al-ʿusur al-wusta, volume 23

253 Pages·2016·20.12 MB·English

AL-ʿUṢŪR AL-WUSṬĀ 23 (2015)
THE JOURNAL OF
MIDDLE EAST MEDIEVALISTS
About
Middle East Medievalists (MEM) is an international professional non-profit association of scholars interested in the study of
the Islamic lands of the Middle East during the medieval period (defined roughly as 500-1500 C.E.). MEM officially came into
existence on 15 November 1989 at its first annual meeting, held in Toronto. It is a non-profit organization incorporated in the
state of Illinois. MEM has two primary goals: to increase the representation of medieval scholarship at scholarly meetings in
North America and elsewhere by co-sponsoring panels; and to foster communication among individuals and organizations
with an interest in the study of the medieval Middle East. As part of its effort to promote scholarship and facilitate
communication among its members, MEM publishes al-ʿUṣūr al-Wusṭā (The Journal of Middle East Medievalists).
EDITORS
Antoine Borrut, University of Maryland
Matthew S. Gordon, Miami University
MANAGING EDITOR
Christiane-Marie Abu Sarah, University of Maryland
EDITORIAL BOARD, BOARD OF DIRECTORS,
AL-ʿUṢŪR AL-WUSṬĀ (THE JOURNAL OF MIDDLE EAST MEDIEVALISTS) MIDDLE EAST MEDIEVALISTS

Zayde Antrim, Trinity College
President
Sobhi Bourdebala, University of Tunis
Matthew S. Gordon, Miami University
Muriel Debié, École Pratique des Hautes Études
Malika Dekkiche, University of Antwerp Vice-President
Fred M. Donner, University of Chicago Sarah Bowen Savant, Aga Khan University
David Durand-Guédy, Institut Français de Recherche en Iran and
Research Centre for Anatolian Civilizations, Istanbul Secretary
Nadia Maria El-Cheikh, American University of Beirut Antoine Borrut, University of Maryland
Maribel Fierro, Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas
Emma Gannagé, Georgetown University Treasurer
Denis Genequand, University of Geneva Eric Hanne, Florida Atlantic University
Ahmet Karamustafa, University of Maryland
Étienne de La Vaissière, École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales Board Members
Stephennie Mulder, The University of Texas at Austin Sean Anthony, University of Oregon
Marina Rustow, Princeton University Elizabeth Urban, West Chester University
Isabel Toral-Niehoff, Georg-August-Universität Göttingen
Alison Vacca, University of Tennessee Knoxville Editor of H-MEM
Peter Webb, SOAS, University of London Letizia Osti, State University of Milan
Luke Yarbrough, Saint Louis University
ISSN 1068-1051
Copyright © 2015 Middle East Medievalists.
All rights reserved.

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Website of the Middle East Medievalists: http://islamichistorycommons.org/mem/
Website of al-ʿUṣūr al-Wusṭā (The Journal of Middle East Medievalists):
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Al-ʿUṣūr al-Wusṭā (Editorial Office)
Antoine Borrut, Editor
Department of History, University of Maryland
2115 Francis Scott Key Hall,
College Park, MD 20742-7315 USA
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Letter from the Editors, Antoine Borrut and Matthew S. Gordon ...................................................................... i-ii
MEM AWARDS:
Remarks by Patricia Crone,
Recipient of the 2014 MEM Lifetime Achievement Award ............................................................................... iii-vi
Remarks by R. Stephen Humphreys,
Recipient of the 2013 MEM Lifetime Achievement Award ............................................................................... vii-x
ARTICLES:
Muḥammad’s Deputies in Medina
Michael Cook .............................................................................................................................................................1-67
Māwardī’s Legal Thinking
Christopher Melchert ............................................................................................................................................68-86
Ibn Aʿtham and His History
Lawrence I. Conrad .............................................................................................................................................. 87-125
NOTES AND BRIEF COMMUNICATIONS:
Can Doctoral Dissertations Disappear? A Look at Ibrahim al‐Hafsi’s
“Correspondance officielle et privée d’al‐Qāḍī al‐Fāḍil” and its Prospects in a Digital Age
Bogdan C. Smarandache ................................................................................................................................... 126-128
BOOK REVIEWS:
Stephennie Mulder, The Shrines of the ʿAlids in Medieval Syria: Sunnis, Shiʿis and the
Architecture of Coexistence
Zayde Antrim ..................................................................................................................................................... 129-133
Robert Hoyland, In God’s Path: The Arab Conquests and the Creation of an Islamic Empire
Fred M. Donner .................................................................................................................................................. 134-140
ʿAbd al-Raḥmān Maḥjūbī, Al-Muṣṭalaḥ al-ḥadīthī min khilāl Kitāb al-jarḥ wa-al-taʿdīl
li-Ibn Abī Ḥātim al-Rāzī (240-327 H)
Christopher Melchert ....................................................................................................................................... 141-142
Seta Dadoyan, The Armenians in the Medieval Islamic World: Paradigms of
Interaction, Seventh to Fourteenth Centuries. Volume One: The Arab Period in
Armīnyah, Seventh to Eleventh Centuries
Alison M. Vacca .................................................................................................................................................. 143-146
Al-ʿUṣūr al-Wusṭā 23 (2015)
TABLE OF CONTENTS (CONT.)
