ninth-century muslim anarchists

26 Pages·2012·1.7 MB·English

NINTH-CENTURY MUSLIM
ANARCHISTS*
I
INTRQDUCTION
The peoplew ithw homt hisp aperi s concernedw erea narchists
in the simples ense of believersi n an-archy',n o government'.
They were not secularistsi,n dividualistsc,o mmunistss,o cial
reformerrse, volutionarioers t erroristms,e relyt hinkerws hoh eld
thatM uslims ocietyc ould functionw ithoutw hatw e wouldc all
thes tate.T heirv iewi s, howevero, fg reati nteresftr omt hep oint
of view of early Islamicp oliticalt houghta nd the historyo f
anarchisma like. Since they are largelyu nknowne ven to
Islamicistasn d havey ett o be discoveredb y historianosf a narch-
ism,I am gratefuflo rt heo pportunittyo presentt hemt o a wider
publich ere.1
All the anarchistcsa me fromB asra in southernIr aq or had
theiri ntellectuarlo otst here,b ut theyb elongedt o two quite
differengtr oupsM. osto ft hemw ereM u'tazilitest,h ati s members
of a theologicaslc hoolo f Basrano rigind istinguishebdy itsr eli-
anceo n reasonM. u'tazilitews eren otn ecessarilyo,r evenu sually,
anarchistsb,u t a ninth-centurMyu 'taziliteh eresiographeprr e-
sumed to be Ja'fari bn Harb (d. 850) impliest hat beliefi n
the non-necessitoyf governmenwt as commona mongt hemi n
* This paperi s a revisedv ersiono fa lectured elivereda t theI nstitutfe orA dvanced
Study,P rinceton,i n January1 998. I should like to thankS ebastiand e Grazia and
AmyR emensnydefro rt heirc ommentsin the discussionP, hilippeB uc forc larifying
problemsa risingf romh isb ook,F ritzZ immermanfno rl ettingm e reada n unpublished
paper on al-Asamm,J udithH errinf orm akingm e reviset he lecturef orp ublication,
and Michael Cook forc ommentingon the draft.W here referenceasr e given in the
form9 8 = 34, the formerf igurer eferst o the texta nd the lattert o the translation.
1S ee, mostr ecentlyA, ziz Al-Azmeh,M uslimK ingship(L ondon, 1997), 115,v oicing
the Islamicistc onsensus;P eter Marshall, Demandingt he ImpossibleA: Historyo f
Anarchism(L ondon, 1993), 86, whereM azdak and 'Al-Qurramitt(ai'. e. theQ aramita)
are then earestw e gett o forerunnerosf a narchismin theM iddleE ast, botho n grounds
of communism.
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4 PAST AND PRESENT NUMBER 167
his days.2 Its adherents included al-Asamm (d. 816 or 817),3
al-Nazzam (d. between 835 and 845),4 Hisham al-Fuwati
(d. 840s?) and his pupil 'Abbad ibn Sulayman( d. 870s?),5 all of
whoml ived or began theirc areersi n Basra, as well as thes o-called
Mu'tazilite ascetics (sufiyyata l-mu'tazila), active in Baghdad.6
The othera narchistsw ere Kharijites,t hat is to say, memberso f
a mainlyB asran sect whichw as notoriousf ori ts militanti ntoler-
ance. The Kharijitesw ere not normallya narchistse ither,b ut one
sub-sectw as, thati s the Najdiyya,o r Najadat, who had appeared
in the seventhc enturya nd who seem to have survivedi nto the
tenth,p ossiblyi n Basra and possiblye lsewhere.7
WhetherM u'tazilite or Kharijite,t he views of the anarchists
have been poorly preserved. Numerous sources mention that
some Mu'tazilites and Kharijites denied the necessity of the
imamate (roughlyt ranslatablea s legitimateg overnment),b ut it
was not untilv an Ess publishedt he heresiographyn ow presumed
to be Ja'fari bn Harb's (generallyr eferredt o as Pseudo-Nashi')
that theirl aconic statementsc ould be related to a context. This
new source also provided a clue to the identityo f unnamed
anarchists who appear in a fragmentarye pistle by al-Jahiz
(d. 869), a famousl itterateuarn d Mu'tazilite of the non-anarchist
variety:8t hey can now be plausibly identifieda s Mu'tazilites
influencedb y al-Asamm.9 In addition, van Ess has done an
2 Nashi' (attrib.),i n Fruhem u'tazilitischHed resiographieed,. Josefv an Ess (Beirut,
1971) (hereafterP s.-Nashi'), §82; trans.i n Josefv an Ess, Theologiue nd Gesellschaft
im 2. und 3. JahrhunderHti dschra,6 vols. (Berlin, 1991-7) (hereafterT G), v, 329.
