in the age of averroes.pdf

8/10/2019 In the Age of Averroes.pdf

1/32

Mu tazilism in the Age of Averroes*

Gregor Schwarb

Ibn Rushd, al-Kashf an man hij al-adilla f aq id al-milla, ed. M. A. al-Jbir, Beirut 1998, p. 118.

INTRODUCTIONIn accounts of the early history of Islamic theology during the second and the thirdcenturiesAH the central role of the Mutazila is generally acknowledged as a matter of course.1 By the sixth century of the Muslim era, however, the hierarchy of the theologicalschools seems to have been completely reversed. In standard surveys of sixth/twelfth-century intellectual thought in the Islamic world Mutazilism usually plays a minor part,or worse still is declared extinct. If a study of Mutazilism in the Age of Ab WaldMuh.ammad b. Ah.mad Ibn Rushd (520/1126595/1198) were to draw only on CarlBrockelmanns (18681956)Geschichte der arabischen Litteratur(GAL),2 which neverceased to be the authoritative reference work for the whole of Arabic literature produced

after thefth centuryAH, it would hardly be more than necropsy.3

In Brockelmannsaccount Ab l-H. asanAbd al-Jabbr b. Ah.mad al-Hamadhn (d. 415/10245) was oneof the last important Mutazilites.4 Fuat Sezgin in turn labelled Jrullh Ab l-Q simMah.md b. Umar al-Zamakhshar (d. 538/1144) the last great theologian of theMu tazila.5 The fact that hisGeschichte des arabischen Schrifttums(GAS ), which was

251

* This study was prepared within the framework of the European Research Councils FP 7 project Rediscovering Theological Rationalism in the Medieval World of Islam . I am grateful to my colleagues Peter Adamson and Jan Thiele who offered some helpful suggestions.

1. On the common phenomenon in the third/ninth century to count a scholar as Mutazil withouttting the picture entirely, and the tendency to lump together numerous independent-minded theologicans under thename Mutazila see J. van Ess,Theologie und Gesellschaft im 2. und 3. Jahrhundert Hidschra. Eine Geschichte desreligisen Denkens im frhen Islam, Berlin, 19917, vol. 4, p. 123 (Solange die Mutazila in der Theologie weitgehend das Feld beherrschte, blieben ihre Grenzen fr den Beobachteriessend; man hatte sich daran gewhnt,dass in ihrem Umfeld Randsiedler auftraten, die nur in bestimmten Punkten von ihr abwichen).

2. Leiden, 18981949.3. Cf. J. J. Witkam, BrockelmannsGeschichterevisited, in C. Brockelmann,Geschichte der arabischen Litteratur

(GAL). Reprint with New Introduction, Leiden, 1996, pp. vxvii. The fact that BrocklemannsGeschichte, thoughutterly outdated, still plays an essential and indispensible role in Western scholarship is borne out by Brills recentlaunch of Brockelmann Online, a full-text searchable version ofGAL or (consulted30 Nov 2009).

4.GAL(n. 3 above), Supplement vol. 1, p. 343.5. F. Sezgin,Geschichte des arabischen Schrifttums, Leiden, 1967, vol. 1, p. 614.

In the Age of Averroes, Warburg Institute Colloquia 16, 2011


2/32

primarily conceived as a supplement to BrockelmannsGeschichte, only covered therstfour centuriesAH(up to 430/10389) may also have contributed to neglecting the study of later Mutazilite literature.

There exists no Mutazil t . abaq t work covering the age of Averroes. Accordingly, itis still common in research literature to refer toAbd al-Jabbr and his students asrepresentatives of the late Mutazila.6 This usage reects the terminology of the mostinuential works of Mutazil t . abaq t literature, the best known being B b dhikr al- Mutazila wa-t . abaq tihimby the Zayd Imm al-Mahd li-Dn Allh Ah.mad b. Yah. y l-Murtad. (d. 840/14367),7 i.e. the third part of K. al-Munya wa-l-amal f sharh. K. al- Milal wa-l-nih. al ,8 which in turn is therst part (out of nine) of the authorscomprehensive Ziy d t on the D b jaof his K. al-Bah

.r al-zakhkh r entitled K. Gh y t

al-afk r wa-nih yat al-anz. r al-muh. t . a bi- aj ib al-Bah.r al-zakhkh r .9 Ibn Yah. y l-Murtad.s B b dhikr al-Mutazilais little more than a verbatim copy of the parallel third part of Ab Sad al-Muh.assin b. Muh.ammad al-Bayhaq al-Barawghans (better knownas al-H. kim al-Jishum, d. 494/1101)Sharh. Uyn al-mas il , entitled B b f dhikr al- Mutazila wa-rij lihim wa-akhb rihim wa-m ajma alayhi min al-madhhab wa-dhikr raqihim,10 which in turn draws onAbd al-Jabbrs Fad .l al-itiz l wa-t . abaq t al- Mutazila wa-mub yanatuhum li-s ir al-mukh lif n with appendices on the generationof Abd al-Jabbr (eleventht . abaqa,. second half of fourth/tenth c.), the generation of Abd al-Jabbrs students (twelftht . abaqa, . rst half offth/eleventh c., i.e. the

generation of al-H. kim al-Jishums teachers), Sh , esp. Zayd Mutazilites (manw faqahum f l-madhhab min al-itra al-t

. hira), the Abbsid Caliphs (man dhahaba

madhhab al- adl mimman b yi a lahu bi-l-khil fa), the B yids ( al-umar wa-l-ru as ), jurists (man q la bi-l- adl min al-fuqah ), grammarians (nuh. t ), poets ( shu ar ), and

252

GREGOR SCHWARB

6.See, among many other examples, J. van Ess,Theologie und Gesellschaft (n. 1 above), vol. 4, p. 48. W. Madelung,The Late Mutazila and Determinism: The Philosophers Trap,Y d-N ma in Memoria di Alessandro Bausani,vol. I: Islamistica, ed. B. Scarcia Amoretti and L. Rostagno, Rome, 1991, pp. 24557.

7. Ed. S. Diwald-Wilzer, Die Klassen der Mutaziliten( Kit b T . abaq t al-Mutazila), Beirut, 1961; for a harshcritique of this edition see A. Zarzr, al-H . kim al-Jusham wa-manhajuhu f tafs r al-Qur n, Beirut, 1972, p. 106.On the origins of the Mutazilitet . abaq t literature see van Ess,Theologie und Gesellschaft (n. 1 above), vol. 1, pp.613.

8. Ed. M. J. Mashk r, Beirut, 1979.9. While K. al-Bah.r al-zakhkh r has been reprinted several times (Baghdd, Maktabat al-Muthann, 19479;

Beirut, Muassasat al-Risla, 1975; Beirut, Dr al-Kutub al-Ilmiyya, 2001), the bulk of K. Gh y t al-afk r stillremains unedited, including itsfth part, K. al-Jaw hir wa-l-durar min s rat Sayyid al-bashar wa-as.h. bihi al-itra al-ghurar , with important biographical information about the Zayd imms. For a detailed description of the struc-ture of this work see G. Schwarb, Handbook of Mutazilite Works and Manuscripts, Leiden, forthcoming.

10. MS Leiden, Universiteitsbibliotheek, Or. 2584 A, ff. 47b155b; MS S.an , Maktabat al-Jmi al-Kabr al-Gharbiyya, Ilm al-kal mno. 99, ff. 28a98a; MS S.an , Maktabat al-Jmi al-Kabr al-Sharqiyya (= Maktabatal-Awq f = al-Maktaba al-Mutawakkiliyya), no. 706; ff. 48b166b. The section covering the eleventh and twelftht . abaq t was edited by F. Sayyid, Fad .l al-itiz l wa-t . abaq t al-Mutazila, Tnis, 1974, pp. 36593. An edition of Sharh. Uyn al-mas il is in preparation. The sixth/twelfth-century Zayd Imm al-Mans.r bi-llh Abdallh b.H. amza b. Sulaymn (d. 614/1217, more on him below) lists in his K. al-Sh f (ed. Majd al-Dn al-Muayyad, 4 vols in 2, S.an , 1406/1986, pp. 136139) sources containing substantial information about the history of theMu tazila, Mutazilite scholars and literature.


3/32

h. ad th-scholars (ruw t al-akhb r , ulam al-h. ad th wa-aimmat al-naql ). In all these works a distinction is made between the earlier Mutazilites ( al-mutaqaddimn min al- Mutazila= t . abaq t 17) and the later, modern representatives of the Mutazila( al-muta akhkhir n min al-Mutazila= t . abaq t 812), the dividing line being Ab Alal-Jubb (d. 303/9156), thegurehead of the eightht . abaqa. What is calledlate/modern Mutazila in theset . abaq t works reects therefore afth/eleventh-century,not afteenth/twenty-rst-century perspective.

Another factor contributing to the disregard of Mutazil literature in the age of Averroes is the fact that by the sixth/twelfth century Mutazilism had become a marginalforce in the centre of the Caliphate. Its strongholds were situated in the Eastern provincesof the Caliphate, in Khzistn, Jibl, Fris, Daylamn, Jln, T

.abaristn, Jurjn, Khursn,

and Khw razm, and among the Zayds in Yemen. The historiographical focus on thecenter of the Caliphate and Sunn Islm thus tended to ignore the presence and ongoing efflorescence of Mutazilite thought.11

Ignaz Goldziher (18501921) aptly characterized this situation in his well-knownarticle Aus der Theologie des Fachr al-dn al-R z,12albeit in a language that betrays himas a man of his time.13In this study Goldziher surveyed the sources that evince the over- whelming presence of Mutazil thought in Khzistn, Khursn, and, above all,Khw razm, and then assessed its signicance for an adequate understanding of Fakhr al-Dn al-R zs (d. 606/1210) thought. Following in the wake of Goldziher, many otherscholars have called attention to the abundance and signicance of Mutazilite literature produced during this period,14 but only rarely have these pleas given rise to in-depth studies of this literature.15

The relative lack of scholarship on Mutazilism in the Age of Averroes can thusmainly be attributed to a lack of documentation. As this survey will show, the amount of extant Mutazilite works written during the sixth/twelfth century in no way falls short

253

MU TAZILISM IN THE AGE OF AVERROES

11. Such studies include T. Nagel, Die Festung des Glaubens: Triumph und Scheitern des islamischen Rationalismus im 11. Jahrhundert , Munich, 1988; G. Makdisi, Ibn Aq l et la rsurgence de lislam traditionaliste au XIe sicle, Ve sicle de lHgire, Damascus, 1963; id., Ibn Aq l: Religion and Culture in Classical Islam, Edinburgh,1997.

12. In Der Islam, 3, 1912, pp. 21347.13. See, for instance, his reference to an orthodoxy craving for persecution and terrorizing each incentive to

freedom of thought (p. 213), or the obscurantists of Baghdad who opposed dogmatic rationalism (ibid.), or hisquotation (p. 218) of a rather crude passage of R. A. Nicholsons Literary History of the Arabs(London, 1907, p. 268).

14.See, for instance, D. Gimaret, Pour un rquilibrage des tudes de thologie musulmane, Arabica, 38, 1991, pp. 118; id., Mutazila, EI , vol. VII, pp. 785b786a; S. Schmidtke, Neuere Forschungen zur Mutazilaunterbesonderer Bercksichtigung der spteren Mutazilaab dem 4./10. Jahrhundert, in Arabica, 45, 1998, pp. 379408. For a detailed survey of the pertinent literature see my forthcoming Handbook of Mutazilite Works and Manuscripts(n. 9 above).

15. See above all W. Madelung, Der Imam al-Q sim ibn Ibr h m und die Glaubenslehre der Zaiditen, Berlin,1965 and many subsequent studies by Madelung. Several ongoing research projects realized within the EuropeanResearch Councils FP 7 project Rediscovering Theological Rationalism in the Medieval World of Islam will bedevoted tokal mtexts of this period.


4/32

of what we have from the two preceding centuries. Indeed, many of the extant Mutazilitetexts of previous centuries owe their survival to political events that took place in the life-time of Averroes and a remarkable number of extant manuscripts were copied during this century.

