Download PDF | R. Kevin Jaques - Authority, Conflict, and the Transmission of Diversity in Medieval Islamic Law (Studies in Islamic Law and Society) (2006).
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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
This book originated as a doctoral dissertation from Emory University’s West and South Asian Religions program, in the Graduate Division of Religion (2001); although only three of the present eight chapters are in any way based on that work. Like most first books that result from a dissertation, however, this text has benefited from the help, support, and feedback of numerous family, friends, and colleagues. I would like to thank David Vishanoff for his friendship and fellowship through our joint efforts at Emory. David is a careful reader and was a tremendous sounding-board for ideas. His insights into ußùl al-fiqh and al-Shàfi'ì’s al-Risàlah have been extremely helpful in the writing of this book.
I would also like to thank Laurie Patton, Paul Courtright, Joyce Flueckiger, and Eric Reinders for challenging me to think in new ways. I would especially like to thank Vernon Robbins, whose Social Rhetorical Analysis project inspired much of my approach to †abaqàt texts. Vernon was always enthusiastic and encouraging in approaching texts in different ways. This text would not have been possible without the kind support and efforts of Drs. Gordon Newby, Richard Martin, and Devin Stewart who guided the early stages of the project. Richard Martin has been a friend and advisor for almost twenty years and his help in exploring methods in the study of religion has been a constant source of inspiration. He also introduced me to the work of Fernand Braudel in the summer of 1993, which has had a profound impact on my understanding of history. Gordon Newby was always patient and was a true source of support throughout the rigors of graduate school.
Anyone who reads this book will notice the influence of George Makdisi on my understanding of the social institutions of medieval Muslim society. Although I never met Dr. Makdisi, Devin Stewart— his student and my teacher—transmitted to me the core of Makdisi’s work. Devin and I worked for many hours through numerous Arabic texts and our educational relationship developed into one that reflected many of the styles of learning discussed in chapter four of the present work. My knowledge of Arabic is the result of Devin’s many hours of effort, and while all mistakes in the text are purely mine, what I get right is largely because of his hard work. Later stages of this book have benefited from the advice of Christopher Melchert, another of Makdisi’s students.
Christopher read several drafts of each chapter and his insights and advice were always helpful. Both Devin and Christopher are extremely exact readers and consistently pressed me to work through my source texts and to improve my understanding of the material. While I did not always take their advice it was much appreciated nevertheless. I would also like to thank a long list of professors and friends who convinced me to keep going over the years. Space, however, does not permit an inclusive list, but I would like to take this opportunity to mention a few who were especially encouraging and inspirational: Neil Merrell, Kurt Wenner, Dave Damrel, and especially Richard Wentz who was my first and most important guide in the study of religion. Furthermore, I would like to express my appreciation to my colleagues in the Department of Religious Studies at Indiana University, especially Steve Weitzman, Robert Campany, and Jerome Copulski who read several chapters and offered important comments.
I was able to complete this book due to the generous intellectual and financial support of the Department of Religious Studies and the RUGS program at Indiana University, which allowed me to take research leave in 2004–05 to complete the final draft. I would also like to thank my colleagues at the Oxford Centre for Islamic Studies at Oxford University who awarded me the al-Mutawa Visiting Research Fellowship in 2004–05. Ruba Kana"an, S. Hassan Abedin, and Muhammad Talib were extremely supportive during the period of my tenure there. I would also like to thank Farhan Nizami, the director of the centre, for his generous support. I would like to close by thanking my parents Jimmie and Marjorie Jaques for their support over the years. My children Jordan and Joshua, to whom this book is dedicated, have been a great source of love and support. They can now stop asking why I am obsessed with Ibn Qà∂ì Shuhbah. Finally, to my wife Donna, who read the final draft of the text and to whom this book is also dedicated, you have been with me for twenty-one years and without you none of this would have been possible. Like al-Muzanì, you are a ‘pearl diver into the sea of knowledge.’ Your insights into ritual, history, and social structures have always challenged me to wade into deeper waters. It goes without saying that all of the errors and mistakes that follow are mine alone.
