Adam Silverstein's book offers a fascinating account of the official methods of communication employed in the Near East from pre-Islamic times through the Mamluk period. Postal systems were set up by rulers in order to maintain control over vast tracts of land. These systems, invented centuries before steam-engines or cars, enabled the swift circulation of different commodities - from letters, people and horses to exotic fruits and ice. As the correspondence transported often included confidential reports from a ruler's provinces, such postal systems doubled as espionage-networks through which news reached the central authorities quickly enough to allow a timely reaction to events. The book sheds light not only on the role of communications technology in Islamic history, but also on how nomadic culture contributed to empire-building in the Near East. This is a long-awaited contribution to the history of pre-modern communications systems in the Near Eastern world.
Author(s): Adam J. Silverstein
Series: Cambridge Studies in Islamic Civilization
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Year: 2007
Language: English
Pages: 230
Cover......Page 1
Half-title......Page 3
Series-title......Page 4
Title......Page 6
Copyright......Page 7
Dedication......Page 8
Contents......Page 10
Maps......Page 11
Acknowledgements......Page 12
Abbreviations......Page 13
Introduction......Page 14
The East: Iranian postal systems from the Achaemenids to the Sasanids......Page 20
Introduction......Page 21
The Achaemenid ‘Barid’ and its legacy......Page 22
Routes and stations......Page 25
Messengers......Page 30
Informants......Page 33
Method of communication......Page 36
Administration......Page 39
Conclusions......Page 41
Introduction......Page 42
The Roman postal system......Page 43
Routes and stations......Page 45
Messengers and informants......Page 48
Administration......Page 51
Conclusions......Page 53
Introduction......Page 55
The bashir......Page 56
The risala mughalghala......Page 57
Two couriers......Page 58
Arabians and the imperial postal systems......Page 60
Transition to a conquest state......Page 62
Introduction......Page 66
The Sufyanid Barid......Page 67
The Barid in the Marwanid and early Abbasid periods......Page 72
Routes and stations......Page 73
Mounts and messengers......Page 80
Administration......Page 84
Functions......Page 91
The Marwanid period......Page 97
The collapse of the Umayyad Barid......Page 99
The early Abbasid Barid......Page 100
Introduction......Page 103
Routes and stations......Page 105
Administration......Page 112
Functionaries......Page 115
The significance of the diwan......Page 122
Mounts......Page 124
Pigeons......Page 126
Intelligence chiefs (ashab al-akhbar)......Page 127
Merchant networks......Page 129
The Fatimid ‘Barid’......Page 134
The eastern provinces: the Samanid and Ghaznavid Barids......Page 138
The Buyids......Page 144
The Seljuks......Page 149
The philosophers’ Barid......Page 150
Introduction......Page 154
Creation of the Yam......Page 157
Routes and stations......Page 161
Administration......Page 165
The Yam under the Il-khans......Page 166
Ghazan’s reforms......Page 170
Administration......Page 172
Runners......Page 173
The legacy of the Yam......Page 174
Introduction......Page 178
The sources......Page 179
Creation of the Mamluk Barid......Page 180
Bureaucratic context......Page 183
Funding......Page 186
Associated methods of communication......Page 189
Decline of the system......Page 192
Conclusions......Page 199
Appendix: distances and speeds of the Barid......Page 204
Bibliography......Page 207
Index......Page 222
