Chamberlain (hajib)

The hajib was the court official who controlled access to the ruler. He brought officials, delegations and petitioners before him and arranged the ceremonies. In many states the post made its holder one of the most powerful men in government. Its rank changed from state to state: below the vizier under the Abbasids, stronger than the vizier in Umayyad Spain, a senior commander under the Samanids and Ghaznavids, and in the Mamluk state the chief of ceremony who also heard some cases. ¹

The word comes from the verb hajaba, to screen or to block. In the dictionary it means one who stops a person from entering a place, a doorkeeper. ¹

Historians trace the office back to the Sasanians. Nizam al-Mulk records it in the Sasanian period in his Siyasatnama, and Ibn al-Balkhi and Ravandi attribute its importance there to Ardashir-i Babakan. The entry notes that these accounts show Muslim authors wanted the office to begin in the Sasanian period. ¹

Ibn Khaldun's account of how the office developed in Islam does not match the historical record, the entry says. It reads more like theory than history. ¹

The Prophet is said to have kept a doorkeeper when he was busy with private affairs, and to have lifted the screen between himself and the people at other times. Ibn Abd Rabbih names a doorkeeper of the Prophet ﷺ, Abu Anasa. Later authors name hajibs for Abu Bakr and the caliphs after him: Shadid for Abu Bakr, Yarfa for Umar, Humran for Uthman and Kanbar for Ali. The entry records these as what the authors report. ¹

The office appeared under the Umayyads, when court life took on Byzantine and Sasanian forms. The entry does not settle whether Muawiya (661–680) or Abd al-Malik (685–705) founded it, and little is known of its weight in that period. The hajib arranged the ceremonies as well as bringing people to the ruler, and probably ranked close to the chief secretary. ¹

Under the Abbasids the hajib and the vizier were the two leading figures at court, though the hajib ranked below the vizier. Rabi ibn Yunus, who was hajib under al-Mansur and al-Mahdi, took 100,000 dinars in bribes to have Yaqub ibn Dawud made vizier. ¹

From the third century AH the hajib and the vizier competed for power. Inak al-Turki, hajib to al-Mutawakkil, rose to the top of the administration after the vizier was removed. By the end of that century the hajib's authority had weakened, and the vizier with his secretaries controlled the administration. In 296 AH (908) the hajib Sawsan tried to revolt against al-Muqtadir. ¹

Al-Mu'tadid had twenty-five hajibs, most of them freed slaves of his father, and each had deputies, up to five hundred in all. Under al-Muqtadir there were 700 hajibs in the palace. The chief-of-hajibs post (hajib al-hujjab) was created in 940. When Ibn Ra'iq took the title amir al-umara in 936, the hajib's title was changed to hajib al-hujjab. ¹

In the Andalusian Umayyad state the hajib was more powerful than in the east. He was the chief of civil government, acted for the ruler on his command, and was sometimes called the nearest vizier. Several men held both the vizierate and the hajibate under successive emirs and caliphs. Al-Hakam II appointed Ja'far ibn Abd al-Rahman al-Siqlabi in 962. Ibn Abi Amir had his heir made hajib, gathered all the powers of the state into his own hands, and in 981 took the title al-Mansur and had his name read in the Friday sermons. ¹

After the Umayyad state broke up, the petty kings used the hajib title, and the entry also records it among the Abbasid caliphs al-Mu'tadid and al-Mu'tamid and their sons. Among the Fatimids the chief hajib was called sahib al-bab or hajib al-hujjab, and those under him were hajibs. ¹

The Samanids copied the Abbasid court and administration almost entirely. Their hajib was a high-ranking emir, and the chief hajib was both the head of the household and commander-in-chief of an army made largely of Turkish ghulams. Under Abd al-Malik ibn Nuh, the chief hajib Alp Tegin was the most powerful man after the ruler and tried to influence the succession. Hajibs appointed themselves governors. ¹

Under the Ghaznavids the hajib was a commander, and the chief hajib (hajib-i buzurg) led the army. Altuntash, who founded his own dynasty, rose from army commander to chief hajib. After Sultan Mahmud died, Ali Karib (Ali Hishavend) served as chief hajib. The tomb of Sebuk Tegin, governor of Ghazna, bore the phrase al-hajib al-ajall, the greatest hajib. ¹

Under the Great Seljuks the amir-hajib lost importance compared with the Ghaznavids. The hajib became a palace official more than a commander, though hajibs still went on campaign with the sultan. He passed the sultan's spoken orders to the vizier. The palace hajib (hajib-i dergah) regulated how the court stood and moved at ceremonies. ¹

Nizam al-Mulk describes the path of a ghulam: after eight years of service he could become otaqbashi, then haylbashi and hajib, and only then governor or commander. He says even the most capable could not command before thirty-five, and he complains that the system had decayed. ¹

In the Karakhanid state the hajib was the link between the ruler and his subjects, and petitions passed through him. Yusuf Has Hajib, in the Kutadgu Bilig, says the chief hajib must be a man the ruler and the country can trust, with a clean lineage and good conduct. The hajib received petitioners, especially the poor, widows and orphans, brought their complaints to the ruler, and guided claimants to the Diwan al-Mazalim. He also received envoys and arranged their gifts. ¹

Under the Anatolian Seljuks the hajib Zakariyya played a large part in Kaykhusraw I's second accession to the throne. The Ilkhanids' hajibs came from the military class and served as chamberlains. ¹

In the Khwarazmian state the hajibs carried a staff as a sign of office. Under Jalal al-Din, the hajib-i has arranged the reception of guests and made sure each man stood in his place according to protocol, received gifts from envoys for the ruler, and was sometimes sent as an envoy himself. Jalal al-Din was the first to appoint a vizier from among the hajibs. ¹

The Mamluk state had five hajibs. Two of them held the title hajib al-hujjab, the chief hajib, and the others were his deputies. The chief hajib's main duty was to bring people and delegations before the sultan. From the time of Baybars he supervised all military affairs on the sultan's or the regent's order. He settled disputes among Mongol and Turkish settlers in Egypt by the Yasa. From the time of al-Kamil Sha'ban he heard civil cases, some of which were otherwise for the judges. Hajibs had no iqta; they lived from the court fees, and their rulings were called judgements of policy (hukm al-siyasa). The office was abolished in 860 AH (1456) under al-Ashraf Inal. ¹

The Almohads created the office once their state had grown. Abu Yaqub Yusuf appointed his brother to it, and under al-Nasir the same man was both hajib and vizier. The Hafsid hajib Ibn Tafragin made the post the most powerful in the state. By the end of the thirteenth century the title remained but its power had gone, and the holder became chief of protocol. The Marinids' hajib was chief of the palace and finance minister, and the sultan's closest man. Ibn Khaldun served as hajib to a Marinid sultan. Under the Sa'dids the post continued, and later the terms mizwar and qa'id al-mishwar came into use. ¹

In some Turkic states of India the hajib kept his importance. The Khaljis' hajibs were first called emirs and later maliks. The Tughluqs called their chief hajib sayyid al-hujjab. The Timurids, Qara Qoyunlu, Aq Qoyunlu and Safavids had no such office. ¹

• TDV İslâm Ansiklopedisi, "HÂCİB", vol. 14, Aydın Taneri, pp. 508–511, Istanbul 1996. ¹