For the authorships, ee W. Madelung, 'Friihe mu'tazilitischeH aresiographieD. as
Kitab al-Usul des Ga'far b. Harb?', Der Islam, lvii (1980). His proposalh as been
generallya ccepted.
3Van Ess, TG, ii, 408 ff.; J. van Ess, 'Une lecturea reboursd e l'histoired u
Mu'tazilisme',R evued ese tudesis lamiquesx,l vii( 1979), 21 ff.;J .v an Ess, 'Al-Asamm',
in Encyclopaedioaf I slam,2 nd edn (Leiden, 1960- ) (hereafteErn cyclI. slam2 ), suppl.
4 Van Ess, TG, iii, 416; iv, 714-15.
5 Ibid., iv, 14-15, 44.
6 Ibid., iii, 132; iv, 716.
7 P. Crone, 'A Statementb y the NajdiyyaK harijiteso n the Dispensabilityo f the
Imamate',S tudia Islamica,l xxxviii( 1998).
8'Al-Jawabat fi 'l-imama',i n his Rasa'il, ed. 'Abd al-SallamM uhammadH arun,
4 vols. (Cairo, 1964-79), iv, 285 ff.; cf. C. Pellat, 'L'Imamat dans la doctrined e
Gahiz', Studia Islamica,x v (1961), 38 ff.( based on Sandubi'se dition,w herei t forms
part of K. wujuba l-imama).T here is also a referencet o anarchistsin al-Jahiz,a l-
Hayawan, ed. 'Abd al-Sallam MuhammadH arun, 8 vols. (Cairo, 1938-45), i, 12
(trans.i n Pellat, 'Imamat', 38). Pellat,w ho actuallyu ses the term' anarchists't, ook
themt o be Zaydis,w hichi s not entirelyw rong;c f. below,n . 38.
9 Cf. van Ess, TG, ii, 409 n. 2. Like al-Asamm,t heyh eld it equallyl awfult o have
one imam,n one or several.
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NINTH-CENTURY MUSLIM ANARCHISTS 5
immensea mounto f groundworko n the anarchists( withoute ver
using that term) in his Theologieu nd Gesellschafta, monumental
workw hichc overst he doctrinald evelopmentso f thee arlyI slamic
world in four volumes of prosopography and analysis, and
two of translations.W ithout Pseudo-Nashi' and Theologieu nd
Gesellschaftth isa rticlec ould not have been written.1B0u t numer-
ous problemso f textual interpretationre main,a nd this, in con-
junction with the need to provide informationf or readers in
differentf ields, accounts for what may strike the reader as
annoyinglyd ense annotation.
Anarchismi n the simple sense of beliefi n the dispensabilityo f
governmenta ppears to have a continuous historyi n the West
from the Bohemian Taborites of the 1420s onwards.1' Outside
the Westernt raditioni t is difficultto find.T here is a case fort he
view thatC huang Tzu (fourthc enturyB C) and othere arlyT aoists
should be classifieda s anarchists,'2b ut much that looks like
anarchismi s not,13a nd the only non-Westerne xample known to
date apart from the Taoists appears to be the Muslim thinkers
under discussionh ere. As one would expect, the three types of
anarchista rriveda t theirc onvictionsb y quite differenitn tellectual
routes,h avings tartedf romd ifferenpt remisses.T he Taoists will
have to be left aside here, but we may startw ith a comparison
of the Westerna nd the Islamic routes.