INTRODUCTION:
CRISIS, LEGAL DECLINE, AND THE ˇABAQÀT GENRE
A sense of crisis pervades Mamlùk period historiography. Wars, plagues, famines, political and religious corruption are all dominant themes. Although all of these phenomena were known before the Mamlùk period, what was different was the perception that they now occurred in combination and with devastating affect on Muslim society. These crises led to a pervasive sense that the past was better than the present and that all things contemporary paled in comparison with the glories of the earlier history of Islam. This is particularly apparent in histories written during the Circassian Mamlùk period (1382–1517). In works such as the Kitàb al-sulùk li ma'rifat duwal al-mulùk by A˙mad b. 'Alì al-Maqrìzì (d. 845/1441),1 al-Nujùm al-Ωàhirah fì mulùk mißr wa "l-qàhirah by Abù al-Ma˙àsin Ibn Taghrì Birdì (d. 874/1470),2 and the Inbà" al-ghumr bi abnà" al-'umr by Ibn Óajar al-'Asqalànì (852/1449)3 there is, as William Popper says, “a pessimistic criticism of the present and [a] regret ‘for the good old days.’”4
The perception of wide ranging historical, religious, political, and cultural catastrophes led to a crisis of intellectual leadership because Mamlùk society, as a religious cultural system, was founded on the assumption that scholars of divine law ( fuqahà" sing. faqìh) had the ability to interpret sacred texts and thus guide people to live according to God’s plan.5 Islamic legal theory suggests that Muslims are a special category of people because they ‘submit’ to the will of God. Submission requires people to do what God says; to obey the rules of the sharì'ah. According to medieval Muslim legal theory, however, the sharì'ah is not an explicit code of legal norms, but exists only in the mind of God. God indicates what the rules are through the texts of revelation (the Qur"an and the sunnah-the acts and statements of the Prophet Mu˙ammad which were thought to have been transmitted by pious individuals over the centuries and were later collected in written form in texts known as a˙àdith, sing. ˙adìth). The fuqahà" claimed for themselves the exclusive right and ability to interpret the texts of revelation so that Muslims, common people and rulers alike, might know what God wants them to do in all walks of life.6 As the authoritative interpreters of revelation, the fuqahà" became, by virtue of their expertise, guides for the community.7 They were judges, governmental advisors, administrators, and popular leaders.8 When the crises of the 13th, 14th, and 15th centuries began to overwhelm the crumbling 'Abbàsid state and the later Mamlùk Sul†ànate, blame was focused on the failure of the jurists to guide the community out of the problems that had overwhelmed it. Popular dissatisfaction with the ability of the jurists to guide the Muslim community was expressed, for example, in Ibn Taghrì Birdì’s condemnation of the corruption of the jurists during one of several failed attempts at judicial reform in the early 9th/15th century9 and in the public denunciation of Jamàl al-Dìn al-Suyù†ì (d. 909/1505) when he declared himself a mujtahid (authoritative interpreter of the texts of revelation) in the late Circassian period.10
The crisis of leadership was also felt by the jurists themselves. As Wael Hallaq has demonstrated, the initial discussion of the so-called ‘closing of the gate of ijtihàd ’ (a metaphor for the end of independent legal reasoning) came about because jurists representing the established schools of Islamic law wanted to prevent new schools from arising. Legal theorists argued that the ability to develop new methods of textual interpretation came to an end after the deaths of the four eponymous founders of the Óanafì, Shàfi'ì, Màlikì, and Óanbalì schools. This theory, however, did not mean that the ability of jurists to ‘discover’ new rules in the texts of revelation came to a complete halt. To the contrary, Hallaq argues that jurists continued for centuries to employ various forms of independent legal discovery.11 In the Mamlùk period the discourse over the decline of legal expertise shifted as crises in close succession began to grip the Middle East. The Mongol invasion and destruction of the last vestiges of the 'Abbàsid Empire in 1258 was interpreted as a direct challenge to the leadership of the 'ulamà" (community of religious authorities). Critics such as Ibn Taymìyah (d. 728/1328) began to argue that the abilities of jurists to guide the community had declined and that they were no longer suited to be the interpreters of revelation that they once claimed to be. It was their failure to provide the guidance necessary for the community to prosper that had brought about the invasion and destruction of Muslim lands by non-believers.12 Ibn Taymìyah called for a return to a basic form of piety and a legal method stripped of outside influences. Most importantly, he called for a return to ijtihàd founded on a new infusion of basic legal and methodological education. Jurists, once re-educated in the fundamental elements of law would then lead a religious reconstruction of Muslim society, divesting it of the foreign corruptions that had caused it to fall prey to outside invasion and domination.13
Historiography, eschatology, and the ideology of crisis Although he was, in his time, marginal to the mainstream of medieval Muslim thinking, some of Ibn Taymìyah’s ideas did find champions in the ‘orthodox’ schools of legal and theological thought, perhaps most importantly with the historians Shams al-Dìn Mu˙ammad b. A˙mad al-Dhahabì (d. 748/1348) and Ismà'ìl Ibn Kathìr (d. 774/ 1373).14 Al-Dhahabì’s Tàrìkh al-islàm15 and its abridgements al-'Ibar fì akhbàr al-bashar mimman 'abar and Kitàb tadhkirat al-˙uffàΩ, 16 and Ibn Kathìr’s al-Bidàyah wa "l-nihàyah17 became the main sources for Circassian period historians and served as the foundations for many abridgements and addendums.18 Al-Dhahabì was a staunch defender of Ibn Taymìyah and his ideas. He argued that jurists had allowed Islamic society to fall into crisis because they were too fixated on arguing about speculative legal method (ußùl al-fiqh) to give adequate attention to the problems of the community (ummah). The juridical fixation on ußùl al-fiqh resulted, according to al-Dhahabì, in a “spiritual disease” that weakened the ummah. 19 According to the historian and Shàfi'ì scholar Taqì al-Dìn al-Subkì (d. 749/1349), al-Dhahabì’s bias against the jurists, especially Shàfi'ìs, and his predilection for the ideas of Ibn Taymìyah, contaminated his historical analyses and limited the usefulness of his work.20 Later scholars writing during the Circassian Mamlùk period disagreed, arguing that al-Dhahabì was the greatest historian of the age.21
