KATIB 757
ii. IN PERSIA.
From the fall of the li-Khans to thc end of the $afawids.
A characteristic change of the kätib's position, already noticeable uncler the 11-Khäns, took place in the successor sta tes of l\longol Persia. The Mon·
golian and Turkish terms remained to some extent the same as before, although not necessarily with the same meaning. New terms were of course also introduced, partly for institutions that continued as such or were slightly modifiecl. F!uctuating usage, in which obsolete ancl current expressions were usecl simultaneously, makes understancling of the technical terminology difficult. lt goes without saying that here only the most important outlines can be skctched of a devclopment which has not yet been studiecl sufficiently.
The great numbcr of secretaries in the J2iala'irid administration shoulcl be related to two different facts: the tripartite clivision of the aclministration into a military, a civilian and a religious section on the one hancl, ancl the specific ethnic composition of the army, most of the solcliers being Turks or J!ongols, on the other. Fol!owing the Il-Khänid tradition, there thus existecl, especially in the
~1ilitary administration, a class of secretaries espec- 1ally knowlcdgeable in Turkish or l\Iongolian. lt was their task to translate into these two languages original documents probably written in Persian, and in <Jra1$. also in Arabic. Though counted among the kuttäb, they were callecl by the Turkish term bitik~i, probably to distinguish them from the Pers1an-speaking secretaries. The most important sccretary in the mi!itary aclministration was callecl bitik<'i-yi aMäm-i mug.f!uli or kätib-i mug.f!uli- mwis. But the continuance of ll-Khänicl usage brought about the fact that even th-;-secretary of thc governmental financial administration, who scrved under the mustawfi al-mamälik or state treasurer, was countecl amon"' the bitiktiyän with the title of ültig.f! bitikCi-yf mamälik. Ho~vever,
the local financial secretarics who servecl uncler him. did not belong to the bitikliyän. lt is still dub1ous whether the Iast-mentioned were in fact
of Turkish or Mongolian ongm, or whether they were local inhabitants who has masterecl Turkish or ~Iongolian. The first place among the Persian- speaking kuttäb was held by the mun~i al-mamälik, who was in charge of the där al-in0ß' (the "State Chancellery"), a subsection of the Great Diwän (diwän-i a'lii, diwän-i bumrg) directed by the grancl vizier. In the different sections of the mun§f;i al·
mamälik's chancellery, two classes of kuttäb were employecl: the mim§!!iyän whose task it was to clraft clocuments, and the so-callecl mu/iarrirän charged with preparing fair copies; among the latter very skilled calligraphers were found. The archives formecl a separate clepartment of the där al-in§];ä'.
The nomination of secretaries was probably re- served to the grand vizier. The kiittäb in gcneral, and the inun§.!!:i al-mämälik specifically, were expected to be trustworthy, to be masters of protocol and to possess both stylistic and calligraphic qualities. In the re!igious aclministration, mainly concernecl with the maintenance of the religious law and the interests of pious foundations, a number of kuttäb were also to be found, e.g. the kätib-i där al-~aefä' (secretary of the supreme court) and the mu'arri!m-i /iuefda!li.
wa-~abälät, an archivist who kept a permanent register of legal evidences and contracts of sale.
We may clraw conc!usions about the organization of the chancelleries in Timür's time from the situ- ation uncler his successors. In their time, specific linguistic expressions continuecl to inclicate the difference betwecn the various groups of kuttäb.
Unclcr I:Iusayn Bäy1$.arä, the secrctaries of the so- called "Turkish diwän" had the title of ba!fl!.0:i or niwisandagän-i turk. This diwän dealt with affairs concerning the army ancl the Turkish subjects.
Distinct from them were the wazirän or niwisandagän·
i tä!fiik, the Persian speaking kuttäb, who were the secretaries of the diwän-i mäl, the "Persian diwän'', responsible for finances ancl the affairs of the non·
Turkish population. On no account coulcl a kätib of the Turkish diwän be callecl wazir. It seems that rela tions hacl been similar uncler the Turcoman dynasties, as may be decluced from a remark of I:Iasan Rümlü, a Mzilbä0: chronicler, who says that one of his ancestors bad served as baAf1j}JJ un der the A1$.-I):oyunlu.
Uncler the !;)afawids also, the heacl of the State Chancellery was callecl mun§!!i al-mamälik (uncler the Timürids, as weil as having this title, he is saicl to have also been called ~ä/iib-diwän·i in§!!ä').
The Safawid aclministration was characterized by a duaÜty in the civil service-the State Chancellery and the Treasury-, which hacl alreacly existed before. Each single clepartment of the $afawid treasury (dajtar!iJ!:äna), which was heaclcd by the mustawfi al-mamälik, consisted of the financial section proper and a chancellery. The la§l!,gar- niwis, hcacl of one of the most important sub- sections of the daftar-!iJ!:äna, corresponded to the ll-Khanid and J2ialäyiricl ülüg.f! bitikCi-yi mamälik.
