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Mutazilism in the Age of Averroes*

Gregor Schwarb

Ibn Rushd,al-Kashfan manhij al-adilla f aqidal-milla, ed. M. A. al-Jbir, Beirut 1998, p. 118.

INTRODUCTION

In accounts of the early history of Islamic theology during the second and the thirdcenturies AH the central role of the Mutazila is generally acknowledged as a matter ofcourse.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),2which neverceased to be the authoritative reference work for the whole of Arabic literature produced

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

In Brockelmannsaccount Ab l-H. asan Abd 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-QsimMah. md b. Umar al-Zamakhshar (d. 538/1144) the last great theologian of theMutazila.5 The fact that his Geschichte des arabischen Schrifttums (GAS), which was

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* This study was prepared within the framework of the European Research Councils FP 7 project RediscoveringTheological Rationalism in the Medieval World of Islam . I am grateful to mycolleagues 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 without ttingthe 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, BrockelmannsGeschichte revisited, in C. Brockelmann, Geschichte der arabischen Litteratur

(GAL). Reprint with New Introduction, Leiden, 1996, pp. vxvii. The fact that Brocklemanns Geschichte, 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 of GAL or (consulted 30 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


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primarily conceived as a supplement to Brockelmanns Geschichte, only covered the rstfour centuries AH (up to 430/10389) may also have contributed to neglecting the studyof later Mutazilite literature.

There exists no Mutazilt.abaqtwork covering the age of Averroes. Accordingly, itis still common in research literature to refer to Abd al-Jabbr and his students asrepresentatives of the late Mutazila.6 This usage reects the terminology of the mostinuential works of Mutazilt.abaqtliterature, the best known beingBb dhikr al-

Mutazila wa-t.abaqtihim by the Zayd Imm al-Mahd li-Dn Allh Ah. mad b. Yah.yl-Murtad. (d. 840/14367),7 i.e. the third part ofK. al-Munya wa-l-amal fsharh. K. al-

Milal wa-l-nih.al,8 which in turn is the rst part (out of nine) of the authorscomprehensiveZiydton theDbja of hisK. al-Bah

.r al-zakhkhrentitledK. Ghyt

al-afkr wa-nihyat al-anz.r al-muh. t.a bi- ajib al-Bah. r al-zakhkhr.9 Ibn Yah.y l-Murtad. sBb dhikr al-Mutazila is 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-masil, entitledBb fdhikr al-

Mutazila wa-rijlihim wa-akhbrihim wa-m ajma alayhi min al-madhhab wa-dhikrraqihim ,10 which in turn draws on Abd al-Jabbrs Fad. l al-itizl wa-t.abaqt al-Mutazila wa-mubyanatuhum li-sir al-mukhlifnwith appendices on the generationofAbd al-Jabbr (eleventh t.abaqa, . second half of fourth/tenth c.), the generation ofAbd al-Jabbrs students (twelfth t.abaqa , . rst half offth/eleventh c., i.e. thegeneration of al-H. kim al-Jishums teachers), Sh, esp. Zayd Mutazilites (manwfaqahum fl-madhhab min al-itra al-t

.hira), the Abbsid Caliphs (man dhahaba

madhhab al- adl mimman byi a lahu bi-l-khilfa), the Byids (al-umar wa-l-ruas),jurists (man qla bi-l- adl min al-fuqah), grammarians (nuh.t), poets (shu ar), and

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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, Yd-Nma 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 Mu taziliten (Kitb T.abaqt al-Mutazila), Beirut, 1961; for a harshcritique of this edition see A. Zarzr,al-H. kim al-Jushamwa-manhajuhu ftafsr al-Qurn, Beirut, 1972, p. 106.On the origins of the Mutazilite t.abaqtliterature see van Ess, Theologie und Gesellschaft(n. 1 above), vol. 1, pp.613.

8. Ed. M. J. Mashkr, Beirut, 1979.9. WhileK. al-Bah. r al-zakhkhrhas been reprinted several times (Baghdd, Maktabat al-Muthann, 19479;

Beirut, Muassasat al-Risla, 1975; Beirut, Dr al-Kutub al-Ilmiyya, 2001), the bulk ofK. Ghyt al-afkrstillremains unedited, including its fth part,K. al-Jawhir wa-l-durar min srat 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 Mu tazilite 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-kalm no. 99, ff. 28a98a; MS S. an, Maktabat al-Jmi al-Kabr al-Sharqiyya (= Maktabatal-Awqf = al-Maktaba al-Mutawakkiliyya), no. 706; ff. 48b166b. The section covering the eleventh and twelftht.abaqtwas edited by F. Sayyid,Fad. l al-itizl wa-t.abaqt al-Mutazila, Tnis, 1974, pp. 36593. An edition ofSharh. Uyn al-masilis 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-Shf(ed. Majd al-Dn al-Muayyad, 4

vols in 2, S. an, 1406/1986, pp. 136139) sources containing substantial information about the history of theMutazila, Mutazilite scholars and literature.


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h.adth-scholars (ruwt al-akhbr, ulamal-h.adth wa-aimmat al-naql). In all theseworks a distinction is made between the earlier Mutazilites (al-mutaqaddimn min al-Mutazila = t.abaqt 17) and the later, modern representatives of the Mutazila(al-muta akhkhirn min al-Mutazila = t.abaqt812), the dividing line being Ab Alal-Jubb (d. 303/9156), the gurehead of the eighth t.abaqa. What is calledlate/modern Mutazila in these t.abaqtworks reects therefore a fth/eleventh-century,not a fteenth/twenty-rst-century perspective.

Another factor contributing to the disregard of Mutazil literature in the age ofAverroes 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 Khwrazm, and among the Zayds in Yemen. The historiographical focus on thecenter of the Caliphate and Sunn Islm thus tended to ignore the presence and ongoingeorescence of Mutazilite thought.11

Ignaz Goldziher (18501921) aptly characterized this situation in his well-knownarticle Aus der Theologie des Fachr al-dn al-Rz,12 albeit in a language that betrays himas a man of his time.13 In this study Goldziher surveyed the sources that evince the over-

whelming presence of Mutazil thought in Khzistn, Khursn, and, above all,Khwrazm, and then assessed its signicance for an adequate understanding of Fakhr al-Dn al-Rzs (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-depthstudies 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 ofextant Mutazilite works written during the sixth/twelfth century in no way falls short

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MUTAZILISM IN THE AGE OF AVERROES

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

12. InDer 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 zurMutazila unterbesonderer Bercksichtigung der spterenMutazila ab dem 4./10. Jahrhundert, inArabica, 45, 1998, pp. 379408. For a detailed survey of the pertinent literature see my forthcomingHandbook of Mutazilite Works and

Manuscripts (n. 9 above).15. See above all W. Madelung,Der Imam al-Qsim ibn Ibrhm 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 to kalm texts of this period.


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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 duringthis century.

