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" THE EMERGENCE OF THE 'THUGHUR': "
Michael David Bonner
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Latin Dissertation
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| Language of Document
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English
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| Record Number
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1112786
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| Doc. No
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TLpq303613637
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| Main Entry
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Michael David Bonner
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| Title & Author
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THE EMERGENCE OF THE 'THUGHUR':\ Michael David Bonner
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| College
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Princeton University
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| Date
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1987
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| student score
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1987
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| Degree
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Ph.D.
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| Page No
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308-308 p.
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| Abstract
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This dissertation deals with the Arab-Byzantine frontier district, which at some time became known as the thughur, from the beginning of 'Abbasid rule until the death of Harun al-Rashid (132-193/750-809). It emphasizes the place of the thughur within Islamic society and government. In many of the sources there is a tendency to idealization of matters having to do with the thughur and with jihad. But in much of this material we may detect an underlying conflict over the role of the Caliph in Islamic society. Chapter I provides an introduction. It also presents the Arab geographers' accounts of the thughur, and examines the peculiarly fixed, anachronistic picture which prevailed of the region in later generations. Chapter II deals with the reigns of the first two 'Abbasid caliphs, Abu'l-'Abbas (al-Saffah) and Abu Ja 'far (al-Mansur), and is largely devoted to problems of chronology. It emerges, however, that al-Mansur sought to maintain a balance in the area by rotating the great warlords through the thughur. He succeeded in this partly because of the loyalty of military men who had previously been "companions" of Marwan II in the "Umayyad North." Chapter III covers the reigns of al-Mahdi, al-Hadi, and Harun al-Rashid. Al-Mahdi's interest in jihad resulted in a stronger caliphal presence in the thughur. The central event of this chapter is the creation of the district of al-'Awasim. An old numismatic puzzle, that of Harunabad and al-Haruniyya, is solved. Chapter IV takes up the problem of ju'l or substitutes for the jihad. Ju'l breaks down into two varieties: payments made by individuals to one another, and payments involving groups. This latter sense seems often to cover soldiers' wages paid by the government. This rather difficult question of ju'l is pursued through poetry, tafsir, law books and finally, the hadith. Chapter V, which is based on biographical sources, deals with the fairly numerous men of piety and learning who went to live in the thughur at this time. Three men of the first generation of thaghri scholars are singled out as exemplifying certain trends. The "schools" of the region are then mapped out, according to locality, from this time until the Byzantine reconquest. (Abstract shortened with permission of author.)
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Middle Eastern history
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Social sciences
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