Las cartas del imām: fragmentos de una tradición epistolary documental de matriz oriental en contextos bereberes durante el periodo estatal del ibāḍismo norteafricano

Abstract

Abstract

This article offers a first description of Rustamid documentary practice and of the evidence concerning its interaction with territory, intellectual elites, and tribal structures, with the aim of defining the imāmate’s stately, bureaucratic, and chancellery character. To this end, figurative copies have been reconstructed through a critical reading of Ibāḍī sources, revealing administrative practices consistent with the Islamic state tradition. The study is structured in three sections: (1) the identification of the historiographical myth regarding the introduction of Abbasid models; (2) its deconstruction through the comparative analysis of epistolary fragments demonstrating the prior application of these practices; and (3) a reflection on Berber mediation and the tripartite dynamics between the imām, learned elites, and tribes. The study concludes that, although administrative innovations and adaptations are attributed to Abū l-Yaqẓān (d. 281/894), his governmental practice did not differ substantially from that of earlier imāms, since the use of the caliphate’s political-ideological tools served a dynastic project that had to negotiate legitimacy with tribes and Ibāḍī scholars. It also emphasizes the need for future research focused on the collaboration of Berber individuals, whose linguistic competencies and mixed life trajectories proved essential to the integration of the Rustamid dynasty in the Maghrib.