NON-SHITE MUTAZILAWhile there is no doubt that in Seljq Iraq the Mutazila had lost the position and ocialsupport it had during the Byid age,16 it was paradoxically the pro-H. anate respectivelyanti-Asharite-Shite 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 ocial positions and therestriction of teaching Mutazilite kalm were not entirely sucessful. Historio- andbiographical sources refer to a number of Mutazilite scholars as well as savants andocials with Mutazilite leanings in Baghdad, even if the epithet al-Mutazil was bynow 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 ocial policy,

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GREGOR SCHWARB

16. Makdisi,Ibn Aql(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 Sunni ulam 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, AbBakrIbn al-Arab (d. 543/1148),al-Aws.im min al-Qaws.im, ed. Ammr al-T. lib, Cairo, 1417/1997, p. 72 mentionsto have read Abd al-JabbrsK. al-Muh. t.ftafsr al-Qurn [!] in the Niz.miyya library in Baghdd (qaratuhu fkhiznat al-madrasa al-Niz.miyya bi-Madnat al-Salm), 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-Qsim Khalaf b. Ah. mad b. Abdallh al-D. arr al-Shilj (d. 515/1121), was a H. anate scholar who taught kalm inthe sanctuary (mashhad) of Ab H. anfa, the most famous H. anate madrasa in Baghdad (Ibn Ab l-Waf,al-

Jawhir al-mud. iyya ft.abaqt al-H. anayya, 3rd ed., Giza, 1993, vol. 2, pp. 168f., no. 559). Among his studentswas Abd al-Sayyid b. Al Ibn al-Zaytn, a H. anbal and companion of Ibn Aql who converted to H. anasm andbecame a Mutazil (ibid., pp. 424f., no. 814). Towards the end of the sixth/twelfth century Ab Yaqb Ysuf b.Isml al-Lamghn (d. 606/1209) taughtqh and kalm in the mosque of the Sult.n (since 588/1192) and likewise

in the sanctuary of AbH. 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 Mutazilkalm, andas having upheld the createdness of the Qurn in disputations. His students included Izz 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, manof letters, and author ofSharh. Nahj al-balgha, 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 fus.l al-dn by the Qd. AbYal b. al-Farr (d. 458/1066), ed. Wad

Zaydn H. addd, Beirut, 1974, oral-Wd. ih.fus.l al-qh by Ab l-WafAl IbnAql (d. 513/1119), edited severaltimes, by: Abd al-Muh. sin al-Turk, Beirut, 1999; G. Makdisi, Stuttgart, 19962002; A. al-Sudays, Riyadh, 2008.


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gradually became the dominant force within H. anasm and supplanted local H. anaf-Mutazil traditions, not only in their home territory, but also in Iraq and Bild al-Shm.20

In the Eastern provinces of the Caliphate the Mutazila also suffered some major setbacksin the post-Byid period. In many towns and regions, however, it kept a sizeable presencethroughout the Seljq age.21 Contemporaneous sources still refer to Khzistn, Khursn,and, above all, Khwrazm as Bild al-Mutazila.22 Even among non-H. anate, non-Mutazilite scholars in these provinces, Mutazilism was only rarely considered a heresy.Khwrazm in fact became the last bastion of non-Sh ite Mutazilism, which survived thereat least until the ninth/fteenth century. Mutazilites in Eastern provinces benetedfromthe effects of the partition of the Seljq empire in 510/1117, and the cultural eorescenceunder Ab l-H

.rith Ah

.mad Sanjar who reigned in Marw till 552/1157. In the decades

preceding the Mongol invasions, Oghuz tribal leaders, former Seljq generals, and severalexternal powers used the desintegration of Seljq power to control Khursn. Among them,the Khwrazmshhs Tj al-Dunywa-l-Dn Ab l-Fath. Il-Arsln (551/1156568/1172)and his son Al al-Dn Tekish (568/1172596/1200), who since 1173 not only con-trolled the Jurjniyya and parts of Transoxania, but also northern Khursn with the townsof Marw, Sarakhs, Khjn, Rdhaqn, Bayhaq, Nsbr, and T. s, evidently favouredMutazilism and promoted pro-Shite activities, much to the dismay of the caliph.23

Since in non-Shite circles Mutazilism was firmly rooted among the H. anafites, it isthe T.abaqt-works of the H. anafmadhhabwhich provide us with numerous names ofH. anaf scholars who upheld the Mutazil creed. In Rayy, Nsbr, and several cities inKhursn and Khwrazm there were many Mutazilites among the H

.anafites.24 Among

these Mutazilite H. anates pro-Alid sentiments and strong Shite anities were verywide-spread at least since the Byid age.25Just as it was nothing unusual for a H. anaf to

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20. Madelung, The Spread of Mturdism (n. 17 above), pp. 140f. and passim.21. See the names mentioned in Madelung, The Spread of Mturdism (n. 17 above), p. 116, n. 25; Goldziher,

Aus der Theologie (n. 12 above), pp. 2203; C. Gilliot, LExgse du Coran en Asie Centrale et au Khorasan,Studia Islamica, 89, 1999, pp. 1504; id., La Thologie musulmane en Asie centrale et au Khorasan,Arabica, 49,2002, pp. 1417.

22. Goldziher, Aus der Theologie (n. 12 above), pp. 219, 222 and passim. See, for instance, Jaml al-DnMuh. ammad al-Qazwn,Mufd al-ulm wa-mubd al-humm, ed. Damascus, 1323/1906, who writes in the chap-ter entitledfh. ukm awmm al-muminn (p. 46):Law kallafnhum marifat ah. km al-jawhir wa-l-ard. la-ta at.t.alat al-ma yish wa-khtallat umr al-duny[...] wa-l-Mutazila h.aythu yashtarit.na marifat al-jawhirwa-l-ard. wa-yah. kumna bi-takfr awmmihim, wa-l yjadu ammmuslim fdiyrihim f Askar Mukram wa-

Khwrazm wa-sir Bild al-Mutazila. Zakkariyy b. Muh. ammad al-Qazwn (d. 682/1283),thr al-bild wa-

akhbr al-ibd, ed. Beirut 1380/1960, p. 520, writes in his description of the Khwrazmian capital Jurjniyya:wa-ahl Jurjniyya kulluhum Mutazila wa-l-ghlib alayhim mumrasatilm al-kalm.

23. C. E. Bosworth, The Political and Dynastic History of the Iranian World, The Cambridge History of Iran,vol. 5, Cambridge, 1968, pp. 18595, 201f.; id., Khwarazmshahs,Encyclopaedia Iranica, vol. 15 .

24. Madelung,Der Imam (n. 15 above), pp. 1146, 1346 (with nn. 226, 6870). Ab Bakr Ibn al-Arab,al-Aws.im (n. 17 above), p. 212, writes: wa-m ruiya bi-Khursn wa-l bi-l- Irq H. anafill Mutaziliyyan awKarrmiyyan.

25. Good examples for the pro-Alid attitude among Mutazilite H. anates in the Byid age are Ab Abdallhal-Bas.rsK. al-Darajt (ftafd. l Amr al-muminn) or Ibn MattawayhsK. al-Kifya.


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study the us.ln (i.e. us.l al-dn and us.l al-qh) with a Shite master, we frequentlyencounter Shite, especially Zayd experts in H. anaf law.26 Symptomatic of this situationis the occasional diculty to determine whether a particular Mutazilite mutakallimwasin 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-Shite Mutazilism in Northern Iran can be gleaned from contemporaneous Shite,

particularly Zayd historiographical and t.abaqtworks, ijzt-literature, and manuscriptsin general.27

Among several other sources providing information on Mutazils in Khursn andKhwrazm28 mention should be made of the extant third part of a biographical dictionaryby the Khwrazmian H

.anaf Ab l-Karam Abd 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-Qsim al-Zamakhsharhas thus far been published.29 The author compiled the dictionary in Jurjniyya, the capi-tal city of Khwrazm, in close cooperation with students of al-Zamakhshar, such as Ab

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26. See, for instance, Madelung, Der Imam al-Qsim, 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 Shite Abd al-Jall al-Qazwnal-Rz in hisK. Naqd. al-fad.ih. (written in 552/1157). For the presence of Shite mourning ceremonies amongnon-Shites 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 Khwrazmian and KhursnianH. anasm and Zaydism constitutes an important background to understanding the reception of the non-ShiteMutazil 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 Zaydt.abaqattradition culminated in three works of the eleventh/seventeenth century, all of which

strived to be comprehensive surveys of Zayd scholars up to the authors time. The first of these isK. Mat.la al-budrwa-majma al-buh.r (ftarjim rijl al-Zaydiyya) by the Qd. of S.anShihb al-Dn Ah. mad b. S.lih. Ibn Ab l-Rijl(d. 1092/1681), ed. Abd al-Raqb Mut.ahhar Muh. ammad H. ajr, 4 vols, S. an, 1425/2004; the second isK. al-

