./ ^,3.6. MOHAMMED AND ISLAM y BY IGNAZ GOLDZIHER, Ph.D. Professor of Semitic Philology at the University of Budapest Translated fro»i the German BY Kate Chambers Seelye, Ph.D. With an Introduction by Morris Jastrow, Jr., Ph.D., LL.D,, Professor of Semitic Languages at the University of Pennsylvania NEW HAVEN : YALE UNIVEKSITY PRESS LONDON : HUMPHREY' MILFORD OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS MDCCcbxvii ^ ^^^ Copyright, 1917 BY Yale University Press First published, February, 1917 CONTENTS PAGE Inteoduction vii Chaptee I Mohammed and Islam 1 Chaptee II The Development of Law 37 Chaptee III Dogmatic Development 84 Chaptee IV Asceticism and Sufiism 148 Chaptee V Mohammedan Sects 214 Chaptee VI Later Development 295 Index 345 INTRODUCTION Through the publication during the past fifty years of a large number of Arabic sources for the study of Moham- medanism, before that accessible only in the manuscript collections of European libraries, our knowledge of the origin and course of Islam, and more particularly of the development of Islamic theology in the various countries to which the religion spread, has been greatly extended. Hand in hand with the publication of important Arabic texts has gone the critical study of the material in the form of monographs, and of papers in the transactions and journals of learned societies. Naturally, European scholars — in Germany and Austria, in England and France, Holland and Italy — have been the chief workers in this field, though during the last decades some valu- able contributions have been made by American scholars. The strong impetus to Arabic studies, the result of which is seen in the considerable body of scholars now devoting themselves to the subject, may be traced back to the distinguished French Orientalist, Silvestre de Sacy (1758-1838) and to his pupil Heinrich Leberecht Fleischer (1801-1888), for many years Professor of Oriental Languages at the University of Leipzig, and who had the distinction of training a large proportion of the Arabic scholars of the following generation. Other notable Arabists of the middle of the nineteenth century were Gustav Wilhelm Freytag of the University of Bonn (1788-1861) also a pupil of de Sacy, Ferdinand Wuesten- feld (1808-1899), particularly active in the publication of Arabic texts, Heinrich Ewald (1803-1875) of the Uni- versity of Gottingen, and Reinhart Dozy of the Univer- sity of Leyden (1820-1883), while coming closer to our own days we have the late Professor M. J. de Goeje viii MOHAMMED AND ISLAM. (1836-1909), Dozy's successor; Ignazio Guidi of Rome (1844- ), Julius Wellhausen of Gottingen (1844- ), and Theodor Noeldeke of Strassburg, the latter perhaps the greatest Semitist of any age and who is still active at eighty. Among the pupils of Professor Fleischer, during whose lifetime Leipzig was the center of Arabic studies, were such eminent scholars as the late David Heinrich Miiller of the University of Vienna (1846-1913), the late Albert Socin (1844-1899) who became Fleischer's succes- sor, the late Hartwig Derenbourg (1844-1908) who filled the chair of Silvestre de Sacy in the Ecole des Langues Orientales Vivantes, Paris, and Ignaz Goldziher of the University of Budapest, whose prodigious learning led Professor Noeldeke to proclaim him recently as ^'without a rival in the domain of Mohammedan theolog^^ and philosophy." English readers will, therefore, be par- ticularly grateful to Mrs. Seelye for having made acces- sible to them a volume in which Professor Goldzilier sums up in popular form the results of his life-long researches in the field in which he is an acknowledged master. The six chapters of the present work were orig- inally prepared for delivery in this country under the auspices of the American Committee for Lectures on the History of Eeligion in 1908, but owing to illness, from which he has happily recovered. Professor Goldziher was unable, after he had prepared the lectures, to undertake the trip across the ocean. The present translation into English is authorized by the distinguished author, who has in the course of a revision of his work made some additions in order to bring it down to date. It was my good fortune to have had Mrs. Seelye as a pupil in Ara- bic for a time, and to suggest to her the preparation of this translation, at the same time undertaking, as my share, to go over her version and to compare it sentence for sentence with the original so as to make certain by our united efforts of having reproduced Professor Goldzi- INTRODUCTIOlsr. ix lier's exposition accurately and, as I hope, in a readable form. The task was not an easy one, as in general trans- lations from German into English require particular care and skill; and these difficulties are increased when it comes to translating a work such as that of Professor Goldziher, containing a great many technical terms and involving the exposition of a subject exceedingly intri- cate at times. Before proceeding to outline the main features of Pro- fessor Goldziher 's important volume, which will no doubt take rank as an authoritative presentation of the theme, it may not be out of place to give a brief sketch of the author's career. Born in Hungary in 1850, he carried on his university studies at Budapest, Berlin, Leyden and more par- ticularly at Leipzig. After obtaining his degree of Doc- tor of Philosophy, he travelled for a year in the Orient and was one of the first Europeans to continue his Arabic studies at Al-Azhar, the famous University of Cairo. Through this opportunity he not only became conversant with modern Arabic in addition to his knowledge of the classical speech, but came into close contact with native theologians which strengthened his interest in those phases of Mohammedanism to which he has devoted the greater part of his career. On his return to his own country he became connected with the University of Budapest, where he has occupied for many years the chair of Oriental Languages. His productivity has been as extensive as it has been valuable. Apart from an earlier work on ' ' Mythology among the Hebrews,'' of which an English translation was issued in 1877, he established his reputation as one of the lead- ing Arabic scholars of his time by a volume on the Zahi- rite sect, published in 1884, and in which he betrayed that wide range of learning combined with rare acumen, which have made his researches so invaluable to all students X MOHAMMED AND ISLAM. of Islam. Two volumes of * ^ Mohammedan Studies" (1889-1890), followed by two further volumes of studies on Arabic