Download The Family & Mosque in Islam

Islamic History: the First 150 Years
Sources for the Early History of Islam
© Abdur Rahman 2006-2007
Session Plan
1. The Early Development of Arabic/Islamic
Historiography
2. Understanding Pre-Islamic Arabia
3. The Advent of Islam: the Impact of the Quran
4. Islamic Historiography: Key Features
5. The Rise of Historical Writing
6. The Impact of Islam: the Prophetic Example
7. Quranic ‘History’
Early Islamic Historiography
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Explore origins of this picture
Focus on origin, nature and development of
early Islamic historical writing
Survey first 300 years or so
Size of task means we will chart main
developments only
What is Historical Writing?
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What is Arabic/Islamic historiography?
Subject too vast to discuss now
Working definition…
Writing about the past from within the
Islamic tradition, very broadly defined
• Aim…
1. Brief survey of early Islamic historical
writing
2. Explore that tradition’s key features
The Past in Pre-Islamic Arabia
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Literacy?
Overwhelmingly Oral Culture
Oral ‘Literature’ or Poetry
Al-Ya`qubi
‘For the Arabs, poetry took the place of philosophy
and most of the sciences…In fact, the Arabs had
nothing to refer to for their opinions and actions
except poetry. It was with poetry that they fought; it
was poetry they quoted; in it they vied in virtue,
through it they exchanged oaths and with it they
exerted themselves against each other; in it they
were praised or blamed’ (Tarikh 1.262)
The Past in Pre-Islamic Arabia
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A tribal society
Kinship (real and imagined)
Bani Hashim & Quraysh
Stateless Environment
Blood feuds
The ‘Age of Ignorance’ (al-Jahiliyyah)
The Past in Pre-Islamic Arabia
• Loyalty to the tribe of paramount importance
• Abu Tamim Habib ibn Aus
‘I am of the Ghaziyya: if she be in error, then I will err;
and if Ghaziyya be guided right, I go right with her!’
‘Take for your brother whom you will in days of peace,
But know that when fighting comes, your kinsman alone
is near. Your true friend is your kinsman, who answers
your call for aid, With good will , when deeply drenched
in bloodshed are sword and spear. Oh never forsake
your kinsman even when he does you wrong, For what
he has marred he mends thereafter and makes sincere’
(Both quoted in Firestone, 1999, 31 & 145)
The Past in Pre-Islamic Arabia
• ‘Boasting’
• Hatim al-Ta’i
‘We are the noble ones, and no other clan is our
equal;
From our number kings [are raised], and among
us temples erected.
How many clans we have overpowered during
[our] raiding!
It is [only] a surfeit of might [such as ours] that
finds imitators…’
(Both quoted in Firestone, 1999, 31)
The Past in Pre-Islamic Arabia
• Concepts of Time…
Fate (al-Manaya)
‘I saw the Manaya strike blindly, whom they hit,
they slay, whom they miss lives on to weak old
age. He who dreads the ropes of Manaya, they
snare him, even were he to ascend the ropes of
heaven on a ladder. And he who does not
defend his fort with his weapons, his fort will be
destroyed; and he who does not oppress will
himself be oppressed. But when the arrows of
the Manaya are aimed at a man, neither
medicine nor magic avails him’
(quoted in Khalidi, 1994, 3)
The Past in Pre-Islamic Arabia
• Concepts of Time…
Sulmi ibn Rabi’a
‘Time (dahr) is change, Time’s fool is man,
Wealth or want, great store or small,
All is one since Death’s are all’
Hatim al-Ta’i
‘The young man runs, but his fated death (himam
al-mawt) reaches him.
Every day brings the fixed term nearer to him.
I know that my day will once reach me
And I shall not care for my world any more’
(Both quoted in Firestone, 1999, 29)
The Past in Pre-Islamic Arabia
Responses…
‘O my friends, a respected death
Is better than an illusory refuge;
Anxiety does not ward off the decree (qadar)
But endurance is a cause of victory.
Death (manaya) is better than vileness,
And having death before oneself is better than
having it behind.
