Translation: A Letter To The Bureaucracy
A dispatch from ‘Abd al-Hamid al-Katib on civil and uncivil service
From rogue Park Service Twitter accounts to acting Attorney General Sarah Yates being relieved from duty for refusing to enforce last Friday’s executive order, the events of the past few weeks have reminded us that bureaucrats in service to the state can and do have minds of their own.
More words from Umayyad civil servant ‘Abd al-Hamid al-Katib, long-deceased scribe and ideologue, a man unfortunate enough to watch as the polity he served ripped itself apart at the empire fell to the Abbasids. Before this, in more peaceful times, ‘Abd al-Hamid had occasion to speak to his colleagues in his now-famous “Letter to the Secretaries,” still taught as a sterling example of written Arabic prose.
University of Chicago professor Wadad Kadi has argued that the letter forms an early example of bureaucratic identity formation, helping instill a certain esprit de corps in the Caliphate’s scribes. ‘Abd al-Hamid sympathizes with the plight of secretaries struggling to reign in the abuses of their masters, while reminding them that — within limits — they are the ones that really run the show.
From rogue Park Service Twitter accounts to acting Attorney General Sarah Yates being relieved from duty for refusing to enforce last Friday’s executive order, the events of the past few weeks have reminded us that bureaucrats in service to the state can and do have minds of their own.While the historical analogies are falling awfully hard and fast these days, ‘Abd al-Hamid’s letter reminds us that today’s civil servants are hardly alone in navigating the ongoing tension between professional obligations and political directives.
Two excerpts are translated here from the full letter.
(Much credit to Dr. Jennifer London, currently at UCLA, for first introducing me to ‘Abd al-Hamid. Shortcomings in the translation are obviously my own, so feel free to reach out with suggestions for improvement in the comments below.)
May God protect you, secretaries of the Caliphate, and guide you in your work. After the Prophets — peace be upon them — and the honored Kings of the past, God formed people into different, ordered ranks. As similar as they were, he divided them up into different trades for the purpose of their making a living. He made you secretaries the most honorable of these groups in your trade — people of refined culture, good judgment, clear vision and wise deliberation. You have wide-ranging thoughts and matters to attend to, while being kind and constant companions.
Through you is the realm put in order, and the affairs of rulers set straight. Through your preparation and planning God cultivates their authority. Through you is the wealth of the nation gathered, the country built up.
The ruler is in need of you in [governing] his great possession. No master would fail to make use of you in the basest or the most sacred of his undertakings — only you secretaries will suffice to make them happen.
In your positions, vis-a-vis your masters, you are the ears with which they hear, the eyes with which they see, the tongues with which they speak, the hand with which they strike. And when the events have run their course, you will be the ones trusted [by your masters] more than their family, their children, their relatives or their advisers. God has granted you with the goodness of your craft, and will not strip the robe of blessing from you…
. . . [W]hen one of you finds yourself in the service of some man, seek to take his measure — get to know his good side and his bad side, just as one takes the measure of a garment he buys for himself.
Support your master in doing the good things that agree with him, and steer him away of the foul things that please him, albeit in the gentlest way possible.
You all know that somebody herding a wild beast, riding atop it, tries to feel out the character of the creature. If the beast charges ahead, the rider steadies it with his legs; if the beast is skittish and threatens to bolt, then the rider doesn’t run it into the ground. If the beast is headstrong, the rider grabs hold of it by a foreleg; if he fears being bitten, then by the back of the head. If the beast proves stubborn, the rider lets the beast satisfy its whims for a while, before pulling it back to the path.
In this example of a cattle herder is advice and guidance for driving people even as you work with them, serve them, accompany them.
The scribe — owing to good judgment, honorable character, experience in debate and persuasion, and deftness in maneuvering around others — understands his master, even as he fears the man’s footfall. He is the closest of companions to his master, and the one best-placed to set his affairs in order.
He is therefore like that driver herding some unresponsive beast. The beast does not know the right way from the wrong one save by the direction of the herder, i.e. the one riding atop it. So look closely to your work, set to it with eloquence and much thought, and may God help you in doing so.
Know that those you serve may be harsh, sullen, or downright unreceptive. They may yet return to agree with you, just as you may yet find forgiveness from them.
Andrew Leber is a Ph.D. student at Harvard University’s Department of Government. He’s based in Boston.
