The life and writings of the celebrated scribe Ibn al-Muqaffa’ (d. c. 756) encapsulate some important changes in religious and political culture that had been wrought during the century of Umayyad rule. Ibn al-Muqaffa’ was born Rozbih, to one of the scribal families of Fars, in south-west Iran. His father is said to have served as a scribe for the Umayyad administration in the early-to-mid eighth century and Ibn al-Muqaffa’ himself worked for the Umayyad governor of Kirman, before entering the service of the Abbasids. Thus, he was a Persian-speaking native of Iran, who had converted to Islam at some point in his service of the Muslim imperial elite, and who wrote mostly in Arabic for his patrons. Like his Iraqi contemporary, ‘Abd al-Hamid (d. 750), who also served as a scribe under the last Umayyads, Ibn al-Muqaffa’ is remembered as one of the first exponents of long-form, literary, Arabic prose.

Among the many works attributed to Ibn al-Muqaffa’ is his ‘Treatise about the Caliph's Entourage’ (Al-Risala fi l-Sahaba), which is a work of political advice for the second Abbasid caliph, al-Mansur (r. 754–75). The Risala was composed in about 755, at the outset of al-Mansur's reign. One of its main concerns is the diversity of legal practice among the Muslims of the empire's cities. The Abbasids had made Kufa their capital and so Ibn al-Muqaffa’ begins the relevant part of the treatise there, with Kufa and neighbouring al-Hira.