An Empire of Elites: Mobility in the Early Islamic Empire

: This study uses prosopographies pertaining to political elites from Khur ā s ā n in order to examine patterns of social mobility, professional circulation, and structures of imperial rule in the ʿ Abb ā sid Empire during the 8 th – 9 th centuries. It suggests that the early ʿ Abb ā sid Empire was dominated by informal patterns of rule that depended disproportionately on personal retainers and elite gubernatorial and military families to maintain structures of an otherwise bureaucratic centralized empire.