Philology (1896-1899), deal with many impor- tant problems and embody results of investigations that, apart from their intrinsic value, opened up new avenues of research for others. Professor Goldziher has been an active contributor to the leading Oriental journals of Europe and has received the recognition of honorary membership in the learned academies of England, France, Germany, Denmark, Hol- land, Austria-Hungary, Sweden, the United States, and even of India and Egypt, while Cambridge and Aberdeen Universities have conferred honorary degrees upon him. The present volume reveals all those special qualities distinguishing Professor Goldziher 's work, a thorough grasp of the niceties of Mohammedan theology, acquired as a result of the profound and long-continued study of the huge Arabic literature on the subject, critical insight and striking originality in the combination of innumer- able details to present a vivid picture. The general aim of the work mav be set doAvn as an endeavor to set forth in detail the factors involved in the development of the rather simple and relatively few ideas launched by Mohammed, into an elaborate and complicated system of theology, at once legal and speculative and at the same time practical. The part played in this development through the military conquests of the followers of Mohammed during the first two or three generations after his death is shown by Professor Goldziher in the manner in which regulations for government and for religious practices are evolved, theoretically on the basis of the utterances in the Koran, but practically in response to the necessity of maintaining a strong hold on the followers of Islam, more particularly in the con- quered lands outside of Arabia. A conflict ensued between the worldly minded elements concerned with INTRODUCTION. xi problems of taxation and strengthening governmental control, and the pious adherents whose absorption in the tenets and ideals of Mohammed's teachings was as com- plete as it was sincere. Professor Goldziher shows how this conflict led to the rise of innumerable ^^traditions'' regarding Mohammed's sayings and doings, as the pat- tern to hold good for all times, and although these ^'tra- ditions," growing into an extensive ^^Hadith" (that is, 'tradition") literature, have turned out on a critical examination to be for the larger part entirely spurious, they have a value as showing the increasing emphasis laid on the Prophet's personality as the ultimate author- ity. It is to Professor Goldziher 's researches that we owe largely the present view taken of the ^'Hadith" lit- erature by Arabic scholars, and the place to be assigned to it in the development of both Mohannnedan law and dogma. In this volume the learned author sums up his studies within this field, and adds much to reinforce his former conclusions of the manner in which this curious system of carrying back to a fictitious source the reli- gious practices, political methods and theological doc- trines arose with the growth of the little religious com- munity, founded by Mohammed, into a world religion in close affiliation with widely extended political ambi- tions. Mohammedan law and Mohammedan dogmatism became the pivot around which the entire history of Islam has revolved down to our own days. The two chap- ters, in which this legal and dogmatic development of the religion are set forth, will give the reader entirely new points of view regarding the history of Islam, and pre- pare him for the exposition that follows of ascetic and mystic movements within Mohammedanism and which still hold a strong sway in Mohammedan lands. In the fifth chapter Professor Goldziher touches upon the most intricate of all problems connected with Moham- medanism, the formation of the numerous sects in Islam. xii MOHAMMED AND ISLAM. The difficult theme is set forth in a remarkably illuminat- ing manner. The author picks out the salient features of the two chief divisions of Mohammedanism — Sunna (or Orthodoxy) and Shi 'ism — and then sets forth in logical sequence the almost endless ramifications of Sun- nite and Shi'ite doctrines. For all who would seek to penetrate to the core of the great religion which still sways the lives of a very large proportion of mankind, some two hundred millions, Professor Goldziher's volume will be an indispensable guide. As a companion volume to it, in English, it may be proper to refer here to the lectures on Mohammedanism, delivered in this country, under the auspices of the American Committee for Lectures on the History of Religion, by Professor C. Snouck Hurgronje^ before various universities and now published in book form. Always excepting Noel- deke, who forms a class by himself. Professors Goldziher and Snouck Hurgronje are the two leading Arabic scholars of the age, recognized as such the world over, and English readers are indeed fortunate to have at their disposal two works of such commanding interest and authoritative status that complement one another. It is to be hoped that the appearance of these two con- tributions to our knowledge of one of the great reli- gions of the world will stimulate interest in the subject, and be of service also in promoting Arabic studies in our American universities. MoEKis Jastkow, Jr. University of Pennsylvania, January, 1917. ^Mohammedanism by C. Snouck Hurgronje (Xew York, Putnam's, 1916). MOHAMMED AND ISLAM CHAPTER I. MOHAMMED AND ISLAM. I. The question, what from a psychological point of view is the origin of religion, has been variously answered by investigators of the subject who treat reli- gion as an independent science. Prof. C. P. Tiele in his Gifford Lectures at Edinburgh has collected a number of these answers and submitted them to a critical examina- tion.^ He recognizes the consciousness of causality which he regards inherent in man, the feeling of depend- ence, the perception of the eternal, and the renunciation of the world as the ruling emotions from which have sprung the seeds of psychic religion. To me this phe- nomenon in the life of man seems to be of far too com- plicated a nature to justify its working evidence from a single motive. Nowhere do we find religion as an abstraction, disassociated from definite historical con- ditions. It lives in deeper and higher forms, in positive manifestations, which have been differentiated through social conditions. Any one of these, together with other stiinuli of reli- gious instincts, may take a leading place without, how- ever, entirely excluding other auxiliary factors. In the very first steps of its development, its character is ruled by a predominating motive, which maintains its leader- ship throughout the further development of the whole his- torical life of the religion. This holds good also for religious forms, whose rise is the product of individual inspiration. In the case of the particular religion, with the historical aspects of which we are to deal in these lectures, the name which its founder gave it at the very beginning, and which it has now borne for fourteen cen- turies reveals its prevailing features and characteristics. 