The First speaks to power: the epistle in the caliph's entourage, by Ibn Almuqaffa

Abstract

A pioneer writer in the literary genres of artistic Arabic prose, Ibn Al-Muqaffa' is a renowned Persian writer who writes in Arabic. In this article we present the unprecedented Portuguese translation of his treatise entitled the Epistle on the Caliph’s Entourage, along with the fixation of the Arabic text, which dates back to the middle of the 8th century AD. The epistle is considered a historical document, insofar as it attests to the economic, social, legal and political conditions of its times. The author addresses the epistle to the caliph and exposes various problems of the caliphate pertinent to that historic moment, proposing respective solutions. Among the main issues raised by Ibn Al-Muqaffa', the following stand out: the discussion on the collection of land tax (.araj) ; matters of law and authority of the sovereign; and the importance of deliberately choosing his subordinates. The author eloquently presents his suggestions to the sovereign using a language which is sometimes
obscure for the contemporary reader. This is indeed expected from a text of more than 1200 years old, the copies of which have been certainly deteriorated over the centuries.