Ibn Kathìr, like al-Dhahabì, was very close to Ibn Taymìyah and was even buried in a grave next to his.22 Ibn Kathìr, however, understood the decline of the period in apocalyptic terms and his treatment of the causes of the Mongol invasion and the destruction of the 'Abbàsid Caliphate is an important window on to how medieval historians conceptualized the idea of social, political, and religious crisis.23 He writes that the Muslim world had fallen into decline for almost a century before the Mongol assault. Political infighting and competition for power led political and religious leaders to neglect the community. For instance, in 589/1193 conditions were so abhorrent that when famine struck in 'Iràq people resorted to cannibalism; the corpses of children were even consumed by the starving.24 As these calamities persisted, Muslim leaders failed to find solutions to the problems but instead vied with each other for power.25 Even the jurists in Baghdàd and Damascus were more concerned with their internal struggles for power than they were for the plight of the Muslim community.26 This situation persisted until 656/1258 when the Mongols attacked Baghdàd. Ibn Kathìr writes that the officials around the 'Abbàsid Caliph Musta'ßim Billàh fled the city or collaborated with the advancing enemy. These included court officials, but also judges, jurists, Íùfìs, members of the noble houses (a'yàn), as well as common people. Tens of thousands were murdered, legal colleges were destroyed, their funds confiscated by the invaders, and books of learning were burned. While this was going on the Caliph, oblivious to the destruction of the city and the assault on his palace, occupied himself with concubines.27 In the end, Ibn Kathìr claims that over 80,000 people were killed in Baghdàd alone, although he quotes unnamed informants that place the number at over a million. He clearly does not give credence to this fantastic figure but quotes it rhetorically to demonstrate just how horrible the event was.28 For Ibn Kathìr, however, the importance of the event is not the death toll, or even the destruction of the 'Abbàsid Caliphate, but what it symbolizes with respect to the decline of moral conditions and the failure of the scholars to act as guides for the community. He says that “[God] caused to befall on the people of Baghdàd that which happened to the children of Israel in Jerusalem.”29 He then quotes the Qur"an, Sùrah 17:4–5, stating: And we decreed for the children of Israel in the book, Verily, you will work corruption in the earth twice, and you will become great tyrants. So when the time for the first of the two came, we brought against you our slaves of great power who ravaged the country. A promise was fulfilled. He then says, Among the children of Israel a multitude were killed. The sons of the prophets were captured from among the people who prayed. Jerusalem was ruined [by] what [had happened to it] and it was inhabited by the slaves. The ascetics, scholars, and the prophets no longer occupied its thrones.30 Ibn Kathìr uses the Qur"anic passage as a commentary on the events surrounding the Mongol invasion and the end of the Caliphate. He, in effect, argues that the causes of the first destruction of Jerusalem as depicted in the Qur"an are the same as those that led to the destruction of Baghdàd; both events he interprets as a manifestation of God’s divine justice. In his analysis of Sùrah 17, Ibn Kathìr states that Israel had been destroyed the first time because the Israelites “had rebelled and killed many of the prophets and scholars ('ulamà").”31 In other words, they had cut themselves off from those capable of interpreting revelation. The second destruction of Israel (which he attributes to the coming of Islam) occurred because the Israelites failed to learn the lessons of the first event, prompting God to send another army to punish them for their inequities.32 The second destruction was followed by a period during which God provided for even more guidance through the prophetic office of Mu˙ammad. Ibn Kathìr indicates that this final dispensation of revelation was ignored, not just by the Israelites, but by humankind in general. This third and final rejection precipitates the day of resurrection and the end times, which for Ibn Kathìr coincided with his own period.33 Sùrah 17 begins with revelatory episodes associated with Moses and Mu˙ammad (verses 1–3). It then presents, and thrice repeats over the course of the chapter, a pattern of revelation, destruction, the return of revelation or guidance, and finally, the onset of the eschaton (16–59, 60–71, 72–100 respectively). In each instance, there is a cycle whereby a) God gives revelation to the people who then reject or corrupt it, b) they are punished through the destruction of life and property, c) they are given a second chance to obey the revelation, and d) when they ultimately fail, God destroys them a second time and introduces the day of judgement. In all cycles but the first (verses 1–15), the second destruction is conflated with the apocalypse. By drawing an analogy between the first destruction of Israel and the sack of Baghdàd, Ibn Kathìr argues that the Mongol attack began a period of eschatological turmoil and unless the community returns to obeying revelation and listens to those with knowledge ('ilm),34 God will unleash apocalyptic destruction that will ultimately lead to the day of resurrection.35 Ibn Kathìr draws on centuries of apocalyptic ideas that forecast a time when foreign non-Muslim invaders would attack and overwhelm the Muslim world. Apocalypticists such as al-Óasan b. Mu˙ammad al-Daylamì (d. 8th/14th century) transmitted ˙adìth that foretold the end times. For instance, in one tradition, the Prophet Mu˙ammad states that the 'ulamà" are the guardians of the Messengers... [they are] faithful as long as they do not intermingle with the Sul†àn and (do not) have intercourse with the world. When they intermingle with the Sul†àn and have intercourse with the world, then they have betrayed the Messenger, and so be wary and afraid of them.36 According to David Cook, in his book Studies in Muslim Apocalyptic, the failure of the 'ulamà" to guide the community is a common theme in apocalyptic literature. Because the 'ulamà" fail to set aside their own interests and to focus on guiding the community, moral decay, described as ‘ignorance’ ( jahl ), sets in and God is forced to punish the ummah. 