Hugh Kennedy, lecturer in the Department of Mediaeval History at the University of St. Andrews in Scotland, has written a solid and useful account of the major political developments during the first 80 years of 'Abbasid rule, 131-218/749-833. This book, a revision of his 1977 dissertation submitted to Cambridge University under the title, "Politics and the Political Elite in the Early Abbasid Caliphate," provides the careful collation of public affairs that must precede other, more engaging forms of historical inquiry; without a clear idea of who did what, and when, and why, the study of social, economic. and cultural developments has no proper framework. Mr. Kennedy has thoroughly examined numerous Arabic sources covering this period, including a few manuscripts. He has also made good use of research by prior historians, especially that of Sabatino Moscati.
Mr. Kennedy achieves what he sets out to do; his book provides a full account of the caliphs, their courts, succession disputes, local insurrections, and full-scale wars. Some of these events have been studied in detail before (such as the 'Alid revolts or the civil between al-Amin and al-Ma'mun); others have not. The events of 198-204/813-819 are convincingly presented both as a whole and as a second stage in the civil war that began in 193/809 (chapter 9), making Kennedy's account the most coherent yet presented of those confusing years. He also provides a history of Khurasan after the 'Abbasid takeover (chapter 11). Here and elsewhere. The Early Abbasid Caliphate reliably guides the historian through the Arabic sources.
Errors are few and not significant. For instance, there is no evidence that mawla power peaked during al-Mahdi's reign (pp. 103, 109). Slight mistakes in dating do occur; there are two examples on page 217: Abu'l-Faraj al-Isfahani died in 356/967 and not in 365/975; al-Jahshiyari died in 331/942, not in 306/912, as stated (in any case, 306 A.H. is 918-919 A.D.). The text is well edited; transliteration errors are few. Why, however, did Mr. Kennedy drop the Arabic "al-" from almost all names and titles?
My criticisms concern what this book is not more than what it is. It is not creative, theoretical, or thought-provoking. Granted, our sources for this period concentrate on the caliph and his court, but is it necessary to assign each caliph to a chapter and to conclude nearly every chapter with the caliph's death? Did everything stop and start again when one ruler died and another took his place?
Mr. Kennedy asks no questions of his material and so can give no answers. He makes good points in the introduction: "In the early Abbasid period, political differences were worked out in succession disputes and provincial rebellions" (p. 15), yet nothing comes of this insight. What do these two mechanisms imply? Did they adequately encompass divergent tensions? The introduction also asserts that "the period of the early Abbasid caliphs was of great significance for the history of Islamic society" (p. 16), but nothing in the text substantiates this. Mr. Kennedy does not indicate which institutions developed out of the events he describes in such detail, nor does he demonstrate how political events bore on other aspects of life.
If there is a wider significance to the events of this period, the reader must figure it out on his own, for the author provides only a factual backdrop. Mr. Kennedy has produced a work of competent scholarship, but I regret that he did not approach his subject with more imagination. His book has value, but little to spark the reader's interest. Is it not time to demand more of historians writing on the Middle East? Editors should decline manuscripts which contain facts only; higher publishing standards might then stimulate more lively historical writing.
Daniel Pipes
University of Chicago
