Heirs to the Caliphate: Continuity, territoriality and gender in the accession of the late Umayyads and early Abbasids.

哈里发的继承人：晚期倭马亚王朝和早期阿巴斯王朝的继承、领土性和性别。

• 批准号: 2285970
• 金额: --
• 依托单位: University of Edinburgh
• 依托单位国家: 英国
• 项目类别: Studentship
• 财政年份: 2019
• 资助国家: 英国
• 起止时间: 2019 至 无数据
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=studentship-2285970
• 关键词: Heirs; Caliphate; Continuity; territoriality; gender

The caliphate as an Islamic institution is often perceived as evolving in its form from one dynasty to another and defined by men such as the caliph and the elite of the caliphal capital. This research project will reveal how the study of the earliest dynasties of Islamic history demonstrates that polycentric dynamics were crucial in the choice of the caliph. Heirs apparent will be examined, their claims to caliphal succession, the role of their mothers and wives and the territorial power base they acquired prior to their accession at the periphery of the empire or even at the frontier. The transition from the Umayyads (661-750) to the Abbasids (750-1258) is presented in early Abbasid historiography as a watershed moment in the history of Islamic polities, with a fixed and clear-cut date: 750, which witnessed the success of the so-called 'revolution'. However, perusal of a wider variety of source material demonstrates that the late Umayyad and early Abbasid caliphs were not significantly different from one another when looking at dynamics of succession. New caliphs often supplanted brothers, half-brothers and cousins following the appointment of two or more heirs. This system initiated by the Umayyad caliph Marwan (d. 685) didn't only provide a title (wali al ahd, heir apparent) to the princes but allowed the different heirs to capitalize on a distinct power base separate from the capital of the empire. This territorial repartition was a key trigger to the fourth civil war (811-813), once the capital had shifted to Baghdad under the Abbasids. During this war, two heirs opposed each other, al Amin (d.813) in Baghdad and alMa'mun (d. 833) in Khurasan (nowadays Afghanistan). This was a turning point after which the appointment of potential heirs to provincial positions came to an end, marking a clear shift in legitimation strategy. This poly-centric dynamic to caliphal succession was therefore a unique feature of the long 8th century, however it has been overlooked so to adhere to the centrist narrative presented in the Arabic sources. This will be the fundamental issue explored in this PhD dissertation.The proposed PhD research will focus on the means through which caliphal heirs assumed territorial power in the late Umayyad and early Abbasid period to generate a counter-narrative to the traditional perception of early Islamic monarchic succession. The generation of a support base in the provinces by the heir apparent demonstrates that the path to succession lay not in the centre of the empire but at the periphery. The role of the heirs during their predecessors' reign in generating religious and political legitimacy is also visible through their leadership of military campaigns and of the pilgrimage (hajj), both also occurring far from the capital.The originality of this topic will be to look at new actors. Not restricted merely to how heirs rose to power and became caliphs, this research will tie in the previously under-studied heirs who didn't become caliphs. A second focus will be the mothers and wives of heirs apparent. All heirs had the same father, the caliphs, but they often all had different mothers. As most of them were elite Arab women, they provided the heirs with genealogical prestige and allowed for profitable tribal alliances either ensuring military support or a regional connection. For the source material, a comparative approach will be adopted, making use of local histories in Arabic, Greek and Armenian as well as documentary sources in comparison to the traditional corpus of Abbasid literature. In that sense, this work will draw on the methodology that has proved so successful for the earlier period of Islamic history where historians had to make use of local non-Muslim and multilingual sources.

哈里发作为一个伊斯兰机构，通常被认为是从一个王朝到另一个王朝的形式演变，并由哈里发和哈里发首都的精英等男性定义。这个研究项目将揭示伊斯兰历史上最早的王朝的研究如何证明多中心动态在哈里发的选择中至关重要。当然继承人将被审查，他们声称哈里发继承，他们的母亲和妻子的作用，以及他们在帝国边缘甚至在边境加入之前获得的领土权力基础。从倭马亚王朝（661-750）到阿巴斯王朝（750-1258）的过渡在早期阿巴斯王朝的史学中被认为是伊斯兰政治史上的一个分水岭，有一个固定而明确的日期：750年，见证了所谓的“革命”的成功。然而，细读更广泛的各种源材料表明，晚倭马亚和早期阿巴斯哈里发没有显着不同，从另一个看动态的继承。新哈里发往往取代兄弟，同父异母的兄弟和堂兄弟后，任命两个或两个以上的继承人。这一制度由倭马亚哈里发马尔万（d。685)不仅为王子们提供了一个头衔（wali al ahd，法定继承人），而且允许不同的继承人利用一个独立于帝国首都的独特权力基础。在阿拔斯王朝统治时期，首都迁至巴格达，领土的重新划分是第四次内战（811-813年）的关键导火索。在这场战争中，两个继承人相互反对，阿明（d.813）在巴格达和阿尔马'蒙（d. 833)呼罗珊（今阿富汗）。这是一个转折点，在此之后，任命可能的省级职位继承人的工作结束了，标志着合法化战略的明显转变。因此，这种哈里发继承的多中心动态是漫长的世纪的一个独特特征，但它被忽视了，因此坚持阿拉伯语来源中的中间派叙述。这将是本博士论文探讨的基本问题。拟议的博士研究将集中在通过哈里发继承人承担在倭马亚晚期和早期阿巴斯时期的领土权力，以产生一个反叙事的早期伊斯兰君主继承的传统观念的手段。由法定继承人在各省建立的支持基础表明，继承之路不在帝国的中心，而在边缘。继承人在其前任统治期间在产生宗教和政治合法性方面的作用也可以通过他们领导的军事行动和朝圣（朝觐）而看到，这两次活动都发生在远离首都的地方。不仅限于继承人如何上升到权力，并成为哈里发，这项研究将在以前研究不足的继承人谁没有成为哈里发。第二个重点将是继承人的母亲和妻子。所有的继承人都有同一个父亲，哈里发，但他们往往都有不同的母亲。由于她们大多数是阿拉伯精英妇女，她们为继承人提供了家族威望，并允许有利可图的部落联盟，以确保军事支持或区域联系。对于原始材料，将采用比较方法，利用阿拉伯语、希腊语和亚美尼亚语的当地历史以及文献资料，与传统的阿巴斯文学语料库进行比较。从这个意义上说，这项工作将借鉴在伊斯兰历史早期证明非常成功的方法，在伊斯兰历史早期，历史学家不得不利用当地的非穆斯林和多语言资料。