37 Ironically, those specializing in legal rules are not the subject of blame in apocalyptic literature, but, as with al-Dhahabì, people who focus on auxiliary areas of intellectual endeavour such as lexicography, grammar, Qur"an recitation, and legal methodologies.38 Apocalypticists mention a number of groups that cause the destruction of the Muslim community, prominent among them the Turks. The Turks are describes as being among the “Arab’s most deadly enemies.”39 A number of prophecies said to have originated with the Prophet Mu˙ammad foretell of a time when massive invasions from the east will overwhelm and destroy the Muslim community. For instance, one tradition states that the hour will not arrive until you fight a group with small eyes, wide faces, as if their eyes were the pupils of locust, as if their faces were beaten shields, wearing shoes made of hair. Taking up leather shields until they fasten their horses to palm trees in 'Iràq.40 In another tradition, Ibn Tàwàs (d. 664/1266), in his al-Malà˙im wa "l-fitan states The incomprehensible ones are coming, the incomprehensible ones are coming! They cut off your heads, steal your land-spoils, settle in your land, expose your shame, enslave the best of you, and humiliate your nobility. [They are] ugly of colour, [with] rough necks, renowned swords; their sticks peeled, and their whips knotted at the end. They will be harsher on my community than the Pharaoh was on the Children of Israel.41 In each instance, the invaders come as instruments of God’s will to punish the moral decay of the Muslim community.42 Ibn Kathìr, and other Mamlùk period historians, drawing from these apocalyptic visions, understood their time to be the beginning of the eschaton, the beginning of the end.43 They, however, clearly believed that there were ways to avoid the immediate end of creation. Ibn Kathìr, drawing from Sùrah 17:18–41, lists a number of things that must be done in order to prevent the eschaton; these include: worshipping God alone and without partners,44 obeying and being respectful to ones parents,45 maintaining ties of kinship,46 spending ones money carefully,47 prohibiting the killing of children,48 prohibiting adultery and fornication,49 prohibiting homicide,50 prohibiting the unlawful use of moneys provided for orphans,51 and fulfilling contractual obligations.52 Each of these requires religious leadership and it is the 'ulamà" that becomes the focus of Mamlùk period ideas about the preservation of Muslim society in the context the coming eschaton. Central to Ibn Kathìr’s eschatology is that the 'ulamà" failed in its role as guides and interpreters of revelation.
Biography and the discourse of legal and moral decline
Although the apocalypicists did not specifically blame the jurists for the moral decline of the community, the jurists themselves had argued for centuries that they had failed to adhere to their own standards. Al-Nawawì (d. 676/1277), for instance, argued in the midst of the Mongol invasion that legal standards had declined because they had failed to develop an understanding of legal history, especially the lives of the great jurists of the past in the contexts of their own times. He states that an acquaintance with the elite [ jurists of the past] establishes a kind of relationship between them and those who know them. On the Day of Resurrection, such a relationship will be helpful in securing intercession. Now the relationship of a scholar to his pupil is like the relationship between a father and his son, in fact, it is something more sacred. A pupil who does not know his teacher is like a son who does not know his father, in fact, he is even more wrong. A jurist who is asked, for instance, about al-Muzanì and al-Ghazàlì and does not know the interval of time between them and the distance between the places where they lived certainly reveals a truly disqualifying lack of knowledge. Certainly the transmitters of traditions, the ˙adìth scholars have long appreciated the truth of this and drawn the consequences: they have written monographs on personality criticism, and they have also dealt with this subject in works which go under the title of history. The jurists, on the other hand, have ceased to realize (the importance of ) this subject. Thus, their previous awareness of the different degrees of accuracy and accomplishment among their leaders and experts ceased to exist.53 Here, al-Nawawì articulates a potent critique of the legal profession that would shape the development of a genre of legal biographical historical text over the next 300 years. He argues that the crisis of the period was a crisis of authority that can chiefly be blamed on a failure to maintain the teachings of the great jurists of previous generations. Al-Nawawì’s critique came to dominate the internal discourse of the legal schools, especially the Shàfi'ìs and Óanafìs. Internal to the schools there was an attempt to sort out the problems of legal interpretation by seeking to delineate the chains by which authoritative knowledge was passed from generation to generation. The root of the problem, according to this view, was that jurists had drifted away from the core methods and doctrines of the schools of law; that they had become influenced by ideas and intellectual traditions that led jurists away from the purpose of the legal profession: to articulate rules for the guidance of the community. This view of the decline of legal abilities is expressed most fully in the genre of biographical historical dictionaries known as †abaqàt (literally, generations or ranks). An overview of the development of the †abaqàt genre According to H. A. R. Gibb, Arab Islamic historiography embraces both annals and biography.54 In fact, biographies were so compre hensive by the Mamlùk period that, “biography was history in the view of many of its practitioners.”55 This view is shared by most scholars who have examined the biographical genre.56 ˇabaqàt texts, however, are different from other forms of biography because of their focus on authority, especially in disciplines of knowledge thought to have originated with the Prophet Mu˙ammad. ˇabaqàt texts map the chains by which authoritative knowledge is transmitted from generation to generation and in doing so present readers with overviews of trends