2 MOHAMMED AND ISLAM. Islam means submission — the submission of the faith- ful to Allah. This term, which characterizes better than any other the essence of the relation in which Mohammed places the believers to the object of their worship, epito- mizes the feeling of dependence on an unlimited Power to whom man must give himself up, willingly or unwill- ingly. This is the predominating principle inherent in all expressions of this religion, in its ideas and its forms, in its morals and its worship, which determine, as its decisive mark, the characteristic instruction which man is to gain by it. Islam in fact, furnishes the strongest example of Schleiermacher's theory that religion arises from a feeling of dependence. II. The task before us in these lectures does not demand that we should point out the peculiarities of this system of religion, but rather that we present the factors which have cooperated in its historical development. Islam, as it appears in its final shaping, is the result of various influences by means of which it has developed into an ethical view of life, into a legal and dogmatic system attaining a definite orthodox form. We have to deal also with the factors which have directed the stream of Islam into various channels. For Islam is no homo- geneous church, its historical life finds its full expression in the very diversities which it has itself produced. The forces which determine the historical life of an institution are twofold. First, the inner impulses spring- ing from the very being of the institution and acting as impelling forces to further its growth. Second, those intellectual influences which come from without, which enrich the range of ideas, and make them more fruitful in bringing about its historical development. Although in Islam the practical proof of the impulses of the first kind are not lacking, nevertheless it is mostly the assimi- lation of foreign influences which mark the most impor- tant moments of its history. Its dogmatic development MOHAMMED AND ISLAM. 3 betrays Hellenistic thouglit, its legal form shows the unmistakable influence of Roman Law, its civic organi- zation, as it is unfolded in the ^ Abbaside caliphate, shows the moulding of Persian civic ideas, while its mysticism illustrates the appropriation of Neoplatonic and Indian ways of thought. But in each one of these fields Islam proves its capability to assimilate and work over foreign elements, so that its foreign character is evident only through the sharp analysis of critical investigation. This receptive character stamps Islam from its very birth, j Its founder, Mohammed, proclaims no new ideas. He brought no new contribution to the thoughts concerning' the relation of man to the supernatural and infinite. This fact, however, does not in the least lessen the rela- tive worth of his religious conception. When the his- torian of morals wishes to decide on the effect of an historical event, the question of its originality is not uppermost in his consideration. In an historical esti- mate of the ethical system of Mohammed the question is not whether the content of his proclamation was original in every way, the absolute pioneer conception of his soul. The proclamation of the Arabian Prophet is an eclectic^ composition of religious views to which he was aroused through his contact with Jewish, Chris- tian and other^ elements, by which he himself was strongly moved and which he regarded as suitable for the awakening of an earnest religious disposition among his people. His ordinances, although taken from foreign sources, he recognized as necessary for the moulding of life in accordance with the divine will. His inmost soul was so aroused that those influences which had thus awakened him, became inspirations, that were confirmed by outward impressions and by divine revelations, of which he sincerely felt himself to be the instrument. It lies outside our task to follow the pathological moments which aroused and strengthened in him the 4 MOHAMMED AND ISLAM. consciousness of revelation. "We recall Harnack's sig- nificant words concerning ^^ Maladies which attack great men only, who in turn create out of this malady a new life, an energy hitherto unsuspected surmounting all barriers, and the zeal of prophets and apostles. ' '^ Before us stands the prodigious historical effect of the call to Islam, more particularly the effect on the immediate circle, to whom Mohammed's proclamations were directly given. The lack of originality was made up for by the fact that Mohammed, with unwearied perseverance, announced these teachings as representing the \i.tal inter- ests of the community. With solicitous tenacity he proclaimed them to the masses in spite of their arrogant scorn. For no historical effect was connected with the silent protest of pious men before Mohammed's time, men who had protested, more by their lives than by their words, against the heathen Arabian interpretation of life. We do not know just what a certain Klialid ibn Sinan meant when he spoke of the prophet who let his people go astray. Mohammed is the first effective his- torical reformer of Arabia. Therein lies his originality in spite of the lack of it in the subject matter of his teaching. The intercourse which the travels of his early life secured for him, and the fruits of which he garnered during the period of ascetic retirement, aroused the over- wrought conscience of an earnest man against the reli- gious and ethical character of his countrymen. Arabian polytheism, gross and bare as it was, and which for its fetishlike worship, had as its gathering place the national sanctuary, — the Ka'ba with its black stone — in Moham- med's home town, could not elevate the morals of a people imbued with tribal life and customs. Further- more, the natives of this town were marked by a pre- vailing materialistic, plutocratic and haughty attitude. For the care of the sanctuary was not only a religious privilege, but also an important source of revenue. MOHAMMED AND ISLAM. 