Mustat.b ftarjimulam al-Zaydiyya al-at.yb(=K. al-T.abaqt fdhikr (fad. l) al-ulamwa-ilmihim=T.abaqtal-Zaydiyya al-S.ughr) by Yah.yb. al-H. usayn b. al-Imm al-Mans.r bi-llh al-Qsim (d. 1100/1688), which was laterupdated and rearranged under the title T.abaqt al-Zaydiyya [al-Kubr](wa-yusamm Nasamt al-ash.r ft.abaqtruwt al-akhbr) by the authors nephew, S.rim al-Dn Ibrhm b. al-Qsim b. al-Imm al-Muayyad bi-llhMuh. ammad b. al-Imm al-Mans.r bi-llh al-Qsim b. Muh. ammad al-Shahr(d. 1152/173940). The third part ofthis latter work (Bulgh al-murd ilmarifat al-isnd) is available in print, ed. Abd al-Salm b.Abbs al-Wajh, 3

vols, Amman, 1421/2001. These three works, namelyMat.la al-budr, T.abaqt al-Zaydiyya al-S.ughr, andT.abaqtal-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-Qazwn (d. 623/1226),

Al-Tadwn fakhbr Qazwn, 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 the

Institute 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-Yf, inMajallat Majma al-Lugha al-Arabiyya, 57, 1982, pp. 36382.


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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-MalAbdallh b. Al l-H. kim l-Zamakhshar.30

On several occasions, the author expresses his sympathies for the Mutazilite doctrine,which as he says, was rmly entrenched in Khwrazm. He mentions, for instance, thatin 545/11501, while completing his h.ajj, he stayed in Rayy with Qd. 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 both Abd al-JabbrsFad. l al-itizl wa-t.abaqt al-Mutazila and al-H. kim al-Jishums Sharh. Uyn al-masil, butadded much material of his own, relying on informants and sources not known to beextant, such as Trkh Khwrazm by Ab Muh

.ammad Mah

.md b. Muh

.ammad al-

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

In his heresiographical digestK. I tiqdtraq al-muslimn wa-l-mushrikn Fakhr al-Dn al-Rz listed seventeen subgroups of the Mutazila, twelve belonging to the pre-Jubb

period, i.e. the second and third centuries AH. Of the remainingve al-Rz attested onlyfor the presence of two in his time, namely the Bahshamiyya (no. 14) and the H. usayniyya(no. 17).32 Effectively agreeing with al-Rzs assessment, a survey of sixth/twelfth-centuryMutazilism 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, and Abd al-Jabbr al-Hamadhn in Rayy is substantial.34

The Bahshamites of the sixth/twelfth century thus continued to teach a well-establisheddoctrine, as it was laid down in the schools majorsummae of the two preceding centuries,i.e. Abd al-Jabbrs al-Mughnfabwb al-tawh. d wa-l- adl, al-H. asan b. Ah. mad Ibn

257


30. See A. J. Lane,A Traditional Mutazilite Qurn Commentary. The Kashshfof Jr Allh 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 of Abd 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 fzamnin min sirraq al-

Mutazila ill htn al-rqatn, as.h.b AbHshim wa-as.h.b Abl-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 in Shahrastani, 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 Baghd d Mutazila within the Hdaw doctrinefollowed by the majority of the Yemenite Zaydis, including the Mut.arriyya (see below).

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

Encyclopaedia Iranica, vol. 14, p. 670.


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Mattawayhsal-Majm fl-Muh. t. bi-l-taklfandal-Tadhkira fah. km al-jawhir wa-l-ard. , and al-H. kim al-Jishums Sharh. Uyn al-masil, and a good number of otherimportant, though less comprehensive treatises.

The foremost representative of pro-Alid Khursnian H. anaf Mutazilism 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 kalm 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. Oneimportant link for the transmission of al-Jishums work included his son, Muh. ammadb. al-Muh. assin al-Jishum al-Bayhaq36 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),37 andAb 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-Makrim al-Mut.arriz al-Khwrazm (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 onlyKhwrazmian adherents of the Mutazila such as al-Darr al-Wabr,42 Majd al-Afd. il al-T.arif, and Najm al-Aimma, but also Yemenite Zayds, such as Jafar al-Bbir. The

latter taught al-ZamakhsharsKashshfto his son Isml b. Muh. ammad who taught itto his son Ibrhm b. Isml 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 theologyinto Khursn and Khwrazm is usually attributed to the physician AbMud. ar Mah. md

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GREGOR SCHWARB

35. Madelung,Der Imam(n. 15 above), pp. 18791. The two principalkalm-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-Qsim al-H. asan (see Sharh. Uyn al-masl, MS Leiden,UB, Or. 2584 A, f. 152a).

36. T.abaqt 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.abaqt al-Zaydiyya al-Kubr (n. 27 above),vol. 3, p. 1290, no. 816. Another student of al-Jishum, Ah. madb. Muh. ammad b. Ish. q al-Khwrazm, 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),Ijzt al-aimma (MSS).

40. SeeEI, vol. 7, pp. 773f. (R. Sellheim, 1992). Al-Mut.arriz was later known as Khalfat 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 with Abd al-Khliq b. Abd al-H. amd al-Wabr al-Khwrazmwho lived before 654/1256

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


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b. Jarr al-Dabb al-Is.fahn (d. 508/1115),44 and 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 Bahmanyr Ibn Marzubn(d. 458/1066) and author ofK. Bayn al-h.aqq bi-d.amn al-s.idq.45While the impact ofthe 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-Rz (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. imal-Khwrazm(d. 17 Rab I536/19 Oct. 1141),47a contemporary and associate of al-Zamakhshar(d.538/1144).48OfAb l-H. usayn al-Bas.rs two theological books,K. Tas.affuh.al-adillaandK. Ghurar al-adilla

fus.l al-dn, only fragments and/or quotations are at present known to be extant.49 Since

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44. On him see Introduction in W. Madelung and M. J. McDermott (eds),Kitb al-Mutamad fus.l al-dn,London, 1991, p. v, with nn. 6f.; Lane,A Traditional Mu tazilite Qurn 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-

Jawhir al-mud. iyya ft.abaqt al-H. anayya, 3rd ed., Giza, 1993, vol. 1, p. 425, who writes that Ab Sad Ismlb. Al b. al-H. usayn b. Muh. ammad b. al-H. asan b. Zanjuwayh al-Sammn al-Rz (d. Rayy 24 Shabn 445/9 Dec1053), an expert in H. anaf and Zaydqh and kalm, kna yadhhabu madhhab Abl-H. usayn al-Bas.rwa-madhhab

al-Shaykh AbHshim [sic] (see on him Madelung,Der Imam (n. 15 above), p. 216, n. 429).45. Partly ed. (al-Kitb al-awwal min al-mant.iq) by Ibrhm Dbj, Tehrn 1364/1986. On Ibn Sns students

and students students, including al-Jzjn, Bahmanyr, 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 ofScience 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 Asharite kalm from al-

Juwayn to Fakhr al-Dn al-Rz 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 Kitb al-Dn wa-al-Dawla by Ibn Rabbanal-T. abar: The Evidence from Fakhr al-Dn al-RzsMafth. al-ghayb,Islam and Christian-Muslim Relations, 20.2,2009, pp. 10518; A. Shihadeh, The Teleological Ethics of Fakhr al-Dn al-Rz, Leiden, 2006, pp. 277f. (index). Thenumerous conceptual differences between the thought of Fakhr al-Dn al-Rz and Nas.r al-Dn al-T. s not onlyarose 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 bayna ilm al-kalm wa-l-falsafa fl-kr al-Islm, Alexandria, 1998, pp. 77109; H. N. Farh.t,

Masil al-khilf bayna Fakhr al-Dn al-Rzwa-Nas.r al-Dn al-T s, Beirut, 1997; M. Horten,Die spekulative undpositive 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-

mutakallimn fl-radd al l-falsifa, Tehran, 2008, pp. iix.48. For a study and edition of al-ZamakhsharsK. al-Minhj fus.l al-dn, 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.), Jrullh Ab l-Qsim Mahmd Ibn Umar al-Zamakhshar:

Kitb al-Minhj fus.l al-dn, Beirut, 1428/2007.49. SeeAb l-H. usayn al-Bas.r, Tas.affuh. al-adilla, ed. W. Madelung and S. Schmidtke, Wiesbaden, 2006. Apart

from a fragment of his Sharh. al-us.l al-khamsa on the imamate (Fas.l muntaza min K. Sharh. al-us.l fl-imma),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 amongQaraite Jews (see below).


