JOURNAL OF ARABIC AND ISLAMIC STUDIES

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Journal of Arabic and Islamic Studies 11 (2011)
high social status made it inappropriate to ask him to leave. The
uninvited guest managed to participate in the party in an awkward yet
adequate way, and Jaʿfar said:
“You’ve been such a good sport, what can I do for you?” ʿAbd al-Malik
said, “The caliph is angry at me, make him content.” Jaʿfar responded,
“The caliph is content with you.” ʿAbd al-Malik said, “I owe 4,000 in gold
coins.” Jaʿfar responded, “It’s ready to go, from the caliph’s money, which
is better than my own.” ʿAbd al-Malik said, “I want my son Ibrāhīm to
marry into the caliph’s family.” Jaʿfar responded, “The caliph hereby
marries him to his cherished daughter ʿĀʾisha.” ʿAbd al-Malik said, “I
want to see governor’s banners flying over his head.” Jaʿfar responded,
“The caliph has put him in charge of Egypt.”
Ibrāhīm b. al-Mahdī expressed amazement at Jaʿfar’s presumptuousness,
but Jaʿfar went to al-Rashīd the next day and he loved it, and executed
all of Jaʿfar’s commands on his behalf. 64 The juxtaposition in the
sources of the tragic and comic versions of the theme of the inversion of
social hierarchy is like a metanarrative about inversion.
The surprise and shock associated with the Barmakid demise are about
the way relationships can fall apart on the inside while appearing to
function on the outside. This theme is particularly important in the
context of medieval Muslim social and professional life, which revolved
around individual, informal, and shifting alliances more than formal
institutions such as aristocracy, caste, guilds, or civil service systems. 65
The question of distinguishing reality from appearances was a crucial
aspect of refined manners, in the use of close observation and elegant
rhetoric in love, friendship, and pleasure pastimes. Likewise, refined
manners were a crucial aspect of professional training. 66
The exchange of women between men in marriage resembles gift
exchange, and like gift exchange, it can generate conflict instead of
bonds between men. In one story, Hārūn had Jaʿfar marry Hārūn’s sister
ʿAbbāsa as a matter of form so that they could all spend time together,
stipulating that they would not interact except as party companions in al-
64 Ibn ʿAbd Rabbih, Al-ʿIqd al-farīd, 7 vols., ed. Muḥammad al-Tūnjī
(Beirut, 2001), 5:66–7.
65 Roy P. Mottahedeh, Loyalty and Leadership in an Early Islamic Society
(Princeton, 1980), pp. 4–6.
66 Norbert Elias, The Court Society, tr. Edmund Jephcott (Oxford, 1983), pp.
101–11; Gadi Algazi and Rina Drory, “L’Amour à la cour des abbassides: Un
code de competence sociale”, Annales 6 (2000), pp. 1255–82.