Abstract The ḥisba has long been studied as an institution navigating the tension between jurisprudence (fiqh) and statecraft (siyāsa), a tension well documented under the ʿAbbāsids, Buyids, Seljuqs, and Mamluks. This article argues that the Fāṭimid case demands a fundamentally different analytical framework. Under Fāṭimid rule in Egypt (358–567/969–1171), the Ismāʿīlī doctrine of imāmic authority positioned the imām-caliph as the sole source of legitimate governance, rendering the fiqh/siyāsa dichotomy functionally obsolete. I term this mode of governance ‘doctrinal pragmatism’: the capacity of imāmic theory to authorize discretionary administrative decisions as inherently legitimate, bypassing the jurisdictional conflicts that constrained contemporary Sunni polities. Through chronological analysis of al-Musabbiḥī’s eyewitness chronicle, al-Maqrīzī, Ibn al-Ṭuwayr, and appointment decrees preserved by al-Qalqashandī, the article identifies three phases of institutional development. During the reigns of al-Muʿizz and al-ʿAzīz, the ḥisba operated within strictly economic boundaries while the shurṭa retained moral-religious jurisdiction, an institutional separation demonstrated by the unprecedented appointment of the Christian al-Wabra al-Naṣrānī as muḥtasib. Al-Ḥākim’s merger of ḥisba and shurṭa into a unified apparatus of social control constituted an exception, not a pattern, as al-Ẓāhir’s reign confirmed through the restoration of specialized economic oversight. Only in the dynasty’s final decades, as political decline necessitated accommodation with Sunni norms, did the ḥisba acquire the moral-religious functions characteristic of other Islamic polities. This economically focused regulatory regime, I suggest, contributed to Fāṭimid Egypt’s commercial ascendancy across Mediterranean and Indian Ocean networks.
Abstract This article examines the circulation in al-Andalus of Rāʾiʿ al-durar, a sīra treatise attributed to Ibn Fāris, disseminated in the Iberian Peninsula through Qāḍī Abū Bakr b. al-ʿArabī and transmitted there for at least four centuries. I explore the authenticity of the text’s authorial attribution and the authenticity of this recension. I then analyse two manuscripts, MS BAV Borg. Ar. 132 and MS Escurial 1615, which constitute the oldest material evidence of this text’s circulation in al-Andalus. The latter is especially valuable, written in 731/1331 in Granada by Ibn Simāk al-ʿĀmilī (d. 750/1349), a secretary of a Nasrid ruler from the Banū al-Aḥmar dynasty. He studied the text under Ibn ʿAtīq (d. 744/1343), a muḥaddith who authenticated the transcription and granted him an ijāza with an uninterrupted chain of transmission going back to Ibn Fāris. This chain passes through several prominent Andalusian figures of sīra, including Ibn Diḥya (d. 633/1235), al-Suhaylī (d. 581/1185), and Ibn al-ʿArabī (d. 543/1148). This manuscript provides a means to trace the history of sīra in al-Andalus. The analysis focuses on the attestation of audition (samāʿ) found in the second manuscript, allowing us to reconstruct the chain of transmission back to Ibn Fāris. This chain is studied in detail, alongside other chains found in Andalusian transmission catalogues (barāmij) of the same period, offering an enriching perspective on the dynamics of textual transmission. The study highlights the importance Andalusian scholars placed on preserving the sīra, an importance seemingly dictated by the region’s sensitive political context.
