾan’s judgment.” Toward the end of his speech, Abū Ḥamzah added, “If you, people of Medina, aid [the Umayyad caliph] Marwān and his family, God will annihilate you with a punishment directly from him or at our hands.”55
Some Umayyad orations show more unusual usages of religious material. Combining exhortations to ponder death with praise of his father’s religious deeds, the succeeding Umayyad caliph, Walīd ibn ʿAbd al-Malik, also warned the populace to obey him, or else for each person who opposed him, he would “strike off the part of his body that holds his eyes.”56 The governor of Egypt ʿUtbah ibn Abī Sufyān asked to be carried to the pulpit just before he died, and in his last speech he asked the audience to forgive him for his transgressions against them.57
1.5.1 Citation of Qurʾan and Hadith
As we have already seen in the materials cited in this chapter, Qurʾan citation was an important mode of pious counsel in political speech. Ibrahim al-Jomaih, in The Use of the Qurʾan in Political Argument: A Study of Early Islamic Parties (35–86 A.H./656–705 AD), analyzes its use in political discourse—including oration—from ʿAlī’s caliphate to the end of ʿAbd al-Malik’s. He also describes techniques of handling the Qurʾanic text, such as paraphrase and modifications of a text, to make it more appropriate to a particular situation. Some of his findings help fine-tune our discussion: The most prominent political issues expressed in Qurʾanic terms are political authority, God’s assistance, his power over events, his prescribed punishments, collective punishment versus personal responsibility, and the lawfulness or unlawfulness of shedding the blood of Muslims. Jomaih writes that Muslims used Qurʾanic allusion to imply comparisons between themselves and believers, on the one hand, and with their opponents and unbelievers, on the other. He argues that the Qurʾan provided religious sanction to political claim, and was used to secure public support, justify defeat or victory, and publicize political beliefs.
Among the Umayyads, the clearest example of Qurʾan citation in a political context is found in the addresses of Ḥajjāj. In a speech eulogizing ʿAbd al-Malik, for example, he mapped the Qurʾanic verses addressed to Muḥammad to the recent death of the Umayyad caliph: «You will die, and they will die», «Muḥammad is naught but a messenger, other messengers have preceded him. If he dies or is killed, you will turn back in your steps».58
Like Abū Ḥamzah and ʿUtbah ibn Ghazwān whose hadith citations you have just read in the previous section, Ḥajjāj also quoted Prophetic hadith in political speeches, albeit much less frequently than the Qurʾan. In an ironic use in one of his speeches addressing the Iraqis, he threw his audience’s testimonial use of hadith back in their faces:59
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Iraqis, it has come to my notice that you cite your Prophet saying, ⟨Whoever wields authority over ten Muslims will be brought to be judged with his hands fettered to his neck. Either his past justice will free him, or his injustice will carry him into the fire.⟩ By God, I prefer to be resurrected with Abū Bakr and ʿUmar in fetters than to be resurrected with you free of chains. |
يأهل العراق بلغني أنكّم تروون عن نبيكّم أنّه قال من ملك على عشر رقاب من المسلمين جيء به يوم القيامة مغلولة يداه إلى عنقه حتّى يفكّه العدل أو يوبقه الجور. وٱيم الله إنّي لأحبّ إليّ أن أحشر مع أبي بكر وعمر مغلولًا من أن أحشر معكم مطلقًا. |
2 Assorted Negotiations of Command
Sundry parleys of power discourse can be seen in two unusual sets of circumstances: Influential individuals at times debated leadership issues in clusters of speeches, and Ziyād negotiated his role as governor with the incumbent caliph, Muʿāwiyah, over the course of several private epistles and public orations.