in the development of different scholarly traditions and schools of thought. The authors of †abaqàt texts present their histories by retelling the lives of individuals; by linking scholars, concepts, intellectual traditions, events, alliances, and conflicts together through the use of a range of rhetorical strategies. Historical understandings are therefore presented in the details of each biographical entry, which when taken as a whole, show the ebbs and flows of intellectual development and how the authors of †abaqàt works understood historical contexts to have influenced the development of Islamic thought. The earliest extant biographical dictionary is al-ˇabaqàt al-kubrà by Ibn Sa'd (d. 230/845).57 This †abaqàt text was first analyzed by Otto Loth in a short work published in 1869.58 Ibn Sa'd’s †abaqàt examines the Companions of Mu˙ammad who transmitted sayings from the Prophet, who also fought in the battle of Badr (circa 2/624), as well as those who later migrated to various areas of the newly emerging Islamic world.59 According to Loth, as traditionists began to develop a science that focused on those who transmitted ˙adìth, they started to develop biographical dictionaries that catalogued the qualities, qualifications, and localities of those who transmitted traditions of the Prophet.60 For Loth, H. A. R. Gibb, and others, biographical genres developed as a sub-genre of ˙adìth science.61 Ibrahim Hafsi, in his monumental “Recherches sur le Genre ‘ˇabaqàt,’” one of the few analyses devoted solely to the †abaqàt genre, observes that †abaqàt texts are the highest expression of the biographical focus of ˙adìth specialists.62 For Hafsi, “le genre †abaqàt est né dans le cadre du ˙adìΔ et en est inséparable.”63 Hafsi argues that ˙adìth science not only influenced the origins of the †abaqàt genre but also came to dominate the later development of the tradition as it was used by other professional groups.64 According to George Makdisi, however, the origins of the †abaqàt genre and its later development may not have been influenced by ˙adìth science.65 While he does not explore the origins of the †abaqàt genre, his misgivings about the genre’s origins stem from W. Heffening’s argument that the origins of the †abaqàt genre have more to do with the “interest of the Arabs in genealogy and biography” than with ˙adìth studies.66 Michael Cooperson and Tarif Khalidi agree with Heffening’s assessment and locate the origins of biographical dictionaries in Arab genealogies.67 One of the shortcomings of their analyses for present purposes is that they fail to distinguish between †abaqàt and other kinds of biographical work.68 It is difficult to ascertain the accuracy of their theories for the development of †abaqàt since they address only the broad outlines of biographical literature while Loth, Makdisi, and Hafsi look more narrowly at the †abaqàt genre. Khalidi argues that the origins of the biographical genre lie in pre-Islamic times.69 Interest in biography was motivated by the dominant cultural passion for genealogies and poetry. As Khalidi contends, genealogy and the chain of poetic transmission (riwàyah) were both well-established pre-Islamic cultural interests. Short biographies of the Prophet’s Companions were intended to authenticate the history of the early community as these Companions carried with them the guarantee of truth into far corners of the empire.
Later, as the bureaucratic structure of the Umayyads and 'Abbàsids took shape biographical dictionaries became more important as there was a need to catalogue warriors and their descendants who were due state stipends for military service.71 Only later did traditionists appropriate the genre for their own purposes. Traditionists were only one in a series of groups that came to use the genre to provide a trans-generational record of their memberships. Khalidi, departing from other scholars, argues that the single most important group that contributed to the development of the genre were the Íùfìs. He contends that biographical dictionaries are concerned with mapping chains of descent in the transmission of ‘truth.’ Silsilah (conceived as a spiritual chain of transmission), not isnàd (a scholarly chain of transmission) is the prime motivation behind biographical method.72 By Mamlùk times, Khalidi argues, the need to map the history of the transmission of ‘truth’ became the main motive behind the writing of biographical texts.73 The problem with Khalidi’s theory is that the first Íùfì †abaqàt work postdates (by a century) the production of the earliest †abaqàt works. As Makdisi and Hafsi point out, the earliest †abaqàt texts were written by the rationalist Wàßil ibn 'A†à" (d. 131/748) and by the traditionalist al-Mu'àfà b. 'Imràn b. Nawfal al-Mawßilì 74 (d. 184/800); although Chase Robinson has called into question al-Mawßilì’s role into the formation of the genre.75 The first Íùfì †abaqàt was written by Mu˙ammad b. 'Alì b. Óasan al-Tirmidhì 76 (d. 285/898), and follows the format of the previous eleven traditionist †abaqàt. 77 If, as these dates suggest, the first †abaqàt was that compiled by Wàßil, the purported founder of the Mu'tazilì school of theology,78 it would suggest that the genre grew out of the rationalist/traditionalist debate, and only secondarily as a form specific to Íùfìs.79 Cooperson agrees with Khalidi that the origins of the biographical genre predate the formation of traditionalist groups. For Cooperson, however, the purpose of biography is to identify those responsible for the transmission of knowledge, not ‘truth.’ Following Heffening, Cooperson argues that most biographical collections devoted to fields other than ˙adìth studies are, for the most part, at least as old as those of ˙adìth. 