NON-SH ITE MUTAZILA While there is no doubt that in Seljq Iraq the Mutazila had lost the position and officialsupport it had during the B yid age,16 it was paradoxically the pro-H. anate respectively anti-Asharite-Sh ite policy of the Seljks that allowed H. anate Mutazilite scholarsto retain some limited ground there.17 The available data for Baghdad show that theH.

anbalite efforts to force the exclusion of Mutazilites from official positions and therestriction of teaching Mutazilitekal m were not entirely sucessful. Historio- and biographical sources refer to a number of Mutazilite scholars as well as savants and officials with Mutazilite leanings in Baghdad, even if the epithet al-Mutazil was by now often used disparagingly for all sorts of nonconformists.18 Elements of Mutazildoctrine survived, too, not least in some major works of H. anbal theology and legalmethodology.19 Only under the Caliph al-Mustad. bi-amri llh (56675/117080), who openly encouraged a resurgence of H. anbalism, the privileged position of theH. anate Mutazilites was severely reduced. Besides, Transoxanian H. anate scholars whoadhered to the Mturdite creed, which was systematically promoted by the official policy,

254

GREGOR SCHWARB

16. Makdisi, Ibn Aq l (n. 11 above), pp. 300f., 330f.17. Madelung, The Spread of Mturdism and the Turks, Actas do IV Congresso de Estudos rabes e Islmicos,

Coimbra-Lisboa, 1 a 8 de setembro de 1968[reprinted in id., Religious Schools and Sects in Medieval Islam, London,1985, text no. II], Leiden, 1971, pp. 114116, nn. 21f., 2426 and pp. 136f., n. 70; D. Ephrat, A Learned Societyin a Period of Transition: the Sunniulam of Eleventh Century Baghdad , Albany, 2000, pp. 3549, 1613, 172.The libraries of the Niz.miyya institutions seem to have kept a handful of Mutazilite works, too. Thus, Ab BakrIbn al-Arab (d. 543/1148), al-Aw s.im min al-Qaw s.im, ed.Ammr al-T.lib, Cairo, 1417/1997, p. 72 mentionsto have readAbd al-Jabbrs K. al-Muh. t . f tafs r al-Qur n [!] in the Niz.miyya library in Baghdd (qaratuhu f khiz nat al-madrasa al-Niz. miyya bi-Mad nat al-Sal m), along with other Mutazil works (ibid., p. 70).

18. For some of these names see Madelung, The Spread of Mturdism (n. 17 above), pp. 136f., n. 70. Ab l-Q sim Khalaf b. Ah.mad b.Abdallh al-D. arr al-Shilj (d. 515/1121), was a H. anate scholar who taughtkal minthe sanctuary (mashhad ) of Ab H. anfa, the most famous H. anate madrasa in Baghdad (Ibn Ab l-Waf , al- Jaw hir al-mud .iyya f t . abaq t al-H . ana yya, 3rd ed., Giza, 1993, vol. 2, pp. 168f., no. 559). Among his students wasAbd al-Sayyid b.Al Ibn al-Zaytn, a H. anbal and companion of IbnAq l who converted to H. anasm andbecame a Mutazil (ibid., pp. 424f., no. 814). Towards the end of the sixth/twelfth century Ab Yaq b Y suf b.Ism l al-Lamghn (d. 606/1209) taught qhandkal min the mosque of the Sult.n (since 588/1192) and likewisein the sanctuary of Ab H. anfa (ibid., vol. 3, pp. 620f., no. 1836). Al-Lamghn belonged to a prominent H. anatefamily in Baghdad and was described as the chief of the H. anates in his time, well-read in Mutazil kal m, andas having upheld the createdness of the Qurn in disputations. His students includedIzz al-Dn Ab H. midAbd al-H. amd b. Ab l-H. add (d. Baghdad 656/1258), the well-known pro-Ald H. anaf Mutazil scholar, man

of letters, and author ofSharh. Nahj al-bal gha, who also studied with the Zayd Ab Jafar Yah. y b. Muh.ammadb. Ab Zayd al-H. asan (d. 613/1216), and the Sh Baghdd historian Ibn al-Najjr (d. 643/1245; EI , vol. 3, pp. 896f.).

19. See, for instance, K. al-Mutamad f us.l al-d nby the Q d. Ab Yal b. al-Farr (d. 458/1066), ed. WadZaydn H. addd, Beirut, 1974, or al-W d .ih. f us.l al- qhby Ab l-Waf Al Ibn Aq l (d.513/1119), edited severaltimes, by:Abd al-Muh.sin al-Turk , Beirut, 1999; G. Makdisi, Stuttgart, 19962002; A. al-Sudays, Riyadh, 2008.


5/32


6/32

study theus.l n (i.e.us.l al-d n andus.l al- qh) with a Sh ite master, we frequently encounter Sh ite, especially Zayd experts in H. anaf law.26Symptomatic of this situationis the occasional difficulty to determine whether a particular Mutazilitemutakallim wasin point of fact a pro-Alid H. anate or a Zayd.

On that evidence it is not surprising that a vast amount of information about non-Sh ite Mutazilism in Northern Iran can be gleaned from contemporaneous Sh ite, particularly Zayd historiographical andt . abaq t works,ij z t -literature, and manuscriptsin general.27

Among several other sources providing information on Mutazils in Khursn andKhw razm28mention should be made of the extant third part of a biographical dictionary by the Khw razmian H

.anaf Ab l-KaramAbd al-Salm b. Muh

.ammad b. al-H

.asan al-

Andarasbn (d. late sixth/twelfth c.), extant in a unique manuscript held at the Instituteof Oriental Studies in St. Petersburg. Only the biography of Ab l-Q sim al-Zamakhsharhas thus far been published.29The author compiled the dictionary in Jurjniyya, the capi-tal city of Khw razm, in close cooperation with students of al-Zamakhshar, such as Ab

256

GREGOR SCHWARB

26. See, for instance, Madelung, Der Imam al-Q sim, pp. 1759, 183; id., The Spread of Mturdism (n. 17above), p. 114, n. 21 and pp. 120f., n. 32 for the evidence furnished by the Imm Sh ite Abd al-Jall al-Qazw nal-R z in his K. Naqd . al-fad . ih. (written in 552/1157). For the presence of Sh ite mourning ceremonies among non-Sh ites see M. Kervran, Les Structures funraires et commmoratives en Iran et en Asie Centrale du 9e au 12e sicles, PhD thesis, Sorbonne, Paris, 1987. As we shall see below, the bond linking Khw razmian and KhursnianH. anasm and Zaydism constitutes an important background to understanding the reception of the non-Sh iteMu tazil literature among the Zaydiyya in Yemen, as well as the historical revisionism upheld by the Zaydiyya which pictures the origins of the Mutazila as an offspring of early Zaydism.

27. The Zayd t . abaqat tradition culminated in three works of the eleventh/seventeenth century, all of whichstrived to be comprehensive surveys of Zayd scholars up to the authors time. The first of these is K. Mat .la al-bud r wa-majma al-buh.r (f tar jim rij l al-Zaydiyya)by the Q d. of S.an Shihb al-Dn Ah.mad b. S.lih. Ibn Ab l-Rijl(d. 1092/1681), ed.Abd al-Raq b Mut.ahhar Muh.ammad H. ajr, 4 vols, S.an , 1425/2004; the second is K. al- Mustat . b f tar jimulam al-Zaydiyya al-at . y b(= K. al-T . abaq t f dhikr (fad .l) al-ulam wa-ilmihim=T . abaq t al-Zaydiyya al-S .ughr ) by Yah. y b. al-H. usayn b. al-Imm al-Mans.r bi-llh al-Q sim (d. 1100/1688), which was laterupdated and rearranged under the titleT . abaq t al-Zaydiyya [al-Kubr ] (wa-yusamm Nasam t al-ash. r f t . abaq t ruw t al-akhb r ) by the authors nephew, S.rim al-Dn Ibrhm b. al-Q sim b. al-Imm al-Muayyad bi-llhMuh.ammad b. al-Imm al-Mans.r bi-llh al-Q sim b. Muh.ammad al-Shahr (d. 1152/173940). The third part of this latter work ( Bul gh al-mur d il marifat al-isn d ) is available in print, ed.Abd al-Salm b.Abbs al-Wajh, 3 vols, Amman, 1421/2001. These three works, namely Mat .la al-bud r ,T . abaq t al-Zaydiyya al-S .ughr , andT . abaq t al-Zaydiyya al-Kubr , provide us with a wealth of information on the transmission and teaching of Zayd-Mutazilliterature not to be gleaned from other sources.See also D. T. Gochenour, A Revised Bibliography of Medieval YemeniHistory in the Light of Recent Publications and Discoveries, Der Islam,63, 1986, pp. 30922.

28. For the Jibl region see Imm al-Dn, Abd al-Karm b. Muh.ammad al-R al-Qazw n (d. 623/1226), Al-Tadw n f akhb r Qazw n, 3 vols, ed. A. al-Atrid al-Khabshni, Tehran 1374sh/19956.

29. Ms. St. Petersburg, Institute of Oriental Studies, Arab. C 2387 (A. B. Khalidov, Arabic Manuscripts in theInstitute of Oriental Studies, vol. 1, Moscow 1986, p. 435, no. 9454). On the MS see S. Prozorov, A UniqueManuscript of a Biographical Dictionary by a Khorezmian Author, Manuscripta Orientalia, 5, 1999, pp. 917, with references to relevant earlier literature. Prozorovs edition of this MS is due to be published soon. The biog-raphy of al-Zamakhshar has been edited twice,rst by B. Z. and A. B. Khalidov, .., .. -, -, in / - ,, 1973..: , , 1979, pp. 20312, (for the marginal note on f. 141b see p. 212), later byAbd al-Karm al-Y f , in Majallat Majma al-Lugha al- Arabiyya, 57, 1982, pp. 36382.


7/32

l-Muayyad al-Muwaffaq b. Ah.mad al-Makk (d. 568/1172), Ab S.lih. Abd al-Rah.mb. Umar al-Tarjumn, and Ab l-Mal Abdallh b. Al l-H. kim l-Zamakhshar.30On several occasions, the author expresses his sympathies for the Mutazilite doctrine, which as he says, wasrmly entrenched in Khw razm. He mentions, for instance, thatin 545/11501, while completing hish. ajj , he stayed in Rayy with Q d. l-qud.t Imdal-Dn Ab Abdallh Muh.ammad b. al-H. asan al-Astarbd and visited the grave of thegreat Abd al-Jabbr b. Ah.mad al-Hamadhn, which was located in the courtyard of al-Astarbds home. Al-Andarasbn was acquainted with bothAbd al-Jabbrs Fad .l al-i tiz l wa-t . abaq t al-Mutazilaand al-H. kim al-JishumsSharh. Uyn al-mas il , butadded much material of his own, relying on informants and sources not known to beextant, such asT r kh Khw razmby Ab Muh

.ammad Mah

.md b. Muh

.ammad al-

Abbs b. Arsln al-Khw razm (d. 568/11723) and chronicles of Baghdad, Nsbr,Bukhr, and other cities.31

In his heresiographical digest K. I tiq d t raq al-muslim n wa-l-mushrik nFakhr al-Dn al-R z listed seventeen subgroups of the Mutazila, twelve belonging to the pre-Jubb period, i.e. the second and third centuriesAH. Of the remaining ve al-R z attested only for the presence of two in his time, namely the Bahshamiyya (no. 14) and the H. usayniyya(no. 17).32Effectively agreeing with al-R zs assessment, a survey of sixth/twelfth-century Mu tazilism will essentially revolve around these two branches of the Mutazila.33

The Bahshamites were well entrenched in Northern Iran since the late fourth/tenthcentury. The list of Sh (esp. Zayd) and non-Sh scholars from these provinces whostudied (among others) with Ab Hshim al-Jubb (d. 321/933),rst in Khzistn,then in Baghdad, and later with al-Shaykh al-Murshid Ab Abdallh al-Bas.r (d.369/97980) in Baghdad, andAbd al-Jabbr al-Hamadhn in Rayy is substantial.34The Bahshamites of the sixth/twelfth century thus continued to teach a well-establisheddoctrine, as it was laid down in the schools major summaeof the two preceding centuries,i.e. Abd al-Jabbrs al-Mughn f abw b al-tawh. d wa-l- adl , al-H. asan b. Ah.mad Ibn

257


30. See A. J. Lane, A Traditional Mutazilite Qur n Commentary. TheKashshf of J r All h al-Zamakhshar (d. 538/1144), Leiden, 2006, pp. 357, nn. 7686 and pp. 25266 (with further names).