2.1 Leadership Debates Professing the Superiority of an Individual or Group
Certain politically charged situations produced grouped speeches, which to some extent resemble contemporary speeches in parliament.60 These formal addresses by one individual then another debate the relative merits of potential successors to the tribal leadership or the Muslim caliphate. These ensemble speeches are among the few that include political speeches by individuals who were not in the seat of governmental authority. In pre-Islamic times, we see contesting “vaunts” (munāfarah or mufākharah), such as the verbal battle between two paternal cousins of the Banū ʿĀmir over leadership of their tribe.61 In the early Islamic period, one instance may be found in the clustered speeches of ʿUmar, Abū ʿUbaydah, and some of the leaders of the Allies at the Saqīfah of Banū Sāʿidah after Muḥammad’s death, which culminated in a pledge of allegiance to Abū Bakr. Another may be perceived in speeches of the members of Shūrā council—ʿAlī, ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn ʿAwf, Zubayr ibn al-ʿAwwām, Saʿd ibn Abī Waqqāṣ, and ʿUthmān (Ṭalḥah ibn ʿUbaydallāh was out of town)—after ʿUmar’s death, which ended in the succession of ʿUthmān.62 Muʿāwiyah’s proposal of Yazīd as his successor, along with the response speeches of his supporters and opponents, offers yet another case.63 Speeches are recorded by various Umayyad leaders early in the dynasty on the death of Muʿāwiyah II ibn Yazīd I in 64/684, proposing different candidates for the throne; the winner, as we know, was Marwān.64 Another category of grouped speeches professed the superiority of an individual or group, particularly in the context of a delegation arriving to see a ruler. Examples are the speeches of the pre-Islamic delegations to the Persian monarch,65 those of various tribal leaders who came to Muḥammad in Medina,66 and those of others who came to ʿUmar.67
2.2 Negotiations between a Caliph and His Governor: the Case of Ziyād ibn Abīhi
Ziyād ibn Abīhi has been mentioned several times already. He is well known as having been a strong and eloquent Umayyad governor, who consolidated that dynasty’s position in Iraq. But his route to becoming an Umayyad agent has interesting ramifications for political machinations in our period. What makes this issue particularly germane is that the milestone events of the saga of his rise were announced in public speeches and epistles. Earlier, Ziyād had been governor for ʿAlī in a province of Iran. When ʿAlī was killed, Muʿāwiyah saw in Ziyād the means to secure Iraq and attempted to win him over before Ziyād could solidify in his support for Ḥasan. Muʿāwiyah’s first attempt was a threat, to which Ziyād responded in a public speech vilifying Muʿāwiyah and his parents, Abū Sufyān and Hind. Ironically, Muʿāwiyah would later announce—and Ziyād would accept—that Abū Sufyān was Ziyād’s own father. Ziyād orated:68
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I wonder at the son of [Hind] the liver-chewer, who murdered God’s lion [the Prophet’s uncle Ḥamzah], and of [Abū Sufyān,] the root of the opposition [to the Prophet], a sly hypocrite, leader of the confederacy [against Islam], who spent his wealth trying to extinguish God’s light.69 I wonder that he writes to me with thunder and lightning, banking on an empty cloud that holds no water, which will soon be cut into shreds by the wind. What really shows me his weakness is the fact that he makes threats he is incapable of carrying out … Why should I fear him, when between him and me stands the son of God’s messenger’s daughter [Fāṭimah] and cousin [ʿAlī], with a hundred thousand warriors of the Emigrants and Allies? By God, if [Ḥasan] permits me or asks me to do so, I will show [Muʿāwiyah] the stars in the daytime and stuff mustard water up his nose. Today we talk, tomorrow we meet, and then we shall discuss and decide, God-willing. |
العجب من ٱبن آكلة الأكباد وقاتلة أسد الله ومظهر الخلاف ومسرّ النفاق ورئيس الأحزاب ومن أنفق ماله في إطفاء نور الله. كتب إليّ يرعد ويبرق عن سحابة جفل لا ماء فيها وعمّا قليل تصيرها الرياح قزعًا والّذي يدلّني على ضعفه تهدّده قبل القدرة …كيف أرهبه وبيني وبينه ٱبن بنت رسول الله وآله وٱبن ٱبن عمّه في مائة ألف من المهاجرين والأنصار. والله لو أذن لي فيه أو ندّبني إليه لأرينّه الكواكب نهارًا ولأسعطنّه ماء الخردل دونه. الكلام اليوم والجمع غدًا والمشورة بعد ذلك إن شاء الله. |
Ziyād then wrote a similarly harsh response to Muʿāwiyah. Muʿāwiyah responded by sending the Kufan chieftain Mughīrah ibn Shuʿbah to persuade him with blandishments of wealth and stature. Ziyād rejoined with a long list of requirements. Muʿāwiyah, in a handwritten letter, agreed to them all. He then invited Ziyād to Damascus, where he announced from the pulpit that Ziyād was his father Abū Sufyān’s (illegitimate) son, and thus his brother, with a claim to the nobility of the Umayyad house; he had witnesses publicly testify to Abū Sufyān’s declaration of paternity. In an about-face from his earlier speech in Kufa, Ziyād orated:70
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People, this is an affair whose beginning and end I know nothing of. But the commander of the faithful [Muʿāwiyah] has said what you just heard, and witnesses have testified to it. Praise God who raised the stature of one whom people had deemed humble, and preserved for me what they had squandered. As for ʿUbayd [Abū Sufyān], he was either a kind father or a cherished foster-parent. |
أيّها الناس هذا أمر لم أشهد أوّله ولا علم لي بآخره. وقد قال أمير المؤمنين ما بلغكم وشهدت الشهود بما سمعتم. فالحمد لله الّذي رفع منّا ما وضع الناس وحفظ منّا ما ضيّعوا. فأمّا عبيد فإنمّا هو والد مبرور أو ربيب مشكور. |
Following his induction into the Umayyad family, Ziyād returned to Iraq as Muʿāwiyah’s governor. His speeches there, and those of his son ʿUbaydallāh, who became governor later and orchestrated the Karbala massacre, have been discussed earlier in this chapter.
