Qudama b. Ja`far (d. 337 /948) and his Kitab al -Kharaj wa -s&dotbelow;ina`at al -kitaba: Administrative contributions to knowledge.

摘要

This study uses Qudama b. Ja`far's Kitab al-kharaj wa-sina`at al-kitaba to explore the role of the Abbasid state in the formation of Islamic civilization, specifically its vision of knowledge. The upper echelons of the administrative corps---its intellectual elite---played a vital role in the development of various branches of knowledge through the early Abbasid period, even carving out their own space in the Islamic scholarly milieu through the creation of a particular branch of knowledge, "administrative science" (al-kitaba ), devoted to their own needs, interests, and identity. Qudama's work, an encyclopedia, is an attempt to consolidate the advances made in these scholarly domain from the point of view of the state. While located within the genre of administrative literature, his work pushes its boundaries by including other branches of knowledge and thus demonstrates the particular ways in which the intellectually talented members of the administrative corps mediated the interests of the state to the wider scholarly milieu.;The work begins by consolidating the administrative science, reflecting its fundamental interest and inspiration in the Arabic language, especially its written form, as the defining element of the administrative craft and, indeed, the entire structure and machinery of administration. Other sections deal with geography, tax law, and political thought, and by consolidating and classifying the various features of these disciplines, Qudama is able to emphasize the state's particular interest in and contribution to them.;Reading the sections of Qudama's work alongside the other works of their respective genres has had a twofold result: (1) locating Qudama and his social group (kuttab) more precisely on the intellectual map of their day; and (2) appreciating more fully their assessment of these genres as a whole. Thus, Qudama's work is revealing not only for its own vision, but for its perspective on the intellectual concerns of the Islamic civilization of its day.