Kutub al

363 Pages·2016·3.67 MB·English

The Afterlife in Mind: Piety and Renunciatory Practice in the 2nd/8th- and early
3rd/9th-Century Books of Renunciation (Kutub al-Zuhd)

Het Hiernamaals in Gedachten: Vroomheid en Afzwerende Oefeningen in de 2e/8e
en vroege 3e/9e Eeuwse Boeken der Afzwering (Kutub al-Zuhd)
(met een samenvatting in het Nederlands)

Proefschrift
ter verkrijging van de graad van doctor aan de Universiteit Utrecht op gezag van de rector
magnificus, prof. dr. G.J. van der Zwaan, ingevolge het besluit van het college voor
promoties in het openbaar te verdeidigen op maandag 17 oktober 2016 des middags te 12.45
uur

door

Yunus Yaldiz

geboren op 1 juni 1982
te Berlijn, Duitsland
Promotor:
Prof. dr. C.R. Lange

This thesis was researched and written with the financial support of the European Research Council
Starting Grant for the project 'The Here and Hereafter in Islamic Traditions'.
Für Shahané und Lucin açkneris luys
Acknowledgments

Many aspects need to come together in order to achieve the completion of a doctoral thesis.
The most important is support. Had it not been for the unconditional backing from my
family's side and the invaluable guidance of my supervisor Prof. Christian Lange, I would
not have been able to accomplish this task. From my family's side, I wish to especially thank
my parents and my wife who have always supported me and my wife again who shared the
emotional and intellectual journey to the Netherlands and back with me. Our daughter has
been my chiefest motivation, for matters of the past always connect to the present and
future and even in times like these, we aim at sustaining and building a world for our
children made of understanding and compassion and free from prejudice.
My "Doktorvater's" support has been manifold. He has given me advice whenever I
approached him, always took the time to discuss and read difficult passages in the Arabic
sources, and supplied me with additional ideas and structure for the dissertation. I am
deeply indebted to him for the accomplishment of this work.
The financial support that made it possible to carry out this research at the Utrecht
University was supplied by the European Research Council who financed the project 'The
Here and Hereafter in Islamic Traditions' on which my dear colleagues and myself worked
together in a wonderful collegial partnership. Beside Prof. Lange, I am indebted to the
support, advice, and friendship of Dr. Simon O'Meara, Dr. Pieter Coppens, Dr. Eric van Lit,
and our latest colleague Arjan Prost. Over the years my colleagues became friends and I will
always look forward in working with them again whenever our paths might cross in the
future. The University of Utrecht furthermore allowed me to work together with dear
colleagues and professors whom I enjoyed sharing personal and scholarly knowledge and
experiences with and whose advise as well helped to shape this dissertation.
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Within the project's frame, I was granted a one-month enduring research stay at
Oxford and had the ability to work together with Prof. Melchert, the distinguished scholar
in the field of renunciation in Hadith literature. The scholarly and friendly experience at
Oxford will remain a dear memory to me.
The last year of completing this dissertation was undertaken in Berlin. I would also
like to thank the colleagues and friends here for their support, friendship, and advice.

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Table of contents

Introduction 1
I. Aims and research questions 1
II. The state of research on zuhd 9
III. Methodology 21
III.1 Comparing genres and narrative styles 21
III.2 Analysis of technical terms 23
III.3 Isnād analysis 23
IV. Main sources 25
IV.1 Ibn al-Mubārak (Marw and the northwestern frontier, d. 181/797) 30
IV.2 Wakīʿ b. al-Jarrāḥ (Kufa and Baghdad, d. 197/812) 37
IV.3 Hannād b. al-Sarī (Kufa and Baghdad, d. 243/857) 46
IV.4 Aḥmad b. Ḥanbal (Baghdad, d. 240/855) 48
IV.5 Scholarly networks: perspectives on zuhd 50
V. Dissertation structure 57

I. Re-viewing zuhd: Definitions, Sufism, and Christian asceticism 59
I.1 Nomenclature 59
I.1.1 Can we define zuhd? The place of eschatology 62
I.1.2 Competing definitions of al-zuhd [fī l-dunyā] 65
I.1.3 The materiality of zuhd 69
I.2 Zuhd and Taṣawwuf 71
I.2.1 A case study: Abū Nuʿaym’s depiction of Ibn al-Mubārak 79
I.3 Christian and Islamic asceticism/renunciation 83
I.3.1 Common ground in extra-qurʾānic literature 89
I.3.2 Encounters with monks in the Kutub al-zuhd 98

II. Tempered renunciation: Reconfiguring contemptus mundi in the Kutub al-
Zuhd 102
II.1 Introduction: Late Antique concepts of contemptus mundi 102
II.2 Definitions of contemptus mundi and dhamm al-dunyā 105
II.3 Main themes of contemptus mundi 106
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II.3.1 The Fall of Adam 107
II.3.2 Metaphors, allegories, and warnings 109
II.3.2.1 Allegories and warnings 109
II.3.2.2 Belittling the world (taqallul) 114
II.3.2.3 Condemning and despising this world (dhamm/hawān al-dunyā) 116
II.3.3 Poverty 124
II.3.4 The shortening of hope (qaṣr al-amal) 133
II.3.5 Memento Mori (dhikr al-mawt) 138
II.4 Conclusion 143