2.3 Oration by a Revolt Leader: the Khārijite Abū Ḥamzah al-Shārī in Medina
Political speeches by leaders of the opposition are usually set in a military context, but some lay out their bases of legitimate command without being set directly in a battle scene. The Khārijite leader Abū Ḥamzah gave a famous speech threatening the people of Medina, and laying out in detail the Khārijite view of the historical caliphate—namely, that Muḥammad was the Prophet of Islam, Abū Bakr and ʿUmar were his rightful successors and righteous caliphs, ʿUthmān had good and bad traits, ʿAlī was not righteous, the Umayyads after him stained the name of Islam, the Shiʿa were misguided in their doctrine of allegiance to the family of the Prophet, and the Khārijites were the only real Muslims, because they prayed, fasted, and gave their lives for God. The speech is lengthy, and I have translated a substantial section in an earlier article; the following excerpt is from the final portion praising the Khārijites:71
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I have heard that you criticize my companions. You say they are youths of tender age and harsh Bedouins. Woe to you, people of Medina! Were the Companions of the messenger of God, whom you have heard reports about, other than youths of tender age? … [My companions] are youths who have attained the maturity of the old, their eyes are averted from evil, their feet hold back from the path of wrongdoing, they are emaciated by worship, gaunt from night vigils. They have traded lives that will end tomorrow for souls that will never die … Alas, alas, for the loss of my brothers! May God have mercy upon their bodies! May he admit their souls into paradise! |
وقد بلغني أنّكم تنتقصون أصحابي قلتم هم شباب أحداث وأعراب جفاة. ويحكم يا أهل المدينة وهل كان أصحاب رسول الله المذكورون في الخبر إلّا شبابًا أحداثًا … شباب والله مكتهلون في شبابهم غضيضة عن الشرّ أعينهم ثقيلة عن الباطل أرجلهم أنضاء عبادة وأطلاح سهر باعوا أنفسًا تموت غدًا بأنفس لا تموت أبدًا … آه آه على فراق الإخوان. رحمة الله على تلك الأبدان وأدخل أرواحهم الجنان. |
3 Illustration of Political Speech: Oration by Ḥajjāj ibn Yūsuf al-Thaqafī upon Accession to the Governorate of Kufa
In 75/695, Ḥajjāj ibn Yūsuf al-Thaqafī arrived in Kufa as the newly appointed governor representing the Umayyad caliph in Damascus, ʿAbd al-Malik ibn Marwān, who feared the town’s population would rise up against him with the Khārijites. Ḥajjāj began his tenure with a speech of introduction, of accession. The speech is narrated widely and by a large number of early historians and litterateurs. This is the context and text, in the version of Jāḥiẓ:72
Ḥajjāj left [Medina] for Iraq as its incoming governor, in the company of twelve horsemen mounted on purebreds. He entered Kufa unexpectedly, and at a time when daylight had just spread. [The deceased governor] Bishr ibn Marwān had sent [the Umayyad commander] Muhallab [ibn Abī Ṣufrah] to fight the Ḥarūriyyah Khārijites. When Ḥajjāj—his face veiled by [the flap of] a red silk turban—suddenly appeared in the mosque, climbed its pulpit, and called out “People, gather around,” they thought he and his companions were Khārijites and drew close. When all the people had gathered, Ḥajjāj uncovered his face, and declaimed:
3.1 Text and Translation
أَنَا ٱبْنُ جَلَا وَطَـلَّاعُ الثَّـنَـايَـا DTD#2
I am morning’s child, an intrepid scaler of heights.When I doff my turban, you shall know who I am.