II
THE WESTERN PREMISSES
Westerna narchism,m edieval or modern,h as its ultimateo rigins
in the Westernc onvictiont hath umans ocietyp re-datest he emer-
gence of the state. The Westernt raditiona bounds in claims that
once upon a timeh umansl ived togetherw ithoutc oerciveg overn-
ment - in Paradise, the golden age, the state of nature, in
10
Cf. nn. 2-6.
n
Cf. Marshall,D emandintgh eI mpossibl9e,1 ff.A t a less popularl evel,s ee N. Cohn,
The Pursuit of the Millennium(L ondon, 1970), 214 ff., on the Taborites; and
G. Woodcock,A narchism(C leveland,O hio, 1962), ch. 2, where the familyt ree of
anarchismis severelyp runed.
12 Thus the contributortso theJ l ChineseP hil., x (1983), entirelyd evotedt o that
question. For a good discussion,s ee A. C. Graham,D isputerso f the Tao (Chicago,
1989), 170 ff.,2 99 ff.( drawnt o my attentionb y Michael Cook).
13 This goes fort he manyB uddhists,C hristiansG, nosticsa nd mysticsw ho sought
to ignoreo r transcendt he stater athert hant o do away withi t.
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6 PAST AND PRESENT NUMBER 167
primitives ocieties or before the development of agriculture.
However formulated,t he assumptioni s always the same: state
and society are not inseparable, let alone identical. This may
strikea modern reader as self-evident,b ut it is not. Its history
takes us back to the Stoics.
To the earlyG reek philosophers,i ncludingP lato and Aristotle,
societya nd governmentd eveloped togethera s two sides of the
same coin: take away the one and you took away the other.14B ut
the Stoics distinguishedb etween them in theirf amous accounts
of what societyw ould look like if it were based on naturall aw.
Natural law was the right reason by which the universe was
governed and on which the wise man would model his life. A
society based on such reason would not have any law courts,
private property,s lavery, marriageo r war; in other words, it
would not have any structureso f dominationo r organized viol-
ence: all theset hingsw ere humanc onventionsn, ot parto f natural
law. (Many other conventionali nstitutionsi,n cludingt emples,
education and coinage, would be absent too.)15 The Stoics were
not anarchists.T heir message was not that all these institutions
could be, or oughtt o be, abolished.'6T hey did, however,l ay the
foundationsf or anarchismb y assigning human sociabilitya nd
human governmentt o radicallyd ifferents ources: the one was
natural,r ationala nd good; the other not. The later Stoics said
that in the golden age humans had actually lived in a society
based on naturall aw, led by wise men; but thena varice had made
its appearance,r esultingi n the developmento f privatep roperty,
tyrannys, lavery,w ar and so forth;i n short,s ocial and political
14 People were assumedo riginallyto have lived as scatteredin dividualsd evoid of
any social or politicalo rganization- thus Democritus( c.460 BC); cf. W. K. C.
Guthrie,A Historyo f GreekP hilosophy4, vols. (Cambridge,1 962-81), ii, 473 - or
as scatteredh ouseholdsr uledb y patriarchsl,i ke Homer's Cyclopes( Plato, Laws, iii,
680; AristotleP, oliticsi,, 1252b). Eitherw ay,t heyg raduallyc ame togetheras a polls.
Therea re manyv ariationosn thet hemei n Plato'sw orks( nott o mentionla terw ritings,
in whichp eoples ometimesst artb yl eadinga herdlikee xistencec; f.T . Cole, Democritus
and theS ourceso fG reekA nthropolog(Cyl eveland,O hio, 1967), 80, 83); but thep rimi-
tivep ollsc onstructedb y Plato in his Republic3, 69 ff.,i s not a statelesss ociety:w hat
we are asked to thinka way is luxury,n ot governmentainl stitutions.
