The Chamberlain’s Sessions

Abstract

This article is devoted to thirteen Arabic audience certificates (samāʿāt) that originate in Baghdad in the time from Rabīʿ I 486/April 1093 to Ṣafar 501/September–October 1107. The analysis presents the attending master, the chamberlain Ibn al-ʿAllāf (died 505/1111), and provides an overview of the heterogenous composition of the seven reading circles represented in the certificates. It scrutinizes the change of seating position in pairs of sessions and examines the three certificates that were copied to the Gotha manuscript from another manuscript of the same work by the 4th/10th century author al-Ḫarāʾiṭī. Furthermore, the identity and social position of the readers and writers are clarified as far as possible using external sources, and the way that partial attendance is dealt with by the writer and the attending master is elucidated. An index of names makes the persons mentioned in the texts as well as the biographical information presented in the article accessible. The edition of the Arabic text of all thirteen certificates attempts to make their structure visible by means of layout (indentation, coloured script).