5 Mohammed bemoans the oppression of the poor, the thirst for gain, dishonesty in commerce, and overbear- ing indifference toward the higher interest of human life and its duties toward the ^^ prayerful and pious ones'' (Sura 18, v. 44), — the ^^ tinsel of its mundane world." The impressions of former teachings remained active in him, and he now applied them to these dis- quieting observations. In the loneliness of the caves near the city whither he was wont to withdraw, the man of two-score years felt himself more and more impelled through vivid dreams, visions and hallucinations to go among his people, and to warn them of the destruction to which their actions were leading them. He feels himself irresistably forced to become the moral teacher of his people, *' their warner and messenger.'' III. At the beginning of his career these observations turned to eschatological representations, which more and more completely took possession of his inmost soul. They form, as it were, the ^^Idee mere" of his procla- mations. What he had heard of a future judgment which would overwhelm the world, he now applies to the con- ditions about him, the knowledge of which filled his soul with horror. He places before the careless, over- weening tribes of the proud Meccan plutocrats, who know nothing of humility, ^Hhe prophecy of the approaching judgment," which he paints in fiery colors. He tells them of the resurrection and of the future reckoning whose details present themselves to his wild vision in terrifying form ; of God, as judge of the world, as the sole arbiter of the *^Day of judgment," who, in mercy, gathers out of the ruins of the world the few who had been obedient, who had not scorned and derided the cry of the ^'Warner," but who by introspection had torn themselves from arrogant ambitions and the power secured by worldly wealth, and had given themselves to a realization of their dependence on the one absolute 6 MOHAMMED AND ISLAM. God of the universe. It is above all escliatological repre- sentation on which Mohammed founded the call to repentance and submission.^ And one result — not the cause — of this perception, is the rejection of the poly- theism, by means of which paganism had broken the absolute power of deity. Any characteristic predicated of Allah can ^^ neither help nor harm.'^ There is only one Lord of the judgment day. Nothing can be asso- ciated with his unlimited and unchangeable decree. A feeling of such absolute dependence as that which pos- sessed Mohammed could have as its object one being only, the only one Allah. But the terrible picture of the judgment, the features of which he had gathered largely from the literature of the Apocrypha, was not balanced by the hopes of the coming of the ^'Kingdom of Heaven.'' 'Mohammed is a messenger of the Dies Irae, of the destruction of the world. His eschatology, in its picture of the world, cultivates only the pessimistic aspect. The optimistic aspect is entirely transferred to paradise, for the chosen. He has no ray of hope left over for the mundane world. It is thus simply a system of borrowed building stones which serves the prophet in the con- struction of his escliatological message. The history of the Old Testament, mostly, it is true, in the sense of the Agada, is used as a warning example of the fate of ancient peoples, who, hardening their hearts, scorned the exhortations sent to them. Mohammed classes himself as the last of the ancient prophets. The picture of the judgment and destruction of the world painted in glow- ing colors, the exhortation to prepare for it, by for- saking ungodliness and the worldly life, tales of the fate of ancient peoples and their attitude toward the prophets sent to them, reference to the creation of the world, and to the wonderful formation of man, — proof of the power of God, — dependence of the creature whom he can annihilate and recreate according to his inclination, — all MOHAMMED AND ISLAM. 7 these are contained in the oldest parts of that book of revelations, recognized in the literature of the world as the Kgran. It is composed of about 114 divisions (Suras), of very different scope ; about one third belongs to the first ten years of Mohammed's prophetic activity during the time of his work in Mecca. IV. It lies outside of my province to recount here the story of his success and his failures. The year 622 marks the first epoch in the history of Islam. Ridiculed by his countrymen and tribesmen, Mohammed flees to the northern city of Yathrib, whose people coming from a southern stock, showed themselves more receptive to religious influences. Here also, owing to the large colony of Jews, the ideas which Mohammed advanced were more familiar, or at least appeared less strange. Because of the help which people of this town gave to the prophet and his followers, whom they sheltered, Yathrib became Medina, ^'the City'' (of the prophet), by which name it has ever since been known. Here Mohammed is still further inspired by the Holy Spirit, and the majority of the Suras of the Koran bear the mark of this new home. But even though, in his new relations, he does not cease to fulfill and practice his calling as a ^^warner," his message takes a new direction. It is no longer merely the eschatological visionary who speaks. The new rela- tions make him a warrior, a conqueror, a statesman, an organizer of the new and constantly growing com- munity. Islam, as an institution, here received its shape ; here were sown the first seeds of its social, legal, and political regulations. The revelations which Mohammed announced on Mec- can soil had, as yet, indicated no new religion. Reli- gious feelings were aroused in a small group only. A conception of the world marked by the idea of resigna- tion to God was fostered, but was, as yet, far removed from strict definition, and had not yet given rise clearly 8 MOHAMMED AND ISLAM. to teachings and forms. Pious feelings betrayed them- selves in ascetic acts, which we also find among Jews and Christians, in devotional acts (recitation with genu- flections and prostration), self-imposed abstinence, and deeds of kindness, whose modality as to form, time and amount, had not yet been determined by hard and fast rules. Finally the community of believers was not yet definitely formed. It was in Medina that Islam took shape as an institution, and at the same time as a fight- ing organization whose war trumpet sounds through the whole later history of Islam. The erstwhile devoted martyr, who had preached patient submission to his faithful Meccan followers scorned by their fellow citi- zens, is now