JOURNAL OF ARABIC AND ISLAMIC STUDIES

JAIS
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Jocelyn Sharlet
the Bedouin, and the vest remained with him until it was taken by
another caliph. 44 Umm Salama mediates the transition between the
Umayyads and the Abbasids by way of jewels when Umm Salama gives
herself to Abū l-ʿAbbās covered in jewels, albeit consummating the
marriage only after changing into less dazzling attire, and when she
tosses her necklace to ʿUmāra in her argument over the relative merits of
her family and her husband’s clients. Likewise, she plays a crucial role in
the circulation of the legendary jeweled vest as a figure of the transfer of
power from the Umayyads to the Abbasids.
Depictions of ʿUmāra complement his role in the gift exchange story
and clarify the contradictions of client status. ʿUmāra was said to
combine the positive quality of nobility and the negative quality of
haughtiness. 45 As in the depiction of Fayḍ, this characterization
emphasizes the complexity of personality in the dynamics of social
hierarchy. While the depiction of Fayḍ in the story of the hundred outfits
focused on his superior position as minister, the depiction of ʿUmāra in
the necklace story focuses on his contradictory position as a powerful yet
subordinate client. ʿUmāra, as a man with a chip on his shoulder, can be
compared to pompous and proud characters such as Ibn al-Muqaffaʿ,
who trained Fayḍ b. Abī Ṣāliḥ, and members of the Barmakid family. 46
They are perceived as pompous and proud in the context of the
assumption that they are actually subordinate no matter how high they
may rise in the elite. For ʿUmāra, refusing the necklace is a way to claim
status that is denied to him because of his position as a client.
Other stories about ʿUmāra offer insights into his contradictory status
in the necklace story. Some stories emphasize his noble character in the
context of administrative work, such as one in which the minister Yaḥyā
b. Khālid al-Barmakī urgently needed help in a financial crisis. When
Abū Jaʿfar said:
“Who do you think can help?” Yaḥyā said, “I don’t know,” and Abū Jaʿfar
responded, “Yes you do, ʿUmāra b. Ḥamza, go tell him what’s going on.”
Yaḥyā said, “I went to his residence on the other side of the river and
explained the problem, and ʿUmāra told me to meet him at the bridge in the
morning and said nothing else. I returned dejected, but Abū l-ʿAbbās said,
‘Don’t worry, that’s just the way he is.’ The next day, I went to the bridge
44 Al-Dhakhāʾir wa-l-Tuḥaf, pp. 93–5; Al-Ghuzūlī, Maṭāliʿ al-Budūr fī Manāzil
al-Surūr (Port Said, 2000/1419), p. 455.
45 Al-Jahshiyārī, Wuzarāʾ, p. 60; Yāqūt, Muʿjam al-Udabāʾ, 5:2054.
46 Sourdel, Vizirat, p. 178.
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