State and Rural Society in Medieval Islam: Sultans, [Muqta.sup.⊂]s and Fallahun.

• Author: GORDON, MATTHEW S.
• Position: Review

State and Rural Society in Medieval Islam: Sultans, [Muqta.sup.[subset]]s and Fallahun. By SATO TSUGITAKA. Leiden: BRILL, 1997. Pp. ix + 337. $110.

This new volume represents, to the best of my knowledge, the first comprehensive study of the [iqta.sup.[subset]], which is La say, the new-style, military form of the institution (pp. 2, 18). It traces the use of [iqta.sup.[subset]] from its origins (in Sato's view, in the Buwayhid period) to the reign of the Mamluk sultan, al-Nasir Muhammad ibn Qalawun (713-25/1313-25). Sato has carried out extensive research, so there is much to learn from his book. But he does not engage the wider questions surrounding the development of the new-style [iqta.sup.[subset]]; more remains to be said, for example, about its impact upon the structures of pre-modern Near Eastern society. If, then, the book breaks little new interpretive ground, it does provide many valuable new details and a bold chronological sweep.

The opening chapter considers previous scholarship. Sato comments on the work of [A.sup.[subset]]. [A.sup.[subset]]. al-Duri and C. Cahen, among others, signaling both his debt to, and differences with, these writers. Like al-Duri, Sato assigns the introduction of the military [iqta.sup.[subset]] to the Buwayhids, specifically [Mu.sup.[subset]]izz al-Dawla (334-56/945-67). Seeking consolidation over Iraq following his entry into Baghdad in 334/946, the new amir al-[umara.sup.[contains]] distributed grants to his "officers, elite associates and Turks" (fa-aqta-[a.sup.[subset]] quwwadahu wa-khawassahu wa-Atrakahu). The passage, from Miskawayh's Tajarib al-umam (Eclipse, ed. H. F. Amedroz and D. S. Margoliouth [Oxford, 1921], 2: 96), is cited here, as it is by other historians, to argue that with this act the new approach to land tenure had arrived. But the argument skirts two important questions.

First, why see this as the turning point when Miskawayh seems to offer no such indication? There is reason to think that the new form of [iqta.sup.[subset]]--in brief, the assignment of the usufruct of state lands in lieu of salary and in exchange for military service--was in use sometime prior to the Buwayhids. Al-Tabari ([Ta.sup.[contains]]rikh = Annales, ed. de Goeje [Leiden, 1879-1901], 3:1796-1802) offers an account of negotiations, held in 256/869-70 between Turkish soldiers and the court of the [Abbasid.sup.[subset]] al-Muhtadi (255-56/869-70), in which references are made to unwelcome developments in...