BOOK REVIEWS (CONT.):
Ṭaha Ḥusayn ʿAwaḍ Hudayl, Tamarrudāt al-qabīla fī ʿaṣr al-dawla al-Rasūlīya
wa-atharhā fī al-ḥayāt al-ʿāmma fī al-Yaman (626-858 H)
Daniel Martin Varisco ....................................................................................................................................... 147-148
Aziz al-Azmeh, The Emergence of Islam in Late Antiquity: Allāh and His People
Peter Webb .......................................................................................................................................................... 149-153
Jāsim Muḥammad Kaẓim, Ahl al-dhimmah fī al-mujtamaʿ al-Baghdādī fī al-ʿahdayn
al-Buwayhī wa-al-Saljūqī
Luke Yarbrough ................................................................................................................................................. 154-159
IN MEMORIAM:
Thierry Bianquis (1935-2014)
Peri Bearman ...................................................................................................................................................... 160-163
Irene “Renie” A. Bierman-McKinney (1942-2015)
Jere L. Bacharach ............................................................................................................................................... 164-166
Clifford Edmund Bosworth (1928-2015)
Arezou Azad ....................................................................................................................................................... 167-178
Clifford Edmund Bosworth: An Updated Bibliography
Michael O’Neal ................................................................................................................................................... 179-217
“With All Good Wishes”: Remembering Patricia Crone (1945-2015)
Karen Bauer, Bella Tendler Krieger, Deborah Tor, Kevin Van Bladel ....................................................... 218-226
Wolfhart P. Heinrichs (1941-2014)
Michael Cooperson ........................................................................................................................................... 227-229
George T. Scanlon (1925-2014)
Iman Abdulfattah .............................................................................................................................................. 230-236
ANNOUNCEMENTS:
Join MEM or Renew Your MEMbership: An Invitation from Middle East Medievalists ........................ 237-238
George T. Scanlon Graduate Student Award in Arab and Islamic Civilizations .............................................. 238
Al-ʿUṣūr al-Wusṭā 23 (2015)
Letter from the Editors
his new issue of al-ʿUṣūr al-Wusṭā members and our MEMbership, we have
T
(UW) marks a turning point. UW refashioned it into what you find here
began in 1989 as a newsletter, before you: an online, open access, peer-
edited by Sam Gellens, a co-founder with reviewed journal. Our aim is to make use
Richard Bulliet of Middle East Medieval- of the best qualities of online publishing:
ists. Fred Donner, as president of MEM the flexibility and timeliness that are a
(1992-1994), then expanded UW into a hallmark of publications of this kind. We
substantial bulletin, the first issue of which also believe that we will provide colleagues
appeared in 1992 (4:1). He added new worldwide – especially those without
features: research articles and reviews of ready access to the best libraries – a means
books in Arabic and other Middle Eastern by which to keep abreast of trends in our
languages, thus publications about which respective fields.
many of us would not have been aware. We will continue where the bulletin
The bulletin has played an invaluable role left off: we will produce reviews of new
in this sense, and in continuing to provide publications, written in European and
news of developments in the discipline. Middle Eastern languages alike; short
Our appreciation of the work of “thought pieces” and other brief notices of
Professor Donner – and the many ongoing and forthcoming work; obituaries;
contributors to the bulletin – runs deep. and as much news of the field as we can
But the time came to consider anew the provide. We urge you, our readers and
role, format and content of UW. Following colleagues, to continue sending us material
much discussion among the editors, board of this kind.
