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Gregor Schwarb
Ibn Rushd, al-Kashf an manhij al-adilla f aqid
al-milla, ed. M. A. al-Jbir, Beirut 1998, p. 118.
INTRODUCTION
In accounts of the early history of Islamic theology during the second and the third
centuries AH the central role of the Mutazila is generally acknowledged as a matter of
course.
1
By the sixth century of the Muslim era, however, the hierarchy of the theological
schools seems to have been completely reversed. In standard surveys of sixth/twelfth-
century intellectual thought in the Islamic world Mutazilism usually plays a minor part,
or worse still is declared extinct. If a study of Mutazilism in the Age of Ab Wald
Muh
.
ammad b. Ah
.
mad Ibn Rushd (520/1126595/1198) were to draw only on Carl
Brockelmanns (18681956) Geschichte der arabischen Litteratur (GAL),
2
which never
ceased to be the authoritative reference work for the whole of Arabic literature produced
after the nfth century AH, it would hardly be more than necropsy.
3
In Brockelmanns
account Ab l-H
.
asan Abd al-Jabbr b. Ah
.
mad al-Hamadhn (d. 415/10245) was one
of the last important Mutazilites.
4
Fuat Sezgin in turn labelled Jrullh Ab l-Qsim
Mah
.
md b. Umar al-Zamakhshar (d. 538/1144) the last great theologian of the
Mutazila.
5
The fact that his Geschichte des arabischen Schrifttums (GAS), which was
251
* This study was prepared within the framework of the European Research Councils FP 7 project Rediscovering
Theological Rationalism in the Medieval World of Islam <http://tinyurl.com/RTRMWI>. I am grateful to my
colleagues Peter Adamson and Jan Thiele who offered some helpful suggestions.
1. On the common phenomenon in the third/ninth century to count a scholar as Mutazil without ntting
the picture entirely, and the tendency to lump together numerous independent-minded theologicans under the
name Mutazila see J. van Ess, Theologie und Gesellschaft im 2. und 3. Jahrhundert Hidschra. Eine Geschichte des
religisen Denkens im frhen Islam, Berlin, 19917, vol. 4, p. 123 (Solange die Mutazila in der Theologie
weitgehend das Feld beherrschte, blieben ihre Grenzen fr den Beobachter niessend; man hatte sich daran gewhnt,
dass in ihrem Umfeld Randsiedler auftraten, die nur in bestimmten Punkten von ihr abwichen).
2. Leiden, 18981949.
3. Cf. J. J. Witkam, Brockelmanns Geschichte revisited, in C. Brockelmann, Geschichte der arabischen Litteratur
(GAL). Reprint with New Introduction, Leiden, 1996, pp. vxvii. The fact that Brocklemanns Geschichte, though
utterly outdated, still plays an essential and indispensible role in Western scholarship is borne out by Brills recent
launch of Brockelmann Online, a full-text searchable version of GAL <http://www.brill.nl/broo> or
<http://tinyurl.com/brockelmann> (consulted 30 Nov 2009).
4. GAL (n. 3 above), Supplement vol. 1, p. 343.
5. F. Sezgin, Geschichte des arabischen Schrifttums, Leiden, 1967, vol. 1, p. 614.
In the Age of Averroes, Warburg Institute Colloquia 16, 2011
primarily conceived as a supplement to Brockelmanns Geschichte, only covered the nrst
four centuries AH(up to 430/10389) may also have contributed to neglecting the study
of later Mutazilite literature.
There exists no Mutazil t
.
abaqt work covering the age of Averroes. Accordingly, it
is still common in research literature to refer to Abd al-Jabbr and his students as
representatives of the late Mutazila.
6
This usage renects the terminology of the most
innuential works of Mutazil t
.
abaqt literature, the best known being Bb dhikr al-
Mutazila wa-t
.
abaqtihim by the Zayd Imm al-Mahd li-Dn Allh Ah
.
mad b. Yah
.
y
l-Murtad
.
(d. 840/14367),
7
i.e. the third part of K. al-Munya wa-l-amal f sharh
.
K. al-
Milal wa-l-nih
.
al,
8
which in turn is the nrst part (out of nine) of the authors
comprehensive Ziydt on the Dbja of his K. al-Bah
.
r al-zakhkhr entitled K. Ghyt
al-afkr wa-nihyat al-anz
.
r al-muh
.
t
.
a bi-ajib al-Bah
.
r al-zakhkhr.
9
Ibn Yah
.
y l-
Murtad
.
s Bb dhikr al-Mutazila is little more than a verbatim copy of the parallel third
part of Ab Sad al-Muh
.
assin b. Muh
.
ammad al-Bayhaq al-Barawghans (better known
as al-H
.
kim al-Jishum, d. 494/1101) Sharh
.
Uyn al-masil, entitled Bb f dhikr al-
Mutazila wa-rijlihim wa-akhbrihim wa-m ajma alayhi min al-madhhab wa-dhikr
raqihim,
10
which in turn draws on Abd al-Jabbrs Fad
.
l al-itizl wa-t
.
abaqt al-
Mutazila wa-mubyanatuhum li-sir al-mukhlifnwith appendices on the generation
of Abd al-Jabbr (eleventh t
.
abaqa, n. second half of fourth/tenth c.), the generation of
Abd al-Jabbrs students (twelfth t
.
abaqa, n. nrst half of nfth/eleventh c., i.e. the
generation of al-H
.
kim al-Jishums teachers), Sh, esp. Zayd Mutazilites (man
wfaqahum f l-madhhab min al-itra al-t
.
hira), the Abbsid Caliphs (man dhahaba
madhhab al-adl mimman byia lahu bi-l-khilfa), the Byids (al-umar wa-l-ruas),
jurists (man qla bi-l-adl min al-fuqah), grammarians (nuh
.
t), poets (shuar), and
252
GREGOR SCHWARB
6. See, among many other examples, J. van Ess, Theologie und Gesellschaft (n. 1 above), vol. 4, p. 48. W. Madelung,
The Late Mutazila and Determinism: The Philosophers Trap, Yd-Nma in Memoria di Alessandro Bausani,
vol. I: Islamistica, ed. B. Scarcia Amoretti and L. Rostagno, Rome, 1991, pp. 24557.
7. Ed. S. Diwald-Wilzer, Die Klassen der Mutaziliten (Kitb T
.
abaqt al-Mutazila), Beirut, 1961; for a harsh
critique of this edition see A. Zarzr, al-H
.
kim al-Jusham wa-manhajuhu f tafsr al-Qurn, Beirut, 1972, p. 106.
On the origins of the Mutazilite t
.
abaqt literature see van Ess, Theologie und Gesellschaft (n. 1 above), vol. 1, pp.
613.
8. Ed. M. J. Mashkr, Beirut, 1979.
9. While K. al-Bah
.
r al-zakhkhr has been reprinted several times (Baghdd, Maktabat al-Muthann, 19479;
Beirut, Muassasat al-Risla, 1975; Beirut, Dr al-Kutub al-Ilmiyya, 2001), the bulk of K. Ghyt al-afkr still
remains unedited, including its nfth part, K. al-Jawhir wa-l-durar min srat Sayyid al-bashar wa-as
.
h
.
bihi al-itra
al-ghurar, with important biographical information about the Zayd imms. For a detailed description of the struc-
ture of this work see G. Schwarb, Handbook of Mutazilite Works and Manuscripts, Leiden, forthcoming.
10. MS Leiden, Universiteitsbibliotheek, Or. 2584 A, ff. 47b155b; MS S
.
an, Maktabat al-Jmi al-Kabr al-
Gharbiyya, Ilm al-kalm no. 99, ff. 28a98a; MS S
.
an, Maktabat al-Jmi al-Kabr al-Sharqiyya (= Maktabat
al-Awqf = al-Maktaba al-Mutawakkiliyya), no. 706; ff. 48b166b. The section covering the eleventh and twelfth
t
.
abaqt was edited by F. Sayyid, Fad
.
l al-itizl wa-t
.
abaqt al-Mutazila, Tnis, 1974, pp. 36593. An edition of
Sharh
.
Uyn al-masil is in preparation. The sixth/twelfth-century Zayd Imm al-Mans
.
r bi-llh Abdallh b.
H
.
amza b. Sulaymn (d. 614/1217, more on him below) lists in his K. al-Shf (ed. Majd al-Dn al-Muayyad, 4
vols in 2, S
.
an, 1406/1986, pp. 136139) sources containing substantial information about the history of the
Mutazila, Mutazilite scholars and literature.
h
.
adth-scholars (ruwt al-akhbr, ulam al-h
.
adth wa-aimmat al-naql). In all these
works a distinction is made between the earlier Mutazilites (al-mutaqaddimn min al-
Mutazila = t
.
abaqt 17) and the later, modern representatives of the Mutazila
(al-mutaakhkhirn min al-Mutazila = t
.
abaqt 812), the dividing line being Ab Al
al-Jubb (d. 303/9156), the ngurehead of the eighth t
.
abaqa. What is called
late/modern Mutazila in these t
.
abaqt works renects therefore a nfth/eleventh-century,
not a nfteenth/twenty-nrst-century perspective.
Another factor contributing to the disregard of Mutazil literature in the age of
Averroes is the fact that by the sixth/twelfth century Mutazilism had become a marginal
force in the centre of the Caliphate. Its strongholds were situated in the Eastern provinces
of the Caliphate, in Khzistn, Jibl, Fris, Daylamn, Jln, T
.
abaristn, Jurjn, Khursn,
and Khwrazm, and among the Zayds in Yemen. The historiographical focus on the
center of the Caliphate and Sunn Islm thus tended to ignore the presence and ongoing
emorescence of Mutazilite thought.
11
Ignaz Goldziher (18501921) aptly characterized this situation in his well-known
article Aus der Theologie des Fachr al-dn al-Rz,
12
albeit in a language that betrays him
as a man of his time.
13
In this study Goldziher surveyed the sources that evince the over-
whelming presence of Mutazil thought in Khzistn, Khursn, and, above all,
Khwrazm, and then assessed its signincance for an adequate understanding of Fakhr al-
Dn al-Rzs (d. 606/1210) thought. Following in the wake of Goldziher, many other
scholars have called attention to the abundance and signincance of Mutazilite literature
produced during this period,
14
but only rarely have these pleas given rise to in-depth
studies of this literature.
15
The relative lack of scholarship on Mutazilism in the Age of Averroes can thus
mainly be attributed to a lack of documentation. As this survey will show, the amount of
extant Mutazilite works written during the sixth/twelfth century in no way falls short
253
MUTAZILISM IN THE AGE OF AVERROES
11. Such studies include T. Nagel, Die Festung des Glaubens: Triumph und Scheitern des islamischen
Rationalismus im 11. Jahrhundert, Munich, 1988; G. Makdisi, Ibn Aql et la rsurgence de lislam traditionaliste
au XIe sicle, Ve sicle de lHgire, Damascus, 1963; id., Ibn Aql: Religion and Culture in Classical Islam, Edinburgh,
1997.
12. In Der Islam, 3, 1912, pp. 21347.
13. See, for instance, his reference to an orthodoxy craving for persecution and terrorizing each incentive to
freedom of thought (p. 213), or the obscurantists of Baghdad who opposed dogmatic rationalism (ibid.), or his
quotation (p. 218) of a rather crude passage of R. A. Nicholsons Literary History of the Arabs (London, 1907,
p. 268).
14. See, for instance, D. Gimaret, Pour un rquilibrage des tudes de thologie musulmane, Arabica, 38, 1991,
pp. 118; id., Mutazila, EI, vol. VII, pp. 785b786a; S. Schmidtke, Neuere Forschungen zur Mutazila unter
besonderer Bercksichtigung der spteren Mutazila ab dem 4./10. Jahrhundert, in Arabica, 45, 1998, pp. 379
408. For a detailed survey of the pertinent literature see my forthcoming Handbook of Mutazilite Works and
Manuscripts (n. 9 above).
15. See above all W. Madelung, Der Imam al-Qsim ibn Ibrhm und die Glaubenslehre der Zaiditen, Berlin,
1965 and many subsequent studies by Madelung. Several ongoing research projects realized within the European
Research Councils FP 7 project Rediscovering Theological Rationalism in the Medieval World of Islam will be
devoted to kalmtexts of this period.
of what we have from the two preceding centuries. Indeed, many of the extant Mutazilite
texts of previous centuries owe their survival to political events that took place in the life-
time of Averroes and a remarkable number of extant manuscripts were copied during
this century.
NON-SHITE MUTAZILA
While there is no doubt that in Seljq Iraq the Mutazila had lost the position and omcial
support it had during the Byid age,
16
it was paradoxically the pro-H
.
anante respectively
anti-Asharite-Shnite policy of the Seljks that allowed H
.
anante Mutazilite scholars
to retain some limited ground there.
17
The available data for Baghdad show that the
H
.
anbalite efforts to force the exclusion of Mutazilites from omcial positions and the
restriction of teaching Mutazilite kalm were not entirely sucessful. Historio- and
biographical sources refer to a number of Mutazilite scholars as well as savants and
omcials with Mutazilite leanings in Baghdad, even if the epithet al-Mutazil was by
now often used disparagingly for all sorts of nonconformists.
18
Elements of Mutazil
doctrine survived, too, not least in some major works of H
.
anbal theology and legal
methodology.
19
Only under the Caliph al-Mustad
.
bi-amri llh (56675/117080),
who openly encouraged a resurgence of H
.
anbalism, the privileged position of the
H
.
anante Mutazilites was severely reduced. Besides, Transoxanian H
.
anante scholars who
adhered to the Mturdite creed, which was systematically promoted by the omcial policy,
254
GREGOR SCHWARB
16. Makdisi, Ibn Aql (n. 11 above), pp. 300f., 330f.
17. Madelung, The Spread of Mturdism and the Turks, Actas do IV Congresso de Estudos rabes e Islmicos,
Coimbra-Lisboa, 1 a 8 de setembro de 1968 [reprinted in id., Religious Schools and Sects in Medieval Islam, London,
1985, text no. II], Leiden, 1971, pp. 114116, nn. 21f., 2426 and pp. 136f., n. 70; D. Ephrat, A Learned Society
in a Period of Transition: the Sunni ulam of Eleventh Century Baghdad, Albany, 2000, pp. 3549, 1613, 172.
