TRACES OF ABBASID SOCIAL LIFE IN AL-FAHRI BY IBN TIKTAKA: AN ESSAY OF SOCIAL HISTORY

Abstract

For centuries, the subject of the science of history and the works published in this field has been political and military events. In order to obtain information about the social lives of past societies, these historical Works should be examined carefully. For this purpose, this article examines the work of Ibn al-Tiktaka, a shiite historican, called al-Fakhri fi'l-adabi's-sultaniyye ve'd-duveli'l- Islamiyye. He attributed this work to Fahraddin Isa, the governor of Mosul, of the Ilkhanid ruler, Ghazan Khan. The first part of the work has the status of a politician including advice to statesmen, while the second part deals with the process from the period of Hulafa-i Rashidin to the collapse of the Abbasid State. Part of the Abbasids, in particular, contains information from some unreachable works. In this article, a research has been made about the social life of Abbasid society in the context of clothing, entertainment, belief, health. A lot of detailed information has been reached on the mentioned issues. But since the people whose lives are noteworthy in this work are caliphs, viziers and the other state, it is a fact that the social incidents related to their lives have been transferred. It is understood that the Sassanian culture, which has a great influence on the social life of the Abbasi community, is particularly evident in the belief in bad luck attributed to entertainment, interest, objects and events shown to refugees. As a result of this research, it has been revealed that the social lives of past communities can be learned by using information interspersed among the events in history books, which mainly focus on political and military activities.