Thus, courage! There is no escape from death ’
(Quoted in Firestone, 1999, 29)
The Past in Pre-Islamic Arabia
Living for the Moment…
‘Roast flesh, the glow of fiery wine, to speed
on camel fleet and sure, as thy soul lists to
urge her on through all the hollows breadth
and length; White women statue-like that trail
rich robes of price with golden hem, wealth,
easy lot, no dread of ill, to hear the lute’s
complaining string – these are Life’s joys.
For man is set the prey of Time [Dahr], and
Time is change’ (Quoted in Khalidi, 1994, 4)
The Past in Pre-Islamic Arabia
• Ayyam al-Arab Literature (‘Battle Days of
the Arabs’)
• Pre-Islamic poetry generally only survives
in Islamic sources
• Possible implications?
The Impact of the Quran
• A Cosmic Event
‘If We sent down this Quran upon a mountain,
you would see it humbled, shattered by the fear
of God’ (59:21)
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Use of dense, symbolic language
Considered miraculous in itself (more later)
Radically different from the Bible
Not a New Testament-style ‘history’
Considered to be the actual speech of God
(kalam Allah)
‘History’ in the Quran
• Creation ordered, purposeful and linear
• Definite beginning and definite ending
• Pre-Islamic ‘Fate’ and ‘Time’ rejected…
‘They say: there is nothing but our earthly life.
We die, we are born and only the Dahr destroys
us. But they have no knowledge of this for they
are only guessing…Say: It is God who gives you
life, then makes you die, then restores you to life
upon the Day of Resurrection, of which there is
no doubt. But most of mankind is ignorant’ (45:2426)
‘History’ in the Quran
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History marked by Prophets: i.e. 24:11
Muhammad the final Prophet
Exact role unclear
Provided an orientation towards the past
Moral significance of action
Israiliyyat
The Prophet’s Example
• Muhammad’s ideas about God provoked heated
discussion amongst friend and foe
‘To his enemies, he was a revolutionary bent upon
destroying the whole fabric of their society, whose
activities had to be keenly watched if the progress of
his mission was to be suppressed…If his enemies
took a close interest in his statements and actions,
the interest of his followers was more intense still.
They had accepted him as their sole guide and
prophet…All his actions served them as an ideal, and
hence a precedent (sunna); every word which he
uttered was a law to them…’ (Siddiqui, 1993, 2-3)
The Prophet’s Example
• The Muslim desire to record Prophet’s
teaching and career another factor in rise
of ‘history’
• Prophetic Traditions (more later)
• Vast amount of material
• Highly disparate quality
A Brief Pause
• Turn to the person next to you and spend
a couple of minutes summarising the
lecture thus far.
• Questions?
The Rise of Historical Writing
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Urwa ibn al-Zubayr & al-Zuhri
Ibn Ishaq & Ibn Hisham
Al-Baladhuri
Al-Tabari
Key Features
• Conversational framework
‘Narrated Ibn Abbas (May God be
pleased with him): Allah’s Messenger
(May God bless him and grant him
peace) was divinely inspired at the age
of forty. Then he stayed in Mecca for
thirteen years and was then ordered to
migrate and he migrated to Medina and
stayed there for ten years and then died’
(Bukhari no. 1580, 5:190)
Key Features: Isnad
• The ‘Chain of Narrators’ (Isnad)
‘Ismail ibn Abdullah told us that Malik ibn Anas told
him on the authority of Ishaq ibn Abdullah ibn Abi
Talha from Anas ibn Malik, may God be pleased with
him, who said…’ (Quoted by Rippin and Knappert, 1986, 73)
• Muhammad ibn Sirin
‘They did not ask about the isnad, but when civil war
…broke they said, ‘Name to us your men’; those who
belong to Ahl al-Sunnah, their traditions were
accepted and those who were innovators their
traditions were neglected’ (Quoted by A`zami, 2000, 213)
Key Features: Matn
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The Text itself (Matn)
Great variation in length
Often without wider context
Known as Hadith, Khabar or Akhbar
All mean, more or less, ‘news’ or ‘report’
In other words, oral transmission
The most socially privileged form
Ibn Sa’d
Questions
• If Muslim sources late, can they be
trustworthy?
• Does the existence of partisan bias, etc
mean the sources are useless?
• Modern Approaches…
• Sceptical
• Historical ‘core’
• Sources Misunderstood
• Hagarism – Crone & Cook