Table Of ContentTheology and Society in the Second and Third Centuries of the Hijra
Volume 2
Handbook of Oriental Studies
Handbuch der Orientalistik
section one
The Near and Middle East
Edited by
Maribel Fierro (Madrid)
M. Şükrü Hanioğlu (Princeton)
Renata Holod (University of Pennsylvania)
Florian Schwarz (Vienna)
VOLUME 116/2
The titles published in this series are listed at brill.com/ho1
Theology and Society
in the Second and Third Centuries
of the Hijra
A History of Religious Thought in Early Islam
VOLUME 2
By
Josef van Ess
Translated from German by
Gwendolin Goldbloom
LEIDEN | BOSTON
Translated from Josef van Ess, Theologie und Gesellschaft im 2. und 3. Jahrhundert Hidschra. Eine Geschichte
des religiösen Denkens im frühen Islam. © Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin, Boston. All rights reserved.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Ess, Josef van, author. | O’Kane, John, 1940– translator.
Title: Theology and society in the second and third centuries of the Hijra : a history of religious thought
in Early Islam / by Josef van Ess ; translated from German by John O’Kane. Other titles: Theologie und
Gesellschaft im 2. und 3. Jahrhundert Hidschra. English | Handbuch der Orientalistik. Erste Abteilung,
Nahe und der Mittlere Osten ; 116. Bd., 1.
Description: Leiden ; Boston : Brill, 2017. | Series: Handbuch der Orientalistik = Handbook of Oriental
studies. Section one, The Near and Middle East ; volume 116/1 | Includes bibliographical references and
index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2016047963 (print) | LCCN 2016052965 (ebook) | ISBN 9789004323179 (hardback : alk.
paper) | ISBN 9789004323384 (e-book)
Subjects: LCSH: Islam—Doctrines—History. | Islamic philosophy—History.
Classification: LCC BP166.1 .E8413 2017 (print) | LCC BP166.1 (ebook) | DDC 297.209/021—dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2016047963
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⸪
Contents
2.2 Basra ........................................................................................................................................................................... 1
2.2.1 The “Heretics” ................................................................................................................................... 4
2.2.1.1 Bashshār b. Burd ................................................................................................. 6
2.2.1.2 Ṣāliḥ b. ʿAbd al-Quddūs ............................................................................. 17
2.2.1.3 The Sumaniyya ..................................................................................................... 23
2.2.1.4 Ibn al-Muqaffaʿ ..................................................................................................... 26
2.2.1.4.1 A Text against Islam ........................................................... 33
2.2.1.4.2 The Parody of the Quran ................................................ 39
2.2.1.5 The Context. “Natural Philosophers” ....................................... 41
2.2.2 Ḥasan al-Baṣrī and His Spiritual Successors ............................................ 46
2.2.2.1 The Qadariyya ........................................................................................................ 57
2.2.2.1.1 Qadarite Ideas in hadith ................................................ 58
2.2.2.1.2 Qadarite Traditionists ....................................................... 61
2.2.2.1.2.1 The Generation Following
Ḥasan al-Baṣrī ........................................... 62
2.2.2.1.2.2 The Middle Generation ................ 69
2.2.2.1.2.3 Pupils of Saʿīd b. Abī ʿArūba .... 83
2.2.2.1.2.4 Other Qadarites in the Second
Half of the Second Century ..... 86
2.2.2.1.3 The Uswārīs ................................................................................... 91
2.2.2.1.4 Qadarites among the Basran
Grammarians ............................................................................. 98
2.2.2.2 Qadariyya and Asceticism ..................................................................... 101
2.2.2.2.1 Ḥasan al-Baṣrī’s Younger
Contemporaries ........................................................................ 103
2.2.2.2.2 The Next Generation ........................................................... 110
2.2.2.2.2.1 The Significance of
ʿAbbādān .......................................................... 119
2.2.2.2.3 Theological and Juristic Divergent Opinions
within the Circle of Basran Ascetics ................. 123
2.2.2.2.3.1 The Bakriyya ................................................ 125
2.2.2.2.4 Asceticism and Rationality ......................................... 137
2.2.3 The Jurists ............................................................................................................................................. 141
2.2.3.1 The Case of Iyās b. Muʿāwiya .............................................................. 143
2.2.3.2 Early Theoretical Texts ............................................................................... 152
2.2.3.3 Experts and Jurisconsults ....................................................................... 155
viii contents
2.2.3.4 Kullu mujtahid muṣīb .................................................................................... 177
2.2.4 Murjiʾites in Basra. The “Ghaylāniyya” .............................................................. 189