80 He contends that the oldest biographical collections are those devoted to the life of the Prophet Mu˙ammad. These biographies were written by akhbàrìs (collectors of reports), who become an identifiable group as early as the Caliphate of Mu'àwiyah (29/661–48/680). The oldest collections were, however, written before the specialization of professions began to take place.81 Akhbàrìs would include the genealogies of Companions and others who were important in Mu˙ammad’s story as they recounted the life of the Prophet. These genealogies often included a brief narrative about the lives of those included in the list of ancestors. The narrative collections of genealogies were the earliest kind of biography.82 Cooperson argues that Ibn Sa'd’s al-ˇabaqàt al-kubrà has been misidentified as a work about ˙adìth transmitters. The text, after all, contains much that one does not find in later traditionist works, most importantly the biography of the Prophet. Ibn Sa'd’s text nevertheless influenced how later traditionists constructed their biographical dictionaries. It is, however, the dominance of the isnàd as the primary vetting agent that sets traditionist biographies apart from akhbàrì texts, especially after al-Shàfi'ì. 83 In ˙adìth science, examinations of the chain of transmission became the most important avenue for evaluating the worth of ˙adìth. Scholars examined such variables as the general knowledge of each member in the chain, their reputations for truthfulness, histories of mental illness, and whether or not it would have been physically possible for each link in the chain to have met and passed on the tradition. Cooperson’s chief insight into the genre is the idea that biography becomes central to Islamic historical literature because the notion of descent (here metaphorical, not literal) from the Prophet Mu˙ammad becomes one of the most important concepts in Islamic intellectual thought. As specialization in religious professions becomes more distinct (by the 2nd/8th century) so does the need to map out the chains through which the Prophet’s knowledge was communicated to different professional groups.84 The idea that different professional groups are heirs to specific kinds of knowledge particular to that group lies at the heart of the biographical genre.85 The idea that specialized disciplines of knowledge originate with the Prophet Mu˙ammad is based on a ˙adìth which states that “scholars are heirs to the prophets.”86 Over time, as various disciplines of specialized knowledge formed (law, theology, grammar, lexicography, medicine, even poetry) their practitioners began to assert that their authority originated with knowledge passed on to them from the Prophet.87 As specialization in religious professions became more distinct (by the 2nd/8th century) so did the need to map out the chains through which the Prophet’s knowledge was communicated to different professional groups.88 According to George Makdisi, as religious vocations became more professionalized, †abaqàt works, which had been concerned with authority, began to focus on outlining ‘orthodoxies’ within each religious profession.89 While biographical histories such as Tàrìkh baghdàd by al-Kha†ìb al-Baghdàdì (463/1071)90 may contain biographies of jurists and other members of professional groups, †abaqàt works are specifically dedicated to listing only those whose opinions can be considered authoritative in the formation of orthodoxy, regardless of the field of specialization.91 Makdisi goes on to argue that because †abaqàt texts are central in delimiting the boundaries of permissible opinion, they mark off the peripheries of different professional schools of thought. This, he argues, is particularly important for understanding the history of Islamic legal institutions.92 ˇabaqàt works, therefore, not only demarcate the boundaries of permissible opinion; they can also tell us something about the internal debates and struggles of legal schools.
ˇabaqàt and the crisis of authority during the Mamlùk period
By the Mamlùk period, because of the crises that shook the Muslim community in the Middle East, the †abaqàt genre became a manifestation of the crisis of religious authority. Because it had previously been used to map the contours of authoritative knowledge in each of the religious sciences, †abaqàt texts became the locus of intellectual debates over how the crisis of authority had arisen and the kinds of curatives that were needed to repair the situation. The use of the †abaqàt genre as a vehicle for debating the crisis of authority during the Mamlùk period is demonstrated by the explosion in the production of texts beginning in the 7th/14th centuries. As figure 1.1 demonstrates, the number of †abaqàt works produced declines steadily after the initial formation of the genre in the 3rd/9th century. This decline continues until the period following the Mongol invasion in the mid 7th/13th century. In the 8th/14th and 9th/15th centuries the production of the genre increases, doubling the total number of texts produced just two centuries earlier, before steadily declining once again in the 10th/16th century.
Besides the Mongol destruction of the 'Abbàsid Empire in 1258, the Middle East was subjected to the outbreak of the plague in 749/1348, which reoccurred every 10–12 years until 1516.93 The plague was extremely traumatic for Muslims living in Egypt and Syria. While the sometimes fantastic death tolls listed by medieval Muslim historians, ranging into the hundreds of thousands, have been discredited by medieval and modern researchers,94 they speak to the horror that the plagues caused. Additionally, the region continued to be invaded from the east and the north until finally being conquer by the Ottomans in 1517. The invasions of Tìmùr (d. 1405)95 and other Turko-Mongol states along with pressure from the Franks,96 impressed upon the people of the Mamlùk period that the Muslim community was in serious danger. Internally, the Mamlùk state was extremely chaotic. The first half of the era, known as the Ba˙rì period, lasted from 1260 to 1382. Over the course of little more than a century, the Sul†ànate changed hands 24 times. The second half of the period was dominated by the violent rise of the Circassian Mamlùks who saw the Sul†ànate change 27 times between 1382 and 1517. With each change of Sul†àn there would follow purges of political authority at all levels of administration. By the middle of the 9th/15th century these purges became extremely violent with mass executions and mutilations as new leaders sought to consolidate their control. The jurists were intimately involved in these political upheavals. Siding with different contenders to the throne, jurists frequently suffered punishments for falling in with defeated groups, losing wealth, and suffering torture and sometimes even death.97 The crisis of authority lead jurists to think seriously about how their circumstances had changed so radically from a past that was, especially in comparison to present conditions, valorized as a golden period of enlightenment, security, and intellectual vitality. Legal †abaqàt works (those dedicated to the legal profession) become increasingly important sources for sorting out the roots of the