The libraries of the Niz
.
miyya institutions seem to have kept a handful of Mutazilite works, too. Thus, Ab Bakr
Ibn al-Arab (d. 543/1148), al-Aws
.
im min al-Qaws
.
im, ed. Ammr al-T
.
lib, Cairo, 1417/1997, p. 72 mentions
to have read Abd al-Jabbrs K. al-Muh
.
t
.
f tafsr al-Qurn [!] in the Niz
.
miyya library in Baghdd (qaratuhu f
khiznat al-madrasa al-Niz
.
miyya bi-Madnat al-Salm), along with other Mutazil works (ibid., p. 70).
18. For some of these names see Madelung, The Spread of Mturdism (n. 17 above), pp. 136f., n. 70. Ab l-
Qsim Khalaf b. Ah
.
mad b. Abdallh al-D
.
arr al-Shilj (d. 515/1121), was a H
.
anante scholar who taught kalmin
the sanctuary (mashhad) of Ab H
.
anfa, the most famous H
.
anante madrasa in Baghdad (Ibn Ab l-Waf, al-
Jawhir al-mud
.
iyya f t
.
abaqt al-H
.
anayya, 3rd ed., Giza, 1993, vol. 2, pp. 168f., no. 559). Among his students
was Abd al-Sayyid b. Al Ibn al-Zaytn, a H
.
anbal and companion of Ibn Aql who converted to H
.
anansm and
became a Mutazil (ibid., pp. 424f., no. 814). Towards the end of the sixth/twelfth century Ab Yaqb Ysuf b.
Isml al-Lamghn (d. 606/1209) taught qh and kalmin the mosque of the Sult
.
n (since 588/1192) and likewise
in the sanctuary of Ab H
.
anfa (ibid., vol. 3, pp. 620f., no. 1836). Al-Lamghn belonged to a prominent H
.
anante
family in Baghdad and was described as the chief of the H
.
anantes in his time, well-read in Mutazil kalm, and
as having upheld the createdness of the Qurn in disputations. His students included Izz al-Dn Ab H
.
mid
Abd al-H
.
amd b. Ab l-H
.
add (d. Baghdad 656/1258), the well-known pro-Ald H
.
anaf Mutazil scholar, man
of letters, and author of Sharh
.
Nahj al-balgha, who also studied with the Zayd Ab Jafar Yah
.
y b. Muh
.
ammad
b. Ab Zayd al-H
.
asan (d. 613/1216), and the Shn Baghdd historian Ibn al-Najjr (d. 643/1245; EI, vol. 3,
pp. 896f.).
19. See, for instance, K. al-Mutamad f us
.
l al-dn by the Qd
.
Ab Yal b. al-Farr (d. 458/1066), ed. Wad
Zaydn H
.
addd, Beirut, 1974, or al-Wd
.
ih
.
f us
.
l al-qhby Ab l-Waf Al Ibn Aql (d. 513/1119), edited several
times, by: Abd al-Muh
.
sin al-Turk, Beirut, 1999; G. Makdisi, Stuttgart, 19962002; A. al-Sudays, Riyadh, 2008.
gradually became the dominant force within H
.
anansm and supplanted local H
.
anaf-
Mutazil traditions, not only in their home territory, but also in Iraq and Bild al-Shm.
20
In the Eastern provinces of the Caliphate the Mutazila also suffered some major setbacks
in the post-Byid period. In many towns and regions, however, it kept a sizeable presence
throughout the Seljq age.
21
Contemporaneous sources still refer to Khzistn, Khursn,
and, above all, Khwrazm as Bild al-Mutazila.
22
Even among non-H
.
anante, non-
Mutazilite scholars in these provinces, Mutazilism was only rarely considered a heresy.
Khwrazm in fact became the last bastion of non-Shite Mutazilism, which survived there
at least until the ninth/nfteenth century. Mutazilites in Eastern provinces benentedfrom
the effects of the partition of the Seljq empire in 510/1117, and the cultural emorescence
under Ab l-H
.
rith Ah
.
mad Sanjar who reigned in Marw till 552/1157. In the decades
preceding the Mongol invasions, Oghuz tribal leaders, former Seljq generals, and several
external powers used the desintegration of Seljq power to control Khursn. Among them,
the Khwrazmshhs Tj al-Duny wa-l-Dn Ab l-Fath
.
Il-Arsln (551/1156568/1172)
and his son Al al-Dn Tekish (568/1172596/1200), who since 1173 not only con -
trolled the Jurjniyya and parts of Transoxania, but also northern Khursn with the towns
of Marw, Sarakhs, Khjn, Rdhaqn, Bayhaq, Nsbr, and T
.
s, evidently favoured
Mutazilism and promoted pro-Shite activities, much to the dismay of the caliph.
23
Since in non-Shite circles Mutazilism was firmly rooted among the H
.
anafites, it is
the T
.
abaqt-works of the H
.
anaf madhhab which provide us with numerous names of
H
.
anaf scholars who upheld the Mutazil creed. In Rayy, Nsbr, and several cities in
Khursn and Khwrazm there were many Mutazilites among the H
.
anafites.
24
Among
these Mutazilite H
.
anantes pro-Alid sentiments and strong Shite amnities were very
wide-spread at least since the Byid age.
25
Just as it was nothing unusual for a H
.
anaf to
255
MUTAZILISM IN THE AGE OF AVERROES
20. Madelung, The Spread of Mturdism (n. 17 above), pp. 140f. and passim.
21. See the names mentioned in Madelung, The Spread of Mturdism (n. 17 above), p. 116, n. 25; Goldziher,
Aus der Theologie (n. 12 above), pp. 2203; C. Gilliot, LExgse du Coran en Asie Centrale et au Khorasan,
Studia Islamica, 89, 1999, pp. 1504; id., La Thologie musulmane en Asie centrale et au Khorasan, Arabica, 49,
2002, pp. 1417.
22. Goldziher, Aus der Theologie (n. 12 above), pp. 219, 222 and passim. See, for instance, Jaml al-Dn
Muh
.
ammad al-Qazwn, Mufd al-ulm wa-mubd al-humm, ed. Damascus, 1323/1906, who writes in the chap-
ter entitled f h
.
ukm awmm al-muminn (p. 46): Law kallafnhum marifat ah
.
km al-jawhir wa-l-ard
.
la-
taat
.
t
.
alat al-mayish wa-khtallat umr al-duny [...] wa-l-Mutazila h
.
aythu yashtarit
.
na marifat al-jawhir
wa-l-ard
.
wa-yah
.
kumna bi-takfr awmmihim, wa-l yjadu amm muslim f diyrihim f Askar Mukram wa-
Khwrazm wa-sir Bild al-Mutazila. Zakkariyy b. Muh
.
ammad al-Qazwn (d. 682/1283), thr al-bild wa-
akhbr al-ibd, ed. Beirut 1380/1960, p. 520, writes in his description of the Khwrazmian capital Jurjniyya:
wa-ahl Jurjniyya kulluhum Mutazila wa-l-ghlib alayhim mumrasat ilm al-kalm.
23. C. E. Bosworth, The Political and Dynastic History of the Iranian World, The Cambridge History of Iran,
vol. 5, Cambridge, 1968, pp. 18595, 201f.; id., Khwarazmshahs, Encyclopaedia Iranica, vol. 15 <http://www.iran-
ica.com/articles/khwarazmshahs-i>.
24. Madelung, Der Imam (n. 15 above), pp. 1146, 1346 (with nn. 226, 6870). Ab Bakr Ibn al-Arab,
al-Aws
.
im(n. 17 above), p. 212, writes: wa-m ruiya bi-Khursn wa-l bi-l-Irq H
.
anaf ill Mutaziliyyan aw
Karrmiyyan.
25. Good examples for the pro-Alid attitude among Mutazilite H
.
anantes in the Byid age are Ab Abdallh
al-Bas
.
rs K. al-Darajt (f tafd
.
l Amr al-muminn) or Ibn Mattawayhs K. al-Kifya.
study the us
.
ln (i.e. us
.
l al-dn and us
.
l al-qh) with a Shite master, we frequently
encounter Shite, especially Zayd experts in H
.
anaf law.
26
Symptomatic of this situation
is the occasional dimculty to determine whether a particular Mutazilite mutakallimwas
in point of fact a pro-Alid H
.
anante or a Zayd.
On that evidence it is not surprising that a vast amount of information about non-
Shite Mutazilism in Northern Iran can be gleaned from contemporaneous Shite,
particularly Zayd historiographical and t
.
abaqt works, ijzt-literature, and manuscripts
in general.
27
Among several other sources providing information on Mutazils in Khursn and
Khwrazm
28
mention should be made of the extant third part of a biographical dictionary
by the Khwrazmian H
.
anaf Ab l-Karam Abd al-Salm b. Muh
.
ammad b. al-H
.
asan al-
Andarasbn (d. late sixth/twelfth c.), extant in a unique manuscript held at the Institute
of Oriental Studies in St. Petersburg. Only the biography of Ab l-Qsim al-Zamakhshar
has thus far been published.
29
The author compiled the dictionary in Jurjniyya, the capi-
tal city of Khwrazm, in close cooperation with students of al-Zamakhshar, such as Ab
256
GREGOR SCHWARB
26. See, for instance, Madelung, Der Imam al-Qsim, pp. 1759, 183; id., The Spread of Mturdism (n. 17
above), p. 114, n. 21 and pp. 120f., n. 32 for the evidence furnished by the Imm Shite Abd al-Jall al-Qazwn
al-Rz in his K. Naqd
.
al-fad
.
ih
.
(written in 552/1157). For the presence of Shite mourning ceremonies among
non-Shites see M. Kervran, Les Structures funraires et commmoratives en Iran et en Asie Centrale du 9e au 12e
sicles, PhD thesis, Sorbonne, Paris, 1987. As we shall see below, the bond linking Khwrazmian and Khursnian
H
.
anansm and Zaydism constitutes an important background to understanding the reception of the non-Shite
Mutazil literature among the Zaydiyya in Yemen, as well as the historical revisionism upheld by the Zaydiyya
which pictures the origins of the Mutazila as an offspring of early Zaydism.
27. The Zayd t
.
abaqat tradition culminated in three works of the eleventh/seventeenth century, all of which
strived to be comprehensive surveys of Zayd scholars up to the authors time. The first of these is K. Mat
.
la al-budr
wa-majma al-buh
.
r (f tarjim rijl al-Zaydiyya)by the Qd
.
of S
.
an Shihb al-Dn Ah
.
mad b. S
.
lih
.
Ibn Ab l-Rijl
(d. 1092/1681), ed. Abd al-Raqb Mut
.
ahhar Muh
.
ammad H
.
ajr, 4 vols, S
.
an, 1425/2004; the second is K. al-
Mustat
.
b f tarjim ulamal-Zaydiyya al-at
.
yb(= K. al-T
.
abaqt f dhikr (fad
.
l) al-ulamwa-ilmihim = T
.
abaqt
al-Zaydiyya al-S
.
ughr) by Yah
.
y b. al-H
.
usayn b. al-Imm al-Mans
.
r bi-llh al-Qsim (d. 1100/1688), which was later
updated and rearranged under the title T
.
abaqt al-Zaydiyya [al-Kubr] (wa-yusamm Nasamt al-ash
.
r f t
.
abaqt
ruwt al-akhbr) by the authors nephew, S
.
rim al-Dn Ibrhm b. al-Qsim b. al-Imm al-Muayyad bi-llh
Muh
.
ammad b. al-Imm al-Mans
.
r bi-llh al-Qsim b. Muh
.
ammad al-Shahr (d. 1152/173940). The third part of
this latter work (Bulgh al-murd il marifat al-isnd) is available in print, ed. Abd al-Salm b. Abbs al-Wajh, 3
vols, Amman, 1421/2001. These three works, namely Mat
.
laal-budr, T
.
abaqt al-Zaydiyya al-S
.
ughr, and T
.
abaqt
al-Zaydiyya al-Kubr, provide us with a wealth of information on the transmission and teaching of Zayd-Mutazil
literature not to be gleaned from other sources. See also D. T. Gochenour, A Revised Bibliography of Medieval Yemeni
History in the Light of Recent Publications and Discoveries, Der Islam, 63, 1986, pp. 30922.
28. For the Jibl region see Imm al-Dn, Abd al-Karm b. Muh
.
ammad al-Rn al-Qazwn (d. 623/1226),
Al-Tadwn f akhbr Qazwn, 3 vols, ed. A. al-At rid al-Khabshni, Tehran 1374sh/19956.
29. Ms. St. Petersburg, Institute of Oriental Studies, Arab. C 2387 (A. B. Khalidov, Arabic Manuscripts in the
Institute of Oriental Studies, vol. 1, Moscow 1986, p. 435, no. 9454). On the MS see S. Prozorov, A Unique
Manuscript of a Biographical Dictionary by a Khorezmian Author, Manuscripta Orientalia, 5, 1999, pp. 917,
with references to relevant earlier literature. Prozorovs edition of this MS is due to be published soon. The biog-
raphy of al-Zamakhshar has been edited twice, nrst by B. Z. and A. B. Khalidov, .., ..
-, -, in
/ - , , 1973. .: , , 1979, pp. 203
12, (for the marginal note on f. 141b see p. 212), later by Abd al-Karm al-Yf, in Majallat Majma al-Lugha al-
Arabiyya, 57, 1982, pp. 36382.
l-Muayyad al-Muwaffaq b. Ah
.
mad al-Makk (d. 568/1172), Ab S
.
lih
.
Abd al-Rah
.
m
b. Umar al-Tarjumn, and Ab l-Mal Abdallh b. Al l-H
.
kim l-Zamakhshar.
30
On several occasions, the author expresses his sympathies for the Mutazilite doctrine,
which as he says, was nrmly entrenched in Khwrazm. He mentions, for instance, that
in 545/11501, while completing his h
.
ajj, he stayed in Rayy with Qd
.
l-qud
.
t Imd
al-Dn Ab Abdallh Muh
.
ammad b. al-H
.
asan al-Astarbd and visited the grave of the
great Abd al-Jabbr b. Ah
.
mad al-Hamadhn, which was located in the courtyard of al-
Astarbds home. Al-Andarasbn was acquainted with both Abd al-Jabbrs Fad
.
l al-
itizl wa-t
.
abaqt al-Mutazila and al-H
.
kim al-Jishums Sharh
.
