At the turn from the 15th to the 16th century, the Mamluk Sultanate experienced a period of succession conflicts when a number of Sultans came to power in rapid sequence. With the ascension of Qānṣawh al-Ghawrī to the throne in 1501, the history of the Sultanate entered into a final phase of relative tranquility. Nevertheless, the previous crisis had proven that the person of the ruler was a highly contingent element in the late Mamluk political landscape. This article will examine (...) how the panegyrist ʿAbd al-Bāsiṭ al-Malaṭī justified Qānṣawh al-Ghawrī’s reign in the light of the previous succession crisis in his unedited work ‚al-Majmūʿ al-bustān al-nawrī li-ḥaḍrat mawlānā al-Sulṭān al-Ghawrī‘. After preliminary theoretical remarks and a contextualization of the author and his work it will be shown that in the text under study, al-Malaṭī mainly described Sultan al-Ghawrī’s deeds and achievements. Accordingly, al-Malaṭī addressed the man-made experience of contingency during the succession crisis by focusing on the intra-mundane actions of the ruler he praised. He thus stepped out of the common tradition of Arabic panegyric works in the later Islamic middle period which usually emphasized the ruler’s immutable moral qualities and virtues and paid much less attention to his individual actions. Moreover, al-Malaṭī’s work is notably devoid of any attempts to legitimize al-Ghawrī’s rule on religious grounds. (shrink)

Intense debates about who will lead the Muslims after the death of the Prophet Muḥammad (PBUH) occurred among the Aṣḥāb (companions of the Prophet Muhammad). A group of Aṣḥāb claimed that the caliphate was the right of Ḥaḍrat ʿAlī and his descendants. This movement, which emerged as political advocacy supporting Ḥaḍrat ʿAlī (d. 40/661) and his children, took on a sectarian identity called Shīʿa by time, was divided into groups, and then spread to different places in the Islamic World. One (...) of these groups is the Ismāʿīliyya which took its name from Ismāʿīl b. Ḏj̲aʿfar al-Ṣādiḳ (d. 138/755). Ismāʿīliyya had believed that the Umayyads and the ʿAbbāsids usurped the right of Ḥaḍrat ʿAlī and his descendants; therefore, they struggled against these dynasties secretly under the leadership of ʿUbayd Allāh al-Mahdī (d. 322/934) and by means of callers. After establishing their first state Fāṭimids in the North Africa with the Berbers, the Ismāʿīlīs carried out their activities openly and seized a region from Barqa to the Atlantic Ocean. The Fāṭimid State based on sectarianism aimed to follow the Shīʿa belief rather than controlling an area since its establishment. In this respect, the Fāṭimids, who differed from the ʿAbbāsid and Umayyad states, made great efforts to capture Egypt and Andalus by increasing their propagandas through callers (dāī) from the end of the third century. Because of this effort and successful policy of al-Muʿizz li-Din Allah the third, they conquered Egypt. The callers played a key role in the Egypt. As the Sunni-Maliki sect had taken root in Andalusia, Ismāʿīlīs could not achieve the same success, and a limited number of people embraced their doctrine. However, they managed to direct some famous intellectual and literary men to their side. Undoubtedly, one of the most important achievements was Ibn Hāniʾ al-Andalusi (d. 362/973). Ibn Hāniʾ, who had to leave Andalusia, as he was a Shiite, went to Maghrib and came under the patronage of the governors of Masila, which depended on Fāṭimid. His poems about governors spread his fame and made him known until al-Qayrawan, the capital of Fāṭimid. One of the methods used by many of the caliphs and amīrs (ruler) to consolidate their rule within the borders of the state and to spread their influence abroad since the Jahiliyya (pre-Islamic period) is that they included poets who praised themselves and the state policies, in other words, made their advertisements in the palace. Ibn Hāniʾ was one of the poets Caliph Muʿizz invited to his palace in al-Mansuriyya as soon as he heard of the poet’s fame. Ibn Hāniʾ came to the presence of Caliph in 350/962 and named as al-Mutanabbī of Maghreb as he became famous than poets such as Abu'l-Qasim al-Fazari and ʿAlī b. Muḥammad al-Iyadi. In time, Ibn Hāniʾ who became one of the sincerest friends of Muʿizz, used all his creative potential to defend the Caliph and deliver the views of Ismāʿīliyya in return for the value and generosity he received from the Caliph. Thus, the poet, who became the most powerful defender and propagandist of the Fāṭimids who pursued an expansionist policy in the East and the West, introduced an innovation to his style of praise contrary to his classical style. Accordingly, he gained great reputation thanks to his poems that praised the Fāṭimid Imāms, especially Muʿizz using expressions attributing him superhuman properties. Naturally, the successful politics followed by Muizz and the doctrine and terms of the Shiite-Ismāʿīliyya party, which the poet advocated, had a distinct reflection on his odes. Moreover, the issue of Ahl al-Bayt (the family of the Prophet Muḥammad) and injustices they suffered, affected the poet’s feelings deeply, and he did not hesitated to express these injustices in his poems without worrying about any danger. These odes reported to be the first written documents including information about the Fāṭimid creed and the traits, which Fāṭimid Imāms were supposed to have, are important resources for researchers. Fāṭimids believed that the imām was innocent, knew everything, and he would intercede his friends on Judgment Day. They even saw him as superhuman and attributed holiness and glory to him that would make him the spirit of God. Furthermore, they regarded that the imām was the reason of life. Similar themes were very common in Ibn Hāniʾ’s poetry. His poems went beyond the borders of the states in the North Africa, spread to a large region extending from Andalusia to Baghdad, and provided recognition of the doctrine of Ismāʿīliyya. This study consists of an introduction and two parts. The introduction part includes brief information about the history of the Shīʿa-Ismāʿīliyya and Ibn Hāniʾ’s life and poetry. The other parts discuss reflections of the Shīʿa-Ismāʿīliyya belief in the poet’s odes and analyses of these poems. Finally, poems having historical and political value related to Karbala, which has profound effects on Shiite literature, are analyzed. (shrink)

Ümummilli lider Heydər Əliyevin milli və mədəni irsimizin qorunması uğrundakı unudulmaz xidmətləri maddi və mənəvi mədəniyyətimizin yaşadılmasına xidmət etmişdir. Tarixi şəxsiyyətlərin şərəfinə ucaldılmış abidələr, tarixi və mədəni abidələrin qorunması, beynəlxalq səviyyədə tanınan şəxsiyyətlərin yubileylərinə həsr edilən tədbirlərin qeyd edilməsi, deportasiya və soyqırımlar haqqında sərəncamların verilməsi və bir sıra digər vacib hadisələr bu dahi şəxsin adı ilə əlaqədardır. Heydər Əliyevin elmi əsaslara istinadən söylədiyi qənaətlər sayəsində həm Sovetlər dövründə, həm də müstəqillik illərində dünya ictimaiyyətinə Azərbaycan xalqının qədim mədəniyyəti haqqında məlumatlar təqdim (...) edilmişdir. Bununla yanaşı orta əsrlərə dair tarixi, dini abidələrin, eləcə də yazılı mənbələr və tarixi şəxsiyyətlərə aid məlumatların üzə çıxarılması və qorunması da unudulmaz liderin başlıca vəzifələri sırasında idi. (shrink)