declining fortunes of jurists and in mapping out chains of authority that were still considered valid given the perception that most jurists were no longer capable of interpreting the texts of revelation directly. As figure 1.2 demonstrates, the crisis of authority was primarily expressed in legal †abaqàt and not in texts devoted to other religious disciplines. Figure 1.2 shows that there had been a steady increase in the number of legal †abaqàt works written since the 3rd/9th century, even as non-legal †abaqàt texts declined in production. The increase, however, was slow until the 7th/13th and 8th/14th centuries. While there was an initial jump in the production of all texts in the century following the Mongol invasion and during the formation of the Mamlùk Sul†ànate and the outbreak of the plague, the production of non-legal †abaqàt began to decline after this, while the production of legal texts continued to increase for the next century. Figure 1.2 indicates that there may have been a widespread sense of crisis across most of the religious disciplines in the early Mamlùk period, but that there was a prolonged sense of crisis in the legal profession. But was the sense of crisis spread across the entire legal profession or was it restricted to certain schools? The Màlikìs and the Óanbalìs seem to have been largely unaffected by crises of the Mamlùk period. Màlikì production never rises above one text in any century and the Óanbalìs never produce more than two.98 Both the Màlikìs and the Óanbalìs were marginal in the Mamlùk state, neither having much influence with the officials at court or the public at large.99 As figure 1.3 shows, the situation was much different for the Shàfi'ìs and the Óanafìs. The Shàfi'ìs were the dominant school under the Mamlùks with but few exceptions, as when the Óanafìs held greater influence at court during the brief reign of al-Màlik al-¸àhir ˇa†ar (d. 824/1421).100 Because of the role that the Shàfi'ìs and the Óanafìs played in Mamlùk society was much greater they also bore the heavier burden when the crises struck and the challenges to their authority were thus more pronounced. It is also important to note that the majority of †abaqàt were produced in the Circassian Mamlùk period when the greatest number of challenges to Muslim society occurred and the need to sort out the crisis of authority was the greatest. ˇabaqàt al-fuqahà" al-shàfi'ìyah and the crises of the Circassian period This book will examine ˇabaqàt al-fuqahà" al-shàfi'ìyah (The Generations of the Shàfi'ì Jurists) written by Abù Bakr b. A˙mad Ibn Qà∂ì Shuhbah (d. 851/1448), a text written during the worst of the Circassian Mamlùk period, and will test the thesis that †abaqàt works were used to sort out the causes for the declines of the Muslim community during the Mamlùk era.101 Ibn Qà∂ì Shuhbah’s ˇabaqàt contains the biographies of 784 jurists laid out chronologically, beginning with the students (ßà˙ib pl. aß˙àb) of Imàm Mu˙ammad b. Idrìs alShàfi'ì (d. 204/820), the eponym of his school, and continuing down 29 generations to 840/1436, or to Ibn Qà∂ì Shuhbah’s own time. Ibn Qà∂ì Shuhbah was one of the most important jurists of his day and was trained not only in law but also in history. It is argued that Ibn Qà∂ì Shuhbah wrote his ˇabaqàt out of his concern for the decline of legal training among Shàfi'ì jurists. Working within the theoretical framework of the hierarchy of legal authorities outlined by al-Nawawì in his al-Majmù' fì shar˙ al-mudhahhab, Ibn Qà∂ì Shuhbah sought to demonstrate that while ijtihàd continued on a limited basis, the majority of jurists had simply become memorizers of substantive rules handed down from earlier times. This is not to say that he was troubled by this state of affairs; to the contrary, he sees this as the natural consequence of the political, economic, and environmental decay of the late 'Abbàsid and Mamlùk periods. The original title of this book, He Died in Prison and in Chains, was a quotation from Ibn Qà∂ì Shuhbah’s text which refers to the death of Abù Ya'qùb al-Buway†ì (d. 231/846). Al-Buway†ì, al-Shàfi'ì’s clos est disciple and transmitter, is presented as dying prematurely due to the inquisition (Mihna c. 833–850) which attempted to force on the Muslim community a single theological conception of revelation. Because of al-Buway†ì’s death at the hands of the government, Ibn Qà∂ì Shuhbah argues that two sub-schools of thought emerged in Shàfi'ì jurisprudence: one devoted to the faithful transmission of alShàfi'ì’s original ideas and methodologies and another that sought to expand the limits of acceptable opinion through the use of widely divergent ideas. Over time, according to Ibn Qà∂ì Shuhbah, these opinions become catalogued in two massive commentaries written by Abù al-Qàsim al-Ràfi'ì (d. 623/1226), and al-Nawawì, which, he argues, reach the highest level of authority because they transmit the widely ranging opinions of the masters of the Shàfi'ì school. The authoritative authors of divergent opinion therefore provide a protective barrier for the madhhab by guarding it from the insertion of legal rulings by less qualified jurists. In addition, and perhaps more importantly, these texts show jurists secondary approaches to legal reasoning that permitted them to continue discovering new legal rules without having to make recourse to ijtihàd so that the law did not become static after the decline of legal capabilities.
Overview of the study
Ultimately, the purpose of the ˇabaqàt is to demonstrate to Shàfi'ì jurists who believed they were living in a time of eschatological crisis, not only who the holders of diverging opinions were, but also what kinds of opinions they held and how they thought about the law. As is discussed throughout this book, Ibn Qà∂ì Shuhbah sought to describe the causes of legal decline and curatives that jurists could turn to in times of crisis. It was meant by its author to be a textbook for jurists to use as a companion to the great ikhtilàf texts of the time; to fulfill the directive issued by al-Nawawì 200 years earlier. Chapter one looks at the life of Ibn Qà∂ì Shuhbah and the events that shaped his life and worldview. In particular, the chapter examines the events surrounding the publication of the text and gives an overview of the major themes he seeks to develop in his work. It then looks at his rise as a judge and the publication of the final three editions of the ˇabaqàt before closing with a description of his final years and death.