Uyn al-masil, but
added much material of his own, relying on informants and sources not known to be
extant, such as Trkh Khwrazm by Ab Muh
.
ammad Mah
.
md b. Muh
.
ammad al-
Abbs b. Arsln al-Khwrazm (d. 568/11723) and chronicles of Baghdad, Nsbr,
Bukhr, and other cities.
31
In his heresiographical digest K. Itiqdt raq al-muslimn wa-l-mushrikn Fakhr al-
Dn al-Rz listed seventeen subgroups of the Mutazila, twelve belonging to the pre-Jubb
period, i.e. the second and third centuries AH. Of the remaining nve al-Rz attested only
for the presence of two in his time, namely the Bahshamiyya (no. 14) and the H
.
usayniyya
(no. 17).
32
Effectively agreeing with al-Rzs assessment, a survey of sixth/twelfth-century
Mutazilism will essentially revolve around these two branches of the Mutazila.
33
The Bahshamites were well entrenched in Northern Iran since the late fourth/tenth
century. The list of Sh (esp. Zayd) and non-Sh scholars from these provinces who
studied (among others) with Ab Hshim al-Jubb (d. 321/933), nrst in Khzistn,
then in Baghdad, and later with al-Shaykh al-Murshid Ab Abdallh al-Bas
.
r (d.
369/97980) in Baghdad, and Abd al-Jabbr al-Hamadhn in Rayy is substantial.
34
The Bahshamites of the sixth/twelfth century thus continued to teach a well-established
doctrine, as it was laid down in the schools major summae of the two preceding centuries,
i.e. Abd al-Jabbrs al-Mughn f abwb al-tawh
.
d wa-l-adl, al-H
.
asan b. Ah
.
mad Ibn
257
MUTAZILISM IN THE AGE OF AVERROES
30. See A. J. Lane, A Traditional Mutazilite Qurn Commentary. The Kashshf of Jr Allh al-Zamakhshar
(d. 538/1144), Leiden, 2006, pp. 357, nn. 7686 and pp. 25266 (with further names).
31. See H. Ansari and S. Schmidtke, New Sources on the Life and Work of Abd al-Jabbr al-Hamadhn,
forthcoming.
32. Of all the factions of the Mutazila there remain only these two schools in our time, those who follow Ab
Hshim [al-Jubb] and those who follow Ab l-H
.
usayn al-Bas
.
r (wa-lam yabqa f zamnin min sir raq al-
Mutazila ill htn al-rqatn, as
.
h
.
b Ab Hshim wa-as
.
h
.
b Ab l-H
.
usayn al-Bas
.
r; ed. A. S. al-Nashshr, Cairo,
1936, p. 45). Statements to the same effect can be found in other heresiographical works and biographical diction-
aries of the sixth/twelfth century, such as Ab l-Fath
.
Muh
.
ammad b. Abd al-Karm al-Shahrastns (d. 548/1153)
K. al-Milal wa-l-nih
.
al (ed. F. Badrn, vol. 1, Cairo, 1951, pp. 130f. and the corresponding French translation and
notes by D. Gimaret in Shahrastani, Livre des religions et des sectes, Paris, 1986, pp. 2879 with nn. 100108 and
indices, p. 692: Ab Him al-Jubb and Ab l-H
.
usayn al-Bas
.
r).
33. An exception to this rule is the ongoing legacy of the Baghdd Mutazila within the Hdaw doctrine
followed by the majority of the Yemenite Zaydis, including the Mut
.
arrinyya (see below).
34. See Madelung, Der Imam (n. 15 above), pp. 17582; M. T. Heemskerk, Suffering in the Mutazilite
Theology: Abd al-Jabbrs Teaching on Pain and Divine Justice, Leiden, 2000, pp. 21ff.; S. Schmidtke, Jobb,
Encyclopaedia Iranica, vol. 14, p. 670.
Mattawayhs al-Majm f l-Muh
.
t
.
bi-l-taklf and al-Tadhkira f ah
.
km al-jawhir wa-
l-ard
.
, and al-H
.
kim al-Jishums Sharh
.
Uyn al-masil, and a good number of other
important, though less comprehensive treatises.
The foremost representative of pro-Alid Khursnian H
.
anaf Mutazilism in the
nfth/eleventh century was the above-mentioned Ab Sad al-Muh
.
assin b. Muh
.
ammad
b. Karma al-Jishum al-Bayhaq al-Barawghan (d. 494/1101). He recognized the Zayd
Imms, and towards the end of his life embraced the Zayd doctrine.
35
The most
important compositions of Bahsham kalm during the sixth/twelfth century were
authored by his students and students students. The works of al-Jishum and his students
many of which are still unedited played a crucial role in the subsequent transmission,
reception and elaboration of Bahsham thought among the Zayds in Yemen. One
important link for the transmission of al-Jishums work included his son, Muh
.
ammad
b. al-Muh
.
assin al-Jishum al-Bayhaq
36
and the latters students, above all Fakhr al-Dn
Ab l-H
.
usayn Zayd b. al-H
.
asan b. Al al-Bayhaq al-Barawqan (d. 545/11501),
37
and
Ab Jafar Muh
.
ammad b. Ab l-Mans
.
r al-Daylam.
38
In many cases the transmission of Mutazil works and thought can be traced over
several generations
39
: Burhn al-Dn Ab l-Fath
.
Ns
.
ir b. Ab l-Makrim al-Mut
.
arriz al-
Khwrazm (b. 538/1144 d. 610/1213),
40
for instance, studied with Ab l-Muayyad
al-Muwaffaq b. Ah
.
mad al-Makk (d. 568/1172) and al-S
.
adr al-Khat
.
b al-Misk, both
students of al-Zamakhshar.
41
Among al-Mut
.
arrizs students were not only
Khwrazmian adherents of the Mutazila such as al-D arr al-Wabr,
42
Majd al-Afd
.
il al-
T
.
arif, and Najm al-Aimma, but also Yemenite Zayds, such as Jafar al-Bbir. The
latter taught al-Zamakhshars Kashshf to his son Isml b. Muh
.
ammad who taught it
to his son Ibrhm b. Isml who taught it to Muh
.
ammad b. al-Mahd b. Ns
.
ir, and so
forth.
43
The introduction of Ab l-H
.
usayn al-Bas
.
rs (d. 436/1044) philosophical theology
into Khursn and Khwrazm is usually attributed to the physician Ab Mud
.
ar Mah
.
md
258
GREGOR SCHWARB
35. Madelung, Der Imam (n. 15 above), pp. 18791. The two principal kalm-teachers of al-H
.
kim al-Jishum,
Ab H
.
mid Ah
.
mad b. Muh
.
ammad al-Najjr al-Nsbr (d. 433/10412) and Ab l-H
.
asan Al b. Abdallh al-
Nsbr (d. 457/1065) were students of Abd al-Jabbr respectively of the Zayd Imm al-Nt
.
iq bi-l-H
.
aqq Ab
T
.
lib Yah
.
y b. al-H
.
usayn and the latters student Ab l-Qsim al-H
.
asan (see Sharh
.
Uyn al-masl, MS Leiden,
UB, Or. 2584 A, f. 152a).
36. T
.
abaqt al-Zaydiyya al-Kubr (n. 27 above), vol. 2, p. 1064, no. 669.
37. More on him below, in the section on the Yemenite Zaydiyya.
38. T
.
abaqt al-Zaydiyya al-Kubr (n. 27 above), vol. 3, p. 1290, no. 816. Another student of al-Jishum, Ah
.
mad
b. Muh
.
ammad b. Ish
.
q al-Khwrazm, was a teacher of al-Zamakhshar.
39. Besides the information contained in the works mentioned above (n. 27), see Ah
.
mad b. Sad al-Dn al-
Miswar (d. 1079/16689), Ijzt al-aimma (MSS).
40. See EI, vol. 7, pp. 773f. (R. Sellheim, 1992). Al-Mut
.
arriz was later known as Khalfat al-Zamakhshar,
since al-Zamakhshar died in the same year and in the same town in which al-Mut
.
arriz was born.
41. See above n. 30.
42. Possibly identical with Abd al-Khliq b. Abd al-H
.
amd al-Wabr al-Khwrazm who lived before 654/1256
(Madelung, The Spread of Mturdism (n. 17 above), p. 116, n. 25).
43. T
.
abaqt al-Zaydiyya al-Kubr (n. 27 above), vol. 2, p. 1081, no. 680.
b. Jarr al-D abb al-Is
.
fahn (d. 508/1115),
44
and hence approximately simultaneous with
the spread of Ibn Sns philosophical system in Khursn by Ab l-Abbs al-Fad
.
l b.
Muh
.
ammad al-Lawkar (d. ca. 517/1123?), a student of Bahmanyr Ibn Marzubn
(d. 458/1066) and author of K. Bayn al-h
.
aqq bi-d
.
amn al-s
.
idq.
45
While the impact of
the H
.
usayniyya on the development of theological and philosophical thought during the
Age of Averroes inside and outside the Mutazila has repeatedly been stressed, it has
barely been studied in detail, mostly in connection with the thought of Fakhr al-Dn al-
Rz (606/1210) and Nas
.
r al-Dn al-T
.
s (672/1274).
46
The most innuential representative of the H
.
usayniyya in the nrst half of the sixth/twelfth
century was Rukn al-Dn Mah
.
md b. Muh
.
ammad al-Malh
.
im al-Khwrazm (d. 17 Rab I
536/19 Oct. 1141),
47
a contemporary and associate of al-Zamakhshar (d. 538/1144).
48
Of
Ab l-H
.
usayn al-Bas
.
rs two theological books, K. Tas
.
affuh
.
al-adillaand K. Ghurar al-adilla
f us
.
l al-dn, only fragments and/or quotations are at present known to be extant.
49
Since
259
MUTAZILISM IN THE AGE OF AVERROES
44. On him see Introduction in W. Madelung and M. J. McDermott (eds), Kitb al-Mutamad f us
.
l al-dn,
London, 1991, p. v, with nn. 6f.; Lane, A Traditional Mutazilite Qurn Commentary (n. 30 above), pp. 24, 247f.
An earlier trace of the reception of Ab l-H
.
usayn al-Bas
.
rs thought in Rayy is indicated by Ibn Ab l-Waf, al-
Jawhir al-mud
.
iyya f t
.
abaqt al-H
.
anayya, 3rd ed., Giza, 1993, vol. 1, p. 425, who writes that Ab Sad Isml
b. Al b. al-H
.
usayn b. Muh
.
ammad b. al-H
.
asan b. Zanjuwayh al-Sammn al-Rz (d. Rayy 24 Shabn 445/9 Dec
1053), an expert in H
.
anaf and Zayd qh and kalm, kna yadhhabu madhhab Ab l-H
.
usayn al-Bas
.
r wa-madhhab
al-Shaykh Ab Hshim [sic] (see on him Madelung, Der Imam (n. 15 above), p. 216, n. 429).
45. Partly ed. (al-Kitb al-awwal min al-mant
.
iq) by Ibrhm Dbj, Tehrn 1364/1986. On Ibn Sns students
and students students, including al-Jzjn, Bahmanyr, Ibn Zayla, al-Mas
.
m, al-Lawkar, and al-lq, see A. H.
al-Rahim, Avicennas Immediate Disciples: Their Lives and Works, Avicenna and His Legacy. A Golden Age of
Science and Philosophy, ed. Y. T. Langermann, Turnhout, 2009, pp. 125. On al-Lawkar see also R. D. Marcotte,
Preliminary Notes on the Life and Work of Ab al-Abbs al-Lawkar (d. ca. 517/1123), Anaquel de Estudios
rabes, 17, 2006, pp. 13357.
46. Studies in Ab l-H
.
usayn al-Bas
.
rs thought and its impact on developments in Asharite kalm from al-
Juwayn to Fakhr al-Dn al-Rz and beyond include W. Madelung, The Late Mutazila (n. 6 above); id., Ab
l-H
.
usayn al-Bas
.
rs Proof for the Existence of God, Arabic Theology, Arabic Philosophy. From the Many to the One:
Essays in Celebration of Richard M. Frank, ed. J. E. Montgomery, Leuven, 2006, pp. 27380; S. Schmidtke, Ab al-
H
.
usayn al-Bas
.
r and His Transmission of Biblical Materials from Kitb al-Dn wa-al-Dawla by Ibn Rabban
al-T
.
abar: The Evidence from Fakhr al-Dn al-Rzs Mafth
.
al-ghayb, Islam and Christian-Muslim Relations, 20.2,
2009, pp. 10518; A. Shihadeh, The Teleological Ethics of Fakhr al-Dn al-Rz, Leiden, 2006, pp. 277f. (index). The
numerous conceptual differences between the thought of Fakhr al-Dn al-Rz and Nas
.
r al-Dn al-T
.
s not only
arose from differing readings of Ibn Sns philosophy, but also from a distinct reception of the H
.
usayniyya: see A. M.
H
.
. Sulaymn, al-S ila bayna ilm al-kalm wa-l-falsafa f l-kr al-Islm, Alexandria, 1998, pp. 77109; H. N. Farh
.
t,
Masil al-khilf bayna Fakhr al-Dn al-Rz wa-Nas
.
r al-Dn al-T s, Beirut, 1997; M. Horten, Die spekulative und
positive Theologie des Islam nach Razi (gest. 606/1209) und ihre Kritik durch Tusi (gest. 672/1273), Leipzig, 1912.
47. On him see Madelung, Introduction (n. 44 above), pp. iiixiii; id. and H. Ansari (eds.), K. Tuh
.
fat al-
mutakallimn f l-radd al l-falsifa, Tehran, 2008, pp. iix.
48. For a study and edition of al-Zamakhshars K. al-Minhj f us
.
l al-dn, see W. Madelung, The Theology
of al-Zamakhshar, Actas del XII Congreso de la Union Europenne dArabisants et dIslamisants (Malaga, 1984),
Madrid, 1986, pp. 48595; S. Schmidtke (ed.), Jrullh Ab l-Qsim Ma hmd Ibn Umar al-Zamakhshar:
Kitb al-Minhj f us
.
l al-dn, Beirut, 1428/2007.