He was the paymaster of the troops of the provincial governors and also of the court ancl provincial officials, and bad an imposing chancellery at his dis- posal. On the other hancl, the där al-in§};;ä', the Statc Chancellery of the mun0:i al-mamälik, was in charge of the state corresponclence such as diplo- matic letters and all kinds of charters. When under 'Abbas I a special royal administration (the sarkär-i Af1ii~,~a-yi j/;arifa) was set up at the siele of the al·
ready existing governmental administration, a special chancellcry bad of course to be created
KÄTIB for this purpose. A number of duties were trans- ferred from the mun'i!Li al-mamälik to the head of the new chancellery, the wä!Ji'a-niwis or maijj)is- niwis. In the course of the nth/r7th century, the ma4i.lis-ni'icis surpassed the mun'i!Li al-mamälik both in rank and sphere of compctence. J\Ioreover, the nzatfilis-niwis enjoyed to a much greater extent the confidence of the ruler. Only in so far as the number of the subor<linate kuttlib was concerned was the mun'i!Li al-mamälik superior to the matfilis- niwis.
A handbook of administration, the Ta@kirat al- 11ii1lük, shows that in the early I2th/r8th century, 28 kuttäb wcre subordinate to the mun'i!Li al-mamlilik:
one mun'i!Li-yi diwän who prepared drafts, and 27 mul;arrirän who wrote out the fair copies. In the chancellery of the mar!J.lis-niwis, the ra/Jam-niwis-i diwän-i a'lä correspondcd to the mun'i!Li-yi diwan;
he was assisted by three assistants. In this chancel- lery a further six kuttäb were also employed, arnong whom was a registrar and a nlima-niwis, who was most probably responsible for the fair copies of the diplomatic letters (näma or maktüb). Thus ten kuttäb were subordinate to the maefilis-niwis. The daftar-lil!_äna too was influenced by the division of the administration into a governmental and a royal demesnial sector. Although the division within the daftar-lil!_lina ~as not complete, the interests of state and crown were assigned to different sub- sections. Under the $afawids, charters were occa- sionally written in Turkish, but nothing is known about a classification of the kuttab according to linguistic criteria.
Bibliograplty: H. Busse, Persische Diplo- matik im Überblick, in lsl. xxxvii (1961), 202- 245; idem, Untersuchungen zum islamischen Kanz- leiwesen, Kairo 1959; G. Doerfer, Tiirkisclte und mongolische Elemente im Neupersisclzen, ii, Wiesbaden 1965, s.v., bitikCi and ba/isi; <~hiyä!h al-Din b. Humärn al-Din Khwändamir, Näma-yi nämi (selected parts in Persian and German with scholarly comment by G. Herrmann under the title Der historische Gehalt des "nämä-ye nämi" von IJandamir, doct. thesis, Göttingen 1968); W. Hinz, Die persische Geheimkanzlei im l'vfittelalter, in Westöstliche Ablzandlimgen (Fest- schrift Tschudi), Wiesbaden 1954, 342-56; idem, Die Resälä-ye Falakiyyä, Wiesbaden 1952;
12.iahängir J):ä'irn-Ma~ami, Tal;~i/J dar bära-yi 'i!Lug}J_l u:a-wa;ifa-yi munshi al-mamalik, in Bar- rasihli-yi tarilil!_i, v/2 (1349 ili.), 181-208; J\Ial.imiid Miräftäb, Dastür al-kätib fi ta'yin al-marlitib (des Moulänä Hendüsäh Nalj.gawäni), doct. thesis, Göttingen 1956; l\Iomin Mohiuddin, The Chan- cellary and Persian Epistolography [under the Mughals: Babur to Shtilt ]ahtin], in lndo-Iranica, xvii (r964), no. l, l-28, no. 3, l-16, xviii (1965), no. 2, l-40, no. 3, 48-70, no. 4, 13-50, xix (1966), no. l, 27-42, no. 2, 29-60, no. 4, 16-56; J\Iul.iammad b. Hinduiliäh Nakheawäni, Dastür al-kätib fi ta'yin al-marätib, i/1-2, ed. A. A. Alizade, J\Ioscow 1964-71; H. R. Roemer, Staatsschreiben der Timuridenzeit, Wiesbaden 1952; R. M. Savory, A Secretarial Carreer under Shäh Tahmäsp 1.
(r524-r576), in lslamic Studies, ii (1963), 343- 352; Tadltkirat al-Mulük, A Manual of f?afavid Administration (ca. rr37/r725), tr. and explained by V. Minorsky, London 1943. (B. FRAGNER)