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Indeed, by God, I shall contain evil by its own scabbard, have it shod with its own shoe, and reward it with its like. Beware! I see heads ripe for plucking, and I am the one to gather them in. I see blood oozing in the space between turbans and beards. |
أما والله إنّي لأحتمل الشرّ بحمله وأحذوه بنعله وأجزيه بمثله. وإنّي لأرى رؤوسًا قد أينعت وحان قطافها وإنّي لصاحبها. وإنّي لأنظر إلى الدماء ترقرق بين العمائم والّلحى. |
قَدْ شَـمَّـرَتْ عَنْ سَاقِـهَا فَـشَـمِّرَا DTD#2ثم قالWar has girded its loincloth revealing its calf, so gird up, you two!
هٰذَا أَوَانُ الـشَّـدِّ فَٱشْـتَـدِّيْ زِيَـمْ DTD#2قَـدْ لَفَّـهَا الَّليْـلُ بِسَـوَّاقٍ حُـطَمْ DTD#2لَـيْـسَ بِرَاعِيْ إِبِـلٍ وَلَا غَـنَمْ DTD#2وَلَا بِـجَـزَّارٍ عَلٰى ظَـهْرِ وَضَـمْ DTD#2وقال أيضاThis is the time to race hard, so go forth, Ziyam. Night has found you sped forward by a harsh driver.
He is no camel herder, nor a shepherd, nor a butcher who dries meat on a plank.
قَـدْ لَـفَّـهَا الَّلـيْـلُ بِعَصْـلَـبِيّٖ DTD#2أَرْوَعَ خَـرَّاجٍ مِـنَ الـدَّوِيّٖ DTD#2مُهَـاجِرٍ لَـيْـسَ بِـأَعْـرَابِيّٖ DTD#2Night has found you sped on by an ʿAṣlabī warrior, a noble chieftain, one who knows how to beat the wilderness, an Emigrant, not a Bedouin.
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Iraqis—dissenters, hypocrites, and people of wicked morals! By God, my sides cannot be squeezed for freshness like a fig! I am not one to be moved by a rattling water skin! My teeth have been checked for maturity, I have been ridden and tested, and have galloped past the final post. The commander of the faithful scattered the contents of his quiver and bit down on his arrow shafts. In me he found the one with the strongest wood and the hardest column. He shot me in your direction, for you have long been quick to sedition, lying in the bed of error, and walking the path of sin. |
إنّي والله يا أهل العراق ومعدن الشقاق والنفاق ومساوىء الأخلاق ما أغمز تغماز التين ولا يقعقع لي بالشنان. ولقد فررت عن ذكاء وفتّشت عن تجربة وجريت من الغاية. إنّ أمير المؤمنين كبّ كنانته ثمّ عجم عيدانها فوجدني أمرّها عودًا وأصلبها عمودًا فوجّهني إليكم فإنّكم طالما أوضعتم في الفتن وٱضطجعتم في مراقد الضلال وسننتم سنن الغيّ. |
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By God, I shall skin you like a rod, strike you like a flint, wrap you like a salamah tree, and beat you like a stray camel. You are like the people of a town «that was protected and at ease, abundant in sustenance, who recompensed God’s favors with ingratitude; because of their actions, God clothed them in hunger and fear.»73 |
أما والله لألحونّكم لحو العصا ولأعصبنّكم عصب السلمة ولأضربنّكم ضرب غرائب الإبل. فإنّكم لكأهل قرية ﴿ كَانَتْ آمِنَةً مُّطْمَئِنَّةً يَأْتِيهَا رِزْقُهَا رَغَداً مِّن كُلِّ مَكَانٍ فَكَفَرَتْ بِأَنْعُمِ ٱللَّهِ فَأَذَاقَهَا ٱللَّهُ لِبَاسَ ٱلْجُوعِ وَٱلْخَوْفِ بِمَا كَانُواْ يَصْنَعُونَ﴾. |
