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THE

NAKHAWILA,

SHIllrE

COMMUNITY

N

MEDINA

PAST

AND

PRESENT

BY

WERNER ENDE

Freiburg

.Br.

Contents

Acknowledgements

263

Introduction

264

The Shiite

Emirate of

the

Banfu

Husayn

272

The

Husaynid ashrdf

in modern times

279

The

Harb and their Shiite subtribes

287

The nakhdwila:

a name and

its

variants

293

More

questions

than

answers:

the

origin

of the nakhdwila

298

Ownership

and cultivation

of land

312

Other

occupations

314

Another

uncertainty:

the

numerical

size

316

Burial and cemeteries 318

Isolation,

discrimination

and survival

320

1.

The mahalla

320

2.

Public education

325

3.

Representation

in domestic

politics

327

4. A

lonely

minority:

the

religious

aspect

328

5.

Religious guidance

331

Bibliography

337

Maps

347

Acknowledgements

My

research

for

this

study

on

the Shiites

of

Medina

began

in

the

1980s,

but

for a

number of

reasons I

have

repeatedly

had to inter-

rupt my

work for

longer periods

of

time. Over

the

years,

a

great

many persons-colleagues and students (both past and present),

Muslim

religious

scholars, librarians,

booksellers and others-have

helped

me

in

one

way

or another

by procuring

books,

periodicals

and

photocopies, providing bibliographical

data,

guiding

me to

?

KoninklijkeBrill, Leiden,

1997

Die

Weltdes

Islams

37,

3



WERNER

ENDE

hidden source

material

and

solving

numerous

philological

and

other

problems

which

I encountered

while

working

on the various

sources. They are too many to be mentioned here by name. I

would

like

to thank

them

all.

Sincere

thanks

are due

to the

Deutsche

Forschungsgemeinschaft

or

its

generous

support:

a

grant

in 1995

enabled

me to

spend

the

summer

semester

of that

year

conducting

research on the

Imami

Shia

in

modern

times.

Introduction

The

present study

is an

attempt

to

describe the

situation of the

Twelver

Shiite

community

of Medina

and the

adjacent

area to

the

south of

the town

primarily

in modern

times

(i.e.

from the

early

19th

Century

onwards),

but with

due

reference

also to

its earlier

history.

The narrative

is based on a wide

range

of

very heteroge-

neous

primary

and

secondary

sources,

ranging

from medieval Ara-

bic and modern European travel books to writings of the contem-

porary

Saudi

opposition,

from

old

as

well as recent Arabic chroni-

cles to

reports

written

by

Iranian,

Lebanese Shiite and

other

pil-

grims

on their visits to Medina.

The

picture

that

emerges

is,

of

course,

rather

vague

on

many points, especially

since the

author of

the

present

study

has not been

able-and

most

probably

never

will

be-to

do

research on

the

spot.

To

begin

with,

a few remarks

concerning

the

general

impor-

tance

of Medina in the

history

of the

Shia as well as

in

Shiite

religious thought

are

certainly

appropriate.

We should

bear

in

mind

that

Medina is

distinguished

from

the other

shrine

towns of

(Twelver-)

Shiite

Islam'

by

a number of factors:

Its

history

and

religious

importance

are

closely

related

to those

of

Mecca.

Though

not

part

of

the

hajj,

a visit

(ziyara)

to Medina

before

or

after the

performance

of the

hajj

ceremonies

is consid-

ered highly commendable by all Muslims, and indeed for Shiites it

is almost a

sacred

duty.2

While some

of the Shiite shrine towns-

e.g.

Kerbela and

Najaf

-sprung up

around

the tomb of an

Imam,

1

See

article "'Atabat"

in

Encyclopaedia

Iranica,

vol.

2, 902-4,

and

The

Encyclo-

paedia of

Islam

(El),

Supplement,

fasc.

1-2,

94-96;

Khalili:

Mawsfi'at

al-'atabdt,

Madkhal and

12

vols.

2

Najafi:

Hidayat

al-nasikin,

passim.

264



THE

NAKHAW/LA,

SHIITE COMMUNITY

IN MEDINA

others,

such as

Medina,

existed

long

before

becoming

places

of

Shiite veneration.3

If we could "measure" the religious significance of a Shiite

shrine town

by

the number of Imams buried

there,

we

would

ne-

cessarily

come to

the

conclusion

that,

for

Shiites,

Medina was

the

most

important

as well as

the most

popular

of all

these

places-

much

more so than

Najaf

and

Kerbela,

for

instance,

where in each

case

"only"

one Imam

is

buried.

Medina

(a

city

dear to the heart

of

every

Muslim believer

as the

burial

place

of

the

Prophet

Muhammad)

contains

the tombs of four

Shiite

Imams,

i.e.

more

than can be found

anywhere

else.

They

are al-Hasan ibn

'All,

'Ali

Zayn

al-'Abidin,

Muhammad

al-Baqir

and

Ja'far

al-Sadiq.

It

also

contains

the tomb of Muhammad's

daughter

Fatima,

the mother

of two Imams

(Hasan

and

Husayn)

and one

of

the most

popular

female saints of

Islam,

as well

as

the tombs of

a

number of other

members of the

"People

of

the House"

(ahl

al-bayt).4

Of

course,

it does not

make

much sense to

evaluate

the

signifi-

cance of a Shiite shrine town in this way. However-given the

special importance

attached

by

Shiite

believers

in

general

to

a visit

to

the

shrines-

it

is

clear

why

a

ziydra5

to Medina

is

even

more

popular

with Shiite

pilgrims

than

with

their

Sunnite

co-religionists.

As

most

Twelver-Shiites

tend to believe that all

their Imams

(with

the

exception

of the

12th,

who

is

living

in

occultation)

died as

martyrs, standing

at

the tombs

of

the four

buried

in

Medina is an

act

likely

to excite their

deepest

religious

emotions.

In

modern

times,

i.e.

ever

since the

mid-1920s,

the

grief

felt

by

Shiite

visitors to the

old

cemetery

of

Medina,

Baqi'

al-Gharqad

(usu-

ally

called

al-Baqi')6

has

been

exacerbated

by

the

knowledge

that

3

For a rather

fragmentary survey

of the

history

of

Medina

see

art. "Al-

Madina" in

EI,

vol.

5,

994-1007. The best

comprehensive

treatment in Arabic

published

so far is

Badr: Al-t&rikhl-shamil.

4

A detailed surveyis to be found in Najafi:Madinah-shinasi,sp. kitab4, 318-

435. For the

more or

less

interchangeable

terms Ahl

al-bayt

r Al

al-bayt,

s used in

the

present

study,

see

El,

vol.

1,

257f. and 345.

5

For

the

rules,

ceremonies and

special prayers

see

Nakash: The Visitation.For

Medina in

particular

Najafi:

Hiddyat

al-nasikin.

6

See

art.

in

El,

vol.

1,

957;

Najafi:

Madinah-shinasi,

19ff.

and illustrations

nos.

54

and

82-87. For illustrations see

further Rif<at:

Mir'dt,

vol.

1,

426;

Batanfni:

Rihla,

facing

p.

256;

Kazem Zadeh:

Relation,

acing p.

16;

Moritz:

Bilder,

nos.

71-72;

for

the

present

situation

Hajiri:

Al-Baqi',

142,

150, 186, 194, 222,

224-27;

Mirath-i

Jdwiddn (journal, Tehran),

vol.

1,

no.1

(Bahar 1372/1993),

inside back

cover;

265



WERNER ENDE

the shrines

of

their Imams

in

Iraq

and

Iran and

even

those of

many

imamzadahs7

re

covered

by cupolas

and

richly

decorated

with gold, silver, mirrors etc. The extreme simplicity of the tombs

of the Imams

at

Medina

therefore comes as a

shock

to them.

This

holds true

even for those visitors

who are

well informed about the

destruction

of

cupolas

etc. carried

out

at

the

Baqi'

by

the Saudi

Wahhabis

after

their

conquest

of

Medina in

December

1925.

Even before

that

event,

Medina

was

different

from the

Shiite

shrine towns

in

the

East: unlike

Najaf,

Kerbela,

Kazimayn

and

Meshhed

(Samarra,

to some

extent,

is

an

exception),

Medina

has

never been a prominent entre of Shiite religious learning. In spite

of the

fact

that there

have been Shiites

(including

scholars,

preachers

and

students)

in

and around Medina from

early

Islamic

times

up

to

the

present

day,

no

madrasa

comparable

to the

great

Shiite institutes

in

Iraq

and Iran was ever

established

there.8

The

same holds true for Mecca. This

is,

of

course,

mainly

the result of

political

circumstances:

with a

few

exceptions,

Medina has

always

been under the suzerainityof Sunnite powers.

Local rulers such as

many

of the

Hashimite

Sharifs

of

Mecca,

however,

are known to have

had

Shiite

leanings.

For

many

Shiite

authors,

the

Sharifs of

Mecca

were

actually

Shiites

who,

for obvious

reasons,

posed

as Sunnites- an attitude

considered

lawful,

as

taqiya,

under

Shiite law.

This

explanation

is,

of

course,

debatable,

but there can be no doubt

that there

has

been

a

pro-Shiite

ten-

dency among

several

branches

of

the

Hashimite

family

and

par-

ticularly

of

the

Husaynid ashraf

in Medina.9

This fact

may

help

explain

why

Shiites,

wishing

to live

(and

die)

there as

"pious

neigh-

bours"

or

"sojourners" (mujdwirCtn),l?

have

almost

always

suc-

ceeded

in

settling

in

Medina

or in its

vicinity.

Mulla Muhammad

Amin

Astarabadi

(d.

between

1623

and

1626),

the man

who re-

vived the

Akhbdri chool

of

Shiite

Islam,

is

a

case in

point.11

Samarra'i:

Al

Sa'ud,

118-20.

For the

destructions

in

1925/26

and

the

present

situ-

ation,

see

further

below,

p.

318.

7

See

art. in

EI,

vol.

3,

1169f.

8

Nevertheless,

some Shiite

authors,

by

quoting

Sunni

(polemical)

works,

count

Medina

among

the historic

centers of Shiite

scholarship.

See,

e.g.,

Kazimi:

Ahsan

al-wadi'a,

vol.

2,

286f.

9

See

below,

p.

272ff.

10

See art.

"Mudjawir"

n

El,

vol.

7,

293f.

11

About this

person

see

Encyclopaedia

ranica,

vol.

2,

845f.

266



THE

NAKHAWILA,

SHIITE

COMMUNITY IN MEDINA

The

origin

and

early

development

of the Shia date

back,

one

could

argue,

to the lifetime

of the

Prophet,

when his

close

kin,

the

Banfi Hashim, enjoyed an elevated religious status of purity at-

tested

by

the Koran.

After Muhammad's

death,

the

disinheritance

of

his

family-the

ahl

al-bayt-was

the ultimate

motive for the

rise

of the

Shia,

i.e. the

"party"

of

'Ali

b. Abi

Talib,

Muhammad's

cousin and son-in-law

and,

later

on,

the

leader

of the

Hashimites.

While the

first

popular

movements

in

favour of the Shi'at 'Ali

emerged

in

Iraq,

some

(more

or

less)

open

Alid

resistance

to

the

rule of

the

Umayyads

(and

afterwards of

the

Abbasids)

continued

in

the

Hijaz

too.12

Notwithstanding

the

fact that

the

subsequent

development

of the

Shia,

including

the

emergence

of its different

branches

and

sects

etc.,

took

place

in

Iraq,

Iran and

elsewhere,

one

should

not

forget

that the

Hijaz,

and

notably

Mecca and

Medina,

are the cradle of Shiism.

Likewise,

the

continuity

of

a

Shiite

(Imami

or

Zaydi) presence

in

the

Hijaz

from

early

Islam

up

to the

20th

Century

should not be overlooked. This

continuity

is

the leitmotiv of the present study.

In western

scholarship,

the

important

role

of the Shi'at

'Ali in

the

history

of the

Hijaz-not

only

in the

early

centuries of Islam-

has

been

recognized

to some extent

by

a number

of

authors,

but

has

not been

given

due consideration

until

recently.

In

the 19th

Century,

it was C.

Snouck

Hurgronje,

especially

in

his

pioneering

history

of

Mecca,

who

was first able to show both

the

range

and

partial

success of Alid

ambitions

in

the

Hijaz

well into the

Abbasid

period.

As he

was

mainly

interested

in

the

origin

and later devel-

opment

of the

Hashimite Sherifate

of

Mecca,

however,

Snouck

Hurgronje's description

of the

role in

Hijazi

history

of the

Shiite

ashrdf

of

Medina,

including

their Emirate

over

a

whole

region

of

the

Hijaz,

is

restricted to

a

number of

short,

though pertinent,

remarks.13

The

Swiss traveller

J.L.

Burckhardt

is the

first

western author to

mention in any detail the existence in modern times of a crypto-

Shiite

group

of

Husaynid

origin

in

Medina,

as

well as a

community

to be

distinguished

from the

former,

i.e. the

nakhawila-many

of

whom,

he

says,

"publicly profess

the

creed of

Aly

when

in

their

12

See

art.

"Shi'a"

(by

W.

Madelung)

in

El,

vol.

9, 420-24,

and the same au-

thor's The

succession to

Muhammad;

further Musnad:

Al-'alawiyun.

13

Mekka,

vol.

1, 32-36,

40-74.

267



WERNERENDE

date

groves,

but are

Sunnys

whenever

they

come to town"

(see

below).

As Burckhardt'sremarks on the Shiites of Medina have had con-

siderable influence

on

a number

of

western

and

even a

few

Mus-

lim

authors,

the relevant

passage

deserves to be

quoted

in full.

It

is

to be

found

in

his

chapter

on the inhabitants of Medina.

Men-

tioning

the Sherifian families

living

there,

Burckhardt

writes:

"Among

them is a small tribe

of Beni

Hosseyn,

descended

from

Hosseyn,

the

brother of

Hassan.

They

are said to

have

been

formerly

very

powerful

at

Medina,

and had

appropriated

to

themselves the chief

part

of the

income

of the mosque: in the thirteenth century, (according to Samhoudy), they

were

the

privileged

guardians

of the

Prophet's

tomb;

but

at

present

they

are

reduced to

about

a

dozen

familes,

who still

rank

among

the

grandees

of the

town and

its most

wealthy

inhabitants.

They

occupy

a

quarter by

themselves,

and

obtain

very

large profits,

particularly

from the

Persian

pilgrims

who

pass

here.

They

are

universally

stated

to

be

heretics,

of

the Persian

sect

of

Aly,

and to

perform

secretly

the

rites

of that

creed,

although

they publicly

profess

the doctrines

of

the

Sunnys.

This

report

is

too

general,

and con-

firmed

by

too

many

people

of

respectability,

to be

doubted: but

the Beni

Hosseyn

have

powerful

influence in the

town,

in

appearance

strictly

comply

with

the orthodox

principles,

and

are therefore

not

molested.

It is publicly said that the remnants of the Ansars,and great numbers of the

peasant

Arabs who

cultivate

the

gardens

and

fields

in

the

neighbourhood

of

the

town,

are

addicted

to

the

same

heresy.

The

latter,

called

Nowakhele,

a

name

implying

that

they

live

among

date-trees),

are

numerous,

and

very

warlike.

They

had offered

determined

resistance to

the

Wahabys,

and

in

civil

contests have

proved

always

superior

to the

townspeople.

They

are said

to be

descendants of

the

partisans

of

Yezid,

the

son

of

Mawya,

who took

and

sacked

the town

sixtyyears

after the

Hedjra.

They marry only

among

them-

selves;

and

exhibit

on

all

occasions

a

great

esprit

de

corps.

Many

of

them

publicly profess

the

creed

of

Aly

when

in their

date-groves,

but

are

Sunnys

whenever they come to town. Some of them are established in the suburbs,

and

they

have

monopolised

the

occupation

of

butchers. In

quarrels

I

have

heard

individuals

among

them

publicly

called

sectaries

and

rowafedh,

with-

out their

ever

denying

it. In the

Eastern

Desert,

at three or

four

days'

journey

from

Medina,

lives

a

whole

Beduin

tribe,

called

Beni

Aly,

who are

all

of

this

Persian

creed;

and it is

matter of

astonishment

to

find

the

two

most

holy spots

of the

orthodox Muselman

religion

surrounded,

one

by

the

sectaries of

Zeyd,

and

the

other

by

those

of

Aly,

without

an

attempt

having

been made

to

dislodge

them."14

Richard

Burton,

who

visited

Medina in 1852, in his PersonalNarra-

tive

also

refers

to both

the

nakhawila

and the Banfu

Husayn.

As his

observations,

like

Burckhardt's,

have

influenced

later

writings

about

Medina,

they

too are

quoted

here

in

full

(but

without the

rather

fanciful

footnotes):

14

Travels,

ol.

2,

238-40.

268



THE

NAKHAWILA,

SHIITE COMMUNITY IN MEDINA

"There

is

also

a race

called

Al-Nakhawilah, who,

according

to

some,

are

descendants

of the

Ansar,

whilst others

derive

them

from

Yazid,

the son of

Mu'awiyah:

he

latter

opinion

is

improbable,

as

the

Caliph

in

question

was

a mortal foe to Ali's family,which is inordinately venerated by these people.

As far as

I could

ascertain,

they

abuse

the

Shaykhayn

(Abu

Bakr and

Omar):

all

my

informants

agreed

upon

this

point,

but

none

could

tell me

why

they

neglected

to bedevil

Osman,

the

third

object

of hatred to

the

Shi'ah

persua-

sion.

They

are numerous

and

warlike,

yet they

are

despised

by

the towns-

people,

because

they

openly profess heresy,

and

are

moreover

of

humble

degree.

They

have their

own

priests

and

instructors,

although subject

to the

orthodox

Kazi;

marry

in their own

sect,

are

confined to low

offices,

such as

slaughtering

animals,

sweeping,

and

gardening,

and are

not allowed to

enter

the Harim

during

life,

or

to

be

carried

to

it

after

death.

Their

corpses

are taken down an outer street called the Darb al-Janazah-Road of Biers-

to their

own

cemetery

near Al-Bakia.

They

dress and

speak

Arabic,

like the

townspeople;

but the

Arabs

pretend

to

distinguish

them

by

a

peculiar

look

denoting

their

degradation:

it is doubtless the

mistake of

effect for

cause,

about all such

'Tribes

of

the

wandering

foot

and

weary

breast.'

A number of

reports

are current about the horrid

customs

of

these

people,

and their

community

of

women

with

the Persian

pilgrims

who

pass

through

the

town. It need

scarcely

be said that

such

tales

coming

from the

mouths

of

fanatic

foes are

not

to

be

credited.

I

regret

not

having

had

an

opportu-

nity

to become

intimate

with

any

of

the

Nakhawilah,

from whom

curious

information

might

be elicited. Orthodox Moslems do not like to

be

ques-

tioned about

such

hateful

subjects;

when I

attempted

to

learn

something

from one of

my

acquaintance, Shaykh

Ula

al-Din,

of

a Kurd

family,

settled

at

Al-Madinah,

a

man

who

had travelled

over the

East,

and who

spoke

five

languages

to

perfection,

he

coldly

replied

that

he had never

consorted with

these heretics."15

Like

Burckhardt,

Burton

distinguishes clearly

between the

nakha-

wila

and the

Sayyids

of

Banfi

Husayn.

According

to

him,

the

latter

numbered ninety-three or ninety-four families in Medina alone.

About

them,

Burton

has the

following

to

say:

"Anciently

they

were

much

more

numerous,

and

such was their

power,

that

for centuries

they

retained

charge

of

the

Prophet's

tomb.

They

subsist

prin-

cipally upon

their

Amlak,

property

in

land,

for which

they

have title-deeds

extending

back to

Mohammed's

day,

and

Aukaf,

religious bequests; popular

rumour accuses them of

frequent

murders for

the

sake of

succession. At

Al-

Madinah

they

live

chiefly

at

the

Hosh

Ibn

Sa'ad,

a settlement outside the

town and south of the Darb al-Janazah.There is, however, no objection to

their

dwelling

within the

walls;

and

they

are taken to the Harim after

death,

if

there be no evil

report against

the individual. Their

burial-place

is

the

Bakia

cemetery.

The

reason of

this toleration

is,

that

some

are

supposed

to

be

Sunni,

or

orthodox,

and

even

the

most

heretical

keep

their "Rafz"

her-

esy)

a

profound

secret. Most

learned

Arabs believe that

they belong,

like

the

Persians,

to

the

sect of Ali:

the

truth,

however,

is

so

vaguely

known,

that

15

Personal

Narrative,

vol.

2,

1-3.

269



WERNERENDE

I

could

find out

none

of the

peculiarities

of their

faith,

till

I

met a

Shirazi

friend at

Bombay.

The

Benu

Hosayn

are

spare

dark men of

Badawi

appearance,

and

they

dress

in the old Arab style still affected by the Sharifs,- a Kufiyah (kerchief) on

the

head,

and a

Banish,

a

long

and

wide-sleeved

garment

resembling

our

magicians' gown,

thrown over the white

cotton

Kamis

(shirt):

in

public

they

always carry

swords,

even when

others

leave

weapons

at

home".16

Until

recently,

there

had

been no

attempt

in

western

scholarship

to

describe

in

any

detail

the

history

of the

Shiite

(Husaynid)

Emir-

ate of Medina from

its

origin-although

Werner

Caskel

planned

to do so.

For

reasons unknown to

me,

however,

his

project,

which

is mentioned in Max von Oppenheim's Die Beduinen, has not ma-

terialized.17 It is

only

with

two articles

by

Richard

T.

Mortel

pub-

lished

in

1991 and

1994,

respectively,

as

well

as

with

Shawn

Marmon's book Eunuchs and

Sacred Boundaries in

Islamic

Society,

which

appeared

in

1995,

that

western historical

research

on

Medina,

and

particularly

on its

Shiite

community,

has

made

any

substantial

progress.18

At the

same

time,

the

publication

of both

Arabic

chronicles,

biographical

works etc.

(in

more or less

critical

editions)

and

of

studies

by

Arab

authors

concerning

various

aspects

of

Medinese

history

from

early

Islam to the

recent

past

has

immensely

enriched

our

potential

source material.

The

most

recent

examples

are

two

works

published

in 1996. Both

came to the

attention

of the

present

writer too

late

to

be used for this

study. They

are

1)

Muhammad

Kibrit

al-Husayni

al-Madani:

Kitab

al-jawdhir

al-

thaminafi mahdsin al-Madina, ed. Muhammad Hasan (...) Isma'il

al-Shafi'l,

Beirut 1996

(Dar

al-Kutub

al-'Ilmiya),19

and

2)

'Arif

'Abd

al-Ghani:

Tarikh

umara'

al-Madina

al-Munawwara,

Da-

mascus

1996

(Dar

al-Kinan).20

16

Ibid.,

3f.

17

Vol.

2, 434,

fn. 4.

18

See bibliography.19

For

manuscripts

see Sa'idi:

Mu'jam

ma

ullifa,

343,

no.

93,

further ed.

Shafi'i,

4.

Concerning

the

author,

Muhammad

Kibrit,

see

ibid.,

3;

Hamdan:

The

Literature,

7-80,

and our

footnote no.

89 below.

20

The book

consists

of short

biographical

entries,

in

chronological

order,

of

persons

who,

in

one

way

or another

(i.e.

as

independent

Emirs,

as

deputies

of

Mamluk

Sultans or

of the

ashraf

of

Mecca,

as

Ottoman

walis

or in other

capaci-

ties)

have

"ruled"

Medina from

the time

of

early

Islam

up

to

the

year

1417/1996.

The first

person

mentioned

is

Mus'ab b.

'Umayr

(see

EI,

vol.

7,

649),

the

last

one

is

Prince 'Abd

al-Majid

b. 'Abd

al-'Aziz

Al Sa'fid

(since

1406/1986

amir

of

270



THE

NAKHAW/LA,

SHIITE

COMMUNITY

IN MEDINA

Another

useful

addition to

the Arabic source

material

is a

re-

cently published bibliography

of Shiite

writings

on the

Arabian

Peninsula, i.e.

Habib

Al

ami':

Mu'jam

al-mu'allafat

al-shi'iyafi

l-Jazira

al-'Arabiya,

vol.

1,

Beirut,

1st

ed.

1417/1997

(Mu'assasat

al-Baqi').21

As

this work

came

to

my

attention

only

at the moment when

the

preparation

of this

study

was

in

its final

stage,

I

have

to

confine

myself

to the above

bibliographical

reference.

To the best

of

my

knowledge,

no

source

originating

from

mem-

bers of the

Shiite

community

of

Medina has

so

far been

published:

it must therefore be regarded as a silent minority, especially since

circumstances do not

yet

allow field research

on

its

present

eco-

nomic

conditions,

cultural life etc.

As

a

prerequisite

for

any

further research

concerning

the

Husay-

nid

ashraf

of the

Hijaz

in

general

and of

those

in

Medina

in

par-

ticular,

a critical edition of Ibn

Shadqam's

Zahr

al-riyad

wa-zulal

al-

hiyad

would be

highly

welcome.

The

author,

Sayyid

Abfi 1-Makarim

al-Hasan b. 'Ali b. Shadqam al-Madani, was born in Medina in 942

(1535-36)

and

died

in

Hyderabad/Deccan

in

the month

of

Safar

999

(December 1590).

His dead

body

was

transported

to Medina

and

buried at the

cemetery

of

al-Baqi'.22

Before

leaving

his

native

city

for

India,

Ibn

Shadqam-like

his

father before him-is said

to have

been

naqib al-ashrdf

for

some

time,

as well as mutawalli

of the

Prophet's

grave

site. In

his

(hith-

erto

unpublished)

Zahr

al-riydd,

consisting

of four

volumes,

Ibn

Shadqam's Imami Shi'i tendency is displayed quite openly. Basi-

cally,

this is a work on the

biographies

of

persons

who have

played

some role

in

the

history

of

Medina,

with

special emphasis

on the

Shiite Imams

as well

as on local

Shiite

rulers, notables,

'ulama',

poets

etc.

A

study

of the author's own

biography

and of his

politi-

cal

activity

both

in

Medina and

Hyderabad may yield

new

insights

into

the role and self-view of

the Medinese

Husaynid ashrdf

in

the

16th Century and beyond.

Medina).

On

pp.

492-520

is

a list

(also

in

chronographical

order)

of all these

per-

sons,

with

those

of

the era of the

Ja'fariyun

on

pp. 502-04,

and

those

during

Fatimid

rule

on 504ff. There is no

special

list of

the

(Shiite)

Husaynid

umard'.

21

According

to

an

introductory

note

by

the

compiler,

a second volume

is in

preparation.

22

With

regard

to

this work and

its

author see

Sa'idi,

ibid.,

352-56,

and Amin:

A'yan,

ed. Hasan al-Amin

(1986),

vol.

5,

175-79.

271



WERNER

ENDE

In

addition,

there

are both

published

and

unpublished

sources

in

Persian

and other

eastern and

western

languages

which

may

provide abundant information with regard to many details. The

present

author

does not

claim to know them

all. He

acknowledges

that,

for one reason

or

another,

he

has not

always

been able to

fully

exploit

the information

which

the available

material

may

con-

tain.

TheShiiteEmirate

f

the

Baniu

Husayn

The Twelver-Shiite denomination of the Husaynid Emirs of Medi-

na

up

to the Mamluk

period

was

well

known to medieval Sunni

Arab

authors such as

Ibn

Khaldfn

(d. 1406)

and

Qalqashandi

(d.

1418).23

Mortel's recent studies are based on the remarks of

these

two authors as well as on information found in

the

works

of several

others.

