Table Of Content
IDEAS, IMAGES, AND METHODS OF PORTRAYAL
ISLAMIC HISTORY
AND CIVILIZATION
STUDIES AND TEXTS
edited by
WADAD KADI
AND
ROTRAUD WIELANDT
VOLUME 58
IDEAS, IMAGES, AND
METHODS OF PORTRAYAL
Insights into Classical Arabic Literature
and Islam
EDITED BY
SEBASTIAN GÜNTHER
BRILL
LEIDEN•BOSTON
2005
Cover painting by Abdarrahman al-Saqqaf, a contemporary Yemeni artist (S. Günther, Toronto).
This book is printed on acid-free paper.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Ideas, images, and methods of portrayal : insights into classical Arabic literature and Islam/
edited by Sebastian Günther.
p. cm. — (Islamic history and civilization. Studies and texts, ISSN 0929-2403 ; v. 58)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 90-04-14325-4 (alk. paper)
1. Islamic Empire—Civilization. 2. Islamic Empire—Intellectual life. 3. Arabic
literature—History and criticism. 4. Philosophy, Islamic. I. Günther, Sebastian. II. Series.
DS36.85.I34 2005
909'.09767—dc22
2005042018
ISSN 0929-2403
ISBN 90 04 14325 4
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CONTENTS
Foreword .................................................................................... ix
By Tarif Khalidi
Preface and Acknowledgments .................................................. xiii
Introduction ................................................................................ xv
By Sebastian Günther
Chapter One Context Equivalence:
A Hitherto Insufficiently Studied Use of the Quran in
Political Speeches from the Early Period of Islam .............. 1
By Stephan Dähne
Chapter Two Classical Heritage and New Literary Forms:
Literary Activities of Christians during the Umayyad
Period ...................................................................................... 17
By Ute Pietruschka
Chapter Three Refuting the Charge of Ta˙rìf: Abù Rà"i†a
(d. ca. 835) and his “First Risàla on the Holy Trinity” .......... 41
By Sandra Toenies Keating
Chapter Four Meeting the Patron:
An Akhbàr Type and its Implications for Mu˙dath Poetry .... 59
By Beatrice Gruendler
Chapter Five Advice for Teachers:
The 9th Century Muslim Scholars Ibn Sa˙nùn and
al-Jà˙iΩ on Pedagogy and Didactics .................................... 89
By Sebastian Günther
Chapter Six Medieval Muslim Scholarship and Social
Network Analysis: A Study of the Basra/Kufa
Dichotomy in Arabic Grammar ............................................ 129
By Monique Bernards
vi contents
Chapter Seven The Contribution of the Mawàlì to the
Six Sunnite Canonical Óadìth Collections .......................... 141
By John Nawas
Chapter Eight Portrayal of the Óajj as a Context for
Women’s Exegesis: Textual Evidence in al-Bukhàrì’s
(d. 870) “al-Ía˙ì˙” .................................................................. 153
By Aisha Geissinger
Chapter Nine Image Formation of an Islamic Legend:
Fà†ima, the Daughter of the Prophet Mu˙ammad ............ 181
By Verena Klemm
Chapter Ten Narratives and Character Development:
Al-ˇabarì and al-Balàdhurì on Late Umayyad History .... 209
By Steven C. Judd
Chapter Eleven “The Alchemy of Happiness”:
Al-Ghazàlì’s Kìmiyà and the Origins of the
Khwàjagàn-Naqshbandiyya Principles .................................. 227
By Alexei A. Khismatulin
Chapter Twelve Taqlìd of the Philosophers:
Al-Ghazàlì’s Initial Accusation in his Tahàfut ...................... 273
By Frank Griffel
Chapter Thirteen The Spread of ¸àhirism in
Post-Caliphal al-Andalus: The Evidence from
the Biographical Dictionaries ................................................ 297
By Camilla Adang
Chapter Fourteen Working within Structure:
Al-Zamakhsharì (d. 1144): A Late Mu'tazilite Quran
Commentator at Work .......................................................... 347
By Andrew J. Lane
Chapter Fifteen The First Islamic Revolt in Mamlùk
Collective Memory: Ibn Bakr’s (d. 1340) Portrayal
of the Third Caliph 'Uthmàn .............................................. 375
By Heather Keaney
contents vii
Chapter Sixteen The Sword and the Pen in the
Pre-Modern Arabic Heritage: A Literary Representation
of an Important Historical Relationship .............................. 403
By Adrian Gully
About the Authors ...................................................................... 431
Indices .......................................................................................... 433
Proper Names ........................................................................ 433
Geographical Names and Toponyms .................................... 450
Titles of Books and Other Texts .......................................... 453
Quranic References ................................................................ 458
Topics and Keywords ............................................................ 460
FOREWORD
Exciting things are happening in Arabic-Islamic intellectual history.
The present collection of articles is an example of what new method-
ologies and new formulations of old questions can yield by way of
insights. It is therefore a pleasure and a privilege to be asked to
write a Foreword to this volume, one which sets out to show what
a younger generation of Arabists and Islamicists can bring to a dis-
cipline which, in the West at least, can be traced back to the
Renaissance of the twelfth century.
As this volume of essays demonstrates, there are several reasons
for this excitement. The first and most visible in my view is the new
and more systematic attention being paid by younger scholars to
current theoretical breakthroughs in intellectual and cultural history.
Such postulates as speech-act theory, theories of representation, new
quantitative methodologies, textual theories, new historicist theories,
the impact of contemporary social science theory and, in particular,
a number of prominent modern theorists like Clifford Geertz and
Michel Foucault, have all combined to deepen our understanding of
classical Arabic culture and literature.
The second reason emanates from the first. By invoking new
methodologies and in asking new questions, these essays are helping
to bring the field of pre-modern Arabic-Islamic culture into line with
what is already happening in adjacent fields, e.g. the study of medieval
Europe. My generation of students of classical Arabic culture had
not been as open to theory as this younger generation is. Thus, we
would occasionally cast envious eyes at other medievalist colleagues,
at the theoretical freshness and vividness of their work, the windows
they opened onto subjects and themes there for the grasping in our
own immensely rich Arabic sources. Why did we not attempt a clas-
sical Arabic Montaillou? An Arabic Peter Brown’s Augustine? A study
à la Le Goff’s Intellectuals?
I am delighted that this collection of essays shows that we are
now taking firm steps in that direction. In one area at least our
sources are incomparably richer: the area of biography. No pre-mod-
ern civilization known to me teems with so many people, with flesh
and blood individuals, men and women, as does classical Arabic. A