15 Thus the lost Republicso f Zeno (d. 263 BC) and Chrysippus( d. 207 BC); cf.
D. Dawson, Citieso ft heG ods: CommunisUtt opiasi n GreekT hough(tN ew York,1 992),
166 ff.,w heret he sourcesa re quoted in full( thisi s in generala n illuminatinbgo ok).
16 DifferentlAy. Erskine,T heH ellenistiSct oa: PoliticalT houghatn dA ction(I thaca,
NY, 1990), ch. 1, esp. p. 29. Here, as in MalcolmS chofieldT, he StoicI dea oft heC ity
(Cambridge,1 991) and Dawson, Citieso ft heG ods,c h. 4, the Stoic visioni s accepted
as a genuineu topia; but see below,n . 84.
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NINTH-CENTURY MUSLIM ANARCHISTS 7
inequality,c oerciona nd strifeh ad emerged.17 This view of human
pre-historyw ent into Cicero and otherL atin sources thatp assed
to the medieval West,l8 and above all it went into the Latin
Church Fathers, so that it became part and parcel of Latin
Christianityit self.19I n its Christianizedv ersion it said that once
upon a time,i n Paradise or in some remotet imeo n earth,h umans
had lived social lives withoutp rivatep ropertya nd slavery( though
not withoutm arriage),20b ut that the Fall had so vitiatedh uman
beingst hatt hisw as no longerp ossible. Kings had been instituted
as a punishmentf or and remedy against sin; their authority
derived fromG od Himself,h owevero ppressivelyt heyb ehaved,
and one had to obey them, but they did not form part of the
17 Thus Panaetius( d. 109 BC) as reflectedin Cicero,D e Officii(sb ut see Dawson,
Citieso f the Gods, 228-9, accordingt o whom Panaetiusd id not idealize the early
period);a nd Posidonius( d. c.50 BC) as reconstructefdr omS eneca( d. AD 64) and other
sources (G. Rudberg,F orschungeznu Poseidonio(sU ppsala, 1918), 51 ff.). Rudberg
conjectures( p. 64) that Posidoniuss aw warfarea s going back to the days of the
sapientesw ith referencet o Manilius (wrote c. AD 10), Astronomicia,, 89; but it is
difficulfto ra n outsidert o see whyM aniliusi s assumedt o have drawno n Posidonius
here: his storyi s one of straightforwaprrdo gressf romi gnorancet o civilizationw, ith
kingsa nd priestsr athert hanp hilosopherass cultureh eroes,a nd withn othingr esem-
blingt he goldena ge describedb y Seneca,w ho explicitlys ayst hatw eaponsw ere not
used (Letter9 0, 41).
18 Notablyt he Instituteasn d Digest,w ith the resultt hat twelfth-centurlayw yers
woulds peako f a naturals tateo fl ibertya nd communaol wnership(c f. P. E. Sigmund,
NaturalL aw in PoliticalT hough(tC ambridge,1 971), 37-8).