The

emergence

of

a

semi-independent

Emirate in

Medina

and

its vicinity under the rule of local ashraf 24from the Banfu Husayn

dates back

to the

years immediately

following

the

establishment

of

Fatimid

rule

in

Egypt

(969 A.D.).25

Two

factors

should be seen as

prerequisites

for

this

development

in

Medina:

First,

there is

evidence

that

the

Banfi

Husayn,

i.e.

the descend-

ants of

Husayn

b. 'Ali and his

only

surviving

son,

'Ali

Zayn

al-

cAbidin

(the

Fourth

Imam

of

the

Shia),

had over

many

genera-

tions

been able to establish

themselves

as

one

of the

important

families of Medina. Some information to this effect contained in

sources that

were written

much later

may

be

apocryphal,

but there

is

no reason to

doubt that the

Banfu

Husayn

had

acquired

consid-

erable influence in

Medinese

society long

before

their Emirate

emerged.

Secondly,

members

of

the Medinese

Banfu

Husayn

had

migrated

to

Egypt

in

the first

quarter

of

the

10th

Century.

A

number

of

them were able to establish close relations with the Ikhshidid and,

later,

the Fatimid

court. Of

special importance

in

this

connection

23

Ibn

Khaldfn:

'Ibar,

vol.

4,

108-11;

Qalqashandi:

Subh,

vol.

4, 302,

and

12,

243-46.

24

For this

term and the

development

of

its various

meanings

see art. "Sharif'

in

EI,

vol.

9,

329-37.

25

Mortel: The

Origins, passim;

also

Muhammad:

Al-'aldqat,

72-76;

Badr: Al-

tarikh

al-shamil,

vol.

2,

135ff.

272



THE

NAKHAWILA,

SHIITE

COMMUNITY

IN MEDINA

is

one

Muslim

b.

'Ubaydallah,

who died

in

Cairo

in

976

or

977.

When his

son returned

to

the

Hijaz

shortly

afterwards,

the

local

Banu Husayn recognized him as their leader. This event marks the

inauguration

of

the

Husaynid

Emirate

(or

Sherifate)

of

Medina.

The

most

important

outward

sign

of

the establishment

of

some

degree

of

local rule over

Medina

under

Shiite Fatimid

(no

longer

Sunnite

Abbasid)

suzerainty

was to be

observed

in the

recitation

of

the

khutba:

possibly

as

early

as

969,

but

with some

certainty

a

few

years

later,

the

name

of the Fatimid

Caliph

was mentioned in

the

khutba. Later

on,

several

Husaynid

Emirs are known to have

been

officially

designated

by

the Fatimid

Caliphs

and,

after the downfall

of

this

dynasty, by

the

Abbasids to

govern

Medina. One of

them,

Qasim

b.

Muhanna,

was

a

close

acquaintance

of Salah al-Din

(Sala-

din)

and even

accompanied

the latter

on

some of

his

campaigns.

Under him and

his

successor,

the

Husaynid

Emirate of

Medina

cooperated

with the

Ayyubids

on

many

occasions,

and in

particular

backed several

Ayyubid attempts

to

regain

control over Mecca.

On

the other hand, the Ayyubids supported the Husaynids against all

political

and

military

actions

undertaken

by

the

Sherifs of

Mecca

to subdue the Emirate

of

Medina.

Below the level of

political

co-operation,

there

may

have

been

some

sort

of

migration

of

Shiites,

in

both

directions,

between

Medina and

Egypt

for a considerable time

after

the

fall of the

Fatimids,

i.e. well into the Mamluk era. As

recent research has

shown,26

there is

significant

evidence

that Isma'ili and

non-Isma'ili

(probably

Twelver-)

Shiism

played

some role in medieval

Cairo,

and even more so

in

Upper Egypt

until at least well into

the 14th

Century.

A

few

pockets

of

Shiism

may

have existed even

longer.

Thus,

'Abd

al-Rahman al-Ansari's

remark,

quoted

below,27

that

some of the

nakhdwila are

said

to be

related

to

people

from

Egypt

might

not

be

totally

unfounded.

After

the

deposition

of the last

Fatimid

caliph

in

1171,

the

local

rulers of the haramaynhad recognized Sultan Salah al-Din as their

overlord.

As

an

outward

sign

of

the restoration of

Sunnite

rule,

the

Shi'i

preachers

in

the haram

of

Medina were

obliged

to

acknowl-

edge

the

authority

of the Sunni

caliphate

in

their

khutba,

26

Stewart:

Popular

Shiism,

esp.

35, 52, 56f.,

61.

27

See

p.

303.

273



WERNER ENDE

"but

neither

Salah al-Din nor his

descendants

appear

to have made

any

at-

tempt

to

"sunnify"

the

City

of the

Prophet.

The

Shi'i

elite of Medina

contin-

ued

to

control most

religious

offices in

the

sanctuary,

and Shi'i

judges

exer-

cised

jurisdiction

over Sunni and Shi'i alike".28

A

number of Sunnite

authors,

known

for

their

anti-Shiite

stance,

criticized

this state of

affairs,

which

they

considered to

pose

a

threat to the

supremacy

of

orthodox

(Sunnite)

Islam in

the

Hijaz:

in

his

Kitab

al-dhayl

wa-l-takmila,

in the

chapter

on Ibn

Jubayr

(d.

1217),

Abfi 'Abdallah Muhammad al-Marrakushi

quotes

a

poem

which

the famous

Andalusian

traveller had

dedicated to Salah al-

Din

al-Ayyibi (d. 1192).

In

it,29 Ibn Jubayr appeals directly to the

Sultan

to

look into

the situation in Medina

and to

abolish the

bida'

which were

rife

in

the

Prophet's

town:

among

other

things,

he

especially

mentions

the

open cursing

of the

sahdba

and,

as

one of

the

most

disgraceful

innovations,

the fact that a

Shiite

should be

allowed

to lead the ritual

prayer

for

Sunnites.30

The

accusation

that Shiites

had

attempted

to

break

into the

tomb of

the

Prophet

(or

the

tombs

of

Abfi Bakr

and

'Umar,

re-

spectively) and carry off the bodies is a frequent

topos

in Sunni

literature on the

history

of

Medina.31

The ndr

al-Hijdz,

i.e. the

eruption

of a volcano

near

Medina

in

the

year

654/1256,

and the

fire

at the haram

several

months

later in the

same

year

were

inter-

preted by

Sunni authors

as God's

punishment

for

the

corruption

into

which the

community

had

fallen-with the

ascendancy

of

the

Shia

in

Medina as

a

very significant

case

in

point.

Some

authors

even held local Shiites directly responsible for setting fire to the

mosque

of

the

Prophet.32

Ibn

Taimiya

(d.

1328),

in

his

treatise on

the

precedence

and

28

Marmon:

Eunuchs,

58.

29

Marrakushi:

Al-Dhayl,

vol.

(sifr)

5,

pt.

2,

616-20.

30

For

Ibn

Jubayr's

lamentation

of the fact

that a

"heretic"

would deliver the

khutba from

the minbar

of the

Prophet

and for

his other

grievances

concerning

the religious situation in the Hijaz see his Rihla, ed. Wright/de Goeje, 76ff.,

201f.,

and

the French

translation

by

Gaudefroy-Demombynes:

Voyages,

parts

1,

87ff.,

and

2,

231f.

For a

commentary

see

Netton:

Basic

Structures,

esp.

28-30,

for

the

history

of the minbar

and its

religious

importance

see

Meier: Der

Prediger.

31

Marmon:

Eunuchs,

36;

Barzanji:

Nuzhat

al-ndzirin,

82;

this

story

is

repeated

even

by

some modern

authors

such as

'Ali

Hafiz:

Fusul,

24f.

(The author,

how-

ever,

prefers

the

alternative

version that

the

culprits

were

christians).

32

Marmon, ibid.,

49f.;

Meier:

Der

Prediger,

227-30;

Samhudi:

Wafa',

vol.

1,

151f.,

and

vol.

2,

598-600

(for

the verses

quoted

on

p.

600,

see

also

Miknasi:

Jadhwat

al-iqtibas,

242);

Burckhardt:

Travels,

204.

274



THE

NAKHAWILA,

SHIITE COMMUNITY

IN

MEDINA

superiority

of

Hadith

scholarship

in

Medina

during

the first

three

centuries

of

Islam,

explains

why

the

prestige

of the

Medinese

school had subsequently declined: even in the Fourth Century,

other towns

could

justifiably

boast of scholars

superior

to

those of

Medina,

while at the

same

time Shiite

heresy

(rafd)

manifested

itself in

the town of the

Prophet.

However,

almost until

the

begin-

ning

of

the

Sixth

Century

A.H.

(early

12th

Century

A.D.),

the

great

majority

of

the

inhabitants of Medina

had

continued

to

adhere to

their traditional

madhhab,

namely

that

of Malik.

But

then

religious

life in Medina

began

to

feel the

impact

of

the

immigration

of

heretics

from

the

East

(rafidat

al-mashriq):

a

great

number

of

Shiites

from

Kashan

and

elsewhere,

many

of them

related to

the

family

of the

Prophet,

had come to Medina.

Works

by

heretical

authors,

all

incompatible

with

a

true

understanding

of

both

the

Koran and

the

Sunna,

were

presented

to

the

Medinese,

and

much

money

was

spent

on

them.

Thus,

heresy

(bid'a)

increased in

Medina from that

time onwards.33

It would be

interesting

to know whether or not the influx of

Shiites

early

in

the

12th

Century,

especially

from

Qashan

(or

Kashan),

as mentioned

by

Ibn

Taimiya,

had

anything

to

do with

the

kind of messianic movement

which

is

said

to have been active

in

that town and in

the

surrounding

villages.

It is

described

by

Yaqut

on

the

authority

of

an

eyewitness, namely

Abuf

l-'Abbas

Ahmad b.

'Ali

Ibn

Baba

al-Qashi,

or

al-Qashani

(d.

1116-17),

the

author of a (lost) book on the sects of the Shia.34 A discussion of

this

point

would, however,

fall

outside the

scope

of

the

present

study.

Ibn

Taimiya's

remarks

are

quoted

with

approval

by

Ibn

Farhfin

(who

was the

qddi

of the Maliki

madhhab in

Medina from

1390

until

his death in

1397)

in

his

Tabsirat al-hukkim.

With

regard

to

the

beginning

of

Shiite

dominance

in

Medina,

however,

Ibn

Farhun prefers an earlier date. Referring to Abfi Bakr Ibn al-'Arabi

(d.

1148)

and

his

work al-'Awdsim

wa-l-qawdsim,

he maintains

that

Sunnite law

had fallen into

disuse

in

Medina

by

the Fifth

Century

A.H.:

according

to

Ibn

al-'Arabi,

a Shiite was

khatib

(of

the

haram)

33

Sihhat

usul,

20f.

34

Mu'jam

al-buldan,

vol.

7,

13;

concerning al-Qashi

see

El,

vol.

4,

696.

275



WERNER ENDE

in

489

(1095-96),

when

the

Andalusian scholar came

to

Medi-

na.35

Several centuries later, Ibn Farhfin's remarks are quoted by

Ja'far

b.

Isma'il

al-Barzanji

(d.

1899),

who arrived

in

Medina

in

1854 and became

Shafiite

mufti

there,

in

his

history

of

the

mosque

of the

Prophet.36

The

situation described

(and

deplored)

by

those authors

gradu-

ally changed

under

Mamluk

rule,

beginning

with Sultan

Baybars'

pilgrimage

in

1269.

It was

this ruler who initiated

a

policy

of send-

ing

Sunni

scholars

to Medina

to

counter the influence of

the

Shiite local rulers as well as the still dominant Shiite

(mainly

Husaynid)

'ulama families

there. The Emirs of Medina at the

time,

the

Al

Shiha,

and

their

relatives,

the

Al

Sinan,

tried to resist

this

policy by

different

means,

including

the

mobilization of

their

followers

against

the Sunnite

immigrants

whom

they

considered to

be

the

agents

of forced "sunnification".37

In this

connection,

an

incident

in

the late

Thirteenth

Century,

involving the Egyptian Sunni faqih Siraj al-Din al-Ansari, acted as a

turning

point

in the

conflict between Sunnites

and Shiites

over the

control of the

religious

offices

in

Medina: one

Friday

just

after

Siraj

al-Din-who had come

to Medina

by

order of the Mamluk

sultan-had commenced his khutba from

the

pulpit

of the

haram,

Shiite

members of the

congregation began throwing

handfuls of

gravel

at him. At this

juncture,

the eunuchs of the

Prophet's

mosque-all

of

them known

to be

zealous defenders

of

Sunnism-

intervened

by

placing

themselves,

together

with their

retainers

and

slaves,

between

the

pulpit

and the

crowd. This first

appear-

ance

of the "row of the

eunuchs"

(saff

al-khudddm),

which

was

to

become a

practice

for

centuries,

may

have been "a

carefully

planned

demonstration of

the

authority

of

the distant sultan". In

any

case it

ushered in a

new

stage

of

a

development

which

precipitated

the end

of

Shi'i

ascendancy

in

Medina.38

Under Ottoman rule, i.e. from 1517 onwards, the influence of

the

Husaynid

families of

Medina

gradually

waned.

However,

they

35

Tabsira,

in

the

margin

of

Fath

al-'ali,

vol.

1,

417.

36

Nuzhat

al-ndzirin,

88.

37

Mortel: The

.Husaynid

Amirate, lOOff.;

Marmon:

Eunuchs,

56,

138 fn.

159;

'All:

Al-haydt,

221.

38

Marmon,

55f.;

Barzanji:

Nuzhat

al-ndzirin,

89.

276



THE

NAKHAWILA,

SHIITE

COMMUNITY IN MEDINA

were

not

totally subjugated

and

even entered

into

a

dispute

with

the

Ottomans:

in her

study

of the finances of Mecca and Medina

under Ottoman rule, Suraiya Faroqhi presents a valuable analysis

of

the

awqdf

benefiting

the

two

holy

cities

as well

as of the distri-

bution

of

subsidies

and

pensions among

their

inhabitants.39 In this

context,

she

mentions

a

long-drawn-out

dispute,

in the 16th Cen-

tury,

over

(Ottoman-)

Egyptian

subsidies

involving

the

rights

of the

Banf

Husayn

in Medina.

The latter claimed

one third of all sub-

sidies

sent to

Mecca,

producing

a

rescript

to this effect

from

Sultan

Murad

III. The Ottoman

governor

of

Egypt opposed

these

de-

mands, pointing out that other legitimate claimants would then

have to be

denied their

rights.

We should

keep

in mind that

in

this

period,

Sunni

Ottomans

and Shi'i Safawids

were

frequently

at

war. Under

these circum-

stances,

official

Ottoman

subsidies

for the

Shiite

Banf

Husayn

could not be taken

for

granted.

For

a

while,

"the

opponents

of

the

Bani

Husayn

had

the

upper

hand

in

Istanbul,

and the Sultan's

Council denied them official support of any kind. But the Banfu

Husayn

insisted

and,

in

the

long

run,

they

seem to have been

successful,

for

in

the

early

Seventeenth

Century

we

find them re-

ceiving

subsidies

out of the

Egyptian

provincial

budget".40

With

the

material

at

my

disposal,

I cannot determine at what

time

and under which circumstances the

payment

of these

official

subsidies

from

the

Ottoman-Egyptian

budget

eventually

came

to

an end.

Moreover,

it

is

not clear

whether-and,

if

so,

for

how

long-the Banfi Husayn received regular subsidies or gifts from

other

sources

within or outside the

Ottoman

Empire.

It

is

safe

to

assume, however,

that

the

number

of both

indi-

genous

and

foreign

Shiites

staying

in the two

holy

cities was

rela-

tively

large

at

least in

the first half

of

the

16th

Century:

the

pres-

ence

there

of

many

"shi'a,

rafida

and

such-like"

induced

Ibn

Hajar

al-Haytami

(d.

1567)

to

write

(and

teach

publicly

in

Mecca)

his

Sawa'iq muhriqa,one of the most devastating polemics ever written

against

the

Shiite

doctrine

of

the imdma and

in

defence

of the

first

three

caliphs.41

39

Pilgrims

and

Sultans,

56,

77,

80.

40

Ibid.,

87f.

41

Brockelmann,

GAL, II, 388,

and S

II,

527f. Ibn

Hajar

mentions

the

Ramadan of

950/1543

as the time when

he

was

asked to read his work in

public:

Al-sawa'iq,

introduction.

277



WERNER ENDE

Ibn

Hajar's

work is to be seen

in

the

context of the confronta-

tion between

Sunni

Ottomans

and

Shiite

Safawids,

and in

particu-

lar of the practice of openly reviling the early Sunni caliphs. This

practice

led to

complaints

from a number of

Imami

Shiites

in

the

Hijaz.

Thus,

Twelver

clerics

in Mecca wrote to the 'ulama'

of

Isfahan:

"You

revile their imams

(the

first three

caliphs)

in

Isfahan,

and we

in

al-Haramayn

are

chastised

for

this

cursing

and

reviling".42

The conflict between the Ottomans and the

Safawids

(as

well

as

later Iranian

dynasties)

resulted in a

series of

crises over the

pil-

grimage

to

Mecca and

the

ziyara

to Medina:

when the

two

Empires

were at

war,

Iranian

pilgrims

were

not

permitted

to enter Ottoman

territory.

In

peacetime,

their movements

were

monitored and

more

or less

restricted. On their

way

to

the

Hijaz

and back to Iran

as well

as

during

their

stay

in the

Haramayn, they

would suffer

various forms of

discrimination. There are

many

complaints

to

this

effect

by

Iranian

(and,

to some

extent,

other

Shiite)

pilgrims

even

from later periods and right up to the present.43

A

description

and

analysis

of this

conflict and

its

repercussions

would fall

outside the

scope

of

the

present

study.

Suffice it

to

say

here

that the

present-day

Saudi-Iranian

confrontation

over the

prigrimage

has

many

roots

in

the remote

past,

and

that the

indi-

genous

Twelver Shiite

community

of Medina

has

always

been in

danger

of

becoming

directly

involved

in

the

resulting quarrels.44

According to Eyyfb Sabri (as quoted by Batanuni), the control

(wilaya)

over Medina

remained

in

the

hands of

the

Husaynid

ashrdf

until

1099/1687-88,

when it was

subordinated to the

govern-

ment

of

Hijaz,

i.e.

Mecca,

by

an

Ottoman

decree. The

last

of

the

semi-independent

Emirs

mentioned

is one

Husayn

b.

Zuhayr.45

Probably

as a

result of this

development,

the

southern

suburb of

al-'Awali

replaced

Medina

for several

centuries

as the

stronghold

and main

residence of

the

Husaynid

umara'. With

this

move, they

had

good

reason to establish

a close

relationship

with the domi-

42

Newman:

The

Myth,

82.

43

Faroqhi:

Pilgrims,

127ff.;

Faqihi:

Wahhabiydn,

231ff.

and

passim;

Amin al-

Dawla:

Safar

namah,

255, 279;

Kazem

Zadeh:

Relation,

16-18.

44

See

below,

pp.

335-37,

and the

literature

mentioned

there.

45

Al-rihia

al-hijaziya,

298-300.

See also

Amhazun:

Al-Madina,

35.

278



THE

NAKHAWILA,

SHIITE

COMMUNITY

IN MEDINA

nant

tribe

there-the Harb-and

particularly

with one of its

sec-

tions,

the

Banf

'Ali.46

The

Husaynid

ashraf in

modern

times

In

the 19th

and

20th

Centuries,

many

Shiite visitors from

abroad

have

been

aware of

the Shiite

background

of

the

ashrdf

of

Banf

Husayn.

Muhsin al-Amin has

the

following

to

say

about them:

"There

are Shiites in

Medina

and

Mecca and

in

some other

places

(of

the

Hijaz). For long periods, Husaynid Emirs used to rule Medina. They are

Twelver

Shiites,

who until

today

have never shown

their

different madhhab

in

public.

In Medina

itself as

well as

outside,

in

al-'Awali and

elsewhere,

there

are

a

great

number

of

them."47

In

another

passage,

Muhsin al-Amin

adds the

following

informa-

tion:

"In

Medina,

there is a mahalla

whose inhabitants

are

Shiites. There

are

(also)

in Medina

Hashimites

(t&'ifat

l-Hawdshim)

f

Husayni-'Alawi

ineage

and of Shiite origin. I have seen some Shiite books in their possession. Until

now

they

control

a

waqf

which is

destined

for

the

provision

of

food on

the

day

of

'Ashfira'."48

Whatever

their

individual

creed

may

have

been,

it

is

clear that

in

their

relations with

Shiite

visitors,

many

of

the

ashraf

of

Medina,

and

especially

of

the

Banf

Husayn,

did

in

fact

exhibit what

their

guests

perceived

as

Shiite

leanings.

Thus,

the

Iranian

politician

Amin

al-Dawla

(see

below),

describing

his visit

to

Medina in

1899,

detects in his host, Sharif "All-the head of the Banfi Husayn-an

ardent

love

for

the

Shi'a

(madhaq-i tashayyu').

For

Amin

al-Dawla,

this

is

the

natural

consequence

of

Sharif 'Ali's

pedigree

and

noble

origin.

In

the

Sharif's

house near

al-'Awali,

Amin

al-Dawla

even

feels free

to offer

prayer

"without

dissimulation"

(bi

taqiya).49

We

cannot,

however,

rule

out

that

some Sunni

Medinese

may

have been

prepared

to lie when

questioned

by

Shiite

pilgrims

about their creed. Doughty refers to such a person whose father

had

allowed

a

company

of

Persian

pilgrims

to

lodge

in

his

palm

ground:

probably

because

they

had

paid

an

amount

of

money

for

46

See

below,

p. 287f.

47

A'yan,

1986

ed., vol.1,

200. For

the

author,

Sayyid

Muhsin

al-Amin,

see be-

low,

fn. 91.

48

Ibid.,

208.

49

Safar

namah, 193,

266.

279



WERNER ENDE

their

accommodation,

but

also

out

of

contempt

for

them,

the

young

man

cynically

"played

the ShiT'i

in

their

presence.50

A

story

like this alerts us to the

possibility

that

in

some

cases,

where

Medinese hosts or other

acquaintances

are

described

by

foreign

pilgrims

as

Shiites,

this

information

may

not be

true.

Such

an error

might

be

the

result of

deception,

but

also,

on

the

part

of

the Shiite

visitor,

of wishful

thinking-or

both.

In

addition to

some

ashraf,

even

tribal chiefs

of

the

Medina

region

could

establish close

contacts

with

distinguished

Shiite

visi-

tors from

abroad. An

interesting example

is

Shaykh

Sa'dJaza'

(or

Jaza), who in the late 19th and early 20th Century was the head of

the

Ahamida,

a

section of the

Harb.51

When,

in

1899,

the former

Iranian

prime

minister

(sadr-i

a'zam)

Mirza

'Ali

Khan

Amin al-

Dawla

visited Medina

after

his

hajj,52

Shaykh

Sa'd met

him

and his

entourage

several

times.53 He

accompanied

the

Persian

guests

on

their

visits to

the

ashraf

and

to other

persons

and

occasionally

even

served them

as

interpreter.

Amin

al-Dawla,

who mentions

his

name as

"Shaykh

Jaza'

(of

the) Nakhawila",

seems

to

have had

earlier

contacts

with

Shaykh

Sa'd and even

hints at a

visit

the

latter

had

allegedly

paid

to

Tehran.

Shaykh

Sa'd

owned

a

house in

Medina

to

which

he

had

already

invited Amin

al-Dawla

when

the

two

men

first

met

in

the

same

year

in

Mecca

during

the

pilgrimage

season.

He

maintained close

relations with

the

ashrdf

of the

Banfu

Husayn.

It

seems that he

had

somehow

been

involved in a

plan,

fostered

by

Amin

al-Dawla,

to

secure

financial

support

from

the

Iranian government for the Shiites of Medina. With the money

thus

provided,

some

men of

the

nakhdwila

whould

have

been

paid

to

serve as

door-keepers

at

the

gates

of

al-Baqi': they

would

have

been

able to

ensure that

Shiite

visitors

who

were

frequently

ob-

structed

by

Sunnite

door-keepers

enjoyed

unrestricted

access to

the

cemetery.

According

to Amin

al-Dawla,

the

intrigues

of

his

enemies

as

well

as his

own

resignation

as

prime

minister

in

July

1898 made

it

impossible

to

realise this

project.54

50

Travels,

vol.

2,

224.

51

Rif'at:

Mir'at,

vol.

2, 91;

Stratk6tter:

Von

Kairo,

203.

For

the

Ahamida see

ibid.,

354

(index),

further

Oppenheim:

Die

Beduinen,

vol.

2,

377,

379,

and

Biladi:

Mu'jam

qaba'il,

13;

for

the

family

of

IbnJaza

idem:

Nasab

Harb,

179.

52

Fragner:

Persische

Memoirenliteratur,22f.,

77ff.,

11

1ff.

53

Safar

namah,

243f.,

250,

254,

257,

259f.,

265,

280.

54

Ibid.,

254f.,

279. For Amin

al-Dawla's

political

career

see

Fragner,

Memoi-

renliteratur,

88-111.

280



THE

NAKHAW/LA,

SHIITE COMMUNITY

IN MEDINA

Even at the

beginning

of

the

20th

Century,

we

find

that

a

number of

Husaynid

ashraf

residing

in al-'Awali

(and

in

Medina

itself) were able to play a role in local (and even regional) politics.

Among

them

one

Sharif

Shah.

hat

(b. 'Ali)-whose

name

is

also

written Shah

(h)ad

or Shah

(h)adh

by

several

Arab

authors55-rose

to

some

prominence:

In his

description

of

Medina written in

1910,

Batanfni mentions

Sharif Shahhat

as the

representative

(wakil)

of

the Sharif of

Mekka,

who had

appointed

him "to

look into the

affairs

of the

Bedouins"

(al-'urb&n).56

Residing

in

al-'Awali,

Shahhat

was able to

function as

intermediary

in tribal affairs as well as in the

many

cases

of

tension

between the tribes and

the

Medinese

(including

the Ottoman

garrison).

In

addition to

his official

function,

Shahhat and his

younger

brother Nasir

made a

point

of

receiving

Shiite visitors

to

Medina,

and

especially

to the

mosques

south

of

the

holy city-such

as those

of

Quba

and

al-'Awali.

The

hospitality

and

protection

offered

by

the two Emirs attracted praise from 'Abd al-Husayn Sharaf al-Din

in his

autobiography.

Sharaf

al-Din,

a

Lebanese Shiite scholar

(d.

1957),

travelled to Medina

by

a

train

of the

Hijaz

Railway

in

the

company

of his

mother and a number

of

notables from southern

Lebanon. He arrived

in

the

holy

town in

Ramadan

1328

/

Septem-

ber

1910,

i.e.

about

half a

year

after

Batanfni's

stay

there. He

states that the

group

found

accommodation

in

a

house of

"our

faithful

brothers,

the

nakhawila",

and

adds the

following

passage:

"The two

Emirs,

Sharif Shah

[h]

adh

and

Sharif

Nasir,

together

with

a

group

of

believers

(i.e.

Shiites)

from

al-'Awali,

came

to

visit

us.

Both

of

them

spared

no

effort

to

care

for

our comfort and

(ensure

that

we

were)

re-

spected.

At

that

time,

the two Emirs had

influence and

a

leading position

(...).

We had

been determined to seclude

ourselves in the

Prophet's mosque

for

continuous

prayer

(i'tikaf),

but

the

two Emirs

distracted us from that

by

their

constant

(protecting)

care for us."57

A

somewhat similar account is to be

found in

Sayyid

Muhsin al-

Amin's autobiography, where, describing one of his three visits to

Medina,

he

mentions

a

young

man

by

the name of Sharif

'Ali b.