49. See Ab l-H
.
usayn al-Bas
.
r, Tas
.
affuh
.
al-adilla, ed. W. Madelung and S. Schmidtke, Wiesbaden, 2006. Apart
from a fragment of his Sharh
.
al-us
.
l al-khamsa on the imamate (Fas
.
l muntaza min K. Sharh
.
al-us
.
l f l-imma),
extant in Ms. Vienna, Austrian National Library, Cod. Arab. 114/1 (= Glaser 55'), ff. 138, all extant fragments
of Ab l-H
.
usayn al-Bas
.
rs theological works known at present are related to the reception of the H
.
usayniyya among
Qaraite Jews (see below).
both of Ibn al-Malh
.
ims theological works, the comprehensive four-volume K. al-
Mutamad f us
.
l al-dn and its abridged version, K. al-Fiq f us
.
l al-dn (completed
532/1137), draw heavily on Ab l-H
.
usayns books, they are one of our principal sources for
the doctrines of the H
.
usayniyya.
50
In all these works the methods and conceptual principles
of Bahshamite ontology, epistemology, and theory of action are systematically reconsidered
with a view to bolstering the main constituents of Mutazil thought against its critics,
notably the philosophers. Ibn al-Malh
.
ims third extant work, a refutation of the
philosophically minded Islamic scholars entitled Tuh
.
fat al-mutakallimn f l-radd al l-
falsifa, is also paramount to our appreciating the Mutazil component in Islamic thought
after Avicenna and, as the editors put it, apt to modify signincantly our understanding
of the reaction of kalmtheology to the spectacular ascendancy of Avicennan thought.
51
In the introduction to the Tuh
.
fa Ibn al-Malh
.
im expounded the historical context
that prompted him to write the work
52
:
What prompted me two write this book after having completed Kitb al-Mutamad on the
principles (us
.
l [al-dn]) where I gave a detailed assessment of the proponents of all religious
groups and argued against the positions espoused by the modern philsophers of Islam, like al-
Frb, Ab Al Ibn Sn and his followers, regarding the createdness of the world and the
amrmation of a pre-eternal creator and his attributes, and their position on the imposed obliga-
tion and the nature of the obligated subject, prophecy, the religious laws of the prophets, and
the hereafter, and where I explained that they modelled the creed of Islam on the methods of
the ancient philosophers and diverted it from the real nature of Islam and from the creed of the
prophets, peace upon them, hitting the truth on no matter, whether small or great was the fact
that I discerned many so-called legal scholars in our time who aspired to study the sciences of
these modern philosophers, among them a group of people who are regarded as followers of
the Shn madhhab.
53
They deemed that it would benent them to acquire painstaking methods
in all sorts of sciences, even in jurisprudence and legal methodology (qh wa-us
.
l al-qh). Their
260
GREGOR SCHWARB
50. K. al-Mutamad f us
.
l al-dn(n. 44 above a revised edition, which will include newly found manuscripts of
hitherto missing parts, is due to be published in the near future); K. al-Fiq f us
.
l al-dn, ed. W. Madelung and M. J.
McDermott, Tehran, 2007. Note that the earliest extant texts to attest a reception of Ab l-H
.
usayn al-Bas
.
rs theo-
logical thought by Jewish mutakallimn(see below) predate Ibn al-Malh
.
ims theological works by almost a century.
51. W. Madelung, Ibn al-Malh
.
ims Refutation of the Philosophers, A Common Rationality: Mutazilism in
Islam and Judaism, ed. C. Adang et al., Wrzburg, 2007, p. 331. The Tuh
.
fa, written fourty years after al-Ghazls
Tahfut al-falsifa, has survived in a single manuscript, ed. H. Ansari and W. Madelung, Tehran, 2008 (n. 47
above). It is important to note that some of Ibn al-Malh
.
ims students were themselves fervent supporters of Ibn
Sns philosophy, as was the case with Z
.
hir al-Dn Ab l-H
.
asan Al b. Zayd (Ibn Funduq) al-Bayhaq (d.
565/1169), the author of Marij Nahj al-Balgha and Trkh Bayhaq (Encyclopaedia Iranica, vol. 3, pp. 895f.).
Ibn al-Malh
.
ims acquaintance with the works of the likes of Bahmanyr and al-Lawkar is very likely, but has not
yet been verined in detail.
52. Tuh
.
fat al-Mutakallimn (nn. 47 and 51 above), pp. 3f.
53. See the material compiled by A. H. al-Rahim, The Creation of Philosophical Tradition: Biography and the
Reception of Avicennas Philosophy from the 11th to the 14th centuries AD, Ph.D., Yale University, 2009; D. Gutas,
The Heritage of Avicenna: The Golden Age of Arabic Philosophy, 1000 ca. 1350, Avicenna and His Heritage,
eds J. L. Janssens and D. De Smet, Leiden, 2002, pp. 8890. Ibn al-Malh
.
im refers to prominent Shnte scholars
who studied Avicennan philosophy, such as Ab l-Fath
.
Asad b. Muh
.
ammad al-Mayhan (d. 523/1130 or
527/11323), a student of al-Lawkar (see F. Griffel, Al- Ghazls Philosophical Theology, New York, 2009, pp.
714, where al-Mayhans connections with al-Ghazl are also discussed).
conviction is a deceptive assumption, a delusive hope, and a vanishing desire for guidance. Some
so-called legal scholars among the H
.
anantes followed suit. They only got to this point, because
they wanted to study jurisprudence otherwise than it should be studied. For expert knowledge
in jurisprudence must be preceded by knowledge of legal methodology (us
.
l al-qh), and the
knowledge of legal methodology must be preceded by the knowledge of the principles of Islam.
By (mastering) these sciences one is safeguarded from misrepresenting the true nature of Islam.
It is in my view very likely that the interpretation of what Islam is about will eventually lead
to something like what Christianity became in relation to the religion of Jesus, peace upon him.
Their leading proponents were inclined towards the Greeks in philosophy, to the point that they
modelled the religion of Jesus upon (the docrines of ) the philosophers, and therefore came up
with what they came up with, namely the three hypostases, the unity/incarnation, and Jesus
becoming a God after having been a human, and other nonsense of this kind.
For this reason I wanted to make plain in this my book what these would-be philosophers
endorsed, who so they claim adhere to Islam by modelling Islam on their [scil. the philosophers]
methods. I will explain its invalidity and expound the shortcomings of each one of them who was
inclined towards them [scil. the philosophers] and fooled by them, because of their accurate
procedures in non-religious sciences (li-ajli ulmihim al-daqqa f ghayr al-ulm al-dniyya).
I called it Tuh
.
fat al-Mutakallimn (The unique gift of/for the theologians), because I was
not aware of any book composed by our masters that would cover the doctrines of these modern
would-be philosophers who model Islam on their [scil. the philosophers] methods, rather than
on what they pretend it to be based upon as well as the refutation (of these doctrines). With
this book I thus complemented theirs. In what prompted me to write this book no Islamic theolo-
gian has preceded me.
At nrst I will discuss what these people said regarding the createdness of the world and the
amrmation of a pre-eternal creator and his attributes, and their position on prophecy, the
religious laws, the hereafter, reward and punishment in general terms, then I will discuss the
conformity of their doctrine with the doctrine of the Dahriyya, the Dualists and the hellenized
Christians, then I will discuss on what grounds they preferred their doctrine over the doctrine
of the Muslims; then I will set forth the details of their doctrines, which I nrst dicussed in general
terms, and their arguments against it and our answers to that, after having mentioned for each
topic the corresponding position of the Muslims and in what way their position is superior.
In the aftermath of Ibn al-Malh
.
im the reception of Ab l-H
.
usayn al-Bas
.
rs version
of Mutazil kalm left its most signincant imprints not only in the thought of
luminaries like Fakhr al-Dn al-Rz, Nas
.
r al-Dn al-T
.
s, and the many who followed
in their footsteps, but most markedly in major intellectual traditions of the Imm Sha
and in branches of the Zaydiyya in Yemen (see further below). Among the non-Shite
authors who promoted Ab l-H
.
usayn al-Bas
.
rs and Ibn al-Malh
.
ims thought in the
Age of Averroes mention should be made of Taq l-Dn Ab l-Mal S
.
id b. Ah
.
mad
al-Ujl who apparently studied with Ibn al-Malh
.
im and authored K. al-Kmil f l-
istiqs
.
f-m balaghan min kalm al-qudam,
54
Ab l-H
.
asan Al b. Muh
.
ammad
261
MUTAZILISM IN THE AGE OF AVERROES
54. Ed. M. al-Shhid, Cairo 1999. A new edition of K. al-Kmil, based on additional manuscripts from
collections in Iran and Yemen, is currently being prepared by H. Ansari, W. Madelung, and S. Schmidtke. Taq l-
Dn al-Ujl is identical with S
.
id b. Ah
.
mad al-Us
.
l mentioned in T
.
abaqt al-Zaydiyya al-Kubr (n. 27 above),
p. 415.
al-Khwrazm, and his student Al al-Dn al-Sadd b. Muh
.
ammad al-Khayyt
.
. The
latter taught Sirj al-Dn Ysuf b. Ab Bakr al-Sakkk (d. 626/1229), the famous author
of Mifth
.
al-ulm, whose linguistic thought owes much to Mutazil us
.
l al-qh.
55
Al-
Sakkk in turn was teacher of the H
.
anaf jurist Najm al-Dn Mukhtr b. Mah
.
md b.
Muh
.
ammad al-Zhid al-Ghazmn (d. 658/1260) who authored K. al-Mujtab, an
important book on theology and legal methodology with frequent references to Ab l-
H
.
usayn al-Bas
.
r, Ibn al-Malh
.
im, and Taq l-Dn al-Ujl.
56
Other pro-Alid H
.
anantes
who were well acquainted with the H
.
usayniyya include the above-mentioned (n. 18)
Ab Yaqb Ysuf b. Isml al-Lamghn (d. 606/1209) and his student Izz al-Dn
Ab H
.
mid Abd al-H
.
amd b. Ab l-H
.
add (d. Baghdad 656/1258), the well-known
author of Sharh
.
Nahj al-balgha. The latter also authored K. Sharh
.
mushkilt al-Ghurar,
a commentary on selected passages of Ab l-H
.
usayn al-Bas
.
rs K. Ghurar al-adilla,
and critical comments (talqt) on Fakhr al-Dn al-Rzs K. Muh
.
as
.
s
.
al afkr al-
mutaqaddimn wa-l-mutaakhkhirn and K. al-Arban f us
.
l al-dn.
IMM SH MUTAZILA
From the very outset, the adoption of Mutazilism among Imm Shites was hampered
by some fundamental tensions between the two doctrines, above all the Imm Shite
belief in the imamate and the existence of a sinless and infallible imm who is the
intercessor for the community of his followers. In accordance with this doctrine, the
Imm mutakallimn consistently rejected two of the principal tenets of Mutazilism:
the irrevocable punishment of the grave sinner (al-wad wa-l-wad), and his intermediate
position (al-manzila bayna l-manzilatayn) between the believer and the unbeliever.
57
Imamism also struggled to reconcile with the Mutazil view that the principal truths of
religion (us
.
l al-dn) can only be derived from reason, but not on the basis of Scripture
and authority. For some Imm scholars, like al-Shaykh al-Mufd (d. 413/1022), kalm
was not much more than a means of defending more effectively the Imamite dogma
derived from the teaching of the imams.
Notwithstanding these tensions several eminent Imm mutakallimn adopted one
branch or the other of Mutazilism, even if they were as a rule careful to dissociate from
the Mutazila by explicitly negating any doctrinal dependence, claiming Al b. Ab T
.
lib
and at times Jafar al-S
.
diq to be the true founders of their dogma.
In some ways, the sixth/twelfth century marks a turning point with respect to the
reception of Mutazil thought within Imm Shism. While Ibn Qiba al-Rz (d. in
262
GREGOR SCHWARB
55. U. G. Simon, Mittelalterliche arabische Sprachbetrachtung zwischen Grammatik und Rhetorik: ilm al-man
bei as-Sakkk, Heidelberg, 1993, pp. 1323.
56. See Madelung, Introduction (n. 44 above), p. vii. While al-Ghazmns K. al-Mujtab was known to and
quoted by Yemenite Zayd authors (e.g. Muh
.
ammad Ibn al-Wazr (d. 840/14367), K. thr al-h
.
aqq al l-khalq,
Cairo 1318/1900, pp. 10, 12, 50, 67, 1046, 112, 118, and passim), no manuscript is presently known to be extant.
57. W. Madelung, Imamism and Mutazilite Theology, Le Shisme immite, ed. T. Fahd, Paris, 1970, pp. 13
29 [reprinted in id., Religious Schools (n. 17 above), text no. VII].
Rayy, before 319/931), a student of Ab l-Qsim al-Balkh (d. 319/931), and al-Shaykh
al-Mufd had in the main adapted the doctrine of the Baghdd Mutazila,
58
the following
generations of Imm scholars followed mainly the teachings of the Bahshamiyya, as
represented by Abd al-Jabbr b. Ah
.
mad al-Hamadhn.
59
Alam al-Hud Ab l-Qsim
Al b. al-H
.
usayn b. Ms al-Sharf al-Murtad
.
(d. 436/1044) and his younger brother,
Ab l-H
.
asan Muh
.
ammad b. al-H
.
usayn al-Sharf al-Rad
.
(d. 406/1016), who nrst studied
with al-Shaykh al-Mufd and then with Abd al-Jabbr, were the nrst Imm scholars
who fully accepted the Mutazil view that establishing the fundamental truths of religion
belonged exclusively to the domain of reason and integrated this claim into the Imamite
view.
60
With some minor modincations many of their students and a number of Imm
scholars of the sixth/twelfth century adopted their stand on Mutazil tenets, among
them Jaml al-Dn Ab l-Futh
.
H
.
usayn b. Al b. Muh
.
ammad al-Rz (d. Rayy after
1131),
61
Amn al-Dn Ab Al l-Fad
.
l b. al-H
.
asan b. al-Fad
.
l al-T
.
abars (d. ca. 548/1154),
62
Imd al-Dn Ab Jafar Muh
.
ammad b. Al b. H
.
amza al-T
.
s al-Mashhad (= Ab Jafar
al-thn, alive in 566/1171),
63
Nas
.
r al-Dn Ab Rashd Abd al-Jall b. Ab l-H
.
usayn al-
Qazwn al-Rz (d. after 566/1171),
64
and others.
