© 2002 by Oxford Centre for Islamic Studies
Private Letters, Official Correspondence: Buyid Insh
' as a Historical Source
1 Göttingen University
Four extensive collections of chancery letters, written by four high-ranking and near-contemporary officials of the early Buyid period (late 4th/10th century), have survived to our time. One of these scribes was Ab
Ish
q al-Sbi' (d. 994), who stood at the head of the joint caliphal-Buyid chancery in Baghdad for more than thirty years. Al-Sbi''s extant collection of more than 430 letters, most of them still unpublished, comprises correspondence that is both official (i.e. drafted for the Buyid amirs and the caliph) and private (i.e. addressed to friends and relatives).
This article discusses how these documents can improve or augment our understanding of the period, starting with an overview of the various historical sources for the Buyid period. This is followed by an analysis of the private and official letters in al-Sbi''s collection. To what extent were the private letters literary constructs? What role did the missive play in diplomatic missions? These and other, related questions are discussed on the basis of the letters themselves and by drawing on a variety of Arabic and non-Arabic material. Insh' is an important yet widely neglected source for the political and administrative history of the early Islamic state, and it is hoped that other and more detailed studies in this field will follow.