55

Ibn

al-Zubayr:

Mu'jam,

vol.

2,

904. His

nisba is

given by

'Abd

al-Ghani:

Tarikh,

428.

56

Al-rihia

al-hijaziya,

253.

57

Bughyat al-raghibin,

vol.

2,

197f.;

see also

Qubaysi: Hayat,

106.

For

Sharaf

al-

Din

see further

below,

p.

331.

281



WERNERENDE

Budayri al-Husayni.

This

person

served

Sayyid

Muhsin and his

com-

pany

(i.e.

Shiites from

Syria)

as a

guide

to

Quba

and

al-'Awali.

The

young Sharif, who also knew Persian, had visited Damascus as a

guest

of

Sayyid

Muhsin.58

It

is

clear

from this

account that even

for

Shiites

a

visit

to

the

region

of

Quba

and al-'Awali at that time was

safe

only

in

the

company

of

an

intermediary

such as a

Husaynid

Sharif.

(This

situ-

ation was due

to

the

general

tension between Medina and

the

Harb to be mentioned

below).59

Let

us

return

to

the

story

of

Sharif

Shahhat and his

brother:

although

both the

Husaynid

Emirs

participated-and

even

played

an

important

role-in

the so-called Arab

Revolt

of

1916-18,

this

has

apparently

eluded

the attention of

many

historians.

Where

the

two are

mentioned at

all,

their

Shiite

background

is

usually

ig-

nored.60

This

is

somewhat

surprising,

since

one of

the

most

impor-

tant

sources,

T.E. Lawrence's

Seven

Pillars

of

Wisdom,

clearly

high-

lights

this

background

and

its

significance.

Lawrence

speaks

in

particularly glowing terms of Sharif Nasir (at the time, as the au-

thor

remarks,

about

twenty-seven

years

old):

"Nasirmade

a

splendid

impression,

much

as

we had

heard,

and

much as

we

were

expecting

of

him. He

was the

opener

of

roads,

the

forerunner of

Feisal's

movement,

the

man

who

had fired his

first

shot

in

Medina,

and

who

was

to fire

our last shot at

Muslimieh

beyond

Aleppo

on the

day

that

Turkey

asked for an

armistice,

and

from

beginning

to end all

that could

be

told of

him

was

good.

He was

a

brother of

Shehad,

the Emir

of

Medina. Their

family

was

de-

scended from Hussein, the younger of (Imam) 'All's children, and they

were the

only

descendants of

(Imam)

Hussein

considered

Ashraf,

not

Saada.

They

were

Shias,

and

had

been

since

the

days

of

Kerbela,

and in

Hejaz

were

respected

only

second to

the

Emirs

of

Mecca."61

In

a

report

of

March

1917,

Lieut.-Col.

Newcombe

describes

one

of

the

military

operations

against

the

Hijaz

Railway

in

which

Sharif

Nasir

("a

Shiah

from

Medina")

participated.62

Lawrence,

who

would on

occasion flatter

Nasir's

pride

in

being

a Sharif

and

"an

58

A'yan,

vol.

10,

364.

59

See

pp.

287ff.

60

It

is

shortly

mentioned

in

Oppenheim:

Die

Beduinen,

vol.

2,

435,

and

by

Sharaf

al-Din:

Bughyatal-raghibin,

ol.

2,

197. Tauber: The

Arab

Movements,

otes

Sharif

Nasir's

participation

in the

war,

but has

nothing

to

say

about his

back-

ground

(106, 133,

234,

237f.).

61

Seven

Pillars,

165.

62

Bidwell

(ed.):

The

Arab

Bulletin,

vol.

2,

143.

282



THE

NAKHAWILA,

SHIITE COMMUNITY

IN MEDINA

authentic

Shia descendant

of Ali and

the

martyred

Hussein",

con-

sidered

him

"our

best

guerrilla

general".

Later

on,

however,

Nasir

proved to be "too little a political philosopher" to understand

Faysal's policy

in

establishing

an Arab

government

in Damascus.63

In

spite

of his

military

prowess,

Nasir

was,

as

Lawrence

put

it,

"a

man of

gardens,

whose lot

had been

unwilling

war

since

boyhood."

Even

during

the

campaign

against

the

Turks,

he was

dreaming

of

what Lawrence

calls his

"garden-palace"

near Medina.64

The

garden

area

surrounding

Sharif

Nasir's residence

as well as

his

family's

other

palm

groves probably

suffered

considerably

at

the hands of the Ottoman defenders of Medina.

According

to

Hogarth,

"the

large palm

plantations

outside the

city

(of Medina)

on the east and

north-east

(sic),

in which

the

garden

suburb

of Awali is

situated,

were much

ravaged

by

the Turkish

soldiery early

in the

Revolt,

and

the

Beni

Ali,

a

Shiite section

of the Harb

tribe,

who cultivated

them,

were massacred."65

The

background

of these events

is

elucidated

in

a British source:

according to two British intelligence reports66 printed in the Arab

Bulletin,

the Banf

'All

of 'Awali

had first indicated their readiness

to

join

the Sherifian

revolt,

but

then,

unlike most of the Harb

including

the

'Awf,

had

more or less

openly

defected to

the Turk-

ish

side.

However,

they gained

nothing by

this but

gross

maltreat-

ment at the

hands of the Turks

when,

in

August

1916,

the

Otto-

man

garrison,

on its first sortie after

the

outbreak

of the Arab

Revolt,

invaded the 'Awali

region.

It is not

surprising,

then,

that

the

Banu

'Ali

made common cause

with the Sherifian forces after

the latter

had

conquered

some

Turkish

military posts

near Medina

in

the

following

year.

It seems that soon after

the

armistice,

Nasir

went

back to the

Hijaz.

But it

was

his elder brother Shahhat-called

"the bibulous

Emir"

by

Lawrence67-who became Hashimite

qa'im-maqam

of

Medina

soon

after the

Ottoman

surrender of the

city

on 10

Janu-

ary, 1919.68 Over the years, however, Shahhat had increased his

63

Seven

Pillars,

280,

544,

671.

64

Ibid., 165,

237.

65

War and

Discovery,

436.

66

Reprinted

in

Bidwell

(ed.):

The

Arab

Bulletin,

vol.

2, 56f.,

291.

67

Seven

Pillars,

159.

68

Kedourie: The

Surrender,

Badr: Al-tarikh

al-shamil,

vol.

3, 83,

114ff.,

118.

283



WERNERENDE

influence

in

the

area,

and now

resisted

all

attempts

by

King

Husayn

and

his sons

to

reassert

direct

control over

Medina. There

are several critical reports (or short remarks) by both Arab and

Western observers69concerning

this

policy

as well

as

Shahhat's

behaviour and

rule

(including

his

rivalry

with

other

ashraf).

It

seems

very

likely

that the misrule of the

qa'im-maqam

somehow

contributed

to the failure of the Hashimites

in

defending

Medina

against

Ibn Sa'ud's

forces.

It is in this connection that we

hear

again

from Sharif Nasir:

When the Saudis

and their

Hijazi

allies

had

encircled Medina

almost completely, the Iranian consul general in Damascus,

Habibullah

Khan

'Ayn

al-Mulk

Huwayda,

together

with an aide

came to visit

the

city

in November

1925.70

At

this

juncture,

Sharif

Nasir b. 'All sent the

following

telegram

from

Jeddah

to

his

brother Shahhat

in

Medina

(8

Jumada

I, 1344/24

November,

1925):

"Rally

everybody

of

the nakhawila

and

the

(other)

suppressed

inhabitants.

Take them to the Iranian consul so that they may tell him about all the

atrocities

they

have

suffered "

On the

following

day,

Sharif

Shahhat

replied:

"I

presented

to them

all the

suppressed

inhabitants and the

nakhawila,

but

they

(i.e.

the Iranian consul

and

his

company)

have not acted

upon

my

advice."71

On

19

Jumada

I,

1344

(December

5,

1925)

Medina surrendered.72

With this, the long rule of the Hashimites over the holy city came

to

an end. The same

event also

marked the

failure of the

attempt

of

Sharif Shahhat

and his brother Nasir to revive-at least

par-

tially-the

Husaynid

Emirate of Medina.

It

seems that the

Husaynids

of

Medina,

and

particularly

Shahhat

69

Kedourie, ibid., 137; Badr, ibid.,

148.

70

Badr, ibid., 153; Clayton: An ArabianDiary, 110 fn. 12, 111, 120; Rush:

Records,

vol.

4, 286;

Badeeb: Saudi-Iranian

Relations, 80f.;

Wizarat-i Umur-i

Kharijah:

Rawabit,

63-67.

71

First

published

in

the

Saudi "official

gazette",

Umm

al-Qura,

vol.

2,

no. 51

(18

December

1925),

in

an article

(pp.

1-2)

entitled

"Kayfa

amma taslim Al-

Madina

al-Munawwara;

wathd'iq

hdmma

li-l-tarikh"

(documents

captured

by

the

Saudis),

on

page

2,

reprinted

in

Al-Manar,

vol.

26

(1925-26),

676,

and

again

in

Rashid Rida:

Maqaldt,

vol.

4,

1760f.

72

Umm

al-Qura

(see

preceding

footnote);

Badr:

Al-tarikh

al-shamil,

vol.

3,

158f.;

Rayhani:

Tdrikh

Najd,

381f.

284



THE

NAKHAWILA,

SHIITE COMMUNITY IN

MEDINA

and

Nasir,

never

had

a hand

in

machinations which

finally

led

to

the

establishment

of

the Hashimite

Kingdom

of

Iraq:

Lawrence

and a number of other British officers favoured the installation of

King

Husayn's

son

'Abdallah

as

ruler there.

In

order

to

justify

this

move,

i.e. to

support

his assertion

that 'Abdallah

would

be

accept-

able

in the

eyes

of the

Shiite

majority

in

Iraq,

Lawrence

repeatedly

characterized

him

as a

"crypto-Shiah",

even

though

he was

nomi-

nally

a Shafi'i

Sunni.

There

is

some evidence

that

'Abdallah,

his

brother

Faysal

and

his

father

Husayn

had

all

presented

themselves to

Lawrence and

some other British officers and

diplomats

as

very

liberal Sunnites

with

long-standing

Shiite

leanings-in

the case

of

'Abdallah even

to

the extent that he

was

"nearly

a

Shia

of

the

Jaaferi

wing".73

As

Shahhat and

Nasir-real

Shiites-probably

never had

political

ambitions

on

the

same

scale,

and

possibly

for

other reasons

too,

they

were

no match

for

the

Meccan

Hashimites

in

this

game.

As

testified

by Bulayhishi's

list of the

ashraf

in

modern

Medina

(see below), more or less all of the :Husaynid families are still

present

there. It

seems,

however,

that their

role in

society

is

some-

how

restricted,

and

is

certainly

devoid of

direct

political

influence.

Thus,

'All Hafiz

mentions

one

Sharif

Zayd

b.

Shahhat

(most

prob-

ably

a descendant of

the

above-mentioned

qd'im-maqdm)

as

the

administrator of

land

around Bi'r

Bida'

74

once

donated as

waqfby

Sharif Shahhat and

Sharif

Nasir

b.

al-Sharif

'Ali Al

Hiyar.75

He

has

a

few

words more

to

say

about

"the noble

young

man,

Sharif

Nasir

b. 'Ali b. Shahhat"

who,

in

November

1964,

founded the

first

nurs-

ery

school in

Medina. In

July

1962,

he

had

already

established

an

institute

called

al-Ma'had

al-Tijdri,

which

offered

typewriting

courses in

Arabic as

well

as in

English.76

The

Husaynid

ashraf

no

longer

receive

and

entertain Shiite

visi-

tors in

the

manner

they

used

to

before

the Saudi

takeover,

and in

so

far as this

custom

persists

at

all it

is

practised

cautiously

and

selectively. However, one Sharif Shahin is said to have invited a

number

of Shiite

pilgrims

to

his

house in

Medina in

1942. He even

arranged

a

meeting

of

some

of

those

visitors with

a

relative of

King

73

Rudd:

Abdullah, 171,

178,

184-191.

74

Najafi:

Madinah-shindsi,

293-97;

Hafiz:

Fusiul,

167f.

75

Hafiz, ibid.,

168.

76

Ibid.,

231f.

285



WERNER ENDE

'Abd

al-'Aziz

Ibn

Sa'ufid,

during

which controversial

issues

relating

to the Shi'ite

mourning practices

in

Muharram as well as

their

suppression by the Saudi authorities were discussed.77

Sayyids

of

Husaynid

or

Hasanid extraction

(and

of a

more or less

publicly

known

Shiite

background)

may

still be

engaged

in an

official

or

semi-official

capacity

as

muzawwirun,

especially

for

Shiite

pilgrims.

Thus,

referring

to the situation

in

1950,

Sultanhusayn

Tabandah Gunabadi78 mentions

a

local

Shiite

of Hasanid

descent,

one

Sayyid

Mustaf.a

'Attr,

as the

person responsible

for

the

recep-

tion of Shiite

visitors

to

Medina. Gunabadi adds

that some

of

Mustafa 'At.tr's ancestors had held the same

position

before

him,

and that

Sayyid

Mustafa

(until

his

resignation

from

that

office)

had been

mayor

of

Medina for some time.

The

last

mentioned

information

is

corroborated

by

two

Saudi authors.79

In his

book

about modern Medina

(first

published

in

1402/

1981-82)

Bulayhishi

refers to

one Sharif

Majid

b.

Jaddfiu'

b. Mansur

b. Fahd b.

Radi,

a

resident

of

al-'Awali,

as his

informant

about

the

different branches of the ashraf of Banfu Husayn. According to

him,

the

present-day

ashraf

of

the Banfi

Husayn

residing

in

Medina

(including

al-'Awali)

are

divided into

the

following

twelve

subdivi-

sions

(furf')

:80

Dhawi Radi

and

Al-Mubarak.

They

hold the

mashyakha

of

(all)

the

ashraf

of

the Banf

Husayn.

Further:

Al-'Assaf;

Al-Mawasa;

Al-

Zarafa;

Al-Birka;

Al-'Umayra;

Al-Shamisan;

Al-'Ali;

Al-Zuhayr;

Al-

Shahil;

Al-Shaqqarin; Al-Shayahin.

As

in the

case of

the subdivisions

and

clans

of

the

nakhawila

(see

below,

p.

292),

it

is

difficult to ascertain

the

exact

vocalization of

some of the

names

presented

by

the author.

In

addition to the

ashraf

and the "real"

nakhdwila,

there

are

in

present-day

Medina

families of

Shiite Arab

(mainly

Iraqi)

origin

such

as

al-Mashhadi

(plural

Mashahida)

or 'Imran

who

appear

as

Sunnites and

are

quite

well

integrated

in

the Sunni

upper

class.

77

Shir&I:

Al-ihtijajat,

27f.;

Mun.zarat,

51-53. About

Shirazi

see Mushar:

Mu'allifin,

vol.

3,

971f.

78

About

this author

see

Mushar:

bid.,

345f.

79

Khatirat,

75f.;

Hafiz:

Fusuil, 40,

Badr: Al-tarikh

al-shamil,

vol.

3,

222.

A

picture

of

Sayyid

Mustafa

al-Najjar

s to be

found in

Najafi:

Madinah-shinasi,

o.

102.

80

Al-Madina

al-yawm,

311. About

Bulayhishi

see Ibn

Salam:

Mawst'at al-

udaba',vol.

1,

97-100.

286



THE

NAKHAW/LA,

SHIITE COMMUNITY

IN MEDINA

These

include

intellectuals,

such as the

writer

Mahmfud

'Isa al-

Mashhadi.81

The

Harb and

their Shiite subtribes

At least

up

to

the

beginning

of

Saudi-Wahhabi

rule

(1924/25),

some

tribes or

subtribes

of the

Hijaz, mainly

of

the

Harb and

Juhayna, openly

defined

themselves

as

Shiites-without,

however,

over

many

centuries

having

been

strictly

affiliated to

a

particular

madhhabsuch as the Imamiya or the Zaidiya.82

The unruliness

and

fighting

spirit

of

some of those

tribes,

com-

monly

known as

al-Hurfub,83

have had

repercussions

on

the situ-

ation

of the Shiites

and

crypto-Shiites

of Medina

and,

more

par-

ticularly,

on a

Shiite

community

living

on

the outskirts

of

that

town,

the so-called

nakhawila.

In the

Eighteenth

Century,

there

was

permanent

tension be-

tween

the Sunni inhabitants

of Medina-i.e. the

majority

of the

population-and

the Harb. The latter's attack on the

holy

city

in

1148/1735,

during

which

they

are

said to have

plundered

the

haram and

many

private

houses,

was

compared

by

a local Sunni

poet, al-Sayyid al-Bayti,

to the ibdhat al-Madina

following

the

"battle

of

the harra".84

n the

eyes

of

the Sunni

Medinese,

the Shiite Banfu

'Ali

in

particular

appeared

to be the

arch-enemy.

In

addition,

cer-

tain families in Medina

known for

their Shiite

leanings

(rafd)

be-

came the object of suspicion and hatred. In a way, they were seen

by

the Sunnite

majority

as a

kind

of

fifth

column inside

the

city

who

openly

boasted and

displayed

their malice before the Sunni

population

of Medina.85

81

Hamza

al-Hasan:

Al-shi'a,

vol.

1,

66f.

(about

Mahmfd 'Isa al-Mashhadisee

Ibn Salam: Mawst'at al-udaba',vol.

3,

201f.);

Winder:

Al-Madina,

999. See further

Bulayhishi:

Al-Madina,

308f. The 'Imran are related

to

the

Habbubi

(ibid.,

280),

one of the prominent families of Najaf (Amini: Mu'jam,vol. 1, 387-92); Muhsin

al-Amin mentions one

Sayyid

'Imran

al-Habbfibi

who

invited

him to

his house in

Medina

(A'yan,

vol.

10,

365).

82

Snouck

Hurgronje:

Orientalism,

306

(in

a

letter to Theodor

N6oldeke,

dated

March

25,

1923).

83

Hasan:

Al-shi'a,

vol.

1,

66.

84

Hamdan: The

Literature,

9-33.

(For

the battle of

the

harra,

see

below

p.

304f.)

For a

similarfitna

in

1111/1699-1700

see Biladi:

Nasab,

155

f.,

and Badr: Al-

tarikh,

ol.

2,

376-78.

85

Hamdan,

ibid.,

26-28.

287



WERNERENDE

At the same

time,

the Ottomans

were not able to

control

the

countryside

even

in

the immediate

neighbourhood

of

Medina:

places such as the mosque of Quba proved to be unsafe for them.

This meant

that

restoration

work

on

that

mosque

could not

be

completed

for

some

time

because,

as

the Ottoman

sadr-i

a'zam

wrote

in a

report

to

the

Sultan in about

1195/1780-81,

Bedouin

criminals

(ashqiya'

al-badw)

had time and

again

disrupted

security

around

this

place.86

Under

the

circumstances described

above,

it is

hardly

surprising

that

most

of

the Sunnite Medinese tried to avoid

contact with the

nakhdwila.

Exceptions

were noted with astonishment or

suspicion:

of

a

contemporary

Sunni

Medinese,

one 'Umar

al-Hudayrami,

'Abd al-Rahman

al-Ansari87 remarks

with obvious

disapproval

that

this

(according

to

him,

generally

ill-natured)

person

"used to

deal

with the

peasants

of

the

nakhawila".88He

seems

to

be

less

censo-

rious,

however,

in a

somewhat similar

case

involving

a

Sunni nota-

ble and learned

man

by

the name of

Sayyid

Muhammad

of

the

family of Kibrit: as this Sayyid had no offspring, he decided to

bequeath

two

gardens

he

owned

in

the

vicinity

of

al-'Awali

and

Quba

as

waqf

first to his

(manumitted)

slaves

(probably

eunuchs)

and,

after

their

death,

to

the

elderly

among

the

nakhdwila.89

The

effect,

even in

modern

times,

of

the

long-standing

special

relationship

between the

Shiite

tribesmen of

the

Hijaz

and

their

settled

co-religionists

in

and around

Medina

can

perhaps

best be

illustrated

by

an

episode

reported

by

Muhammad

al-Husayn

al-

Muzaffari

(d.

1961),

an

Iraqi

Shiite

scholar,90

and

by

a

rather simi-

lar

one transmitted

by

Sayyid

Muhsin al-Amin

(d. 1952),

one of

the

most

famous Shiite

authors of the

20th

Century.91

Both

describe

incidents

occurring

in

the

late

Ottoman

period,

with

only

Muzaffari

giving

a

precise

date,

i.e.

1911.

The

relevant

86

Huraydi: Shu'un, 95-97. For the background see Oppenheim: Die Beduinen,

vol.

2,

368ff.

87

About

this

author see

below,

fn.

148.

88

Tuhfat

al-muhibbin,

172f.

89

Ibid.,

412f. About

Muhammad

Kibrit,

see also

above,

fn.

19.

90

Or:

Al-Muzaffar,

ee

'Awwad:

Mu'jam,

vol.

3, 154;

Amini:

Mu'jam

nijdl,

vol.

3,

1216.

According

to

p.

1212,

his

family

is

of

Hijazi

origin

(Al

Masriuh f

the

Harb).

91

See

art.

"A'yan

al-Shi'a" n

Encyclopaedia

ranica,

vol. 3

(1989),

130f.,

and

the

literature

mentioned

there.

(In

the

1986

Beirut

edition

of A'yan

al-shi'a,

Sayyid

Muhsin's

autobiography

is to

be

found

in

vol.

10,

333-446.)

288



THE

NAKHAWILA,


passage

in his

chapter

on the Shia

of the

Hijaz

reads

as

follows:

"Today

(the

time of

writing

is

1352/1933-34),

there are

more Shiites

among

the tribes than in the towns (of the Hijaz). The Shiite tribes (to be men-

tioned

here)

include

the Banu

Jaham,

the Banfi

'All

and

part

of the

Banu

'Awf.

As

far

as the towns are

concerned,

many

(Shiites)

are

to be found

in

Medina,

such as the

nakhawila,

and

in

the farmland

(of

its

neighbouring

regions)

such

as

al-'Awali.

In

Medina

(itself),

there

are

a

small number

of

others

(i.e.

Shiites not

to

be

counted

as

nakhawila),

and the

same holds true

for Mecca.

Once there was

an

incident between the Shiites and

the Ottoman

(local)

government

of

Medina-(an

event)

which

is both

famous and

memorable.

What

happened

is the

following:

In

al-'Awali,

(a

village

and

region)

inhabited

by

the

Banu

'All,

(a

section)

of the Harb, there are many Shiites. The Turks accused them of giving

shelter

to criminals as

well as of

brigandage

and

intended

therefore

to

erect

fortresses

and

(other)

strongholds

in

al-'Awali.The

people

(of

that

district),

however,

resisted

this

plan,

as

they

considered

it a

manoeuvre

(with

the

final

aim)

to exterminate them. So

the Turkish

government

(of

Medina)

equipped

a

well-armed and numerous

military

force

(and

dispatched

it)

to

battle

against

them.

(On

the

other

hand),

the Harb

tribes came

to

the aid

of the

Banf

'All,

because

the

latter

belong

to them.

When the

(Turkish)

force

advanced,

(the

allied

tribesmen)

confronted

it

with

courage

and

intre-

pidity.

(As

a

result),

the

(Turkish)

troops

were

defeated

and fled back

to

Medina. Bands of Harb (warriors)closed in from all sides and laid siege to

Medina

for

two

months. Therefore this incident is

called

"the two-months-

battle".

A

great

number of

(Turkish)

soldiers were killed

during

this

time,

while

the

people

of al-'Awali

did not

suffer

any

losses. It is

said that in

(the

whole

of)

al-'Awali

only

a

dog

and a

goat

had been

killed.

This incident

began

on the

3rd Shawwal

1329

(September

27,

1911).

A

number of

poets

composed

verses

referring

to this

event,

(and

especially)

to

the

victory

it

had

brought

for

the Shiites

and

to

the defeat of the

Turks.

As

a

result

of this

triumph,

the

situation

of

the

oppressed

Shiites

(al-shi'a

al-

mustad'afun)

iving

in

Medina itself

improved".92

The

general

setting

of Muzaffari's

account,

and even some

of its

details,

can

also be found

in

a

number of other

sources

by

both

Sunnite and Shiite as well

as

some

western authors.93

In

the

present

context,

Muhsin al-Amin's

reminiscences of

his three visits

to Medina are of

special

interest.

Describing

his

impressions

and

experiences

on

the

occasion of

two visits at the

time

when Sharif

Husayn

ibn 'Ali

was Amir of

Mecca

(i.e.

between

1908 and

1916),

he mentions one Shaykh Muhammad 'Ali al-Hajuj, a Shiite

'dlim

from

al-'Awali

who

had been in

Najaf

for

some time.94 It is

to his

92

Muzaffari:

Tarikh

al-shi'a,

116f.

93

Especially

Wavell: A

Modern

Pilgrim,

58-63,

77-89

(describing

events in

1908);

further

'Ayyashi:

Al-Madina,538,

572f. For

the

background

(in

particular

concerning

the

Hijaz Railway)

see

Philipp:

Der

beduinische

Widerstand,

or the

wider

context

Buzpinar:

The

Hijaz,

and

Ochsenwald:

Religion.

94

A'yan,

vol.

10,

364.

289



WERNER ENDE

father,

an old man

mentioned

as

al-Hajuj

by

Sayyid

Muhsin,

that

the latter

owes the

following

story:

Several years ago, a number of native Sunnites of Medina to-

gether

with some

mujawiran

from

Central

Asia and the

Maghreb,

had succeeded

in

convincing

the Ottoman

hakim of

the

town,

one

Sa'id

Pasha,

to

dispatch

an

expeditionary

force

against

the

people

of al-'Awali.

The

instigators

of

the

ensuing

military campaign

re-

ceived

arms

and

were

allowed to

accompany

the

regular

Turkish

troops

as

mujahidun.

When

the

expeditionary

force

approached

al-

'Awali,

the soldiers

started

cutting

down the

palm

trees and

in-

stalled a cannon on

top

of a hill. The

people

of the

village,

who

had been

taken

by

surprise,

finally

rallied,

fought

back and were

even

able to silence the

cannon:

The

enemies

were

put

to

flight,

with some

of

them

throwing

away

their

arms,

while

the men of al-

'Awali

followed close

behind

them,

killing

a

number

of

them.

They

did not

stop pursuing

the attackers

until

the latter

had

entered

Medina

and

had the

gates

of

the

town

closed. The Medinese did

not dare to come out again in order to bury their dead lying

outside

on the

battlefield.

So

they

offered to the nakhdwila five

Ottoman Pounds in

gold

coins for each

corpse

they brought

into

Medina,

so that the

dead

could

be buried

properly.95

In

the

following

sentences,

Muhsin

al-Amin

reveals how the

nakhawila-whose

quarter

(mahalla)

was

situated

outside the

walls

of

Medina,

i.e. south

of

Darb

al-Jand'iz96-were

able

to

perform

the

task

they

had

been asked

to,

i.e.

to

go

out

onto

the battlefield and

recover the bodies of

the

dead

mujdhidfn

and soldiers-all of

them,

to be

sure,

Sunnites who

had

tried to

wage

war

against

(real

or

alleged)

Shiite rebels:

"The

nakhdwilahave

(formed)

an alliance

(hilf)

with the

Harb,

(a

tribe)

spreading

between

Mecca and

Medina.

Every

twenty years

they

exchange

a

written document

with

each

other

concerning

this

alliance. One

copy

of

it

remains with

the

nakhdwila,

and the other

with

the

Harb.

