Postal Systems in the Pre-Modern Islamic World.

• Author: Morony, Michael
• Position: Book review

Postal Systems in the Pre-Modern Islamic World. By ADAM J. SILVERSTEIN. Cambridge Studies in Islamic Civilization. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 2007. Pp. xii + 214, $112.

The study of postal systems can leach us about communications technology in the premodern Islamic world and about Islamic state-building. Silverstein's approach to this subject is basically institutional history, mainly of slates. In addition to being concerned with origins and influences, he also points out the differences among postal systems, the variety in their uses and organization, and historical development and change within systems.

The book is organized into three parts. The first gives the necessary background in a useful account of pre-Islamic postal institutions: those of the Persian empires from the Achaemenids (with a nod to the Assyrians) to the Sasanids, the western Cursus Publicus from the Romans to the Byzantines, and traditions of communication in Arabia up to the Umayyad period. Part two covers the early caliphal band under the Umayyads (661-750) and 'Abbasids until 847, and the Diwan al-Barid in the middle 'Abbasid period, including the postal systems of the Buyids, Saljuqs, Fatimids, Samanids, Ghaznavids, international merchants, and Muslim philosophers. The third part deals with the Mongol yam and the Mamluk band. Each unit has separate sections that analyze the routes and stations, messengers, methods of communication, and administration.

Silverstein makes three points about the pre-Islamic postal systems: (1) the Muslims inherited a region with postal experience and traditions; (2) Muslim authors were aware of the pre-Islamic origin of the caliphal band; and (3) the fact that the terminology of the barid can be traced to pre-Islamic Iran shows direct continuity from that direct ion. It is argued that already under the Umayyads the Sasanid system was more influential than the Byzantine because the Cursus Publicus was in decline on the eve of Islam. The Sasanids themselves set the precedent by retaining what was left of the Cursus Publicus when they occupied Syria and Egypt in the early seventh century "thereby establishing a precedent for devolving control of the local postal stations to conquerors" (p. 50). The early caliphal barid developed as a combination of Sasanid, Byzantine, and Arabian methods of communication. In the latter case Silver stein makes an original contribution by pointing out the Arabian tradition of message bearers...