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On the quietist and activist traditions in Islamic political writing

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 December 2009

Bernard Lewis
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Extract

From the earliest times, the political tradition of Islam, on the one hand as formulated in Islamic theology and law, on the other hand as expressed in the accepted versions of early Islamic history, contains two distinct and in some measure even contradictory principles concerning the problems of government and obedience, of which one might be described as authoritarian and quietist, the other as radical and activist. The exponents of both these principles point to the authority of the Qur'ān and tradition, and to the example of the Prophet himself. Both principles are indeed exemplified in the career and teachings of the Prophet and in the history of the early caliphate, which constitute the shared memorv and common heritage of Muslims everywhere. These two traditions may be examined separately.

Type
Articles
Information
Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies , Volume 49 , Issue 1 , February 1986 , pp. 141 - 147
Copyright
Copyright © School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London 1986

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References

1 Baṭṭa, AbūAbū 'Abdallāh 'Ubaydallāh ibn Muḥammed ibn, Kitāb al-Sharh wa'l-Ibāna 'alā usūl al-Sunna wa'l-Diyāna, ed. Laoust, H. (Damascus,1958), 66 ff.Google Scholar

2 For further references to this ḥadīth, see Wensinck, A. J. (ed.), Concordance et indices de latradition musulmane (Leiden, 1936–1969), I, 327Google Scholar. Goldziher, in a rare error, attributes this ḥadith to the Kharijites and sees in it an expression of Kharijite egalitarianism: Vorlesungen über den Islam (Heidelberg, 1910), 205Google Scholar; English translation, Introduction to Islamic Theology and Law (Princeton, N.J., 1981), 171Google Scholar, and additional note e. But as Goitein, S. D. showed, Studies in Islamic history and institutions (Leiden,1966), 203–4Google Scholar, it was already used by Abū Yūsuf, in a volume dedicated to the Caliph, as an argument in favour of unquestioning submission to authority.

3 See AnnLambton, K. S., State and government in medieval Islam (Oxford, 1981), 43–68Google Scholar; Nagel, Tilman, Staat und Glaubensgemeinschaft im Islam, I (Zurich and Munich, 1981), passim, espec. pp. 153 ff.Google Scholar; Goitein, , Studies, 149–167.Google Scholar

4 Loc. cit.

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7 SeeLambton, , State and government, 107–8Google Scholar; Laoust, Henri, La politique de GĠaẓālī (Paris, 1970), 90 ff.Google Scholar

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9 See for example the major article by Laura Veccia Vaglieri, ‘Il conflitto 'Alī-Mu'āwiya e la secessione kharigita riesaminati alla luce di fonti idadite’, AIUON, 1952, 1–94; idem, ‘Traduzione de passi riguardanti il conflitto 'Alī-Mu'āwiya e la secessione kharigita’, AIUON, 1953, 1– Kafāfī, Muhammad, ‘The rise of kharijism according to Abū Sa'id Muhammad⃛al-Qalhātī’, Bulletin of the Faculty of Arts (Cairo), XIV, 1952, 29–48Google Scholar; Petersen, Erling Ladewig, ‘Ali and Mu'awiya in early Arabic tradition, second edition (Odense, 1974).Google Scholar

10 See Said Arjomand, Amir, The shadow of God and the Hidden Iman: religion, political order and societal changes in Shi'ite Iran from the beginning to 1890 (Chicago, 1984), 58–9CrossRefGoogle Scholar. For some sayings of the Imām Ali al-Rida, see al-Ya'qūbī, , Ta'rīkh (Beirut: 1960), II, 453–4.Google Scholar

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12 Muhammed, Abu Ja‘far ibn Jarīr al-Tabarī, Ta'rikh al-Rusul wa'l-Mulūk, ed. M. G. de, Goeje and others (Leiden, 1879–1901), II, 1687–8.Google Scholar

13 Abū Muhammad ‘Abdallāh ibn Muslim ibn Qutayba, ‘Uyūn al-Akhbār, ed. Ahmad Zaki al-'Adawī (Cairo 1343–1348/1925–1930), II, 115. The saying is attributed to a certian Sudayf, a mawla of the Banū Hāshim, who joined the revolt of Muhammad ibn ‘Abdallāh against al-Mansūr in 145/762. The passage caught the attention of historians, and is quoted in serval other places. See for examples Ibn, Qutayba, Kitāb al-Shi‘r wa’l-Shu‘arā’, ed. Goeje, M. J. (Leiden 1904) 419;Google ScholarRabbihi, Ibn Abd, Al-lqd al-Farīd, II (Cario, 1940), 32Abū 'l-Faraj al-Isfahānī,Google ScholarKitāb al-Aghānī, XIV (Bulaq, 1285), 162. For a discussion of the context of this saying see Omar, Farouk, The Abbasid Caliphate, 233–34.Google Scholar

14 'al-Jāhiz, Amr ibn Bahr, Rasā’il, ed. al-Sandūbī, Hasan (Cairo, 1352/1933), 295.Google Scholar

15 An earlier version of parts of this paper was included in a larger study presented to a colloquium at UNESCO in December 1982. They are published here by permission of UNESCO.