31. See H. Ansari and S. Schmidtke, New Sources on the Life and Work ofAbd al-Jabbr al-Hamadhn,forthcoming.

32. Of all the factions of the Mutazila there remain only these two schools in our time, those who follow AbHshim [al-Jubb ] and those who follow Ab l-H. usayn al-Bas.r (wa-lam yabqa f zam nin min s ir raq al- Mutazila ill h t n al- rqat n, as.h. b Ab H shim wa-as.h. b Ab l-H . usayn al-Bas.r ; ed. A. S. al-Nashshr, Cairo,1936, p. 45). Statements to the same effect can be found in other heresiographical works and biographical diction-aries of the sixth/twelfth century, such as Ab l-Fath. Muh.ammad b.Abd al-Karm al-Shahrastns (d. 548/1153) K. al-Milal wa-l-nih. al (ed. F. Badrn, vol. 1, Cairo, 1951, pp. 130f. and the corresponding French translation andnotes by D. Gimaret inShahrastani, Livre des religions et des sectes, Paris, 1986, pp. 2879 with nn. 100108 andindices, p. 692: Ab Him al-Jubb and Ab l-H. usayn al-Bas.r).

33. An exception to this rule is the ongoing legacy of the Baghdd Mu tazila within the Hdaw doctrinefollowed by the majority of the Yemenite Zaydis, including the Mut.arri yya (see below).

34. See Madelung, Der Imam(n. 15 above), pp. 17582; M. T. Heemskerk,Suffering in the MutaziliteTheology: Abd al-Jabb rs Teaching on Pain and Divine Justice, Leiden, 2000, pp. 21ff.; S. Schmidtke, Jobb , Encyclopaedia Iranica, vol. 14, p. 670.


8/32

Mattawayhs al-Majm f l-Muh. t . bi-l-takl f and al-Tadhkira f ah.k m al-jaw hir wa-l-a r d . , and al-H. kim al-JishumsSharh. Uyn al-mas il , and a good number of otherimportant, though less comprehensive treatises.

The foremost representative of pro-Alid Khursnian H. anaf Mu tazilism in thefth/eleventh century was the above-mentioned Ab Sad al-Muh.assin b. Muh.ammadb. Karma al-Jishum al-Bayhaq al-Barawghan (d. 494/1101). He recognized the ZaydImms, and towards the end of his life embraced the Zayd doctrine.35 The mostimportant compositions of Bahsham kal m during the sixth/twelfth century wereauthored by his students and students students. The works of al-Jishum and his students many of which are still unedited played a crucial role in the subsequent transmission,reception and elaboration of Bahsham thought among the Zayds in Yemen. One important link for the transmission of al-Jishums work included his son, Muh.ammadb. al-Muh.assin al-Jishum al-Bayhaq 36 and the latters students, above all Fakhr al-DnAb l-H. usayn Zayd b. al-H. asan b.Al al-Bayhaq al-Barawqan (d. 545/11501),37andAb Jafar Muh.ammad b. Ab l-Mans.r al-Daylam.38

In many cases the transmission of Mutazil works and thought can be traced overseveral generations39: Burhn al-Dn Ab l-Fath. Ns.ir b. Ab l-Mak rim al-Mut.arriz al-Khw razm (b. 538/1144 d. 610/1213),40 for instance, studied with Ab l-Muayyadal-Muwaffaq b. Ah.mad al-Makk (d. 568/1172) and al-S.adr al-Khat.b al-Misk , bothstudents of al-Zamakhshar.41 Among al-Mut.arrizs students were not only Khw razmian adherents of the Mutazila such as al-D arr al-Wabr,42Majd al-Af d.il al-T.ar if , and Najm al-Aimma, but also Yemenite Zayds, such as Jafar al-Bbir. The

latter taught al-Zamakhshars Kashsh fto his son Ism l b. Muh.ammad who taught itto his son Ibrhm b. Ism l who taught it to Muh.ammad b. al-Mahd b. Ns.ir, and soforth.43

The introduction of Ab l-H. usayn al-Bas.rs (d. 436/1044) philosophical theology into Khursn and Khw razm is usually attributed to the physician Ab Mud.ar Mah.md

258

GREGOR SCHWARB

35. Madelung, Der Imam(n. 15 above), pp. 18791. The two principalkal m-teachers of al-H. kim al-Jishum,Ab H. mid Ah.mad b. Muh.ammad al-Najjr al-Nsbr (d. 433/10412) and Ab l-H. asan Al b. Abdallh al-Nsbr (d. 457/1065) were students ofAbd al-Jabbr respectively of the Zayd Imm al-Nt.iq bi-l-H. aqq AbT. lib Yah. y b. al-H. usayn and the latters student Ab l-Q sim al-H. asan (seeSharh. Uyn al-mas l , MS Leiden,UB, Or. 2584 A, f. 152a).

36.T . abaq t al-Zaydiyya al-Kubr (n. 27 above), vol. 2, p. 1064, no. 669.37. More on him below, in the section on the Yemenite Zaydiyya.38.T . abaq t al-Zaydiyya al-Kubr (n. 27 above) , vol. 3, p. 1290, no. 816. Another student of al-Jishum, Ah.mad

b. Muh.ammad b. Ish.q al-Khw razm, was a teacher of al-Zamakhshar.39. Besides the information contained in the works mentioned above (n. 27), see Ah.mad b. Sad al-Dn al-

Miswar (d. 1079/16689), Ij z t al-aimma(MSS).40. See EI , vol. 7, pp. 773f. (R. Sellheim, 1992). Al-Mut.arriz was later known as Khal fat al-Zamakhshar ,

since al-Zamakhshar died in the same year and in the same town in which al-Mut.arriz was born.41. See above n. 30.42. Possibly identical withAbd al-Khliq b.Abd al-H. amd al-Wabr al-Khw razm who lived before 654/1256

(Madelung, The Spread of Mturdism (n. 17 above), p. 116, n. 25).43.T . abaq t al-Zaydiyya al-Kubr (n. 27 above), vol. 2, p. 1081, no. 680.


9/32

b. Jarr al-D abb al-Is.fahn (d. 508/1115),44and hence approximately simultaneous withthe spread of Ibn Sns philosophical system in Khursn by Ab l- Abbs al-Fad.l b.Muh.ammad al-Lawkar (d. ca. 517/1123?), a student of Bahmany r Ibn Marzubn(d. 458/1066) and author of K. Bay n al-h. aqq bi-d . am n al-s.idq.45 While the impact of the H. usayniyya on the development of theological and philosophical thought during theAge of Averroes inside and outside the Mutazila has repeatedly been stressed, it hasbarely been studied in detail, mostly in connection with the thought of Fakhr al-Dn al-R z (606/1210) and Nas.r al-Dn al-T. s (672/1274).46

The most inuential representative of the H. usayniyya in therst half of the sixth/twelfthcentury was Rukn al-Dn Mah.md b. Muh.ammad al-Malh.im al-Khw razm (d. 17 Rab I536/19 Oct. 1141),47a contemporary and associate of al-Zamakhshar (d.538/1144).48Of Ab l-H. usayn al-Bas.rs two theological books, K. Tas. affuh. al-adillaand K. Ghurar al-adilla

f us.l al-d n, only fragments and/or quotations are at present known to be extant.49Since

259


44. On him see Introduction in W. Madelung and M. J. McDermott (eds), Kit b al-Mutamad f us.l al-d n,London, 1991, p. v, with nn. 6f.; Lane, A Traditional Mutazilite Qur n Commentary(n. 30 above), pp. 24, 247f.An earlier trace of the reception of Ab l-H. usayn al-Bas.rs thought in Rayy is indicated by Ibn Ab l-Waf , al- Jaw hir al-mud .iyya f t . abaq t al-H . ana yya, 3rd ed., Giza, 1993, vol. 1, p. 425, who writes that Ab Sad Ism lb. Al b. al-H. usayn b. Muh.ammad b. al-H. asan b. Zanjuwayh al-Sammn al-R z (d. Rayy 24 Shabn 445/9 Dec1053), an expert in H. anaf and Zayd qhandkal m,k na yadhhabu madhhab Ab l-H . usayn al-Bas.r wa-madhhab al-Shaykh Ab H shim[sic] (see on him Madelung, Der Imam(n. 15 above), p. 216, n. 429).

45. Partly ed. ( al-Kit b al-awwal min al-mant .iq) by Ibrhm Db j, Tehrn 1364/1986. On Ibn Sns studentsand students students, including al-Jzjn, Bahmany r, Ibn Zayla, al-Mas.m, al-Lawkar, and al-lq , see A. H.al-Rahim, Avicennas Immediate Disciples: Their Lives and Works, Avicenna and His Legacy. A Golden Age of Science and Philosophy, ed. Y. T. Langermann, Turnhout, 2009, pp. 125. On al-Lawkar see also R. D. Marcotte,Preliminary Notes on the Life and Work of Ab al-Abbs al-Lawkar (d. ca. 517/1123), Anaquel de Estudios rabes, 17, 2006, pp. 13357.

46. Studies in Ab l-H. usayn al-Bas.rs thought and its impact on developments in Asharitekal m from al- Juwayn to Fakhr al-Dn al-R z and beyond include W. Madelung, The Late Mutazila (n. 6 above); id., Abl-H. usayn al-Bas.rs Proof for the Existence of God, Arabic Theology, Arabic Philosophy. From the Many to the One: Essays in Celebration of Richard M. Frank, ed. J. E. Montgomery, Leuven, 2006, pp. 27380; S. Schmidtke, Ab al-H. usayn al-Bas.r and His Transmission of Biblical Materials from Kit b al-D n wa-al-Dawlaby Ibn Rabbanal-T.abar: The Evidence from Fakhr al-Dn al-R zs Maf t h. al-ghayb, Islam and Christian-Muslim Relations, 20.2,2009, pp.10518; A. Shihadeh,The Teleological Ethics of Fakhr al-D n al-R z , Leiden, 2006, pp. 277f. (index). Thenumerous conceptual differences between the thought of Fakhr al-Dn al-R z and Nas.r al-Dn al-T.s not only arose from differing readings of Ibn Sns philosophy, but also from a distinct reception of the H. usayniyya: see A. M.H. . Sulaymn, al-S ila baynailm al-kal m wa-l-falsafa f l- kr al-Isl m , Alexandria, 1998, pp. 77109; H. N. Farh.t, Mas il al-khil f bayna Fakhr al-D n al-R z wa-Nas. r al-D n al-T s , Beirut, 1997; M. Horten, Die spekulative und positive Theologie des Islam nach Razi (gest. 606/1209) und ihre Kritik durch Tusi (gest. 672/1273), Leipzig, 1912.

47. On him see Madelung, Introduction (n. 44 above), pp. iiixiii; id. and H. Ansari (eds.), K. Tuh. fat al-mutakallim n f l-radd al l-fal sifa, Tehran, 2008, pp. iix.

48. For a study and edition of al-Zamakhshars K. al-Minh j f us.l al-d n, see W. Madelung, The Theology of al-Zamakhshar, Actas del XII Congreso de la Union Europenne dArabisants et dIslamisants (Malaga, 1984),Madrid, 1986, pp. 48595; S. Schmidtke (ed.), J rull h Ab l-Q sim Ma hmd Ibn Umar al-Zamakhshar : Kit b al-Minh j f us.l al-d n, Beirut, 1428/2007.

49. See Ab l-H . usayn al-Bas.r , Tas. affuh. al-adilla, ed. W. Madelung and S. Schmidtke, Wiesbaden, 2006. Apartfrom a fragment of hisSharh. al-us.l al-khamsaon the imamate ( Fas.l muntazamin K. Sharh. al-us.l f l-im ma),extant in Ms. Vienna, Austrian National Library, Cod. Arab. 114/1 (= Glaser 55), ff. 138, all extant fragmentsof Ab l-H. usayn al-Bas.rs theological works known at present are related to the reception of the H. usayniyya among Qaraite Jews (see below).


