Chapters in Edited volumes by Mathew Barber
Mirela Ivanova and Hugh Jeffery (eds.), Transmitting and Circulating the Late Antique and Byzantine Worlds, (Leiden: Brill 2019), pp. 170-198., 2019
From the moment that they had established their caliphate in 297/910, the Fatimids engaged in oft... more From the moment that they had established their caliphate in 297/910, the Fatimids engaged in often peaceful exchange with the Byzantines.1 This exchange, however, came to an abrupt halt in the mid-11th century, when the Seljuks reached the Islamic world and began to exchange embassies with the Byzantines, undermining the Fatimids' privileged diplomatic position. It was also a volatile period at the Byzantine centre. The emperor Constantine ix Monomachos died in 446/1055, and was succeeded by Theodora, the last of the Macedonian dynasty. She was succeeded by Michael vi in 448/1056, who was then overthrown in Isaac Komnenos's 449/1057 coup. The present chapter will focus on the Arabic sources for diplomacy and conflict between the Fatimids and Byzantines in this period. At first glance, therefore, this chapter addresses the movement of people-diplomats and soldiers-across the frontier not ideas. In fact, the texts presented in this chapter will shed light on issues such as: how Byzantium maintained and managed its diplomatic relationships; and in what contexts people and goods crossed the frontier with Egypt and Syria. However, the historian must first understand the limitations of their source material. This chapter will, therefore, focus on the movement of ideas about Byzantium into Egypt, and how such ideas were reused and transmitted in the later Egyptian historiography. Primarily this will reveal just how well-informed Egyptian historiography was about the Byzantine-Fatimid relationship and the Byzantines. However, it also promises to provide unique insights into a turbulent period of Byzantine history. This is an essential study, as our source material for this period is particularly poor. Greek sources rarely refer to the diplomatic exchanges with Egypt. Moreover, the period between the death of Constantine ix Monomarchus and the coup of Isaac Comnenus remains poorly understood.
3. ‘Al-Afḍal B. Badr Al-Jamālī, The Vizierate and the Fatimid Response to the First Crusade: Masculinity in Historical Memory.’
Crusading and Masculinities, ed. Natasha R. Hodgson, Katherine J. Lewis, Matthew M. Mesley, 2019
Fatimid perspectives on the First Crusade remain poorly understood. Al-Afḍal b. Badr al-Jamālī, t... more Fatimid perspectives on the First Crusade remain poorly understood. Al-Afḍal b. Badr al-Jamālī, the Fatimid vizier when the Crusaders invaded the Levant, was among the first Muslim rulers to fight the Crusaders. His conflict with the Crusaders was, however, a complete failure. This chapter will thus compare the contemporary and later sources for al-Afḍal’s career and examine how they deal with his masculinity, showing how contemporary sources enhance his military masculinity while later sources undermine it. It is proposed that such a contemporary perspective might stem from al-Afḍal’s use of propaganda to inflate his military achievements. This study will, therefore, not only shed further light on the failed Fatimid response to the Crusade, but also propose a gender-based approach to reading the sources. Through doing so we can explore the transformation of an individual’s masculinity in historical memory.
Thesis Chapters by Mathew Barber
PhD Dissertation, 2021
Studies of Fatimid history often take the testimony of later historians like al-Maqrīzī (d. 845/... more Studies of Fatimid history often take the testimony of later historians like al-Maqrīzī (d. 845/1442) for granted. This thesis will look closely at how later historians used sources and what this can teach us about Fatimid historiography, taking the vizierate of al-Yāzūrī (r. 442/1050-450/1058) as a case study. It is well known that very few works of Fatimid history survive, and this is especially the case for al-Yāz¬¬ūrī’s vizierate. However, fragments of contemporary histories survive in later sources, most crucially histories written in Egypt. This thesis will argue that al-Yāzūrī’s vizierate presents an ideal vantage point for the study of Fatimid historiography and for understanding its survival in later texts. During al-Yāzūrī’s vizierate the Fatimid Imamate based in Cairo almost lost control of its possessions in North Africa, while it began to expand its influence into Yemen and undertook a conquest to occupy Baghdad. Al-Yāzūrī was dismissed and executed in part because of his handling of the Baghdad campaign, and (as has been asserted in studies of his vizierate) this has fundamentally shaped the historiography of his reign. The thesis will build on existing research to argue that there are at least two types of historiography for al-Yāzūrī’s vizierate that survive in the later texts: biography (in the form of a biography of al-Yāzūrī) and annals. Through three case studies (the campaign to capture Baghdad, Fatimid exchange with the Byzantines, and Fatimid influence in Yemen), the thesis will explain how these two types of source differ, the agendas of their authors and the manner of their composition. It is hoped that this will serve to help scholars understand both the sources that use these histories and the histories themselves. Moreover, it is hoped that knowing more about these two source types, their agendas and the manner of their composition will provide a framework for a further critical study of al-Yāzūrī’s vizierate.