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Beware, for I do not promise without carrying out, resolve without following through, or measure cloth without cutting. Beware my wrath! Be wary of assemblies, of speaking this and that, of saying “What do you think?” and “Where do you stand?” By God, you shall keep on the straight path, or I shall bequeath to each man among you some preoccupation in his body. |
إنّي والله لا أعد إلّا وفيت ولا أهمّ إلّا أمضيت ولا أخلق إلّا فريت. فإيّاي وهذه الجماعات وقال وقيل وما تقول وفيم أنتم وذاك. أما والله لتستقيمنّ على طريق الحقّ أو لأدعنّ لكلّ رجل منكم شغلًا في جسده. |
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If I find three days from now any man who has not joined up with Muhallab’s troops, I shall spill his blood and seize his property. |
من وجدت بعد ثالثة من بعث المهلّب سفكت دمه وٱنتهبت ماله. |
Ṭabarī in his report of Ḥajjāj’s arrival in Kufa also narrates the events following the speech:
[Ḥajjāj] then called his policemen and said to them, “Make sure all the men join up with Muhallab, and bring me the vouchers of their arrival. Do not close the gates to the bridge night or day until the [three] days are up.”
3.2 Analysis
This is an accession speech by an Umayyad governor taking up his post in Kufa. Set in the context of intense, ongoing conflict between the ruling Umayyads in Syria and their pro-ʿAlid Iraqi subjects, it showcases the cutting verbiage of an authority wary of an unruly populace and ready to wield the sword against them. There is nothing of other governmental policies, fiscal issues, law-and-order related matters, or softer aspects of administration, and this is true of numerous other Umayyad governors’ speeches as well. The focus is solely on control and intimidation. Yet, when viewed from the safe distance of fourteen hundred years, the speech, with its stirring imagery, strong language, and rhythmic cadence, is harshly beautiful. Even among the sizeable set of severe and articulate Umayyad governors, Ḥajjāj stands out as unforgivingly ruthless and exceptionally eloquent.
The speech opens with Ḥajjāj reciting a testamentary verse of poetry warning his audience of his tough leadership skills, by the early poet Suḥaym ibn Wathīl al-Riyāḥī, evoking the accumulated muscle of legendary Arabian valor and strength, “I am morning’s child, an intrepid scaler of heights. When I doff my turban, you shall know who I am.”74 He then expands on the allusion in the verse by spelling out his plans for Kufa: “Indeed, by God, I shall contain evil by its own scabbard, have it shod with its own shoe, and reward it with its like. Beware! I see heads ripe for plucking, and I am the one to gather them in. I see blood oozing in the space between your turbans and beards.” He continues with the citation of several more verses that make the same point, by three other early poets: one by Rashīd ibn Ramīḍ al-Riyāḥī75 and two whose attribution I have not been able to locate. As we have seen, citing poetry to bolster one’s argument was common practice. Ḥajjāj—who as a young man was a schoolmaster in Ṭāʾif—was given to copious quotation of poetry.