The document in

question

contains

(the

provision)

that

the Harb

are

obliged

to

help

the

nakhawila whenever (the latter) are

being

attacked, while the nakhawila are

not

bound

to

fight

together

with the Harb".97

95

Ibid.,

365.

96

See

maps

in Burton: Personal

Narrative,

vol.

1,

392f.;

Najafi:

Madinah-shindsi,

nos.

35

ff.;

Bindaqji:

Maps (map

of

Medina);

El,

vol.

5,

1001.

97

A'ydn,

vol.

10,

365.

290



THE

NAKHAWILA,

SHIITE COMMUNITY

IN MEDINA

It

would

be

interesting

to

know

more about this

treaty,

its

history,

social

background

and other

details.

Its

existence,

which I see

no

reason to doubt, should be seen in the larger context of tribal law

in

Arabia,

and

especially

of the

treaties concluded between no-

mads,

half-nomads

and

peasants.98 Unfortunately,

I

have no fur-

ther information

on this.

As

has

occured with almost

all

nomadic

tribes in

the Arabian

Peninsula

and

elsewhere,

the

military strength

of the Harb has

dwindled

rapidly

in

the

modern

age.

As

a

result,

the

nakhawila-

both

rural

and urban-have lost the effective

support

of an

ally

who had

guaranteed

their relative

safety

for a

long

time

up

to the

end

of

the Hashimite

period.

In

this

connection,

it is worth men-

tioning

that some chiefs of the

Harb,

including

the

Banf

'All,

had

already

allied

themselves

with

the Saudis

by

the time

of

the

siege

of

Medina

in

1925.99

The

history

of

the Harb and their

subtribes is

still-or

has

be-

come once more-a

topic

of

debate

in

present-day

Saudi

Arabia.

The political role of this tribe up to the 20th Century is not, how-

ever,

a

central issue

in

this

debate,

and the

Shiite madhhab of

some

of

its

subtribes is

rarely

dealt with.100

As

regards

Medina,

Bulayhishi

remarks that as a

result

of

waves

of

immigration

from the desert

and from

villages

the

majority

of

the Harb are now

(i.e.

in the

early

1980s)

living

in the

city

itself

or

on

its outskirts.101

The same author

provides

his

readers

with a

number of tables in

which

the names of

tribes,

subdivisions

and

families

dwelling

in

and

around Medina

are mentioned

in

considerable detail.102

Of

special

relevance to

our

topic

is a

table

concerning

the

nakhdwila

of

Medina. The

names

given

in

this table

are

based,

the author

says,

on

(oral)

information

furnished

by

al-ustddh

'Abd al-Rahim

98 For general information concerning the hilf see Juda: Aspekte, 2-8; Graf:

Das

Rechtswesen,

15f.

99

Badn

Al-tdrikh,

vol.

3, 152;

Biladi:

Nasab,

55,

166-68,

185;

Winder: Al-

Madina,

998.

100

See,

e.g.,

Al-'Arab

(journal),

31

(1996),

781f. and

788-90,

32

(1997),

246-49.

Biladi's

Nasab Harb

and several

of his other

works are

obviously

written in

de-

fence of the

Harb and their

role

in

history.

101

Al-Madina

al-yawm,

312;

see also

Biladi:

Nasab,

197.

102

Bulayhishi,

ibid.,

312-21.

291



WERNER ENDE

Hasan

al-Hirbi

(bi-kasr

al-ha').

Al-Hirbi

is one

of the

subdivisions of

the al-Dawawid

who

belong

to the

nakhdwila.

Except in the case of his informant's nisba, al-Bulayhishi does

not

give

any

particulars

with

regard

to the vocalization of the

names

presented

in his

table. Thus most

of

the

names in

the

fol-

lowing

list,

based on

this

table,

represent

my

own tentative read-

ings.

(It

should be mentioned

here

that

even

indigenous special-

ists

such

as al-Biladi

very

often

refrain

from

determining

the "cor-

rect" vocalization of

Arab

tribal

names,

let alone those of subdivi-

sions and

clans).

Nevertheless,

Bulayhishi's

table

is

quite

valuable.

In fact it contains, to the best of my knowledge, the only printed

information

concerning

the clans of

the

nakhawila

in

modern

times-at

least of those settled

in Medina.

Bulayhishi's

inven-

tory103

contains the

following

information:

"Among

those

(related

to the

Harb)

living

in

Medina are the

Nakhawila.

Their branches

(or

subdivisions,

uru')

are:

1)

Al-Sharimi. The

(following

clans)

belong

to

them

(wa-minhum):

Al-

Khawalida; al-Malabin; al-Karafa;

al-Tabalan

(or

Tubalan);

Bayt

Wa'il;

al-

Jada'in; al-Qarina; Bayt Mahashi; al-'Ulayyan; al-Tarayif; al-Hakfriya; al-

Baqaqir; al-Jawayida;Bayt

al-Nafiri;

al-Nuwayqat;

l-Dawakhin;

Bayt

Hassfn;

Bayt

al-'Isari;

al-Kawabis.

2)

Al-Darawisha.Their

clans are:

Al-'Ababish;

Dhawi

Khalifa;

Budayr

Haram;

al-Badihan.

3)

Al-Dawawid. Their clans are:

Al-Filsa;

Bayt

Mannash;

al-Hirabiya;

al-

Hammarin;

al-Jawa'ida;

l-Sawayan;

al-Fihlan;

Bayt

Jabin;

al-Nawaji;Bayt

al-

Rumi.

4)

Al-Mahariba.Their

clans are:

Al-Mahasina;

l-Hawajij.

5)

Al-Zawabi'a.

Their clans

are:

Al-Hamza;al-Barahim;al-Salmi;

al-Shalalid.

6) Al-Asabi'a.Their clans are:BaytHurayqa;BaytMala'ika;Baytal-'Isa'i;Bayt

Sabirin;

al-Shawam;

Lulu;

al-Karadiya;l-Shariqi;al-Jayd;

l-Banajiya.

7)

Al-Watsha.Their clans are:

Bayt

al-Isba';

Bayt

al-Sawi.

8)

Al-Zira.Their

clans

are:

Al-Sutahan;

al-Jawa'ida.

9)

Al-Jarafiya.

Their clans

are: Dhawi

Salim;

Dhawi

'Abdallah;

Dhawi

Ahmad;

Dhawi

Husayn;

al-Kasasir.

10)

Al-Ma'arif.

Their clans

are:

Al-Awaq;

Dhawi 'Abdallah

(sic

See under no.

9);

al-Malayiha;

Dhawi Ahmad

Rajab.

11)

Al-Far.

Their

clans

are:

Al-Mazini;

Bayt

Nashi; al-Madarisa;

l-Marawiha;

al-Sa'di;

al-Qusran;

al-Tflan;

Bayt

Mas'ad;

Bayt

Aba

'Amir;

al-Bughayl."

As for al-'Awali, al-Biladi remarks that its inhabitants are "a mixture

of

Harb and

nakhdwila",104

with one

(or more)

of the latter's

subdi-

visions

(batn),

such

as

the

Fayaran,

"claiming"

descent from the

Banu

'All.105

In another work of

his,

he

provides

a short

survey

of

103

Ibid.,

321.

104

Mu'jam

ma'alim,

vol.

6,

185.

105

Mu'jam

qaba'il,

408.

292



THE

NAKHAW/LA,


the factions

of the

Banf

'Ali,

both

in

the

Najd

and

in

Medina

and

its

neighbourhood

without, however,

saying

which of

them

are

(still) to be considered Shiites.106 It may indeed be difficult to give

a

clear

judgement concerning

this

point, especially

since

many

of

the factions

which were

rightly

considered Shiites

in

the

past may

now in fact

define

themselves

as Sunnis.

(According

to oral infor-

mation

I

received

in

1995,

many

Wahhabis tend to believe

that

sooner

or later

all the

indigenous

Shiites

of

the

Hijaz,

including

the

nakhawila,

will

be

"brought

back" to the fold of

Wahhabi

Sunnite

Islam).

The nakhawila:

a

name and its variants

While,

as

we have

seen,

the

existence

of a

(Twelver)

Shiite

commu-

nity

in

Medina and its

neighbourhood

is

well

attested

in a

number

of

medieval

sources,

the

designation

of that

community

as

"Nakhawila"

appears

to

have been

a

rather late

development.

Ac-

cording

to al-Khoei, this term "issaid to have been first used

by

the

Ottoman rulers of the

Hejaz".107

The first

mention

in the

relevant

Arabic

sources of the

rawafid

of Medina

being

called

nakhawila

by

the

(Sunnite)

Medinese

seems

to

have

occurred

rather

late,

namely

in

the 17th

Century

A.D.

(11

th

Century

A.H.)

The

author of the

work

in

question-a

rihla

called

Ma' al-mawz'id-was

Abu

Salim 'Abdallah b.

Muham-

mad b. Abi Bakr al-'Ayyashi (d. 1679), a Moroccan scholar and sufi

of

Berber

origin,

who

visited Medina in

1662-63.

He arrived

in

early

Muharram

1073

(August

1662)

and

stayed

there until

Sha'ban

(March

1663).

A

part

of his

rihla,

i.e.

his

description

of

Medina,

has been edited

by

Muhammad

Amhazfin.108

Unlike

many

other

Sunnite visitors to

the

holy city,

al-'Ayyashi,

who

stayed

more than seven

months,

became

aware of the

exist-

ence of

a

Shiite

group

in

the

vicinity

of

Medina

and even

noticed

that

they

had been

given

a

special

name

by

the

Medinese.

This

was

probably

due to

the fact that

he had

found

accommodation in a

house

adjacent

to the Mashhad

(shrine)

of

Sayyid

Isma'il,

a son

of

106

Nasab

Harb,

55f.

107

The

Shi'a,

4.

108

Al-Madina

al-Munawwara

fi

rihlat

al-'Ayyashi.

Concerning

the author

and

his work

Ma'

al-mawd'id

see

Amhazfiun,

19-66;

also

see

EI,

vol.

1,

795.

293



WERNERENDE

Imam Ja'far

al-Sadiq

(who

had

died about

ten

years

before

the

death

of

his

father).109

The roof of the Mashhad afforded a good view of the whole of

al-Baqi'

and

of the

palm groves streching

as far as

the

Jabal

Uhud.

There was one

thing,

however,

which disturbed

al-'Ayyashi's

stay

there,

and this

he

described

as

"the

frequent

visits of the nakhdwila

o that

place. They

are

rawafid

dwelling

outside

Medina

in

al-'Awaliand other

parts

of that area. In fact

the

majority

of those

living

there,

working

as

gardeners

and

peasants,

are

rawafid.

The

Medinese call them al-nakhdwila. do not know the

meaning

of

that name.

They

have

a

custom

according

to which

they

come to

the

shrine

(of

Isma'ilb.Ja'far) almost every thursday,namely, earlyin the morning. There

they

cook

a

copious

meal

and sit

together-men,

women and

children.

In

most

cases

they

come also for

the circumcision

of

their

boys.

If

any

(of

the

nakhawila)

has a

son

and wants him

to be

circumcised,

it

will be

done

only

on that

day

and at this

place.

Sometimes,

however,

they

come there not for

this

reason,

but

merely

for a

ziyara

(to

the tomb of

Sayyid

Isma'il)

and to

have

a

meal

together.

No outsiders

(i.e.

persons

not

being

nakhdwila)

would

participate

(in

such a

gathering)."

10

There

is

nothing

in

al-'Ayyashi's description

to

suggest

that the des-

ignation nakhdwila had been in use in Medina a long time before

his

visit.

Only

the

discovery

of

new

manuscript

sources,

such as the

book

by

Khayr

al-Din

Ilyas

al-Madani

(d.

1717)

mentioned in al-

Ansari's

Tuhfat

al-muhibbin"ll

might

enable

us to

ascertain,

more

or

less

exactly,

when-and under which

circumstances-this name

came into

existence.

Almost

all

authors who

mention the

Twelver-Shiite

minority

liv-

ing on the outskirts of Medina agree that the plural form of their

name is

nakhawila,

and

that this name

is

derived

from

nakhl/nakhla

or

nakhil,

"date

palm".

The variant

makhdwila

which is to be

found

in

the

Safwat

al-i'tibar of

Muhammad

Bayram

(al-Khamis)

al-Tfnisi

(d.

1889)

is

most

probably

a

typographical

error or

slip

of

the

pen.112

While

makhawila

appears

to make no

sense,

another

variant

mentioned

by

some authors

certainly

does:

both

nukhala or nakh-

109

See

art.

"Dja'far

al-Sadik"

n

EI,

vol.

2,

374f. and

"Isma'iliyya"

bid.,

vol.

4,

198;

for the

mashhad,

ee Samhfidi:

Wafa',

920.

Under Saudi

rule,

the

building

was

neglected,

and

finally destroyed

in

1975,

see

Najafi:

Madinah-shinasi,389;

Maghribi:

Al-muhaddam, 10f.;

Samarra'i: Al

Sa'ud,

35.

110

Amhazun:

Al-Madina,

175f.

l

See

below,

p.

303.

112

Vol.

5,

19.

About the author see

EI,

vol.

7,

433-35.

294



THE

NAKHAWILA,


khala could

designate persons:

nukhala,

"residue

left in a

sieve,

bran,

waste,

refuse"

(Wehr),

could

very

well

be

used

by

hostile

neighbours as a pejorative label for a despised group. Nakhkhdl(a)

would

again

be related

to

nakhl/nakhla

or nakhil

and

denote a

person dealing

with date

palms

in one

way

or

another. It

is,

how-

ever,

a

singular.

Dozy, incidentally,

has

"chiffonier"

(ragpicker)

for

nakhkhal.113

A

rather

strange

variant is

nawcakhila(h),

a

word to be found

even

in a

modern

work

published

in

Arabic.114

The

relevant

passage

in

that

book,

however,

is

partly

based

on

J.L.

Burckhardt's Travels in

Arabia, and it is obvious that the

misspelling-

a metathesis result-

ing

from a

typographical

error

or

slip

of the

pen-derives

from

this

source.

In fact Burckhardt

(d.

1817)

is

the first

European

author to

mention the Shiites

working

and

living

in the

palm

groves

around

Medina.115

However,

he did not live to

see his

Travels

appear

in

print

(London

1829,

German ed.

1830,

French

translation

1835,

in

the latter: Nouakheles). From Burckhardt's work, the misspelling

nawakhila was

copied by

R.

Dozy

in

his

Supplement

aux

dictionnaires

arabesand

translated as "ceux

qui

cultivent des

palmiers",

but

only

as a

plural

form

and not

linked

to the

singular

nakhwali.

Referring

to Burtons's

Personal

Narrative,

Dozy

describes the

nakhwali as "le

cultivateur

qui

secoue

le

regime

des

fleurs

males

des

dattiers

sur

les

fleurs

femelles,

afin de les

feconder."116

Possibly

as

a result of his reliance

on

Dozy's

dictionary,

even

C.

Snouck

Hurgronje

seems to have been

uncertain,

for some

time

at

least,

whether

the

word in

question

should be

nakhdwila or

nawakhila,

but in his

work about

Mecca,

he

gives

the correct

spell-

ing

nakhdwila

("Nachaw'lah").117

According

to a

modern Saudi

author,

the

official

name

of the

nakhdwila

is now

al-nakhliyun

(sing.

nakhli).

On another

occasion,

the

same

author

mentions

the

plural

al-nakhliya.118

113

Na'ib al-Sadr

Shirazi:

Tuhfat

al-haramayn,

235f;

Sayf

al-Dawla:

Safar

namah,

141,

fn.

1;

Dozy:

Supplement,

vol.

2,

658.

114

Khalili:

Mawsiu'a,

vol.

3,

pt.

1,

257.

115

See the

passages quoted

above,

p.

268,

and

below,

p.

313.

116

Dozy:

Suppliment,

vol.

2,

658.

117

Scholarship,

340; Mekka,

vol.

2,

252,

fn.

2.

118

Biladi

in

Siba'i:

Trzikh

Makka,

4th

ed.,

vol.

1,

95

(for

the context

see

be-

low,

p.

308);

idem:

Mu'jam

ma'alim,

vol.

6,

186.

295



WERNER ENDE

In the local

dialect

of

Medina,

there

may

still be several

different

pronounciations

of

the word nakhawila

and its

singular

form,

in-

cluding one linking it, in a pejorative way, to the word nukhala

(bran,

sludge,

or,

in a social

context,

lowest

stratum).

The vocalization

is not clear

in some

of these

cases,

such as

in

the

passage

of Muhammad

Bey

$Sdiq's

work

mentioned below:

should we

read the name

of the

tribe

(qabila)

he met "at

an

hour's

distance from

Medina" as

al-nakhwaliya

or

al-nukhfliya?

We have to

remember

that almost all the authors

of the

available sources are

outsiders

who

write the name

of

this

group

either

according

to

oral information or with reference to other sources which in turn

are based on oral information.119

"No

one",

Burton

wrote,

"could tell

me

whether

these heretics

had

not a

peculiar

name for

themselves"120.

According

to Carlo

Alfonso

Nallino,

who tried to

gather

information about

them

when he was

in

Jeddah,

the

preferred

name

of the

nakhawila

for

their own

community

was

ashab

al-nakhl,

i.e.

something

like "the

people of the date palm". This scholar also presumes that the

singular

of nakhdwila

should be nakhili or

nakhwali.121 The

latter

form is

in fact

mentioned

by

Dozy,

who,

however,

has this as a

separate

entry.

As

for

the

designation

ashdb al-nakhl

mentioned

by

Nallino,

it

is

likely

that some of the

Twelver Shiites of

Medina

prefer

it

to

that

of

nakhawila

because of the

pejorative

meaning

the

latter term has

assumed

(especially

when

used

by

Sunnites).122

While ashib

al-

nakhl

still

alludes to their work in the

palm groves,

it

may

also

carry

religious

connotations.

In

the

imagination

of the

Shia,

the

date

palm

is

symbolically

linked to

Medina:

In

Shiite

(-inspired)

art,

pictorial

representations

of the

holy city

very

often show

date

palms

in

or

around the haram.

These

palms

are

said to

represent

Fatima

(whose

so-called

"garden"

inside the

haram is

famous)

as well as the

Imams

of

the Ahl

al-Bayt.

In

Persian

(Shiite) folklore, the date palm is of considerable importance.123

119

Kawkab

al-hajj,

53;

see

Oppenheim:

Die

Beduinen,

vol.

2,

378.

120

Personal

Narrative,

vol.

2, 1,

fn.

2.

121

L'Arabia

Saudiana,

92.

122

Sa'id:

Tarikh,

491f.

123

Fontana:

Una

rappresentazione;

art. "Date Palm"

in

Encyclopaedia

Iranica,

vol.

7,

123.

296



THE

NAKHAW/LA,

SHIITE

COMMUNITY

IN MEDINA

Several

of

the

early

Imams are

reported

to

have

owned

large

palm

groves

near the

holy

city.

Their

sayings

about the

special

qualities of the dates grown there are repeated in a number of

sources.

In other

words,

both the

palm

tree as

such

and its

fruit

have a

special significance

in Shiite

religious

tradition. There is

an

anecdote

concerning

the

Eighth

Imam,

'All

al-Rida

(d. 818):

when

he was asked

why

he

devoured

some dates

(of

the

notably

excel-

lent barni

type)

with

such

obvious

delight,

he

is

said to have ans-

wered:

"Yes,

I

really

love

(eating)

dates

(..),

because the

Messenger

of

God was

a

tamari

(kana

tamariyan, meaning

he

was

very

fond

of

dates,

tamar,

i.e.

espe-

cially

dried

ones).

Likewise,

Amir al-Mu'minin

('All)

was

a

tamari,

and also

(the Imams)

al-Hasan,

Abf 'Abdallah

al-Husayn,

Sayyid

('All

Zayn)

al-'Abi-

din,

Abfi Ja'far

(Muhammad

al-Baqir)

as

well

as Abfi 'Abdallah

(Ja'far

al-

Sadiq)

and

my

father

(Muisa

al-Ki.zim).

So I

myself

am

also a tamari.

(In

gen-

eral the followers

of)

our shi'a love

the

fruit

of

the

palm

tree

because

they

are

created from

our stuff

(clay,

min

tinatina),

while our enemies

love

intoxi-

cating

beverages

(muskir)

because

they

are

created from

(smokeless?)

fire

(or:

from

a

flame

of

fire,

see

Koran

55:14-15)."124

There is a considerable number of sayings of the Prophet Mu-

hammad

and of his

companions

suggesting

that

the

unsurpassed

quality

of the

palm

trees

of

Medina and their fruit

are

an

impor-

tant element of the

fada'il

of Medina.125

(Incidentally,

one of the

epithets

of the

town ist Dhat

al-Nakhl.)126

Up

to

modern

times,

Medinese traders

selling

dates

in the

market would

commend their

merchandise

by quoting

these

(and

other,

rather

fanciful)

sayings.

Moreover,

there are

legends-mentioned by Samhiud and oth-

ers-according

to which some

palm

trees

spoke

to

Muhammad

and

'All,

proclaiming

that he

was the

Prophet

and 'Ali

his

wasiy.127

A

number

of

very

old

palm

trees which

allegedly

had

been

planted

by

Salman al-Farisi

(following

an order of

Muhammad to

do

so)

survived until

recently.

Probably

as a result of Wahhabi

protests

against

the veneration which

Iranian and other

visitors

(as

well as

local

Shiites)

used to show for

those

trees,

they

were

cut

down

some time ago.128

124

Majlisi:

Bihar,

vol.

49,

102f.

25

Husari:

Al-nakhil, 241-45;

Casewit:

Fada'il,

13f.

126

Samhfdi:

Wafa',

vol.

1, 15;

Wfustenfeld:

Geschichte,10,

has

Dhat al-nakhil.

127

Batanini:

Rihla, 254;

al-Yfsuf:

Al-masajid,

72f.

128

Ibid., 87-89;

Khoei:

The

Shi'a,

5;

Maghribi:

Al-muhaddam,

42

(text

of

a let-

ter,

signed

by

'Abd al-'Aziz

b. 'Abdallah

b. Hasan Al

al-Shaykh-at

that

time

presi-

297



WERNERENDE

Broadly speaking,

the

term "Nakhawila"

has become the

mod-

ern

designation

for

all the

indigenous

Twelver

Shiites

in

the

Hijaz

in the same way as "Bahrani" (plural "Baharina") is loosely applied

to those

of

the Arab Gulf coast

and "Mutawali"

(plural

"Matawila")

to Lebanese

Shiites

in

general.129

With

regard

to the inhabitants

of

Wadi

1-Fur', however,

the name

'Jahami"

is

still

in

use.130

More

questions

than answers:

the

origin of

the nakhawila

In many sources, the nakhawila are called a "tribe" (qabila in Ara-

bic,

kabile

[Turk.],

tayifeh

[Pers.]).

One modern Arab

author

treats

them as

one of several

"pseudo"-

or

"quasi"-tribes.131

Batanfini,

in

his

list of Arab tribes

in

the

Hijaz,

singles

out the

nakhawila as

a

spe-

cial

case

by

inserting

a

short

commentary.

It runs

as

follows:

"A

despised

tribe

(qabila

haqira)

living

on

the

outskirts

(dawahi)

of Medina.

The inhabitants

(of

the

town)

employ

them as

servants

(ft

khidmatihim)

s

well

as

for the cultivation of

their

gardens

and fields.

They

are

rafida

who

do

not give the names of Abfi Bakr, 'Umar, 'Uthman and 'A'isha (sic) to their

sons.

They

call their children

al-murun

and

permit temporary

marriage

(nikah al-mut'a).

The Medinese

do not

intermarry

with

them."132

Batanfini's

notice

is

obviously

based

on

Eyyib

Sabri's

chapter

on

the nakhdwila

(see below).

For instance

he

accepts,

without further

discussion,

Sabri's

assumption

that

their total number was

12,000

persons (nufus;

in this

sense,

masc.).

In

many

sources,

it is

said that

the

men

of the

nakhawila never

marry

outside

their

community,

but at the same time allow-or even

encourage-their

womenfolk

to conclude

temporary marriages

(mut'a)

with

Shiite

foreigners

coming

to

Medina as

pilgrims

or

muj&wirun.

I

shall

return

to this

point

later.133

Concerning

their

origin,

the nakhawila trace

the

history

of

their

community

back

to

early

Islam:

they

see

themselves

as

the off-

dent of the Hay'atal-amrbi-l-ma'rfuf-to he Minister of Urban and VillageAffairs.

The

letter was written in 1976 or somewhat

later).

129

See arts.

"Al-Bahrayn"

n

El,

vol.

1, 941ff.,

and

"Mutawali", bid.,

vol.

7,

780f.

130

Private

information;

see

also Biladi:

Mu'jam

qaba'il,

95;

for Wadi 1-Fur'

or

Furu')

see

idem,

Mu'jam

ma'alim.vol.

9,

41ff.

131

Sa'id:

Tarikh,

487-89.

132

Rihla,

p.

52 of the tamhid

(separate

pagination).

Al-murun

s

a

printing

er-

ror,

see

below,

p.

303.

133

Below,

p.

315f.

298



THE

NAKHAWILA,

SHIITE COMMUNITY

IN

MEDINA

spring

of

the

ansar,

many

of whom

(or

their

descendants),

so the

nakhawila

claim,

worked

in

the

palm groves

owned

by Prophet

Muhammad's grandson, al-Hasan ibn 'All, the Second Imam of the

Shia.134

In the old

quarter

(mahalla)

of the

nakhawila,

there are

(or

were until

recently)

two

gardens

called

.Safa

and

Marijn

which,

according

to

Shiite

tradition,

had been

turned

into

waqfby

Imam

Hasan

and/or

'All

Zayn

al-'Abidin,

the

Fourth Imam.135

(For

the

present

condition of the

two

gardens,

as well

as their

function,

see

below).

In Persian

sources,

the nakhawila

are sometimes

called

sddah.136

This would

imply

a blood

relationship

with the

family

of

Prophet

Muhammad.137

It is

very

unlikely

that

all

nakhawila themselves

se-

riously

claim such

kinship.

It is

possible,

however,

that even

some

nakhawila

villagers present

themselves as sddah

in

order to

produce

a

favourable

impression

on

their

foreign

visitors.

Moreover,

it can

be assumed

that the term sddah is used

by

many

Iranian Shiite

authors

mainly

as a

polite,

honorific

designation

for their

co-

religionists in the Medina region in general-the urban, estab-

lished

sharif

families as well

as the

rural,

"real"

nakhawila.138

With

regard

to

the

sharif

families

of

Medina,

a

modern Shiite

author from

Iraq, referring

to

"some historical

texts",

offers

the

following

version: at the time

of

his residence in

Medina,

Imam

Musa b.

Ja'far

al-Sadiq

(Musa

al-Kazim,

the Seventh

Imam,

d.

799)

supported

500 families

consisting

of

widows,

children and

orphans

of

the

BanCu

Hasan.

When

Harun

al-Rashid sent him

off

to

Bagh-

dad,

he instructed his son

'All

al-Rida

(who

was

to

become the

Eighth

Imam)

to

provide

for the

Tzlibiyiun

of

Medina,

"and

thus

their roots

and

branches

have

remained there until

today"

in

spite

of the crimes committed

against

them

by

the

"ruling

gangs"

(al-

'asadbt

al-hzkima)

from the time

of

the Abbasids

onwards.139

The

author,

Muhammad Hadi

al-Amini,

does not

specify

the

"historical sources" he

is

referring

to.

Instead,

he

quotes

one of his

own works called Batal Fakhkh,a book devoted to Al-Husayn b. 'All,

134

Khalili:

Mawsu'a,

vol.

3,

pt.

1,

257.

135

Shihabi:

Awqaf,

1268.