10/32

both of Ibn al-Malh.ims theological works, the comprehensive four-volume K. al- Mutamad f us.l al-d nand its abridged version, K. al-F iq f us.l al-d n (completed532/1137), draw heavily on Ab l-H. usayns books, they are one of our principal sources forthe doctrines of the H. usayniyya.50In all these works the methods and conceptual principlesof Bahshamite ontology, epistemology, and theory of action are systematically reconsidered with a view to bolstering the main constituents of Mutazil thought against its critics,notably the philosophers. Ibn al-Malh.ims third extant work, a refutation of the philosophically minded Islamic scholars entitledTuh. fat al-mutakallim n f l-radd al l-

fal sifa, is also paramount to our appreciating the Mutazil component in Islamic thoughtafter Avicenna and, as the editors put it, apt to modify signicantly our understandingof the reaction ofkal mtheology to the spectacular ascendancy of Avicennan thought.51

In the introduction to theTuh. faIbn al-Malh.im expounded the historical contextthat prompted him to write the work 52:

What prompted me two write this book after having completed Kit b al-Mutamad on the principles (us.l [ al-d n]) where I gave a detailed assessment of the proponents of all religiousgroups and argued against the positions espoused by the modern philsophers of Islam, like al-Frb, Ab Al Ibn Sn and his followers, regarding the createdness of the world and the affirmation of a pre-eternal creator and his attributes, and their position on the imposed obliga-tion and the nature of the obligated subject, prophecy, the religious laws of the prophets, andthe hereafter, and where I explained that they modelled the creed of Islam on the methods of the ancient philosophers and diverted it from the real nature of Islam and from the creed of the prophets, peace upon them, hitting the truth on no matter, whether small or great was the fact

that I discerned many so-called legal scholars in our time who aspired to study the sciences of these modern philosophers, among them a group of people who are regarded as followers of the Sh madhhab.53They deemed that it would benet them to acquire painstaking methodsin all sorts of sciences, even in jurisprudence and legal methodology ( qh wa-us.l al- qh). Their

260

GREGOR SCHWARB

50. K. al-Mutamad f us.l al-d n(n. 44 above a revised edition, which will include newly found manuscripts of hitherto missing parts, is due to be published in the near future); K. al-F iq f us.l al-d n, ed. W. Madelung and M. J.McDermott, Tehran, 2007. Note that the earliest extant texts to attest a reception of Ab l-H. usayn al-Bas.rs theo-logical thought by Jewishmutakallimn(see below) predate Ibn al-Malh.ims theological works by almost a century.

51. W. Madelung, Ibn al-Malh.ims Refutation of the Philosophers, A Common Rationality: Mutazilism in Islam and Judaism, ed. C. Adang et al., Wrzburg, 2007, p. 331. TheTuh. fa, written fourty years after al-GhazlsTah fut al-fal sifa, has survived in a single manuscript, ed. H. Ansari and W. Madelung, Tehran, 2008 (n. 47above). It is important to note that some of Ibn al-Malh.ims students were themselves fervent supporters of IbnSns philosophy, as was the case with Z. hir al-Dn Ab l-H. asan Al b. Zayd (Ibn Funduq) al-Bayhaq (d.565/1169), the author of Ma rij Nahj al-Bal ghaandT r kh Bayhaq( Encyclopaedia Iranica, vol. 3, pp. 895f.).Ibn al-Malh.ims acquaintance with the works of the likes of Bahmany r and al-Lawkar is very likely, but has not yet been veried in detail.

52.Tuh. fat al-Mutakallim n (nn. 47 and 51 above), pp. 3f.53. See the material compiled by A. H. al-Rahim,The Creation of Philosophical Tradition: Biography and the

Reception of Avicennas Philosophy from the 11th to the 14th centuries AD, Ph.D., Yale University, 2009; D. Gutas,The Heritage of Avicenna: The Golden Age of Arabic Philosophy, 1000 ca. 1350, Avicenna and His Heritage,eds J. L. Janssens and D. De Smet, Leiden, 2002, pp. 8890. Ibn al-Malh.im refers to prominent Sh te scholars who studied Avicennan philosophy, such as Ab l-Fath. Asad b. Muh.ammad al-Mayhan (d. 523/1130 or527/11323), a student of al-Lawkar (see F. Griffel, Al- Ghaz l s Philosophical Theology, New York, 2009, pp.714, where al-Mayhans connections with al-Ghazl are also discussed).


11/32

conviction is a deceptive assumption, a delusive hope, and a vanishing desire for guidance. Someso-called legal scholars among the H. anates followed suit. They only got to this point, becausethey wanted to study jurisprudence otherwise than it should be studied. For expert knowledgein jurisprudence must be preceded by knowledge of legal methodology (us.l al- qh), and theknowledge of legal methodology must be preceded by the knowledge of the principles of Islam.By (mastering) these sciences one is safeguarded from misrepresenting the true nature of Islam.

It is in my view very likely that the interpretation of what Islam is about will eventually leadto something like what Christianity became in relation to the religion of Jesus, peace upon him.Their leading proponents were inclined towards the Greeks in philosophy, to the point that they modelled the religion of Jesus upon (the docrines of) the philosophers, and therefore came up with what they came up with, namely the three hypostases, the unity/incarnation, and Jesusbecoming a God after having been a human, and other nonsense of this kind.

For this reason I wanted to make plain in this my book what these would-be philosophersendorsed, who so they claim adhere to Islam by modelling Islam on their [ scil . the philosophers]methods. I will explain its invalidity and expound the shortcomings of each one of them who wasinclined towards them [ scil . the philosophers] and fooled by them, because of their accurate procedures in non-religious sciences(li-ajliul mihim al-daq qa f ghayr al-ul m al-d niyya).

I called it Tuh. fat al-Mutakallim n (The unique gift of/for the theologians), because I wasnot aware of any book composed by our masters that would cover the doctrines of these modern would-be philosophers who model Islam on their [ scil . the philosophers] methods, rather thanon what they pretend it to be based upon as well as the refutation (of these doctrines). Withthis book I thus complemented theirs. In what prompted me to write this book no Islamic theolo-gian has preceded me.

Atrst I will discuss what these people said regarding the createdness of the world and theaffirmation of a pre-eternal creator and his attributes, and their position on prophecy, the

religious laws, the hereafter, reward and punishment in general terms, then I will discuss theconformity of their doctrine with the doctrine of the Dahriyya, the Dualists and the hellenizedChristians, then I will discuss on what grounds they preferred their doctrine over the doctrineof the Muslims; then I will set forth the details of their doctrines, which Irst dicussed in generalterms, and their arguments against it and our answers to that, after having mentioned for eachtopic the corresponding position of the Muslims and in what way their position is superior.

In the aftermath of Ibn al-Malh.im the reception of Ab l-H. usayn al-Bas.rs versionof Mutazil kal m left its most signicant imprints not only in the thought ofluminaries like Fakhr al-Dn al-R z, Nas.r al-Dn al-T. s, and the many who followedin their footsteps, but most markedly in major intellectual traditions of the Imm Sh aand in branches of the Zaydiyya in Yemen (see further below). Among the non-Sh ite

authors who promoted Ab l-H. usayn al-Bas.rs and Ibn al-Malh.ims thought in theAge of Averroes mention should be made of Taq l-Dn Ab l-Mal S. id b. Ah.madal-Ujl who apparently studied with Ibn al-Malh.im and authored K. al-K mil f l-istiqs. f -m balaghan min kal m al-qudam ,54 Ab l-H. asan Al b. Muh.ammad

261


54. Ed. M. al-Shhid, Cairo 1999. A new edition of K. al-K mil , based on additional manuscripts from collections in Iran and Yemen, is currently being prepared by H. Ansari, W. Madelung, and S. Schmidtke. Taq l-Dn al-Ujl is identical with S. id b. Ah.mad al-Us.l mentioned inT . abaq t al-Zaydiyya al-Kubr (n. 27 above), p. 415.


12/32

al-Khw razm, and his studentAl al-Dn al-Sadd b. Muh.ammad al-Khayy t.. Thelatter taught Sir j al-Dn Y suf b. Ab Bakr al-Sakk k (d. 626/1229), the famous authorof Mift h. al-ul m, whose linguistic thought owes much to Mutazil us.l al- qh.55 Al-Sakk k in turn was teacher of the H. anaf jurist Najm al-Dn Mukhtr b. Mah.md b.Muh.ammad al-Zhid al-Ghazmn (d. 658/1260) who authored K. al-Mujtab , animportant book on theology and legal methodology with frequent references to Ab l-H. usayn al-Bas.r, Ibn al-Malh.im, and Taq l-Dn al-Ujl.56Other pro-Alid H. anates who were well acquainted with the H. usayniyya include the above-mentioned (n. 18)Ab Yaq b Y suf b. Ism l al-Lamghn (d. 606/1209) and his studentIzz al-DnAb H. mid Abd al-H. amd b. Ab l-H. add (d. Baghdad 656/1258), the well-knownauthor ofSharh

. Nahj al-bal gha. The latter also authored K. Sharh

.mushkil t al-Ghurar ,

a commentary on selected passages of Ab l-H. usayn al-Bas.rs K. Ghurar al-adilla,and critical comments (ta l q t ) on Fakhr al-Dn al-R zs K. Muh. as. s. al afk r al-mutaqaddim n wa-l-muta akhkhir nand K. al-Arba n f us.l al-d n.

IMM SH MU TAZILAFrom the very outset, the adoption of Mutazilism among Imm Sh ites was hamperedby some fundamental tensions between the two doctrines, above all the Imm Sh itebelief in the imamate and the existence of a sinless and infallible imm who is theintercessor for the community of his followers. In accordance with this doctrine, theImm mutakallimn consistently rejected two of the principal tenets of Mutazilism:the irrevocable punishment of the grave sinner ( al-wad wa-l-wa d ), and his intermediate position ( al-manzila bayna l-manzilatayn) between the believer and the unbeliever.57Imamism also struggled to reconcile with the Mutazil view that the principal truths of religion (us.l al-d n) can only be derived from reason, but not on the basis of Scriptureand authority. For some Imm scholars, like al-Shaykh al-Muf d (d. 413/1022),kal m was not much more than a means of defending more effectively the Imamite dogmaderived from the teaching of the imams.

Notwithstanding these tensions several eminent Imm mutakallimn adopted onebranch or the other of Mutazilism, even if they were as a rule careful to dissociate fromthe Mutazila by explicitly negating any doctrinal dependence, claimingAl b. Ab T.liband at times Jafar al-S.diq to be the true founders of their dogma.

In some ways, the sixth/twelfth century marks a turning point with respect to thereception of Mutazil thought within Imm Sh ism. While Ibn Qiba al-R z (d. in

262

GREGOR SCHWARB

55. U. G. Simon, Mittelalterliche arabische Sprachbetrachtung zwischen Grammatik und Rhetorik:ilm al-ma n bei as-Sakk k , Heidelberg, 1993, pp. 1323.

56. See Madelung, Introduction (n. 44 above), p. vii. While al-Ghazmns K. al-Mujtab was known to andquoted by Yemenite Zayd authors (e.g. Muh.ammad Ibn al-Wazr (d. 840/14367), K. th r al-h. aqq al l-khalq,Cairo 1318/1900, pp. 10, 12, 50, 67, 1046, 112, 118, and passim), no manuscript is presently known to be extant.

57. W. Madelung, Imamism and Mutazilite Theology, Le Sh isme im mite, ed. T. Fahd, Paris, 1970, pp. 1329 [reprinted in id., Religious Schools(n. 17 above), text no. VII].


13/32

Rayy, before 319/931), a student of Ab l-Q sim al-Balkh (d. 319/931), and al-Shaykhal-Muf d had in the main adapted the doctrine of the Baghdd Mutazila,58the following generations of Imm scholars followed mainly the teachings of the Bahshamiyya, as represented byAbd al-Jabbr b. Ah.mad al-Hamadhn.59 Alam al-Hud Ab l-Q simAl b. al-H. usayn b. Ms al-Sharf al-Murtad. (d. 436/1044) and his younger brother,

Ab l-H. asan Muh.ammad b. al-H. usayn al-Sharf al-Rad. (d.406/1016), whorst studied with al-Shaykh al-Muf d and then withAbd al-Jabbr, were therst Imm scholars who fully accepted the Mutazil view that establishing the fundamental truths of religionbelonged exclusively to the domain of reason and integrated this claim into the Imamite view.60 With some minor modications many of their students and a number of Immscholars of the sixth/twelfth century adopted their stand on Mutazil tenets, among them Jaml al-Dn Ab l-Futh. H. usayn b.Al b. Muh.ammad al-R z (d. Rayy after1131),61Amn al-Dn Ab Al l-Fad.l b. al-H. asan b. al-Fad.l al-T.abars (d. ca. 548/1154),62Imd al-Dn Ab Jafar Muh.ammad b.Al b. H. amza al-T.s al-Mashhad (= Ab Jafar

al-thn, alive in 566/1171),63Nas.r al-Dn Ab Rashd Abd al-Jall b. Ab l-H. usayn al-Qazw n al-R z (d. after 566/1171),64and others.