(Photo of Antoine Borrut by Juliette Fradin Photography)
Al-ʿUṣūr al-Wusṭā 23 (2015): i-ii
Letter from the Editors
But we will now rely on a peer review the depth of scholarship for which each of
system in producing original, full-length the two individuals is known. Alongside the
articles. Our aim is attract the best work three principal articles, and an important
of colleagues from across the globe, short notice by Bogdan Smarandache, are
drawing on new research initiatives across several book reviews, a set of six obituaries
the many individual fields that make up of colleagues recently deceased, and the
Islamic and Middle Eastern studies writ respective texts of comments by Patricia
large. It is in recognition of such work, Crone and Steven Humphreys (recipients
and, it needs to be said, the realities of the of the MEM Lifetime Achievement Award).
tenure system, that we are carrying out As a measure of our commitment to
these changes. remaking UW, we would point out that
It is also in light of these changes that we this first issue runs to a total of nearly
are very pleased to announce the creation 250 pages. Our conviction is that al-ʿUṣūr
of a new UW editorial board. The new al-Wusṭā provides the ideal venue in which
board consists of colleagues from a variety to publish new and exciting scholarship on
of institutions and scholarly backgrounds. the history of the medieval Middle East.
Their participation, we believe, will ensure We invite you, our readers and colleagues,
high-level contributions and access to a to participate by contributing your latest
global scholarly network. work.
The content of our new issue represents And one last note: we will continue to
scholarship of this kind. We are delighted rely on your financial support. That UW is
to have the opportunity to publish now an open access journal should not be
Lawrence Conrad’s article on Ibn Aʿtham understood to mean that it is free: it is not.
al-Kufi’s K. al-Futuh, a significant study To cover costs of publication and the work
known only to the lucky few that have had of our part-time managing editor, among
the opportunity to read it in unpublished other expenses, we ask that you keep your
form. We are grateful to Dr. Conrad for membership in Middle East Medievalists
agreeing to allow us to bring it to print. up to date, and that you consider a gift to
We are no less pleased to have articles by the MEM general fund. For information on
Michael Cook and Christopher Melchert, membership and the fund, please proceed
neither of whom requires an introduction; to MEM’s website:
their respective contributions here reflect http://islamichistorycommons.org/mem/
Sincerely,
Antoine Borrut and Matthew S. Gordon
Al-ʿUṣūr al-Wusṭā 23 (2015): ii
MEM Awards
Remarks by the Recipient of the 2014 MEM Lifetime Achievement Award
Written for the Annual Meeting of Middle East Medievalists
and Read in Absentia by Matthew S. Gordon
(November 22, 2014, Washington, D.C.)
Patricia Crone*
Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton
hen I discussed with Matthew I became an Islamicist instead. Anyway,
W
what I should talk about, he said I met this Moroccan in Avignon, and he
he’d like to hear some manner told me the story of the Battle of Siffin:
of reflection on my work, career, books, the Syrians were losing and responded by
students, and the state of the field, or hoisting Qurans on their lances, the battle
some combination of these things. Well, I stopped, and so Ali lost. It never occurred
doubt that I shall be able to talk about all to me to believe it; I smiled politely
these things, but let me start by telling you and thought to myself, “when I get to
a story. university I’ll hear a different story.” I got
One summer towards the end of my to Copenhagen University, but no Islamic
time at school, one of my sisters and I history was taught there, only Semitic
went to the theatre festival at Avignon, philology, which I did not want to do,
and there for the first time in my life, I met and history, meaning European history,
a live Muslim, a Moroccan. I had decided which I did do and enjoyed, but which was
to study the Muslim world without ever not where I wanted to stay. Eventually I
knowingly having set eyes on an Arab or got myself to England, and there I was
Persian or heard Arabic or Persian spoken. accepted by SOAS and heard Professor
There weren’t any of them in Denmark Lewis lecture on early Islamic history,
back then: it was Gilgamesh who had including the Battle of Siffin. He told the
seduced me. I discovered him in my teens story exactly as my Moroccan friend had
and wanted to be an ancient Near Eastern told it. I could not believe it. It struck me
archaeologist, but for a variety of reasons as obvious that the narrative was fiction,
* Middle East Medievalists is deeply saddened by Patricia Crone’s passing in July 2015. Several colleagues
have written reminiscences in her memory to be found in the “In Memoriam” section of the journal below.
[A. B.]
