“As for the caliphs and kings of Islam, Muslims in every era follow the caliph’s path, admire his doctrine, act according to what they see of him, and do not deviate from his morals, actions, and words.”
With this clear, comprehensive statement, the Abbasid writer and historian Al-Baladani Ahmad bin Abi Yaqoub bin Wahb Al-Mansouri Al-Yaqubi (died 293) opens his book, which he called Mushākalat al-nās li-zamānihim wa-mā yaghlibu ‘alayhim fī kull ‘aṣr (How People Shape Themselves in Accordance with the Times and What Prevails Over Them in Every Era). The word “Mushākalat” comes from the source “shakal,” meaning “resemble” and “similar.” Thus, “Mushākalat” means similarity and resemblance. This is what Al-Yaqubi intended from his book, and it is the intention behind his writing, to show us that the morals and customs of people, regardless of their backgrounds and races, mostly resemble their time, and when he says time, he means the victorious politicians and kings who prevailed in those eras and times. This is an interesting and very useful topic, and it is difficult to ignore for those who are interested in the issue of morals and their source and customs and how they are formed. It is an important topic, too, because it explains how man, in that advanced history, chose this or that behavior, and why he chose it and not another, even though we previously knew that moral theories and philosophy had not yet clashed with people.
Al-Yaqubi lived as a traveler between countries, honored by the kings in whose courts he stayed, and came into contact with many of the people of those cities. He narrated what he saw, reported what he saw, and wrote his well-known history in two volumes.
The author of this book claims, through his experience with people and adapting to them, that the patterns of behavior and customs that prevailed among people in the early eras of Islam (the Rashidun era, then the Umayyad and Abbasid Caliphates) were almost identical to those of the caliphs and kings. In order to support this claim, he mobilizes evidence and establishes proofs, either by mentioning news and incidents connected to the era of the Rightly Guided Caliphs, or by mentioning facts and observations that the author himself experienced. When he describes the natures and morals that prevail among people, he is forced to explain the characteristics of that person that he emulates and follows. As in the characteristics of each of the caliphs or rulers whom the people imitated and followed in their footsteps. All of this is mentioned in smooth, graceful language that does not bore the reader and gives a panoramic picture of that era.
1- The Rashidun Era:
The author first mentioned what was reported about Abu Bakr Al-Siddiq when the kings of Yemen and the leaders of the Arabs. He said: “Abu Bakr, proceeded by only the Messenger of God, peace be upon him, was the most ascetic of people and the humblest and minimalist in his dress. He used to wear a shawl and abaya, and when the nobles of the Arabs and the kings of Yemen came to him while wearing crowns, robes, and being beautified, and saw his humility and clothing, they took off what they had on them and followed his doctrine in his footsteps.” Then he adds in the same context, “Dhu al-Kala, the king of Himyar, was one of those who came before Abu Bakr in his clan and people, and he wore the crown, and he had ten thousand slaves. When he saw Abu Bakr’s clothing, he said: What should we do except what the successor of the Messenger of God did?” So, he removed his initial clothing to imitate Abu Bakr.”
Then he mentions news about Omar Ibn Al-Khattab when he assumed the caliphate. He says: “Omar Ibn Al-Khattab, may God have mercy on him, despite his humility and the roughness of his clothing and food, was extremely strict in his devotion to God, so his workers or everyone else who was present and absent from him would imitate him.” The author continues: “Whoever worked for him, and they were the princes of the cities, and Allah had blessed them, empowered them, endowed them, enriched them, and provided them with wealth. They would cover themselves, take off their sandals, do not wear light things, and wear thick clothes. And when they came to him, disheveled, dusty, and coarse, their clothes were pale in color. If he saw them or heard about them other than that, he would denounce them, and their riding camels was more likely than their riding horses to imitate Omar and his behavior.”
The author mentions a similar account about Caliph Uthman bin Affan. He relates that Uthman was tolerant in nature, yet without weakness. He was generous with money, but without extravagance. He had a house in Medina and spent a lot of money on it, building it from stones and erecting its shutters from teak. This he done to demonstrate Allah’s bounty upon him and Muslims. He further recounts that, during Uthman’s caliphate, the Companions followed his example. They made money and established houses. For instance, Al-Zubayr bin Al-Awwam built his famous house in Basra, which had markets and trade. Al-Zubayr also built houses in Kufa, Egypt, and Alexandria. This expansion in construction could not have occurred during the era of any caliph other than Uthman. He saw that the manifestation of the blessing of wealth was to be done in spending it. This was the case with the Companions and the majority of the people, as Al-Yaqubi referred to and wanted to clarify.