Following the punishing verses of poetry, Ḥajjāj tweaks the opening line of customary address to ram home his disdain for his subjects even further, characterizing them notoriously for posterity as: “Iraqis—dissenters, hypocrites, and people of wicked morals!” (يا أهل العراق ومعدن الشقاق والنفاق ومساوىء الأخلاق). Rhymed, parallel, and pithy, the memorably excoriating line became as famous in Arabic oration as the opening line of Imruʾ al-Qays’s Muʿallaqah in Arabic poetry. It also became a characteristic of Ḥajjāj’s relationship with his Iraqi subjects. Ḥajjāj would go on to use the same opening line again, time after time,76 to underline his views of the Iraqis and to highlight his power over them—for they had to stay quiet and listen to his insults over and over. Twenty years later, another Umayyad governor would echo these sentiments: in a speech cited earlier in this chapter, ʿUthmān ibn Ḥayyān al-Murrī warned the Medinans against colluding with the Iraqis, whom he characterized with the same Ḥajjājian line.77
Using oaths and metaphors, Ḥajjāj goes on to declare that he is an experienced leader: “By God, my sides cannot be squeezed for freshness like a fig! I am not one to be moved by a rattling water skin! My teeth have been checked for maturity, I have been ridden and tested, and have galloped past the final post.” The archaic phrase “I am not one to be moved by a rattling water skin!” (لا يقعقع لي بالشنان) is also used by another Umayyad governor, also from Ḥajjāj’s tribe of Thaqīf, Yūsuf ibn ʿUmar, addressing the Iraqis with similar threats when he had killed Zayd ibn ʿAlī in 122/740.78 Ḥajjāj goes on to announce that the caliph ʿAbd al-Malik has chosen him for this job precisely because he is an iron-willed taskmaster: “The commander of the faithful scattered the contents of his quiver and bit down on his arrow shafts. In me he found the one with the strongest wood and the hardest column. He shot me in your direction …”
Next, Ḥajjāj reiterates his opening threats in additional graphic images of Arabian life, promising vicious retribution, laced with oaths and the emphatic verbal suffixes -nna: “By God, I shall skin you like a rod, strike you like a flint, wrap you like a salamah tree, and beat you like a stray camel.” Using a Qurʾanic verse to give religious sanction to his actions, he says, “You are like [the people of] a town «that was protected and at ease, abundant in sustenance, who recompensed God’s favors with ingratitude; because of their actions, God clothed them in hunger and fear.»”79 With further warnings both in plain assertions and metaphorical pronouncements, he warns them, “Beware, for I do not promise without carrying out, resolve without following through, or measure cloth without cutting. Beware my wrath! Be wary of assemblies, of speaking this and that, of saying ‘What do you think?’ and ‘Where do you stand?’ By God, you shall keep on the straight path, or I shall bequeath to each man among you some preoccupation in his body.”
The final segment wraps up the threats with an immediate command—also spiked with dire warnings of death and destruction—to join with the troops fighting the Khārijites; in Ibn ʿAbd Rabbih’s version, the draft instructions are attributed directly to the caliph in Damascus: “The commander of the faithful has commanded me to give you your pay, and to send you to battle your enemy [the Azraqī Khārijites] under the command of Muhallab ibn Abī Ṣufrah. I swear by God that if I find a man who, after taking his pay, has stayed behind three days, I shall spill his blood, seize his property, and demolish his house.”
Ḥajjāj’s reputation had preceded him. The speech he gave in Kufa and the actions he took thereafter had been anticipated by at least one Kufan. Just before Ḥajjāj’s arrival, Ghaḍbān ibn al-Qabaʿtharā80 orated, “Iraqis, Kufans, ʿAbd al-Malik has appointed over you a man who will not requite in kind those who do good, nor forgive those who transgress—he is the black tyrant Ḥajjāj.” Calling Ḥajjāj “fiendishly wicked” (khabīth), Ghaḍbān went on to advise his fellow Kufans to kill him before he had a chance to “ascend their pulpit, sit on their throne, and take up residence in the halls of the governor’s palace.” The speech emphasizes the importance of the pledge of allegiance, for he goes on to say that killing Ḥajjāj after he assumed command would not be possible, since that would count as treachery. The Kufans did not heed Ghaḍbān, and decided to wait and see what Ḥajjāj would do. When Ḥajjāj arrived in Kufa and learned of Ghaḍbān’s speech, he ordered him imprisoned for three years.
Ḥajjāj gave a host of other speeches in the same threatening vein, some of which have been cited earlier in this chapter. Yet others were spoken in the context of revolts and military conflicts, the longest running of them being the uprising of ʿAbdallāh ibn al-Zubayr from 61/680 to 73/692.81 In contrast, he also delivered a multitude of pious-counsel and Friday sermons advocating disengagement from this world and preparing for the hereafter.82 As mentioned earlier, Ḥajjāj did not escape strong criticism for his hypocrisy. A couple of years after he died, Ibn Abī Burdah ibn Abī Mūsā l-Ashʿarī declaimed saltily to the Umayyad caliph Sulaymān ibn ʿAbd al-Malik—whose exclusion from the caliphate Ḥajjāj had supported, and accordingly no love was lost between the two of them—that “God’s enemy Ḥajjāj adorned himself like a whore, ascending the pulpit and spouting the discourse of the pious, but when he descended the pulpit his acts were the acts of Pharaoh, and he was more comfortable spouting lies than the antichrist.”83
4 Concluding Remarks
As we have seen, the political speech is a cornerstone of early Arabic oration. Sharing features of style, structure, and theme with related categories of speechmaking, it is set apart by its chiefly political context. The succession and accession of caliphs and governors provide a primary setting. Declaration of authority forms the chief subject. Other themes include maintenance of law and order, fiscal policies, anti-corruption practices, and administrative procedures. Most political speeches are by incumbent and incoming caliphs and governors. Political speeches by anti-establishment leaders more often than not contain a distinctly military tone, and those were discussed in the Battle Oration chapter. However, in the context of group deliberations regarding succession, these speeches are dominated by political themes. In general, and like other categories of oration, the political speech is reinforced with religious themes and peppered with pious counsel; most political speeches of the time are in fact religio-political.