19I n the Greek ChurchF atherst he Stoic traditions eems to lose its sociopolitical
content.T he interesti s in innerm an, the slaveryw hich appears with the Fall is
metaphoricala,n d JohnC hrysostom(d . 405) standso ut when he says thatc ommon
ownershipis in accordancew ithn ature( Erskine,H ellenistiSct oa, 112). In Nemesius
of Emesa (before4 00) the Fall is combinedw iths ociopoliticanl aturalismt: he needs
engenderedb y the Fall cause humanst o congregateb ecause man is a sociable and
politicala nimalb y nature,n o one personb eing self-sufficien(Dte Natura Hominis,
ed. M. Morani (Leipzig, 1987), i, 52 = N. Teller (trans.), Cyrilo fJ erusaleman d
Nemesiuosf E mesa( London, 1955), 243; cf.A ristotleP, oliticsi,, 1253'; SchofieldS, toic
Idea oft heC ity,7 1). That man, thoughs ociableb y nature,w as not originallym eant
to dominateo therm en,o nlyb easts,g oes unmentioned(c ontrastA ugustine(d . 430),
Cityo fG od,x ix, 15; cf. R. A. Markus,S aeculum:H istorya nd Societyin the Theology
of St Augustin(eC ambridge,1 970), app. B). Naturall aw is not a prominentc oncept
in the Syriact raditiona, nd it is not associatedw ith freedomo r equality( cf. the
attestationisn S. Pines,' La Loi naturellee t la societe:L a doctrinep olitico-theologique
d'Ibn Zur'a, philosophec hretiend e Baghdad', ScriptaH ierosolymitaniax,; repr. in
his Studiesi n the Historyo f ArabicP hilosophye,d . S. Stroumsa( Jerusalem,1 996),
159 ff.).
20 Sexual communismd oes not appeari n anyv ersiono f the goldena ge myth,S toic
or ChristianW. henL actantius(d . c.320) arguesa gainsti t,h e is takingi ssuew ithP lato
(The DivineI nstituteisi,i , 21; trans.M . F. McDonald (Washington1, 964); Lactantius
did not like communismin respecto f propertye ither,c f. v, 5, whereh e dismisses
thea bsenceo f privatep ropertyin theg oldena ge as a poeticf iguret, hought heg olden
age itself' is not poeticf ictionb, ut truth').
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8 PAST AND PRESENT NUMBER 167
original condition of innocence.21T he sinful, yet God-given,
natureo f power enabled medievalc hurchment o stresst he diabol-
ical or celestialn ature of governmenta s they saw fit,a nd many
held political subordinationt o have existed even in Paradise,22
where the existenceo f civil (as opposed to servile)s ubjectionw as
to be explicitlye ndorsed by Thomas Aquinas (d. 1274) with
referencet o Aristotle'sv iew of politicalo rganizationa s natural.23
But the view that governmentw as unknown to God's original
plan and to naturea like was too entrenchedi n Westernt hought
to disappear,t houghi t was oftena ttacked.
As a result,W esternersh ave always found it possible to think
away the state. Some would thinka way societya long with it, to
illustrateh ow nasty,b rutisha nd shortl ife would be in the state
of nature; but many would dream up societies fromw hich the
structureso f dominationh ad been removed, with referencet o
the remotep ast, the millenarianf uture,r eal or alleged primitive
societies,o r by way of construingu topias based on naturall aw
or its socio-economics uccessor. In short,W esterna narchismi s
in essence the belief that we can return to the condition of
innocence from which we have fallen, or to some secularized
version of it. Anarchist sentimentsc an thus be classified as
endemic to the Westernt radition,t hought heyh ave rarelyb een
epidemic.24D ifferentlyp ut, if one thinkso f an intellectuatl radi-
tion as a box of conceptual tools with which every generation
triest o carve some sense out of the world, the Westernt radition
has always had a tool labelled 'does God/naturer eallyw ant us to
have rulers?'
21 For innumerablaet testationosf thisi dea, see R. W. Carlylea nd A. J. Carlyle,A
Historyo fM edievalP oliticalT houghitn theW est6, vols. (London, 1903-36), esp. vols.
i and iii, wheret he sourcesa re oftenq uoted at length;f ora systematiscu rveya nd
discussions, ee W. SturnerP, eccatumu ndP otestasD. er Sindenfallu ndd ie Entstehung
derh errscherlichGeenw alti mm ittelalterlichSetnaa tsdenke(nS igmaringen1,9 87).
22 PhilippeB uc, L'Ambiguitdeu livre:P rincep, ouvoire, tp eupled ansl es commentaires
de la Bible au MoyenA ge (Paris, 1994) (I am indebtedt o Amy Remensnyderf or
drawingm y attentiont o this work). That the introductionof Aristotelianth ought
markedl ess of a breakt hanu sed to be believedi s also them essageo f C. J.N ederman,
'Nature,S in and theO riginso fS ocietyT: he CiceronianT raditionin MedievalP olitical
Thought',J l Hist. Ideas, xlix (1988); but the politicaln aturalismp ostulatedf ore arly
medievalE urope here mostlys eemst o be social.