263
MUTAZILISM IN THE AGE OF AVERROES
58. H. Modarressi, Crisis and Consolidation in the Formative Period of Shite Islam: Ab Jafar ibn Qiba al-
Rz and His Contribution to Immite Shite Thought, Princeton, 1993; M. J. McDermott, The Theology of al-
Shaikh al-Mufd (d. 413/1022), Beirut, 1978; P. Sander, Zwischen Charisma und Ratio: Entwicklungen in der
frhen imamitischen Theologie, Berlin, 1994; T. Bayhom-Daou, Shaykh Mufd, Oxford, 2005; R. M. el Omari, The
Theology of Ab l-Qsim al-Balh /al-Kab (d. 319/931): A Study of Its Sources and Reception, PhD Thesis, Yale
University, 2006, pp. 859, 128, 15861, 220f.
59. On the early reception of Mutazil kalmin the Imm Sha see W. Madelung, Imamism and Mutazilite
Theology (n. 57 above).
60. Encyclopaedia Iranica, vol. 1, pp. 7915 (W. Madelung, 1985); Agh Buzurgh al-T
.
ihrn, T
.
abaqt alm
al-Sha, al-Nbis f l-qarn al-khmis, Beirut, 1391/1971, pp. 120f., 164f. The numerous doctrinal differences
between al-Shaykh al-Mufd and al-Sharf al-Murtad
.
were recorded by Qut
.
b al-Dn Ab l-H
.
usayn Sad b.
Hibatillh b. al-H
.
asan al-Rwand (d. 573/11778), K. al-Ikhtilft = al-Khilf [alladh tajaddada] bayna l-Shaykh
al-Mufd wa-l-Sayyid al-Murtad
.
f masil kalmiyya (see T
.
ihrn, al-Dhara il tas
.
nf al-Sha, vol. 1, p. 361;
al-Lajna al-Ilmiyya f Muassasat al-Imm al-S
.
diq, Mujam al-turth al-kalm, Qum, 1423/2002, vol. I, p. 203,
no. 645; E. Kohlberg, A Medieval Scholar at Work: Ibn T
.
ws and his Library, Leiden, 1992, p. 217).
61. T
.
abaqt alm al-Sha (n. 60 above), Thiqt al-uyn f sdis al-qurn, pp. 79f.; Encyclopaedia Iranica, vol.
I, p. 292 (M. J. McDermott, 1985). Gilliot, Lexgse du Coran (n. 21 above), p. 149. Jaml al-Dn al-Rz made
frequent use of Sunnite and esp. Mutazilite texts. He is the author of a Persian Qurn commentary known in
Arabic as K. Rawd
.
al-jinn wa-rawh
.
al-jann f tafsr al-Qurn.
62. B. G. Fudge, The Major Qurn Commentary of al-T
.
abris (d. 548/1154), Ph.D. Thesis, Harvard University,
2003. GAL (n. 3 above), I, pp. 513f.; Suppl. vol. 1, pp. 708f., no. 3; T
.
abaqt alm al-Sha (n. 60 above), Thiqt
al-uyn, p. 216; al-Dhara il tas
.
nf al-Sha (n. 60 above), index vol. 2, pp. 1230f.
63. Dhara (n. 60 above), index vol. 5, p. 5; T
.
abaqt alm al-Sha (n. 60 above), Thiqt al-uyn, pp. 272f.
64. Encyclopaedia Iranica, vol. I, p. 120 (W. Madelung, 1985). His K. Naqd
.
al-Fad
.
ih
.
(n. 26 above) is an
important source for the religious and social conditions in Persia in the Seljq age, and contains much relevant
information about sixth/twelfth-century Mutazil scholars in the Eastern provinces of the Caliphate. He repeatedly
mentions Shite and Alid sympathies among Sunn scholars in Northern Iran and maintained friendly ties with
major representatives of the H
.
anante school, including the above-mentioned Mutazil chief Qd
.
Ab Abdallh
Muh
.
ammad b. al-H
.
asan al-Astarbd. Ibn Shahrashb was his student. He is not to be confused with Rashd al-
Dn Ab Sad Abd al-Jall b. Ab l-Fath
.
Masd b. s l-Rz who wrote a refutation of Ab l-H
.
usayn al-Bas
.
rs
K. Tas
.
affuh
.
al-adilla (Naqd
.
al-Tas
.
affuh
.
) (Dhara (n. 60 above), vol. 24, p. 286, no. 1466; Mujam al-turth al-
kalm (n. 60 above), vol. 5, p. 410, no. 12248).
With the introduction of Ab l-H
.
usayn al-Bas
.
rs thought to Khursn and Khwrazm
during the sixth/twelfth century, these doctrines were also adopted by some Imm
theologians, nrst and foremost by Sadd al-Dn Mah
.
md b. Al b. al-H
.
asan al-H
.
immas
.
al-Rz (d. after 600/1204), a contemporary of Fakhr al-Dn al-Rz and teacher of Nas
.
r
al-Dn al-T
.
s.
65
Mainly by the intermediary of the theological works of al-T
.
s and his
student al-Allma al-H
.
ill (d. 726/1325), Ab l-H
.
usayn al-Bas
.
rs thought made its
marks on an important trend of Imm Sh theology.
66
CASPIAN ZAYD MUTAZILA
In the sixth/twelfth century the Zayd community of the coastal regions south of the
Caspian Sea had already passed its Golden Age.
67
The most signincant theological
treatises that were instrumental to the subsequent reception of the Bahshamite doctrine
among the Zaydis in Yemen were written during the fourth/tenth and nfth/eleventh
centuries.
68
Indeed, during the lifetime of Averroes the centre of Zayd learning shifted
from the Northern Caspian state to Yemen. A great deal of what we know about the
Caspian Zayd community and its scholars is due to the wealth of information contained
in historio- and biographical works preserved or composed by Yemenite Zayds.
69
It is
also in Yemen that a considerable part of the theological works written during this period
has survived.
264
GREGOR SCHWARB
65. K. al-Munqidh min al-taqld wa-l-murshid il l-tawh
.
d, ed. M. H. Al-Ysuf al-Gharaw, Qum, 1412/1991
2. The work was completed on 9 Jumd I 581/8 Aug 1185. According to the editors introduction Fakhr al-Dn
al-Rz attended one of H
.
immas
.
s teaching sessions.
66. For further details about the initially reluctant reception of Ab l-H
.
usayn al-Bas
.
rs thought among Twelver
Shites see the editors introduction to the anonymous Khuls
.
at al-naz
.
ar (ed. S. Schmidtke and H. Ansari, Tehran
2006, pp. vxix), which is yet another example for the early Imm reception of the H
.
usayniyya; S. Schmidtke,
The Doctrinal Views of the Ban al-Awd (early 8th/14th century): An analysis of MS Arab. F. 64 (Bodleian
Library, Oxford), Le Shisme immite quarante ans aprs. Hommage Etan Kohlberg, ed. M. A. Amir-Moezzi et
al., Paris, 2009, pp. 373396; ead., Ab al-H
.
usayn al-Bas
.
r on the Torah and Its Abrogation, Mlanges de
lUniversit Saint-Joseph, 61, 2008, pp. 562f.; ead., The Theology of al-Allma al-H ill (d. 726/1325), Berlin, 1991;
ead., Theologie, Philosophie und Mystik im zwlferschiitischen Islam des 9./15. Jahrhunderts. Die Gedankenwelt des
Ibn Ab G
umhr al-Ah
.
s (um 838/143435 nach 906/1501), Leiden, 2000, pp. 3f., 333 (index).
67. For the reception of Mutazil kalmin the Caspian Zaydiyya see Madelung, Der Imam (n. 15 above), esp.
153222; id., Alids, Encyclopaedia Iranica, vol. I, pp. 8816; id., Zaydiyya, EI, vol. XI, pp. 478f.
68. For a detailed documentation see my Handbook of Mutazilite Works and Manuscripts (n. 9 above).
69. See above n. 27 and in particular the eight texts (partially) edited by W. Madelung, Akhbr aimmat al-Zaydiyya
f T
.
abaristn wa-Daylamn wa-Jln [Arabic texts concerning the History of the Zayd Imms of T
.
abaristn, Daylamn
and Gln], Beirut, 1987; id., Ab Ish
.
q al-S
.
b on the Alids of T
.
abaristn and Gln, Journal of Near Eastern Studies
26, 1967, pp. 1756, repr. in id., Religious and Ethnic Movements in Medieval Islam, Aldershot, 1992, text no. VII;
A.M. Zayd, Aimmat Ahl al-Bayt khrij al-Yaman (Aimmat Ahl al-Bayt, vol. I), Amman, 2002. In the meantime,
most of the texts included in Akhbr aimmat al-Zaydiyyahave been edited separately; moreover, a complete manu-
script copy of al-H
.
kim al-Jishums Jalal-abs
.
rhas been found. Of particular relevance for the sixth/twelfth century
is K. al-H
.
adiq al-wardiyya f manqib aimmat al-Zaydiyya by Ab Abdallh H
.
umayd b. Ah
.
mad al-Muh
.
all,
known as al-Shahd (d. 652/1254), ed. 1) Damascus: Dr Usma, 1985 (facsimile); 2) al-Murtad
.
b. Zayd al-
Mah
.
at
.
war al-H
.
asan, S
.
an1423/2002, <http://www.almahatwary.org/p819.htm> (consulted 30 Nov 2009).
H. Ansari, <http://ansari.kateban.com/entry1110.html> and <http://ansari.kateban.com/entry1192.html>, has
extracted information on Caspian Zayds from K. Mat
.
la al-budr wa-majma al-buh
.
r (n. 27 above).
The knowledge transfer from the Caspian Zaydiyya to the Zayd state in Yemen
gradually increased throughout the sixth/twelfth century, from 511/1117, when the
Caspian and the Yemenite Zaydiyya were politically united for the nrst time under the
Imm Ab T
.
lib al-Akhr (d. 520/1126), until the death of the Imm al-Mans
.
r Abdallh
b. H
.
amza (d. 614/1217), whose imamate was also endorsed by the Caspian Zayds.
70
Despite this gradual shift, remnants of the tradition of Zayd learning in the Caspian
region remained alive till about the tenth/sixteenth century.
71
The continuity and
transmission of Zayd Mutazil learning in Northern Iran during the sixth/twelfth
century may paradigmatically be illustrated by the School of Rayy whose main
representatives were directly or indirectly linked to the major exponents of Bahshamite
kalm in the scholarly circle around al-S
.
h
.
ib b. Abbd (d. 385/995), the vizier of
Muayyad al-Dawla in Byid Rayy, such as Abd al-Jabbr al-Hamadhn and the two
But
.
h
.
n brothers, Ab l-H
.
usayn Ah
.
mad b. al-H
.
usayn al-Hrn (the Imm al-Muayyad
bi-llh, d. 411/1020), and Ab T
.
lib Yah
.
y b. al-H
.
usayn al-Hrn (the Imm al-Nt
.
iq
bi-l-h
.
aqq, d. 424/1033).
72
It may sumce here to mention two important families of Zayd
jurists and theologians, the Farrazdhs and the Mazdaks, who exemplify the continuous
scholarly tradition of Mutazil learning among the Zayds in Rayy.
73
Like the
Khwrazmian and Khursanian traditions of Mutazil learning, the School of Rayy left
its distinctive marks among the Zayds in Yemen.
265
MUTAZILISM IN THE AGE OF AVERROES
70. See Al al-Msaw Najjd, Turth al-Zaydiyya, Qum, 1383sh/2005, pp. 10110.
71. See Madelung, Der Imm (n. 15 above), p. 218; id., Akhbr aimmat al-Zaydiyya (n. 69 above), pp. 13f.,
nn. 5f. The Zayds of the north state were, however, slowly pushed aside by the Nuzayrs and nnally absorbed by
the Twelver Sha.
72. Many of these scholars are listed in the eleventh and twelfth t
.
abaqa and the appendix on Shite Mutazilites
in the above-mentioned (n. 10) Bb f dhikr al-Mutazila of al-Jishums Sharh
.
Uyn al-masil. See Handbook of
Mutazilite Works and Manuscripts (n. 9 above), nos. 31731.
73. For more details on the main representatives of the Farrazdh and the Mazdak families and the School
of Rayy see the facsimile edition of the anonymous Sharh
.
K. al-Tadhkira f ah
.
km al-jawhir wa-l-ard
.
,
Tehran, 2006, a commentary on Ab Muh
.
ammad H
.
asan b. Ah
.
mad Ibn Mattawayhs K. al-Tadhkira (ed. D.
Gimaret, Cairo, 2009), which originated and was transmitted in the School of Rayy (the MS dates 570/1175),
together with H
.
asan Ans
.
r, Kitb az maktab-i mutakkilimn-i mutazil Rayy, Kitb-i mh dn 104/105/106,
1385/2006, pp. 6875, who showed Ab Jafar Muh
.
ammad b. Al Mazdak, a student of Ibn Mattawayh and
teacher of Ab Muh
.
ammad Isml b. Al al-Farrazdh, to be its likely author. On the commentary, see also S.
Schmidtke, MS Mahdawi 514. An Anonymous Commentary on Ibn Mattawayhs Kitb al-Tadhkira, Islamic
Thought in the Middle Ages. Studies in Text, Transmission and Translation in Honour of Hans Daiber, eds. A.