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both of Ibn al-Malh. ims theological works, the comprehensive four-volume K. al-Mutamad fus.l al-dn and its abridged version,K. al-Fiq fus.l al-dn (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 thephilosophically minded Islamic scholars entitled Tuh.fat al-mutakallimn fl-radd al l-

falsifa, is also paramount to our appreciating the Mutazilcomponent in Islamic thoughtafter Avicenna and, as the editors put it, apt to modify signicantly our understandingof the reaction ofkalm theology to the spectacular ascendancy of Avicennan thought.51

In the introduction to the Tuh.fa Ibn al-Malh. im expounded the historical contextthat prompted him to write the work52:

What prompted me two write this book after having completed Kitb al-Mutamadon theprinciples (us.l[al-dn]) 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, AbAl Ibn Sn and his followers, regarding the createdness of the world and thearmation 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 ofthe ancient philosophers and diverted it from the real nature of Islam and from the creed of theprophets, 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 ofthese modern philosophers, among them a group of people who are regarded as followers ofthe Shmadhhab.53 They 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

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GREGOR SCHWARB

50.K. al-Mutamad fus.l al-dn (n. 44 above a revised edition, which will include newly found manuscripts ofhitherto missing parts, is due to be published in the near future);K. al-Fiq fus.l al-dn, 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 inIslam and Judaism, ed. C. Adang et al., Wrzburg, 2007, p. 331. The Tuh.fa, written fourty years after al-GhazlsTahfut al-falsifa, 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 ofMa rij Nahj al-Balgha and Trkh Bayhaq (Encyclopaedia Iranica, vol. 3, pp. 895f.).

Ibn al-Malh. ims acquaintance with the works of the likes of Bahmanyr and al-Lawkar is very likely, but has notyet been veried in detail.

52. Tuh.fat al-Mutakallimn (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 Shte 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- Ghazls Philosophical Theology, New York, 2009, pp.714, where al-Mayhans connections with al-Ghazl are also discussed).


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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 theymodelled the religion of Jesus upon (the docrines of) the philosophers, and therefore came upwith 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 accurateprocedures in non-religious sciences (li-ajli ulmihim al-daqqa fghayr al-ulm al-dniyya).

I called it Tuh.fat al-Mutakallimn (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 modernwould-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.

At rst I will discuss what these people said regarding the createdness of the world and thearmation 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 I rst 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 kalm left its most signicant imprints not only in the thought ofluminaries like Fakhr al-Dn al-Rz, Nas.r al-Dn al-T. s, and the many who followedin their footsteps, but most markedly in major intellectual traditions of the Imm Shaand in branches of the Zaydiyya in Yemen (see further below). Among the non-Shite

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 authoredK. al-Kmil fl-istiqs. f-m balaghan min kalm al-qudam,54 Ab l-H. asan Al b. Muh. ammad

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54. Ed. M. al-Shhid, Cairo 1999. A new edition ofK. al-Kmil, based on additional manuscripts fromcollections 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 in T.abaqt al-Zaydiyya al-Kubr (n. 27 above),

p. 415.


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al-Khwrazm, and his student Al al-Dn al-Sadd b. Muh. ammad al-Khayyt.. Thelatter taught Sirj al-Dn Ysuf b. Ab Bakr al-Sakkk (d. 626/1229), the famous authorofMifth. al-ulm, whose linguistic thought owes much to Mutazilus.l al-qh.55 Al-Sakkk 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.56 Other pro-Alid H. anates

who were well acquainted with the H. usayniyya include the above-mentioned (n. 18)Ab Yaqb Ysuf b. Isml al-Lamghn (d. 606/1209) and his student Izz al-DnAb H. mid Abd al-H. amd b. Ab l-H. add (d. Baghdad 656/1258), the well-knownauthor ofSharh

.Nahj al-balgha. The latter also authoredK. Sharh

.mushkilt al-Ghurar,

a commentary on selected passages of Ab l-H. usayn al-Bas.rs K. Ghurar al-adilla,and critical comments (talqt) on Fakhr al-Dn al-Rzs K. Muh.as.s.al afkr al-mutaqaddimn wa-l-muta akhkhirn andK. al-Arban fus.l al-dn.

IMM SH MUTAZILA

From the very outset, the adoption of Mutazilism among Imm Shites was hamperedby some fundamental tensions between the two doctrines, above all the Imm Shitebelief 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, theImmmutakallimn consistently rejected two of the principal tenets of Mutazilism:the irrevocable punishment of the grave sinner (al-wad wa-l-wad), and his intermediate

position (al-manzila bayna l-manzilatayn) between the believer and the unbeliever.57

Imamism also struggled to reconcile with the Mutazil view that the principal truths ofreligion (us.l al-dn) can only be derived from reason, but not on the basis of Scriptureand authority. For some Imm scholars, like al-Shaykh al-Mufd (d. 413/1022), kalm

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 Immmutakallimn 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, claiming Al 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 Shism. While Ibn Qiba al-Rz (d. in

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55. U. G. Simon,Mittelalterliche arabische Sprachbetrachtung zwischen Grammatik und Rhetorik: ilm al-ma nbei as-Sakkk, Heidelberg, 1993, pp. 1323.

56. See Madelung, Introduction (n. 44 above), p. vii. While al-GhazmnsK. al-Mujtabwas known to andquoted by Yemenite Zayd authors (e.g. Muh. ammad Ibn al-Wazr (d. 840/14367),K.thr 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 immite, ed. T. Fahd, Paris, 1970, pp. 1329 [reprinted in id.,Religious Schools (n. 17 above), text no. VII].


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Rayy, before 319/931), a student of Ab l-Qsim al-Balkh (d. 319/931), and al-Shaykhal-Mufd had in the main adapted the doctrine of the Baghdd Mutazila,58 the followinggenerations of Imm scholars followed mainly the teachings of the Bahshamiyya, asrepresented byAbd al-Jabbr b. Ah. mad al-Hamadhn.59 Alam al-Hud Ab l-QsimAl 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), who rst studied

with al-Shaykh al-Mufd and then with Abd al-Jabbr, were the rst Imm scholarswho fully accepted the Mu tazil view that establishing the fundamental truths of religionbelonged exclusively to the domain of reason and integrated this claim into the Imamite

view.60With some minor modications many of their students and a number of Immscholars of the sixth/twelfth century adopted their stand on Mutazil tenets, amongthem Jaml al-Dn Ab l-Futh. H. usayn b. Al b. Muh. ammad al-Rz (d. Rayy after1131),61 Amn al-Dn Ab Al l-Fad. l b. al-H. asan b. al-Fad. l al-T. abars (d. ca. 548/1154),62

Imd al-Dn Ab Jafar Muh. ammad b. Al b. H. amza al-T. s al-Mashhad (= Ab Jafaral-thn, alive in 566/1171),63 Nas.r al-Dn Ab Rashd Abd al-Jall b. Ab l-H. usayn al-Qazwn al-Rz (d. after 566/1171),64 and others.