23 Markus,S aeculum,a pp. c, esp. pp. 224-5.
24 Cf. F. E. Manuel and F. P. Manuel, Utopian Thoughtin the WesternW orld
(Cambridge,M ass., 1979), 737.
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NINTH-CENTURY MUSLIM ANARCHISTS 9
III
THE MUSLIM PREMISSES
But the Muslims startedw ith a very differentse t of conceptual
tools. As theys aw it, structureso f dominationh ad always existed
and always would, for the universei tselfw as a kingdom,i n the
most literals ense of the word.
The king of the universe was God, who ruled by legislating.
At firsts ight,d ivinel aw as conceivedb y the Muslims looks much
the same as the naturall aw of the Stoics (who oftenc alled theirs
divine as well); but the conceptions are quite different.T he
naturall aw of the Stoicsw as somethingb uilti nton ature,e xempli-
fied by nature, and available to all humans by virtue of their
possessiono f reason; it was 'writteni nto theirh earts',a s St Paul
put it,25a nd thusw hollyi ndependento f humang overnmentB. ut
the divine law of the Muslims was envisaged on the model of
positive law as somethingt hat had to be enacted, promulgated
and enforcedw ithin a particularc ommunity:t he King had to
send messengersi n order for people to know it, and He had to
raise up deputies of one kind or another in order to have it
executed. Far from being independento f human government,
divine law engenderedi t. You acknowledged God as your king
by accepting membershipo f His polity, to live by His law as
broughta nd executed by His agents.
God's governmentw as coercive.H e would not, of course,h ave
to use forcei f His subjectsw ould obey Him of theiro wn accord,
but for some reason or other they all tended to be rebellious.
There was nothings pecial about humansi n thisr espect.G od had
senta rmiesa gainstd isobedientc reaturese ven beforeh umansh ad
been created, and the human fall plays no role whateveri n the
Muslim view of why coercive governmente xists.26G overnment
had alwayse xisteda nd alwaysw ould; it was an inescapablef eature
of the universe.
Consequently,t he Muslim golden age mythi s not about the
absence of governmentb, ut rathera bout its ideal form.T he myth
25Rom. 2: 15.
26 For the angelicw ars againstt hej inn who occupiedt he earthb eforet he creation
of Adama nd a detaileda ccounto f theF all, see al-Tabari, Ta'rZkhal -rusuwl a'l-muluk,
ed. M. J. de Goeje and others,3 rd ser. (Leiden, 1871-1901), i, 81 ff. = TheH istory
ofal-T abarl,3 9 vols. (Albany,N Y, 1989-98), i, trans.F ranzR osenthal2, 52 ff.M uslim
views on Paradise and the significancoef the Fall for human historys till await a
monograph.
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10 PAST AND PRESENT NUMBER 167
is set in Medina in the time of the Prophet and the firstc aliphs,
from 622 to 656 (or earlier),27t hat is in a well-remembered
historicalp eriod rathert han the hoaryp ast, and what it offersi s
an idealized version of that period rathert han complete fiction.
