I02 DEAR SON, WHAT IS THE MATTER WITH YOU?Muhammad bin Qasim's piety in the text, which incorporate totemic
usage of Qur'anic verses. The most heavily quoted verses of the Qur'an
in the Chachnama are from surah 'Imran. This surah provides a legal
basis for Muslim accommodation of other "People of the Bodk" (Ahl
al-Kitab)-usually understood as Christians and Jews. There are other
prayers, incantations, and recitations (wazifa) that can be read as either
totemic or meditative. An example is when, after laying siege to the
fort of Nirun, the Arab army cannot access water and is slowly running
out of solutions. In despair, Muhammad bin Qasim petitions God, "O
listener of woes and solver of hurdles, for the sake of Bismillah al-
Rahman ar-Rahim, help us." Immediately, it starts raining.^42 Within
Sufi discourse, Bismillah qi-Rahman ar-Rahim is a phrase endowed
with layers of spiritual meaning alongside its linguistic and textual ref-
erents. The presence of this and other recitations on the authority of
the Qur'an adds to Chachnama a dimension upon which readers can
meditate. The letters, filled as they are with stratagems and advice, are
meant to be an aid for meditation and contemplation.
I have shown here that Chachnama uses the epistolary format to
present advice for governance. That advice was curated from a variety
of Persian, Arabic, and Sanskrit sources. Further, Chachnama's mode
of understanding is predicated on dialogical engagement. In the next
chapter, I want to demonstrate how Chachnama emphasizes the mu-
tual recognition of incommensurate difference as a basis of political
power.