Bensalem Himmich - The Polymath

When a mind is as disturbed as was that of the sultan, neither medicaments nor the wise counsel of advisers serve any purpose. For that reason, he would summon such people to his chambers at night and bombard them with questions and requests for legal opinions until morning came. When ‘Abd al-Rahman’s turn came, the audience took place in the great arcade along with the Maliki judge, Nasir al-Din ibn al-Tunsi, Sudun, the viceroy who was thus responsible for arranging audiences and controlling traffic, and the dawadar , Yashbak, the recorder:

BARQUQ (his voice muted, his expression depressed): I have invited the two great Maliki authorities in our blessed realm for this audience in order to seek their counsel regarding possible action against the Mongol tyrant, Timur the Lame — may God thwart his actions and eradicate his line!

(With that, silence fell, interspersed with the occasional cough. Sudun took it as his cue to repeat what the sultan had just said, on the assumption that the two judges had not heard what the sultan had originally said. To all of which he added a request that they give their legal opinions in the most beneficial way possible. ‘Abd al-Rahman now felt constrained to open the discussion, doing his level best to avoid looking at the viceroy who would undoubtedly be on the lookout for anything provocative.)

IBN KHALDUN: In my view, al-Malik al-Zahir Sayf al-Din is doing the best thing possible by consulting widely on the topic. Religious scholars are, as the saying goes, the heirs of the prophets. .

IBN AL-TUNSI (wiping the sweat from his brow): The Prophet — on him be peace — said, Ά scholar who uses his knowledge to provide benefit is better than a thousand other believers.’ He also said, ‘Knowledge is the life of Islam.’

SUDUN (interrupting): We already know these hadith and others as well. Our lord the sultan needs advice on action, not other matters.

IBN KHALDUN: The Best of Mankind said, ‘Knowledge is a treasure-trove, and the key to it is questions. So ask your questions — may God have mercy on you. He compensates four types of people for it: the questioner, the teacher, the listener, and the one who loves them.’

BARQUQ (calming things down): I wish to ask Ibn Khaldun, our learned friend, about his views on the tyrant Timur and the best ways to make war on him.

IBN KHALDUN: Military strategy, my lord, is the province of soldiers and members of military staff; of that your own outstanding knowledge is an example. Where tyrants are concerned, I have spent a not inconsiderable period of my life investigating the secrets of their power and the reasons for their victories. The amount of material written on the subject is very little, but to the extent possible, I have been trying to collect evidence and to compare examples. I will be able to present you with a copy of my conclusions as soon as I have written them out and edited them.

BARQUQ: Time is very short, and events are forcing our hand. If we need to wait for ages before deciding anything, it will work against us. Leave the writing process to mature in its own good time. Give me the benefit of your advice now.

SUDUN: I’m afraid that the author of the Introduction to History is reluctant to give us his advice or feels unable to discuss the subject. He is the one who keeps talking about the inability of religious scholars to discuss political matters.

IBN AL-TUNSI (as though emerging from a stupor): ‘To the effect that religious scholars are of all people the most removed from politics and its subfields,’ section forty-two of the sixth chapter of Book One of Diwan of Topic and Predicate .

IBN KHALDUN: What I say there refers specifically to jurists involved in canonical political thought and philosophers of the ideal community. I’m not referring to religious scholars in their general public role. But even then, they have no possibility of investigating politics when some people decide to turn the whole thing into a directorate for conspiracy, obscurantism, and injustice.

SUDUN (aggravated): Let’s forget about irrelevances and get back to the point!

IBN KHALDUN: What I’ve just said and will go on to say is precisely the point. I’m sure, my lord, that chroniclers have given you information about the ancestry of the Tatars and Mongols, people of the North. I don’t need to remind you that their tradition of invasion and rapine goes all the way back to Genghiz Khan and has been replicated by his descendants, Hulagu Khan who sacked Baghdad, and now Timur whose hordes threaten all the countries and souls that lie in his path. I don’t think I’m exaggerating when I suggest that this tyrant, Timur, is the most ruthless and dangerous of all the Mongols. The reason is that he makes full use of advanced knowledge and strategy in applying his overwhelming force. Any invasion he undertakes is not a matter of random selection or ignorance. He’ll only set out once he’s convinced that success is assured.

SUDUN: So, is it your view that our lord, bolstered as he is by his amirs and atabeg soldiers, is doing something other than that himself?

IBN KHALDUN: My dear viceroy, do not put words into my mouth. Sultan al-Zahir Sayf al-Din possesses God-given perspicacity and organizational skills. His actions and his respect for scholarship and those who practice it is clear enough evidence of that.

BARQUQ: Finish your portrait of the tyrant, Timur. You’ve made me want to know more.

IBN KHALDUN: Timur, my lord — and the name in Mongolian means ‘man of iron’—has managed to seize the Banu Hulagu and Banu Dushi-Khan realms by virtue of rigorous discipline, something that grew and then flourished in his own tribe just at the point when it was dwindling among those peoples whom he has vanquished. That discipline is the rigor of the Bedouin in the desert, the very thing I observed throughout the Maghrib region, a powerful force that can easily overwhelm civilized dynasties with their penchant for luxury. His knowledge and strategies are considerable and diverse. Firstly, he is a Muslim. Not only that, but he has compelled the Chagatai to convert to Islam — all in order to pull the rug out from under Muslim peoples who kept calling for a war against him because he was a Magian and thus a polytheist. He makes copious use of informers and spies in various regions and inside palaces; no doubt, there are some in our midst here. Beyond that, his invasions cause massive destruction; he covers whole areas with piles of corpses and skulls so that the dire news will be spread abroad and cause maximum panic.

IBN AL-TUNSI (trying to keep up): The Prophet — on him be peace — said, ‘People’s fears have amplified my own strength, giving me a month’s leeway’ (as recorded by al-Bukhari and Muslim in their collections of authentic hadiths, the Sahihan ).

IBN KHALDUN: But Our Prophet had a divine mission, one that he spread among rightly guided people by volition and among poly-theists by fear. He never conquered through the use of tyranny or superior force, but rather by victory and miracle given to him by the One, all-powerful God. Timur, on the other hand, has only one mission: to destroy land and lineage. His only purpose is to sit on the thrones of the world’s kingdoms.

SUDUN (in a provocative tone): So, learned judge, do you really see this lame Bedouin who alarms you so much being able to sit on this throne? Following your general dicta here, does the Burji Mamluk dynasty share the probability of the same limited lifespan as others?

IBN KHALDUN: The lifespan of dynasties is the same as that of every one; it’s all in God’s hands. Eternity is God’s alone. The Mongol tyrant is now exclusive ruler of his people and uses conquered peoples in order to feed his own armies. The only thing that can destroy him now is precisely what destroyed tyrants in past ages, in Macedonia, Persia, and Byzantium: too many invasions, the disorder they bring, and lengthy supply lines between center and periphery. Anything else involves setting up fortifications and armed human shields to protect inhabited areas and cities that need not be impacted by the Mongol firestorm. Previous invasions of countries have often involved long-term strategies, not sudden incursions. The Mongols already occupy large tracts of territory. My lord the sultan should let them wear themselves out grabbing territories in the North and controlling steppes and desert wastes. There is no wisdom in our contesting their rapacious policy. The consequences of doing so may well be severe.