III. Hunger, seclusion, and trust in God: between asceticism and
renunciation 145
III.1 Introduction 145
III.2. Hunger (jūʿ) 147
III.3. Seclusion, withdrawal, and silence (khalwa/ʿuzla & ṣamt) 155
III.4 Tawakkul 166
III.4.1 Terminology 168
III.4.2 Its place in the Six Books & the Qurʾān 171
III.4.2.1 Sustenance (rizq) 174
III.4.3 The Kutub al-zuhd: Eschatology, death, uncertainty & fear 177
III.4.3.1 Eschatology 178
III.4.3.2 Death, uncertainty and fear 179
III.5 Conclusion 189

IV. Renunciation and warfare 192
IV.1 Introduction 192
IV.2 Historico-biographical survey 196
IV.2.1 Missing biographical information on warfare and ribāṭ 201
IV.2.2 Ribāṭ 205
IV.2.3 Descriptions of war? The function of the narratives 215
IV.3 The relationship between Ibn al-Mubārak’s Kitāb al-jihad and Kitāb al-zuhd 218
IV.4 The preconditions for Jihad: Good actions, obligatory Jihad, and niyya 220
IV.5 The goals of Jihad: Seeking the face of God (wajha ‘Llāh) 226
IV.6 Modalities of achieving these goals 231
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IV.6.1 Martyrdom 231
IV.6.2 Defining shahīd 233
IV.6.3 Who of the martyrs will be saved? 236
IV.7 Before the threshold: Zuhd, Jihad, and the final boundary-crossings 238
IV.8 Concluding Remarks 246

V. Eschatology in the Kutub al-Zuhd 249
V.1. Introduction 249
V.2. The Kutub al-Zuhd 250
V.2.1 Eschatological material in Wakīʿ b. al-Jarrāḥ’s Zuhd 252
V.2.1.1 Death and the conduit towards the afterlife 253
V.2.1.2 Weeping to ward off punishment in hell 255
V.2.1.3 Doctrinal theological traces: modes of salvation 256
V.2.1.4 Other themes connected to eschatology in Wakīʿ’s Zuhd 259
V.2.2 Ibn al-Mubārak’s ṣifat al-nār and ṣifat al-janna 263
V.2.2.1 Ṣifat al-nār: Impurity: smells, fluids, and punishments 264
V.2.2.2 Ṣifat al-janna: Purity, women, scents, and horses 269
V.2.3 Asad b. Mūsā’s Zuhd: Jihad, trade, fear, and scrupulosity 276
V.2.3.1 Structure and methodology 276
V.2.3.2 Analysis of content 278
V.2.3.2.1 Jihad 279
V.2.3.2.2 Legitimate and illegitimate wealth 281
V.2.3.2.3 Piety and purgatorial punishment 282
V.2.4 Eschatology in Aḥmad’s Zuhd: Ezekiel’s Apocrypha 284
V.2.5 Eschatological aspects in Hannād’s Zuhd: women and the vision 295
V.2.5.1 Introduction to structure and topics 295
V.2.5.2 Paradisiacal females 297
V.2.5.3 al-Ziyāda 300
V.2.5.4 Leaving the Fire and eternal rest 303
V.3 Doctrinal and theological standpoints among the zuhhād 307
V.4 Conclusion: scholarly networks and outlook 310

Conclusion and Outlook 314

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Appendix 1 Ibn al-Mubārak’s poem on Abū Hanīfa 324
Appendix 2 Ibn al-Mubārak’s poem to Fuḍayl b. ʿIyāḍ 325

Bibliography 326

Curriculum vitae 347

Summary in Dutch 349
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Abbreviations

EI Encyclopaedia of Islam 1. Edited by T. Houtsma et al. 5 vols. Leiden: Brill 1913-34.
Encyclopaedia of Islam 2: New Edition. Edited by H.A.R. Gibb et al. 12 vols. Leiden:
Brill 1954-2004. Encyclopaedia of Islam Three. Edited by Kate Fleet et al. Leiden:
Brill 2007-.

EQ Encyclopaedia of the Qur’an. Edited by Jane McAuliffe et al. 5 vols. Brill: Leiden
2001-6.

GAS Sezgin, Fuad. Geschichte des Arabischen Schrifttums. Leiden: Brill 1967-.

Ḥilyat Abū Nuʿaym al-Isfahānī, Aḥmad b. ʿAbdallāh. Ḥilyat al-Awliyāʾ wa Ṭabaqāt
al-Aṣfiyāʾ. 10 vols. Cairo 1932-38. Reprint: 10 vols. Cairo: Dār al-Fikr 1996.

JAOS Journal of the American Oriental Society

JRAS Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society

JSAI Jerusalem Studies in Arabic and Islam

TB Khaṭīb al-Baghdādī, Aḥmad b. ʿAlī. Taʾrīkh Baghdād/Taʾrīkh Madīnat al-Salām. 14
vols. Cairo 1931. Recent ed. by Bashshār ʿAwād Maʿrūf. 17 vols. Beirut: Dār al-
Gharb al-Islāmī 2001.

TD Ibn ʿAsākir, ʿAlī b. al-Ḥasan. Taʾrīkh madīnat dimashq. Edited by Sukayna al-
Shihābī. 69 vols. Damascus: Maṭbuʿāt Majmaʿa al-Lugha al-ʿArabiyya bi-Dimashq
1984-2011.

TG van Ess, Josef. Theologie und Gesellschaft im 2. und 3. Jahrhundert Hidschra: Eine
Geschichte des religösen Denkens im frühen Islam. 6 vols. Berlin: De Gruyter 1991–7.

ZDMG Zeitschrift der Deutschen Morgenländischen Gesellschaft

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