The Fustat al-‘adala’s relation to the Siyar al-muluk: textual analysis

The bureaucratic system of the Great Saljuqs (431–552/1040–1157) reached the apogee of its development in connection with extensive conquests and the need to effectively manage the conquered territories. This system was later preserved by their Anatolian successors (c. 483–707/1081–1308), along with the methods of climbing the administrative career ladder. Along with the hereditary succession in government appointments, the making of literary forgeries, hidden plagiarism and the deliberate editing of texts written by other people occupied not the last place among these methods in order to obtain a high position at the Saljuqid сourt. These methods clearly characterize both the genre of administrative literature and the authors who worked in it. The structure and content of their compilations in this genre directly depended on the vacancies they applied for.
The Fustat al-‘adala organically fits into a number of other texts written in the genre of administrative literature in the Saljuqid era. As shown by the textual analysis in this article, the Fustat al-‘adala’s compiler resorted to hidden plagiarism of voluminous fragments from sources of different genres, as well as to their deliberate editing in order to get a position at the сourt of Muzaffar al-din b. Alp Yurak (d. 691/1292) who was the military commander and ruler of the Chobanids beylik with its administrative center in Kastamonu.
One of the basic sources for this compilation was the first redaction of the Siyar al-muluk (Siyasat-nama), which was fabricated by Amir Mu‘izzi about 185 years before and ascribed by him to Nizam al-mulk also with the aim of obtaining a high position at the Saljuqid сourt.

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