Like the Stoic account, it describes a simple societyw hich was
guided by wise men until thingsw ent wrong,a s they did when
the firstc ivil war broke out in 656, if not before. But unlike its
Stoic counterpart,i t startsw ith the foundationo f a polity,a nd
what it illustratesis not a contrastb etweend ivine law and human
governmentb, ut on the contraryt heirf usion.T he Prophet and
the firstc aliphs who bringa nd execute God's law are unambigu-
ously envisaged as rulers,n ot just as wise men. They impose
penalties,c onductc ampaigns,s uppressr evoltsa nd startt he wars
of conquest; in short,t heyu se institutionalizevdi olence. But they
always do so in accordance with God's law. Nothing is wrong
with coercive institutionass long as theya re properlyu sed: that
was the basic position.28
Ideal governmentw as governmentb y an imam, a communal
leader who modelled himselfo n God's law and who thus set an
example to be imitated.T he firsti mam in human historyw as
Adam. The firsti mam in Islamic historyw as Muhammad; the
imams afterh im adopted the title of caliph, and their position
was thereafterk nown now as the imamate (which stressed its
legitimaten ature) and now as the caliphate (which stressedi ts
political reality). But they were all rulers of the same kind.
Everythinge lse was a corruption,i n two opposite directions.
On the one hand, some people transgresseda gainst God by
arrogatingH is power to themselves,l eadingt o tyrannyT. his was
the conditionu nder which the non-Arabs had lived until they
were conquered by the Muslims. More precisely,t heyh ad lived
under kings,b ut all kingso ther than God Himselfw ere tyrants,
for a king was somebody who wanted power at God's expense,
like Pharaoh, the paradigmatice xample.29O n the other hand,
therew ere people who forgota bout God and His law altogether
and so had no governmenta t all. Statelessnessw as the condition
27 Thingsw entw ronga s soon as the Prophetd ied, or when the thirdc aliph took
power,o r six yearsi ntoh is reign,o r whenh e was killeda nd the firstc ivilw ar broke
out in 656.
28 Practicallya ll sources on the Propheta nd the Rashidun, 'the rightlyg uided
caliphs',i n Medina are writtena long thesel ines,b ut the subjects tillh as not found
its Carlyles.
29 Cf. Encycl.I slam2 , s.v. 'malik'.
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NINTH-CENTURY MUSLIM ANARCHISTS 11
in whicht heA rabsh adl ivedb eforet her iseo fI slam.T he Greeks
had rathera dmiredt hemf ort heira bilityt o do withoutr ulers,30
and theyh ad certainlyad miredt hemselvefs or it: theyb oast
endlesslyo f theirr efusalt o submitt o kingso r anyonee lse in
theirp oetry.3B1u t aftert her iseo f Islamt heyr ealizedt hatt hey
had livedi n pagani gnorancaen d barbarismJ, ahiliyya,a3 2st ate
of amoralitayn d disordern, ota conditionof innocencel,e ta lone
one whiche stablishead naturarl ightt o freedomf roms ubordina-
tion.O bligations,u bordinatioann do rdera ll camew itht her evela-
tion,f ora religionw as firsatn d foremosat s eto fl egala nd moral
obligationws herebyh umans ocietyw as orderedT. he Medinese
caliphss teereda middlec ourseb etweent yrannayn d anarchyb y
adheringt o God's law. To the vast majorityo f Muslimst hey
representetdh ep oliticaild eal,a s indeedt heys tilld o.
In shortc, oerciveg overnmenwta s nota mereh umanc onven-
tion,e xcepti n so fara s it had been pervertedb y kings.I n its
authenticf ormi t was a sacredi nstitutiown hichr eflectedth e
absolute.Y ou could not have a moralo rderw ithouta revealed
law, and you couldn oth ave a revealedl aw withoutan imamt o
enforceit . This was thep remisws ithw hicht heM uslimss tarted.
It is note asyt o see howt heyc ouldg ett o anarchismfr omt here.
IV
FROM IMAMATE TO KINGSHIP
Like everyonee lse, howevert, heM uslimss oon discoveredt hat
divinel aw and humang overnmentte ndedt o be at loggerheads.
By about 800 Medina had long ceased to be the capital,t he
Muslimp olityh ad longl osti tss implicitayn d thei mamsh ad long
ceasedt o be wisem end ispensinfgr iendlgyu idancei,n so fara s
theye verw ere.T he 'Abbasidc aliphsr uleda vaste mpiref rom
Baghdadi n a stylea ll too reminiscenotf Pharaoha nd his likes.