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

frhen imamitischen Theologie, Berlin, 1994; T. Bayhom-Daou, Shaykh Mufd, Oxford, 2005; R. M. el Omari, TheTheology of Ab l-Qsim 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 Mutazilkalm in the Imm Sha 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.abaqt almal-Sha,al-Nbis fl-qarn al-khmis, Beirut, 1391/1971, pp. 120f., 164f. The numerous doctrinal differencesbetween al-Shaykh al-Mufd and al-Sharf al-Murtad. were recorded by Qut.b al-Dn Ab l-H. usayn Sad b.Hibatillh b. al-H. asan al-Rwand (d. 573/11778),K. al-Ikhtilft = al-Khilf [alladhtajaddada] bayna l-Shaykh

al-Mufd wa-l-Sayyid al-Murtad. fmasil kalmiyya (see T. ihrn,al-Dhara il tas.nf al-Sha, vol. 1, p. 361;al-Lajna al-Ilmiyya f Muassasat al-Imm al-S.diq,Mu jam al-turth al-kalm, Qum, 1423/2002, vol. I, p. 203,no. 645; E. Kohlberg,A Medieval Scholar at Work: Ibn T. ws and his Library, Leiden, 1992, p. 217).

61. T.abaqt alm al-Sha (n. 60 above), Thiqt al-uyn fsdis al-qurn, 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-Rz madefrequent use of Sunnite and esp. Mutazilite texts. He is the author of a Persian Qurn commentary known inArabic asK. Rawd. al-jinn wa-rawh. al-jann ftafsr al-Qurn.

62. B. G. Fudge, The Major Qurn 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.abaqt alm al-Sha (n. 60 above), Thiqt

al-uyn, p. 216;al-Dhara il tas.nf al-Sha (n. 60 above), index vol. 2, pp. 1230f.

63.Dhara (n. 60 above), index vol. 5, p. 5; T.abaqt alm al-Sha (n. 60 above), Thiqt al-uyn, pp. 272f.64.Encyclopaedia Iranica, vol. I, p. 120 (W. Madelung, 1985). HisK. 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 repeatedlymentions Shite and Alid sympathies among Sunn scholars in Northern Iran and maintained friendly ties withmajor representatives of the H. anate school, including the above-mentioned Mutazil chief Qd. AbAbdallhMuh. 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-Rz who wrote a refutation of Ab l-H. usayn al-Bas.rs

K. Tas.affuh. al- adilla (Naqd. al-Tas.affuh. ) (Dhara (n. 60 above), vol. 24, p. 286, no. 1466;Mu jam al-turth al-kalm(n. 60 above), vol. 5, p. 410, no. 12248).


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With the introduction of Ab l-H. usayn al-Bas.rs thought to Khursn and Khwrazmduring 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-Rz (d. after 600/1204), a contemporary of Fakhr al-Dn al-Rz 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 MUTAZILA

In 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 theologicaltreatises that were instrumental to the subsequent reception of the Bahshamite doctrineamong the Zaydis in Yemen were written during the fourth/tenth and fth/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-taqld wa-l-murshid il l-tawh. d, ed. M. H. Al-Ysuf 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-Rz 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 TwelverShites see the editors introduction to the anonymousKhuls.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 immite 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-Allma al-H ill(d. 726/1325), Berlin, 1991;ead., Theologie, Philosophie und Mystik im zwlferschiitischen Islam des 9./15. Jahrhunderts. Die Gedankenwelt des

Ibn AbGumhr al-Ah.s(um 838/143435 nach 906/1501), Leiden, 2000, pp. 3f., 333 (index).67. For the reception of Mutazilkalm in 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 myHandbook of Mutazilite Works and Manuscripts (n. 9 above).69. See above n. 27 and in particular the eight texts (partially) edited by W. Madelung,Akhbr aimmat al-Zaydiyya

fT.abaristn wa-Daylamn wa-Jln[Arabic texts concerning the History of the ZaydImms of T.abaristn, Daylamn

and Gln], Beirut, 1987; id., Ab Ish.q al-S.bon 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 khrij al-Yaman (Aimmat Ahl al-Bayt, vol. I), Amman, 2002. In the meantime,most of the texts included inAkhbr a immat al-Zaydiyya have been edited separately; moreover, a complete manu-script copy of al-H. kim al-JishumsJal al-abs.rhas been found. Of particular relevance for the sixth/twelfth centuryisK. al-H. adiq al-wardiyya fmanqib aimmat al-Zaydiyya by AbAbdallh 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.waral-H. asan, S. an1423/2002, (consulted 30 Nov 2009).H. Ansari, and , hasextracted information on Caspian Zayds fromK. Mat.la al-budr wa-majma al-buh.r(n. 27 above).


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The knowledge transfer from the Caspian Zaydiyya to the Zayd state in Yemengradually increased throughout the sixth/twelfth century, from 511/1117, when theCaspian and the Yemenite Zaydiyya were politically united for the rst time under theImm AbT. 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 andtransmission of Zayd Mutazil learning in Northern Iran during the sixth/twelfthcentury may paradigmatically be illustrated by the School of Rayy whose mainrepresentatives were directly or indirectly linked to the major exponents of Bahshamitekalm in the scholarly circle around al-S

.h

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

Muayyad al-Dawla in Byid Rayy, such as Abd 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.iqbi-l-h. aqq, d. 424/1033).72 It may suce 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 theKhwrazmian and Khursanian traditions of Mutazil learning, the School of Rayy leftits distinctive marks among the Zayds in Yemen.

265


70. See Al al-Msaw Najjd, Turth al-Zaydiyya, Qum, 1383sh/2005, pp. 10110.71. See Madelung,Der Imm (n. 15 above), p. 218; id., Akhbr aimmat al-Zaydiyya (n. 69 above), pp. 13f.,

nn. 5f. The Zayds of the north state were, however, slowly pushed aside by the Nuzayrs and nally absorbed bythe Twelver Sha.

72. Many of these scholars are listed in the eleventh and twelfth t.abaqa and the appendix on Shite Mutazilitesin the above-mentioned (n. 10)Bb fdhikr al-Mutazila of al-Jishums Sharh. Uyn al-masil. SeeHandbook 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 School

of Rayy see the facsimile edition of the anonymous Sharh. K. al-Tadhkira f ah. km al-jawhir wa-l-ard. ,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,Kitb-i mh dn 104/105/106,1385/2006, pp. 6875, who showed Ab Jafar Muh. ammad b. Al Mazdak, a student of Ibn Mattawayh andteacher of Ab Muh. ammad Isml 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 Kitb al-Tadhkira,IslamicThought 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 la

Tad kira dIbn Mattawayh: premier inventaire, Journal Asiatique 296, 2008, pp. 203228; see, moreover, themanuscripts of al-Farrazdhs Talq al Sharh. al-us.l al-khamsa (MSS S. an, Maktabat al-Jmi al-Kabr al-Sharqiyya, Ilm al-kalm no. 73, with an important isndon fol. 1a, published byAbd al-Karm Uthmn in theintroduction to his edition of Mnekdms Talq, Cairo 1965, p. 24, n. 1; Riyadh: al-Maktaba al-Markaziyyabi-Jmiat al-Imm Muh. ammad b. Sad al-Islmiyya, no. 2404; Riyadh: Jmiat al-Malik Sad, no. 7784) with, , , , and. Some forthcoming articles by Ansari and Schmidtke will shed further light on the legacy ofthe 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 Siyh [Shh] Sarjn [Sarbjn] and his Writings, Mutazilism inRayy and Astarbd: Abu l-Fad. l al-Abbs b. Sharwn.


