Draft: this lesson was written with AI help and has not yet been read by a human editor.
1 What your class asks
This lesson asks you to describe how an early society was governed and to describe the social and work-related groups in it and their roles. The curriculum asks for a few societies, including a First Nation and an Inuit society; the museum links only medieval Islamic examples, so your class will add the others. The hospital record lists the people who worked there but says nothing of their roles or status; those come from your class. 1
Curriculum expectations, with their official codes
- A3.7 describe how a few early societies, including at least one First Nation and one Inuit society, were governed […]
- A3.8 describe the social organization of a few different types of early societies, including at least one First Nation and one Inuit society […], and the role and status of some significant social and work-related groups in these societies […]
2 Before you start
A thought to carry into the lesson.
3 The lesson
Who does what in a city?
The expectations ask how a society was governed and what roles its work-related groups had. List the officials and workers you meet in the linked records and say what each one was responsible for.
Go deeper
Walk through the market with the inspector for one morning. Ibn al-Ukhuwwa wrote a handbook that says what he does. He checks the big scale often, and the weights are made of iron and stamped with his seal 2. He tells the bakers to bake their bread through, and sets each one a daily amount so the town never runs short of bread 3. The inspector was watched as well. The record of the hisba says that one early market officer was paid two dirhams a day and was later dismissed for abusing his post 4.
Think about it
The inspector acted without waiting for anyone to complain. Which is fairer to the people who shop in a market, and why: checking every scale before anyone is cheated, or waiting until a buyer complains?
Into the museum
- Hisba and the market inspector: the story of the office, from the market of Medina onwards.
- The muhtasib: what the job was and what the person who held it had to know.
- al-Shifa' bint Abd Allah: a woman named among the early officers of the market of Medina.
Try this
Choose the muhtasib or the 'Adudi Bimaristan. Draw a poster that shows who worked there, what each person did, and who they served.
4 Carry it further
Where this lesson leads in the museum.
5 Check yourself
Nothing here is marked or sent anywhere. It is for you.
In your own words: what does Hisba and the market inspector have to do with this lesson?
Compare with the card
An office to watch the market. Ibn Khaldun, in the Muqaddima, describes the hisba as an office in which the ruler appoints a capable person to watch over the markets and streets. This officer looks into fraud in measures, weights and foodstuffs, keeps the streets from being blocked, orders buildings about to collapse to be pulled down, and punishes in proportion to the offence, without waiting for a complaint. What does such an office tell us about how a city was governed?
In your own words: what does Muhtasib (market inspector) have to do with this lesson?
Compare with the card
The muhtasib, the market inspector. The muhtasib was the official charged with watching the markets, weights and measures, and prices. Following a Turkish encyclopaedia, the record says the sources name five early overseers of the markets of Mecca and Medina, among them Samra bint Nuhayk and Shifa bint Abdullah. Unlike the judge, the muhtasib may act without a complaint. Whose work today looks like this?
I can now
Notes
- 1. The Ontario Curriculum: Social Studies, Grades 1 to 6; History and Geography, Grades 7 and 8 (2023)
- 2. Maʿalim al-Qurba fi Ahkam al-Hisba, ed. Muhammad Mahmud Shaaban and Siddiq Ahmad Isa al-Mutiʿi (1976), p. 147
- 3. Maʿalim al-Qurba fi Ahkam al-Hisba, ed. Muhammad Mahmud Shaaban and Siddiq Ahmad Isa al-Mutiʿi (1976), p. 157
- 4. HİSBE — TDV İslâm Ansiklopedisi (Cengiz Kallek, Ziya Kazıcı and others), §history