90 DEAR SON, WHAT IS THE MATTER WITH YOU?action can be understood. The two sets of letters I have chosen to high-
light here share the theme of how kings and polities intersect. Reading
them together reveals that Chachnama is advocating for a policy
binding the king and his elites through a common goal of governance
wherein retaining power is the supreme good. This good is sanctioned
by divinity that is, in both cases, legible in the stars. This mutual leg-
ibility, by extension, makes their truth-claims compatible or, at the
very least, comparative.
The letters demonstrate the necessity of dialogue in a political world
that is defined through difference. The debate continues in other letters,
with Qasim advocating more lenient policies and Hajjaj becoming
more strident. The effect of these positions is to underscore the ques-
tion of dialogue and strategy for the text. Each of these encounters is
meant to be understood as the working out of differing positions. The
moral weight of the text leans in one clear direction: accommodation.
In linking the Chach and Qasim cycles narratively, and by making
Chach the exemplar for Qasim, Chachnama creates an equivalence be-
tween the Muslim and non-Muslim histories, thus cementing its case
for accommodation.
A clear articulation of Chachnama asserting equivalence is in the
victory letter (specifically termed fathnama) that Qasim sends to Hajjaj
after the defeat of Dahar and his army. At this moment of triumph,
the letter begins on that stride;it note:
To the commander of Iraq and Hind, Hajjaj bin Yusuf, with thousands
of salutations from the servant Muhammad bin Qasim, who declares
that the grace of God pitted the brave and hearty warriors of both
sides against each other and gave. victory to the army of Islam after
their swords were wet with blood and made supine and defeated
the army of Dahar, who possessed wild elephants. Their elephants,
horses, cattle, slaves are all in our possession, and a fifth of it is dis-
patched to the capital. It is hoped by the grace of God that with this
auspicious beginning, all the polities of Hind and Sind will enter into
the domain of Islam.^19This victory letter contains a very noteworthy exception to the
genre of victory letters in conquest narratives: the armies of both sides
are praised, even if the commander Dahar is not. Alongside this gen-