(Sabd

is a

printing

error

or

slip

of

the

pen).

136

See,

e.g., Bayglari:

Ahkam,

292;

Bastani Parizi:

Az

Pariz, 53,

fn. 2.

137

See

arts.

"Sayyid"

and "Sharif"

in

EI,

vol.

9,

115f.

and

329-37,

respectively.

138

See above

p.

267

and

269.

139

Amini:

Makka,

304.

299



WERNER

ENDE

known as "Sahib

Fakhkh",

the leader of

an Alid

revolt in

Medina.

This man

was

killed

in

battle near Mecca in

June

786,

together

with about a hundred other Alids.140 n his book, Amini again does

not name

his

sources

concerning

the

alleged

support given

by

two

Imams to the

widows and

orphans

of the

martyrs

of

Fakhkh.

He

just

quotes

a

(possibly unpublished)

book

by

one

Sayyid

Hasan

Shubbar-most

probably

a

modern author.

This

story

too

may

be

apocryphal,

but once

again

it

is

interesting

in

itself:

for

the

crypto-Shiite

ashr&f-families

f

Medina

(both

Hu-

saynid

and

Hasanid),

this

account seems

to

give

proof

of

their

deep

roots there as well of their

special

relationship

to two Imams

of

the

Twelver

Shia.

On the

other

hand,

the

same

story

may

have

influenced

Shiite

scholars as

well

as

pious "lay"

persons

in

Iraq,

Iran and

elsewhere:

for

them,

the action

of the two Imams

could

provide

an

incentive,

even in

modern

times,

to

support

the

(mainly poor)

Shiites

and

crypto-Shiites

of

Medina-financially

and

otherwise.

Thus,

we

find

that SayyidMuhammad Baqir Shafti, one of the most prominent

scholars

of

19th-Century

Isfahan,

is

said to

have sent

money every

year

for the

poor

(fuqara')

of

Medina.141

He

is even

credited with

having

successfully

intervened in favour

of

the

(Shiite)

sayyids

of

Medina:

he

went

to

Mecca at

the time

when

Muhammad

'All,

the

Pasha of

Egypt,

was

there

(i.e.

in

1813),

and

allegedly

established

friendly

relations

with

him.

He

"received the

garden

(-oasis)

of

Fadakfrom

him and

returned it

to

the

sayyids

of

Medina."142

Given

the

hagiographic

character

of

the

biography

where

this

short

account is to

be

found,

it

is

doubtful

whether

Muhammad

'Ali

ever

allowed

the

oasis of

Fadak to be

"returned"

to the

sayyids

of

Medina,

i.e. the

descendants of 'Ali

and

Fatima. To

the

best of

my

knowledge,

there is

no

account or

document to

this

effect in

the

Arabic,

Ottoman or

other

sources

concerning

Muhammad

'Ali's

policy

in

the

Hijaz.

It

is,

however,

true

that

years

later,

in

the

1830s, Muhammad'Ali ordered the governor of Medina to enforce

140

Snouck

Hurgronje:

Mekka,

vol.

1, 41;

see

articles "Fakhkh"

in

El,

vol.

2,

744f.,

and

"Al-Husayn

b.

'All,

Sahib Fakhkh"

ibid.,

vol.

3,

615-17.

More

recently

MahirJarrar

(ed.):

Akhbar

Fakhkh.

141

Tunikabuni:

Qisas,

149.

142

Ibid.,

145;

see also

Dabashi:

Lives,

315f.

300



THE

NAKHAWILA,

SHIITE COMMUNITY

IN

MEDINA

equal

treatment for Shi'i

pilgrims.'43 This-together

with the

fact

that

he and

his sons

successfully

fought

the arch-enemies of

the

Shia, the Wahhabis-may have led Shiites in the Hijaz to hope

that this

ruler would

improve

their lot. Even if

Muhammad

'All

had

made

promises

to

this

effect

(including

one to issue a

decree

concerning

Fadak),

such

practical

measures as

were

taken

would

have

been

short-lived,

since

the

Egyptians

were forced

to withdraw

from the

Hijaz

in

1840.144

Most

probably

the

story

of

Muhammad

Baqir

Shafti's

success is

pure

fiction. As such

it

may

be seen as the

reflexion

of

a wide-

spread

sentiment

among

(Shiite

and

crypto-Shiite)

Sayyid

families,

particularly

those of the

Hijaz,

and

notably

of

Medina,

that Fadak

was-and still is-their

inheritance

by right.145

It should

be noted

here

that

the

conflict

between Abu

Bakr

and Fatima

over Fadak

and the

ensuing

struggle

for

its

possession

is a

major

theme of

Shiite

historiography-not only

for authors of the

remote

past,

but

to some

extent also

for

prominent

modern

Shiite

scholars such as

Muhammad Baqir al-Sadr (d. 1980), whose first published work

was

devoted to

the

religious

and

legal

interpretation

of

that fa-

mous

issue.146

Let us

return to the

question

of the

origin

of the

"real" nakha-

wila:

Unsurprisingly

perhaps,

non-Shiite sources

present

the

story

of the

nakhawila

and their

origins

in a

rather

different

light.

Al-

though

Sunnite

authors also trace

their

origins

to

the First

Century

of Islamic

history, they

make

the ancestors of

the

nakhdwila

appear

as outcasts from the

beginning,

namely,

as

bastards

who were born

after

the

Umayyad conquest

of

Medina

in

683 A.D.

It

may

never

be

possible

to

say

exactly

at

what time in

history

this

version

about

the

origin

of the

nakhdwila

came

into existence.

Burckhardt,

who

visited Medina in

January

1815,

obviously

heard

it,

or

allusions

to

it,

from

his Sunnite

informants there.

In

his

Travels in

Arabia,

he

writes

that the

nakhdwila "are

said

to

be de-

scendants of the partisans of Yezid, the son of Mawiya".

143

Ochsenwald:

Religion,

63.

144

Batanuni:

Rihla,

87-94;

Faqihi: Wahhdbiyan,

176ff.;

for a

discussion of

the

Arabic

sources

see

Peskes: Muhammad

b.

'Abdalwahh&b,

312ff.;

further

art.

"Muhammad 'All

Pasha" in

El,

vol.

7,

423-31.

145

Art.

"Fadak"

in

El,

vol.

2, 725-27;

Hrbek:

Muhammads

Nachlafi.

146

Amini:

Mu'jam

al-matbfu'dt,

261f.

(no.

1064).

301



WERNER ENDE

This

phrase

is

open

to

misinterpretation.

Even

Richard

Burton,

who himself

visited

Medina

in

1852,

fell into this

trap.

He

remarks

that the nakhawila, "according to some, are descendants of the

Ansar,

whilst others

derive them

from

Yazid,

the son

of

Mu'awiyah:

the

latter

opinion

is

improbable,

as

the

Caliph

in

question

was a

mortal foe

to Ali's

family,

which

is

inordinately

venerated

by

these

people."

Nallino,

in

turn,

quotes

Burton's

remark,

and

accordingly

seems to discard as

baseless

any

link

between the nakhawila

and

Yazid,

the

second

Umayyad Caliph.147

It is

very

probable

that

the

story

Burckhardt heard-and

partly

misunderstood -is pure fiction. But even if this is so, it would be

interesting

to know

the

origin

of this fictitious

report.

It

is not too

difficult

to find at least

a

clue

to its

background:

what

Burckhardt's

(Sunnite)

Medinese

informants

obviously

had in mind when talk-

ing

about

the

alleged

origin

of the

nakhawila,

was

indeed an

event

related

to

Yazid

ibn

Mu'awiya:

The

content

of what we

may

call

the

traditional Sunnite

Medinese version-possibly based on medieval sources-of the

nakhawila's

origin

can

be

found

in

a work on

the families

of

Medina written in

the

18th

Century by

'Abd al-Rahman

al-Ansari,

a

local notable who

died in

1783 or

thereabouts.148

In

it,

he

men-

tions:149

"Bayt

al-Nakhli,

who

are

called 'al-Nakhwali'

by

the common

people,

(the

name)

under which

they

are

generally

known

today,

referring

to

their

occu-

pation

of

cultivating

date

palms: they

are

many persons,

all of them

belong-

ing to the abominable Shia. However, they do not proclaim anything of that

in

public,

as

they

believe that it

is incumbent on

them

to

practise

taqiya.

Most of

them are

ignorant

people,

who

hardly

understand

anything

of

the

doctrine of

the

rdfida.150

ather,

they

found their

forefathers

professing

(the

creed

of

that)

community

and

merely

followed

in

their

footsteps.

No

doubt

they

will

be

gathered

in

hellfire

together

with

their

ancestors.15-

The

(outward)

signs

of their

dissent

(rafd)

and

hatred

(against

others)

are

many.

Among

these

signs

are

their shuhra

as

well

as

the

fact that

they

neither

enter the

hujra

(of

the

prophet)

with

their

newly-born

children

nor the

147

For

Burckhardt

and

Burton,

see

above,

p.

268f.;

Nallino:

L'Arabia,

1f.

148

Zirikli:

Al-A'lam,

vol.

3, 311;

Kahhala: Mu'jam

al-mu'allifin,

vol.

5, 146;

Hamdan:

Al-Madina,

116-19;

al-Tfnji:

Tarajim,

54.

On the work in

question,

the

Tuhfat

al-muhibbin,

ee further

Muhammad

al-'Arasi

al-Matwi's ntroduction to

his

edition.

149

Tuhfat

al-muhibbin,

479f.

150

For this

term see

EI,

vol.

8,

386-89.

151

See Koran

43:23

and

41:19;

an

allusion to

43:23

is

already

made

by

Qalqashandi:

Subh,

vol.

12,

243.

302



THE

NAKHAWILA,

SHIITE

COMMUNITY

IN

MEDINA

303

haram

with their deceased

(during

funeral

processions).152 They

refrain

from

all that for

the

sole

reason that

the

Shaykhdn

Abfi

Bakr

and

'Umar),

may

God favour both of

them,

are

(buried)

in

there.

They

do

not

inter their

dead

among (those of)

the

Sunnites and

do

not attend funeral services

for

the

latter.

No one

from

the ahl

al-sunnawould wash

(the

corpse)

of one

(of

the

bayt

al-nakhli),

nor would

he

attend the

burial

of

any

of them.153

They

(in

turn)

do not call their children

Abf

Bakr

or

'Umar,

or

'A'isha

or Hafsa.

They

do not

give

(their

women)

in

marriage

(to

Sunnites)

nor

do

(any

of

their

men)

marry

women

of the ahl

al-sunna.

Most

of

the above remarks would

also

apply

to

the Banu

Husayn,

(a

clan)

which

is famous in

Medina

as well in

the

region

of

Najd.

Between the two

there

is

total

harmony

and love.

There

are

many

other

signs

of their

dissent,

for

instance

the

fact

that

they

never

associate with

Sunnites

but

only

ever

with their own

people,

and also

that they do not perform the prayerof tarawih154n the month of Ramadan

etc.;

it would take too

long

to

mention all that. Some of the Arab

(tribes)

which live

in

the

vicinity

of

Medina,

such

as

the Banuf

All,

the Banfl

Safar,

the Nahhasin and the

Ahl

al-Birka,

mitate

them

(in

their

behaviour).155

The

occupation

of the above-mentioned nakhdwila

s

the

cultivation of date

palms.

There is almost no other work

they

are

proficient

in,

and it is

mainly

by

their

skill that

the cultivation

of

palms

thrives.

The

majority

of them are

the

product

of

miscegenation.

They

have

been

in

Medina for a

long

time,

but

I

have

not been

able to discover

the

origin

of

their earliest ancestors.

There are

many

rumours

that

they

descend from the

women

who

became

pregnant

as a

result

of

zina'

following

the

ill-reputed

events of al-harraat the time of the wicked Yazid, may God rebuke him,

when

he

declared

Medina

to be

open

(for

his

troops)

to

kill, rob,

fornicate

and

plunder.

It

is said that

the

Mudun156 lso

belong

to them.

(Likewise),

people

say

that some

of

the

nakhdwila are the

offspring

of

(black)

slaves,

and

some others that of

Indians;

further,

that

some of

them

are related to

the

people

of

Yaman,

of the

Maghreb,

of

Egypt,

of

the

Hijaz

and other

regions.

I

heard

that

the Khatib

Khayr

al-Din

Ilyas

al-Madani157

had

written a book

about

their roots

and

branches,

but

I

do not know it".

In

addition

to the

Bayt

al-Nakhli,

'Abd al-Rahman al-Ansari men-

152

For this custom of the Sunnite

Medinese

see Batanuni:

Rihla,

260;

Ibn

Salam:

Al-Madina, 4f.,

221;

Bulayhishi:

Al-Madina,

333.

153

See

below,

p.

318f.

154

Batanuni,

ibid.,

261.

155

For

the first

two mentioned

(both

belonging

to the

Masrfuh

f the

Harb),

see Biladi:

Mu'jamqaba'il,

488,

and

idem:

Nasab,

31

and

55f.;

also

Oppenheim:

Die

Beduinen,

vol.

2,

371

(referring

to Burckhardt

and

Burton),

and Kahhala:

Mu'jamqabd'il,

ol.

1,

260,

with

fn.

2.

For

the role of

the

Banf 'All

in

the 19th and

20th

Centuries see

above,

p.

283,

287ff.

and

312-14.

The Nahhasin

("the

copper-

smiths") probably are one of the

pariah-type

"tribes"described by Henninger:

Pariastdmme,

ee

esp.

277-80

and

the

literature

mentioned

there.

"Ahl al-Birka"

(or

"Baraka"?)

s

likely

to refer to

a

toponyrn,

see

Biladi:

Mu'jam

ma'alim,

vol.

1,

210f.,

see also vol.

10, index,

128.

According

to

Bulayhishi,

there is in

present-day

Medina a clan of the

Banu

Husayn

called

"Birka"

Al-Madina,

11

),

see also

p.

286

above.

156

See below fn.

160.

157

About

this

person

(d.

1715)

see Zirikli:

Al-A'ldm,

vol.

2,

327;

Al-Tfinji:

Tardjim,

30f.



WERNERENDE

tions two

other clans

which,

he

says, very

much resemble

the

nakhawila.

They

are

1. Bayt al-Kabuis, nd

2.

Bayt

al-Madini

Concerning

the

Kabus,

al-Ansariremarks

that in his

day

most

peo-

ple

in

Medina

believed

they

descended

from the nakhdwila.

This,

however,

was

not correct.

Rather,

he

says, they

originated

in

Egypt,

but

are

erroneously

identified

as nakhdwila"because

they

resemble

one another

and live

together

in

their enclosures

(ahwisha)."158

About the

Bayt

al-Madini,

the author has the

following

to

say:

"The Medinese

nowadays

call

them Bundt

(?)

al-Mudun159,

ut

disagree

with

regard

to

their real nature

and

descent.

In

any

case,

however,

they

resemble

the nakhawila

both

in

their

origin

and

madhhab,

.e.

all

of

them,

like the

nakhawila,

belong

to the abominable

Shia

(shi'a

shani'a).

They

are

guilty

of

innumerable

intrigues

and

plots against

the

Sunnites.

The

butchers

(al-

jazzdra)

are

from

among

them.

They

live

in

the outskirts of

Medina

in

(their

own)

enclosures."160

The

gist

of the above account

is

also to be found in a

19th-Century

Ottoman Turkish work.The author, EyyfibSabri,served for some

years

as

a

senior official

in

Medina.161

n his

Mir'atu

l-haremeyn,

printed

in

Istanbul

in

1888

or

1889, Sabri,

like

Ansari,

links

the

nakhdwila o

the

so-called

awlad

al-harra,

.e.

the children born af-

ter the

conquest

of

Medina

following

the "battle of the harra"

(63

A.H./683

A.D.).

According

to

Eyyiib

Sabri,162

"the

Nakhdvileare a tribe who are

considered

extremely despicable by

the

(Sunnite)

inhabitants of the two sanctuaries

(haremeyn,

.e. Mecca and

Medina). It is (well) known that the accursed troops whom the damned (cal-

iph)

Yezid had

dispatched

with the evil intention

of

conquering

and

occupy-

ing

Medina,

returned to

Syria

after

having

robbed the

people

of that

fortu-

nate town of

all

their

property

and

destroyed

the

adamantine

dignity

and

honour

of their women

Those

women

who

were

raped

by

the

Syrian

(troops)

on

this

infamous occa-

sion

and became

pregnant

were isolated. The

"illegitimate

children"

('veled-i

zind')

of these

women were

segregated

and destined to work in

the

gardens

surrounding

Medina. The tribe of

the Nakhavile

riginates

from

the children

and

grandchildren

of

those bastards

who

had been selected for

gardening

(in the palm groves) at that time, and this is why the members of the afore-

said

tribe are

called Nakhdvile.Since then the

people

of Medina refrain

from

marrying

girls

(from

among

this

tribe)

and

giving

(their

own

daughters)

in

158

Tuhfat

al-muhibbin,

41 If.

159

See

above,

p.

298.

'60

Tuhfat

al-muhibbin,

445f.

161

Babinger:

Die

Geschichtsschreiber,

72f.

162

Mir'&t,

ol.

3,

pp.

275-77. See art. "Al-Harra"n

El,

vol.

3,

226f.

304



THE

NAKHIAWLA,

SHIITE

COMMUNITY

N MEDINA

marriage

to

them.

They

even avoid

any

social intercourse

with them. As a

rule

(the

Nakhavile)

belong

to

the

Shiite

creed

(rafiziyu

l-mezheb).

It is thus

quite

impossible

to find

among

their

men and women

anyone

called

Ebf

Bekir, 'Omer, 'Osman or 'Ayse.

The

people

who,

as

(living)

reminders

(of

the

outrages of)

the

Syrians,

be-

long

to

this

tribe,

always

associate

with

those

pilgrims

who

are of the same

heretical

creed. With

them

they

exchange

their

girls

and wives

by

means of

"mut'a",

or

a

fixed

period.

Today

no one

is left from the

(primordial)

family

(familya)

of

the

Nakhavile,

who at the

present

time are

(also)

called

Mudun-i.e.

no one of the breed

of

bastards

born

by

the

women who

had been

raped by

the

Syrian (troops).

Nevertheless

their number has

quite

considerably

increased because

they

as-

sociate

with the

heretics

(who

visit

Medina)

and

exchange

their

girls

and

wives with each other

by

means

of

mut'a.

The number of the Nakhdvileliler (sic) just mentioned, who live in gardens

and souterrain

rooms

(?

yer

odalannda)

called

havuz,

can

today

be

estimated

at

12,000

persons.

Whatever

pilgrims

from

among

the heretics

and

rdfizi

come

to

Medina

will

usually

find

accommodation

at the

houses

of the Nakhavile.

As

for the

latter,

they

dwell

in

gardens

outside

Medina and live

in

quarters

called Havis

1-

Nakhavile.

Not

a

single person

of

their race

is to

be

found

inside

the

holy city

of

Medina".

This, then,

is

the

alleged

link between the nakhawila and

Yazid,

fur-

ther misinterpreted by Burckhardt and Burton. It would go beyond

the

scope

of the

present

study

to re-examine the

general reliability

of the stories about the

battle of the harra and

its

aftermath,

the so-

called

ibahat

al-Madina163.There is

only

one

aspect

of the

ongoing

discussion

among

historians

concerning

this

problem

which

may

be of some interest

here,

i.e.

a trend

in

modern

Sunnite-Arab

historiography

which

might

be

described

as

a

systematic

attempt

to

rehabilitate the Umayyads, and to radically improve their image.

This

implies,

inter

alia,

the

refutation,

as

calumnies,

of all accounts

concerning

crimes

perpetrated by

the

Umayyad

troops

in

Medina.

For several

reasons,

this

school of modern Sunnite-Arab historio-

graphy

is

especially

influential

in

Saudi-Arabia. It does not come as

a

surprise,

therefore,

that Saudi historians have

published

a

number of

books

and

articles

in

which

they try

to

reject

as

fabrica-

tions all

reports

in medieval sources about

Umayyad

misdeeds

com-

mitted after the battle of the harra.164

163

Concerning

the

transgressions

against

the women

of

Medina

see,

e.g.,

al-

Jahiz: Thalath

rasa'il, 70f.;

al-Ya'qubi:

Tdrikh,

ol.

2, 298;

Yaqft: Mu'jam

al-bulddn,

vol.

3,

262;

Ibn

Hajar

al-Haytami: Al-sawa'iq,

222;

al-Amin:

Da'irat

al-ma'drif, part

1,

19.

164

See

al-'Uraynan:

Ibtahat

al-Madina,

80-90;

al-'Aqili:

Yazid, 67-69,

and al-

Wakil:

Al-Madina,

ol.

1,

239-44

and

255-69.

For the

ideological

context see Ende:

Arabische

Nation,

91ff.

305



WERNER ENDE

As

regards

the

present-day

nakhawila,

this trend

in

historio-

graphy

seems,

at first

glance,

to

provide

an

argument against

the

old, denigrating story about their descent from the awlad al-harra.

On the

other

hand,

the

same

school

of

historiography

propounds

a

vehemently

anti-Shiite

view of

history.

This means

that the

gen-

eral outlook of

its

authors

is not favourable to

any

Shiite commu-

nity, past

or

present.

As far

as

Shiites

are

concernced,

they

have to

reject any tendency

to

rehabilitate

the

Umayyads.165

Their

at-

tempts

to

dissociate

the

origin

of

the

nakhawila

from

the

awlad

al-

harra-story

would therefore need

another

starting

point.

In

addition,

it

should

be noted

that

any protest by

modern

Sunnite historians

against

what

they

consider as the vilification of

the

Umayyads

does not

necessarily imply

a

sudden

change

in

the

popular

view

of

history. Apparently,

the traditional

version of the

nakhawila

being

the

descendants of

the

awlad

al-harra,

born

after

the

ibaha,

has not

disappeared.

It

is to

be

found,

e.g.,

in a

relatively

recent

history

of his home-town written

by

the Medinese

Sunnite

author 'Abd al-Salam Hashim Hafiz.166 It was also related quite

spontaneously

to the

present

writer

by

a

Sunnite from

Medina

who

was

asked

about the

nakhawila

in March 1988.

Generally

speaking,

it

is

obvious

that the more

or less

malicious

stories

concerning

the Shiites

of

Medina

found in earlier

Sunnite

sources are

repeated

(and

even

elaborated)

in

the

19th and

20th

Centuries. In

this

connection,

it

would be

wrong

to

believe

that

modern educated Sunnite authors were necessarily more critical

about the

oral and

written

information

they

were able

to

gather

about

the

nakhawila.

Two

Egyptian

authors,

Muhammad

Bey

Sadiq

and Ibrahim

Rif'at

Pasha,

may

both

serve

as

cases

in

point:

the

latter's

remarks

concerning

the nakhawila

(mentioned below,

p.

308f.)

are

partly

based

on a

passage

in

Muhammad

Bey

Sadiq's

work Kawkab

al-hajj, published

in

Bulaq

in

1303/1885-86.

Like

Ibrahim

Rif'at,

Sadiq

(1822-1902)-who

had

studied in

Cairo and

Paris-was an

army

officer who

in

1880

served as amin al-surra

of

the

Egyptian

mahmal.167Ibrahim Rifat

copied

Sadiq's

words con-

cerning

the

nakhawila

being

the

offspring

of

Persians and their

165

Ibid.,

113ff.

166

Al-Madina,

124.

167

Mujahid:

Al-a'lam,

vol.

2,

48f.

306



THE

NAKHAWLA,

SHIITE COMMUNITY

N

MEDINA

custom

of

concluding

mut'a

marriages,

but omitted the

following

sentences:

"Beforewashing their dead, they beat them on the mouth and on the face,

enjoining

them not

to mention the

Shaykhan

Abu

Bakr and

'Umar)

when

questioned

by

the

two

angels

(Munkar

and

Nakir).

This is

what

I

heard

from

Sayyid

Husayn

in Mecca.

That

ta'ifa

is

(also?)

known as the

Isma'iliya."168

In what

follows,

S$diq

makes

a short

comparison

between the

nakhawila

and

the

Qaramita

and

the

latters'

alleged

heretical

be-

liefs and

practices.

The

whole

passage concerning

the nakhawila

shows

the

author's bias and

his reluctance to

gather

serious infor-

mation about this community. Rather, he is all too ready to believe

the

calumnious

stories

he has

heard

from local informants such as

the

Sayyid

Husayn

in

Mecca he refers

to.

This

is

astonishing

in view

of the fact

that

Sadiq

is to be

considered

an

enlightened person-

who,

incidentally,

took

(and

published)

the first ever

photographs

of

Mecca

and Medina

and later became

an

active

member of

the

Khedivial

Geographic

Society.169

Under these

circumstances,

it is

remarkable that

a

modern

Hijazi

Sunni

author,

the

journalist-cum-historian

Ahmad

al-Siba'i

(1905-1983/84),170

has

strongly protested against

the

widespread

slander in

his

country against

the

Shia

in

general

and of the

nakhawila

in

particular.

In his book Tdrikh

Makka,

he

comments

on

the

defamatory

legends

concerning

the

origin

of the

nakhawila

in

the

following way:

"In this

context,

it

must offend

any righteous person

to

read what

some

his-

torians relate about the present-dayShiite inhabitants of Medina, i.e. that

those

people,

whom

they

call

al-nakhawila,

re

the

offspring

(of

the

women

who had become

the

victims)

of

the

ibaha.

Such a view is the

clearest

evidence of fanaticism. How

else could one see a

connection between the descendants

(of

those

women)

and Shiism?

If,

as

some

accounts

say,

the

people

of Medina had

really

repudiated

those

of

their

offspring

who were

born

after the ibahaand had banished them to live

in

a

certain area

of

Medina-then

why

were these descendants not

ashamed

of

their

stigma

and

why

have

they

not

dispersed

all

over

the

land?

It would

have been more

logical

for them

to do this

than to remain in one

region

of

Medina until today.

As a

matter

of

fact,

some

historians

just

stop

using

their brains

whenever

they

transmit

tales

(of

the

past),

while others allow their

(confessional)

ten-

168

Sadiq:

Kawkab,

53.

169

Facey:

Saudi

Arabia, 8,

23

(fn.

1

and

3).

See also Badr

El-Hage:

Saudi Ara-

bia.

Caught

in

Time,

London 1997.

(This

book

was

due to

appear

when the

present

study

was

already

at

proof stage.

The

original

Arabic

version,

Suwarmin

al-madi,

London

1989,

was

not available to

me.)

170

About this author see

Ibn

Salam:

Mawsu'at

al-udabd', vol.

1,

30-32.

307



WERNER

ENDE

dencies

to dominate

their

opinions.

Thus,

they

write

according

to their

pas-

sions

rather

than

for the

sake of the truth

and of

(factual)

history.

Further,

it is

deplorable

that

some of the common

people

('dmrma)

n

Medina

are

still

today

influenced

by

those

outrageous

tales. As

a

result,

theyview their

brethren,

the

nakhawila,

according

to this

(negative

image).

Among

the

nakhdwila,

his attitude

(in turn)

strengthens

them

in

their revolt

against

the madhhab f the Sunna.

In

reality,

the nakhawila are

part

of the Shia

in the Islamic

World,

and

Shiism

is

not

alien to

the

Arab

countries.

Rather,

the

history

(of Islam)

at-

tests

(its existence)

in

all

periods

and

in

many

(social)

strata,

i.e. from the

ashrdf

to the

common

herd.

