ADMINISTRATIVE THEORY AND PRACTICEadministrative purposes to cover correspondence, investiture, finance,
and the royal post and which usually bore a legend or motto and often
a pictorial emblem.^140 The use of seals as a confirmation of authority
is an ancient practice in western Asia and not especially remarkable.
In administration, seals might be used in different departments for
different purposes, but what makes the Sasanian system noteworthy
are the elaborate precautions which were taken to avoid deception
and the use of a separate office as an interdepartmental check to
prevent abuses.
Nor is it surprising to find Muslims using seals for administrative
purposes, although it is interesting to note that although they had no
objection to pictorial representation on seals there was disagreement
at first over whether or not Arabic legends should be inscribed on
either administrative or private seals. This question seems to have
arisen because Muslim officials were using their personal seals for
official business. According to tradition, the caliph 'Umar forbade any
inscription in Arabic on seals with the result that the seal of 'Utba
ibn Farqad, who was governor of Mawsil in 641, was broken because
it had "'Utba the 'iimil" written on it.141 For the same reason, we
are told, the personal seal of Anas ibn Miilik (d. bet. 709-11) at Basra
only bore the figure of a wolf, fox, or recumbent lion.142 Ziyiid's own
seal had the figure of a peacock on it,143 and he may have already
begun to employ Sasanian procedures when he held the two seals for
Abii Miisii at Basra. As governor, Ziyiid is said to have been "the first
Arab to institute a dtwiin zimiim and a seal in imitation of what the
Persians used to do" for sealing official documents.^144
The tradition giving Mu'iiwiya credit for establishing a dtwiin al-
khiitam seems to mask the introduction of the system from Iraq to
140 Ibid., p. 464; JahshiyarI, Wuzarii', p. 3; Mas'udI, Mumj, I, 309. Mas'udI (I, 320)
also gives an elaborate description of the nine seals of Khusraw Parviz. For Sasanian
seals in general, see R. Gobl, Der sasanidische Siegelkanon: Handbiicher der mittel-
asiastischen Numismatik, IV (Brunswick, 1973).
141 Ibn Sa'd, Tabaqiit, VI, 26-27. This issue is also reflected in the story that Ma'n
ibn Za'ida used a forged seal with al-khiliifa (Ar.) on it to withdraw khariij money at
Kufa (Baladhuri, Futu/;, p. 462). The claim that 'Umar I had documents sealed with
clay finds precedents in the use of clay bullae in pre-Islamic Egypt and Sasanian Iran.
142Ibn Sa'd, Tabaqiit, VII(1), 11. The name of Anas ibn Malik is also attached to
the story that when MuJ:tammad was told that the Byzantines did not read a letter
unless it was sealed, he got a silver ring and inscribed "MuJ:tammad, the messenger of
God" on it (BukharI, $a/;I/;, IV, 116).
143 Ibn Sa'd, Tabaqiit, VII(1), 71.
144 Baladhuri, Futu/;, p. 464.