30 Cf. Herodotus,H istory3, , 88; Diodorus Siculus,L ibraryo fH istoryi,i , 1, 5-6; ii,
48, 4; xix, 94, 2 ff.F or the proclivityof the Greeksa nd Romanst o cast tribesmenas
people who preservedv irtuest hatt heyt hemselvehs ad lost,w itht heS cythianass star
performersse, e A. O. Lovejoya nd G. Boas, Primitivisamn d RelatedI deas inA ntiquity
(Baltimore,1 955).
31 Again, there is no monograph.F or some examples, see 'Amr b. Kulthum,
Mu'allaqa, verse 25; 'Abid b. al-Abras,i n C. Lyall (ed. and trans.), The Diwans of
'AbidI bn al-Abras,o fA sad, and 'AmirI bn at-Tufail,o f 'AmirI bn Sa'sa'ah (London,
1913), 4, 14.
32 Cf. Encyl.I slam2 , s.v. 'Djahiliyya'.
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12 PASTA ND PRESENT NUMBER 167
The imamateh ad turnedi nto kingship,a s people said; in other
words, it had turned into tyranny.T he question was what one
should do about it.
Islam had originateda s an activistr eligion,a nd therew ere still
people who said thatw herevery ou saw people act wrongly,y ou
should take action against them, with the sword if necessary:i f
the ruler misbehaved, one had to rebel and replace him with
another,p rovided thatt herew as a reasonablec hance of success.
Most ninth-centuryM u'tazilites were of this opinion,33a s were
all Kharijites of the non-anarchistv ariety.34B ut the religious
scholarsw ho came to be the bearerso f Sunn1I slam were quietists,
like the churchmeno f the medievalW est. In theirv iew, civil war
was more destructivef or the communityt han such wrongs as
tyrantsc ould inflicto n it, and preservingt he communityw as
more importantt hans ettingi ts leadershipr ight;y ou had to obey
the ruler,h owevers infulh e was, unlessh e orderedy ou to disobey
God Himself,i n whichc ase you had to adopt passive resistance.35
There were even some who argued in the Christians tyle that
tyrannicarl ulersw ere a punishmentf ors ins.36B ut the anarchists
proposed a third solution. We may start with the Mu'tazilites,
who will get the bulk of the attention.
V
THE MU'TAZILITE ARGUMENTS
The Mu'tazilites offereda variety of argumentsi n favour of
anarchism,b ut only one is quoted in full,t hato f the Mu'tazilite
ascetics.I t wenta s follows.I slam is differenftr omo therr eligions,
for other religious communitiesh ave kings who enslave their
subjects,b ut the Prophetw as not a king,n or were his successors,
33 Thus Ps.-Nashi', §108; similarlyal -Ash'ari,M aqalat al-islamiyyzn,e d. H. Ritter
(Istanbul,1 929-33), 451 (in the contexto f evildoersi n generalr athert hanr ulersi n
particular)C. omparea lso M. Cook's monographo n al-amrb i'l-ma'ruwf a'l-nahy'a n
al-munkarp rovisionallyen titledT he Voiceo f HonestI ndignatio(nC ambridge,f orth-
coming),c h. 9.
34A sh'ar1i n the precedingn ote; W. M. Watt, The FormativeP eriodo f Islamic
Though(tE dinburgh,1 973), ch. 1; P. Crone and F. W. ZimmermannT, he Epistleo f
Salim b. Dhakwan( Oxford,2 000), ch. 5, all in the contexto f evildoersi n general
rathert hanr ulersi n particular.
35C f. B. Lewis, 'On the Quietist and ActivistT raditionsi n Islamic Political
Writings'B, ull. Schoolo fO rientala nd AfricanS tudies,x lix (1986).
36e.g. al-Hasan al-Basri (d. 728), in Ibn Sa'd, Kitab al-tabaqat al-kabir,e d.
E. Sachau et al., 8 vols. (Leiden, 1904-21), vii, 1, 119.
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