Ibn al-Muqaffa': tragedy, legacy, and the adab of governance

Abstract

Scholars have been studying the Abbasid author ʿAbd Allāh ibn al-Muqaffaʿ and his biography for well over a century. Ibn al-Muqaffaʿ’s work was studied across numerous fields such as law, finance, administration, adab, and politics. However, in recent decades, there has been a trend in scholarship that is fixated on speculating about the religious affiliation and convictions of Ibn al-Muqaffaʿ. For example, authors such as István Kristó-Nagy argue that Ibn al-Muqaffaʿ was a “double agent” who, although he outwardly presented himself as a Muslim, was in fact a practicing Zoroastrian intent on undermining the early Muslim caliphate and restoring the Persian Empire. The primary issue with such scholarship is its heavy reliance on later medieval sources about Ibn al-Muqaffaʿ.

However, when analysing the evolution of Ibn al-Muqaffaʿ’s biography across the medieval period, we find many discrepancies. Often, we encounter conflicting biographical information, and at other times we find either omitted or added details compared to earlier biographies. Therefore, it is evident that we must distinguish between the nuances that comprise Ibn al-Muqaffaʿ’s biography and realise the influence that each medieval author had on his portrayal.

The objective of this thesis is to redirect our understanding of Ibn al-Muqaffaʿ by analysing his own work, rather than depending entirely on the conflicting biographies presented about him. This was achieved by first differentiating between the core information and the nuances that emerged in Ibn al-Muqaffaʿ’s biography across the medieval period, followed by an analytical study of the concepts and views presented in all his work.

The thesis comprises four chapters. The first chapter highlights the issues present in the numerous medieval biographies of Ibn al-Muqaffaʿ. The second chapter extracts the aspect of his biography pertaining to the accusation of zandaqa and uses it to challenge the recent scholarly trend that attempts to utilise this aspect to question Ibn al-Muqaffaʿ’s religious affiliation. The third chapter introduces the structure and contents of Ibn al-Muqaffaʿ’s work, most of which he categorises as adab. Consequently, the final chapter focuses on unravelling how Ibn al-Muqaffaʿ perceived certain concepts such as adab, dīn, ʿilm, and ʿaql, and how these impact our understanding of him. The results of this study indicate that we must be cautious when reading medieval biographies of Ibn al-Muqaffaʿ and that understanding the concepts he introduces is essential before forming judgements about him.