263


58. H. Modarressi,Crisis and Consolidation in the Formative Period of Sh ite Islam: Ab Ja far ibn Qiba al- R z and His Contribution to Im mite Sh ite Thought , Princeton, 1993; M. J. McDermott,The Theology of al-Shaikh al-Muf d (d. 413/1022), Beirut, 1978; P. Sander, Zwischen Charisma und Ratio: Entwicklungen in der

frhen imamitischen Theologie, Berlin, 1994; T. Bayhom-Daou,Shaykh Muf d , Oxford,2005; R. M. el Omari,TheTheology of Ab l-Q sim al-Balh /al-Kab (d. 319/931): A Study of Its Sources and Reception, PhD Thesis, YaleUniversity, 2006, pp. 859, 128, 15861, 220f.

59. On the early reception of Mutazil kal min the Imm Sh a see W. Madelung, Imamism and MutaziliteTheology (n. 57 above).

60. Encyclopaedia Iranica, vol. 1, pp. 7915 (W. Madelung, 1985); Agh Buzurgh al-T. ihrn, T . abaq t a l m al-Sh a, al-N bis f l-qarn al-kh mis, Beirut, 1391/1971, pp. 120f., 164f. The numerous doctrinal differencesbetween al-Shaykh al-Muf d and al-Sharf al-Murtad. were recorded by Qut.b al-Dn Ab l-H. usayn Sad b.Hibatillh b. al-H. asan al-R wand (d. 573/11778), K. al-Ikhtil f t = al-Khil f [alladh tajaddada] bayna l-Shaykh al-Muf d wa-l-Sayyid al-Murtad . f mas il kal miyya(see T. ihrn, al-Dhar a il tas. n f al-Sh a, vol. 1, p. 361;al-Lajna al-Ilmiyya f Muassasat al-Imm al-S.diq, Mu jam al-tur th al-kal m ,Qum, 1423/2002, vol. I, p. 203,no. 645; E. Kohlberg, A Medieval Scholar at Work: Ibn T . w s and his Library, Leiden, 1992, p. 217).

61.T . abaq t a l m al-Sh a(n. 60 above),Thiq t al-uyn f s dis al-qur n, pp. 79f.; Encyclopaedia Iranica, vol.I, p. 292 (M. J. McDermott, 1985). Gilliot, Lexgse du Coran (n. 21 above), p. 149. Jaml al-Dn al-R z madefrequent use of Sunnite and esp. Mutazilite texts. He is the author of a Persian Qurn commentary known inArabic as K. Rawd . al-jin n wa-rawh. al-jan n f tafs r al-Qur n.

62. B. G. Fudge,The Major Qur n Commentary of al-T . abris (d. 548/1154), Ph.D. Thesis, Harvard University,2003.GAL(n. 3 above) ,I , pp. 513f.; Suppl. vol. 1, pp. 708f., no. 3;T . abaq t a l m al-Sh a(n. 60 above),Thiq t al-uyn, p. 216; al-Dhar a il tas. n f al-Sh a(n. 60 above), index vol. 2, pp. 1230f.

63. Dhar a(n. 60 above), index vol. 5, p. 5;T . abaq t a l m al-Sh a(n. 60 above),Thiq t al-uyn, pp. 272f.64. Encyclopaedia Iranica, vol. I, p. 120 (W. Madelung, 1985). His K. Naqd . al-Fad . ih. (n. 26 above) is an

important source for the religious and social conditions in Persia in the Seljq age, and contains much relevantinformation about sixth/twelfth-century Mutazil scholars in the Eastern provinces of the Caliphate. He repeatedly mentions Sh ite andAlid sympathies among Sunn scholars in Northern Iran and maintained friendly ties withmajor representatives of the H. anate school, including the above-mentioned Mutazil chief Q d. Ab AbdallhMuh.ammad b. al-H. asan al-Astarbd. Ibn Shahrashb was his student. He is not to be confused with Rashd al-Dn Ab Sad Abd al-Jall b. Ab l-Fath. Masd b. s l-R z who wrote a refutation of Ab l-H. usayn al-Bas.rs K. Tas. affuh. al- adilla( Naqd . al-Tas. affuh.) ( Dhar a(n. 60 above), vol. 24, p. 286, no. 1466; Mu jam al-tur th al-kal m (n. 60 above), vol. 5, p. 410, no. 12248).


14/32

With the introduction of Ab l-H. usayn al-Bas.rs thought to Khursn and Khw razmduring the sixth/twelfth century, these doctrines were also adopted by some Immtheologians,rst and foremost by Sadd al-Dn Mah.md b. Al b. al-H. asan al-H. immas.al-R z (d. after 600/1204), a contemporary of Fakhr al-Dn al-R z and teacher of Nas.ral-Dn al-T. s.65 Mainly by the intermediary of the theological works of al-T. s and hisstudent al-Allma al-H. ill (d. 726/1325), Ab l-H. usayn al-Bas.rs thought made itsmarks on an important trend of Imm Sh theology.66

CASPIAN ZAYD MU TAZILAIn the sixth/twelfth century the Zayd community of the coastal regions south of theCaspian Sea had already passed its Golden Age.67 The most signicant theological treatises that were instrumental to the subsequent reception of the Bahshamite doctrineamong the Zaydis in Yemen were written during the fourth/tenth andfth/eleventhcenturies.68 Indeed, during the lifetime of Averroes the centre of Zayd learning shiftedfrom the Northern Caspian state to Yemen. A great deal of what we know about theCaspian Zayd community and its scholars is due to the wealth of information containedin historio- and biographical works preserved or composed by Yemenite Zayds.69 It isalso in Yemen that a considerable part of the theological works written during this periodhas survived.

264

GREGOR SCHWARB

65. K. al-Munqidh min al-taql d wa-l-murshid il l-tawh. d , ed. M. H. Al-Y suf al-Gharaw , Qum, 1412/19912. The work was completed on 9 Jumd I 581/8 Aug 1185. According to the editors introduction Fakhr al-Dnal-R z attended one of H. immas.s teaching sessions.

66. For further details about the initially reluctant reception of Ab l-H. usayn al-Bas.rs thought among TwelverSh ites see the editors introduction to the anonymous Khul s. at al-naz. ar (ed. S. Schmidtke and H. Ansari, Tehran2006, pp. vxix), which is yet another example for the early Imm reception of the H. usayniyya; S. Schmidtke,The Doctrinal Views of the Ban al-Awd (early 8th/14th century): An analysis of MS Arab. F. 64 (BodleianLibrary, Oxford), Le Sh isme im mite quarante ans aprs. Hommage Etan Kohlberg , ed. M. A. Amir-Moezzi etal., Paris, 2009, pp. 373396; ead., Ab al-H. usayn al-Bas.r on the Torah and Its Abrogation, Mlanges delUniversit Saint-Joseph, 61, 2008, pp. 562f.; ead.,The Theology of al- All ma al-H ill (d. 726/1325), Berlin, 1991;ead.,Theologie, Philosophie und Mystik im zwlferschiitischen Islam des 9./15. Jahrhunderts. Die Gedankenwelt des Ibn Ab G umhr al-Ah. s (um 838/143435 nach 906/1501), Leiden, 2000, pp. 3f., 333 (index).

67. For the reception of Mutazil kal min the Caspian Zaydiyya see Madelung, Der Imam(n. 15 above), esp.153222; id., Alids, Encyclopaedia Iranica, vol. I, pp. 8816; id., Zaydiyya, EI , vol. XI, pp. 478f.

68. For a detailed documentation see my Handbook of Mutazilite Works and Manuscripts(n. 9 above).69. See above n. 27 and in particular the eight texts (partially) edited by W. Madelung, Akhb r a immat al-Zaydiyya

f T . abarist n wa-Daylam n wa-J l n[ Arabic texts concerning the History of the Zayd Im ms of T . abarist n, Daylam n and G l n], Beirut, 1987; id., Ab Ish.q al-S.b on the Alids of T.abaristn and Gln, Journal of Near Eastern Studies26, 1967, pp. 1756, repr. in id., Religious and Ethnic Movements in Medieval Islam, Aldershot, 1992, text no. VII;A.M. Zayd, Aimmat Ahl al-Bayt kh rij al-Yaman( Aimmat Ahl al-Bayt, vol. I ), Amman, 2002. In the meantime,

most of the texts included in Akhb r aimmat al-Zaydiyyahave been edited separately; moreover, a complete manu-script copy of al-H. kim al-Jishums Jal al-abs. r has been found. Of particular relevance for the sixth/twelfth century is K. al-H . ad iq al-wardiyya f man qib aimmat al-Zaydiyyaby Ab Abdallh H. umayd b. Ah.mad al-Muh.all,known as al-Shahd (d. 652/1254), ed. 1) Damascus: Dr Usma, 1985 (facsimile); 2) al-Murtad. b. Zayd al-Mah.at. war al-H. asan, S.an 1423/2002, (consulted 30 Nov 2009).H. Ansari, and , hasextracted information on Caspian Zayds from K. Mat .la al-bud r wa-majma al-buh.r(n. 27 above).


15/32

The knowledge transfer from the Caspian Zaydiyya to the Zayd state in Yemen gradually increased throughout the sixth/twelfth century, from 511/1117, when theCaspian and the Yemenite Zaydiyya were politically united for therst time under theImm Ab T.lib al-Akhr (d. 520/1126), until the death of the Imm al-Mans.r Abdallhb. H. amza (d. 614/1217), whose imamate was also endorsed by the Caspian Zayds.70

Despite this gradual shift, remnants of the tradition of Zayd learning in the Caspianregion remained alive till about the tenth/sixteenth century.71 The continuity and transmission of Zayd Mutazil learning in Northern Iran during the sixth/twelfthcentury may paradigmatically be illustrated by the School of Rayy whose main representatives were directly or indirectly linked to the major exponents of Bahshamitekal m in the scholarly circle around al-S

.h

.ib b. Abbd (d. 385/995), the vizier of

Mu ayyad al-Dawla in B yid Rayy, such asAbd al-Jabbr al-Hamadhn and the twoBut.h.n brothers, Ab l-H. usayn Ah.mad b. al-H. usayn al-Hrn (the Imm al-Muayyadbi-llh, d. 411/1020), and Ab T. lib Yah. y b. al-H. usayn al-Hrn (the Imm al-Nt.iq bi-l-h.aqq, d. 424/1033).72It may suffice here to mention two important families of Zayd jurists and theologians, the Farrazdhs and the Mazdaks, who exemplify the continuousscholarly tradition of Mutazil learning among the Zayds in Rayy.73 Like theKhw razmian and Khursanian traditions of Mutazil learning, the School of Rayy leftits distinctive marks among the Zayds in Yemen.

265


70. SeeAl al-Msaw Najjd,Tur th al-Zaydiyya, Qum, 1383sh/2005, pp. 10110.71. See Madelung, Der Im m(n. 15 above), p. 218; id., Akhb r a immat al-Zaydiyya(n. 69 above), pp. 13f.,

nn. 5f. The Zayds of the north state were, however, slowly pushed aside by the Nuzayrs andnally absorbed by the Twelver Sh a.

72. Many of these scholars are listed in the eleventh and twelftht . abaqaand the appendix on Sh ite Mutazilitesin the above-mentioned (n. 10) B b f dhikr al-Mutazilaof al-JishumsSharh. Uyn al-mas il . See Handbook of Mutazilite Works and Manuscripts(n. 9 above), nos. 31731.

73. For more details on the main representatives of the Farrazdh and the Mazdak families and the Schoolof Rayy see the facsimile edition of the anonymousSharh. K. al-Tadhkira f ah.k m al-jaw hir wa-l-ar d . ,Tehran, 2006, a commentary on Ab Muh.ammad H. asan b. Ah.mad Ibn Mattawayhs K. al-Tadhkira(ed. D.Gimaret, Cairo, 2009), which originated and was transmitted in the School of Rayy (the MS dates 570/1175),together with H. asan Ans.r, Kitb az maktab-i mutakkilimn-i mutazil Rayy, Kit b-i m h d n 104/105/106,1385/2006, pp. 6875, who showed Ab Ja far Muh.ammad b.Al Mazdak, a student of Ibn Mattawayh andteacher of Ab Muh.ammad Ism l b. Al al-Farrazdh, to be its likely author. On the commentary, see also S.Schmidtke, MS Mahdawi 514. An Anonymous Commentary on Ibn Mattawayhs Kit b al-Tadhkira, Islamic Thought in the Middle Ages. Studies in Text, Transmission and Translation in Honour of Hans Daiber , eds. A.Akasoy and W. Raven, Leiden, 2008, pp. 13962; D. Gimaret, Le Commentaire rcemment publi de laTad kiradIbn Mattawayh: premier inventaire, Journal Asiatique296, 2008, pp. 203228; see, moreover, themanuscripts of al-FarrazdhsTa l q al Sharh. al-us.l al-khamsa(MSS S.an , Maktabat al-Jmi al-Kabr al-Sharqiyya, Ilm al-kal mno. 73, with an importantisn d on fol. 1a, published byAbd al-Karm Uthmn in theintroduction to his edition of MnekdmsTa l q, Cairo 1965, p. 24, n. 1; Riyadh: al-Maktaba al-Markaziyyabi-Jmi at al-Imm Muh.ammad b. Sad al-Islmiyya, no. 2404; Riyadh: Jmi at al-Malik Sad, no. 7784) with, , , , and. Some forthcoming articles by Ansari and Schmidtke will shed further light on the legacy of the Zaydiyya in Northern Iran: The Role of the Farrazdh Family in the Propagation of Mutazilism in Rayy,Mutazilism in Daylam:Al b. al-H. usayn Siy h [Shh] Sar jn [Sarb jn] and his Writings, Mutazilism inRayy and Astarbd: Abu l-Fad.l al-Abbs b. Sharw n.