Akasoy and W. Raven, Leiden, 2008, pp. 13962; D. Gimaret, Le Commentaire rcemment publi de la
Tad kira dIbn Mattawayh: premier inventaire, Journal Asiatique 296, 2008, pp. 203228; see, moreover, the
manuscripts of al-Farrazdhs Talq al Sharh
.
al-us
.
l al-khamsa (MSS S
.
an, Maktabat al-Jmi al-Kabr al-
Sharqiyya, Ilm al-kalmno. 73, with an important isnd on fol. 1a, published by Abd al-Karm Uthmn in the
introduction to his edition of Mnekdms Talq, Cairo 1965, p. 24, n. 1; Riyadh: al-Maktaba al-Markaziyya
bi-Jmiat al-Imm Muh
.
ammad b. Sad al-Islmiyya, no. 2404; Riyadh: Jmiat al-Malik Sad, no. 7784) with
<http://ansari.kateban.com/entry1132.html>, <entry1396.html>, <entry1567.html>, <entry1678.html>, and
<entry1684.html>. Some forthcoming articles by Ansari and Schmidtke will shed further light on the legacy of
the Zaydiyya in Northern Iran: The Role of the Farrazdh Family in the Propagation of Mutazilism in Rayy,
Mutazilism in Daylam: Al b. al-H
.
usayn Siyh [Shh] Sarjn [Sarbjn] and his Writings, Mutazilism in
Rayy and Astarbd: Abu l-Fad
.
l al-Abbs b. Sharwn.
YEMENITE ZAYD MUTAZILA
When the founder of the nrst Zayd state in Yemen, the Imm al-Hd il l-H
.
aqq (Ab
l-H
.
usayn Yah
.
y b. al-H
.
usayn b. al-Qsim al-Rass) died in 298/911, his state comprised
little more than the city of S
.
ada.
74
Al-Hds son Ab l-Qsim Muh
.
ammad, the Imm
al-Murtad
.
li-Dn Allh (d. 310/922) did not reach any further, and his second son
Ah
.
mad, the Imm al-Ns
.
ir li-Dn Allh (d. 322/934) was involved in permanent combat
with various local forces. Already under al-Ns
.
irs son the Hd state had lost almost all
its relevance. With the spread of the Ghayba-doctrine after the death of the Mahd al-
H
.
usayn b. al-Qsim al-Iyn in 404/1013 the absence of the imamate became almost
seen as the normal state of affairs.
75
Around that time emerged the Mut
.
arrinyya, the most important school of Zayd instruc-
tion in the nfth/eleventh and sixth/twelfth centuries, which is of pivotal importance to our
understanding of the momentous development of Zayd Mutazil thought in Yemen during
the sixth/twelfth century.
76
The Mut
.
arrinyya was a pietist movement named after its found-
ing ngure Mut
.
arrif b. Shihb b. mir b. Abbd al-Shihb (d. 459/1067), who initially
had been a fervent supporter of al-Mahd al-Iyns imamate, but then disavowed it after
the imms alleged occultation. The Mut
.
arrinyya aspired to adhere strictly to the teaching
of al-Qsim b. Ibrhm and the early Yemenite Imms, al-Hd il l-H
.
aqq Yah
.
y, and his
two sons, Muh
.
ammad al-Murtad
.
, and Ah
.
mad al-Ns
.
ir. In addition to its pietistic and con-
servative attitude the Mut
.
arrinyya cherished the rivalry between the immigrant Zaydis and
the native Zaydis by repudiating the deviant doctrine of the later Yemenite imms and those
who had been active abroad, esp. in the Caspian region. The antagonism with the Sayyids
was most apparent in the Mut
.
arrif concept of the imamate and the requirements to be
satisned by a potential imm pretender, stressing the conditions of merits and achievements
rather than those of ancestry and lineage.
77
Unsurprisingly, the Mut
.
arrinyya generally had
little support among the Alids who fostered close contacts with the Zaydis outside the
Yemen and were more concerned with preserving the super-regional unity of the Zaydiyya.
78
266
GREGOR SCHWARB
74. A. M. Zayd, Mutazilat al-Yaman: dawlat al-Hd wa-kruhu, Beirut, 1981.
75. On al-H
.
usayn b. al-Qsim al-Iyn see Min majm kutub wa-rasil al-Imm al-Iyn, ed. Abd al-Karm
Ah
.
mad Jadabn, S
.
an, 2006.
76. On the Mut
.
arrinyya see D. T. Gochenour, The Penetration of Zayd Islam into Early Medieval Yemen, Ph.D
thesis, Harvard University, 1984, pp. 186201; A. M. Zayd, Tayyrt Mutazilat al-Yaman f l-qarn al-sdis al-hijr,
S
.
an, 1997, pp. 64104; Madelung, Mut
.
arrinyya, EI, vol. 7, pp. 7723; id., A Mut
.
arrif Manuscript, Proceedings
of the VIth Congress of Arabic and Islamic studies (Visby, 1316 August, Stockholm, 1719 August, 1972), ed. F.
Rundgren, Stockholm, 1975, pp. 7583 (reprinted in id., Religious Schools (n. 17 above), text no. XIX), and the
literature mentioned below. A detailed study of the Mut
.
arrinyya is currently being prepared by my colleague H. Ansari;
see for now <http://ansari.kateban.com/entry800.html> and <http://ansari.kateban.com/entry863.html>.
77. If the imm was to be afd
.
al (min) al-muminn, this fad
.
l could only be achieved by virtue of good deeds
(wa-l yaknu hdh l-fad
.
l ill bi-s
.
lih
.
al-aml). See Zayd, Tayyrt (n. 76 above), pp. 86104, here p. 88;
Gochenour, The Penetration of Zayd Islam (n. 76 above), pp. 199f. A particularly elaborate form of this merit-
based concept of imamate was advocated by Nashwn al-H
.
imyar (d. 573/1178); see Zayd, pp. 1057 and I. b. A.
al-Akwa, Nashwn b. Sad al-H
.
imyar wa-l-s
.
ir al-kr wa-l-siys wa-l-madhhab f as
.
rihi, Damascus, 1997.
78. Zayd, Tayyrt (n. 76 above), pp. 80f., 86104.
Closely linked with the Mut
.
arrinyya was the concept of hijra.
79
The Mut
.
arrinyya
viewed the duty of hijra as the permanent obligation to emigrate from the domination
of the sinners and oppressors (dr al-z
.
ulm), as it had been denned by the Imam al-
Qsim b. Ibrhm and his son Muh
.
ammad before the establishment of the imamate in
the Yemen. Under the reign of the Isml S
.
ulayh
.
ids, whom the Mut
.
arrinyya, like
other Zayds, considered as arch-heretics and atheists, the obligation of hijra was of
the most immediate urgency.
80
Throughout the nfth/eleventh century the
Mut
.
arrinyya established a wide network of hijras throughout the Northern part of the
Yemen. The hijra became the corner stone of an extensive missionary activity and
stronghold against the Isml dawa and was constitutive to the spreading of Zayd
doctrine into regions south of S
.
ada as far as Dhamr that had hitherto been
unreached by the dawa of the Zayd Sayyids.
81
The nrst Mut
.
arrif hijra was founded
by Mut
.
arrif b. Shihb himself at San, ca. 5 km south of S
.
an, in the territory of
the Ban Shihb, his own tribe, sometimes after 1037, perhaps still before the rise of
the S
.
ulayh
.
ids. The second hijra was established in Wd Waqash which remained the
centre of the Mut
.
arrif movement and remained the seat of its leaders until the
destruction of the hijra in 612/1215 by order of the Imm al-Mans
.
r Abdallh b.
H
.
amza (d. 614/1217).
When in 511/1117 the Caspian and the Yemenite Zaydiyya were politically united
for the nrst time under the Imm Ab T
.
lib al-Akhr (see above), who had risen in Gln
in 502/1108, and was then endorsed by the Yemenite Sayyids, the Yemenite part of the
Zayd state was still very small. The imms proxy in Yemen, the Amr al-Muh
.
sin b. al-
H
.
asan b. al-Ns
.
ir, resided in S
.
ada, where the Caspian savant and Qd
.
Ab T
.
lib Nas
.
r
267
MUTAZILISM IN THE AGE OF AVERROES
79. On the hijras see Gochenour, The Penetration of Zayd Islam(n. 76 above), pp. 148243, Zayd, Tayyrt
(n. 76 above), pp. 6981; W. Madelung, The Origins of the Yemenite Hijra, Arabicus Felix: Luminosus
Britannicus. Essays in Honour of A.F.L. Beeston on his Eightieth Birthday, ed. A. Jones, Oxford, 1991, pp. 2544,
repr. in id., Religious and Ethnic Movements in Medieval Islam, Aldershot, 1992, text no. XIII; I. b. A. al-Akwa,
Hijar al-ilm wa-maqiluhu f l-Yaman, 6 vols, Beirut, 19962003; id., al-Muhjir il hijar al-ilm f l-Yaman,
S
.
an, 2006; id., Les Higg ra et les forteresses du savoir au Ymen, S
.
an, 1996; Y. Kuriyama, Zayd Hijras in Yemen
in the Late Eleventh and Early Twelfth Centuries: With a Focus on the Hijras of the Mut
.
arrifya, Thgaku, 102,
2001, pp. 9278 (sic!) [in Japanese, with English abstract pp. 7f.].
80. On the Ft
.
imid dawa in Yemen see A. F. Sayyid, Trkh al-madhhib al-dniyya f bild al-Yaman h
.
att
nihyat al-qarn al-sdis al-Hijr, Cairo, 1988, pp. 91206.
81. Zayd, Tayyrt (n. 76 above), p. 73. Zaydism was a minor factor within a rather complex patchwork of
political entities and intellectual amnities that made up Yemen in the early sixth/twelfth century. From a
political point of view the Age of Averroes in Yemen roughly spans from the end of the Ft
.
imid dynasty of the
S
.
ulayh
.
ids, marked by the death of Sayyida Arw bint Ah
.
mad (= Bilqs al-s
.
ughr) in 532/1138, up to the
successive incursions by the Ayybid armies from 569/1173 onwards. For the northern part of Yemen and in
particular S
.
an the three Hamdnid dynasties played an important role, after the Sulayh
.
ids lost effective
control of the town in 492/1098. In 533/11389 the H
.
amdn Sult
.
n H
.
tim b. Ah
.
mad al-Majd b. Imrn al-
Fad
.
l al-Ym gained control of the city. By 545/1150 he was in control of all territory north of S
.
an, apart
from S
.
ada, which remained in Zayd hands (see below). For a survey of the main historical sources for
sixth/twelfth-century Yemen see Sayyid, Mas
.
dir trkh al-Yaman f l-as
.
r al-Islm, Cairo, 1974, pp. 99115,
3539, 38495.
b. Ab T
.
lib b. Ab Jafar was charged with promoting creed and law of the Caspian
Zaydiyya, including Bahshamite kalm.
82
A new chapter of the Yemenite Zaydiyya was opened with Ab l-H
.
asan Ah
.
mad b.
Sulaymn (d. 566/1170), who in 532/11378 rose as al-Imm al-Mutawakkil al llh.
83
For almost twenty years he was locked in a struggle with the Hamdn Sult
.
n of S
.
an,
H
.
tim b. Ah
.
mad. For any pretender to the imamate the Mut
.
arrif hijras were of
paramount strategic signincance, and it was therefore natural for Ah
.
mad b. Sulaymn to
try to recruit his support for the liberation of S
.
an among these hijras, all the more so
as he had himself a very traditional Hdaw education (he was a sixth generation
descendant of the imm al-Hd il l-H
.
aqq). Indeed, during the early years of his imamate
and during his prolonged combats with the Hamdn Sult
.
n we nnd him quite often in
company of Mut
.
arrintes, and his early works show clear amnities with Mut
.
arrif doctrines
which in major points corresponded with the doctrines of the Baghdd Mutazila as
they were adopted by al-Hd il l-H
.
aqq and his successors to the imamate in Yemen,
84
complemented with an idiosyncratic concept of the structure of the physical world, whose
only constituents are the three (or four) elements, their natural properties, and the
interactions between them.
85
268
GREGOR SCHWARB
82. Bahshamite kalmwas sparsely known among Yemenite Zaydis in the early sixth/twelfth century. It differed
in substantial points (irda, ikhtir, tawallud, imma, fad
.
l) from the Hdaw-theology of the Mut
.
arrinyya.
Unsurprisingly, some of the earliest known Bahsham texts copied in Yemen were copied in S
.
ada, as is the case
with the acephalous ms. Milan, Biblioteca Ambrosiana, X 96 Sup. (= Codex Grimni 27, cat. Lfgren/Traini, vol.
I, pp. 156f. no. CCXC/A), copied in Rab I 499/Nov 1105, i.e. prior to the imamate of Ab T
.
lib al-Akhr. I am
currently preparing an edition of this important text, which has alternately been identined as Ab T
.
lib Yah
.
y b.
al-H
.
usayns K. Mabdi al-adilla f us
.
l al-dn (W. Madelung, Zu einigen Werken des Imams Ab T
.
lib an-Nt
.
iq
bi l-H
.
aqq, Der Islam 63, 1986, pp. 510), and Ab l-Fad
.
l al-Abbs Ibn Sharwns K. al-Madkhal f us
.
l al-dn
(H. Ansari, <http://ansari.kateban.com/entry1581.html>.
83. See T
.
abaqt al-Zaydiyya al-Kubr (n. 27 above), pp. 1325, no. 50; T
.
abaqt al-Zaydiyya al-S
.
ughr (n. 27
above); K. al-H
.
adiq al-wardiyya(n. 69 above), vol. 2, pp. 11733; Muh
.
ammad b. Al al-Zah
.
f, Mathir al-abrr
f tafs
.
l mujmalt jawhir al-akhbr, wa-yusamm al-Lawh
.
iq al-naddiyya bi-l-H
.
adiq al-wardiyya, ed. A. al-
Wajh and K. al-Mutawakkil, Amman, 1423/2002, pp. 74868; A. b. A. al-Wajh, Alm al-muallifn al-Zaydiyya,
Amman, 1420/1999, pp. 11416, no. 85; A. M. al-H
.
ibsh, Mas
.
dir al-kr al-islm f l-Yaman, 2nd ed., Abu Dhabi,
2004, pp. 5346, 61619; M. b. M. Zabra, Trkh al-aimma al-Zaydiyya f l-Yaman h
.
att l-as
.
r al-h
.
adth, Cairo,
1998, pp. 95108. GAL(n. 3 above), Suppl., vol. 1, p. 699, no. 2A; U. R. Kah
.
h
.
la, Mujam al-muallifn, Damascus,
137681/195761, vol. 1, p. 239; A. al-H
.
usayn, Muallaft al-Zaydiyya, Qum, 1413/1992, vol. 3, pp. 183f.;
Madelung, Der Imam (n. 15 above), pp. 199f., index; Sayyid, Trkh al-madhhib al-dniyya(n. 80 above), pp. 265f.;
id., Mas
.
dir trkh al-Yaman(n. 81 above), pp. 107f.; Zayd, Tayyrt (n. 76 above), pp. 4463.