organizing warlike undertakings. The man who despised worldly possessions is now taking in hand the disposition of booty and regulation of the laws of inheritance and of property. It is true he does not cease to proclaim the worthlessness of all worldly things. At the same time, however, laws are given, regulations are made for religious practices and the closest social relationships of life. ^^Here the laws of conduct take on definite form. These laws served as the basis of later legislation, although several, in the course of preparation during the Meccan teachings, had been carried in embryo by the exiles from Mecca to the Palm City of Arabia. ' '^ It was really in Medina that Islam was born. The true features of its historical life were formed here. When- ever, therefore, the need of religious reconstruction appeared in Islam, its followers appealed to the Sunna (traditional custom) of that Medina in which Mohammed and his companions first began to bring into concrete form the laws regulating the relations of life, according to his conceptions of Islam. We will return to this later. :> The Hijra (flight to Medina) accordingly is not only an important date in the history of Islam, because of the change it wrought in the outward fortunes of the MOHAMMED AND ISLAM. 9 community ; marks, not only the time in which the little group of the prophet's followers, having found a secure haven, began to take aggressive measures and wage a war against the enemy, which in 630 resulted in the conquest of Mecca and subsequently in the subjection of Arabia; but it also marks an epoch in the religious formation of Islam. The Medina period brings about, moreover, a radical change in Mohammed's apperception of his own char- acter. In Mecca Mohammed felt himself a prophet, and classed himself and his mission in the rank of the Biblical ^* Messengers," in order like them to warn and to save his fellow-men from destruction. In Medina, under changed external relations, his aims also take a different trend. In this environment, differing so greatly from that of Mecca, other views in regard to his calling as a prophet became prominent. He wishes now to be con- sidered as having come to restore and reestablish the vitiated and misrepresented religion of Abraham. His announcements are interwoven with Abrahamic tradi- tions. He asserts that the worship he is instituting, although formerly organized by Abraham, had in the course of time been vitiated and heathenized. He wishes to reinstate in the Abrahamic sense the dm, or religion of the one God, as he had come, above all, to legitimatize (musaddik) what God had made known in former revelations.^ In general, his contention, that the former messages were misrepresented and vitiated, played a greater part in the recognition of his own position as a prophet, and of his work. Fawning apostates strengthened him in the idea that adherents of the old religion had perverted the sacred writings, and had concealed the promises in which prophets and evangelists had announced his own future coming. This charge, originating in the Koran, was later extensively developed in Islamic literature. 10 MOHAMMED AND ISLAM. The polemic against Jews and Christians now forms an important part of the revelations of Medina. Although formerly he recognized cloisters, churches and syna- gogues as true places of worship (Sura 22, v. 211), the ruhbcin (monks) of the Christians and the ahhdr (scribes) of the Jews, who were actually his teachers, now became objects of attack. It does not suit him that these leaders, in reality merely selfish men, should exer- cise an entirely unwarranted, and in fact almost a di\dne authority, over their fellows (Sura 9, v. 31), leading the people astray from the way of God (Sura 9, v. 36). He gives the ascetic ruhban credit for their humble bearing, and regards them as being in closer sympathy with^he faithful than the Jews, who took a decisive stand against Islam (Sura 5, v. 85), and he reproaches the Scribes with additions they had made to the divine legislation (Sura 3,v. 72). V. This Medina decade was therefore a time of attack with sword and pen, as well as of defense. The change in Mohammed's prophetic character necessarily made itself felt in the style and rhetorical content of the Koran. Even the oldest records of the book have clearly dif- ferentiated between the two divisions of the 114 Suras into which its contents are divided — ditferentiating with sure instinct the Mecca from the Medina parts. This chronological difference wholly justifies the criti- cal and aesthetic consideration of the Koran. To the Mecca period belong the messages in which Mohammed presents the creations of his glowing enthusiasm in a fantastic oratorical form coming directly from his soul. He does not brandish his sword, he is not speaking to warriors and subjects, but is declaring rather, to his numerous adversaries the convictions which dominate his soul; that the power of Allah to create and rule the world is infinite; that the awful day of judgment and destruction, the vision of which destroys his peace of MOHAMMED AND ISLAM. 11 mind, is near at hand; that the former peoples and' tyrants who opposed the warners sent by God, should be punished. Gradually, however, the prophetic energy weakens in the Medina messages in which the rhetoric, having lost all vigor, because of the triviality of the object, had dropped to a lower plain and sunk to the level of com- mon prose. With clever calculations and consideration, with wary cunning and policy, he now agitates against the internal and external opponents of his aims, he organizes the faithful, enacts, as has already been pointed out, civic and religious laws for the developing organi- zation, as well as rules for the practical relations of life. He even at times includes in the divine revelations made to him his own unimportant personal and domestic aifairs.^ The diminishing of his rhetorical vigor is not offset even by the Saj' , — the rhymed prose characteristic of the Koran in general and occurring also in the suras of this period. This was the form in which the ancient soothsayers delivered their oracles. No Arab could have recognized them in any other form as the words of God. Mohannned, to the end, adhered to the claim that such was his speech, but how great a distance between the Saj* of the early Mecca and the Medina speeches! While in Mecca, he announces his visions in Saj^ lines, every one of which responds to the feverish beating of his heart. This form of revelation loses its swing and its strength in Medina, even when he turns back to the subjects of the Mecca messages.