ufis in Medieval Baghdad: Agency and the Public Sphere in the Late Abbasid Caliphate by Atta Muhammad focuses on a significant aspect of medieval history that has been overlooked by historians and social scientists because ‘agency’ and ‘public sphere’ are generally located within the modern framework of nation-states and democratic political systems. Medieval governance models are often considered devoid of interventions by civil society.

This important work challenges this misconception, arguing that agency and public sphere existed in various forms in medieval Islamic kingdoms. A prominent and potent public sphere was the spaces operated by Sufis. Medieval Baghdad, considered the central caliphate of the Muslims and followed across many Muslim political entities, termed the ‘Islamic world’ by Tamim Ansari and the ‘Persianate world’ by Marshall Hodgson, provided a centrality to which other Muslim states looked for inspiration.

The public sphere refers to spaces that are autonomous and not necessarily influenced by ruling authorities and political order. The concept of the public sphere was conceptualised and popularised by Jürgen Habermas, a German theorist, who based his conception on a critical-rational model and expanded the boundaries drawn by Kant.

Kant viewed the public sphere as a rational-critical discourse by the public over their collective interests and concerns. Habermas argued that such a critical-rational approach helped bourgeois citizens to create a liberal constitutional order. Similarly, John Dewey affirmed the necessity of such an intermediary institutionalised role by civil society that was free from state authorities.

Atta Muhammad has developed a critique of these understandings of the public sphere by stating that rationality sets limits on the role of some religious forms of the public sphere and has brought in Sufis as social actors who used their individual and collective agency to influence state policy for the welfare of common people.

This book rejects the view that medieval Islamic societies had a single authoritarian sphere of social activity in which only the elite had agency. The ordinary people in medieval Baghdad possessed social, economic and political agency. This agency operated through public spaces such as the charity sector, civic associations, merchants’ organisations, futuwwa groups and institutions like Sufi orders, khanqahs and ribats.

The author, through an in-depth treatment of the subject, extends our knowledge of the medieval Islamic public sphere and society, as well as the relationship between the society and state authorities. He argues that Abbasid society in medieval Baghdad “functioned well not because of governments doing an adequate job of discharging their responsibilities towards the populace but because ordinary people took on significant aspects of their responsibilities, with members of the various social strata contributing to the constitution and maintenance of the public spheres” (p. 117). The public sphere was a space where people from both public and private arenas could strive for the public good.

The author has examined a wide variety of sources to study the nature and extent of agency and the public sphere in late Abbasid Baghdad: biographical dictionaries, chronicles, dynastic histories, works dictated to kings and emirs (members of the ruling elite and military commanders, etc), travelogues and hagiographical literature produced by Sufis and their disciples.

The wide range of primary sources used by the author in the book helps him perceive, imagine and represent the past, allowing for a detailed and argumentative discussion of the public sphere in later Abbasid society.

The variety of historical sources provides a nuanced understanding of the period studied. The work expands its scope by collection of evidence from contemporary great cities of Cairo and Damascus to support its arguments.

The wide range of primary sources used by the author in the book helps him perceive, imagine and represent the past, allowing for a detailed and argumentative discussion of the public sphere in later Abbasid society. Anecdotal textual evidence supports the author’s claim that Sufis structured and maintained a potent public sphere.

However, the sources used do not adequately cover the non-elite, the illiterate, commoners and women. This is because the textual sources of medieval times, before the invention and use of the printing press, were essentially costly elite products produced for elite consumption. There is a general paucity of literature dealing with the role of women due to cultural barriers preventing the identification of women, particularly elite women.

The book brings into debate the concept of maslaha (common interest) as understood by medieval jurists and scholars, as well as sharia and its objectives in dealing with the concept of public interest. Such discourses carried significant importance in pre-modern Islamic societies, as they do in modern Islamic societies.

Sufis developed their own distinct perspective on maslaha. The book argues that the “medieval Islamic public sphere was open to every section of society and targeted the material and spiritual well-being of the community of believers” (p. 12).

Spaces such as waqf, civic associations, community organisations, futuwwa (javanmardi in Persian, which extolled chivalric virtues) associations and public commitments to written or verbal interventions were autonomous yet connected with the government and benefited large sections of society. Sufis and charitable women played a leading role in nurturing these spaces of the public sphere by endowing Sufi lodges and engaging in scholarly activities. It is important to note that these spaces were not only reserved for Muslims; non-Muslims, too, played significant roles in the sustenance of such institutions.

There is a view that the authority of medieval kings knew no limits. They are often portrayed as too powerful for the public to question or counter on matters of public good. By explaining the existence of the public sphere in medieval Baghdad and other nearby Islamic societies and supporting this explanation with sufficient primary and secondary historical sources, the author has challenged many misconceptions about medieval polities and pushed the boundaries of knowledge.

This book can be an engaging source for students, teachers, scholars and general readers interested in understanding the public sphere in medieval Islamic societies, particularly the role of Sufis in developing and sustaining autonomous arenas of common good for the public.

Sufis in Medieval Baghdad 

Agency and the Public Sphere in the Late Abbasid Caliphate

Author: Atta Muhammad

Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing Plc, 2024

Pages: 178

The reviewer heads the History Department at University of Sargodha. He has been a research fellow at Royal Holloway College, University of London. He may be reached at abrar.zahoor@hotmail.com