84. See Madelung, Der Imam (n. 15 above), pp. 164169, 201204, 211213; A. M. Zayd, Mutazilat al-
Yaman: (n. 74 above); on the dependence of the Mut
.
arrif doctrine on Ab l-Qsim al-Balkh and in particular
his K. al-Maqlt see id., Tayyrt (n. 76 above), pp. 204f.; Sayyid, Trkh al-madhhib al-dniyya (n. 80 above),
pp. 25154; el Omari, The Theology of Ab l-Qsim al-Balh (n. 58 above), p. 127; A. A. Fud, al-Imm al-Zayd
Ah
.
mad b. Sulaymn (500566) wa-ruhu al-kalmiyya, Alexandria, 1986. Ah
.
mad b. Sulaymn emphatically
underlined the close alliance between the Baghdd Mutazila and the Zaydiyya in his K. H
.
aqiq al-marifa [f
us
.
l al-dn al manhaj l Sayyid al-mursaln], ed. H
.
. b. Y. al-Ysuf, Amman, 2003, pp. 524f.: Mashyikh al-
Baghddiyyn [] yusammna Shat al-Mutazila wa-Mutazilat al-Sha, wa-samm l-Zaydiyya Mutazilat
al-Sha wa-s
.
awwab l-Zaydiyya f jam aqwlihim wa-dhakar anna l-rqa al-njiya hum Shat al-Mutazila
wa-Mutazilat al-Sha, yanna l-Zaydiyya.
85. On the historical background of this doctrine see W. Madelung, A Mut
.
arrif Manuscript (n. 76 above)
pp. 78f. and the sources mentioned below, nn. 11516.
Within less than a century the relationship between the Mut
.
arrinyya and the
supporters of the local imms deteriorated drastically. By 614/1217, the year in which
the Imm al-Mans
.
r Abdall b. H
.
amza died, the Mut
.
arrif network of hijras was almost
completely destroyed. Up to this very day the accounts of the process that led to the quasi-
annihilation of the Mut
.
arrif movement have remained a controversial and highly
sensitive topic among Zayds.
86
In a survey of Mutazil thought in the age of Averroes
this intra-Zayd and, indeed, intra-Mutazil contention is highly signincant. Even though
the connict clearly pivoted on political issues related to the doctrine of the imamate, the
endorsement of specinc pretenders to the imamate, their tax and marriage policy, and
similar issues,
87
disputes on matters of doctrine were no mere trine. Indeed, developments
in the theological doctrines of either side to the connict can hardly be understood, if
detached from this historical context.
According to the common narrative of the Zayd sources, including the sra of the
Imm al-Mutawakkil Ah
.
mad b. Sulaymn,
88
it was the visit of the afore-mentioned Fakhr
al-Dn Zayd b. al-H
.
asan al-Bayhaq al-Barawqan (d. 545/115051)
89
that generated the
sudden surge of Bahsham kalm among Yemenite Zayds and triggered the doctrinal
aspect of the twist between the Mut
.
arrintes and the Sayyids.
90
Zayd b. al-H
.
asan al-
Bayhaq, a representative of the Irq H
.
anaf tradition, studied Bahsham kalm with
the son of al-H
.
kim al-Jishum and became the major scion of the latters thought in
269
MUTAZILISM IN THE AGE OF AVERROES
86. Zayd, Tayyrt (n. 76 above), and A. M. Abd al-t
.
, al-S
.
ir al-kr f l-Yaman bayna l-Zaydiyya wa-l-
Mut
.
arriyya. Dirsa wa-nus
.
s
.
, al-Haram [Giza], 2002, are the two most comprehensive studies of this process up to
date. Both studies were met with much criticism among the Zayds. In recent years the Mut
.
arrinyya has become a
much debated topic in leading Yemenite academic journals (see, for istance, Zayd b. Al al-Wazr, al-Mut
.
arriyya:
al-kr wa-l-mash, al-Masr, 1.2, 2000, pp. 2784; Badr al-Dn al-H
.
th, Muh
.
ammad Yah
.
y Slim Azzn, Zayd
b. Al al-Wazr, H
.
iwr h
.
awla l-Mut
.
arriyya, al-Masr, 2.2, 2001, pp. 6880 and 2.3, 2001, pp. 7094; H
.
asan
Muh
.
ammad Zayd, Mih
.
nat al-Mut
.
arriyya wa-Shaykh al-Islm al-Umar, al-Masr 4.23, 2003, pp. 12341 and
in the same volume Zayd b. Al al-Wazr, Tawd
.
h
.
wa-taqb al maql Mih
.
nat al-Mut
.
arriyya, pp. 14372; id.,
F ntiz
.
r jadd al-Mut
.
arriyya, al-Masr 5.2, 2004, pp. 512 (p. 12: wa-laysa yawm z
.
uhrih bi-bad(!)) as well
as in online discussion forums (see, e.g., the interesting thread no. 262 of the online forum l Muh
.
ammad,
<http://71.18.61.110/forums/viewtopic.php?t=262>, or <http://www.ye22.net/vb/showthread.php?t=276280>
consulted 30 Nov 2009).
87. See in particular the texts by Abdallh b. Zayd al-Ans (d. 667/12689), ed. A. M. Abd al-t
.
, in al-
S
.
ir al-kr f l-Yaman (n. 86 above), pp. 274334, his K. al-Mis
.
bh
.
al-lih
.
f l-radd al l-Mut
.
arriyya, quoted
in A. F. Sayyid, Trkh al-madhhib al-dniyya (n. 80 above), pp. 248250.
88. Srat al-Imm Ah
.
mad b. Sulaymn, 532566 H, ed. A. M. Abd al-t
.
, al-Haram [Giza], 2002.
89. On him see al-Wajh, Alm al-muallifn al-Zaydiyya (n. 83 above), p. 435, no. 424. T
.
abaqt Alm al-
Sha (n. 60 above), Thiqt al-uyn, p. 112; Madelung, Der Imam (n. 15 above), pp. 203f., 2113; Zayd, Tayyrt
(n. 76 above), n. 7, pp. 132f.; T
.
abaqt al-Zaydiyya al-Kubr (n. 27 above), pp. 44650, no. 261; K. Mat
.
la al-
budr (n. 27 above), vol. 2, pp. 3003, no. 581. He must not be confused with Ab l-H
.
asan Al b. Zayd al-Bayhaq
(d. 565/1159; see GAL (n. 3 above), vol. 1, p. 324, Supplement vol. 1, pp. 557f.).
90. According to the Bahsham doctrine of ikhtir al-ard
.
(the creation ex nihilo of a bodys accidents) the
Bahshamiyya was also called al-Mukhtaria. The sources give different points of origin regarding the debate
between the Mukhtaria and the Mut
.
arrinyya in Yemen. Most sources mention a dispute between Al b. Shuhr
(arch-Mukhtaria) and Al b. Mah
.
fz
.
, the teacher of Mut
.
arrif b. Shihb (arch-Mut
.
arrinyya) in the time of the
Imm al-Mans
.
r al-Qsim b. Al al-Iyn (d. 393/1003) as point of departure (see Sayyid, Trkh al-madhhib
al-dniyya (n. 80 above), 2416).
Khursn. In 540/1146, while completing his h
.
ajj, he stopped at Rayy, where he taught
the Bayhaq tradition of H
.
anaf Mutazilism to local H
.
anaf and Zayd students, among
themthe Qd
.
Najm al-Dn Qut
.
b al-Sha Ab l-Abbs Ah
.
mad b. Ab l-H
.
asan b. Al
al-Kann al-Ardastn (d. ca. 560/11645), a former student of Muh
.
ammad b. Ah
.
mad
al-Farrazdh and Abd al-Majd b. Abd al-Ghuffr al-Astrbdh.
91
After spending the
h
.
ajj-period of 540/May-June 1146 in Mecca in company of the Sharf Ab l-H
.
asan
Ulayy b. s b. H
.
amza b. Wahhs al-Sulaymn (d. 556/1161),
92
he arrived (at Ibn
Wahhs behest) in Jumd I 541/Oct. 1146 in Hijrat Muh
.
annaka (near H
.
aydn) of
Khawln S
.
ada,
93
apparently bringing along numerous books of Khursnian and
Khwrazmian Mutazils and Caspian Zayds.
94
With the support of Ah
.
mad b. Sulaymn, al-Bayhaq spent the nrst two and a half
years teaching local Yemenite Zayds at the Hd Mosque in S
.
ada. He then moved to
San, which is where Mut
.
arrif b. Shihb had founded the nrst Mut
.
arrif hijra. According
to the available Zayd sources al-Bayhaqs lectures succeeded in winning over many
Mut
.
arrif scholars, while others are said to have been more reluctant to renunciate the
established doctrine of their own religious learning. Among the Mut
.
arrif scholars who
are said to have attended al-Bayhaqs teaching sessions in San was Shams al-Dn Ab
l-Fad
.
l Jafar b. Ah
.
mad b. Abd al-Salm al-Buhll (d. 573/11778) who later would
play a pivotal role in promoting Bahsham kalmamong the Zaydiyya in Yemen.
95
The
Zayd sources describe him as one of those open-minded spirits who quickly realized that
the traditional doctrines of the Mut
.
arrinyya were markedly inferior to the sophisticated
270
GREGOR SCHWARB
91. T
.
abaqt al-Zaydiyya al-Kubr (n. 27 above), pp. 447 and 574, no. 346; Zayd, Tayyrt (n. 76 above), p.
133. On al-Kann see <http://ansari.kateban.com/entry1132.html> (no. 4), consulted 30 November 2009.
According to Zayd, al-Kann was not a Zayd.
92. On this eminent Zayd scholar and teacher in Mecca see Lane, A Traditional Mutazilite Qurn
Commentary (n. 30 above), pp. 2629, 4853, 251. Ibn Wahhs studied with al-Zamakhshar in Mecca, while
Jafar b. Ah
.
mad (on whom see further below) studied with Ibn Wahhs several works by al-H
.
kim al-Jishum and
al-Zamakhshar (ijza dated Dh l-H
.
ijja 555/1160). Al-Zamakhshar dedicated his Kashshf to Ibn Wahhs.
93. Ca. 35 miles southwest of S
.
ada, where Ah
.
mad b. Sulaymn had a residence, and where he died and was
buried in 566/1170.
94. On the importance of Mecca as a way station for the transmission of Caspian knowledge to Yemen see
Zayd, Tayyrt (n. 76 above), p. 159. A copy of Ab T
.
lib Yah
.
ys K. al-Mujz f us
.
l al-qh (MS Milan, Biblioteca
Ambrosiana, ar. E 409; cat. O. Lfgren and R. Traini, Catalogue of the Arabic Manuscripts in the Biblioteca
Ambrosiana, vol 3: Nuovo fondo, series E (nos. 8311295), Vicenza, 1995, pp. 165f., no. 1239), copied in 1028/1619,
was copied from a Vorlage in the handwriting of Zayd b. al-H
.
asan al-Bayhaq, dated 544/1150, i.e. during his stay
in Yemen.
95. On Jafar b. Ah
.
mad see EI, Suppl., p. 236; Madelung, Der Imam (n. 15 above), pp. 204, 2126; Schwarb,
Handbook of Mutazilite Works and Manuscripts (n. 9 above), no. 354; Zayd, Tayyrt (n. 76 above), pp. 130
143, 30940, 341 (MSS); Sayyid, Trkh al-madhhib al-dniyya (n. 80 above), 2549; al-Wajh, Alm al-
muallifn al-Zaydiyya (n. 83 above), pp. 27882, no. 257; GAL (n. 3 above), vol. I, p. 403, Suppl. vol. I, pp. 699f.,
no. 5a; Mujam al-muallifn (n. 83 above), vol. 3, p. 132; H
.
.A. al-Amr, Mas
.
dir al-turth al-Yaman f l-Math
.
af
al-Bart
.
n, Damascus, 1400/1980, pp. 14850; Muallaft al-Zaydiyya (n. 83 above), vol. 3, pp. 197f.; Mat
.
la
al-budr (n. 27 above), vol. 1, pp. 61724, no. 343; T
.
abaqt al-Zaydiyya al-Kubr (n. 27 above), pp. 2738, no.
145; T
.
abaqt al-Zaydiyya al-S
.
ughr (n. 27 above), pp. 108110; Mathir al-abrr (n. 83 above), pp. 76974;
Taysr al-Mat
.
lib f Aml Ab T
.
lib, ed. A. H
.
. al-Izz, Amman, 2002, pp. 2025; MS Berlin, Staatsbibliothek,
Glaser no. 111.
doctrines of the Bahsham Mutazila. It was also during this short period at San that
Jafar b. Ah
.
mad started to endorse Ah
.
mad b. Sulaymn as Imm al-Mutawakkil. Only
one year later, in 545/11501, when Ah
.
mad b. Sulaymn temporarily succeeded in
wresting S
.
an from the Sult
.
n H
.
tim b. Ah
.
mad, Jafar was appointed Qd
.
of the town.
This appointment was not innocent. The father of Jafar, Ah
.
mad b. Abd al-Salm served
as Qd
.
of S
.
an under H
.
tim b. Ah
.
mad and was involved in several plots against the
Zayd Imm. Apparently, he was already in the service of the Isml Qd
.
s of S
.
an
when the town was still under control of the Ft
.
imid S
.
ulayh
.
ids.
96
Jafars brother Yah
.
y
(d. 562/1167) on the other hand served the Isml Zurayids in Adan as a panegyrist
and judge. Presumably in consequence of the close connection of his family with the
Ismal rulers the biographical sources are silent about Jafar b. Ah
.
mads life before his
conversion to Zaydism or the motives of his conversion.
97
Still in the same year (545/11501) it was decided that Jafar would accompany Zayd
b. al-H
.
asan al-Bayhaq on his way back to Khursn to acquire a profound theological
education in Northern Iran and to gather books on behalf of the Yemenite community.
