Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-ndw9j Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-06T06:18:21.086Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The Office of Muhtasib in Iran

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2022

Willem Floor
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

On his return to Qom on March 7, 1979, Ayatollah Khomeini announced during a remarkable speech the intention to create a ministry having as its main task amr bi'l ma'ruf wa nahi ‘an al-munkar, or to promote the good and forbid the bad. What is so astounding about this is the fact that a government institution charged with this task has long since ceased to exist. Moreover, the charge of amr bi'l ma'ruf has been historically associated with an official known as muhtasib. In view of the planned resurrection of this office, a historical analysis of the functions of the muhtasib and his office, the hisba or ihtisab, would seem to be in order.

Before describing the historical development of the function of muhtasib, two questions are posed. The first is: Does a direct relationship exist between pre-Muslim officials such as the Byzantine agoranomos and the Muslim muhtasib?

Type
Articles
Information
Iranian Studies , Volume 18 , Issue 1 , Winter 1985 , pp. 53 - 74
Copyright
Copyright © Association For Iranian Studies, Inc 1985

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Footnotes

1.

A German version of this article was published in Revolution in Iran und Afghanistan, ed. K. Greussing und J-H. Grevemeyer (Frankfurt: Syndikat, 1980), pp. 122–139.

References

Notes

2. Kayhan, airmail edition, March 7, 1979 (12 Esfand, 1357), p. 7, Vizarat-i “amr beh ma'ruf va nahi az munkar ijad mishavad.”

3. Encyclopaedia of Islam (2nd ed.), art. Hisbah.

4. Foster, Benjamin R., “Agoranomos and Muhtasib,” Journal of the Economic and Social History of the Orient, Vol. 13 (1970), p. 128.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

5. Ibid., p. 134.

6. Ibid., p. 139.

7. The Cambridge History of Iran, Vol. 4, “The Period of the Arab Invasion till the Seljugs” (Cambridge, 1975), p. 325.

8. Foster, p. 143.

9. Ibid.

10. Ibid.

11. Sperber, Daniel, “On the Office of Agoranomos in Roman Palestine,” Zeitschrift der Deutschen Morgenlandischen Gesellschaft, Vol. 127 (1977), p. 238, note 45.Google Scholar

12. Foster, p. 144.

13. Andre Maricq, “Classica et Orientalia, Res Gestae divi Saporis,” Syria, Vol. 35 (1953), pp. 330-31.

14. Neusner, Jacob, A History of the Jews in Babylonia: The Early Sasanian Period (Leiden, 1966), pp. 112–113CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Some Aramaic inscription of Asoka remind one of the duties, which Strabo had in mind concerning the agoranomoi of the Maurya period. Here the situation in Afghanistan, which formed part of the Iranian empire, offers another instance of the presence of the agoranomia in Iran, Livshitz, V. A. and Shifman, L. Sh., Ktolkovaniyu novikh arameishikh nadpicei Ashoki, Vestnik Drevnei Istorii, Vol. 2 (1977), p. 19.Google Scholar

15. Maricq, pp. 312-313.

16. Cantineau, M. J., Inventaire des inscriptions de Palmyr, III, p. 29.Google Scholar

17. Sperber, p. 238, note 49.

18. Gelzer, H., Leontios von Neapolis Leben des heiligen Johannes des Barmherzigen (Leipzig, 1893), p. 34Google Scholar (Greek text); Dawes, E. and Baynes, N. H., Three Byzantine Saints (Oxford, 1948), pp. 227Google Scholar, 210, 225 (English translation).

19. Pedro Chalmeta, Le hisbah en Ifriqiya et al Andalus: etude comparative, Extrait de Cahiers de Tunesie, Vol. 28 (1970), pp. 87-105; see also note 3.

20. Sperber, p. 231, note 16.

21. Ibid., p. 238, note 45.

22. Serjeant, R. B., “A Zaidi Manual of Hisbah of the 3rd Century,” Rivista Degli Studi Orientali, Vol. 28 (1953), pp. 5–34.Google Scholar

23. Chalmeta, pp. 104-105; see also note 3.

24. Tyan, E., Histoire de l'organisation judiciare en pays d'Islam, 2 vols. (Beirut), Vol. 2, pp. 439–41.Google Scholar

25. Kabir, Mafizullah, “Administration of Justice during the Buwayhid's Period,” Islamic Culture, Vol. 34 (1960), p. 16.Google Scholar

26. M. Canard, Bagdad au IVe siecle de l'Hegire (Aarabica, 1960), p. 268.

27. Busse, H., Chalif und Grosskonig (Beirut, 1974), p. 266.Google Scholar

28. al Sam'ani, Kitab al Ansab, Gibb Mem. Series, Vol. 20 (London, 1912), p. 511, s.v. muhtasib.

29. W. Barthold, Turkestan Down to the Mongol Invasion, ed. C. E. Bosworth, Gibb Mem. Series, Vol. 5 (1968), p. 231.

30. D. Sourdel, Le vizirate d'Abbaside 749 a 936, 2 vols. (Damas, 1960), Vol. 2, p. 459; H. F. Amedroz, “The Hisbah Jurisdiction in the Ahkam Sultaniya of Mawardi,” Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society (1916), p. 291.

