Table Of ContentLONDON ORIENTAL SERIES • VOLUME 34
THE SECTARIAN
MILIEU
CONTENT AND
COMPOSITION OF ISLAMIC
SALVATION HISTORY
BY
JOHN WANSBROUGH
Reader in Arabic
School of Oriental and African Studies
University of London
OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS
1978
Oxford University Press, Walton Street, Oxford 0x2 6dp
OXFORD LONDON GLASGOW
NEW YORK TORONTO MELBOURNE WELLINGTON
KUALA LUMPUR SINGAPORE JAKARTA HONG KONG TOKYO
DELHI BOMBAY CALCUTTA MADRAS KARACHI
NAIROBI DAR ES SALAAM CAPE TOWN
© John Wanshrough 1978
AU rights reserved. No part of this publication may be
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British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
Wansbrough, John
The sectarian milieu. - (London Oriental
series; Vol. 34).
i. Islamic theology - History
I. Title II. Series
297*.2*0902i BP166.1 78-40493
ISBN 0-19-713596-x
Printed in Great Britain
at the University Press, Oxford
by Eric Buckley
Printer to the University
London Oriented Series
No. 1 PHONETICS IN ANCIENT INDIA
W. SIDNEY ALLEN
•No. 2 THE DIACRITICAL POINT AND THE ACCENTS IN SYRIAC
J. B. SEGAL
fNo. 3 THE MANICHAEAN HYMN CYCLES IN PARTHIAN
MARY BOYCE
fNo. 4 THE BACKGROUND OF THE REBELLION OF AN LU-SHAN
EDWIN G. PULLEYBLANK
•No. 5 SOCIAL POLICY AND SOCIAL CHANGE IN WESTERN INDIA
1817-1830
KENNETH BALLHATCHET
No. 6 THE HEVAJRA TANTRA
D. L. SNELLGROVE. TWO Volumes
fNo. 7 THE GÄNDHÄRI DHARMAPADA
Edited with an Introduction and Commentary by JOHN brough
•No. 8 THE HISTORY OF THE CAUCASIAN ALBANIANS BY
MOVSËSDASXURANÇI
Translated by c. J. f. dowsett
fNo. 9 KURDISH DIALECT STUDIES, Vol. I
D. N. MACKENZIE
fNo. 10 KURDISH DIALECT STUDIES, Vol. II
D. N. MACKENZIE
No. 11 NINETEENTH-CENTURY MALAYA
The Origins of British Political Control
c. D. COWAN
No. 12 THE HEBREW PASSOVER FROM THE EARLIEST TIMES TO
A.D. 70
J. B. BBOAL
fNo. 13 THE MORPHOLOGY OF THE TIGRE NOUN
F. R. PALMER
•No. 14 JAINA YOGA
A Survey of the Medieval Srävakäcäras
R, WILLIAMS
fNo, IS TIDDIM CHIN
A Descriptive Analysis of Two Texts
IUOAnII j. a. HENDERSON
•Na. 16 NE8URI’S HISTORY OF THE OTTOMANS
The Sources end Development of the Text
V. L. mAnaob
fNa, 1? EASTERN ARABIAN DIALECT STUDIES
T, M. JOHNSTONE
•N* II THE NINE WAYS OF BON
Eaoerpts from gZl-brjid
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fNo. 19 TIBETAN TEXTS CONCERNING KHOTAN
R. E. EMMERICK
fNo. 20 SAKA GRAMMATICAL STUDIES
R. E. EMMERICK
fNo. 21 THE BOOK OF ZAMBASTA
A Khotanese Poem on Buddhism
Edited and translated by R. E. emmerick
fNo. 22 THE ‘SÜTRA OF THE CAUSES AND EFFECTS OF ACTIONS*
IN SOGDIAN
Edited by d. n. Mackenzie
fNo. 23 THE KHOTANESE ÖÜRANGAMASAMÄDHISUTRA
R. E. EMMERICK
fNo. 24 A DICTIONARY OF THE MON INSCRIPTIONS FROM THE
SIXTH TO THE SIXTEENTH CENTURIES
Incorporating materials collected by the late C. O. Blagden
H. L. SHORTO
+No. 25 THE FINANCIAL SYSTEM OF EGYPT
A.H. 564-741/A.D. 1169-1341
HASSANEIN M. RABIE
♦No. 26 THE TREASURY OF GOOD SAYINGS: A TIBETAN HISTORY
OF BON
SAMTEN G. KARMAY
fNo. 27 POPULATION PRESSURE IN RURAL ANATOLIA 1450-1600
M. A. COOK
No. 28 THE MODAL SYSTEM OF ARAB AND PERSIAN MUSIC
1250-1300
O. WRIGHT
No. 29 THE SHEN TZU FRAGMENTS
P. M. THOMPSON
No. 30 JOGJAKARTA UNDER SULTAN MANGKUBUMI 1749-1792:
A HISTORY OF THE DIVISION OF JAVA
M. C. RICKLEFS
No. 31 QURANIC STUDIES: SOURCES AND METHODS OF
SCRIPTURAL INTERPRETATION
J. WANSBROUGH
No. 32 THE GOVERNMENT OF INDIA AND REFORM: POLICIES
TOWARDS POLITICS AND THE CONSTITUTION 1916-1921
P. G. ROBB
No. 33 THE MEMORIAL FEAST FOR KÖKÖTÖY-KHAN: A KIRGHIZ
EPIC POEM
A. T. HATTO
♦ These volumes are out of print.
