Muslim Studies

Volume 1

Ignaz Goldziher

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2017
• ISBN:
  9781351504034
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: Islamic Theology

This is the first volume of Goldziher's Muslim Studies, which ranks highly among the classics of the scholarly literature on Islam. Indeed, the two volumes, originally published in German in 1889-1890, can justly be counted among those that laid the foundations of the modern study of Islam as a religion and a civilization. The first study deals with the reaction of Islam to the ideals of Arab tribal society, to the attitudes of early Islam to the various nationalities and more especially the Persians, and culminates in the chapter on the Shu'ubiya movement which represents the reaction of the newly converted peoples, and again more especially the Persians, to the idea of Arab superiority. The second essay is the famous study on the development of the Hadith, the -Traditions- ascribed to Muhammed, in which the Hadith is shown to reflect the various trends of early Islam: Goldziher's name is mainly associated with the critical study of the Hadith, of which this essay is the chief monument. The third essay is about the cult of saints, which, though contrary to the spirit and letter of the earliest Islam, played such an important part in its subsequent development. These essays, with the author's marvelous richness of information, profound historical sense, and sympathetic insight into the motive forces of religion and civilization, are today as fresh as at the time of their original publication and their reissue is indispensable for the growing number of students of Islam. Hamid Dabashi contributes a major eighty-five-page study of Goldziher's life and scholarship, situating both in the intellectual and political currents of his own time while evaluating his work in the context of the current debate over Orientalism.

Chapter Two. The Arab Tribes and Islam

I

THERE is a strong and almost unreconcilable difference in respect of the social order between the attitude of Arab paganism, which is based on ancient traditions, and the teachings of Islam. The social order of the Arab people was based on the relationship of the tribes to one another. Membership of a tribe was the bond which united people who felt that they had something in common ; but at the same time it also separated them from other groups. The actual or fictitious descent from a common ancestor was the symbol of social morals, the measure by which people were valued. Men who could not boast of ancestors worth mentioning were despised, even if they lived in Arab territory and spoke the Arabic language, and this low esteem forced them to indulge in occupations which lowered them even further.¹ Only the affiliation of strangers to a tribe whose duty it would be to protect them, the solemn call for sanctuary by the pursued who hoped to find refuge in the tents of the stranger tribe, or a solemn alliance which could take the place of common descent were able to establish the obligation of neighbourly love for strangers; it is true that the strict observance of these ties was the foundation of Arab muruwwa², and infringements branded the individual as well as the whole tribe as irrevocably dishonourable, and marked them with downright shame.³

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Thus, at the centre of Arab social consciousness stood the knowledge of the common descent of certain groups. It is easily seen that the glory of a tribe in face of any other tribe consisted of the glory of its ancestors, upon which the claim to honour and esteem of the individual members as well as the whole group was based. The word for this esteem is hasab. Arab philologists interpret this word as meaning the ‘enumeration’ of the famous deeds of ancestors,⁴ but this includes without doubt also the enumeration of these ancestors themselves who figure in the genealogical tree in paternal or maternal descent.¹ The more that can be enumerated, the ‘thicker’ is the hasab or nobility.² A tribe is mocked if their number is large but their deeds of fame few.³

Amongst the causes of self-congratulation amongst the Arabs the fame of ancestors is the foremost.⁴ Much as ancestral piety is one of their few religious sentiments, so the fame of the ancestors of the tribe decides for them the position of their clan within the constellation of humanity. This fame was also of importance in the claim to individual esteem, as it was more than a genealogical ornament to Arabs but had great individual relevance to each man. Just as the Arabs took for granted the inheritance of physical characteristics,⁵ they also assumed that moral attributes were handed down in the same way. Virtues and vices being passed on from the ancestors, the individual could prove his muruwwa best by being able to point out that the virtues which make the true muruwwa were transmitted from noble ancestors,⁶ or that he had ancestors who had nothing undistinguished to leave to him as the sunna⁷ followed by the descendants.⁸ ‘He is elevated by the vein—i.e. the blood—of his ancestors’⁹ or ‘noble veins lift him up’ to his ancestor¹⁰ is the usual description of a man’s inheritance from noble ancestors. Descent is traced back to an ‘irq . . ,’¹¹ which means to say that a person is able to relate his moral attributes back to his ancestors¹²—an expression which is also applied in another context to physical characteristics.¹