Al-ʿUṣūr al-Wusṭā 23 (2015): iii-vi
iv • Patricia crone
and besides, everyone knows that battle understood as, “Is all this really something
accounts are most unlikely to be reliable, that happened in year 82 (or whenever) or
least of all when they are told by the loser. is it stereotyped battle scenes interspersed
I thought about it again many years later, with poetry that could be put in any heroic
in 2003, when one of Saddam Hussain’s account in need of amplification?” I don’t
generals, Muhammad Saeed al-Sahhaf, know, for he did not explain. He never did.
also known as comical (not chemical) Ali, He was an imam samit.
persistently asserted that the Iraqis had From all this you can see two things.
defeated the Americans and put them to First, it was not exposure to Wansbrough
flight, so that there weren’t any American that made me a sceptic or radical or
troops in Iraq any more. At the very least whatever else they like to call me. I was
one would have expected Lewis to say a sceptic already in Avignon, years before
something about the problematic nature I came to England, without being aware
of battle narratives, and was this really of it. In my own understanding I was just
true? But no: it was a truth universally thinking commonsense. And secondly,
acknowledged that, during the Battle of Islamic history was not studied at an
Siffin, the Syrians hoisted Qurans on their advanced level. I don’t know how the Battle
lances and thereby stopped the battle, of Siffin is taught these days, but I cannot
depriving the Iraqis of their victory. imagine it is done with the credulity of
I think this is the biggest academic those days and, at least in England, Lewis
shock I’ve ever suffered, but I didn’t say must take part of the credit for this, for he
anything. I never did, I was too shy. And was very keen for Islamicists to become
then I encountered John Wansbrough. He historians.
read Arabic texts with us undergraduates, After I’d finished my thesis, Michael
clearly thinking we were a hopeless lot, but Cook and I finished Hagarism (1977) which
he was the first person I met at SOAS who I assume you have heard about and don’t
doubted the Siffin story. As it turned out, propose to talk about; and next, in between
he doubted just about everything in the some articles, I wrote Slaves on Horses
tradition. I was fascinated by him. I wanted (1980), which was the first third of my
to know how he thought we should go thesis, drastically rewritten. Then it was
about writing about early Islamic history, Roman, Provincial and Islamic Law (1987),
so I continued reading texts with him as a which was a drastically rewritten version
graduate, but I never got an answer. Once, of my thesis part two and which I loved
when we were reading Tabari’s account of researching because the literature on the
Ibn al-Ashʿath’s revolt in the mid-Umayyad Greek, Roman and provincial side was so
period, Wansbrough asked: “what year are superb. The legal learning possessed by
we in?” I thought he simply meant “what these late nineteenth- and early twentieth-
year has Tabari put this in?,” but when I century German and Italian scholars was
replied year 82,” or whatever, he acidly incredible, and on top of that they were
retorted, “I see you have the confidence of wonderfully intelligent and lucid. The
your supervisor,” meaning Bernard Lewis, First World War and now it is all gone.
my supervisor, whom he deeply disliked. Apparently it isn’t even done to admire
I think his question was meant to be them any more. A perfectly friendly
Al-ʿUṣūr al-Wusṭā 23 (2015)
Remarks by the Recipient of the 2014 MEM Lifetime Achievement Award • v
reviewer of my book on law cautioned also because I wrote without footnotes. It
his readers that I was an admirer of these saves you masses of time. PIS, as I called it
scholars, as if it were self-evident that they (pronouncing it Piss) was barely reviewed
were bad people. I don’t see why. and took a while to gather attention,
In any case, Meccan Trade came out in and it too was riddled with misprints,
the same year. It was delayed by a report but the misprints should now have been
so negative that I withdrew it and sent it eliminated and a fresh print-run with a
to Princeton University Press. The author new cover is on its way.
of the negative report said that I should The next book I wrote was The Book
have my head examined, that nothing I’d of Strangers: Medieval Arabic Graffiti on
written would win general acceptance the Theme of Nostalgia (1999), which was
and that I’d never get a job in America. completely new to me when I started
This last was particularly hilarious since translating it. I inherited it from Martin
it had never occurred to me to apply for Hinds and was captivated by it, but had
one there. Serjeant was also outraged by trouble with the poetry in it. However,
Meccan Trade. He wrote a furious review Shmuel Moreh came to Cambridge shortly
in which he accused me of all sorts of after I’d started, and he was well versed in
misdeeds. But today the book is perceived Arabic poetry, so I asked him if he’d help
as being about the location of Mecca, to me, and he would. So we translated it
which I devote a page. I’ve even heard together and I took responsibility for the
somebody introduce me as a speaker and rest.
