Barquq summoned ‘Abd al-Rahman for a visit late at night at the end of Safar in 799 When ‘Abd al-Rahman laid eyes on the sultan, he realized that the ruler’s usual nickname, al-Zahir, ‘the manifest’, no longer suited him. His eyes looked dim, sunken in their sockets beneath his bushy eyebrows and straggly unkempt beard. Elsewhere on his body, signs of early aging told people in the know that he was so preoccupied with the Mongol threat that he could no longer relax or get any sleep; nights would consist of endless bouts of insomnia.
When a mind is as disturbed as was that of the sultan, neither medicaments nor the wise counsel of advisers serve any purpose. For that reason, he would summon such people to his chambers at night and bombard them with questions and requests for legal opinions until morning came. When ‘Abd al-Rahman’s turn came, the audience took place in the great arcade along with the Maliki judge, Nasir al-Din ibn al-Tunsi, Sudun, the viceroy who was thus responsible for arranging audiences and controlling traffic, and the dawadar, Yashbak, the recorder:
BARQUQ (his voice muted, his expression depressed): I have invited the two great Maliki authorities in our blessed realm for this audience in order to seek their counsel regarding possible action against the Mongol tyrant, Timur the Lame — may God thwart his actions and eradicate his line!
(With that, silence fell, interspersed with the occasional cough. Sudun took it as his cue to repeat what the sultan had just said, on the assumption that the two judges had not heard what the sultan had originally said. To all of which he added a request that they give their legal opinions in the most beneficial way possible. ‘Abd al-Rahman now felt constrained to open the discussion, doing his level best to avoid looking at the viceroy who would undoubtedly be on the lookout for anything provocative.)
IBN KHALDUN: In my view, al-Malik al-Zahir Sayf al-Din is doing the best thing possible by consulting widely on the topic. Religious scholars are, as the saying goes, the heirs of the prophets. .
IBN AL-TUNSI (wiping the sweat from his brow): The Prophet — on him be peace — said, Ά scholar who uses his knowledge to provide benefit is better than a thousand other believers.’ He also said, ‘Knowledge is the life of Islam.’
SUDUN (interrupting): We already know these hadith and others as well. Our lord the sultan needs advice on action, not other matters.
IBN KHALDUN: The Best of Mankind said, ‘Knowledge is a treasure-trove, and the key to it is questions. So ask your questions — may God have mercy on you. He compensates four types of people for it: the questioner, the teacher, the listener, and the one who loves them.’
BARQUQ (calming things down): I wish to ask Ibn Khaldun, our learned friend, about his views on the tyrant Timur and the best ways to make war on him.
IBN KHALDUN: Military strategy, my lord, is the province of soldiers and members of military staff; of that your own outstanding knowledge is an example. Where tyrants are concerned, I have spent a not inconsiderable period of my life investigating the secrets of their power and the reasons for their victories. The amount of material written on the subject is very little, but to the extent possible, I have been trying to collect evidence and to compare examples. I will be able to present you with a copy of my conclusions as soon as I have written them out and edited them.
BARQUQ: Time is very short, and events are forcing our hand. If we need to wait for ages before deciding anything, it will work against us. Leave the writing process to mature in its own good time. Give me the benefit of your advice now.
SUDUN: I’m afraid that the author of the Introduction to History is reluctant to give us his advice or feels unable to discuss the subject. He is the one who keeps talking about the inability of religious scholars to discuss political matters.
IBN AL-TUNSI (as though emerging from a stupor): ‘To the effect that religious scholars are of all people the most removed from politics and its subfields,’ section forty-two of the sixth chapter of Book One of Diwan of Topic and Predicate.
IBN KHALDUN: What I say there refers specifically to jurists involved in canonical political thought and philosophers of the ideal community. I’m not referring to religious scholars in their general public role. But even then, they have no possibility of investigating politics when some people decide to turn the whole thing into a directorate for conspiracy, obscurantism, and injustice.
SUDUN (aggravated): Let’s forget about irrelevances and get back to the point!
IBN KHALDUN: What I’ve just said and will go on to say is precisely the point. I’m sure, my lord, that chroniclers have given you information about the ancestry of the Tatars and Mongols, people of the North. I don’t need to remind you that their tradition of invasion and rapine goes all the way back to Genghiz Khan and has been replicated by his descendants, Hulagu Khan who sacked Baghdad, and now Timur whose hordes threaten all the countries and souls that lie in his path. I don’t think I’m exaggerating when I suggest that this tyrant, Timur, is the most ruthless and dangerous of all the Mongols. The reason is that he makes full use of advanced knowledge and strategy in applying his overwhelming force. Any invasion he undertakes is not a matter of random selection or ignorance. He’ll only set out once he’s convinced that success is assured.