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The virtue of ancestors is usually compared to a high and strong building,² which they built for their descendants³ and which it would be shameful to destroy.⁴ Their fame is a continuous incentive to emulation by their descendants. A poet from the Harb tribe says of himself that ‘Harbite souls’⁵ continually call him to do good. Nobility, hasab, imposes a double obligation to practice good deeds; it lays duties upon these people and they adhere to the principle noblesse oblige in the very best sense.⁶ Consideration of the past and the tradition of lineage impel the Arab to practise nobility more than do the hope of and striving for future fame.⁷ If there are no ancestors of whom a man can boast, he strives to connect his lineage to another even by some bold fiction.⁸ Personal fame and merit count for little in his estimation ; only inherited fame and inherited merit bestow the proper consecration and confirmation.⁹ ‘There is a difference between inherited nobility and nobility which grew with the grass.’¹⁰ Therefore a man’s bad deeds are readily ascribed to the baseness of his ancestors.¹¹

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Utterances which are not in keeping with these points of view are exceptional. I refer to some sayings of heroes of ancient times who boast that they do not wish to vaunt their ancestors but to rely on their own virtues and deeds. To these belongs a much quoted poem by “Amir b. al-Tufayl,¹ which is followed by similar utterances from later times.²

The boasts (mafdkhir), which are mainly based on reference to the deeds of ancestors (a field in which the Arabs award the prize to the Mu’allaqa poet al-Härith³) are matched by the taunts (mathälib) designed to throw as much scorn as possible upon the ancestors of one’s opponent or upon his tribe and sometimes even to place their descent in doubt.⁴ It is in this respect that a proud Arab can be hardest hit, as it determines his claim to honour and fame. Quarrels between the tribes are therefore accompanied by mutual satire (hija)⁵ recording all that is shameful in the character and the past of the enemy group while making much of the boasts of one’s own clan.⁶ The satires which concerned themselves even with the inner life of the family⁷ were a particularly important part of the conduct of war. Waging war in poetry is considered as the serious start of hostilities between two tribes⁸ just as the cessation of fighting coincides with putting an end to the satires.⁹ The assurance of peace concerns security not only from hostile attacks but also from boasting provocation (an lä jughzaw wa-lä yufäkharü¹⁰). Owing to the peculiarity of Arab culture it is not strange that this part of the fighting was mainly undertaken by the tribe’s poets. In the warlike activities of the tribes they were of great importance. This is evident among other things from the description¹ which al-Hutay’a gives ‘Umar of the causes of the successful wars of the tribe of “Abs during the Jähiliyya. Together with Qays b. Zuhayr, ‘Antara, Rabí‘ b. Ziyäd to whose prudent caution, braveness in attack and circumspection in command they all gladly submitted, it is also mentioned that they let themselves be guided by the poetry of ‘Urwa b. al-Ward (ncCtammu bi-shïr ‘Urwa).² It is evident in the context of the story that this cannot refer only to the latter’s merits as an exemplary poet.³ A poet’s gifts appear to have been considered from other than artistic standpoints and there are many indications that a connection was traced between these gifts and supernatural influences.⁴ It is typical that on one occasion the poet is mentioned together with the augur Ça’if) and the water diviner.⁵ The poets—as can be inferred from their name—are considered ‘those who are knowledgable’ (shäHr)⁶, first of all about the traditions of their tribe which are to be used in war⁷ and thus a ‘perfect’ man (kämüf)⁸ must in the view of the Arabs be a poet, i.e. must know the glorious traditions of his tribe⁹ which he can use for the honour of his own people in war against opponents whose aim is to stress shameful facts of the past of his tribe.¹ Therefore it is said of a poet, whose special function is to serve the tribe in this respect and to promote its honour, that he is a poet of the tribe (e.g. shaHru Taghliba and others), and the appearance of such poetical defenders and advocates was celebrated as a joyous event by a tribe because it meant that ‘their honour was protected and their glory defended, their memorable deeds were made immortal and their memory firmly established.’²

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Sometimes also poets of strange tribes were sought out in order ...

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• CONTENTS
• INTRODUCTION TO ALDINETRANSACTION EDITION
• Preface
• I. Introductory: Muruwwa and Din
• II. The Arab Tribes and Islam
• III. Arab and Ajam
• IV. The Shu‘ūbiyya
• V. The Shu‘ūbiyya and its Manifestation in Scholarship
• Excursuses and Annotations
• I. What is Meant by ‘Al-Jähiliyya’
• II. On the Veneration of the Dead in Paganism and Islam
• III. Pagan and Muslim Linguistic Usage
• IV. The Use of the Kunya as a Means of Paying Respect
• V. Black and White People
• VI. Traditions About the Turks
• VII. Arabicized Persians as Arabic Poets
• INDEX