The ministry of official correspondence and writing

This office is not required by the nature of royal authority. Many dynasties were able to dispense with it completely, such as the dynasties rooted in the desert.

In the Muslim dynasty, the Arabic language situation and the custom of expressing what one wanted to express in good form intensified the need for the office.

Thus, writing came to convey, as a rule, the essence of a matter in better stylistic form than was possible in oral expression. The secretary to an (Arab) amir was customarily a relative and one of the great of his tribe. This was the case with the caliphs and leading personalities among the men around Muhammad in Syria and the ‘Iraq, because of the great reliability and genuine discretion (of relatives and tribesmen).

When the language became corrupt and a craft (that had to be learned), 498 the office was entrusted to those who knew (Arabic) well. Under the ‘Abbasids, it was a high office. The secretary issued documents freely, and signed his own name to them at the end. He sealed them with the seal of the ruler, which was a signet upon which the name of the ruler or his emblem was engraved.

It was impressed on a red clay mixed with water and called sealing clay. The document was folded and glued, and then both sides was sealed with (the seal). Later on, the documents were issued in the name of the ruler, and the secretary (merely) affixed his signature (‘alamah) 499 to them at the beginning or end. He could choose where he wanted to put it as well as its wording.

The office then lost standing through the fact that officials of other government ranks gained in the ruler’s esteem or because the wazir gained control over (the ruler). The signature of a secretary became ineffective (as a sign of authority) and was replaced by the signature of his superior, and this was now considered decisive. (The secretary) affixed his official signature, but the signature of his superior made the document valid.

This happened in the later (years) of the Hafsid dynasty, when the office of doorkeeper (hajib) gained in esteem and the doorkeeper became the delegate of the ruler and then came to control him. The signature of the secretary became ineffective (as a sign of authority) but was still affixed to documents, in acknowledgment of its former importance. The doorkeeper (hajib) made it the rule for the secretary to sign letters of his by affixing a handwritten (note) for which he 500 could choose any formula of ratification he wished. The secretary obeyed him and affixed the usual mark. So long as the ruler was in control of his own affairs, he saw to the matter himself (and made it the rule for the secretary) to affix the signature.

The Tawqi

One of the functions of the secretary’s office is the tawqi.

It means that the secretary sits in front of the ruler during his public audiences and notes down (yuwaqqi’), in the most concise and stylistically most perfect manner, the decisions he receives from the ruler concerning the petitions presented to him. These decisions are then issued as they are, or they are copied in a document which must be in the possession of the petitioner.

The person who formulates a tawqi’ needs agreat deal of stylistic skill, so that the tawqi’ has the correct form. Ja’far b. Yahya used to write tawqi’s on petitions for arRashid and to hand the petition (with the tawqi’) back to the petitioner. Stylists vied with each other to obtain his tawqi’s, in order to learn the different devices and kinds of good style from them.

Such petitions with Ja’far’s tawqi’ on them were sold for a dinar. 501

The person in charge of this function must be selected from among the upper classes and be a refined gentleman of great knowledge and with a good deal of stylistic ability.

He will have to concern himself with the principal branches of scholarship, because such things may come up in the gatherings and audiences of the ruler. In addition, to be a companion of kings calls for good manners and the possession of good qualities of character. And he must know all the secrets of good style, to be able to write letters and find the words that conform to the meaning intended.

In some dynasties, the rank of secretary is entrusted to military men, since some dynasties, by their very nature, have no regard for scholarship, on account of the simplicity of group feeling (prevailing in them). The ruler gives his government offices and ranks to men who share in his group feeling.

Appointments to the financial administration, to “the sword,” and to the office of secretary, are made from among them. “The sword” requires no learning. But the financial administration and the secretaryship need it, for the latter requires a good style and the former requires accounting skill. Therefore, (rulers) select people from the (learned) class for the office of secretary, when there is need for it, and entrust it to them.

However, the secretary is subordinate to the higher authority exercised by the men who share in the ruler’s group feeling, and his authority derives from that of his superior. This is the case with the Turkish dynasty in the East at this time.

The office of chief secretary belongs to the “secretary of state” (Sahib al-insha’).

However, the secretary of state is under the control of an amir from among the men who share in the group feeling of the ruler. This man is known as the Dawidar. 502

The ruler usually relies upon him, trusts him, and confides in him, whereas he relies upon the (secretary) for matters that have to do with good style and the conformity (of the expression) to what one wants to express, 503 and other, related matters.