People

learned to

disavow the

nakhtwila

be-

cause the

Ottomans,

for

political

reasons,

were

enemies of

Shiism. There is

no

other

way

for

the

(Sunnite)

Muslims

to

reach

an

agreement

with

the

nakhawila

han

to

take

an interest in them and

to

agree

upon

(an effort)

to

convince them, so that the latter may oin the ranksof their brethren and be

united

unanimously

with them. In this

way, disagreement

would

be

over-

come

at a

time when we are

more in need of

integration

and unification

than

ever

before".171

To

the

passage quoted

above

in

translation,

the editor of

the

fourth edition

of SibaT'is

book,

'Atiq

b.

Ghayth

al-Biladi,172

has

added

an

interesting

footnote:

"In

(Saudi)

governmental

departments,

the

official name

(of

the

nakhdwila)

is al-nakhliyfun,with the singular nakhli. In (my work) Mu'jam qaba'il al-Hijaz I

wrote a

chapter

about them.

In

it,

I

expounded my

view with

regard

to the

questions

raised

by

the esteemed

author,

but it

(i.e.

the

chapter)

was

not

permitted

to

be

published".173

In

another of

his

works,

Biladi-with obvious

reluctance-quotes

a

legend

still

popular

among

Sunni Medinese

which claims that

it

was the

Umayyad

Caliph

'Abd

al-Malik

(reigned

685-705)

who as-

signed

a

palm grove

to

the awlad al-harra.

As those children

could

not be related to a particular tribe, they were called after the palm

grove

which

had been allotted to them. When

they grew up,

they

became

followers

of

the

Shia

because

they

saw

themselves as

vic-

tims of acts

committed

by

Sunnites.174

It

seems

that not all Sunnite authors who

mention the

nakhawila

have

heard- or

are convinced-of

the

awlad

al-harra-version. In

their accounts

concerning

the

population

of

Medina,

a number

of

foreign

writers

give

other

explanations

with

regard

to the

origin

of

the nakhdwila.An

Egyptian

officer and former amir

al-hajj,

Ibrahim

Riffat

(d.

1935),175

assumes that the

nakhdwila

are

dhurriyat

al-

171

Tarikh

Makka,

4th

ed.,

vol.

1,

94f.

172

About

Biladi see Ibn Salam:

Mawsiu'at al-udabd'. vol.

1,

89ff.

173

Tarikh

Makka,

95

(fn. 1),

and

Siba'T's

preface,

14.

174

Mu'jam

ma'alim,

vol.

6,

186.

175

About this

person

see Stratk6tter:Von

Kairo,

15-19,

and the literature

men-

tioned

there.

308



THE

NAKHAWILA,

SHIITE

COMMUNITY

IN MEDINA

a'ajim,

i.e. "the

offspring

of non-Arab

foreigners

(or:

Persians)".176

If

we

suppose

that

Riffat Pasha is

using

the

term

a'djim

here

to

mean Persians, this would appear to be simply an extrapolation

from the fact

that the

nakhawila,

like the

majority

of the

Iranians,

are Twelver-Shiites.

To the best of

my

knowledge,

Shiite

writers in

general

and

Iranians in

particular

never

mention

the

possibility

of

an Iranian

origin

of

the nakhdwila.

Jalal

Al-i

Ahmad,177

an Iranian

author

who,

after his

pilgrimage

to Mecca in

1964,

went

to Medina for a

ziydra,

notes that

"all"

of

the nakhawila

he met there were of dark

complexion,

with the

exception

of one of them-who

spoke

some Persian.178 While it

may

well be that over

the

centuries

a

number of Shiites from

Iran,

India

and

other Eastern

countries,

living

in

Medina,

have mixed

socially-and

even intermarried-with the

nakhdwila,

there is no

evidence

so far that the whole

group,

or a

considerable

part

of

it,

is

originally

of

Iranian,

Indian

or otherwise

"Eastern"

extraction.

Al-i

Ahmad's observation that most of

the

nakhawila

he

met

in

Medina were dark-skinned may, on the other hand, lend credence

to the notion that

they

are

(to

some extent at

least)

descendants

of

black

Africans

(not

necessarily:

slaves).

With

regard

to

the re-

marks of several

authors to this

effect179 we

should

keep

in

mind

that there has

been,

over

many

centuries,

a

steady

influx of black

Africans-both men and

women-into the

towns and

villages

of

Arabia.

One

of

several reasons for

this

development

was

the

need,

in the

early

centuries

of

Islam,

to

replace

the

indigenous agricul-

tural labourers who

had left the oases

of the

Arabian Peninsula

following

the

expansion

of

the

early

Caliphal

state in

order

to

settle

in

the lands of the Fertile

Crescent and

far

beyond.

In his

Travels

in

Arabia

Deserta,

Charles

Doughty

notes

his obser-

vation,

made between 1876 and

1878,

that

"there are a

multitude

of

negroes

in

Arabia;

they

are

bond-servants

n

oases

and nomad

tribes,

and freed

men,

and

the

posterity

of such.

There are some

whole villagesof negro blood in Arabia,as Kheybarand el-Hayat".180

176

Mir'at

al-haramayn,

ol.

1,

440.

77

Encyclopaedia

ranica,

vol.

1,

745-47.

178

Khasi,39, 64,

66f.;

engl.

translation

(Lost

n

the

crowd)

27,

44-46.

179

See,

e.g.,

al-Ansari:

Tuhfat

al-muhibbin,

80;

Hasan:

Al-shi'a,

vol.

1,

66.

180

Travels,

ol.

2,

656.

309



WERNER ENDE

Of

Kheybar, Doughty

says

it

appeared

to him as

if

it were "an

Afri-

can

village

in the

Hejaz".181

Under these circumstances, the comparatively dark complexion

of

the "real"

nakhdwila,

i.e.

peasants,

farmhands,

gardeners,

herds-

men

and

workers of different

trades

living

in

the

palm groves

near

Medina,

does

not

really

come as a

surprise.

It is

likely

that some of the

nakhdwila

themselves

imagine

they

are

the

distant

offspring

of

Bilal,

Muhammad's

companion

and

first "official"

mu'adhdhin.

According

to Muslim

tradition,

this was

a man of black

African

origin,

who

had been

born

in

slavery

in

Mecca and had

emigrated

to Medina

together

with the

Prophet.182

On the

other

hand,

the

Sunnite

population

of

Medina,

influenced

by

the old

accounts

concerning

the

battle

of

the

harra,

may

have

associated

(and

may

still

associate)

the dark skin

of

most

of

the

nakhdwila with

the

ibahat

al-Madina: a number

of medieval sources

mention that

black

Umayyad troops

were involved in

the

transgres-

sions

against

the women of

Medina.183

It cannot, of course, be ruled out that further research may

show

that the nakhdwila

peasants

are in

fact of

mixed

origin,

i.e.

a

group

somehow

combining

Arab,

African

and,

to

a

lesser

extent,

Iranian,

Indian

and/or

other ethnic

elements.

There

is a

possibil-

ity

that

at least one

component

of

this

community

consisted of

people

who

had come to Medina as

pilgrims

from

abroad

and,

for

some reason or

other,

remained

there.

Others,

including

some

Shiite

mujdwiran,

may

have

joined

them

later. As we

can see from

Ansari's

remarks

quoted

above

(p.

303),

speculation

concerning

such

a

mixed

origin

was

already

rife

among

Sunnite Medinese in

the

18th

Century-and

possibly

much

earlier. There

can

be no

doubt,

however,

that

the core of this

community

as it

exists

today

has

deep

roots in

the

Hijaz

and

is

basically

of Arab

origin.

Accord-

ing

to

Hamza

al-Hasan,

a

number of

members

of other

tribes,

seeking

protection,

joined

them about

two

centuries

ago-among

them some of the 'Asara or BanfuA'sar, a section of the 'Anaza.184

At

least until

recently,

more or less all

nakhdwila

were

engaged

in

the

performance

of what their

neighbours

would see as menial

181

Ibid.,

94.

182

Al-i

Ahmad:

Khasi,

64

(Lost

in

the

Crowd,

44);

EI,

vol.

1,

1215.

183

See,

e.g., al-Jahiz:

Thalath

rasa'il, 70f.;

'Ayyashi:

Al-Madina,

344.

184

Al-Shi'a,

vol.

1,

65.

310



THE

NAKHAWILA,

SHIITE COMMUNITY

IN MEDINA

tasks.

In

the

past,

this has

given

rise to

speculation

about

the

nakhdwila

being

"gypsies".

The Tunisian

traveller

Muhammad

Bayram,185who visited Medina in the 1880s, has the following to

say

about them:

"This tribe

originates

from

people (qawm)

scattered over all

parts

of

the

world. Wherever

they

are,

it

is

typical

for

them to live

entirely

self-reliantly,

talking

to

outsiders

and

mixing

with

other

people

only

when

necessary

(such

as)

in

the case

of

buying

and

selling.

In

every

region

where

they

live,

they

have a

special

name

(laqab) given by

the

inhabitants

of

that

region.

Thus,

in

the countries

of

the Turks

they

are called

shinkanah,

and in Tunis

jamdziya.186

verywhere

they pursue

humble

occupations

like

that

of

repair-

ing copper

vessels

and horseshoes. This also

applies

to

Medina".187

It

is well known that a

great

number

of terms

denoting

"gypsies"

are

applied

to different

minority groups

all

over

the world.

In

the

Middle

East

and

North

Africa,

names like

cingane,

luli,

ghurbat,

nawar,

ghajar

etc.188 are used

for

several

groups,

both

settled and

nomadic,

whose

real ethnic

origin

is

not clear at

all,

and who

may

not

be

related

in terms of

ethnicity,

but

who

have

at least one

thing

in

common: their

members

pursue occupations

considered

de-

grading

and more or less

despicable by

the

majority

of

the

popula-

tion.

A

discussion of the

problems

caused

by

terminological

and

other

kinds

of

confusion

concerning

these

"pariah"-groups

would

certainly

fall outside the

scope

of

the

present

study.

Suffice

it

to

say

here that

with

regard

to the

Arabian

Peninsula,

there

exist a

number

of

useful

surveys

as

well as

case studies

concerning

low-

status groups such as the du'afa', akhddm and others in Yemen and

elsewhere.189

In future

research,

the information

gathered

in

this

literature should be

compared

with all

the

data

available about

the

(urban

and

rural)

nakhdwila. As a

result of that

comparison,

we

may

come

to

the conclusion that

the latter fit

quite

well into the

general

pattern

of

pariah-groups

in

Arabia, but,

given

their

pecu-

liar

religious

orientation

and

special

relationship

with

both the

185

See

above,

p.

294.

186

For

shinkanah ee fn.

188 below

(art.

"Cingane");

am&ziya

eems to

be

de-

rived from

Ottoman Turkish

jambaz

or

jdnbaz,

"acrobat",

"rope

dancer",

"trick-

ster"

etc.,

see art.

"Djanbaz"

n

El,

vol.

2,

442f.

187

Safwat

al-i'tibdr,

vol.

5,

19.

188

See arts.

"6ingane",

"Lfili" nd

"Nuri"

n

EI,

vol.

2, 40f.,

vol.

5,

816-19

and

vol.

8,

138f.,

respectively.

Further Canova:Notizie.

189

Grohmann:

Sudarabien,

52-106;

Dostal:

Paria-Gruppen;

Henninger:

Paria-

stdmme;

ruck:

Being

worthy, assim

(with

good

bibliography).

311



WERNER

ENDE

tribes

of

Hijaz

and

the

ashraf

of

Medina,

represent

a

category

apart.

According to Muhammad Shawqi Makki, who describes the situ-

ation

prevailing

in

the

1970s

and

early

1980s,

the

(more

or

less

self-imposed)

isolation

of

the

nakhawila

(including

the

preference

for

in-group marriages)

is

still

common

among

them.

He

adds:

"This isolation

has

contributed

to

the

fact

that the

nakhawila

can be

easily

distinguished

from

the rest

of the

inhabitants,

namely

because of their

facial

expression

(sahnat

al-wajh)

and

their

somewhat dark

complexion

as

com-

pared

to

the

other residents

of

Medina,

who

have mixed with

other races.

Their

present

generation

has

begun

to

marry (partners)

from

outside Medi-

na, but probablynot from outside the followers of their own madhhab."190

With

regard

to

the

point

last

mentioned,

we

may

ask

whether

there

have

been,

in

modern

times,

any marriages

between

(crypto-)Shiite

ashraf

and

"real"

nakhdwila

families.

According

to

oral

information

I

received

in

1996,

such

marriages,

if

any,

would be

extremely

rare.

Rather,

those

ashraf prefer

to

give

their

children

in

marriage

to

members of

families

belonging

to

the

Sunnite middle

or

upper

classes of the Hijaz.

Ownership

and cultivation

of

land

It seems

that-at

least

until

recently-most

of

the nakhzwila

were

tenant-farmers

or farm

labourers.

According

to

Muhsin

al-Amin,191

quite

a

number of

the

palm groves

were

owned at

the

time of his

visits by aghawat or khudddm,i.e. eunuchs

serving

in the

Prophet's

mosque.192

Other

authors

mention

Hasanid

and

Husaynid

ashraf

as

well as

Sunni

Medinese

notables

as

owners of

the

palm

groves.193

In

addition,

many

of these

estates were in

the

possession

of

tribal

leaders:

according

to

Hogarth,

the

Banfi

'Amr

section of

the

Harb

owned

most of

the date

gardens

near

Medina,

while the

Banfu All

(who

are

called "a

turbulent

lot of

Shiahs"

by

Hogarth),

a

sub-sec-

tion of the 'Awf (also belonging to the Harb), cultivated the gar-

190

Sukkan,

128.

191

Rihalat,

48;

see also

Ibn Miusa:

Wasf,

26f.

192

For

the

origin

and

development

of the

eunuch

society

of

Medina see

Marmon:

Eunuchs,

passim;

Caskel: Das

Farraschen-Amt;

urther

Ibn

Mfsa, ibid.,

71f.,

and

Ibn

Salam:

Al-Madina,

32-35,

233-36.

193

Ibn

Musa,

ibid.,

18ff.

Many

Medinese,

however,

would

rent a

garden

only

for a

number

of

months

every

year,

see Abul

Fadl:

Zur

Kultur,

299.

312



THE

NAKHAWILA,

SHIITE

COMMUNITY

IN MEDINA

dens

around

Quba

in the 'Awali

plains.194

Elsewhere,

the author

remarks

that the Harb tribe

held

"all the

vicinity

of

Medina". He

adds that the Banfi 'Ali clan "was most to be reckoned within and

near the

city

itself,

where it

was a

constant source

of

trouble to the

Turks and disorder

among

the

citizens."195

It is a

well-known

fact that

nomadic tribes

or the

families

of

tribal

leaders

used

to

own

agricultural

land

in

the

oases of

Ara-

bia.196

This

land

was

cultivated

by

tenant farmers and

their serv-

ants.

If

it is true that the

Harb,

as

Hogarth

claims,

owned "most"

of the

palm groves

near

Medina,

we

may

deduce from this

fact that

their

special relationship

with the nakhawila of

Medina,

al-'Awali

and

other

villages

in

this

region,

as

described

by

Muhsin al-

Amin197,

was

partly

based on

strong

economic interests.

Nevertheless,

Hogarth's

statement seems

to

need

some

qualifica-

tion:

according

to

Burckhardt,

many

of

the

gardens

and

fields

in

the immediate

vicinity

of

Medina were indeed the

property

of

Medinese

notables

or

had

long

been turned into

waqf

land,

to be

administered by urban mutawallis, such as notables, 'ulama' and

servants

of

the haram. The situation

may

have

changed

somewhat

between

1815,

i.e.

the

year

of Burckhardt's

visit,

and the time

when

Hogarth

filed his

report,

but it is

very probable

that the Swiss

traveller's

description

was

still valid about a

century

later. The

relevant

passage

in

Burckhardt's work runs

as follows:

"Most

of

the

gardens

and

plantations

belong

to

the

people

of

the

town;

and

the Arabs

who cultivate them

(called

nowakhele)

are

mostly

farmers.

The

property of the gardens is either mulkof

wakf,

the former, if

they

belong

to

an

individual;

the

latter,

if

they

belong

to the

mosque,

or

any

of

the

medreses or

pious

foundations,

from which

they

are

farmed,

at

very

long

leases,

by

the

people

of

Medina

themselves,

who

re-let them on

shorter

terms to the

cultivators."198

Burckhardt's

description

is correct

mainly

for the

agricultural

land

on

the

immediate outskirts

of

Medina,

and much

less for al-'Awali

and

the

area

further

South.

For the latter

region,

i.e.

the realm

of

the Harb, Hogarth's statement stands. In several sources, however,

gardens

and

houses even in this

area are

mentioned as

being

194

Hejaz,

39.

95

Ibid.,

28.

196

Pfullmann:

Steuern,

esp.

432-34.

197

See

above,

p.

290f.

198

Travels,

vol.

2,

207f.

313



WERNERENDE

owned

by

Medinese.

In these

cases,

we

may

assume

that

at

least

some

of

those

persons

were

ashraf

who,

as

crypto-Shiites,

had

estab-

lished a special relationship with the chiefs of the Harb in general

and with

the Shiite

BanC 'Ali in

particular.

Otherwise

it

would not

have

been

possible

for

them

to make full use of

their

property.

One

such

person, by

the

name

of

Shahin

b. Muhsin

al-Husayni

al-

Shadqami,

is named

by

'Ali

b. Mfisa

as main owner

of a

well and a

garden

for about the

year

1885.

Almost at the

same

time,

a

Persian

visitor

remarks

upon

a

palm

grove

and

pleasent garden

near

the

mosque

of Fadih

which,

he

says,

was

the

property

of a

Shi'i Sharif

of Hasani descent.199 Nevertheless, the bulk of

agricultural

land in

that area

was

under the direct or indirect control of the

Harb.

Other

occupations

Muhammad

Bayram's

above-mentioned

attempt

to

link the

nakhawila with similar "low-caste"

or

"gypsy"-communities

is inter-

esting.200

He does not

say

what the

humble

professions

of the

nakhawila were. Other

sources,

notably

Burckhardt,

mention occu-

pations

in

addition

to those of

gardeners, peasants

or

herdsmen:

"the

women

of

the

cultivators,

and of the

inhabitants

of

the

suburbs,

serve

in

the families

of

the

townspeople,

as

domestics,

principally

to

grind

corn in

the handmills".201

Although

Burckhardt does

not

say

here

that these

cultivators

were

mostly Shiites, it is safe to assume that at least at the time of his visit

(1815),

many

of

the female

servants

employed

in

the

richer house-

holds

of

Medina did

in

fact

belong

to

nakhawila

families,

who

would come to

town

daily

(or

sporadically)

from the suburbs.

Eldon

Rutter,

who visited

Medina

in

the

mid-1920s,

notes that a

number

of

nakhawila used

to come

daily

to an

open

space

near

one of the

gates

of

the

haram,

the

Bab

al-Salam,

in

order

to sell

vegetables there.202

It should be

added

here

that the

nakhawila's income

did

not

derive

solely

from the

cultivation and

(direct

or

indirect)

sale of

199

Ibn

Muisa:

Wasf,

25;

Farahani:

Safar

namah,

236

(English

translation,

A

Shi'ite

Pilgrimage,

279).

200

See

p.

311

above.

201

Travels,

vol.

2,

265.

202

The

Holy

Cities,

552.

314



THE

NAKHAWILA,

SHIITE

COMMUNITY

IN MEDINA

dates and

vegetables:

Another substantial source of income

was the

manufacture

of

goods

from the

trunks,

the branches and

the

leaves of the date palm, namely seats, armchairs and benches,

bedsteads,

tables,

baskets,

fans and

brooms,

mats,

wall

hangings

and even

a

special

type

of

veil to be used

during

the

hajj.

The

production

of

many

of these

goods

was more or less

exclusively

in

the hands

of

women.203

Other

occupations

the nakhdwila

are

said

to

have

pursued,

or

to

pursue today,

are those

of

butcher,

house-servant,

and

sweeper.

Probably they

were also

hired from

time to time

to

clean the cess-

pools

of Medina.204

Especially

during

the

hajj-season,

many

of their

men would serve

Shiite

pilgrims visiting

Medina

as

guides

(muzawwirun

or

adilla),

hosts,

interpreters

etc. Some of them offered to

perform

the rites

of the

pilgrimage

as

"substitutes"

for

people

who

were

prevented

from

doing

so themselves.

According

tojalal

Al-i

Ahmad,

this

prac-

tice

was

still

alive

in

the mid-1960s.205

To this day, the functions last mentioned provide the nakhdwila

with a more or

less

important

source of

income. It

may

have

been

envious Medinese

Sunnites who

first

suggested

that

the nakhdwila

in

general

would rent

not

only

their

houses,

but also "all that

is

inside",

i.e.

even their wives and

daughters

to their Shiite co-

religionists visiting

Medina.

In

this

context,

almost

all

Sunnite

au-

thors mention

the

institution

of the

mut'a-marriage.206

Shiite

writ-

ers never seem to touch on this

issue

when

talking

about

the

nakhdwila. But there

may

have

been

cases-even

recently-

of

mut'a-marriages being

concluded between

nakhawila

women

and

Shiite

visitors

to

Medina.

In

spite

of

some criticism

by

modernist

scholars,

temporary

mar-

riage

(mut'a)

is

considered valid

by

all Twelver

Shiite

fuqahd'.

In

recent

years,

it has even

been

propagated

by

some Shiite

religious

writers as

a

means

of

solving

social

problems.207

There

would

therefore be nothing wrong with nakhawila women concluding

203

Abul

Fadl:

Zur

Kultur,

301-03.

204

See

Ansari

(quoted

p.

304

above);

Burckhardt:

Travels,

vol.

2,

239;

Al-i

Ahmad:

Khasi,

66;

Winder:

Al-Madina, El,

vol.

5,

1007.

205

Khasi,

39f.

(English

translation

27).

206

See

p.

298

and

305f.

above;

further

Rutter: The

Holy

Cities,

552.

207

See

art.

"Mut'a" in

El,

vol.

7, 757-59;

Ende:

Ehe,

17-25,

38-42.

315



WERNER ENDE

mut'a-marriages

with Shiite

foreigners,

provided

that the rules of

Twelver

Shiite

law

governing

this

practice

were observed-in

par-

ticular the rule that a woman who is normally married may not

conclude

a mut'a.

It

is,

of

course,

almost

impossible

to

say

whether or not

these

rules

were

(and are)

always respected.

Sunnite sources

suggest

that

the

prostitution

of married and

unmarried

nakhawila

women

was

(and

possibly

still

is)

more or less

general.

This

innuendo

is

cer-

tainly

without

foundation.

But

since there are some so-called

"gypsy"

tribes

in Arabia who-at least until

recently-were

indeed

known for the

prostitution

of their

womenfolk,208

Sunnite

Medinese

as well as Sunnite visitors

to Medina

may

have been all

too

willing

to

believe

that the

nakhawila

do

the same.

Another

uncertainty:

the

numerical

size

There is

uncertainty

with

regard

to the numerical size

of

the

Shiite

community

of

Medina: in

1964,

a

young

nakhili,

answering

a

ques-

tion

by

the

Iranian writer

Jalal

Al-i

Ahmad,

said that it

numbered

about

5,000.209

In a

booklet written

especially

for Shiite

pilgrims

and

published

in Pakistan in

1972,

the

number of the nakhdwila is

given

as

4,000.210

However,

in the second

edition of his

Mu'jam

qaba'il

al-'arab,

published

in

Beirut

in

1968,

the

Syrian

Sunnite au-

thor

'Umar Rida Kahhala

notes

that

the number

of

the

nakhdwila

is

close to 12,000.211 In this connection Kahhala is drawing on

Batanfini's

Rihla

hijaziya.212Batanuni

(d.

1938)

wrote his travel ac-

count

in

1909

(first

ed. Cairo

1910,

second

enlarged

ed.

1911).

It is

highly probable

that he

in

turn derived the

number of

12,000

nakhawila

from

Eyyub

Sabri

(d.

1890),

who mentions

exactly

this

figure.213

As

this author had

been

living

as

an

Ottoman official in

208

Serjeant

The

Ma'n

"Gypsies",

741f.;

Dostal: "Sexual

Hospitality";

see

also

Henninger

in

Arabica

Varia,

index

pp.

488

(s.v.

"Gastprostitution")

and 494

("Prostitution").

209

Khasi,

66

(English

translation

45).

210

Hajj

Masail,

55.

211

Vol.

2,

1176.

212

Rihla,

p.

52

of

the tamhid.

213

See

above,

p.

305.

Curiously

enough

the number of

12,000

has

found its

way

even into

a

modern Persian

dictionary,

i.e.

Dihkhuda's

Lughat-ndmah,

ol.

11,

310.

316



THE

NAKHAWILA,


Medina for

some

time,

his estimation

may

be

close

to

the

truth

as

far as the situation

in the

early

1880s

is

concerned.

The number of 12,000 persons for that period is more or less

borne

out

by

an Iranian

traveller,

Muhammad

Husayn

Farahani,

who

visited the

holy

cities in 1885-86.

According

to this

author,

Medina

and

the

surrounding villages

had

a

total

population

of

80,000

at the

time,

including

10,000

Shiites. Of the

latter,

about

4,000

would have resided in the

city,

and

6,000

in

the

adjacent

villages.

It

seems that Farahani counts

as

nakh&wila

both the

Banu

Husayn

in the town and

the

poor

peasants

outside

the

walls, since,

in his words, their homes "are in

part

in the

city

and outside the

wall

near the

Baqi'

cemetery".

He

distinguishes

them

both from

the Banfi

'All

and two

other

Bedouin

groups

and from

the

few

Hasani

ashrdf

residing

in

the

city,

who were also Shiites.214

Describing

his

visit to Medina

in

1888,

Na'ib al-Sadr-i Shirazi

speaks

of

2,000

persons,

but

he is

referring

here

only

to the inhab-

itants of

the mahalla outside the

town,

a

quarter

which he calls

a

"new enclosure" (hisdr-ijadid).215

No official

data are

available

for

present-day

Medina.

There

may

be reliable Saudi

statistics

concerning

the

nakhawila,

but,

to the

best

of

my knowledge,

no material

of

this

kind

has ever

been

published.

Some

of

the

estimates

given

by

Shiite authors

are

obviously

ex-

aggerated.

Moreover,

we have to bear in

mind that some of the

figures

mentioned

by

them refer

to the

Twelver

Shiites of the

Hijaz

in

general,

while others

refer

only

to the nakhdwila

living

in

Medina or

in

the

villages

south of that

town.216

Even

in

this

case,

we have to differentiate.

Thus,

Yousif al-Khoei in his recent

report

on the Shi'a

of

Medina

is

careful to avoid

sweeping

statements:

"The

actual

population

of

the Nakhawila is difficult

to

estimate.

Some

have

indicated

a

figure

above

100,000.

But a

religious

leader

I

met

proffered

the

more conservative

estimate of about

32,000,

comprising

some

19,000

Nakha-

wila-8,000

from the tribes in Wadi al-Fara'-in

addition

to

some

5,000

214

Safar

ndma,

210

(English

translation

257).

215

Tuhfat

al-haramayn,

235.

216

Hasan:

Al-shi'a,

vol.

1, 68,

mentions

about

100,000

Twelver Shiites for

Medina and its

vicinity

and

another

20,000 forJeddah,

Ta'if and Mecca.

In

addi-

tion,

there are

allegedly

160,000

Zaydis

and between

250,000

and

300,000

Isma'ilis in Saudi Arabia

(ibid.).

317



WERNER ENDE

Shi'a

Sayyeds

living

in

and around Medina. Others

put

the

figure

nearer

40,000,

based on an estimate of

15%

of

Shi'a

pupils

in

Medina's

schools."217

Burial and cemeteries

As Eldon Rutter

notes

after

making enquiries

about them:

"The

Nakhawila,

say

the

(Sunnite)

Medinans,

will

do

anything

for

money".