^ Mohammed himself declared his Koran an inimitable work. His followers, without considering any one of its parts as having more merit than another, regarded the book as divinely supernatural, sent to them through the prophet. In fact it was to them the supreme miracle by which the prophet established the truth of his divine mission. / 12 MOHAMMED AND ISLAM. VI. The Koran then, is the first basis of the religion of Islam, its sacred writing, its revealed document. In its entirety it represents a combination of the two first epochs in the infancy of Islam, differing so much from one another. Although the Arabian mind, owing to its inherent dis- position and to the conditions of life, was not given to the consideration of supernatural things, the great suc- cess of the prophet and his immediate followers over the opponents of Islam did much to strengthen the belief of the Arabs in his mission. Although these historical successes did not, as one is apt to think, directly result in the complete union of these Arab tribes, politically divided and religiously only loosely bound by any central authority, and constantly quarreling over their local cults, nevertheless, they did become a strong element of union between these divergent elements. The prophet had held up as the ideal the union into an ethical and religious community which, according to his teachings, should be bound together by the feeling of dependence on the one Allah. ^'0, ye believers, fear God as he deserveth to be feared ; and die not until ye have become Moslems. And hold ye fast by the cord of God and remember God's goodness towards you, how that when ye were enemies, he united your hearts and by his favor ye became brethren" (Sura 3, v. 97-98). Fear of God was now to have the preference over genealogy and tribal life. The conception of this unity broadened more and more after the death of the prophet, owing to the con- quests whose successes have not yet been equalled in the history of the world. VII. If anything in Mohaimned's religious production can be called original, it is the negative side of his revela- tions. They were intended to eliminate all the barbarities of Arabian paganism in worship and social intercourse, in tribal life and in their conceptions of the world; in / MOHAMMED AND ISLAM. 13 other words, they were to eliminate the jahiliyya, the pre-Islamic barbarity, in so far as it stamped these con- ceptions and customs as opposed to Islam. As we have already mentioned, the positive teaching and organiza- tions show an eclectic character. Judaism and Chris- tianity have an equal share in the elements of which these are composed, of whose peculiarities I cannot speak here.^ It is well known that in its final form Islam has fiYQ points upon which its confession is based. The first drafts (liturgical and humanitarian) go back to the Mecca period, but their more definite, formal shape was given in the Medina period. 1. The acknowledgment of one God and the recognition of Mohammed as the apostle of God; 2. The ritual of the divine worship, whose early beginnings as vigils and recitations, with their accompanying postures, genuflections and prostra- tions, as well as the ceremonial purifications, had its origin in the usages of oriental Christianity; 3. Alms, first a free-will offering, later a definitely determined contribution to the needs of the community; 4. Fast- ing — first on the 10th day of the month (an imitation of the Jewish Day of atonement {' dsliura) — later changed to the month of Eamadan, the 9th of the variable lunar year; 5. The pilgrimage to the old Arabian national sanctuary in Mecca, the Ka^ba, the ^^ house of God. ' '^ This last requirement Mohammed retained from paganism, but clothed it in monotheistic garb, and gave it new interpretations through Abrahamic legends. Just as the Christian elements of the Koran reached Mohammed largely through the apocryphal traditions and heresies disseminated throughout oriental Chris- tendom, similarly many of the elements of oriental gnosticism found an entrance into Islamism. Moham- med appropriated a medley of ideas that reached him through his casual contact with men during his mer- 14 MOHAMMED AND ISLAM. cantile travels, and utilized most of this material in a very unsystematic manner. How far removed from his original conception are the mystical words (Sura 24, v. 35) which the Moslems regard as their ^^ golden text!'^ In Mohammed's conception concerning the laws given by God to the Jews, especially those dealing with for- bidden foods, laid on them as a punishment for their disobedience, we see the influence of the depreciation by the Gnostics of the Old Testament laws promulgated, according to them, by a frowning God void of benevo- lence. Except in a very few cases these laws were abrogated by Islam. God had not forbidden to the faith- ful anything palatable. These laws were fetters and burdens laid upon the Israelites by God (Sura 2, v. 286; 4, V. 158; 7, v. 156). This, although not identical with Marcionistic theories, is in accord with them. Together with this and closely akin to the speculations which are crudely indicated in the Clementine homilies, we find the theory put forward of a pure ancient religion, to be restored by the prophet, and also the assumption that the sacred writings had been corrupted. Besides Jews and Christians, the Parsees, whose disciples came under Mohammed's observation as Ma jus (Magi) and whom he also regards as opposed to heathen- ism, left their impress on the receptive mind of the Arabian prophet. It was from the Parsees that he received the far-reaching suggestion which robs the Sabbath of its character as a day of rest. He chose Friday as the weeldy day of assembly, but even in adopt- ing the hexaemeron theory of creation, he emphatically rejects the idea that God rested on the 7th day. There- fore, not the 7th day, but the day preceding is taken, not as a day of rest, but as a day of assembly on which all worldly business is permitted after the close of worship.* VIII. If we are now to regard Mohammed's produc- MOHAMMED AND ISLAM. 