Papers by Mathew Barber
Comparing the Crisis of 806/1403–1404 and the Fatimid Fitna (450–466/1058–1073): Al‑Maqrīzī as a Historian of the Fatimids
Annales Islamologiques, 2024
Modern scholars often treat al‑Maqrīzī as an important, if not the most important, historian of t... more Modern scholars often treat al‑Maqrīzī as an important, if not the most important, historian of the Fatimids, especially given the poor survival of sources from the Fatimid period, particularly for the Egyptian period of their rule. However, historians have emphasised how al‑Maqrīzī was heavily influenced by crises that occurred in his own present. Al‑Maqrīzī’s Ḫiṭaṭ, Sulūk and Iġāṯa all contain criticisms of Mamluk Sultans contemporary to al‑Maqrīzī and a general pessimism about the state of Egypt in his own day. This article argues that this critique and pessimism shapes how al‑Maqrīzī documented Fatimid history in ways that can profoundly influence how we understand the Fatimid past. It takes the Fatimid fitna of 450–466/1058–1073 as a case study and underlines how one must compare across al‑Maqrīzī’s works to understand how his present has influenced how he shapes the past. The chapter is broken into four parts. Part 1 examines the text shared between al‑Maqrīzī’s works (which can be analysed digitally), underlining that al‑Maqrīzī’s more polemical views in the Iġāṯa could be copied into his other works. Part 2 discusses how al‑Maqrīzī’s Ḫiṭaṭ can be understood as a work of remembrance in the face of crisis, a schema in which the Fatimids feature prominently. Part 3 digitally analyses the mention of dates to show how the crisis of 806/1403–1404 is a major theme in the Ḫiṭaṭ, and that this text was likely conceived around the same time as the Iġāṯa was written. Part 4 then utilises close reading to show how the Iġāṯa frames that account of the Fatimid fitna in a way that mirrors the crisis of 806—as al‑Maqrīzī saw it. This framing of the fitna is found in parts of the Ḫiṭaṭ. However, as the article concludes, there are multiple framings of the fitna in the Ḫiṭaṭ that reflect how al‑Maqrīzī’s views had evolved over time. Al‑Maqrīzī’s accounts of Fatimid history should, therefore, be treated and studied carefully in the light of his more critical views.
Comparing the crisis of 806/1403-4 and the Fatimid fitna (450-466/1058-1073): al-Maqrīzī as a historian of the Fatimids - Datasets
Zenodo (CERN European Organization for Nuclear Research), Sep 8, 2022
Rustow has also suggested that decrees were treated as sacred relics, and that Jewish Rabbis reus... more Rustow has also suggested that decrees were treated as sacred relics, and that Jewish Rabbis reused them for their sacred status: (pp. 383-391, 412). See also: Brett, 'The diplomacy of empire. Fatimids and Zirids 990-1062', in Fatimids and Egypt, 104. 47 See the introduction to any of the sijillāt (given after the sender and addressee of the sijill) for example: al-Sijillāt al-Mustanṣiriyya, 43 (no. 5). Rustow notes that the introductory formula is modelled on Umayyad and Abbasid examples, but she only quotes until 'no god but Him', ignoring the Shīʿī character of the phrases that follow: Rustow,
The pre-modern Arabic textual tradition is large and astoundingly complex. Text reuse, moreover, ... more The pre-modern Arabic textual tradition is large and astoundingly complex. Text reuse, moreover, is a prominent feature of the Arabic written tradition. As has long been observed, many Arabic texts are compositions made up of multiple earlier texts (which are sometimes cited). This is particularly true of the historiographical tradition. Al-Tabari’s (d. 923) Taʾrikh (’History’), one of the first and most famous works of Arabic history is a compilation of multiple earlier sources (potentially received orally) that are typically meticulously cited. This text became the template for later works of history, like Ibn al-Athir’s (d. 1233) famous chronicle the Kamil. The Kamil in turn was used extensively in the historical sections of al-Nuwayri’s (d. 1333) encyclopaedia, the Nihaya. Already with the above historiographical stemma, we are presented with a complex (but crucial) problem: when there is evidence that al-Nuwayri is reusing al-Tabari’s history, is he using it through the Kamil o...
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Chapters in Edited volumes by Mathew Barber
Thesis Chapters by Mathew Barber
Papers by Mathew Barber