Thus,

he

continues,

a

number of them

were

prepared,

af-

ter the Saudi

occupation

of

Medina

in

late

1925,

to

demolish the

tombs

of

al-Baqi'

at the behest

of the Wahhabi

qddi

Ibn

Bulayhid.218

With regard to the tombs of 'Uthman and many other sahaba bur-

ied

there,

the

nakhawila

may

not

have

had

many

qualms

about

per-

forming

the task

for which

they

had been

hired

by

the

new

rulers.

It

is also

possible

that

they

were

forced

to

do so

by

the Wahhabi

con-

querors.

In

this

case,

Ibn

Bulayhid's

order

must be

interpreted

as

an

expression

of his

spitefulness

towards

this

poor

and weak

minor-

ity,

since

the

demolitions

included

the

tombs

of

the

four

Imams

buried at

the

Baqi'

as well

as

those of

a

number of the ahl

al-bayt.

There was,

incidentally,

a

precedent

to Ibn

Bulayhid's

action:

according

to

Ahmad ibn

Zayni

Dahlan,

at

the time of

the

first

Wahhabi

occupation

of

Mecca in 1803

the

(Sunnite)

inhabitants

of

the

town

were

forced

by

the

conquerors

to

destroy

the

cupolas

at the

cemetery

of al-Ma'la

and

elsewhere.219

Since

1925,

protests

against

the

destructions

at

the

Baqz'

in

gen-

eral and of

the tombs of

the

Imams

in

particular

have

been

a

leitmotiv in Shiite writings about Medina.220

For

a

long

period

of

time,

the "real"

nakhawila

(i.e.

the

inhab-

itants

of

the

mahalla and of

the

palm

groves

south

of

Medina)

were

not allowed

to

bury

their

dead

at

al-Baqi'.221

On the

other

hand,

217

Khoei:

The

Shi'a, 4;

for

Wadi

al-Fara'

(sic)

see fn.

130

above.

218

The

Holy

Cities,

552,

563.

Afatwa

to this

effect,

issued

by

a

number of Sunni

Medinese

'ulama'

at

the

request

of

Ibn

Bulayhid,

and a

critical

comment con-

cerning

its

content is to be found in Amin: Kashf,359ff. An Italian translation of

the

fatwa

was

published

in

"Oriente

Moderno"

(Rome),

vol. 6

(1926),

288f.

219

Peskes:

Muhammad

b.

'Abdalwahhab,

146,

320.

220

See,

e.g.,

al-Amin:

Kashf,

60f.;

Najafi:

Madinah-shindsi, 337-39;

Mughniya:

Hadhihi,

46-49,

reprinted

in:

Tajarib,

371-73;

Faqihi:

Wahhabiyan,

215ff.;

Salfr:

Armaghdn,

8,

22-24,

and

Hasan:

Al-shi'a,

vol.

2,

203ff.

Furtherthe

books

by

Hajiri

and

Samarra'i

mentioned

above,

fn. 6. A

number of

prominent

Sunni visitors to

Medina have

also

criticised

the

Wahhabi

measures,

see,

e.g., Haykal:

Ft

manzil,

525f.

221

Rutter:

The

Holy

Cities,

563;

Madani

and

Zu'bi:

Al-islam,

126.

According

to

318



THE

NAKHAWILA,

SHIITE COMMUNITY

IN

MEDINA

'Ali b.

Mfsa mentions

the

fact

that some

'Alawi

Sayyids

as

well

as

a number of

Emirs

of

Medina from

the

Banuf

Husayn

had been

buried near the burial place of the Al al-bayt.This information is

corroborated

by

Richard Burton.222

Describing

the situation as

it was in

about

1885,

'Ali b.

Mfsa-

a

local official

and for some time

Imam of

the

Malikiya

in

Medina223-says

that

no

prayers

were recited

over the

nakhdwila's

dead

inside the haram.

Rather,

they

would

enter the

Baqi' through

a

gate

singled

out

for

that

purpose,

i.e. to

bring

their

jana'iz

to

the

tombs of the

Al

al-Bayt

and

perform mourning prayers

there.224 We

may assume that in almost all these cases the burial of the dead

took

place

outside the

walls of

al-Baqi',

namely

at

an

adjacent

cem-

etery

mentioned

by

Burton and marked

accordingly

on

his

map

of

Medina. With

regard

to

this

spot,

he

speaks sarcastically

of

his

blunder of

momentarily

mistaking

"the

decaying place

of those

miserable schismatics the Nakhawilah for

Al-Bakia,

the

glorious

cemetery

of

the Saints".225

In recent years the Shiites of Medina have also been allowed to

bury

their

dead at

al-Baqic,

"in a

special plot

close to the

graves

of

the Ahl

al-Bayt".226

It

should be

noted here that a

number of

foreign

Shiites who

happened

to

die

in

Medina

have been

buried

at

al-Baqi'

under Ottoman and

even

under Saudi rule. As

for

the

Saudi

period,

Muhammad

Sharif-i Razi in this

connection

men-

tions three Iranian

Shiite scholars: 1.

Muhammad

Taqi Taliqani

(of

whom more will be said

below,

see

p.

332);

2.

Sayyid

Muham-

mad Riza Bihbihani

Hayiri

(d. 1391/1971-72);

3.

Hujjat

al-Islam

Hajj

Mirza 'Abd

al-Rasfil

Marzubani Tabriz

(d.

1393/1973-74).227

There

is,

moreover,

a

Shiite

cemetery

near the

village

of

Quba.

This burial

ground

covers the

alleged

site of the

Masjid

al-Dirar.

This

mosque

is

said to have been

destroyed

by

order of

the Pro-

phet

Muhammad

in the

year

9 A.H.228

Given the

religious

conno-

Ansari,

however,

the

nakhdwila

did

not want

to

bury

their dead side

by

side with

the

Sunnis,

see

p.

303

above.

222

Ibn Musa:

Wasf,

11;

Burton:

Personal

Narrative,

vol.

2,

4.

223

See

preface by

'Ubayd

Madani to Ibn

Musa:

Wasf,

10.

224

Ibid.,

12.

225

Burton: Personal

Narrative,

vol.

2,

pp.

2

and

31,

and

map

in vol.

1,

392f.

226

The

Shi'a,

5.

227

Ganjinah-i

ddnishmanddn,

vol.

7,

66.

228

Lecker:

Muslims,

74,

145f.;

see also

EI,

vol.

6,

642.

319



WERNER ENDE

tations

of such

an

account,

it

may

not be

too

far-fetched

to

sup-

pose

that it was

put

into

circulation

by

enemies of

the

Shia.

We

shall refrain from discussing this point any further. The famous

Egyptian

writer and

politician

Muhammad

Husayn Haykal

(d.

1956),

who visited

Quba

in

1936,

notes he was told that the

cem-

etery

in

question

was

at

present

"the

burial

place

of

the

rafida,

the

shi'a and

(sic )

the

nakhawila".

He

rejects,

however,

its

identifica-

tion

with

the site of the

Masjid

al-Dirar.229

ccording

to Yousif

al-

Khoei,

who was

there

in

1996,

it is now a

large cemetery,

where

Shiite

pilgrims having

died

in

Medina

may

also

be

buried.230

Isolation,

discrimination

and

survival

1. The mahalla

In addition to

discrimination with

regard

to the burial of

their

dead,

both

Sunnite and

Shiite as well as

non-Muslim

authors

men-

tion other forms of prejudice towards, and ill-treatment of, the

nakhawilaat the hands of

the Sunnite

majority.

Of

course,

not

eve-

rything

reported

in

this

respect

is

necessarily

true.

For

instance,

some

(Ottoman)

pashas

allegedly

ordered

the nakhawila

to wear

red turbans

and

orange-coloured

clothes.231It is not

certain that

such

an

order ever

existed. If it

did,

we

may

assume

that the

order

in

question

(the

red turban

being

an

allusion

to the

qzzzlbash?)

s

well as some other discriminatory measures described in the

sources were

short-lived

and/or

were

not

enforced

strictly.

Nevertheless it is

evident that the

nakhawila

with

the

exception

of the

ashraf)

were for a

long

time

forced

to

exist under

conditions

typical

for a

pariah-like

community.

First

of

all,

they

were

not al-

lowed-in

Ottoman

times

at

least-to

stay

overnight

within

the

walls

of

Medina,

let

alone to settle

there.232

Their

mahalla,

consist-

ing

of clusters of

enclosures

called hawsh

(plural

ahwisha,

ahwash

or

hishan),

was located outside the

walls,

south of the

haram.On

a

map

printed

in

'Abd

al-Quddfis

al-Ansari's

book,

Athar

al-Madina

229

ft

manzil,

574.

230

The

Shi'a,

5.

231

Madani

and

Zu'bi:

Al-islam,

126.

232

Rutter:

The

Holy

Cities,

552.

320



THE

NAKHAWTLA,

SHIITE

COMMUNITY IN

MEDINA

al-Munawwara

(published

in

1935),

it

is

marked as

mahallat al-

nakhdwila.233

On

another,

earlier

map,

based on

sketches

made

by

Turkish officials and published by Bernhard Moritz in 1916, the

area in

question

is

marked

as

"Garten

mit

Hausern".234

The

best

short

description

of these

rural

suburbs is to be

found

in

Burton's

work. At

the time of his

visit

(1852),

the

whole

area

to the

South

of

Medina

appeared

as

"a

collection

of walled

villages,

with

plantations

and

gardens

between.

They

are laid

out

in

the

form,

called

here,

as

in

Egypt, Hosh-court-yards,

with

single

storied

tenements

opening

into

them.

These

enclosures contain the

cattle of the inhabitants; they have strong wooden doors, shut at night to

prevent "lifting",

and

they

are

capable

of

being stoutly

defended.

The inhab-

itants

of

the suburb are

for the most

part

Badawi

settlers,

and

a

race

of schis-

matics

who

will

be noticed

in

another

chapter."235

On

a number of modern

maps

or

sketches,

the mahalla

is no

longer

discernible,

or at least

not mentioned as such.

However,

a

"Nakhawila

Street"

(shari' al-nakhawila),

leading

from the

South

to

the

Baqi',

is

to

be

found

on

a

map

attached

to

the second edition

of 'Abd al-Salam Hashim Hafiz' book as well as in a number of

other

publications

in Arabic.236

It also

appears

(as

khiyabdn-i

nakhawilah)

in

vol. I of a more

recent Persian

work

on the

histori-

cal

topography

of Medina.237

According

to R.B.

Winder,

the

hawsh

of

the

nakhawila was "bro-

ken

up

by

the Su'udi

regime

first,

apparently,

in

the

1920s

and,

definitely, following

serious communal

disturbances

in

the mid-

1960s,

when

a

large highway

was

routed

through

it."238This

high-

way, forming

a

southern

extension

of

Abu

Dharr

Street,

is

to

be

found on a number of

modern

maps

of Medina.

Parallel to

it,

but

233

Athar,

2;

see also

Haykal:

Fi

manzil,

acing

512,

and

Najafi:

Madinah-shindsi,

map

no.

45;

Ibn Salam:

Al-Madina,

241.

234

Bilder,

no.

63a. It is

obvious

that

this

map,

as well

as

earlier

ones

published

by

Batanini

(Rihla,

facing

p.

252)

and

others

are

based on Burckhardt

(Travels,

vol.

2,

144)

and

Burton

(Personal

Narrative,

ol.

1,

392f.).

See also

Rutter,

op.

cit.,

and TheMiddleEastIntelligenceHandbooks, ol. 2, 562. The area to the South of

Darb

al-Jana'iz

s

called

"El-Shahriye" y

Burckhardt

(vol.

2, 146,

no.

37)

and a

number of

other

Western

authors,

including

Rutter. As far as I

can

see,

this

desig-

nation

is

not used

by

Muslim

authors. For

Burckhardt's

and Burton's

maps,

see

reproduction

at the end of

the

present study.

235

Burton,

op.

cit.,

vol.

1,

396f.

236

Hafiz:

Al-Madina,

acing

208;

Ibn Salam:

Al-Madina,

173

(no. 7);

Bulay-

hishi:

Al-Madina,

32.

237

Najafi:

Madinah-shindsi,

maps

no.

36-40,

42-43,

46.

238

Art.

"Al-Madina",

99.

321



WERNER ENDE

with

a

dead

end

towards

Darb

al-Jana'iz,

there is

(or

was until re-

cently)

a smaller street

running

from South to

North-probably

the older Shari' al-Nakhawila.239

Whether

or not

the destruction

of

the

quarter really began

in

the

mid-1920s,

i.e.

immediately

after the Saudi

conquest

of the

Hijaz,

is

not

altogether

clear.

There is

no

mention

of

such

an

event,

with

regard

to that

period,

in

any

of the

other sources

known

to

me.

In

any

case the continuous

existence of the mahalla

is

attested

in

various sources

up

to

the

1960s.24? According

to Hamza al-

Hasan, the district which had been known in the past as mahallat

(or

zuqaq)

al-nakhdwila

is

now called

.Hayy

al-Rawda.241

There

is,

however,

no

detailed

description

of its

layout

and the

area it

cov-

ered.

Nevertheless,

the

snippets

of

information

that

can be culled

from

a

great

number

of

works make

it

appear

an

especially

inter-

esting

case

for

the

study

of

ethnic clusters

in

Middle

Eastern

cities,

namely

for the

study

of

"population groups maintaining

a

particu-

lar identity based on racial, religious, linguistic or cultural status,

on

tribe,

subtribe

or

family,

or on

region,

town or

village

of ori-

gin".242

For

the various

aspects

of

this

topic,

such

as the

relation-

ship

of

immigration

and

quarter

formation,

the barriers of

separa-

tion between the members of

the

cluster

and the

surrounding

population, processes

of assimilation and

disintegration

etc.,

the

mahalla of the nakhawila

certainly

would be

a

rewarding

object

of

research.

For

the time

being,

however,

the available documenta-

tion is not

sufficient

to

allow a

comprehensive study.

With

regard

to

the

road-building

measures from the 1960s on-

wards

which

affected,

inter

alia,

the

quarter

of the

nakhdwila,

there

is

some

more

or less

vague

information in a number

of

publications.

One author

speaks

of the

necessity

to

enlarge

the

streets

leading

into the ahwish

(not

only,

of

course,

those of the

nakhdwila)

in

order

to

facilitate the access of modern

traffic,

and

particularly fire-brigades, to these districts.243

239

Ibid.,

1001

(map

of the modern

city);

Bindaqji:

Maps;

Farsi:

Map;

Badr:

Al-

tarikh,

vol.

3,

facing

301.

240

Philby

A

Pilgrim,

59

(for

1935);

Bayglari:

Ahkam,

353;

Shihabi:

Awqaf,

128f.;

Al-i Ahmad:

Khasi,

76

(for 1964);

Makki:

Sukkan,

127

(hawsh

al-nakhawila).

241

Al-shi'a,

vol.

1,

67;

see Farsi:

Map

and Guide.

242

Greenshields:

"Quarters",

120.

243

Sayyid Rajab:

Al-Madina, 39ff.,

see

also Hafiz:

Fusul, 301, 308, 310;

further

322



THE

NAKHAWILA,

SHIITE COMMUNITY IN

MEDINA

In

1986/87,

a new

wave

of urban

development

was

ushered

in

at Medina

by

the Saudi

government.244

One

can

safely

assume that

if anything has been left of the old mahalla of the nakhawila, it is

going

to be

destroyed

sooner

or later.

Nakhawila families

may

still

be an

important

element

in some of the

newly-established

suburbs

in

the south-western

parts

of

Medina,

but

probably

there

is

no

longer

a closed

quarter populated exclusively by

members

of

this

community.

According

to

al-Khoei,

however,

the

nakhawila

still

in-

habit an

area of

approximately

12

sq.

km. named

after them.245

The

importance

of Medina's

agricultural

sector,

including

the

once

famous

palm groves,

is

rapidly

dwindling,

and

gardens

and

farmland

are

being

turned into modern

housing

estates.

The

nakhdwila farmers

therefore

have

to look

for

other

occupations.

According

to oral information

(March 1988),

quite

a

few

of

them

now own little

shops

or

stalls,

mainly

in

one street of

Medina,

where

they

sell

grilled

meat etc.

The

neglect

and even

destruction

(as

a result of

building

mea-

sures etc.) of many mosques, cemeteries and other places of reli-

gious

importance

is

noted with

regret

not

only by

Shiite,

but

also

by

Sunnite authors.246

Some

of

the

palm groves

have

been

transformed into

public

parks.

The annual

official

'Id

al-fitr

festivities,

organized by

the

Municipality

of

Medina,

were

held

at

a

public garden

called "Al-

Nakheel Park" in

February

1997.247

Where Shiites

(both

urban

ashraf

or

"real"

nakhawila)

owned

land

in

the areas touched

by

modern

development

schemes,

it is

likely

that

they-like

Sunnites-have

been

compensated

for the

expropriation

of

their estates.248

Ibn

Salam:

Al-Madina,192-95;

Rasch:

Die

Zeltstddte,

26-28,

and

Mustafa:

Al-

Madina.

244

Badr:

Al-tarikh,

ol.

3,

310-23;

for

the

gigantic expansion

of the haramarea

see, e.g., Al-Nounou: Ons'yrend,and Al-Hamid:Expansion. n 1997, a new master

plan

for

Medina

was

made

public. According

to the

Governor,

Prince

'Abd

al-

Majid,

the authorities are determined to make

Medina

"one

of the

most

ad-

vanced

cities

in

the world"

("Arab

News",

April

13,

1997,

p.

2).

245

The

Shi'a,

4.

According

to Hasan:

Al-shi'a,

vol.

1, 67,

there are nakhawila

also in the Bab

al-Kuma

quarter,

North-Westof

the

Prophet's

Mosque.

246

See,

e.g.,

al-Yusuf:

Al-masdjid,

5, 46-48,

66f.,

74, 82, 91,

95

(footnotes

4

and

5).

247

Makki:

Tawzi';

"Arab

News",

February

2, 1997,

p.

2.

248

Hafiz:

Fusul, 306,

308;

Rasch:Die

Zeltstddte,

26; Badr,

vol.

3,

232.

323



WERNER

ENDE

A

good

number

of them

are said to

have benefited from the oil

boom

and

to

be successful

businessmen,

shopkeepers

and

land-

lords who rent their houses, on the outskirts of their farms close

to

the

vicinity

of

the

haram,

to

pilgrims.

Moreover,

many

are

enjoy-

ing

economic

benefits

from

the Saudi state

such as social

security

payments

as well as

interest-free loans

up

to

an amount of

300,000

Rials

(about

80,000

US-Dollars).249

As

for the two

gardens

called

.Safa

and

Maijan,

it is

unlikely

that

much of them

is left

in the wake of the Saudi

town-planning

mea-

sures.250

Jalal

Al-i

Ahmad,

noticing

with

surprise

the

popularity

of

the two

gardens

with the Iranian

pilgrims,

found them

quite

un-

impressive

and

neglected:

the

toilets

of

al-.Safa

were

extremely

filthy.251

Without

giving

his

precise

name,

he

mentions

an Iranian

mujawir-a

man

from Yazd or Isfahan-as

the "owner"

(sahib)

of

Bagh-i

.Safa.252

This

designation may

be

the result

of

a misunder-

standing,

i.e.

it

is

quite likely

that

the Iranian

mujawir

had

only

leased the

garden

in

question.

However,

it is far from certain

that

both al-Safa and al-Marjan were still considered as waqfin 1964, or

even

in

the 19th

Century.

If

we

give any

credence to the

assertion

that

the two

gardens

had been

mawquf

for

a

long

time,

we

may

assume that

they

had

already

been turned into

private property

under the Ottomans. The

very

names

of the

gardens

seem

to

sup-

port

this

hypothesis: according

to 'Ali b.

Musa,

a

Sunnite Medinese

describing

the

situation

in

1885,

one

of the two

gardens

was

owned

(and

named

after)

a

servant of the

haram,

Marjan Agha

Salim,

a

eunuch

holding

the office of mutesellim.This

information is cor-

roborated

by

an Iranian author

writing

in 1888.253

Concerning

a second

garden-not

mentioned

by

name-'Ali b.

Muisa

says

that

it

was

owned

by

one

"Al-Sayyid

Safi".254

As the

edi-

tor,

Hamad

al-Jasir,

remarks

at this

point,

the

text

of

the manu-

script

is

corrupt

here. It is

possible

that

the

name of the

garden,

249

Khoei,

op.

cit.,

4.

250

See

above,

fn.

244.

251

Khasi,

44

(English

translation

30f.).

For

Bdgh-i

Marjan

as

a

place

for con-

gregational prayer

see also Salfr:

Armaghan,

0,

25.

252

Al-i

Ahmad,

ibid.

253

Wasf,

27,

54;

Na'ib al-Sadr

Shirazi:

Tuhfat al-haramayn,

233.

254

Wasf,

54

(probably

identical with the

Sayyid

Safi al-Ja'fari

mentioned

ibid.,

43 and

50);

Farhad

Mirza,

who visited Medina

in

1875,

mentions a

Sayyid

Safi as

his

host. His house had a

garden

with

palm

trees

(Safar

namah,

139,

147,

158).

324



THE

NAKHAWLA,

A SHIITE COMMUNITY

IN MEDINA

Safa,

was

mentioned

in

the

original,

and

that

this

designation

was

somehow

related to

that

Sayyid

Safi.

It

is not certain that

this

person was the official proprietorof that garden.

Concerning

the

popularity

of the two

gardens

especially

with

the

Iranians,

it should

be noted

that not

only

Shiites,

but also

(at

least

occasionally)

Sunnites

from

Iran

used

to

stay

there

during

their visit

to Medina.

Thus,

Sayyid

'Abdallah

Shirazi,

who

per-

formed

the

pilgrimage

in

1942,

mentions

that

a

number

of

Sunnite

villagers

from

Khurasan

found accommodation

at

al-Safa

while

he himself

was

staying

there.

They

were

even

ready tempor-

arily

to vacate

part

of the

space

they

were

occupying

at

al-Safa

so

that their Shiite

countrymen

could

celebrate 'Ashura'

without the

danger

of

overcrowding.255

2. Public education

The Saudi authorities

have

expanded

public

education,256

and it

seems that the nakhawila have not been excluded from this devel-

opment.

A book

published

in

Beirut

in

1950 devoted

to

the

promo-

tion of better

understanding

between Sunnites

and

Shiites,

quotes

a

letter to

the authors from one

Shaykh

Muhammad al-Daftardar

(a

Saudi

official

responsible

for educational affairs in

Medina)

stat-

ing

that

the

government

had

set

up

modern schools

for

the

child-

ren

of the nakhdwila.

They

would now be

able to become

partners

of their

(Sunnite)

brethren

in

every

respect,

since the

Saudi

gov-

ernment

was

pursuing

its

policy

according

to

the

example

of

the

salaf

salih,

mindful of the

Islamic

injunction

of

tolerance.257

At first

glance,

a

statement such as this

paints

an

attractive

pic-

ture,

but

it can

(and

probably

should)

be

interpreted

as

meaning

that

the

government

conducted

a

policy

of forced assimilation

in

religious

matters:

it

is

extremely

unlikely

that

the Saudi authorities

would ever have endorsed

any

special

school curricula for

Shiites

with regard to both the dogma and the history of Islam. Rather, we

255

Al-ihtijajat,

24;

in

the

Persian translation

(Munazardt)

41f.

256

For Medina

in the late Ottoman and Hashimite

periods,

see

Shamikh:

Al-

ta'lim,

59ff.,

and Duhaish:

Elementary

Schools;for the Saudi era

Bulayhishi, op.

cit.,

11

ff.,

and

al-Ansari: Al-ta'lim.

257

Madani

and Zu'bi:

Al-isldm, 126;

about

Shaykh

Muhammad al-Daftardar

see Hafiz:

Al-Madina, 167,

and Ibn Salam: Mawsu'at

al-udaba', vol.

1,

361.

325



WERNER ENDE

should

expect

that

every topic

relating

to

these fields would

be

taught uniformly

at

all

Saudi

schools,

i.e.

including

those

attended

by the children of the nakhdwila, strictly according to the doctrines

of

the

Wahhabiya.

Concerning

the

early

history

of

Islam,

the

atti-

tude

of the

sahiba

during

the

fitna,

the

image

of

Mu'awiya

and

his

son

Yazid,

or the

role of 'Abdallah ibn Saba'

would

be

cases

in

point.258

Pupils

and

parents

alike

would

inevitably

see

the

teaching

of such

topics

in

Saudi state

schools

as the

enforcement

of an

anti-

Shiite

view of Islam

and

its

history.

In

November

1991,

there

were

protests

by

Shiite

students

in

the Eastern Province

against

new

textbooks

in

which their madhhab was

treated as an

outright

her-

esy.259

According

to a

recent

report,

it

is an

unwritten

rule that

a

Shiite

may

not

become

a

teacher of

religion, history

or

Arabic,

or the

headmaster

of a school.260 On

the

other

hand,

there

are,

of

course,

no

special

state-run schools for

the

nakhdwila. At the

same

time,

they

are not

allowed to

establish

private

schools. The last

of

the traditional Shiite maddris ( in the Eastern Province) are said to

have been

closed in the

1950s.261

Pupils

of

nakhawila

origin

have

little

or

no chance of

receiving

state

scholarships

to

study

abroad.262

Nevertheless,

it

is

to be assumed

that

in

recent

years,

public

education,

including

for

girls,

has

made some

progress

among

them.

Whatever

the results of this

development,

it is

likely

that

at

least

some children of the nakhawila have made use of the opportuni-

ties

offered

by

modern

education,

and

may

increasingly

be

doing

so

today.

Better

education for

the

nakhdwila,

however,

does not

necessarily

mean

equality

of

opportunities

in

social life.

There

may

be

more

or

less subtle

measures to

keep

them out of

attractive

jobs

etc.

In this

context,

al-Khoei

speaks

of

a

feeling

of

widespread

discrimination

in

employment:

those

who

manage

to find

work

in

the civil

service,

the

police

and the

armed forces cannot achieve

senior

positions,

although

on

occasion

they may

reach middle

258

Ende:

Arabische

Nation,

191ff.

and

passim.

See also

p.

304f.

above.

259

Hasan:

Dajja,

16;

see also "Issues"

Paris),

January

1992,

7.

260

Khoei,

4.

261

Hasan:

Al-shi'a,

vol.

2,

341.

262

Khoei,

4.

326



THE

NAKHAWILA,

SHIITE COMMUNITY

IN MEDINA

ranks.

The nakhawila

are

not

given

duties

in

sensitive areas

such as

the

judiciary,

the haram

or at

al-Baqi'.263

3.

Representation

n domestic

politics

With

regard

to their

representation

in domestic

politics,

Nallino-

drawing

on oral

information-

speaks

of

widespread

local

(Sun-

nite)

protests,

in

1937,

against

the admission

of the

nakhawila

to

participate

in

the

elections

for the

majlis

al-shura

of the

Hijaz.

Citing

the

alleged precedent

of the

Young

Turk

administration

early

this

century,

Ibn

Sa'ud

reacted to the

protests by denying

the

nakhawila the

right

to vote.264

According

to anti-Saudi

writings published

in

Beirut and else-

where

by

members

of

the

opposition

in

exile,

the nakhawila

staged

a

demonstration

in

1952

(or 1953?)

to demand

equal

treatment

for themselves and an end to

all

kinds

of

humiliation,

as well as

an

end to

their

persecution-as

Shiites-by

Saudi

(Sunnite)

men

of

religion. A son of Prince (later King) Faysal, Emir 'Abdallah al-

Faysal

(for

some time

minister of

the

Interior),

is

said to have

personally supervised

a

punitive expedition by

soldiers and slaves

(sic)

against

the defenceless

peasants:

first

they

were

rounded

up

in

their

huts and

brutally

beaten.