15 tion as a whole, and to consider for a moment its intrinsic value judged from its ethical effect, we must of course be careful to avoid an apologetic and polemic attitude. Even in modern presentations of Islam there is a strong tendency to take its numbers as the absolute standard by which to judge its religious value, and to found on that the final estimate. The same tendency considers the idea of God as deeply rooted in Islam because it inflexibly excludes the thought of His immanence. It also considers its ethics dangerous because it is dom- inated by the principle of obedience and submission which is already apparent in its name. This attitude assumes as possible that the dominating belief of the faithful, of living under an absolute divine law, or the belief in the detachment of the Divine being in Islam hindered the approach to God by faith, virtue, and benev- olence, and kept one from His mercy (Sura 9, v. 100), as though a pious worshipper, fervent in his devotions, filled with the humble consciousness of his dependence, weakness and helplessness, raising his soul to the source of almighty strength and perfection, could differentiate himself according to philosophical formulae. Those, who would in a subjective spirit estimate the religion of others, should recall the words of Abbe Loisy, the theologian (1906) : *^One can say of all religions that they possess for the consciences of its adherents an absolute, and for the comprehension of the philosopher and critic, a relative value. ''^ This fact has generally been lost sight of in judging the effect of Islam on its followers. Furthermore, in the case of Islam the religion has been unjustly held responsible for moral deficiencies, and intellectual lacks which may have their origin in the . disposition of the races.^ As a matter of fact, Islam, dis- seminated among a people belonging to these races, has ' moderated rather than caused their crudeness. Besides, Islam is not an abstraction to be considered apart from ri!i;— •_:: • ._. _ ■ ..;, :. ->.' . .:- %r :;:-'-■■•-:•■.-• ^""^■•"^^^^r^l^S^i ^^.SSfBWfflWBBgCSBSaaKB^ 16 MOHAMMED AND ISLAM. its historical periods of development, or from the geo- graphical boundaries of its spread, or from the ethnic character of its followers, but in connection with its various embodiments and effects. In order to prove Islam's insignificant religious and moral value, men have appealed to the language in which its teachings were given. It has been said, e. g., that Islam lacks the ethical conception which we call con- science, and the attempt is made to prove this by the assertion that ^^ neither in Arabic itself nor in any other language used by the Mohammedans can a word be found which would correctly express what we mean by the word conscience.''^ Such conclusions could easily lead us astray in other lines. The assumption that a word alone can be taken as a credible proof of the existence of a conception, has sho\vn itself to be a prejudice. ''A lack in the language is not necessarily a sign of a lack in the heart."* If this were so, one could assert that the feeling of gratitude was unkno\vn to the poets of the Vedas, because the word ^ thanks" is foreign to the Vedic language.^ Even in the ninth century the Arabic scholar Jahiz disproves the remark of a dilettante friend who thought he found a proof of the avaricious character of the Greeks in the fact that their language apparently had no word for * liber- ality" (Jud). Others also have come to the conclusion that the lack of the word ^^ sincerity" (nasiha) in Persian, was a sufficient proof of the inbred untrust- worthiness of this people.^ Didactic sentences, principles mirroring ethical con- ceptions, should be tested by more than a word, a terminus technicus, such as those which are used in the consideration of the ''question of conscience" in Islam. Among the forty (really forty-two) traditions of the Nawawl, supposed to present a compendium of the reli- gious principles of a true Moslem, we find as No. 27, MOHAMMED AND ISLAM. 17 the following quotation, which is taken from the best collections: ''In the name of the prophet, virtue is the essence of good qualities ; sin is that which troubles the soul, and thou dost not wish that other people should know it of thee.'' Wabisa ibn Ma' bad says: "Once I came before the prophet. He divined that I had come to question him as to the nature of virtue. He said: 'Question thine heart (literally demand a fetwa, a deci- sion of thine heart) ; virtue is that which pacifies the soul, and pacifies the heart; sin is that which produces unrest in the soul and turmoil in the bosom, whatever meaning men may have given to it!' *Lay thine hand upon thy bosom, and ask thine heart; from that which causes thine heart unrest, thou shouldst forbear.' " And the same teachings gave the Moslem tradition according to which Adam ended his exhortation to his children just before his death with the words . . . "As I approached the forbidden tree, I felt unrest in my heart," in other words, my conscience troubled me. It would be unjust to deny that a power working for good lives in the teaching of Islam, that life from the standpoint of Islam can be ethically blameless ; or that it calls for mercy towards all the creatures of God, business integrity, love, faithfulness, self-restraint, all those virtues which Islam borrowed from the religions whose prophets it recognized as its teachers. A true Moslem will exemplify a life which conforms to strict ethical requirements. Islam is indeed a law, and demands ceremonial acts also from its adherents. Already in its earliest docu- ment — the Koran — and not only in the traditional teach- ings which indicate the development of Islam, do we find the feelings which accompany a deed described as the standard of its religious merit, and it is in the Koran also that legalism, unaccompanied by deeds of mercy and charity, is held of very little value. 18 MOHAMMED AND ISLAM. ^' There is no piety in turning yonr faces toward the east or the west, but he is pious who believeth in God, and the last day, and the angels, and the Scriptures, and the prophets; who for the love of God disburseth his wealth to his kindred, and to the orphans, and the needy, and the wayfarer and those who ask, and for ransoming ; who observeth prayer, and payeth the legal alms, and who is of those who are faithful to their engagements when they have engaged them, and patient under ills and hardships, and in time of trouble; these are they who are just, and these are they who fear the Lord" (Sura 2, v. 172). And in speaking of the rites of the pilgrimage, which he decrees (or rather retained from the traditions of Arabian paganism) on the ground that ^Sve have imposed sacrificial rites on all people, so that they may commemorate the name of God over the brute beasts which he hath provided for them,'' Mohammed lays the greatest emphasis on the pious frame of mind which should accompany the act of wor- ship. ^^By no means can their flesh reach God, neither their blood; but piety on your jDart reacheth him'' (Sura 22, V. 35, 38). The greatest importance is iDlaced on the IkJilds^ (unclouded purity) of the heart (Sura 40, v. 14) takwd al-'kuluby ^^the piety of the heart" (Sura 22, v. 23), halh sallm ^^a perfect heart" which accords with the lebli slidlem of the Psalmist ; standpoints which take into consideration the religious merit of the true believer. These convictions are carried still further, as we shall soon see, in the traditions, and spread over the whole field of religious life in the teachings concerning the significance of niyya, — the conviction that the purpose underlying all acts is the measure of religious deeds. The shadow of an egotistical or hypocritical motive, according to this precept, deprives every bonum opus of its worth. It will, therefore, not be possible for any 1 impartial judge to approve Tisdall's utterance : ^^It will MOHAMMED AND ISLAM. 