16/32

YEMENITE ZAYD MU TAZILA When the founder of therst Zayd state in Yemen, the Imm al-Hd il l-H. aqq (Abl-H. usayn Yah. y b. al-H. usayn b. al-Q sim al-Rass) died in 298/911, his state comprisedlittle more than the city of S.a da.74 Al-Hds son Ab l-Q sim Muh.ammad, the Immal-Murtad. li-Dn Allh (d. 310/922) did not reach any further, and his second sonAh.mad, the Imm al-Ns.ir li-Dn Allh (d. 322/934) was involved in permanent combat with various local forces. Already under al-Ns.irs son the Hd state had lost almost allits relevance. With the spread of theGhayba-doctrine after the death of the Mahd al-H. usayn b. al-Q sim al-Iy n in 404/1013 the absence of the imamate became almostseen as the normal state of affairs.75

Around that time emerged the Mut.arri yya, the most important school of Zayd instruc-

tion in thefth/eleventh and sixth/twelfth centuries, which is of pivotal importance to ourunderstanding of the momentous development of Zayd Mutazil thought in Yemen during the sixth/twelfth century.76The Mut.arri yya was a pietist movement named after its found-inggure Mut.arrif b. Shihb b. mir b.Abbd al-Shihb (d.459/1067), who initially had been a fervent supporter of al-Mahd al-Iy ns imamate, but then disavowed it afterthe imms alleged occultation. The Mut.arri yya aspired to adhere strictly to the teaching of al-Q sim b. Ibrhm and the early Yemenite Imms, al-Hd il l-H. aqq Yah. y , and histwo sons, Muh.ammad al-Murtad., and Ah.mad al-Ns.ir. In addition to its pietistic and con-servative attitude the Mut.arri yya cherished the rivalry between the immigrant Zaydis andthe native Zaydis by repudiating the deviant doctrine of the later Yemenite imms and those who had been active abroad, esp. in the Caspian region. The antagonism with the Sayyids was most apparent in the Mut.arrif concept of the imamate and the requirements to be satised by a potential imm pretender, stressing the conditions of merits and achievementsrather than those of ancestry and lineage.77Unsurprisingly, the Mut.arri yya generally hadlittle support among theAlids who fostered close contacts with the Zaydis outside theYemen and were more concerned with preserving the super-regional unity of the Zaydiyya.78

266

GREGOR SCHWARB

74. A. M. Zayd, Mutazilat al-Yaman: dawlat al-H d wa- kruhu, Beirut, 1981.75. On al-H. usayn b. al-Q sim al-Iy n see Min majm kutub wa-ras il al-Im m al- Iy n , ed.Abd al-Karm

Ah.mad Jadabn, S.an , 2006.76. On the Mut.arri yya see D. T. Gochenour,The Penetration of Zayd Islam into Early Medieval Yemen, Ph.D

thesis, Harvard University, 1984, pp. 186201; A. M. Zayd,Tayy r t Mutazilat al-Yaman f l-qarn al-s dis al-hijr ,S.an , 1997, pp. 64104; Madelung, Mut.arri yya, EI , vol. 7, pp. 7723; id., A Mut.arrif Manuscript, Proceedingsof the VIth Congress of Arabic and Islamic studies(Visby, 1316 August, Stockholm, 1719 August, 1972), ed. F.Rundgren, Stockholm, 1975, pp. 7583 (reprinted in id., Religious Schools(n. 17 above), text no. XIX), and the literature mentioned below. A detailed study of the Mut.arri yya is currently being prepared by my colleague H. Ansari;see for now and .

77. If the imm was to be afd . al (min) al-mumin n, this fad .l could only be achieved by virtue of good deeds(wa-l yaknu h dh l-fad . l ill bi-s. lih. al-am l ). See Zayd,Tayy r t (n. 76 above), pp. 86104, here p. 88;Gochenour,The Penetration of Zayd Islam(n. 76 above), pp. 199f. A particularly elaborate form of this merit-based concept of imamate was advocated by Nashw n al-H. imyar (d. 573/1178); see Zayd, pp. 1057 and I. b. A.al-Akwa, Nashw n b. Sa d al-H . imyar wa-l-s.ir al- kr wa-l-siy s wa-l-madhhab f as.rihi, Damascus, 1997.

78. Zayd,Tayy r t (n. 76 above), pp. 80f., 86104.


17/32

Closely linked with the Mut.arri yya was the concept ofhijra.79 The Mut.arri yya viewed the duty ofhijraas the permanent obligation to emigrate from the dominationof the sinners and oppressors (d r al-z.ulm), as it had been dened by the Imam al-Q sim b. Ibrhm and his son Muh.ammad before the establishment of the imamate inthe Yemen. Under the reign of the Ism l S.ulayh.ids, whom the Mut.arri yya, likeother Zayds, considered as arch-heretics and atheists, the obligation ofhijra was of the most immediate urgency.80 Throughout thefth/eleventh century theMut.arri yya established a wide network ofhijrasthroughout the Northern part of theYemen. Thehijrabecame the corner stone of an extensive missionary activity andstronghold against the Ism l da waand was constitutive to the spreading of Zayddoctrine into regions south of S

.a da as far as Dhamr that had hitherto been

unreached by theda waof the Zayd Sayyids.81 Therst Mut.arrif hijra was foundedby Mut.arrif b. Shihb himself at San , ca. 5 km south of S.an , in the territory ofthe Ban Shihb, his own tribe, sometimes after 1037, perhaps still before the rise of the S.ulayh.ids. The secondhijra was established in W d Waqash which remained thecentre of the Mut.arrif movement and remained the seat of its leaders until thedestruction of thehijrain 612/1215 by order of the Imm al-Mans.r Abdallh b.H. amza (d. 614/1217).

When in 511/1117 the Caspian and the Yemenite Zaydiyya were politically unitedfor therst time under the Imm Ab T.lib al-Akhr (see above), who had risen in Glnin 502/1108, and was then endorsed by the Yemenite Sayyids, the Yemenite part of theZayd state was still very small. The imms proxy in Yemen, the Amr al-Muh

.sin b. al-

H. asan b. al-Ns.ir, resided in S.a da, where the Caspian savant and Q d. Ab T. lib Nas.r

267


79. On thehijrassee Gochenour,The Penetration of Zayd Islam(n. 76 above), pp. 148243, Zayd,Tayy r t (n. 76 above), pp. 6981; W. Madelung, The Origins of the Yemenite Hijra, Arabicus Felix: Luminosus Britannicus. Essays in Honour of A.F.L. Beeston on his Eightieth Birthday, ed. A. Jones, Oxford, 1991, pp. 2544,repr. in id., Religious and Ethnic Movements in Medieval Islam, Aldershot, 1992, text no. XIII; I. b. A. al-Akwa, Hijar al-ilm wa-ma qiluhu f l-Yaman, 6 vols, Beirut, 19962003; id., al-Muh jir il hijar al-ilm f l-Yaman,S.an , 2006; id., Les Hig g ra et les forteresses du savoir au Ymen, S.an , 1996; Y. Kuriyama, Zayd Hijrasin Yemenin the Late Eleventh and Early Twelfth Centuries: With a Focus on the Hijrasof the Mut.arrif ya,T h gaku, 102,2001, pp. 9278 (sic!) [in Japanese, with English abstract pp. 7f.].

80. On the Ft.imidda wain Yemen see A. F. Sayyid,T r kh al-madh hib al-d niyya f bil d al-Yaman h. att nih yat al-qarn al-s dis al-Hijr , Cairo, 1988, pp. 91206.

81. Zayd,Tayy r t (n. 76 above), p. 73. Zaydism was a minor factor within a rather complex patchwork of political entities and intellectual affinities that made up Yemen in the early sixth/twelfth century. From a political point of view the Age of Averroes in Yemen roughly spans from the end of the Ft.imid dynasty of theS.ulayh.ids, marked by the death of Sayyida Arw bint Ah.mad (= Bilq s al-s.ughr ) in 532/1138, up to thesuccessive incursions by the Ayy bid armies from 569/1173 onwards. For the northern part of Yemen and in particular S.an the three Hamdnid dynasties played an important role, after the Sulayh.ids lost effectivecontrol of the town in 492/1098. In 533/11389 the H. amdn Sult.n H. tim b. Ah.mad al-Majd b. Imrn al-Fad.l al-Y m gained control of the city. By 545/1150 he was in control of all territory north of S.an , apartfrom S.a da, which remained in Zayd hands (see below). For a survey of the main historical sources forsixth/twelfth-century Yemen see Sayyid, Mas. dir t r kh al-Yaman f l- as.r al-Isl m , Cairo, 1974, pp. 99115,3539, 38495.


18/32

b. Ab T. lib b. Ab Ja far was charged with promoting creed and law of the CaspianZaydiyya, including Bahshamitekal m.82

A new chapter of the Yemenite Zaydiyya was opened with Ab l-H. asan Ah.mad b.Sulaymn (d. 566/1170), who in 532/11378 rose as al-Imm al-Mutawakkilal llh.83For almost twenty years he was locked in a struggle with the Hamdn Sult.n of S.an ,H. tim b. Ah.mad. For any pretender to the imamate the Mut.arrif hijras were of paramount strategic signicance, and it was therefore natural for Ah.mad b. Sulaymn totry to recruit his support for the liberation of S.an among thesehijras, all the more soas he had himself a very traditional Hdaw education (he was a sixth generation descendant of the imm al-Hd il l-H. aqq). Indeed, during the early years of his imamateand during his prolonged combats with the Hamdn Sult

.n wend him quite often in

company of Mut.arrites, and his early works show clear affinities with Mut.arrif doctrines which in major points corresponded with the doctrines of the Baghdd Mu tazila asthey were adopted by al-Hd il l-H. aqq and his successors to the imamate in Yemen,84complemented with an idiosyncratic concept of the structure of the physical world, whoseonly constituents are the three (or four) elements, their natural properties, and the interactions between them.85

268

GREGOR SCHWARB

82. Bahshamitekal m was sparsely known among Yemenite Zaydis in the early sixth/twelfth century. It differedin substantial points (ir da, ikhtir , tawallud , im ma, fad . l ) from the Hdaw -theology of the Mut.arri yya.Unsurprisingly, some of the earliest known Bahsham texts copied in Yemen were copied in S.a da, as is the case with the acephalous ms. Milan, Biblioteca Ambrosiana, X 96 Sup. (= Codex Griffini 27, cat. Lfgren/Traini, vol.I, pp. 156f. no. CCXC/A), copied in Rab I 499/Nov 1105, i.e. prior to the imamate of Ab T. lib al-Akhr. I amcurrently preparing an edition of this important text, which has alternately been identied as Ab T. lib Yah. y b.al-H. usayns K. Mab di al-adilla f us.l al-d n(W. Madelung, Zu einigen Werken des Imams Ab T.lib an-Nt.iq bi l-H. aqq, Der Islam63, 1986, pp. 510), and Ab l-Fad.l al-Abbs Ibn Sharw ns K. al-Madkhal f us.l al-d n(H. Ansari, .

