Postmaster and intelligence chief (sahib al-barid)

The sahib al-barid was the head of the state postal and intelligence service. The word barid first meant a post-horse or a courier, then the postal service itself and the letters it carried. The head carried the ruler's orders to the governors and brought their reports back, and he also told the ruler what he learned of the officials and the people. ¹

The entry says that the Prophet ﷺ sent letters, instructions and treaties by special messengers, and that the Prophet's sayings speak of respect for messengers. Under the Rightly Guided caliphs the postal service became a service for the public as well as for the state. Umar, for example, learned of the death of Abu Bakr and his own succession, and of the replacement of Khalid ibn al-Walid (may God be pleased with him) by Abu Ubayda ibn al-Jarrah (may God be pleased with him), through the post while the Muslims were fighting at Yarmuk. Umar also had post houses built near Kufa where officials could stay. ¹

Muawiya was the first Umayyad caliph to set up a systematic postal service, on the model of Iran and Byzantium, and four million dirhams were set aside from the treasury for it. Under the rightly guided caliphs the post carried the orders of the caliph to the governors and the governors' reports to the caliph. In Muawiya's time it also took on an intelligence role. Abd al-Malik ibn Marwan developed the service further, so that the head of the post was bound to report what he knew to the caliph at once. The service was disrupted by the disorders at the end of the Umayyad period, under the last caliph Marwan II. ¹

Under the early Abbasids the postal service was reorganised. Al-Mahdi restored the link between Baghdad and some Byzantine ports. The office was called the Diwan al-Barid, also named Harait, and its head was also called sahib al-barid or harai'ti. When Harun al-Rashid became caliph, he set about bringing the service back to its Umayyad level and assigned Yahya ibn Khalid al-Barmaki to it. The staff of the office included the head, its officials (ummal), the timekeepers (muwaqqit), the arrangers (murattib), the fast messengers (fawwanikiyya), the agents (wukala) and the informers. ¹

Along the main roads, a station was set up roughly every twelve or twenty-four kilometres, and it was given beasts paid for by the treasury. The Abbasid stations numbered about 930. A courier changed his beast at each station and took the same road back. If a courier did not return, the beast was kept at the last station for the treasury. Those who worked at the stations were paid a wage for it. The Abbasid spending on the service reached eight million dirhams. The couriers also carried the caliph's personal goods. Al-Ma'mun, while governor of Khurasan, had fresh fruit brought from Kabul through the service. ¹

The Andalusian Umayyads had a postal service linking the capital at Cordoba with the provinces. Its head, called sahib al-burud, had many agents in the provinces and learned of events in good time. From the eleventh century pigeons were also used for urgent messages. The Tulunids and Samanids kept the service, and besides the kethuda who checked the governors' conduct, the Ghaznavids employed an officer called sahib al-barid or nai'b al-barid. ¹

The early Seljuks paid little attention to the service. According to the entry, Alp Arslan abolished it, against the advice of his vizier Nizam al-Mulk, because he believed spies did more harm than good. After Alp Arslan the service was set up again through the efforts of Nizam al-Mulk, who wrote that the rulers needed trustworthy informants, and that spies should be sent across the world disguised as merchants, travellers and Sufis. Malik Shah and Nizam al-Mulk used spies, and Sultan Sanjar sent a man to Khwarazm as a spy. The entry says a state as large as the Great Seljuks could not survive without such a service. ¹

The Zengids and Ayyubids improved the service and used camels more for the post. Saladin used pigeons and ships for messages. The Turkish Mamluks of Egypt and Syria worked hard to bring back the office and the rest of the postal service, which the Crusades had damaged. Baybars revived it, built roads and bridges, and built caravanserais in the form of small forts at stages and dangerous places. The chain of safety ran along the routes from Damascus to Aleppo, Raqqa, Ayas, Tripoli, Safed, Kerak and Beirut. The entry says the service cost the treasury heavily, but it had a large part in Baybars' military and political successes. Journeys from Cairo to Damascus took about four days, and to Aleppo about five, and in an urgent case Aleppo could be reached in three. ¹

Under the Mamluks the postal service was run by the official called the secretary of the chancery or secretary of secrets, and all appointments and dismissals were made with his knowledge. ¹

The Ottoman state called its postal couriers ulak or tatar. In the nineteenth century the Muslim states moved to the modern postal system, and the first Muslim state to apply it was the Ottoman state, in the time of Mahmud II. The entry says that new methods of communication passed to other Muslim states over time. ¹

• TDV İslâm Ansiklopedisi, "BERÎD", vol. 5, İbrahim Harekât, pp. 498–501, Istanbul 1992. ¹