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YEMENITE ZAYD MUTAZILA

When the founder of the rst Zayd state in Yemen, the Imm al-Hd il l-H. aqq (Abl-H. usayn Yah.y b. al-H. usayn b. al-Qsim al-Rass) died in 298/911, his state comprisedlittle more than the city of S.ada.74 Al-Hds son Ab l-Qsim 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 the Ghayba-doctrine after the death of the Mahd al-H. usayn b. al-Qsim al-Iyn in 404/1013 the absence of the imamate became almostseen as the normal state of affairs.75

Around that time emerged the Mut.arriyya, 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 ZaydMutazilthought in Yemen duringthe sixth/twelfth century.76The Mut.arriyya was a pietist movement named after its found-inggure Mut.arrif b. Shihb b. mir b. Abbd al-Shihb (d. 459/1067), who initiallyhad been a fervent supporter of al-Mahd al- Iyns imamate, but then disavowed it afterthe imms alleged occultation. The Mut.arriyya aspired to adhere strictly to the teachingof al-Qsim 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.arriyya 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 Sayyidswas most apparent in the Mut.arrif concept of the imamate and the requirements to besatised by a potential imm pretender, stressing the conditions of merits and achievementsrather than those of ancestry and lineage.77 Unsurprisingly, the Mut.arriyya generally hadlittle support among the Alids 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-Hdwa-kruhu, Beirut, 1981.75. On al-H. usayn b. al-Qsim al-Iyn seeMin majm kutub wa-rasil al-Imm al- Iyn, ed. Abd al-Karm

Ah. mad Jadabn, S.an, 2006.76. On the Mut.arriyya see D. T. Gochenour, The Penetration of ZaydIslam into Early Medieval Yemen, Ph.D

thesis, Harvard University, 1984, pp. 186201; A. M. Zayd, Tayyrt Mutazilat al-Yaman fl-qarn al-sdis al-hijr,S.an, 1997, pp. 64104; Madelung, Mut.arriyya,EI, vol. 7, pp. 7723; id., A Mut.arrifManuscript,Proceedings

of 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 theliterature mentioned below. A detailed study of the Mut.arriyya is currently being prepared by my colleague H. Ansari;see for now and .

77. If the imm was to beafd.al (min) al-muminn, thisfad. lcould only be achieved by virtue of good deeds(wa-l yaknu hdh l-fad. l ill bi-s.lih. al-aml). See Zayd, Tayyrt (n. 76 above), pp. 86104, here p. 88;Gochenour, The Penetration of ZaydIslam (n. 76 above), pp. 199f. A particularly elaborate form of this merit-based concept of imamate was advocated by Nashwn al-H. imyar (d. 573/1178); see Zayd, pp. 1057 and I. b. A.al-Akwa,Nashwn b. Sad al-H. imyarwa-l-s.iral-krwa-l-siyswa-l-madhhabf as.rihi, Damascus, 1997.

78. Zayd, Tayyrt(n. 76 above), pp. 80f., 86104.


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Closely linked with the Mut.arriyya was the concept of hijra.79 The Mut.arriyyaviewed the duty ofhijra as the permanent obligation to emigrate from the dominationof the sinners and oppressors (dr al-z.ulm), as it had been dened by the Imam al-Qsim b. Ibrhm and his son Muh. ammad before the establishment of the imamate inthe Yemen. Under the reign of the Isml S. ulayh. ids, whom the Mut.arriyya, likeother Zayds, considered as arch-heretics and atheists, the obligation of hijra was ofthe most immediate urgency.80 Throughout the fth/eleventh century theMut.arriyya established a wide network ofhijras throughout the Northern part of theYemen. The hijra became the corner stone of an extensive missionary activity andstronghold against the Isml dawa and was constitutive to the spreading of Zayddoctrine into regions south of S

.ada as far as Dhamr that had hitherto been

unreached by the dawa of the Zayd Sayyids.81 The rst Mut.arrifhijra 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 ofthe S. ulayh. ids. The second hijrawas established in Wd Waqash which remained thecentre of the Mut.arrif movement and remained the seat of its leaders until thedestruction of the hijra in 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 the rst time under the Imm AbT. 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. ada, where the Caspian savant and Qd. Ab T. lib Nas.r

267


79. On the hijras see Gochenour, The Penetration of ZaydIslam (n. 76 above), pp. 148243, Zayd, Tayyrt(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 fl-Yaman, 6 vols, Beirut, 19962003; id.,al-Muhjir il hijar al- ilm fl-Yaman,S.an, 2006; id.,Les Higgra et les forteresses du savoir au Ymen, S. an, 1996; Y. Kuriyama, ZaydHijras in Yemenin the Late Eleventh and Early Twelfth Centuries: With a Focus on theHijras of the Mut.arrifya, Thgaku, 102,2001, pp. 9278 (sic!) [in Japanese, with English abstract pp. 7f.].

80. On the Ft.imid dawa in Yemen see A. F. Sayyid, Trkh al-madhhib al-dniyya fbild al-Yaman h.attnihyat al-qarn al-sdis al-Hijr, Cairo, 1988, pp. 91206.

81. Zayd, Tayyrt(n. 76 above), p. 73. Zaydism was a minor factor within a rather complex patchwork of

political entities and intellectual anities that made up Yemen in the early sixth/twelfth century. From apolitical 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 (= Bilqs al-s.ughr) in 532/1138, up to thesuccessive incursions by the Ayybid 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-Ym gained control of the city. By 545/1150 he was in control of all territory north of S. an, apartfrom S. ada, which remained in Zayd hands (see below). For a survey of the main historical sources forsixth/twelfth-century Yemen see Sayyid, Mas.dir trkh al-Yaman f l- as.r al-Islm, Cairo, 1974, pp. 99115,3539, 38495.


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b. Ab T. lib b. Ab Jafar was charged with promoting creed and law of the CaspianZaydiyya, including Bahshamite kalm.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-Mutawakkil al llh.83

For 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 ofparamount strategic signicance, and it was therefore natural for Ah. mad b. Sulaymn totry to recruit his support for the liberation of S.an among these hijras, all the more soas he had himself a very traditional Hdaw education (he was a sixth generationdescendant 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 we nd him quite often in

company of Mut.arrites, and his early works show clear anities with Mut.arrif doctrineswhich in major points corresponded with the doctrines of the Baghdd Mutazila asthey were adopted by al-Hd il l-H. aqq and his successors to the imamate in Yemen,84

complemented with an idiosyncratic concept of the structure of the physical world, whoseonly constituents are the three (or four) elements, their natural properties, and theinteractions between them.85

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GREGOR SCHWARB

82. Bahshamite kalmwas sparsely known among Yemenite Zaydis in the early sixth/twelfth century. It differedin substantial points (irda, ikhtir, tawallud, imma,fad. l) from the Hdaw-theology of the Mut.arriyya.Unsurprisingly, some of the earliest known Bahsham texts copied in Yemen were copied in S.ada, as is the case

with the acephalous ms. Milan, Biblioteca Ambrosiana, X 96 Sup. (= Codex Grini 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. usaynsK. Mabdi al-adilla fus.l al-dn (W. Madelung, Zu einigen Werken des Imams AbT. lib an-Nt.iqbi l-H. aqq,Der Islam 63, 1986, pp. 510), and Ab l-Fad. l al-Abbs Ibn SharwnsK. al-Madkhal fus.l al-dn(H. Ansari, .