Then

some of them were

fettered

to the backs

of motor

vehicles and

dragged through

the

streets of Medina.

Finally,

many

of the detainees were

roughly

thrown into lorries and whisked off to

prison,

where some of them

died as

a result

of

torture.265

Here

again,

it is

difficult

to

ascertain the

reliability

of

the

report.

It

may

be based on a

single (perhaps

biased)

source.

To

the

best

of

my knowledge,

there exists no

statement

by

the Saudi

govern-

ment

concerning

such

an incident in

1952

or

1953. A

scrutiny

of

the

contemporary

Middle

Eastern

press may yield

some results to

this

effect,

but this is a task we have not so far been able to

carry

out. There is also the possibility that the incident in question is

referred

to in

some

diplomatic correspondence.

263

Ibid.

264

L'Arabia

Saudiana,

92.

265

Jabhat al-islh:

Jahim,

7;

al-'Attar:

Al-harakat,

70;

al-Sa'id:

Tirikh,

491f.;

Amini:

Makka,

305.

(Both

Jabhat al-islah and

al-'Attar

give

1953

as

the

year

of this

event,

the two

following

1952.)

327



WERNER ENDE

With

regard

to

the

demands raised

by

the

nakhawila

in their

demonstration,

the

opposition

publications

describing

the event

do not give many details. One author notes that the nakhdwila

were

not allowed

to

testify

in court

(when

Sunnites are

involved).

They

may

have demanded

that the

Saudi authorities abolish

this

practice.

A

passage

in another

publication

seems to

imply

that on

the same

occasion,

the

nakhdwila demanded the

right

to form

a

niqdba,

i.e.

a kind of

guild

or

union,

such as had

existed,

the au-

thor

claims,

at the end

of

Ottoman

rule and had been

dissolved

by

the Saudis on

the first

day

of

their

assumption

of

power

in

Medina.

(Perhaps

he is

referring

to a

niqaba

of Shiite

muzawwiruin).266

In the

early

1950s,

there was indeed

organized

labour unrest

in

Saudi

Arabia,

which culminated

in

a mass strike at the oilfields

around

Dammam

(Eastern Province)

in

October 1953.

The

gov-

ernment

reacted,

inter

alia,

by repeatedly banning

all kinds of

union

organization.

With the material at

my

disposal,

however,

it

is

impossible

to

ascertain whether or

not

there

was

any

connection

between the demonstration staged by the nakhawila in Medina and

the unrest in the

Eastern Province-where

many

workers

and

other

employees

of ARAMCO are Shiites.267

If the

demonstration of

the

nakhawila

took

place

in 1953 rather

than

1952,

we

may speculate

that there

could

be a

connection

between this

incident

and the death

of

King

'Abd al-'Aziz

Ibn

Sa'ufd in the

same

year

(November

9,

1953).

4. A

lonely minority:

the

religious aspect

It is

presumed

that at some time

under Ottoman

rule,

the nakhd-

wila were

prohibited

from

entering

the

Prophet's mosque;

how-

ever,

they

are said to have been

ordered

by

one

mayor

of Medina

to

supply

a

guard

around

the

mosque

to drive

away

the

dogs.268

In

the late

Ottoman

period,

Shiite

ta'ziya practices

were to some

extent tolerated by the authorities: as Amin al-Dawla observed in

1899,

Muharram

elegies

for Imam

Husayn

could be recited more

or less

openly

during gatherings

of the nakhawila in the 'Awali

266

Al-Sa'id,

ibid.,

492.

267

Hasan:

Al-shi'a,

vol.

2,

296ff.

268

Rifat:

Mir'at,

vol.

1, 440;

Rutter,

op.

cit.,

552.

328



THE

NAKHAWILA,


region.269

It is

difficult

to

say

whether

the

Shiite

villages

of

that

region

have

witnessed

any

public

processions

commemorating

Imam Husayn's martyrdom. Self-flagellation and other related

practices

would

probably

not have

been

permitted

in

public,

but

may

have been

performed

behind

closed doors

during

private

majalis.

It should be

remembered,

however,

that

flagellation

had

come

to

the

western Arab Shiite

communities

(such

as those of

Jabal

'Amil)

at

a

relatively

late

stage.270

With

regard

to

the

Hijaz,

we

may

assume

that,

if

any,

it

was Shiite

mujzwirin

and

visitors

from

the

East

who

imported

these

practices,

and that

the

nakhawila would not

necessarily

have

participated.

Recent

oppositional

publications

criticize the

Saudis for

pre-

venting

the

nakhawila

from

practising

their

religious

customs.271

With

regard

to this

criticism,

we should bear in mind

that a

number

of

measures taken

by

the Wahhabis

against

what

they

perceived

as

bida' affected Sunnis and

Shi'is alike. The

public

celebration

of

the

birthday

of

Prophet

Muhammad

and

Sufi

dhikrs

would be cases in point.272 But there can be no doubt that any

outward

expression

of the

nakhawila's

Shiite

customs are more or

less

strictly

suppressed by

the

Saudi

authorities. As

compared

to

the situation

in

the Eastern

Province

(Qat.if

and

Ahsa'),

the

Shiites

of

Medina are

"neither allowed to

proclaim

their

faith nor

to

perform

their rituals

openly;

they may

not

declare their call to

prayer,

and must

not wear the

traditional

turban,

though foreign

pilgrims

are

excluded from this

prohibition

(...).

Government employees who have to join in congregational prayer may not

display any

outward

signs

of

being

Shi'a,

such

as

using

the

turba."273

Moreover,

the

nakhdwila are not allowed to

build

mosques,

but

may

assemble

in

so-called

majalis husayniya

(see

below).

On

the

other

hand,

they

cannot

really

be

prevented

from

entering

the

haram

and

praying

there:

given

the

growth

of the

town's

population

(ac-

269

Safar ndmah, 265.

270

Ende:

The

Flagellations,

6-28.

271

See titles

mentioned

in

fn.

265;

further

Hasan:

Al-shi'a,

vol.

2,

passim,

and

Al-Lajna

al-Duwaliya:

Huqfuq,

2-44.

272

See

the

article

by

Mark

Sedgwick

in this

issue.

273

Khoei: The

Shi'a,

5. The so-called

shahada thalitha

n

the adhdn

(the

for-

mula "I

bear

witness that 'Ali

is

the wali

of

God")

is,

of

course,

to

be

avoided

in

public.

For the

dispute

over the use of the turba

(prayer

tablet,

Persian

muhr-i

namdz)

by

Shiite

visitors

from

abroad

see Shirazi:

Al-ihtijdjdt,

3-16

(Mundzardt,

17-22).

329



WERNER ENDE

cording

to the 1974

census,

almost

200,000

even

then)274

as

well

as

the

growing

number

of

Saudi

and

foreign

visitors,

it

would

be

diffi-

cult for the guards and servants of the mosque to single out the

nakhawila

and

prevent

them

from

entering.

It is

more

likely

that

the

complaint

of

being

discriminated

against

refers

(inter

alia)

to

the fact that

public

Shiite

ceremonies

such as

ta'ziya-processions,

and

especially

passion plays

etc.,

are forbidden.

A

Lebanese

Shiite

scholar who

visited the nakhawila

during

the

pilgrimage

season of

1964, however,

mentions

their

husayniya

where he

delivered

a

lec-

ture

on the

occasion of

a

Shiite

holiday,

the 'id

al-ghadir.

The

scholar in

question,

Muhammad

Jawad

Mughniya

(d.

Dec.

1979),

did

so,

he

says,

at the

request

of

Shaykh

Muhammad

'Ali

al-'Amri,

who

was then

the

religious

leader

of

the

nakhawila.

Mughniya

states that a

large

crowd

attended his

lecture.275

As

for

the

Husayniya

mentioned

by

Mughniya,

it is

probably

identical to

the one

described

by

Yousif

al-Khoei

in

1996 as

the

place

where the

main

commemoration

of

'Ashura'

was

performed.

According to this author, it "is situated in a run-down farm away

from the

centre",

in

the

neighbourhood

of a

mosque

named after

Salman

al-Farisi. In

addition

to this

large

one

mentioned

by

al-

Khoei,

there

are

today

a

number of

other

Husayniyas

in

Medina

(about

ten

altogether),

including

one

for

women.

All of

them are

to

be found

in unmarked

houses,

i.e.

situated inside

buildings

without

any

outward

signs

or

inscriptions.276

It

is

obvious

that,

even

under

Saudi

rule,

the

nakhawila

have

provided

(and

still

provide)

opportunities

for

Shiite

pilgrims

to

commemorate

the death of

the

martyrs

of the

Al

al-bayt

according

to

tradition

and without

Wahhabi

interference. An

Iranian

author

thus advises

his

co-religionists

that

"it is

better

to

perform

(the

ceremonies

of)

'azddariand

the

lamentation

over the

wretchedness and

martyrdom

of

Fatima

as well

as of the

Imams

(buried

at)

al-Baqi'

n

the

company

of

(local)

Shiites and

inside

their

living

quarters,away

rom the

glances

of

Sunnites."277

In

the

chapter

about

his

stay

in

Medina

in

1950,

an

Iranian

author,

Sultanhusayn

Tabandah

Gunabadi

(also

known as

Riza

'Alishah,

274

"Al-Madina",

EI,

vol.

5,

999.

275

Hadhihi,

50;

Tajarib,

374.

276

The

Shi'a,

5.

277

Bayglari:

Ahkam,

353.

330



THE

NAKHAWILA,

SHIITE COMMUNITY

IN MEDINA

born

in

1913/14)

quotes

the

complaint

of

a Saudi Wahhabi

scholar

about

the

unacceptable

behaviour

of the

nakhawila.

According

to

this person, one Ibrahim al-Salam (sic), who at the time was chief

librarian

of

the

haram,

the nakhawila

still

practice

the sabb al-

shaykhayn,

.e.

the

cursing

of

Abu

Bakr

and 'Umar.

This

custom,

the

Iranian

author

admits,

should indeed

be

abandoned.278

There can

be no doubt

that the

great majority

of

the 'ulama'

teaching

at the haram

as well as

at

the

Islamic

University

of Medina

(established

in

1961/62)279

invariably

take

a

wholly

negative

view

of

the Shia

in

general,

and of

any genuine

rapprochement

be-

tween

Sunnites and Shiites

in

particular.

It

is, therefore,

still un-

thinkable that a

Shiite

foreigner

or

a

Saudi

Shiite

from

the

Hijaz

or

from the Eastern

Province should

be allowed to

study regularly

at one

of these institutes

in

Medina-with

the

exception, perhaps,

of

a

person

who had

previously

declared his conversion to

Sun-

nism

officially

and

convincingly.

Likewise,

the

proposal

made

by

the Iranian scholar

Mirza

Khalil

Kamarah'i

(Kamare'i),

in a

letter

to King Faysal in December 1964, that the study of Imami Shi'ifiqh

should

be introduced into

the

teaching program

at the

Prophet's

mosque

in Medina

(and

Iranian

students

be

admitted

there)

ap-

pears

to be

totally

unrealistic,

and has

been

treated as such

by

Saudi

religious

and

political

authorities.280

5.

Religiousguidance

It

seems that there was

(and

probably

still

is)

a tradition

among

the

nakhawila

of

inviting

Shiite

scholars

from

abroad to

stay

with them

for

some time and

to

act as

religious

authorities.

In a

biography

of

Sayyid

'Abd

al-Husayn

Sharaf

al-Din,

a

Shiite

Lebanese

scholar,

it is

reported

that,

at

the

request

of the

nakhawila,

he

gave religious

lec-

tures and advised them on Muslim ethics when

he came to Medina

in

1328/1910-11.281

Probably Sayyid

Muhsin

al-Amin,

who visited

Medina three times in

his

life,

did likewise.282

For

1964,

we have

the

example

of

Mughniyajust

mentioned.

278

Khdtirat,

80f.,

84f.

279

Badr,

vol.

3, 236-41;

Bulayhishi,

85-105;

Ansari:

Al-ta'lim,

610-40.

280

Mandzil

al-wahy,

110.

281

Qubaysi: Hayat,

106. About Sharaf

al-Din

see art. in

EI,

vol.

9,

314f.

282

About this

person

see

above,

fn.

91.

331



WERNER

ENDE

After

World War

II,

the Iranian

Ayatollah

Burujirdi

(d. 1961),

for

several

years

the

highest

Shiite

religious authority,283

even

sent

one of his former students to Medina in order "to keep the rem-

nants of

Shiism

alive"

there.284 This

representative,

a man

called

Muhammad

Taqi Taliqani, suddenly

died in Medina

in

1953,

about two

years

after his arrival.285 Thirteen

years

later,

his

younger

brother,

the

Iranian

writer

Jalal

Al-i Ahmad

(d.

1969)-

who had been

a member of the

Tudeh

Party

for

some time-went

on a

pilgrimage

to

Mecca

and later visited

Medina.

However,

he

did not

get very

far with his

enquiries

among

the

nakhawila

about

the circumstances of his brother's death.286

There

may

be,

in

Qom

or

elsewhere,

letters and other

documents

concerning

Muham-

mad

Taqi Taliqani's

activities

in

Medina,

but even

if

they

existed,

they

would

not

yet

be

made available.

Muhammad

Taqi Taliqani

was not the

only person

to be

sent to

Medina as

a

representative

of

the

Ayatollahs

of

Qom.

About one

year

after the

latter's

death,

Hajj

Sayyid

Ahmad

Lawasani

was or-

dered by Burujirdi to go to Medina in a similar capacity. An Ira-

nian

author

briefly

mentions him and

his

activities

there

in

an

account

of

a

pilgrimage

made in 1956.287

From the

material avail-

able

to

me,

it is not

clear how

long

Lawasani had been

in

Medina.

Over several

years,

another

religious

scholar,

Shaykh

'Abd al-

Husayn Faqihi

Rashti

(born

in

Najaf

in

1903),

went

to

Mecca and

Medina

during

the

hajj

season

in order

to

advise

the

Iranian

pil-

grims

on

all

matters

related

to the shari'a

and more

particularly

on

the

pilgrimage.

This he did at

the behest of his

teacher,

Burujirdi,

and

he

continued

to do

so

after the

latter's

death

(1961)

at

least

until

the

early

1970s.

However,

his main task

was the

instruction of

pilgrims,

not

the

guidance

of

the native

Shi'is of Medina.288

A

discussion of

Burujirdi's policy

of

sending

representatives

abroad would fall

outside the

scope

of the

present

study.

What

283

See articles in

EI,

supplement

3-4,

157f.,

and

Encyclopaedia

ranica,

vol.

4,

376-79.

284

Al-i

Ahmad:

Khasi,

139

(Engl.

translation

115).

285

Razi:

Athar,

vol.

2,

348f.;

Ganjinah,

vol.

4, 506,

and

vol.

7,

66

(portraits

in

Athar,

vol.

2,

349,

and

Ganjinah,

vol.

4,

692).

286

Khasi,40, 66f.,

167

(English

translation

27, 45f.,

115);

see

Mottahedeh:

The

Mantle,

303f.

287

Razi:

Athar,

vol.

2,

349;

Salhr:

Armaghan,

6,

28,

34.

288

Razi:

Ganjinah,

vol.

2,

222f.

332



THE

NAKHAWILA,

SHIITE

COMMUNITY

IN MEDINA

interests

us here is rather

how these

representatives

of

Qom

were

received

by

the local Shiite

community,

especially

since their own

religious leader, Shaykh 'Amri, was a follower of the maraji' resid-

ing

in

Najaf.

Another

question

is whether

or

not

the Saudi authori-

ties

were

fully

informed about these

developments.

From

the

sparse

data available

it is clear at least that the

nakhawila

have had

their

own

religious

leaders in modern times

(though

probably

not in an

uninterrupted

succession),

but

have

also been

eager

to receive

foreign

scholars in order to

gain

their

spiritual support.

We

may

assume

that those of

the

latter

who

carried an

Iranian

passport

were

(at

least

during

the

greater

part

of the

Pahlavi

period)

in a

somewhat better

position

vis-a-vis

the

Saudi authorities than

any

indigenous

religious

leader

of

the

nakhdwila.

With

regard

to these

local

'ulam',

it is

an

open

question

where

these men received

their

(higher)

religious

education. Some

may

have

studied in

the

Iraqi

'atabat for

some

time. In his account

of

his visits to Medina in the late Ottoman period, Sayyid Muhsin al-

Amin mentions two learned

men

from 'Awali he

met

there.

Both

had been students at

Najaf.289

Men such as

Shaykh

Muhammad

'Ali

al-Hajutj

probably

acted

primarily

as

religious

authorities

among

their own

tribe,

and

only

occasionally-if

at

all-among

the

nakhawila

of

Medina.

Concerning

Shaykh

Muhammad 'All

al-'Amri,

already

men-

tioned above (p. 330), we may assume that his nisba points to the

Banuf

'Amr,

a

subtribe of the

Harb.290

In fact

al-Khoei

calls him

"an

elderly religious

and tribal leader".291 A

portrait

of this

person,

who

is called

al-'allama

by

Mughniya,

can

be found in Hamza

al-Hasan's

book on the Shia of Saudi

Arabia-to

the

best of

my

knowledge

the

only

photograph

of

a

"real"

nakhili

published

so

far.292

Accord-

ing

to

oral information

I

was able to

gather

about

him

in

1995,

Shaykh

Muhammad cAll

al-'Amri

received

his

religious

education

mainly in

Najaf.

His principal teacher there, in the 1940s and 50s,

was

Sayyid

Baqir

(ibn

al-Sayyid

'All)

al-Ahsa'i,

known

as

al-Shakhs.

This person

(who

is

called

"Ayatollah" by

some)

was born in

a

289

A'yan,

vol.

10, 364f.;

see

above,

p.

289.

290

Biladi:

Nasab,

66ff.;

Oppenheim:

Die

Beduinen,

vol.

2,

379-82.

291

The Shi'a, 5.

292

Al-shi'a,

vol.

2,

367.

333



WERNER ENDE

village

of al-Ahsa' in

1316/1898-99.

He

came

to

Najaf,

as a

child,

in

1321/1903-4,

and lived

there

until

his

death

in

1962.

Having

been a student of Mirza Muhammad Husayn al-Na'ini and a

number

of

other

prominent Mujtahids,

he later

became one

of the

most successful teachers

himself,

while

the

number

of his

works-

at least

of

the

printed

ones-seems

to be rather

limited.293

It

was

with

this scholar

that

our

Shaykh

'Amri studied

in

the first

place.

He

seems to have

been rather

close to his

teacher,

and

is

even

said to

have

married one of

his

daughters,

who

followed him

to

Medina when he returned

there.

After the death of

al-Shakhs,

Shaykh

'Amri continued his studies

in

Najaf

for

some

time,

and

especially

with the two

famous

Ayatollahs

Muhsin al-Hakim

(d.

1970)

and Abfi

1-Qasim

al-Khfu'i

(d.

1992).

The

exact date

of his

return

to Medina

is

not known to me.

Likewise I am

not

able to

say

whether,

before

coming

to

Najaf,

Shaykh

'Amri

received

his

primary

religious

instruction

in

Medina

itself

or in the

vicinity

of the

holy

city,

and if

so,

who

his

teacher

was-a local (nakhdwila) teacher, a

mujdwir

or some other person.

It is

unlikely

that he would

have been

prepared-or

been al-

lowed-to enrol as a

regular

student

at

any

Sunnite institute of

learning

in

the

Hijaz

or

elsewhere.

Rather,

we

may

assume that he

went

directly

to

Najaf

in his

youth. Possibly

on his

way

there or

after

graduation,

i.e.

before his final return

to

Medina,

he

may

have

stayed

in

Bahrayn

or

in

al-Ahsa',

i.e.

the home

of his

teacher,

Sayyid Baqir

al-Shakhs.

(There

are ties

between

the

Shiites of al-

Ahsa' and

those of

Medina,

but no

details

are known to

me).

According

to

al-Khoei,

there are now

(1996)

"also

a

handful of

other

Shi'a

religious figures

in

Medina",294

but

for

many years,

Shaykh

Muhammad

al-'Amri

has been the main

representative

of

the

leading

maraji'

of

Najaf

such as

Sayyid

Muhsin

al-Hakim,

Abfi

1-Qasim

al-Khi'i

and,

currently, Ayatollah

'All

Sistani. On the

occa-

sion

of

his

visit to

the

place

where

Shaykh

'Amri

holds

congrega-

tional prayer, al-Khoei noticed portraits of (his grandfather) Abu

1-Qasim

al-Khu'i

as

well

as

of both

Ayatollah

Gulpaygani

(d. 1993)

and

Sistani.

293

al-Shakhs: Min

'ulama'ina

(Shaykh

'Amri is

mentioned

in

a list of his

stud-

ents

on

page

298);

on the

family

of al-Shakhs see idem

(?),

Al-usar, 114-16,

and

Amini:

Mu'jam

rijal,

vol.

2,

722.

294

The

Shi'a,

5.

334



THE

NAKHAWILA,

SHIITE COMMUNITY

IN

MEDINA

In

addition

to

leading midday

and

evening prayers

and

also

prayers

for the

dead,

Shaykh

al-'Amri

performs marriage

ceremo-

nies. As there are no Shiite courts in Medina, he acts as an unof-

ficial

arbiter

in

disputes

involving

nakhawila

only.

Likewise,

he

is

consulted

in

matters

related to Shiite

awqaf.

it

is,

incidentally,

not

clear what

has

happened

to

the

old

ones,

but it seems that

new

foundations

have

been established

by

Shiites,

which

are

registered

separately

from

those of

the

Sunnites.295

There

is some

indication

that a

tradition of

religious

learning

has

continued

in

the

family

of

Shaykh

'Amri: on

July

1,

1987,

i.e.

a few weeks before the

"bloody

Friday"

in Mecca

(July

31),296

a

report

appeared

in

Kayhdn-i

Hawa'i of

Tehran

dated

June

23,

1987,

saying

that a

prominent

man of

religion

in Saudi

Arabia,

namely

"the

leader

(rahbar)

of the

Shiites of

Medina",

Shaykh

Kazim 'All

al-'Amri,

had

been

arrested.

According

to

"well in-

formed

sources",

Saudi

security

agents

had

arrested

him

in

mid-

April,

following

a

sermon

he

had

preached

on the

occasion

of

laylat nisf sha'bdn (which is considered by the Twelver Shia to be

the

birthday

of

the

Mahdi).

Shaykh

Kazim

is

mentioned

by

Hamza

al-Hasan

as

Shaykh

Muhammad

'Ali al-'Amri's

son.297

As I

have no reliable

information about

Shaykh

Kazim's

arrest,

viz.

its

political

background,

duration and

possible

repercussions

on

the

nakhawila,

I

shall refrain

from

commenting

on

this

event.

It is

clear

that

the

nakhawila are

presently

in

danger

of

becom-

ing

the

object

of

Shiite

(not

only

Iranian)

revolutionary agitation,

and

also

the

target

of

extreme

suspicion

by

the

Saudi

authorities.

As a

result

of

tension

between

Saudi

Arabia and

Iran,

that

suspi-

cion is

partly political,

but at the

same

time

intertwined with

long-

standing

controversial issues of

religion

such as

the sabb

al-sahdba.

A

wave

of

polemical

literature

published

by

both

sides

especially

after

the

"Bloody

Friday"

of

1987

clearly

supports

this

assertion.298

There

are recent

fatdwd

issued

by

leading

Wahhabi

'ulama' such

as

'Abd al-'Aziz Ibn Baz, Ibn Jibrin and others to the effect that

Shiites

(Twelver

as

well

as

Zaydis)

are

heretics and

that,

accord-

295

Ibid.

296

See

Kramer:

Behind the

Riot;

idem,

Tragedy,

and

Khomeini's

Messengers.

297

Al-shi'a, vol.

1,

66.

298

Ende: Sunni

Polemical

Writings.

335



WERNER

ENDE

ingly,

"true"

Muslims

should not

even eat

the

meat of

animals

slaughtered

by

a

Shi'i

butcher,

for

example.299

Nevertheless, some relaxation of Saudi Wahhabi policy towards

the

Shiites of the

Kingdom

is said to

have

been

observed after

the

Gulf War

of

1991,

and

especially

since

1993/94.

There have

even

been

promises

that

the ban on

building

mosques

and

Husayniyas

would be

lifted

and

(public?)

ta'ziya

ceremonies

allowed.

It

seems,

however,

that such a

relaxation,

if

any,

is

intended for

the

Eastern

Province

only

and not

for

Medina.300

Compared

to their

co-religionists

in

the Eastern

Province,

the

Shiites of Medina appear to be

scarcely

politicized

even

following

the Iranian

Revolution

of

1978/79.

They

have

for

the most

part

avoided

involvement

in

both domestic

politics

and

in the

recent

political

tension

following

the

clashes in

Medina

and

Mecca,

espe-

cially

in

the

1980s,

between

Shiite

(mainly

Iranian)

pilgrims

and

Saudi

security

forces

during

the

annual

hajj

season.301

t is

said

that

in

these

years

Shaykh

Muhammad

'Ali

al-'Amri

used to

leave

Medina at the time of the hajjin order to avoid being drawninto

the

nascent

conflicts.302

One

point

of

contention

which

comes

up

time and

again

is

the

demand

that the

two

holy

cities

(or

at

least

the

organization

of,

and

control

over

both

the

hajj

to

Mecca and

the

ziyira

to

Medina)

should

be

entrusted

to

an

international

Muslim

body.

The

idea as

such is

not

new.

Over

the

years,

it

has

been

put

forward

by

differ-

ent

authors,

movements

and

politicians-both

Sunnite

and

Shiite.303

t is

clear

that

such

a

demand,

if

advanced

by

Iran

or

any

Shiite

group

in

that

country

or

elsewhere,

will

sooner

or

later call

the

attention of

Muslims

all

over

the

world

to

the

long-standing

existence of

a

Shiite

community

in

the

Hijaz.

As a

result,

the

Saudi

authorities

(who,

of

course,

totally reject

the idea

of

international

control

over

the

haramayn)

are

in

turn

monitoring

the

behaviour

299Hasan:Al-shi'a,vol. 2, 341; idem, Dajja;"Issues" Paris),January 1992, 6f.;

see

also Ibn

Baz et

al.:

Fatdwa

hay'at

kibdr,

136;

idem:

Fatawa

isldmiya,

ol.

3,

104-

07.

300

al-Rasheed:

The

Politics,

esp.

113f.

301

See

Kramer

(fn.

296

above)

and

the

same

author's

annual

surveys

n

Mid-

dle

East

Contemporary

urvey,

sp.

from

vol. 11

(1987)

onwards.

302

AI-Khoei,

5.

303

See,

e.g.,

Middle

East

Contemporary

urvey,

vol.

11

(1987),

175f.;

further

Bangash:

The

Makkah

Massacre,

sp.

77-85,

also

Al-i

Ahmad:

Khasi,

45

(Engl.

trans-

lation

31).

336



THE

NAKHAW/LA,

SHIITE

COMMUNITY

IN

MEDINA

of this

minority

group

with

increasing

distrust.

They

may

even

be

considering preventive

action.

So far the Iranian government as well as most of its allies and

sympathisers

abroad have refrained from

launching

any

vociferous

propaganda campaign

in favour of the nakhdwila. Such a

cam-

paign

would

not

in

fact

help

them.

Drawing

international

atten-

tion to their difficult

situation

is, however,

another matter.

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THE

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IN MEDINA

.Map

1

(From:

John

Lewis

Burckhardt's

Travels

in

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I,

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Map

1.

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II,

London

1829).

347



348

WERNERENDE

?P

?'

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