However, since al-Bayhaq died shortly after their departure on the way near Tihma,
Jafar b. Ah
.
mad continued his rih
.
la f t
.
alab al-ilmon his own. The available data about
this journey allow us to draw a quite detailed picture of where, when, what, and with
whom Jafar studied and provide us with substantial information about the state of
Mutazil scholarship among the Zayds in Iraq and Iran around the middle of
sixth/twelfth century.
98
On his way, Jafar studied with the principal Zayd scholars of
Mecca and Kfa. The rih
.
la culminated in Rayy where in 552/1157 he studied with
Ah
.
mad b. Ab l-H
.
asan b. Al al-Kann who had attended Zayd b. al-H
.
asan al-Bayhaqs
classes, when the latter passed through Rayy in 540/1146.
99
After his return to Yemen in 553/1158 Jafar started to systematically propagating
Bahsham kalm and the religious doctrines and literature of the Caspian and Kfan
Zayd communities among Yemenite Zayds.
100
To this end he opened his own madrasa
271
MUTAZILISM IN THE AGE OF AVERROES
96. Ah
.
mad b. Abdallh al-Wazr (d. 985/1577), K. al-Fad
.
il = Trkh al-sdt al-ulam al-fud
.
al wa-l-
aimma min Ban l-Wazr (MS), p. 151. T
.
abaqt al-Zaydiyya al-S
.
ughr (n. 27 above) describes the father as lim
al-bt
.
iniyya wa-h
.
kimuh wa-khat
.
buh and his brother s b. Ah
.
mad as shiruhum wa-nassbuhum. Zayd,
Tayyrt (n. 76 above), p. 130 suggests that his father may be identical with Yah
.
y b. Ab Yah
.
y who is reported
to have praised the Zurayite D Muh
.
ammad b. Sab al-Zuray (r. 532/11378 548/1153) in Jibla. See, more-
over, the important contemporaneous source: Najm al-Dn Umra b. Al al-Yaman (d. 569/1174), Trkh al-
Yaman al-musamm al-Mufd f akhbr S
.
an wa-Zabd wa-shuar mulkih wa-aynih wa-udabih, ed.
M. b. A. al-Akwa, Cairo, 1976, pp. 187f.
97. At an unknown date, most probably in his later teens or early twenties, he joined the Mut
.
arrinyya.
98. See Madelung, Der Imam (n. 15 above), pp. 21416; K. Mat
.
la al-budr (n. 27 above), vol. 1, pp. 61724,
no. 343; T
.
abaqt al-Zaydiyya al-Kubr (n. 27 above), 2738, no. 145.
99. See above n. 92.
100. By espousing the Bahshamite doctrine in the us
.
ln and by recognising the Caspian Zayd Imms as being
equally autoritative teachers with the Yemenite Imms, Jafar restored the ideological unity within the Zaydiyya.
Zayd, Tayyrt (n. 76 above), p. 132 aptly described this transformational process as tah
.
wl itiqdt al-Zaydiyya
min al-Mut
.
arriyya il m urifa bi-l-Mukhtaria.
in San, the place of the oldest Mut
.
arrif hijra, where the foremost Zayd scholars of the
next generation received their education, and wrote numerous introductory books in
virtually all disciplines of religious learning, mostly consisting of copies, excerpts,
paraphrases, and adaptations of books from Northern Iran.
101
As a result of these activities
Jafar was perceived by his Mut
.
arrif gainsayers as the founder of a new school, which
they disdainfully called al-Jafariyya.
102
The confrontation with the Mut
.
arrinyya in San lasted from 553/1158 till
559/1164.
103
During this period Jafar engaged in numerous public disputations with
leading Mut
.
arrif scholars of the time, particularly students of Musallam al-Lah
.
j (d.
545/1150), the author of the still unedited Mut
.
arrif t
.
abaqt,
104
including Yah
.
y b. al-
H
.
usayn b. Abdallh al-Yah
.
r (d. 577/11812),
105
the leading scholar of the Mut
.
arrif
stronghold in Wd Waqash and acquaintance of Nashwn b. Sad b. Nashwn al-
H
.
imyar (d. 573/1178).
106
Signincantly, these confrontations lead on to the Mut
.
arrintes
dennitive rejection of Ah
.
mad b. Sulaymn as imm and the imms declaring the
Mut
.
arrif hijras as dr al-h
.
arb.
107
The Mut
.
arrifs notably mistrusted the Isml
272
GREGOR SCHWARB
101. Jafars works amount to more than sixty, most of which are extant, though only very few have been edited
so far (see al-Wajh, Alm al-muallifn al-Zaydiyya (n. 83 above), and Handbook of Mutazilite Works and
Manuscripts (n. 9 above)). To determine the source material and models used by Jafar for each of his works and
to identify their role within the study programme of the early Mukhtaria in San, more painstaking research is
required. Among the Bahsham compositions assimilated by Jafar, al-Jishums works undoubtedly played a key
role: thus, two of his extant school manuals in us
.
l al-qh, namely K. al-Bayn and K. al-Taqrb f us
.
l al-qh, are
copied or excerpted from the seventh part (al-kalm f adillat al-shar) of al-Jishums K. al-Uyn [compare MS
Milan, Biblioteca Ambrosiana, Ar. D 544, ff. 109126 (K. al-Taqrb), 127214a (K. al-Bayn) with MS Milan,
BA, Ar. B 66, ff. 38b74b (K. al-Uyn)]. For some names of Jafars students, including the father of al-Imm al-
Mans
.
r Abdallh b. H
.
amza, see Zayd, Tayyrt (n. 76 above), pp. 140f., T
.
abaqt al-Zaydiyya al-Kubr (n. 27
above), pp. 276f. and K. Mat
.
la al-budr (n. 27 above), vol. 1, pp. 623f.
102. See Sulaymn b. Muh
.
ammad b. Ah
.
mad al-Muh
.
all, al-Burhn al-riq al-mukhallis
.
min wurat
.
al-mad
.
iq
(MS S
.
an, Maktabat al-Jmi al-Kabr al-Sharqiyya, no. 673, ed. Abd al-Karm Jadbn, forthcoming) and the
anonymous MS London, British Library, Or. 4009 (see below nn. 115f.), passim.
103. Zayd, Tayyrt (n. 76 above), p. 84.
104. Musallam b. Muh
.
ammad b. Jafar al-Lah
.
j (d. 545/1150), T
.
abaqt/Trkh Musallam al-Lah
.
j = K. Akhbr
al-Zaydiyya min ahl al-bayt alayhim al-salm wa-shatihim bi-l-Yaman, was completed in 544/1149. It contains
biographies of Zayd imms and scholars in the Yemen arranged in five t
.
abaqt (for MSS see al-Wajh, Alm al-
muallifn al-Zaydiyya (n. 83 above), 1028, no. 1102; Mas
.
dir al-kr al-islm f l-Yaman (n. 83 above), pp. 475f.;
I use MS Riyadh, Jmiat al-Imm Muh
.
ammad b. Sad al-Islmiyya, no. 2449; see M. al-T
.
anh
.
, al-Fihris al-was
.
f
li-bad
.
nawdir al-makht
.
t
.
t bi-l-Maktabat al-Markaziyya bi-Jmiat al-Imm Muh ammad ibn Sad al-Islmiyya
f l-Riyd , Riyadh, 1993, p. 19, no. 4). The extant second volume of this work contains the second portion of the
third, the complete fourth and fifth t
.
abaqt. The fifth t
.
abaqa covers Zayd scholars from the first half of the
sixth/twelfth century, contemporaneous to the author. See Gochenour, A Revised Bibliography (n. 24 above),
pp. 31517; Y. Kuriyama, Zayd Hijras in Yemen in the Late Eleventh and Early Twelfth Centuries (n. 79 above)
mentions (p. 81, n. 8) that the manuscript (copied in 566/1171), which originally came from a private collection
in Najrn (see Gochenour, pp. 315f., n. 24), is now in my possession. For the extant part of the first volume see
W. Madelung, The Sra of Imm Ah
.
mad b. Yah
.
y Al-Ns
.
ir li-Dn Allh from Musallam al-Lah
.
js Kitb Akhbr
Al-Zaydiyya bi l-Yaman, Exeter, 1990. An edition of al-Lahjs t
.
abaqt is due to be published in the near future.
105. Probably to be preferred over the traditional reading al-Bah
.
r or al-Buh
.
ayr.
106. See Zayd, Tayyrt (n. 76 above), pp. 66f., 10529. In 559/1164 Jafar b. Ah
.
mad held public disputations
with Mut
.
arrif scholars in H
.
ad
.
r, Bakl, Ans, Zabd.
107. The Mut
.
arrifs downgraded Ah
.
mad b. Sulaymn to al-amr; see Zayd, Tayyrt (n. 76 above), pp. 846.
background of Jafars family, fearing that the closeness with the Imm was a politically
motivated decision to maintain power.
108
Besides, Jafars teaching activities also met strong resistance among Sunn circles. A
public disputation which took place in Ibb in 554/1159 with Al b. Abdallh b. Yah
.
y
b. s al-Yarm, a student of the innuential Shn H
.
anbal Yah
.
y b. Ab l-Khayr al-
Amarn (d. 558/1163),
109
was the starting point for the composition of several
polemical texts.
110
After Jafars death in 573/1177 his student H
.
usm al-Dn al-H
.
asan b. Muh
.
ammad
al-Ras
.
s
.
s
.
(d. 584/1188) became the new head of the school in San. His writings and
those of his students, a great number of which are extant, but not edited, continued and
renned Jafars efforts in establishing the Bahshamite doctrine as the omcial theology of
the Yemenite Zaydiyya.
111
Remarkably, al-Ras
.
s
.
s
.
writings, which focused on ontological and cosmological issues
that constituted the crux of the doctrinal side of the controversy between Mukhtaria
and Mut
.
arrinyya, include a short refutation of passages in Ibn al-Malh
.
ims Tuh
.
fat al-
mutakallimn, where the latter defended Ab l-H
.
usayn al-Bas
.
rs view that the essence
of every created being (and not only the creator) is identical with and amounts to nothing
273
MUTAZILISM IN THE AGE OF AVERROES
108. Interestingly, it is a common pattern until today to discredit the exponents of the Mut
.
arrinyya by implying
their closeness to Isml persons or doctrines.
109. Sayyid, Trkh al-madhhib al-dniyya (n. 80 above), pp. 757. In the early sixth/twelfth century most
Shnites in Yemen were still H
.
anbalites, while only one century later, most of them followed Asharite kalm.
While Asharite kalm was already introduced to Yemen in the late fourth/tenth century, it became only wide-
spread after the Ayybids invaded Yemen in 569/1173 [See Sayyid, pp. 5679; Badr al-Dn H
.
usayn Ibn al-Ahdal
(d. 855/1451), T
.
abaqt al-Ashira (MS)]. Characteristic for the transitional period is the connict between al-
Amarn the father, an avowed H
.
anbal, and his son Ab l-T
.
ayyib T
.
hir (d. 587/1191), a convinced Ashar, who
charged each other with unbelief.
110. These texts include: K. al-Intis
.
r f l-radd al l[-Mutazila al]-Qadariyya al-ashrr (ed. Sad b. Abd al-
Azz al-Khalf, Medina, 1419/1998) by the aforementioned Yah
.
y b. Ab l-Khayr al-Amarn, an extensive refu-
tation of Jafar b. Ah
.
mads K. al-Dmigh, accusing Jafar for his spreading Mutazilite doctrines. Among his sources
he mentions K. al-H
.
urf al-sab f l-radd al l-Mutazila wa-ghayrihim min ahl al-d
.
alla wa-l-bida by al-H
.
usayn
b. Jafar al-Margh. The polemic against Jafr was continued by al-Amarns son Ab l-T
.
ayyib T
.
hir in his Kasr
Qunt al-Qadariyya f l-radd al l-Qd
.
Jafar b. Abd al-Salm (see Mas
.
dir al-kr al-islm f l-Yaman (n. 83
above), p. 113). See, moreover, Sayyid, Trkh al-madhhib al-dniyya (n. 80 above), pp. 739.
111. On him see entry no. 356 in my Handbook of Mutazilite Works and Manuscripts (n. 9 above). My pres-
entation of the entries on al-Ras
.
s
.
s
.
and his students at the Mutazila Workshop, The German Orient Institute,
Istanbul, 1620 May 2006, triggered several research projects currently being realized within the framework of the
European Research Councils FP 7 project Rediscovering Theological Rationalism in the Medieval World of Islam
under the direction of S. Schmidtke. These projects include a critical edition of al-Ras
.
s
.
s
.
s theological works; J.
Thiele, Kausalitt in der mutazilitischen Kosmologie. Das Kitb al-Muat tirt wa-mifth
.
al-mukilt des Zayditen
al-H
.
asan ar-Ras
.
s
.
s
.
(st. 584/1188), Leiden, forthcoming; id. Propagating Mutazilism in the 6th/12th Century
Zaydiyya: the Role of al-H
.
asan al-Ras
.
s
.
s
.
, forthcoming in Arabica, 57, 2010. See, moreover, H. Ansari,
<http://ansari.kateban.com/entry853.html> (22 April 2007). The Ras
.
s
.
s
.
family provided numerous prominent
scholars over the centuries. The most important students of al-Ras
.
s
.
s
.
were: his son Ab l-H
.
asan Ah
.
mad b. al-H
.
asan
b. Muh
.
ammad al-Ras
.
s
.
s
.
(d. 621/1224), the Imm al-Mans
.
r bi-llh Abdallh b. H
.
amza b. Sulaymn (d. 614/1217),
Shihb al-Dn Ab l-Qsim b. al-H
.
usayn b. Shabb al-Tihm, Nr al-Dn Sulaymn b. Abdallh al-Khursh,
Muh
.
y al-Dn H
.
umayd b. Ah
.
mad al-Qurash (d. 6213/1224?), Muh
.
ammad b. Ah
.
mad (Ibn) al-Wald al-Qurash
al-nif (d. 623/1226).
more than its existence (al-wujd huwa dht al-shay), i.e. that there is no essence in the
state of non-existence.
112
This is the earliest known evidence of a long-lasting Yemenite
Zayd reception of the H
.
usayniyya and the Malh
.
imiyya.
113
The possibility that al-Ras
.
s
.
s
.