2018. Vol. 6, no. 1. Favereau М.

2018. Vol. 6, no. 1, pp. 41-84

DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.22378/2313-6197.2018-6-1.41-84

   HOW THE MAMLUK SULTAN ADDRESSED THE GOLDEN HORDE’S KHAN.
THE FORM OF LETTERS AND RULES FOR THEIR COMPILATION*

Marie Favereau 1, 2
1 Oxford University
Oxford OX1 2RL, United Kingdom
2 La Sorbounne – Paris IV
Paris, France
marie.favereau@history.ox.ac.uk

Research objectives: To study some questions of form and protocol by which the Mamluks were guided in their “written relations” with the Chinggisids of the Golden Horde. To determine the degree of mutual influence between Turkic, Mongol and Arabic epistolary practices of this period.
Research materials: Examples from the clerical manuals of the three major writers of the Mamluk sultanate: Ibn Fadl Allah al-Umari (al-Ta‘rīf fī al-muṣṭalaḥ al-šarīf) (d. 749/1349), Ibn Nazir al-Jaysh (al-Taṯqīf fī al-taʿrīf) (d. 786/1384), and al-Qalqashandi (Ṣubḥ al-aʿšā fī ṣināʿat al-inšā’) (d. 821/1418).
Research results and novelty: The author analyzed in detail the above sources, confirming the interaction between the two diwans al-insha’ as well as the circulation of Islamic chancellery knowledge and techniques between Egypt and Central Asia, starting from the second half of the 13th century and up to the first half of the 15th century.
As a result, it has been revealed that administrative institutions functioned steadily despite the periodic discontinuity and chaos of dynastic inheritance. The statements that we distinguish through these epistolary exchanges also possess a certain continuity; the goal of most of these letters was to justify or ask a question about prolonged silences, the shortage of embassies, and the long absence of an exchange between the two states. Consequently, the diplomatic practices of the Mamluks and Golden Horde fit into the long favorable period of the general evolution of clerical regulations.

Keywords: history, Golden Horde, Mamluk sultans, diwan al-insha’, letters, manuals

For citation: Favereau M. How the Mamluk Sultan Addressed the Golden Horde’s Khan. The Form of Letters and Rules for Their Compilation. Zolotoordynskoe obozrenie = Golden Horde Review. 2018. Vol. 6, no. 1, pp. 41–84. DOI: 10.22378/2313-6197.2018-6-1.41-84

* Originally published by Institut français d’archéologie orientale. For original publication: Favereau M. Comment le sultan mamlouk s’adressait au khan de la Horde d’Or. Formulaire des lettres et règles d’usage d’après trois manuels de chancellerie (1262–v.1430). Annales Islamologiques. La Caire: Institut français d’archéologie orientale, 2008. Vol. 41, pp. 59–95.
This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons License “Attribution” 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0), which permits non-commercial re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. Advance Access published on March 29, 2018.

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Acknowledgments

I thank Frederick Bodan and Naglaa Hamdi for their careful reading and fair remarks. Ialso thank Ilnur Mirgaleev and the editorial board of the journal “Zolotoordynskoye Obozreniye=Golden Horde Review” for the opportunity to publish my work in Russian.

About the author: Marie Favereau – Ph.D. (History), Research Associate, Faculty of History, Oxford University (George Str., Oxford OX1 2RL, United Kingdom); La Sorbonne – Paris IV (1, Victor Cousin Str., Paris 75005, France). E-mail: marie.favereau@history.ox.ac.uk

Received  November 24, 2017    Accepted for publication  March 1, 2018
Published online  March 29, 2018