248 Page248 Aesthetics of Artistic Construction and Argumentation in Abbasid Administrative Letters (The “Thursday Letter” of Ahmad ibn Yusuf regarding the Pledge of Allegiance to Al-Ma’mun as a Model)

Abstract

The art of administrative (official) letters emerged from the Umayyad era to the Abbasid era, and it moved from brevity and simplicity of expression to complexity, artistic embellishment, and digression, as these letters became a political and administrative means reflecting the prestige of the state and the authority of the caliph. Administrative letters developed and evolved during the Abbasid era in both quantity and quality, and many skilled writers emerged who immortalized this art through elegant and eloquent models. Among the most prominent of these refined models is the (Thursday) letter by Abu Ja‘far Ahmad ibn Yusuf, the writer of the Abbasid Caliph Al-Ma’mun, in his call to the people of Khorasan to pledge allegiance to Al-Ma’mun. I found that this letter represents the peak of splendor and eloquence reached by the art of letters during the Abbasid era, in terms of linguistic quality, selection of vocabulary, good formulation, precision of meanings, beauty of imagery, and strength of argumentation and persuasion… In this research, I aimed to reveal the aesthetics of the artistic construction of this letter by relying on the descriptive-analytical method, attempting to answer an important question: What are the rules and regulations of the art of letter writing? And what are the features and characteristics of this art through the Thursday letter of Ahmad ibn Yusuf?