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CONTENTS
PREFACE page ix
ABBREVIATIONS xi
BIBLIOGRAPHY xiii
I. HISTORIOGRAPHY i
II. AUTHORITY 5°
III. IDENTITY 98
IV. EPISTEMOLOGY 130
INDEX *55
FOR MY CHILDREN
PREFACE
My purpose in these chapters is not historical reconstruction, but rather,
source analysis. For the several varieties of documentation produced by
the early Muslim community I have selected the term ‘salvation history’
for a number of what seem to me fairly cogent reasons. These are derived
from a comparison with literary types generated by the Biblical paradigm,
a procedure which appeared, at least to me, not merely desirable but
unavoidable. The analysis is, however, stylistic and not productive of
strictly historical conclusions. For a literary assessment, on the other hand,
questions of facticity are of rather less significance than structural features.
Of these the most obvious might be designated teleological, cumulative,
kerygmatic, and nomothetic. Arrangement along a linear time-span is
a characteristic of most historiography, as is the tendency to plot causality
ns a logical and cumulative sequence. The origin of these notions and their
adoption as historical techniques are matters of philosophical rather than'
literary interest. But salvation history is also essentially kerygmatic, and
that feature deserves in this particular context some notice. The substance
of proclamation is less important than the fact of assertion, that a case is
being argued, evidence gathered, and proofs adduced. In the presentation
of te8timonia salvation history conforms to laws of its own, and it is hardly
•urpri8ing to find that those descriptions of community origins associated
with the monotheist confessions exhibit more similarities than differences.
Now, whether the matter proclaimed is derived from reminiscence (e.g. as
«n clement of cultic memory) or from interpretation (e.g. as an aetiological
myth) is, again, less important than the mode of expression common to
both, which is historicization. Lest that observation seem dismally tauto
logical, let me add that it is in my opinion precisely this capacity for histori-
ciaing truth which makes of salvation history a distinct literary type. It is,
moreover, the creation and perpetuation of that type which distinguishes
the monotheist confessions from other religious communities.
To plot the position of Islamic salvation history along that literary
ipectrum is the aim of this study. My first chapter contains a selective
analysis of historiographical styles from the sïra-maghâzï literature,
intended to illustrate the historicizing of memory, myth, and doctrine.
These materials exhibit a fairly extensive collection of the topoi employed
In monotheist interconfessional polemic, a fact which may account for the
nomothetic character of salvation history. There, the formative principle
la that of history as event. In the second chapter I have undertaken an
•lamination of the sources of confessional authority and of the types of
X PREFACE
sectarian community derived from these. It seemed to me that emphasis
upon the apostolic paradigm, taken together with the exegetical bias of
halakhic terminology and the vested interests of a clerical élite, indicate a
community type most aptly described as ritualist. In contrast with the
midrashic styles of the sïra-maghàzï literature, the paradigmatic charac
ter of sunna as well as the evidence of juridical dispute (ikhtiläf) and
halakhic abrogation (naskh), suggest a notion of history as process. In my
third chapter I have attempted to trace the linguistic and literary imagery
of sectarian symbolism, namely that which was eventually elaborated as the
Islamic doctrines of divine attributes and abrogation. Their origin in inter
confessional polemic and ultimate incorporation as dogma may be described
by reference to a process which I call ‘terminological transfer’. Here it may
be thought that the composition of salvation history was dependent upon,
and limited by, the availability of linguistic and literary resources. The
fourth and final chapter contains a tentative and emphatically provisional
reply to the theological question of history as event or of history as process.
From my proposed epistemological categories, to be regarded as strictly
experimental, it seemed not unreasonable to detect in the formation of
Islam an interception of the concept ‘process’ by that of ‘event’ : an original
notion of development seems at some point to have been truncated and
replaced by a retroflective interpretation of community origins. The result
was thus not history but nostalgia.
Now, the product of source analysis can in my opinion be of value only
for further source analysis, not for the quite different task of describing
‘what really happened’. About the possibility of achieving the latter, at least
for the topic investigated in these pages, I am frankly sceptical, much as
Thomas Mann was about the enthusiasm of a stenographer who remarked,
upon completing the typescript of his Joseph und seine Brüder ‘Nun
weiß man doch, wie sich das alles in Wirklichkeit zugetragen hat’ (Mann,
Neue Studien, Frankfurt, 1948, p. 160). To the anticipated objection
that narrative history and novel are after all quite different literary forms,
I trust that the following chapters will provide my reply.
I should like finally to express my gratitude to the School of Oriental
and African Studies for granting me leave of absence to complete this book,
for including it in the London Oriental Series, and for meeting the expense
of publication.
February 1978 J. W.
ABBREVIATIONS
BJRL Bulletin of the John Rylands Library
BSOAS Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies
El Encyclopaedia of Islam, second edition
GAS F. Sezgin, Geschichte des arabischen Schrifttums
GCAL G. Graf, Geschichte der christlichen arabischen Literatur
GdQ T. Nöldeke and F. Schwally, Geschichte des Qorans i—ii
GS I. Goldziher, Gesammelte Schriften (ed. J. de Somogyi) i-vi
IOS Israel Oriental Studies
J AOS Journal of the American Oriental Society
JESHO Journal of economic and social history of the Orient
JJS Journal of Jewish Studies
JQR Jewish Quarterly Review
JSS Journal of Semitic Studies
MSOS Mitteilungen des Seminars für orientalische Sprachen
MUSJ Mélanges de V Université Saint-Joseph
MW Muslim World
POC Proche-Orient chrétien
QS J. Wansbrough, Quranic Studies
REI Revue des études Islamiques
RHR Revue de VHistoire des Religions
ROC Revue de V Orient chrétien
RSO Rivista degli studi orientali
ZDMG Zeitschrift der deutschen morgenländischen Gesellschaft