2- The Umayyad era:
When Muawiyah bin Abi Sufyan assumed the caliphate, Al-Yaqubi talks about some of his circumstances, saying: “He built palaces, built houses, raised curtains, took guards, appointed police, set up chamberlains, built shrines in mosques, rode camel animals (well-traveled) with coiffed saddles, and wore sackcloth and shawls, and took unclaimed land and estates, and clothes were made for him in Yemen, Egypt, and Alexandria, so his family, children, and workers took what he took, and they did what he did.” The author states that this was an approach taken by Muawiyah, and those who worked under him followed it. He tells, for example, about Amr ibn al-Aas that he was the first to imitate the caliph, so he built a house for himself in Egypt and took the estate for himself. Abdullah bin Amer bin Kurayz, Muawiyah’s agent in Basra, did the same thing. He dug rivers, built houses, built palaces, and took possessions and properties in Basra, Mecca, and Taif. And Ziyad bin Abih, Muawiyah’s agent in Iraq, adopted their doctrine, so he took estates and built buildings. And others mentioned by Al-Yaqubi, and we will not mention their names at length, thus explaining that the method taken by the Caliph, Muawiyah bin Abi Sufyan, was the approach that his followers took after him. The author even provides a reason for the dominance of poetry over other literary arts and the high wages of poets during the Umayyad dynasty. It was due to Caliph Abd al-Malik ibn Marwan’s love for poetry and his favoring it over other arts. After all, the most distinguished poets, such as Al-Farazdaq, Jarir, and Al-Akhtal, lived during his time. As a result, the praise, satire, and competition between poets witnessed an increase. Al-Yaqubi narrates that Caliph Abd al-Malik was lenient about bloodshed, accepting it without fear. Likewise, the princes of the cities followed his doctrine, it was well known about Al-Hajjaj in Iraq, Al-Muhallab in Khorasan, Hisham bin Ismail Al-Makhzoumi in Medina, Muhammad bin Yusuf Al-Thaqafi (brother of Al-Hajjaj) in Yemen, and Muhammad bin Marwan in Mosul. Then the author adds: “And they are all tyrants, unjust, brutal, and cruel.” When Omar bin Abdulaziz assumed the caliphate, who was known for his asceticism, humility, abstinence, and abnegation, he removed some of the unjust people from their positions, used the righteous among the people, brought the people of virtue closer and gave them positions, and changed the Friday sermons and made them read at the end of the sermons verses of the Qur’an. When the people saw the caliph and what he was like, “his workers followed his doctrine, and the oppression and injustice they were in was removed from the people.”
3- The Abbasid Era:
The first thing the Caliph Abu Al-Abbas Abdullah bin Muhammad bin Al-Abbas did, and people imitated, was preaching while standing. It was reported in his story that “he preached standing on the pulpit, and the Umayyads used to preach sitting, so the people called him: O cousin of the Messenger of Allah, you have revived the Sunnah of the Messenger of Allah.” Then there was Al-Mu’tasim, who was Muhammad Ibn Harun Al-Rashid, and one of the funniest things the author of the book narrated about him was that he once wanted to narrow the sleeves of his dress, so he narrowed them, and people narrowed the sleeves of their clothes in imitation of him. “He – meaning Al-Mu’tasim – was predominant in horsemanship and imitation of non-Arabs, so he wore clothes with narrow sleeves, and people narrowed the sleeves of their clothes.” The author gives many examples that clarify this idea, that people followed what the Caliph did, whether it was praiseworthy or reprehensible. We will not give more examples, as there are enough in the book that will suffice.There is one last point not to be overlooked here. The theory of imitation has been circulating in the arts and literature since the times of the Greeks. This includes Aristotle’s statement that “art is an imitation of nature.” The French scientist Gabriel Tarde (1843 – 1904 AD) was one of the first to pay attention to this social-psychological phenomenon. He transferred it to sociological studies in his book Laws of Imitation, which was published in its first edition in 1890 AD. Tarde establishes the same principle, or should we say that he systematizes this phenomenon and establishes it. He tells us that it is a vertical phenomenon, meaning that it occurs from top to bottom. From the strongest to the weakest, from the rich to the poor, and from the prince to the ordinary person. In Tarde’s view, imitation only occurs in the community, and the factor that strengthens it is many actions and sayings, but language is the most important. Tarde says in his book Laws of Imitation: “The main means of simulation is language, as it is the primary tool for transmitting many past customs, and for conveying the impact of experiences at different levels of organization across generations and across individual minds, although it is not the only means.”
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