DOI: 10.36253/979-12-215-1117-8.03 ISSN: 2704-6362

Piecing Together Chancery-Scribal Networks: A Potential Pathway for Exploring the History of Mamlūk-Era Diplomatic Agreements

Bogdan Smarandache
Show PDF Cite
This paper discusses chancery personnel serving the last Ayyūbid sultans of Cairo and their immediate successors, between roughly 648 AH/1250 AD and 689 AH/1290 AD, and their role in drafting diplomatic agreements. It considers references to the work of chancery scribes alongside evidence for their interpersonal networks, particularly the relation of ‘scribal tutelage’ whereby veteran chiefs of the chancery bureau trained their soon-to-be successors. This relation served as an important avenue for the transmission of knowledge about diplomatic agreements and about the correct norms for drafting them. I focus on four examples of chancery personnel whose careers show overlap to demonstrate how studying the individual biographies, duties and responsibilities, and interpersonal relations of the individuals who formed part of this evolving network can help us understand how diplomatic agreements were formulated.

More from our Archive