83. SeeT . abaq t al-Zaydiyya al-Kubr (n. 27 above), pp. 1325, no. 50;T . abaq t al-Zaydiyya al-S .ughr (n. 27above); K. al-H . ad iq al-wardiyya(n. 69 above), vol. 2, pp. 11733; Muh.ammad b.Al al-Zah.f, Ma thir al-abr r

f tafs. l mujmal t jaw hir al-akhb r, wa-yusamm al-Law h.iq al-naddiyya bi-l-H . ad iq al-wardiyya, ed. A. al- Wajh and K. al-Mutawakkil, Amman, 1423/2002, pp. 74868; A. b. A. al-Wajh, Al m al-mu allif n al-Zaydiyya,Amman, 1420/1999, pp. 11416, no. 85; A. M. al-H. ibsh, Mas. dir al- kr al-isl m f l-Yaman, 2nd ed., Abu Dhabi,2004, pp. 5346, 61619; M. b. M. Zabra,T r kh al-aimma al-Zaydiyya f l-Yaman h. att l- as.r al-h. ad th, Cairo,1998, pp. 95108.GAL(n. 3 above), Suppl., vol. 1, p. 699, no. 2A; U. R. Kah.h.la, Mu jam al-mu allif n, Damascus,137681/195761, vol. 1, p. 239; A. al-H. usayn, Mu allaf t al-Zaydiyya, Qum, 1413/1992, vol. 3, pp. 183f.;Madelung, Der Imam(n. 15 above), pp. 199f., index; Sayyid,T r kh al-madh hib al-d niyya(n. 80 above), pp. 265f.;id., Mas. dir t r kh al-Yaman(n. 81 above), pp. 107f.; Zayd,Tayy r t (n. 76 above), pp. 4463.

84. See Madelung, Der Imam(n. 15 above), pp. 164169, 201204, 211213; A. M. Zayd, Mutazilat al-Yaman:(n. 74 above); on the dependence of the Mut.arrif doctrine on Ab l-Q sim al-Balkh and in particularhis K. al-Maq l t see id.,Tayy r t (n. 76 above), pp. 204f.; Sayyid,T r kh al-madh hib al-d niyya(n. 80 above), pp. 25154; el Omari,The Theology of Ab l-Q sim al-Balh (n. 58 above), p. 127; A. A. Fud, al-Im m al-Zayd Ah.mad b. Sulaym n (500566) wa- r uhu al-kal miyya, Alexandria, 1986. Ah.mad b. Sulaymn emphatically underlined the close alliance between the Baghdd Mu tazila and the Zaydiyya in his K. H . aq iq al-marifa[ f us.l al-d n al manhaj l Sayyid al-mursal n], ed. H. . b. Y. al-Y suf , Amman, 2003, pp. 524f.: Mash yikh al- Baghd diyy n [] yusammna Sh at al-Mutazila wa-Mutazilat al-Sh a, wa-samm l-Zaydiyya Mutazilat al-Sh a wa-s. awwab l-Zaydiyya f jam aqw lihim wa-dhakar anna l- rqa al-n jiya hum Sh at al-Mutazilawa-Mutazilat al-Sh a, yanna l-Zaydiyya.

85. On the historical background of this doctrine see W. Madelung, A Mut.arrif Manuscript (n. 76 above) pp. 78f. and the sources mentioned below, nn. 11516.


19/32

Within less than a century the relationship between the Mut.arri yya and thesupporters of the local imms deteriorated drastically. By 614/1217, the year in whichthe Imm al-Mans.r Abdall b. H. amza died, the Mut.arrif network ofhijras was almostcompletely destroyed. Up to this very day the accounts of the process that led to the quasi-annihilation of the Mut.arrif movement have remained a controversial and highly sensitive topic among Zayds.86 In a survey of Mutazil thought in the age of Averroesthis intra-Zayd and, indeed, intra-Mutazil contention is highly signicant. Even thoughthe conict clearly pivoted on political issues related to the doctrine of the imamate, theendorsement of specic pretenders to the imamate, their tax and marriage policy, andsimilar issues,87disputes on matters of doctrine were no mere trie. Indeed, developmentsin the theological doctrines of either side to the conict can hardly be understood, if detached from this historical context.

According to the common narrative of the Zayd sources, including the s ra of theImm al-Mutawakkil Ah.mad b. Sulaymn,88it was the visit of the afore-mentioned Fakhral-Dn Zayd b. al-H. asan al-Bayhaq al-Barawqan (d.545/115051)89that generated thesudden surge of Bahsham kal mamong Yemenite Zayds and triggered the doctrinalaspect of the twist between the Mut.arrites and the Sayyids.90 Zayd b. al-H. asan al-Bayhaq , a representative of theIrq H. anaf tradition, studied Bahsham kal m withthe son of al-H. kim al-Jishum and became the major scion of the latters thought in

269


86. Zayd,Tayy r t (n. 76 above), and A. M.Abd al-t., al-S .ir al- kr f l-Yaman bayna l-Zaydiyya wa-l- Mut . arri yya. Dir sa wa-nus. s., al-Haram [Giza], 2002, are the two most comprehensive studies of this process up todate. Both studies were met with much criticism among the Zayds. In recent years the Mut.arri yya has become amuch debated topic in leading Yemenite academic journals (see, for istance, Zayd b.Al al-Wazr, al-Mut . arri yya: al- kr wa-l-ma s h, al-Mas r , 1.2, 2000, pp. 2784; Badr al-Dn al-H. th, Muh.ammad Yah. y Slim Azzn, Zaydb. Al al-Wazr, H . iw r h. awla l-Mut . arri yya, al-Mas r , 2.2, 2001, pp. 6880 and 2.3, 2001, pp. 7094; H. asanMuh.ammad Zayd, Mih.nat al-Mut . arri yya wa-Shaykh al-Isl m al-Umar , al-Mas r 4.23, 2003, pp. 12341 andin the same volume Zayd b.Al al-Wazr, Tawd . h. wa-taq b al maq l Mih.nat al-Mut . arri yya , pp. 14372; id., F ntiz. r jad d al-Mut . arri yya, al-Mas r 5.2, 2004, pp. 512 (p. 12: wa-laysa yawm z.uhrih bi-ba d (!)) as wellas in online discussion forums (see, e.g., the interesting thread no. 262 of the online forum l Muh.ammad,, or consulted 30 Nov 2009).

87. See in particular the texts byAbdallh b. Zayd al-Ans (d. 667/12689), ed. A. M.Abd al-t., in al-S .ir al- kr f l-Yaman(n. 86 above), pp. 274334, his K. al-Mis.b h. al-l ih. f l-radd al l-Mut . arri yya, quotedin A. F. Sayyid,T r kh al-madh hib al-d niyya(n. 80 above), pp. 248250.

88.S rat al-Im m Ah.mad b. Sulaym n, 532566 H , ed. A. M.Abd al-t., al-Haram [Giza], 2002.89. On him see al-Wajh, Al m al-mu allif n al-Zaydiyya(n. 83 above), p. 435, no. 424.T . abaq t Al m al-

Sh a(n. 60 above) , Thiq t al-uyn, p. 112; Madelung, Der Imam(n. 15 above), pp. 203f., 2113; Zayd,Tayy r t (n. 76 above), n. 7, pp. 132f.;T . abaq t al-Zaydiyya al-Kubr (n. 27 above) , pp. 44650, no. 261; K. Mat .la al-bud r (n. 27 above), vol. 2, pp. 3003, no. 581. He must not be confused with Ab l-H. asan Al b. Zayd al-Bayhaq (d. 565/1159; seeGAL(n. 3 above), vol. 1, p. 324, Supplement vol. 1, pp. 557f.).

90. According to the Bahsham doctrine ofikhtir al-ar d . (the creationex nihiloof a bodys accidents) theBahshamiyya was also called al-Mukhtaria. The sources give different points of origin regarding the debatebetween the Mukhtaria and the Mut.arri yya in Yemen. Most sources mention a dispute betweenAl b. Shuhr(arch-Mukhtaria) and Al b. Mah.f z., the teacher of Mut.arrif b. Shihb (arch-Mut.arri yya) in the time of theImm al-Mans.r al-Q sim b.Al al-Iy n (d. 393/1003) as point of departure (see Sayyid,T r kh al-madh hib al-d niyya(n. 80 above), 2416).


20/32

Khursn. In 540/1146, while completing hish. ajj , he stopped at Rayy, where he taughtthe Bayhaq tradition of H. anaf Mutazilism to local H. anaf and Zayd students, among them the Q d. Najm al-Dn ut.b al-Sh a Ab l-Abbs Ah.mad b. Ab l-H. asan b.Alal-Kann al-Ardastn (d. ca. 560/11645), a former student of Muh.ammad b. Ah.madal-Farrazdh and Abd al-Majd b. Abd al-Ghuff r al-Astrbdh.91After spending theh. ajj -period of 540/May-June 1146 in Mecca in company of the Sharf Ab l-H. asanUlayy b.s b. H. amza b. Wahhs al-Sulaymn (d. 556/1161),92 he arrived (at Ibn

Wahhs behest) in Jumd I 541/Oct. 1146 in Hijrat Muh.annaka (near H. aydn) of Khawln S.a da,93 apparently bringing along numerous books of Khursnian andKhw razmian Mutazils and Caspian Zayds.94

With the support of Ah.mad b. Sulaymn, al-Bayhaq spent therst two and a half

years teaching local Yemenite Zayds at the Hd Mosque in S.a da. He then moved toSan , which is where Mut.arrif b. Shihb had founded therst Mut.arrif hijra. According to the available Zayd sources al-Bayhaq s lectures succeeded in winning over many Mut.arrif scholars, while others are said to have been more reluctant to renunciate theestablished doctrine of their own religious learning. Among the Mut.arrif scholars whoare said to have attended al-Bayhaq s teaching sessions in San was Shams al-Dn Abl-Fad.l Jafar b. Ah.mad b.Abd al-Salm al-Buhll (d. 573/11778) who later would play a pivotal role in promoting Bahsham kal mamong the Zaydiyya in Yemen.95 TheZayd sources describe him as one of those open-minded spirits who quickly realized thatthe traditional doctrines of the Mut.arri yya were markedly inferior to the sophisticated

270

GREGOR SCHWARB

91.T . abaq t al-Zaydiyya al-Kubr (n. 27 above), pp. 447 and 574, no. 346; Zayd,Tayy r t (n. 76 above), p.133. On al-Kann see (no. 4), consulted 30 November 2009.According to Zayd, al-Kann was not a Zayd.

92. On this eminent Zayd scholar and teacher in Mecca see Lane, A Traditional Mutazilite Qur nCommentary(n. 30 above), pp. 2629, 4853, 251. Ibn Wahhs studied with al-Zamakhshar in Mecca, while Jafar b. Ah.mad (on whom see further below) studied with Ibn Wahhs several works by al-H. kim al-Jishum andal-Zamakhshar (ij zadated Dh l-H. ijja 555/1160). Al-Zamakhshar dedicated his Kashsh f to Ibn Wahhs.

93. Ca. 35 miles southwest of S.a da, where Ah.mad b. Sulaymn had a residence, and where he died and wasburied in 566/1170.

94. On the importance of Mecca as a way station for the transmission of Caspian knowledge to Yemen seeZayd,Tayy r t (n. 76 above), p. 159. A copy of Ab T.lib Yah. y s K. al-Mujz f us.l al- qh(MS Milan, BibliotecaAmbrosiana, ar. E 409; cat. O. Lfgren and R. Traini,Catalogue of the Arabic Manuscripts in the Biblioteca Ambrosiana, vol 3: Nuovo fondo, series E (nos. 8311295), Vicenza, 1995, pp. 165f., no. 1239), copied in 1028/1619, was copied from aVorlagein the handwriting of Zayd b. al-H. asan al-Bayhaq , dated 544/1150, i.e. during his stay in Yemen.

95. On Jafar b. Ah.mad see EI ,Suppl., p. 236; Madelung, Der Imam(n. 15 above), pp. 204, 2126; Schwarb, Handbook of Mutazilite Works and Manuscripts(n. 9 above), no. 354; Zayd,Tayy r t (n. 76 above), pp. 130143, 30940, 341 (MSS); Sayyid,T r kh al-madh hib al-d niyya(n. 80 above), 2549; al-Wajh, A l m al-mu allif n al-Zaydiyya(n. 83 above), pp. 27882, no. 257;GAL(n. 3 above), vol. I, p. 403, Suppl. vol. I, pp. 699f.,no. 5a; Mu jam al-mu allif n(n. 83 above), vol. 3, p. 132; H. . A. al-Amr, Mas. dir al-tur th al-Yaman f l-Math. af al-Bar t . n , Damascus, 1400/1980, pp. 14850; Mu allaf t al-Zaydiyya(n. 83 above), vol. 3, pp. 197f.; Mat .la al-bud r (n. 27 above), vol. 1, pp. 61724, no. 343;T . abaq t al-Zaydiyya al-Kubr (n. 27 above), pp. 2738, no.145;T . abaq t al-Zaydiyya al-S .ughr (n. 27 above), pp. 108110; Ma thir al-abr r (n. 83 above), pp. 76974;Tays r al-Mat . lib f Am l Ab T . lib, ed. A. H. . al-Izz, Amman, 2002, pp. 2025; MS Berlin, Staatsbibliothek,Glaser no. 111.