For an analysis of the use of oratory as an instrument of power in early American history, see, e.g., Gustafson, Eloquence Is Power.
The classical sources do not use a particular term to classify political speeches. Modern academic Arabic renders it as khuṭbat al-siyāsah, or al-khuṭbah al-siyāsiyyah.
Ibn Mājah, Ibn Ḥanbal, Tirmidhī, and Bayhaqī (from listing in App. § 90.19). See the assessment of this sermon by the Muʿtazilites Iskāfī (210–218) and ʿAbd al-Jabbār (20.2:125–126), who argue for its indicating ʿAlī’s superiority, and say it means that he was someone whom all should befriend, and they argue against both the Shiʿite and the non-tafḍīlī Sunni interpretations. They also cite ʿUmar’s felicitation to ʿAlī at this time, saying “You have become my mawlā and the mawlā of all believing men and women.” The Sunnis interpret the word “mawlā” variously, including “relative,” and “patron.”
Nuʿmān, Sharḥ al-akhbār, 1:99, also cited on 1:104, 106. See other Twelver and Ismāʿīlī source references in App. § 90.20. The Shiʿa understand the word “mawlā” used by the Prophet, to mean “master,” in an echo of the Qurʿanic verse, “God is the master (mawlā) of the believers, while the unbelievers have no master” ﴿ذَٰلِكَ بِأَنَّ اللَّهَ مَوْلَى الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا وَأَنَّ الْكَافِرِينَ لَا مَوْلَىٰ لَهُمْ﴾ (Q Muḥammad 47:11).
Q Aḥzāb 33:6.
The lines in parentheses are not included in Nuʿmān’s first report in the Sharḥ al-akhbār (1:99), but are included in another, similar report that he cites a few pages later (1:104).
ʿAlī ibn Muḥammad, 2:113; text of oration 2:112–113.
See ʿUmar’s comments on Abū Bakr’s succession, also in an oration: App. § 140.12.
Ṭabarī, Tārīkh, 3:429; Ibn Aʿtham, 1:121–123; Ibn ʿAbd Rabbih, 4:253.
Nuʿmān, Sharḥ al-akhbār, 2:443, 447–449; Idrīs, 3:483.
App. § 84.11.
Ibn Qutaybah, Imāmah, 1:188–214; Ibn Qutaybah, Faḍl, 146–147; Ibn ʿAbd Rabbih, 4:344–349; (Ṣafwat, 2:236–262).
App. § 15.3.
App. § 140.2.
App. § 140.6.
App. § 140.15.
App. § 146.3.
App. § 31.3, in Raḍī’s version, and it includes a further section urging piety.
App. § 31.3, in Jāḥiẓ’s version, narrated from the Basran Abū ʿUbaydah Maʿmar ibn al-Muthannā, on the authority of the Shiʿi Imam Jaʿfar al-Ṣādiq; reported also by Ibn Abī l-Ḥadīd, 1:276. It is interesting that the Shiʿi Raḍī does not include this section, but the Sunni Jāḥiẓ does. For a summary and discussion of the sermon’s themes and context, see Madelung, 150–151.
App. § 149.1.
App. § 139.2.
Ibn al-Jawzī, Sīrah; 227.
Hawting, The First Dynasty of Islam, 93.
Hawting, “Yazīd (III) b. al-Walīd (I),” EI2.
App. § 158.1.
App. § 80.1.
App. § 119.1.
App. § 104.1.
App. § 88.1.
App. § 166.5.