83. See T.abaqt al-Zaydiyya al-Kubr (n. 27 above), pp. 1325, no. 50; T.abaqt al-Zaydiyya al-S.ughr (n. 27above);K. al-H. adiq al-wardiyya (n. 69 above), vol. 2, pp. 11733; Muh. ammad b. Al al-Zah. f,Ma thir al-abrr

f tafs.l mujmalt jawhir al-akhbr, wa-yusamm al-Lawh. iq al-naddiyya bi-l-H. adiq al-wardiyya, ed. A. al-Wajh and K. al-Mutawakkil, Amman, 1423/2002, pp. 74868; A. b. A. al-Wajh,Alm al-mu allifn al-Zaydiyya,Amman, 1420/1999, pp. 11416, no. 85; A. M. al-H. ibsh,Mas.dir al-kr al-islmfl-Yaman, 2nd ed., Abu Dhabi,2004, pp. 5346, 61619; M. b. M. Zabra, Trkh al-aimma al-Zaydiyya fl-Yaman h.att l- as.r al-h.adth, Cairo,1998, pp. 95108. GAL (n. 3 above), Suppl., vol. 1, p. 699, no. 2A; U. R. Kah. h.la,Mu jam al-mu allifn, Damascus,137681/195761, vol. 1, p. 239; A. al-H. usayn, Mu allaft al-Zaydiyya, Qum, 1413/1992, vol. 3, pp. 183f.;Madelung,Der Imam (n. 15 above), pp. 199f., index; Sayyid, Trkh al-madhhib al-dniyya (n. 80 above), pp. 265f.;id.,Mas.dir trkh al-Yaman (n. 81 above), pp. 107f.; Zayd, Tayyrt(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-Qsim al-Balkh and in particular

hisK. al-Maqltsee id., Tayyrt(n. 76 above), pp. 204f.; Sayyid, Trkh al-madhhib al-dniyya (n. 80 above),pp. 25154; el Omari, The Theology of Ab l-Qsim al-Balh (n. 58 above), p. 127; A. A. Fud,al-Imm al-ZaydAh. mad b. Sulaymn (500566) wa-ruhu al-kalmiyya, Alexandria, 1986. Ah. mad b. Sulaymn emphaticallyunderlined the close alliance between the Baghdd Mutazila and the Zaydiyya in hisK. H. aqiq al-marifa [fus.l al-dn al manhajl Sayyid al-mursaln], ed. H. . b. Y. al-Ysuf, Amman, 2003, pp. 524f.:Mashyikh al-

Baghddiyyn []yusammna Shat al-Mutazila wa-Mutazilat al-Sha, wa-samm l-Zaydiyya Mutazilatal-Sha wa-s.awwab l-Zaydiyya fjam aqwlihim wa-dhakar anna l-rqa al-njiya hum Shat al-Mutazilawa-Mutazilat al-Sha, 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.


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Within less than a century the relationship between the Mut.arriyya 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 ofhijraswas 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 highlysensitive 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,87 disputes on matters of doctrine were no mere trie. Indeed, developmentsin the theological doctrines of either side to the conict can hardly be understood, ifdetached from this historical context.

According to the common narrative of the Zayd sources, including the sra of theImm al-Mutawakkil Ah. mad b. Sulaymn,88 it was the visit of the afore-mentioned Fakhral-Dn Zayd b. al-H. asan al-Bayhaq al-Barawqan (d. 545/115051)89 that generated thesudden surge of Bahshamkalm among 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 the Irq H. anaf tradition, studied Bahshamkalmwiththe son of al-H. kim al-Jishum and became the major scion of the latters thought in

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86. Zayd, Tayyrt(n. 76 above), and A. M. Abd al-t.,al-S. iral-krfl-Yaman bayna l-Zaydiyya wa-l-Mut.arriyya. Dirsa 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.arriyya has become amuch debated topic in leading Yemenite academic journals (see, for istance, Zayd b. Al al-Wazr, al-Mut.arriyya:

al-kr wa-l-ma sh,al-Masr, 1.2, 2000, pp. 2784; Badr al-Dn al-H. th, Muh. ammad Yah.ySlim Azzn, Zaydb. Al al-Wazr, H. iwr h.awla l-Mut.arriyya, al-Masr, 2.2, 2001, pp. 6880 and 2.3, 2001, pp. 7094; H. asanMuh. ammad Zayd, Mih. nat al-Mut.arriyya wa-Shaykh al-Islm al-Umar,al-Masr4.23, 2003, pp. 12341 andin the same volume Zayd b. Al al-Wazr, Tawd. h. wa-taqb almaql Mih. nat al-Mut.arriyya, pp. 14372; id.,Fntiz.r jadd al-Mut.arriyya,al-Masr5.2, 2004, pp. 512 (p. 12: wa-laysa yawm z.uhrih bi-bad(!)) 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. iral-krfl-Yaman (n. 86 above), pp. 274334, hisK. al-Mis.bh. al-lih.fl-radd al l-Mut.arriyya, quotedin A. F. Sayyid, Trkh al-madhhib al-dniyya (n. 80 above), pp. 248250.

88. Srat al-Imm Ah. mad b. Sulaymn, 532566 H, ed. A. M. Abd al-t., al-Haram [Giza], 2002.89. On him see al-Wajh,Alm al-mu allifn al-Zaydiyya (n. 83 above), p. 435, no. 424. T.abaqt Alm al-

Sha (n. 60 above), Thiqt al-uyn, p. 112; Madelung,Der Imam (n. 15 above), pp. 203f., 2113; Zayd,Tayyrt(n. 76 above), n. 7, pp. 132f.; T.abaqt al-Zaydiyya al-Kubr (n. 27 above),pp. 44650, no. 261;K. Mat.laal-budr(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; see GAL (n. 3 above), vol. 1, p. 324, Supplement vol. 1, pp. 557f.).

90. According to the Bahsham doctrine ofikhtiral-ard. (the creation ex nihilo of a bodys accidents) theBahshamiyya was also called al-Mukhtaria. The sources give different points of origin regarding the debatebetween the Mukhtaria and the Mut.arriyya in Yemen. Most sources mention a dispute between Al b. Shuhr(arch-Mukhtaria) and Al b. Mah. fz. , the teacher of Mut.arrif b. Shihb (arch-Mut.arriyya) in the time of theImm al-Mans.r al-Qsim b. Al al-Iyn (d. 393/1003) as point of departure (see Sayyid, Trkh al-madhhib

al-dniyya (n. 80 above), 2416).


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Khursn. In 540/1146, while completing his h.ajj, he stopped at Rayy, where he taughtthe Bayhaq tradition of H. anaf Mutazilism to local H. anaf and Zayd students, amongthem the Qd. Najm al-Dn ut.b al-Sha 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-Ghuffr al-Astrbdh.91 After 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) ofKhawln S. ada,93 apparently bringing along numerous books of Khursnian andKhwrazmian Mutazils and Caspian Zayds.94

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

years teaching local Yemenite Zayds at the Hd Mosque in S.ada. He then moved toSan, which is where Mut.arrif b. Shihb had founded the rst Mut.arrifhijra. Accordingto the available Zayd sources al-Bayhaqs lectures succeeded in winning over manyMut.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-Bayhaqs teaching sessions in Sanwas 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 Bahshamkalm among 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.arriyya were markedly inferior to the sophisticated

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91. T.abaqt al-Zaydiyya al-Kubr (n. 27 above), pp. 447 and 574, no. 346; Zayd, Tayyrt(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 QurnCommentary (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 (ijza dated Dh l-H. ijja 555/1160). Al-Zamakhshar dedicated hisKashshfto Ibn Wahhs.

93. Ca. 35 miles southwest of S.ada, 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, Tayyrt(n. 76 above), p. 159. A copy of AbT. lib Yah.ysK. al-Mujzfus.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 a Vorlage in the handwriting of Zayd b. al-H. asan al-Bayhaq, dated 544/1150, i.e. during his stayin Yemen.

