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C h a p t e r  “The Truth of the Pedigree”: Documenting Origins and the Public Performance of Lineage In an entry on the sharīf Idrīs ibn al-Ḥasan al-Idrīsī, in his biographical dictionary of important people associated with the town of Aleppo, the chronicler Ibn al-ʿAdīm (d. 1262) recounts an incident that demonstrates the significant social implications of distinguished ancestry in medieval Islamic society.1 This al-Idrīsī—not to be confused with his more famous contemporary and namesake, the author of an important work of descriptive geography—was, according to Ibn al-ʿAdīm, a native of Egypt who settled in Syria, where until his death in about 1213 or 1214 he earned a living as a copyist. Though Ibn al- ʿAdīm acknowledges his subject’s modest accomplishments as a belletrist, historian , and poet, he took a dim view of his lifestyle, describing him as “immoral, addicted to wine, and given to debauchery.” Most of Ibn al-ʿAdīm’s entry, however, is devoted to al-Idrīsī’s unfortunate run-in with the eminent Shīʿī genealogist Muḥammad ibn al-Asʿad al-Jawwānī (d. 1192).2 Traveling in the entourage of the Ayyubid sultan Salaḥ al-Dīn, al-Jawwānī came to Aleppo in the summer of 1188, where he soon became something of a celebrity among the local elites for his expertise in genealogical matters. “When I arrived in Aleppo,” he recalls in a notice that is reproduced by Ibn al-ʿAdīm, “its notables repeatedly visited me and called on me, assuring me of the genuineness of their genealogies, and seeking to have their worth publicly demonstrated .” Al-Idrīsī was apparently one of those making calls. As his designation as a sharīf indicates, al-Idrīsī claimed membership in the ahl al-bayt, alleging that he was a direct descendant of the Prophet’s grandson al-Ḥasan ibn ʿAlī. Like the others fawning over al-Jawwānī, al-Idrīsī, too, hoped to have his respected pedigree validated by the visiting authority. But al-Jawwānī—a “Truth” 69 professed member of the ahl al-bayt himself—viewed al-Idrīsī’s genealogical claim as unsubstantiated, and the persistent solicitations soon became uncomfortable . “He began to visit my majlis,” al-Jawwānī complains in the text reproduced by Ibn al-ʿAdīm, “trying to learn what I really thought, and seeking to have verified what would always remain untrue.” Ultimately, however, alJaww ānī let his opinion be known, pronouncing al-Idrīsī to be a genealogical “pretender” (dāʿī). In a coda to this episode, the historian Ibn al-ʿAdīm adds that al-Idrīsī, understandably insulted, vowed to get even by publicly discrediting al-Jawwānī’s lineage. Ibn al-ʿAdīm promises to review the substance of the riposte in his entry on al-Jawwānī, but unfortunately that volume of his work is no longer extant.3 Al-Idrīsī’s encounter with al-Jawwānī sheds light on the important public role genealogy played in Muslim society, revealing both the emphasis that was placed on its demonstrability, as well as the degree to which it could shape one’s social identity. As a significant determinant of status, ancestry was very much a public matter, individuals frequently going to great lengths to display their own lineage and to challenge that claimed by their opponents . In al-Idrīsī’s case material benefits were probably also at stake. Had his Ḥasanid genealogy been certified, al-Idrīsī would have been entitled to have his name registered with the naqīb al-ashrāf (the marshal of the nobility), the local representative of the descendants of Muḥammad, in Aleppo.4 When it first appeared in the early years of Abbasid rule, the office of naqīb existed only in Baghdad; but by the ninth century it had been established in a number of important cities. As set forth in two eleventh-century legal works, the functions of the naqīb included preserving the privileges and public prestige of the ahl al-bayt as well as keeping false claimants from deceitfully entering its ranks.5 To this end, the naqīb—who was himself a member of Muḥammad’s family—was expected to keep track of the genealogies of the ahl al-bayt, to make sure that its members comported themselves in a fitting manner, and to see that...

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