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- Title
The Letter and Its Response: The Exchanges between the Qara Qoyunlu and the Mamluk Sultan: MS Arabe 4440 (BnF, Paris).
- Authors
Dekkiche, Malika
- Abstract
In their manuals, chancery scribes often discussed the differences between initial letters (ibtidāʾ) and their responses (ǧawāb), yet one question persists: which one was of higher status? Basing their reflections on literary criteria, secretaries were divided. Most of them granted the response more value, since it required greater skill and literary dexterity from its author. While the mubtadiʾ had the entire choice of terms, structure, and prolixity, the muǧīb was challenged by the letter's wording. Others, however, considered both tasks equal in difficulty, since all secretaries were required to act as both mubtadiʾ and muǧīb. Despite this debate among secretaries, initial letters and responses were different in nature and require distinction. In this article, I discuss the issue of letter writing (initial and response) within the Mamluk chancery of Cairo. I base this paper on the study of a sample of letters exchanged between the Qara Qoyunlu governor Pīr Būdāq (d. 870/1466) and the Mamluk sultan Īnāl (r. 857/1453-865/1461) as preserved in an unpublished munšaʾa (MS Arabe 4440, BnF) and containing both the initial letters sent by Pīr Būdāq and the responses produced by the Egyptian chancery. After briefly presenting the letters and the context of their reception, I focus on their style and the different elements of their structure, going on to compare them to the rules of letter-writing as described in the chancery manuals of the period (i.e. theme, quotation, status). Finally, I address the nature of the Mamluk responses in the framework of the aforementioned debate.
- Subjects
MAMELUKE architecture; LETTER writing; DIPLOMATICS; EQUITY (Law); TECHNICAL specifications; SECRETARIES in literature; KARA Koyunlu (Turkic people)
- Publication
Arabica, 2016, Vol 63, Issue 6, p579
- ISSN
0570-5398
- Publication type
Article
- DOI
10.1163/15700585-12341413