Religion and Politics Under the Early 'Abbasids: The Emergence of the Proto-Sunn Elite

246 Pages·1997·8.512 MB·English

by  Muhammad Qasim Zaman

RELIGION AND POLITICS
UNDER THE EARLY ‘ABBÄSIDS
ISLAMIC HISTORY
AND CIVILIZATION
STUDIES AND TEXTS
EDITED BY
ULRICH HAARMANN
AND
WADAD KADI
VOLUME 16
RELIGION AND POLITICS
UNDER THE EARLY ‘ABBÄSIDS
The Emergence of the Proto-Sunni Elite
BY
MUHAMMAD QASIM ZAMAN
'^ 6 8 ^ '
BRILL
LEIDEN • NEW YORK • KÖLN
1997
The paper in this book meets the guidelines for permanence and durability of the
Committee on Production Guidelines for Book Longevity of the Council on Library
Resources.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Zaman, Muhammad Qasim
Religion and politics under the early ‘Abbäsids : the emergence of the
proto-Sunni elite / by Muhammad Qasim Zaman.
p. cm. — (Islamic history and civilization. Studies and
texts, ISSN 0929-2403 ; v. 16)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 9004106782 (cloth : alk. paper)
1. Islam and politics—Islamic Empire. 2. Ulama—Islamic Empire. 3.
Islamic Empire—Politics and government. I. Title. II. Series.
BP55.Z36 1997
322’. 1 ’095609021—dc21 96-6517
CIP
Die Deutsche Bibliothek - CIP-Einheitsaufhahme
Zaman, Muhammad Qasim:
Religion and politics under the early ‘Abbäsids : the emergence of
the Proto-Sunni elite /by Muhammad Qasim Zaman - Leiden ;
New York ; Köln : Brill,31997
(Islamk^i’story and civilization ; Vol. 16)
ISBN 90-04-10678-2
NE: GT
ISSN 0929-2403
ISBN 9Q 04 10678 2
© Copyright 1997 by E.J. Brill, Leiden, The Netherlands
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced\ translated, stored in
a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic,
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PRINTED IN THE NETHERLANDS
To My Parents

CONTENTS
Preface ....................................................................................... ix
Abbreviations xi
1. Historiographical Introduction 1
2. Religious Trends in Early ‘Abbasid Society 33
3. The Caliphs and die TJlamä’: Defining a Relationship 70
4. Early ‘Abbasid Patronage of Religious Life 119
5. The Rhetoric of Religious Policies 167
è. Conclusion ............................................................................ 208
Bibliography 214
Index 227

PREFACE
I have been assisted in the writing of this book by the help and
encouragement of several people. Professor Donald P. Little has
provided wide ranging guidance on all matters academic, and it is
his continuing support that has made this work possible. Dr. Patricia
Crone and Professor Wael B. Hallaq were kind enough to read, with
their customary thoroughness, what now seem to me antediluvian ver­
sions of some of the chapters. I am grateful to them for much help,
and hope in particular that my disagreements in this book with some
of Dr. Crone’s work will not obscure the debt that I owe to her writ­
ings. Others who have commented on various aspects of this work
and helped improve it in sundry ways include Professors Charles J.
Adams, Arthur F. Buehler, R. Stephen Humphreys, Abdulaziz Sache-
dina, and, in particular, the anonymous reader for E.J. Brill. But if
even their advice did not always save me from errors of judgement
*or infelicities of style, the responsibility must evidently be mine alone.
I wish also to thank Professors Adams and Sajida S. Alvi for much
encouragement
Several fellowships from McGill University, Montreal, between 1990
and 1994 made it possible for me to work on this book. The libraries
where the research for it was carried out include those of the Institute
of Islamic Studies, McGill University, the British Library and die
School of Oriental and African Studies, London, the University of
North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and Duke University, Durham. I am
grateful to all these institutions for their assistance.
Without the encouragement and support of my mother, and of Rabia,
Fakiha and Hamid, I should not have been able to begin, much less
to complete this book. To my late father. Professor Waheed-uz-Zaman,
I am grateful for a host of things, not the least of which is his
contribution towards making me a historian. As for Shaista’s com­
panionship, which I have been privileged to enjoy from the very
inception of this work (as well as much help with preparing my
manuscript for the publishers), I wish only to say that I cannot think
of this book without thinking of her.
X PREFACE
Some of the conventions employed in this book may, finally, be noted.
Most of the Arabic words which occur in the following pages are
transliterated and italicized. Those not italicized are certain terms of
very frequent occurrence, such as ‘ulamä5 and imäm. Place names,
such as Baghdad, Kufa, Basra, are not transliterated, and where Angli­
cized forms are common (for example, Damascus, Mecca, Medina),
these have been adopted. The system of transliteration used here
conforms to that of file Encyclopaedia of Islam, new edition (Leiden,
I960-); fim is transliterated as j rather than dj, however, and qäf as
q rather than k.