Saʿd and Saʿīd were the sons of Ḍabbah ibn Udd who left home in search of their father’s camels. Saʿd found them and brought them back, but Saʿīd was killed. See etiology of this proverb in Ibn Manẓūr, s.v. “SʿD”; Ṣafwat 2:272, n. § 2.
Ṭabarī, Tārīkh, 5:222.
App. § 51.3.
App. § 147.1.
App. § 138.4.
Ong, 43–44: “Many, if not all, oral or residually oral cultures strike literates as extraordinarily agonistic in their verbal performance and indeed in their lifestyle. Writing fosters abstractions that disengage knowledge from the arena where human beings struggle with one another. It separates the knower from the known. By keeping knowledge embedded in the human lifeworld, orality situates knowledge within a context of struggle.”
App. § 144.1.
App. § 144.2.
App. § 138.3.
Proverb, see Mufaḍḍal, Amthāl, 85, § 92.
(فأنا لمحسنكم ومطيعكم كالوالد البرّ وسوطي وسيفى على من ترك أمرى وخالف عهدي): App. § 138.2.
(يأخذ البريء بالسقيم والشاهد بالغائب): App. § 71.1.
App. § 72.1.
App. § 8.3. The interjections are from the chronicler.
App. § 8.5.
App. § 51.5.
App. § 140.4.
Muḥammad, Muʿjam, 271–279.
App. § 15.5.
App. § 140.5.
App. § 146.2, § 146.3.
App. § 31.5.
App. § 145.1.
Quḍāʿī, Shihāb, § 6.34.
App. § 18.4.
App. § 149.1.
App. § 144.4.
App. § 51.11: Verses cited are Q Zumar 39:30 ﴾ إِنَّكَ مَيِّتٌ وَإِنَّهُمْ مَّيِّتُونَ ﴿ and Āl ʿImrān 3:144 ﴾ وَمَا مُحَمَّدٌ إِلاَّ رَسُولٌ قَدْ خَلَتْ مِن قَبْلِهِ ٱلرُّسُلُ أَفإِنْ مَّاتَ أَوْ قُتِلَ ٱنْقَلَبْتُمْ عَلَىٰ أَعْقَابِكُمْ وَمَن يَنقَلِبْ عَلَىٰ عَقِبَيْهِ ﴿. Ḥajjāj’s Qurʾan citations are analyzed by Jomaih, 242–248.
App. § 51.10.
I thank Jocelyn Sharlet for this observation.
App. § 24.1.
App. § 11.1.
App. § 84.11.
App. § 110.1, § 27.1.
App. § 100.1.
App. § 143.1, § 135.1.
Ṭabarī, Tārīkh, 4:75; Nuwayrī, 7:239–240; (Ṣafwat 1:449–452).
App. § 166.3. Muʿāwiyah’s exchanges with Ziyād are recorded in several sources, including Ibn Aʿtham, 4:298–302; and Thaqafī, 2:646–652, 660.
Muʿāwiyah’s mother was Hind, who promised a man she would sleep with him if he killed the Prophet’s uncle Ḥamzah at the Battle of Uḥud. The report says the man hid and struck Ḥamzah from behind. Hind then cut open Ḥamzah’s belly and chewed on his liver (Ṭabarī, Tārīkh, 2:502, 524–525; Idrīs, 1:218, 225–229). Muʿāwiyah’s father was Abū Sufyān, who had been the leader of the Meccan confederacy against Muḥammad. He accepted Islam after Muḥammad’s conquest of Mecca, when the Meccans were compelled to offer allegiance.
App. § 166.4.
App. § 18.3. Trans. T. Qutbuddin, “Khuṭba,” 259–264.
App. § 51.3.
Q Naḥl 16:112.
The verse is the opening line of Aṣmaʿī, poem § 1, 17.
See etymology in Jāḥiẓ, Bayān, 2:308, n. 4.
App. § 51.4, § 51.12, § 51.13.
App. § 147.1.
App. § 159.1.
Q Naḥl 16:112.
App. § 48.1.
Ṭabarī, Tārīkh, 5:482–626 (end), 6:1–193; (Ṣafwat, 2:287–302).
App. § 51.14, § 51.15, § 51.16, § 51.17, § 51.18.
Jāḥiẓ, Bayān, 1:397; (Ṣafwat, 2:417).