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Annales Islamologiques no 41 (June 2007)

A special issue of Annales Islamologiqueswill be edited in June 2007 dedicated to The Diplomatic Conventions in the Islamic World. The researchers are kindly invited to submit their proposalsfor articles (title and maximum one page summary) by e-mail until June 15^th, 2006. They will be informed before June 30^th, 2006 whether their paper is accepted (or not). The completed articles should be written in French, Arabic or English and have to be transmitted to the coordinator October 1^st, 2006 at the latest. A committee, should the occasion arise, will ask the authors for modifications.

The Diplomatic Conventions in the Islamic World:

To share the Umma

(1258-1517)

After the Mongol conquest, countries of ancient Islamic traditions are suddenly confronted with new social codes. They have to submit to an unknown power and its own non-islamic symbolical structures. For the first time, a non-Islamic authority rules over numerous Muslim populations. Dâr al-islâmis about to turnDâr al-harb.

However, in a short time, new rulers convert to Islâm, as well as their courts and their peoples, which arrived with the Turkic-Mongol armies. At the xvth c., only 150 years after the gengiskhanid conquest, the territories ruled by the Mongols returned to Dâr al-islâmand, moreover, new converted peoples start playing an active role in the revival of the Islamic culture and its diffusion. A great majority of those populations come from east and south-east Asia: Turkic- and Mongol-speaking natives from Baikal Lake, as well as Malaysian, Indonesian and Indian peoples. At the beginning of the xvith, Islam has reached a new dimension, becoming an uncontested world reality. Contacts between new and ancient Muslim populations are increasing. Peoples’ movements for commercial, religious or political matters, lead to exchanges of knowledge and practices. Historians agree to recognize the fundamental role of Sufism and merchants organizations in propagation of faith, Arabic language and the traditions of classical Islam. The existence of a supra-linguistic and over-state culture, as a complex interlacing between Malaysia, China, Iran, Yemen, Bengal, Anatolia, North-Africa…is also attested in historiographical literature.

On the one hand, we can perceive those mutual influences through sources, on the other hand, we cannot deny the extreme diversity of cultural, administrative and political centers in the islamic world between the xiiith c. and the xvith c.

So, what could be the reality of these relationships between the states, which are united only by the idea of being a part of the same community of faith? Could we perceive, through the variety of practices and discourses, the transcendence of the Umma?

To develop this matter, we suggest to start with a common discussion on the communication between the states of the Dâr al-islâm and their diplomatic conventions which allow such exchanges. Our interest is to survey the numerous kinds of sources: manuscripts (treaties, commercial concessions, diplomatic letters…); coins and archaeological material (reception places, gifts of honor, ceremonial objects…).

Even if we find specific studies on administrative or diplomatic documents, historic researches suffer from a lack of coordination. For that reason, the project intends to put together commonresearches and results. Our purpose is to collect works on Persian, Malaysian, Arabic, Turkic and Turkish manuscripts in order to make a synthesis. We must particularly gather all documents written on rotulus/volumen (to distinguish from codex), which were the typical form of the diplomatic letter. Our only way to overcome the gaps, as a result of vanished archives, is to collect and confront those types of documents. This will lead us to draw some valuable historic conclusions and to establish a helpful synthesis based on the archives contents.

Furthermore, we choose to focus our research on a period, which is, too often, neglected, being considered as a transition between two ages: the end of the “classical Islamic times”with the rise of the Seldjukid and crusader“threats” (from xith c. until the Mongol conquest of Baghdad) and the time of the Ottoman hegemony (from the conquest of the Mamluk Sultanate in 1516-1517).

The centuries in between, which means the period from the Mongol invasion to the end of the Mamluk power, can square in a very interesting way with the thematic we intend to develop. At that time, Muslim populations are, in majority, not Arabic. Languages and cultures in the Ummahave never been so diverse. Dâr al-islâmhas grown considerably and the ways of communication are extending from China to Spain. Furthermore, the overlapping of Dâr al-harb/Dâr al-islâm, which is then in a decisive process, will have deep consequences upon Muslim society and will influence the discourse of the intellectualelites.

A reflection on “diplomatic conventions”can be a way to understand situations of tension, conciliation or political negotiations. It permits us to discuss specific topics about chancery’s practices and techniques like the decisive question of the administrative languages. We will have to identify why and when the Arabic language is used, what have been the standard diplomatic expressions and the most recurrent coranic formulas. We will deal with written languages (scriptures, styles, alphabets) as well as spoken languages, with original texts and translations. Did ambassadors have to carry on two messages: a written one and a spoken one? In that case, did they need translators? How can we perceive the oral character of some diplomatic matters? Do we have sources on that topic?

All these subjects lead to one very important question: the idea of “authenticity” which is a fundamental point in diplomacy, especially during wars.

What were themain factors they took into account to authenticate a letter or an embassy? To answer this question, we have to study papers, inks, seals…their supply, their making and, a fortiori, the revolutionary use of watermarks. This explains the necessity to confront our sources and work together to establish a common corpus.

This subject concerns also some larger fields, like the question of social consensusat a state level. Can we perceive an “Islamic reality” through the multiplicity of practices and discourses of the diplomatic exchanges? What can be the foundations of a war decision between two Muslim States? Can we find “diplomatic patterns” through diplomatic practices? How to recognize at that time the existence of a real political thought in foreign affairs? What was the role of Arabic language in public manifestations? We must discuss the questionable existence of a standard diplomatic language (sort of lingua franca) between Muslim States. Do we have to consider this, or most probably, these “inter-languages” like “mixed idioms” or like “autonomous linguistic units”? These languages, which are not mother tongues and seem to belong to every one, are mostly used by travelers and expatriated communities. Can they become a source of identity between Muslims of different States, countries and cultures?

To the idea of a decadent and suffering Umma, held by some scholars focused on the so-called “golden age of Islam”, we prefer the hypothesis of a “sharing Umma”. Difference of cultures, like a mirror of identity, induces crystallizing and liberating process in societies. By studying the “diplomatic conventions” we will learn more about the link, which joins and reconciles two positions within Dâr al-Islâm: to confront tensions and open conflicts, but also to find a common Islamic discourse, which can afford an Umma stretched from Grenada to Malacca.