95. On Jafar b. Ah. mad seeEI, 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, Tayyrt(n. 76 above), pp. 130143, 30940, 341 (MSS); Sayyid, Trkh al-madhhib al-dniyya (n. 80 above), 2549; al-Wajh, Alm al-mu allifn al-Zaydiyya (n. 83 above), pp. 27882, no. 257; GAL (n. 3 above), vol. I, p. 403, Suppl. vol. I, pp. 699f.,no. 5a;Mujam al-muallifn (n. 83 above), vol. 3, p. 132; H. .A. al-Amr,Mas.dir al-turth al-Yamanfl-Math.af

al-Bart.n, Damascus, 1400/1980, pp. 14850; Mu allaft al-Zaydiyya (n. 83 above), vol. 3, pp. 197f.; Mat.laal-budr(n. 27 above), vol. 1, pp. 61724, no. 343; T.abaqt al-Zaydiyya al-Kubr (n. 27 above), pp. 2738, no.145; T.abaqt al-Zaydiyya al-S. ughr (n. 27 above), pp. 108110; Ma thir al-abrr(n. 83 above), pp. 76974;Taysr al-Mat.lib fAmlAbT. lib, ed. A. H. . al-Izz, Amman, 2002, pp. 2025; MS Berlin, Staatsbibliothek,Glaser no. 111.


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doctrines of the Bahsham Mutazila. It was also during this short period at San thatJafar b. Ah. mad started to endorse Ah. mad b. Sulaymn as Imm al-Mutawakkil. Onlyone year later, in 545/11501, when Ah. mad b. Sulaymn temporarily succeeded inwresting S.an from the Sult.n H. tim b. Ah. mad, Jafar was appointed Qd. of the town.This appointment was not innocent. The father of Jafar, Ah. mad b. Abd al-Salm servedas Qd. 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 Isml Qd. s of S. an

when the town was still under control of the Ft.imid S. ulayh. ids.96Jafars brother Yah.y(d. 562/1167) on the other hand served the Isml 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.97

Still in the same year (545/11501) it was decided that Jafar would accompany Zaydb. 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 his rih. la ft.alab al-ilm on 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 ofMutazil scholarship among the Zayds in Iraq and Iran around the middle ofsixth/twelfth century.98 On his way, Jafar studied with the principal Zayd scholars ofMecca and Kfa. The rih

.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-Bayhaqsclasses, when the latter passed through Rayy in 540/1146.99

After his return to Yemen in 553/1158 Jafar started to systematically propagatingBahshamkalm and the religious doctrines and literature of the Caspian and KfanZayd communities among Yemenite Zayds.100 To this end he opened his own madrasa

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96. Ah. mad b. Abdallh al-Wazr (d. 985/1577),K. al-Fad.il = Trkh al-sdt al-ulamal-fud.al wa-l-aimma min Banl-Wazr(MS), p. 151. T.abaqt al-Zaydiyya al-S.ughr (n. 27 above) describes the father as limal-bt.iniyya wa-h.kimuh wa-khat.buh and his brother s b. Ah. mad asshiruhum wa-nassbuhum. Zayd,Tayyrt(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 DMuh. 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), Trkh al-

Yaman al-musamm al-Mufd fakhbr S.an wa-Zabd wa-shu ar mulkih wa-a ynih wa-udabih, 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.arriyya.98. See Madelung,Der Imam (n. 15 above), pp. 21416;K. Mat.laal-budr(n. 27 above), vol. 1, pp. 61724,

no. 343; T.abaqt al-Zaydiyya al-Kubr (n. 27 above), 2738, no. 145.99. See above n. 92.100. By espousing the Bahshamite doctrine in the us.ln and by recognising the Caspian Zayd Imms as being

equally autoritative teachers with the Yemenite Imms, Jafar restored the ideological unity within the Zaydiyya.Zayd, Tayyrt(n. 76 above), p. 132 aptly described this transformational process as tah. wl itiqdt al-Zaydiyyamin al-Mut.arriyya il murifa bi-l-Mukhtari a.


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in San, the place of the oldest Mut.arrifhijra, 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.101 As 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.arriyya 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.arrift.abaqt,104 including Yah.y b. al-H.

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

.arrif

stronghold in Wd Waqash and acquaintance of Nashwn b. Sad b. Nashwn al-H. imyar (d. 573/1178).106 Signicantly, these confrontations lead on to the Mut.arritesdenitive rejection of Ah. mad b. Sulaymn as imm and the imms declaring theMut.arrif hijras as dr al-h.arb.107 The Mut.arrifs notably mistrusted the Isml

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101. Jafars works amount to more than sixty, most of which are extant, though only very few have been editedso far (see al-Wajh, Alm al-mu allifn 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 keyrole: thus, two of his extant school manuals in us.l al-qh, namelyK. al-Bayn andK. al-Taqrb fus.l al-qh, arecopied or excerpted from the seventh part (al-kalm fadillat al-shar ) of al-JishumsK. al-Uyn [compare MSMilan, Biblioteca Ambrosiana, Ar. D 544, ff. 109126 (K. al-Taqrb), 127214a (K. al-Bayn) 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, Tayyrt(n. 76 above), pp. 140f., T.abaqt al-Zaydiyya al-Kubr (n. 27above), pp. 276f. andK. Mat.laal-budr(n. 27 above), vol. 1, pp. 623f.

102. See Sulaymn b. Muh. ammad b. Ah. mad al-Muh. all,al-Burhn al-riq 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, Tayyrt(n. 76 above), p. 84.104. Musallam b. Muh. ammad b. Jafar al-Lah.j (d. 545/1150), T.abaqt/Trkh Musallam al-Lah.j=K. Akhbr

al-Zaydiyya min ahl al-baytalayhim al-salm wa-shatihim bi-l-Yaman, was completed in 544/1149. It containsbiographies of Zayd imms and scholars in the Yemen arranged in five t.abaqt(for MSS see al-Wajh,Alm al-mu allifn al-Zaydiyya (n. 83 above), 1028, no. 1102;Mas.dir al-kr al-islmfl-Yaman (n. 83 above), pp. 475f.;I use MS Riyadh, Jmiat al-Imm Muh. ammad b. Sad al-Islmiyya, no. 2449; see M. al-T. anh. ,al-Fihris al-was.fli-bad. nawdir al-makht.t.t bi-l-Maktabat al-Markaziyya bi-Jmiat al-Imm Muh ammad ibn Sa d al-Islmiyya

fl-Riyd , Riyadh, 1993, p. 19, no. 4). The extant second volume of this work contains the second portion of thethird, the complete fourth and fifth t.abaqt. The fifth t.abaqa covers Zayd scholars from the first half of the

sixth/twelfth century, contemporaneous to the author. See Gochenour, A Revised Bibliography (n. 24 above),pp. 31517; Y. Kuriyama, ZaydHijras in 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 Sra of Imm Ah. mad b. Yah.y Al-Ns.ir li-Dn Allh from Musallam al-Lah.js Kitb AkhbrAl-Zaydiyya bi l-Yaman, Exeter, 1990. An edition of al-Lahjs t.abaqtis 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, Tayyrt(n. 76 above), pp. 66f., 10529. In 559/1164 Ja far b. Ah. mad held public disputations

with Mut.arrif scholars in H. ad. r, Bakl, Ans, Zabd.107. The Mut.arrifs downgraded Ah. mad b. Sulaymn to al-amr; see Zayd, Tayyrt(n. 76 above), pp. 846.


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

Besides, Jafars teaching activities also met strong resistance among Sunn circles. Apublic disputation which took place in Ibb in 554/1159 with Al b. Abdallh b. Yah.yb. 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 severalpolemical texts.110

After Jafars death in 573/1177 his student H. usm al-Dn al-H. asan b. Muh. ammadal-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 ocial theology ofthe Yemenite Za

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