21/32

doctrines of the Bahsham Mutazila. It was also during this short period at San that Jafar b. Ah.mad started to endorse Ah.mad b. Sulaymn as Imm al-Mutawakkil. Only one year later, in 545/11501, when Ah.mad b. Sulaymn temporarily succeeded in wresting S.an from the Sult.n H. tim b. Ah.mad, Jafar was appointed Q d. of the town.This appointment was not innocent. The father of Jafar, Ah.mad b.Abd al-Salm servedas Q d. of S.an under H. tim b. Ah.mad and was involved in several plots against theZayd Imm. Apparently, he was already in the service of the Ism l Q d.s of S.an when the town was still under control of the Ft.imid S.ulayh.ids.96 Jafars brother Yah. y (d. 562/1167) on the other hand served the Ism l Zuray ids in Adan as a panegyristand judge. Presumably in consequence of the close connection of his family with theIsmal rulers the biographical sources are silent about Jafar b. Ah

.mads life before his

conversion to Zaydism or the motives of his conversion.97Still in the same year (545/11501) it was decided that Jafar would accompany Zayd

b. al-H. asan al-Bayhaq on his way back to Khursn to acquire a profound theologicaleducation in Northern Iran and to gather books on behalf of the Yemenite community.However, since al-Bayhaq died shortly after their departure on the way near Tihma, Jafar b. Ah.mad continued hisrih.la f t . alab al-ilmon his own. The available data aboutthis journey allow us to draw a quite detailed picture of where, when, what, and with whom Jafar studied and provide us with substantial information about the state of Mu tazil scholarship among the Zayds in Iraq and Iran around the middle of sixth/twelfth century.98 On his way, Jafar studied with the principal Zayd scholars of Mecca and K fa. Therih

.la culminated in Rayy where in 552/1157 he studied with

Ah.mad b. Ab l-H. asan b.Al al-Kann who had attended Zayd b. al-H. asan al-Bayhaq sclasses, when the latter passed through Rayy in 540/1146.99

After his return to Yemen in 553/1158 Jafar started to systematically propagating Bahsham kal mand the religious doctrines and literature of the Caspian and K fanZayd communities among Yemenite Zayds.100To this end he opened his ownmadrasa

271


96. Ah.mad b.Abdallh al-Wazr (d. 985/1577), K. al-Fad . il = T r kh al-s d t al-ulam al-fud . al wa-l- a imma min Ban l-Waz r (MS), p. 151.T . abaq t al-Zaydiyya al-S .ughr (n. 27 above) describes the father as lim al-b t .iniyya wa-h. kimuh wa-khat . buh and his brothers b. Ah.mad as sh iruhum wa-nass buhum. Zayd,Tayy r t (n. 76 above), p. 130 suggests that his father may be identical with Yah. y b. Ab Yah. y who is reportedto have praised the Zuray ite D Muh.ammad b. Sab al-Zuray (r. 532/11378 548/1153) in Jibla. See, more-over, the important contemporaneous source: Najm al-Dn Umra b. Al al-Yaman (d. 569/1174),T r kh al-Yaman al-musamm al-Muf d f akhb r S . an wa-Zab d wa-shu ar mul kih wa-a y nih wa-udab ih , ed.M. b. A. al-Akwa, Cairo, 1976, pp. 187f.

97. At an unknown date, most probably in his later teens or early twenties, he joined the Mut.arri yya.98. See Madelung, Der Imam(n. 15 above), pp. 21416; K. Mat .la al-bud r (n. 27 above), vol. 1, pp. 61724,

no. 343;T . abaq t al-Zaydiyya al-Kubr (n. 27 above), 2738, no. 145.99. See above n. 92.100. By espousing the Bahshamite doctrine in theus.l nand by recognising the Caspian Zayd Imms as being

equally autoritative teachers with the Yemenite Imms, Jafar restored the ideological unity within the Zaydiyya.Zayd,Tayy r t (n. 76 above), p. 132 aptly described this transformational process astah.w l i tiq d t al-Zaydiyyamin al-Mut . arri yya il m urifa bi-l-Mukhtari a.


22/32

in San , the place of the oldest Mut.arrif hijra, where the foremost Zayd scholars of thenext generation received their education, and wrote numerous introductory books in virtually all disciplines of religious learning, mostly consisting of copies, excerpts, paraphrases, and adaptations of books from Northern Iran.101As a result of these activities Jafar was perceived by his Mut.arrif gainsayers as the founder of a new school, whichthey disdainfully called al-Jafariyya.102

The confrontation with the Mut.arri yya in San lasted from 553/1158 till559/1164.103 During this period Jafar engaged in numerous public disputations withleading Mut.arrif scholars of the time, particularly students of Musallam al-Lah. j (d.545/1150), the author of the still unedited Mut.arrif t . abaq t ,104 including Yah. y b. al-H.

usayn b.Abdallh al-Yah.r (d. 577/11812),105the leading scholar of the Mut

.arrif

stronghold in W d Waqash and acquaintance of Nashw n b. Sad b. Nashw n al-H. imyar (d. 573/1178).106Signicantly, these confrontations lead on to the Mut.arritesdenitive rejection of Ah.mad b. Sulaymn as imm and the imms declaring theMut.arrif hijrasas d r al-h. arb.107 The Mut.arrif s notably mistrusted the Ism l

272

GREGOR SCHWARB

101. Jafars works amount to more than sixty, most of which are extant, though only very few have been editedso far (see al-Wajh, A l m al-mu allif n al-Zaydiyya(n. 83 above), and Handbook of Mutazilite Works and Manuscripts(n. 9 above)). To determine the source material and models used by Jafar for each of his works andto identify their role within the study programme of the early Mukhtaria in San , more painstaking research isrequired. Among the Bahsham compositions assimilated by Jafar, al-Jishums works undoubtedly played a key role: thus, two of his extant school manuals inus.l al- qh, namely K. al-Bay nand K. al-Taqr b f us.l al- qh, arecopied or excerpted from the seventh part ( al-kal m f adillat al-shar ) of al-Jishums K. al-Uyn [compare MSMilan, Biblioteca Ambrosiana, Ar. D 544, ff. 109126 ( K. al-Taqr b), 127214a ( K. al-Bay n) with MS Milan,BA, Ar. B 66, ff. 38b74b ( K. al-Uyn)]. For some names of Jafars students, including the father of al-Imm al-Mans.r Abdallh b. H. amza, see Zayd,Tayy r t (n. 76 above), pp. 140f.,T . abaq t al-Zaydiyya al-Kubr (n. 27above), pp. 276f. and K. Mat .la al-bud r (n. 27 above), vol. 1, pp. 623f.

102. See Sulaymn b. Muh.ammad b. Ah.mad al-Muh.all, al-Burh n al-r iq al-mukhallis.min wurat . al-mad . iq(MS S.an , Maktabat al-Jmi al-Kabr al-Sharqiyya, no. 673, ed.Abd al-Karm Jadbn, forthcoming) and theanonymous MS London, British Library, Or. 4009 (see below nn. 115f.), passim.

103. Zayd,Tayy r t (n. 76 above), p. 84.104. Musallam b. Muh.ammad b. Jafar al-Lah. j (d. 545/1150),T . abaq t/T r kh Musallam al-Lah. j = K. Akhb r

al-Zaydiyya min ahl al-bayt alayhim al-sal m wa-sh atihim bi-l-Yaman, was completed in 544/1149. It containsbiographies of Zayd imms and scholars in the Yemen arranged in fivet . abaq t (for MSS see al-Wajh, Al m al-mu allif n al-Zaydiyya(n. 83 above), 1028, no. 1102; Mas. dir al- kr al-isl m f l-Yaman(n. 83 above), pp. 475f.;I use MS Riyadh, Jmi at al-Imm Muh.ammad b. Sad al-Islmiyya, no. 2449; see M. al-T.anh., al-Fihris al-was. f li-bad . naw dir al-makht .t . t bi-l-Maktabat al-Markaziyya bi-J mi at al-Im m Muh ammad ibn Sad al-Isl miyya

f l-Riy d ,Riyadh, 1993, p. 19, no. 4). The extant second volume of this work contains the second portion of thethird, the complete fourth and fiftht . abaq t . The fiftht . abaqacovers Zayd scholars from the first half of thesixth/twelfth century, contemporaneous to the author. See Gochenour, A Revised Bibliography(n. 24 above), pp. 31517; Y. Kuriyama, Zayd Hijrasin Yemen in the Late Eleventh and Early Twelfth Centuries (n. 79 above)mentions (p. 81, n. 8) that the manuscript (copied in 566/1171), which originally came from a private collectionin Najrn (see Gochenour, pp. 315f., n. 24), is now in my possession. For the extant part of the first volume see W. Madelung, The S ra of Im m Ah.mad b. Yah. y Al-N s.ir li-D n All h from Musallam al-Lah. j s Kit b Akhb r Al-Zaydiyya bi l-Yaman, Exeter, 1990. An edition of al-Lahjst . abaq t is due to be published in the near future.

105. Probably to be preferred over the traditional reading al-Bah.r or al-Buh.ayr.106. See Zayd,Tayy r t (n. 76 above), pp. 66f., 10529. In 559/1164 Jafar b. Ah.mad held public disputations

with Mut.arrif scholars in H. ad.r, Bak l, Ans, Zabd.107. The Mut.arrif s downgraded Ah.mad b. Sulaymn to al-am r ; see Zayd,Tayy r t (n. 76 above), pp. 846.


23/32

background of Jafars family, fearing that the closeness with the Imm was a politically motivated decision to maintain power.108

Besides, Jafars teaching activities also met strong resistance among Sunn circles. A public disputation which took place in Ibb in 554/1159 withAl b. Abdallh b. Yah. y b. s al-Yarm, a student of the inuential Sh H. anbal Yah. y b. Ab l-Khayr al-Amarn (d. 558/1163),109 was the starting point for the composition of several

polemical texts.110After Jafars death in 573/1177 his student H. usm al-Dn al-H. asan b. Muh.ammad

al-Ras.s.s. (d. 584/1188) became the new head of the school in San . His writings andthose of his students, a great number of which are extant, but not edited, continued andrened Jafars efforts in establishing the Bahshamite doctrine as the official theology of the Yemenite Zaydiyya.111

Remarkably, al-Ras.s.s. writings, which focused on ontological and cosmological issuesthat constituted the crux of the doctrinal side of the controversy between Mukhtariaand Mut.arri yya, include a short refutation of passages in Ibn al-Malh.imsTuh. fat al-mutakallim n, where the latter defended Ab l-H. usayn al-Bas.rs view that the essenceof every created being (and not only the creator) is identical with and amounts to nothing

273


108. Interestingly, it is a common pattern until today to discredit the exponents of the Mut.arri yya by implying their closeness to Ism l persons or doctrines.

109. Sayyid,T r kh al-madh hib al-d niyya(n. 80 above), pp. 757. In the early sixth/twelfth century mostSh ites in Yemen were still H. anbalites, while only one century later, most of them followed Asharitekal m. While Asharitekal m was already introduced to Yemen in the late fourth/tenth century, it became only wide-spread after the Ayy bids invaded Yemen in 569/1173 [See Sayyid, pp. 5679; Badr al-Dn H. usayn Ibn al-Ahdal(d. 855/1451),T . abaq t al-Ash ira (MS)]. Characteristic for the transitional period is the conict between al-Amarn the father, an avowed H. anbal, and his son Ab l-T.ayyib T.hir (d. 587/1191), a convinced Ashar, who

charged each other with unbelief.110. These texts include: K. al-Intis. r f l-radd al l [-Mutazila al ]- Qadariyya al-ashr r (ed. Sad b. Abd al-

Azz al-Khalf, Medina, 1419/1998) by the aforementioned Yah. y b. Ab l-Khayr al-Amarn, an extensive refu-tation of Jafar b. Ah.mads K. al-D migh, accusing Jafar for his spreading Mutazilite doctrines. Among his sourceshe mentions K. al-H . ur f al-sab f l-radd al l-Mutazila wa-ghayrihim min ahl al-d . al la wa-l-bid aby al-H. usaynb. Jafar al-Margh. The polemic against Jaf r was

in the age of averroes.pdf

Documents