list Meccan Trade among my books with That book almost generated another
the comment that it is about the location Siffin story. The author is traditionally
of Mecca, to which I had to say sorry, no, identified as Abu ’l-Faraj al-Isfahani, but
actually Meccan Trade is about Meccan he himself says that he was in his youth
trade. in 356/967, which makes him considerably
After Meccan Trade, or at the same time younger than Abu ’l-Faraj [who allegedly
(both this and other books took a long time died in 356/967 – A. B.]. Yaqut, who said he
to reach print), I published God’s Caliph did not know how to resolve the problem,
with Martin Hinds. It was a short book, but noticed this already. There is only one
Calder nonetheless thought it was long- way to resolve it: the author is not Abu
winded: I admit I found that hard to take ’l-Faraj. The book doesn’t have much in
seriously. It was as usual: the reviewers common with Abu ’l-Faraj’s works either.
found fault with this, that and the other, But a specialist in Abu ’l-Faraj insisted
and you let it pass. The one thing I really that it was him and came up with the
disliked about God’s Caliph was the massive explanation, also tried by older scholars,
number of misprints, which Martin Hinds that Abu ’l-Faraj was senile when he wrote
was no better at spotting than I was. the book, so that he had forgotten when
It must have been after God’s Caliph had he was young. Honestly, the things that
gone to press that I wrote Pre-Industrial Islamicists will say!
Societies, which I hugely enjoyed doing The next book was also a joint project
because I had to read about all kinds of and also connected with Martin Hinds and
places that I didn’t know much about, and the so-called “Hinds-Xerox” which Martin
Al-ʿUṣūr al-Wusṭā 23 (2015)
vi • Patricia crone
had received from Amr Khalifa Ennami and a lot of work on the Ismailis, for example
which Michael Cook used for his section because I did not know the sources well
on the Murjiʿa in his Early Muslim Dogma. enough. I was also acutely aware of having
Martin Hinds was working on the last inadequate knowledge of the last century
section of the manuscript when he died. before the Mongol invasions and don’t
I could have finished that last section, think I managed to get that right. I suppose
but it seemed a bad idea to translate yet I was running out of patience. I wasn’t
another fragment. What should be done under any pressure, for I had refused a
was a translation of the whole epistle. contract. I usually did until I was close to
But I couldn’t do that on my own – there the end.
were parts of the manuscript that I simply My book on political thought was the
could not decipher. So I asked my former first book of mine that was uniformly well
colleague in Oxford, Fritz Zimmermann, received. All the others had a controversial
if he would participate, and thank God, element to them that the reviewers didn’t
he would. So we started by writing a like, if only for my refusal to accept that
translation each and then amalgamating Abu’l-Faraj al-Isbahani had forgotten when
them, with long pauses over passages that he was young. Mercifully, there were also
seemed impossible. Fritz had some great reviewers who found that a ridiculous
brain waves, and somehow we managed to argument. Not long afterwards they gave
get a complete typescript together. Then me the Levi della Vida medal and I also
there was all the rest, where the fun for received several honorary doctorates.
me lay in comparing Salim and the Ibadi Altogether, it was clear that I was no
epistles that I had been able to buy in longer an enfant terrible.
Oman. The Epistle of Salim b. Dhakwan My latest, and probably also last, book is
was published in Oxford in 2001. Very few The Nativist Prophets of Early Islamic Iran:
people are interested in the Ibadis so it has Rural Revolt and Local Zoroastrianism
not exactly been a bestseller, but I learned (2012), which had its roots in my teaching
an extraordinary amount from writing it. in Oxford and which was very exciting to
After that, I wrote Medieval Islamic write because it was about villagers, whom
Political Thought, which the Americans we rarely see in the sources, and because
called God’s Rule, though it is disagreeably their form of Zoroastrianism was quite
close to God’s Caliph and not particularly different from that of the Pahlavi books.
apt in my view. That book started as exam That book was also well received, it was
questions in Cambridge. Carole Hillenbrand awarded no less than four book-prizes,
was our external examiner, and when she for its contribution to Islamic studies, to
saw the questions, she asked me if I wanted Iranian studies, to Central Asian studies, to
to write a volume of political thought historical studies in general.
for her Edinburgh series. I liked the idea, If I had not fallen ill, I would have
envisaging the book as much smaller than started a book on the Dahris, Godless
it actually became. I also thought I could people on whom I have written some
do it fast because I thought I knew the field articles, and who are certainly worth a
inside out, but that was only true of some book. But I don’t think I have enough time.
of the subjects I wrote about. I had to do
Al-ʿUṣūr al-Wusṭā 23 (2015)