The Culture of Letter-Writing in Pre-Modern Islamic Society

This book presents a unique analysis of letter writing in the Middle Islamic period. This was an important aspect of intellectual life among the ruling classes in that period and it can tell us a great deal about the cultural history of the time. The author sets epistolography within a wider context, drawing on similarities between Islamic modes of letter writing and those of Western cultures. He ties in the crucial notion of the power of the pen in Islamic society with epistemological trends and relationships of dependency among the bureaucracy.