Chapter two looks at how Ibn Qà∂ì Shuhbah utilizes his source material and the extent to which authors of †abaqàt texts had control over the composition of their biographies. It has been argued that biographical writers merely regurgitated source material and that they had little ability to manipulate their texts to make specific arguments about history or religious authority. The chapter demonstrates that while authors were bound closely to their source material, the biographical traditions that developed around many historical figures were extremely diverse, and that authors such as Ibn Qà∂ì Shuhbah had extensive control over what they used and how they combined and manipulated information. Chapter three explores various rhetorical strategies that †abaqàt authors use to create histories of Islamic intellectual traditions. It focuses of the use of assorted forms of allusion, causation, hypertextual referencing, and forms of paronomasia. It then looks at how Ibn Qà∂ì Shuhbah uses these micro-textual rhetorical strategies to prefigure the major themes of his text: the importance of sudden death on the creation of new historical trends and the centrality of ikhtilàf in the formation of Islamic law. Chapter four focuses on analytical techniques useful in understanding both the rhetoric of †abaqàt works and how they depict trends in the development of Islamic legal history. These techniques will examine how terms for the acquisition of knowledge are ranked and classified, repeated, and progressively developed over the course of the text, exposing trends in the rise and fall of various classes of educative associations (akhadha, ishtaghala/ashghala, ˙aßßala, ba˙atha, takharraja, darasa/darrasa, and tafaqqaha). The chapter then compares Ibn Qà∂ì Shuhbah’s depiction of education to theories presented by such scholars as George Makdisi, J. Gilbert, Jonathan Berkey, and Michael Chamberlain. It argues that Ibn Qà∂ì Shuhbah presents a picture of medieval Islamic learning that emphasizes both institutional styles of education (the madrasah) typified by references to darasa/darrasa, ishtaghala/ashghala, and takharraja, and highly personal modes of learning exemplified by akhadha. Ibn Qà∂ì Shuhbah, however, presents tafaqqaha as the preferred mode of acquiring knowledge of law and argues that because of its decline, the abilities of legal scholars to produce new rules declines as well. Chapter five examines Ibn Qà∂ì Shuhbah’s description of the transmission of various genres of religious knowledge ('ilm, plural 'ulùm) and compares his depiction of the historical development of legal authority to modern debates concerning the decline of ijtihàd. It argues that he was largely unconcerned with the kinds of issues that so interest modern scholars: whether the gate of ijtihàd closed. Instead, he is interested in the development of levels of juridical authority and especially of the ability of low and middle level ‘affiliated’ jurists to discover new rules in the texts of revelation. He describes a process whereby legal abilities decline, but one in which high level mujtahids continue to exist to answer questions of special need. For Ibn Qà∂ì Shuhbah, low and middle level jurists are the ones most responsible for maintaining the law, and their decline prompts the rise of a class of memorizers of legal dicta that do not have the ability to carry-out basic legal functions, thus threatening the existence of the community and precipitating the crises of the period. Chapter six examines the role of ußùl al-fiqh and allied sciences in the development of Islamic law. It challenges the idea that the ability to discover new rules in the texts of revelation was tied to expertise in speculative legal methodologies. Instead, it argues that, according to Ibn Qà∂ì Shuhbah, basic methods of legal discovery, derived from the method of al-Shàfi'ì, are the only tools necessary to produce law. Ibn Qà∂ì Shuhbah argues, through the progressive development of his text, that knowledge of basic legal method was communicated through tafaqqaha educational relationships to the exclusion of other forms of learning, and with its decline the ability of low and middle level jurists to discover law was seriously challenged. He also argues that as the legal profession became more specialized, jurists were attracted to speculative legal methodologies and other kinds of ‘expedient’ sciences that had little to do with the discovery of law. With the Mongol invasion in the thirteenth century and the outbreak of the plague in the fourteenth, the ranks of jurists were so severely devastated that there were few scholars left who could use the basic methods necessary for the day-to-day functioning of the law. Ibn Qà∂ì Shuhbah’s text is not just a description of the development and decline of Islamic law; it also seeks to point contemporary and future jurists toward curatives for the collapse of legal ability among low and middle level jurists. He mentions 2058 texts over the course of his work, but describes 32 as being especially important for the continuing maintenance of the school. Eight texts represent the core doctrine (madhhab) of the school, thirteen refer to the central sources of divergent opinion, and the remaining eleven are sources that Ibn Qà∂ì Shuhbah considers to be the most authoritative in disciplines such as ußùl al-fiqh, grammar, lexicography, and history. Chapter seven examines these texts and the kinds of authority they impart on those who use them. It also explores the kinds of basic legal methods that the doctrinal and divergent opinions texts present for low and middle level jurists. The final chapter returns to the context in which Ibn Qà∂ì Shuhbah wrote his text. It argues that he was not only concerned with depicting the rise of law, the crises that were interwoven with its decline, and the texts that could point a way out of the morass, but that he was also interested to using the text as an intellectual autobiography that would legitimize his claim on the leadership of the Shàfi'ì school. Ibn Qà∂ì Shuhbah produced four editions of the text, each written in the context of his rise to the position of chief Shàfi'ì judge of Damascus. One of the purposes of the text was to give him an intellectual lineage to establish his place in the highest levels of Shàfi'ì legal authority and thus mark him as a leader of the school who was uniquely qualified to guide it through the troubled waters of the Mamlùk period.
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