2.2.4.1 Faḍl al-Raqāshī ..................................................................................................... 192
2.2.4.2 Abū Shamir and His School ................................................................. 200
2.2.4.3 “Jahmites” .................................................................................................................... 211
2.2.5 The Ibāḍiyya ...................................................................................................................................... 215
2.2.5.1 The Case of ʿAbdallāh b. Ibāḍ ............................................................ 215
2.2.5.2 The Development of the Basran Community .............. 218
2.2.5.3 The Question of qadar ................................................................................ 233
2.2.5.4 The Quarrel over the Anthropomorphisms .................... 237
2.2.5.5 Further Controversial Issues ............................................................... 245
2.2.5.6 The Environment .............................................................................................. 248
2.2.5.7 The Relation between Sin and Faith ......................................... 258
2.2.5.8 Puritanism and Scrupulousness ..................................................... 266
2.2.6 The Early Muʿtazila .................................................................................................................. 268
2.2.6.1 Wāṣil b. ʿAṭāʾ ............................................................................................................. 269
2.2.6.1.1 The Chronology of his Life. His Origins
and Profession ............................................................................ 270
2.2.6.1.2 Wāṣil the khaṭīb. His Appearance before
ʿAbdallāh b. ʿUmar b. ʿAbd al-ʿazīz ..................... 276
2.2.6.1.3 Wāṣil’s Speech Defect ......................................................... 282
2.2.6.1.4 Wāṣil’s Relations with the ʿAlids in
Medina ................................................................................................ 285
2.2.6.1.5 The Image of Wāṣil’s Personality ......................... 290
2.2.6.1.6 Wāṣil’s Relationship with ʿAmr b. ʿUbayd
and Ḥasan al-Baṣrī .............................................................. 292
2.2.6.1.7 The Doctrine of the Intermediate State ........ 298
2.2.6.1.7.1 Sin and Penitence ................................. 305
2.2.6.1.7.2 Wāṣil’s Relationship with
Khārijites and Murjiʾites .............. 306
2.2.6.1.8 Wāṣil’s Political Views ........................................................ 309
2.2.6.1.9 Further Points of Doctrine ........................................... 312
2.2.6.1.9.1 Epistemological Issues ................... 315
2.2.6.2 ʿAmr b. ʿUbayd ....................................................................................................... 319
2.2.6.2.1 Biographical Data ................................................................. 321
2.2.6.2.2 Political Decisions .................................................................. 325
2.2.6.2.2.1 The Relationship with
Manṣūr ............................................................... 327
Contents ix
2.2.6.2.3 The Image of ʿAmr’s Personality ........................... 336
2.2.6.2.4 His Relationship with Ḥasan
al-Baṣrī ................................................................................................ 338
2.2.6.2.4.1 ʿAmr as an Exegete .............................. 339
2.2.6.2.5 ʿAmr as a Legal Scholar ................................................... 342
2.2.6.2.6 ʿAmr as a Traditionist ........................................................ 344
2.2.6.2.7 Theology and Politics ......................................................... 348
2.2.6.3 The Pupil Generation ................................................................................... 352
2.2.6.3.1 The Circle around Wāṣil ................................................. 353
2.2.6.3.1.1 The duʿāt ........................................................... 353
2.2.6.3.1.2 Wāṣil’s Other Pupils ........................... 360
2.2.6.3.2 The Circle around ʿAmr b. ʿUbayd ....................... 366
2.2.6.3.2.1 Jurists and Traditionists ............... 366
2.2.6.3.2.2 The “Muʿtazilites” of the
Uprising of AH 145 ............................... 372
2.2.6.4 The Origin of the Name Muʿtazila ............................................... 382
2.2.7 The Traditionist Reaction .................................................................................................. 390
2.2.7.1 Opposition against ʿAmr b. ʿUbayd ............................................. 390
2.2.7.1.1 Ayyūb al-Sakhtiyānī ............................................................ 391
2.2.7.1.2 Yūnus b. ʿUbayd ........................................................................ 401
2.2.7.1.3 ʿAbdallāh b. ʿAwn ..................................................................... 404
2.2.7.1.4 Sulaymān al-Taymī .............................................................. 418
2.2.7.1.5 Abū ʿAmr Ibn al-ʿAlāʾ ........................................................... 421
2.2.7.2 The Next Generation .................................................................................... 427
2.2.8 T he Muʿtazila in Basra during the Second Half of the