31. al-Mulk, Nizam, The Book of Governors or Rules for Kings, trans. Darke, H. (London, 1960), p. 47.Google Scholar

32. Bosworth, C. E., The Mediaeval Islamic Underworld (Leiden, 1976), p. 65.Google Scholar

33. Busse, p. 432; Amedroz, p. 202.

34. A. Mez, Die Renaissance des Islams, reprint 1968, p. 394.

35. al Muqaddasi, Kitab al masalik al mamalik, ed. de Goeje, M. J. (Leiden, 1906), pp. 315, 407.Google Scholar

36. Amedroz, p. 101; the bad reputation of the muhtasib is also reflected in e.g. the tales of 1001 nights, which were being told in the Muslim empire at that same period, Rescher, O., “Studien uber den Inhalt von 1001 Nacht,” der Islam, Vol. 9 (1919), pp. 72–73.Google Scholar

37. Darke, pp. 46-47.

38. Bosworth, p. 16.

39. Ibid., p. 86; Mez, p. 321.

40. al Muqadassi, p. 407.

41. Canard, p. 286; Bosworth, p. 65.

42. Rosenthal, F., The Herb. Hashish versus Medieval Muslim Society (Leiden, 1971).CrossRefGoogle Scholar

43. al Muqaddasi, p. 395.

44. Chalmeta, p. 88; for such an example see Darke, p. 47.

45. Ibid., p. 46.

46. Horst, H., Die Staatsverwaltung der Grosssel juqen und Horazmshahs (1038-1231) (Wiesbaden, 1964), pp. 97, 161-62.Google Scholar

47. Ibid., p. 150.

48. Muhammad bin Hindushah Nakhjivani, Dastur al Katib fi ta'yin al maratib, ed. “Abdu'l Karim Ali Ughlu Alizadeh, 3 vols. (Moscow, 1972)Google Scholar, Vol. 1A, pp. 311 (note 1), 379 (note 19), Vol. 2, p. 225, preface, p. 64.

49. Rashid ud-Din, Geschichte Ghazan Khan's, ed. K. Jahn, Gibb Mem. Series (1940), p. 228.

50. Nakhjivani, Vol. 1A, pp. 316 (note 11), 373 (note 19), Vol. 1B, p. 290.

51. Browne, E. G., A Literary History of Iran, 4 vols. (Cambridge, reprint 1964), Vol. 3, pp. 164, 277.Google Scholar

52. Ibid.

53. Roemer, H. R., Staatsschreiben der Timuridenzeit (Wiesbaden, 19), pp. 53–57, 150-52.Google Scholar

54. Beg, Iskander, ‘Alamara-yi ‘Abbasi, ed. Afshar, Iraj, 2 vols. (Tehran, 1350/1971), Vol. 1, p. 150.Google Scholar

55. Lambton, A. K. S., Islamic Society in Persia (London, 1954), p. 13.Google Scholar

56. Kaempfer, E., Am Hofe des Persischen Grosskonigs, trans. Hinz, W. (Berlin, 1940), pp. 86Google Scholar, 124, 125, 131; Tadhkirat al-muluk, trans. Minorsky, V. (London, 1943), pp. 78, 149.Google Scholar In this Iranian state manual the muhtasib is not classed among the religious offices notwithstanding the fact that less mundane works emphasize the importance of the hisbah as one of the office of religion, see note 3 (p. 490).

57. Chardin, J., Voyages en Perse, ed. Langles, L., 10 vols. (Paris, 1811), Vol. 6, p. 79.Google Scholar

58. Ibid., pp. 79, 80, 120, 130; see also note 56.

59. Chardin, Vol. 6, p. 131.

60. Asif, Muhammad Hashim, Rustam al-Tavarikh, ed. Mushiri, Muhammad (Tehran, 1348/1969), p. 210.Google Scholar

61. Ibid., pp. 307-08.

62. Scott Waring, E., A Tour to Sheeraz…. (London, 1807), pp. 68–69.Google Scholar

63. Tancoigne, J. M., A Narrative of a Journey into Persia (London, 1820), pp. 239–40Google Scholar; Floor, W. M., “The Market Police in Qajar Persia,” Die Welt des Islams, Vol. 13 (1971), pp. 223–24.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

64. Binning, R. M. B., A Journal of Two-Year Travel in Persia, 2 vols. (London, 1857), Vol. 1, p. 337.Google Scholar

65. Husaini Fasa'i, Hajji Mirza Hasan, Tarikh-i Farsnama-yi Nasiri (Tehran, 1312/1896), Vol. 2, p. 97Google Scholar, Vol. 3, p. 343.

66. Khan, Mirza Hasan, Jughrafiya-yi Isfahan, ed. Situda, M. (Tehran, 1342/1963), p. 80.Google Scholar

67. Khan, Mirza Muhammad Hasan, ud-Dawla, Sani’, Mir'at al-Buldan, 4 vols. (Tehran, 1295/1878), Vol. 2, p. 250Google Scholar; See also note 3 (p. 491).

68. Ibid., al Ma'athir va al Athar (Tehran, 1306/1889), appendix, p. 54.Google Scholar

69. Wills, C. J., Persia as It Is (London, 1886), p. 41.Google Scholar

70. Hasan A'zam Qudsi, Kitab-i khatirat-i man, 2 vols. (Tehran, 1342/1963), Vol. 1, pp. 29, 35.Google Scholar

71. See Floor, “The Market Police in Qajar Iran,” pp. 224-29.

72. Ibid., p. 224.

73. Ibid.

74. Demorgny, G., Essai sur l'administration de la Perse (Paris, 1913), p. 51.Google Scholar

75. Floor, p. 229.