Second Century ...................................................................................................... 434
2.2.8.1 Ṣafwān al-Anṣārī ................................................................................................. 435
2.2.8.1.1 The Image of the Early Muʿtazila in
Ṣafwān’s qaṣīda ......................................................................... 436
2.2.8.2 The Principle of amr bil-maʿrūf wal-nahy
ʿan al-munkar .......................................................................................................... 440
2.2.8.2.1 The Case of Muḥammad b. Munādhir ......... 443
2.2.8.3 The Position of the Muʿtazila in Basra after 145 ......... 446
2.2.8.4 The Development of Theology and Law ............................. 448
2.2.8.4.1 Al-Aṣamm ........................................................................................ 450
2.2.8.4.1.1 Aṣamm’s “Ontology” .......................... 452
2.2.8.4.1.2 Aṣamm’s Quranic
Commentary ............................................... 457
x contents
2.2.8.4.1.3 The Consensus of Muslims ...... 461
2.2.8.4.1.3.1 Consensus and
Political Theory ..................... 463
2.2.8.4.1.4 Aṣamm the Lawyer ............................. 469
2.2.8.4.2 Ibn ʿUlayya ...................................................................................... 473
2.2.8.4.3 Further Basran Muʿtazilites ....................................... 477
2.2.9 Basran Shīʿites ................................................................................................................................ 479
2.3 Wāsiṭ ........................................................................................................................................................................... 487
2.4 The Jazira .............................................................................................................................................................. 498
2.4.1 Ḥarrān ...................................................................................................................................................... 500
2.4.1.1 The Ṣābians ............................................................................................................... 501
2.4.1.2 Ḥarrān and Islamic Theology ............................................................ 509
2.4.2 Diyār Rabīʿa ....................................................................................................................................... 520
2.4.2.1 The Khārijites ......................................................................................................... 520
2.4.2.2 Mosul ................................................................................................................................. 527
2.4.2.3 Nisibis ............................................................................................................................... 530
2.4.3 Raqqa ......................................................................................................................................................... 532
2.4.3.1 Sulaymān al-Raqqī ........................................................................................... 533
2.4.3.2 Extreme Shīʿites ................................................................................................... 548
3 Iran ............................................................................................................................................................................................... 551
3.0 General Preliminary Remarks ................................................................................................... 551
3.1 Eastern Iran ....................................................................................................................................................... 553
3.1.1 Jahm b. Ṣafwān .............................................................................................................................. 556
3.1.1.1 The Connection between Jahm and the
Jahmiyya ........................................................................................................................ 571
3.1.2 The Cities ............................................................................................................................................... 572
3.1.2.1 Balkh .................................................................................................................................. 572
3.1.2.1.1 Quranic Exegesis ..................................................................... 573
3.1.2.1.1.1 Muqātil b. Ḥayyān ................................ 574
3.1.2.1.1.2 Muqātil b. Sulaymān ......................... 581
3.1.2.1.1.2.1 Muqātil’s Theological
Views .................................................. 594
3.1.2.1.2 ʿUmar b. Ṣubḥ and the rafʿ al-yadayn ............ 598
3.1.2.1.3 Murjiʾites and Ḥanafites ................................................. 600
3.1.2.1.4 The Beginnings of Eastern Iranian
Mysticism ......................................................................................... 611
3.1.2.2 Marv .................................................................................................................................... 615
3.1.2.3 Tirmidh ........................................................................................................................... 626