19 be evident, that purity of heart is neither considered necessary nor desirable ; in fact, it would be hardly too much to say, that it is impossible for a Moslem.'''' And which is the ^^ steep path" (perhaps to be com- pared with the ^ ^ straight gate, ' ' Matth. 7 : 13, which leads to life) which the company of the privileged, those who are to share the joys of paradise, follow? It is not the hypocritical life almost entirely devoted to the ceremonial — to the practices and forms of outward wor- ship, that lies within this path, but rather the life devoted to good works. ^^It is to free the captive; or to feed, in a day of famine, the orphan who is of kin, or the poor man who lieth on the ground. Whoso doth this, belongs to those who believe and who recommend perseverance unto each other, these shall be the com- panions of the right hand" (Sura 90:12-18 — compare with this the verses of Isaiah 58: 6-9). In our next lecture we will show that the teachings of the Koran find a further development and supplement in a great number of traditional sayings, which, even though not coming directly from the prophet, are never- theless indispensable to the characterization of the spirit of Islam. We have already made use of several of them, and since, in accordance with the plan of this introduc- tory lecture, we have examined the ethical value of historical Islam, as set forth in the Koran, it may be proper at this point to point out that the dogmas which are given in the Koran in primitive but clear enough form, have developed in a different way in a great many of the later utterances ascribed to the prophet. To Abu Darr for example he gives the following instruction: ^^A prayer in this mosque (in Medina) is V of more value than thousands which are made in other mosques, with the exception of that in Mecca ; the prayer made in the latter is worth a hundred thousand times more than that which is performed in other mosques. 20 MOHAMMED AND ISLAM. But of more value than all these is the prayer offered in one's house, where one is seen by Allah alone, and which has no other aim than to draw one nearer to AUah.'' (Compare with this Matth. 6-6.) ^^ Shall I tell you'' — it is reported of him elsewhere — ^'what indeed stands on a higher level than all praying, fasting and giving of alms! The reconciling of two enemies." ^'If you" — so says 'Abdallah ibn 'Omar — ''bow so much in prayer that your body becomes bent as a saddle, and fast so much that you become dry as a cord, God does not accept such until you accompany these acts with humility." "What is the best form of Islam!" To this the prophet answers : ' ' The best Islam is that thou shouldst feed the hungry, spread peace among friends and strangers (that is in all the world)." "He who does not refrain from falsehood, of what use is his abstention from food and drink to me?" "No one enters paradise who causes harm to his neighbors." Abu Hureira reports : ' ' Some one was telling the prophet about a woman who was famous for her praying, fast- ing and almsgiving, but nevertheless slandered her neighbors greatly with her tongue." "She belongs in hell" decreed the prophet. Then the same man told of another woman who was noted for her carelessness in the matter of prayer and fasting, but was in the habit of giving whey (leben) to the needy, and never spoke ill of her neighbors. ' ' She belongs in paradise ' ' declared the prophet. These quotations and numerous parallel sayings, which could easily be collected, do not represent simply the observations of ethically minded people, but indicate rather (perhaps owing to a polemic attitude toward spreading hypocrisy) the general attitude of dogmatic Islam. "We are not told that holiness is dependent only on the practice of formal laws. ' ' To believe in God and perform pious deeds," that is, deeds of philanthropy — MOHAMMED AND ISLAM. 21 comprehends more and more the conception of the life acceptable to God. It is specially when the question of formalism in religious conduct is under consideration that emphasis is placed largely on saldt; i. e., submission to the omnipotence of Allah to be manifested through the general liturgy; and zakdt; i. e., the furthering of the interests of the community by taking part in the required contributions, in connection with which the care of the poor, widows, orphans and travelers are the first to arouse the lawgiver's sense of duty. To be sure, Islam, in its development under the cooperation of foreign influences, has engrafted the subtlety of the casuists and the hypercriticism of the dogmatists, and has allowed shrewd speculations to strain and artificialize its obe- dience to God and its faith. We shall presently see this process of development, but we shall also come face to face again with efforts which mark a reaction against this growth. IX. Let us now consider some of the darker sides of Islam. If Islam held itself strictly to historical wit- nesses, it could not offer its followers the ethical mode of life of one man as an example; an ^4mitatio'' of Mohammed would be impossible. But it is not to the historical picture that the believer turns. The pious legends about the ideal Mohammed early take the place of the historical man. The theology of Islam has con- formed to the demand for a picture which does not show him merely as the mechanical organ of the divine revelation and its spread among unbelievers, but also as hero and example of the highest virtue.^ Moham- med himself did not apparently desire this. God had sent him ^^as a witness, as a mediator of a hateful and warring message, as a crier to Allah, with his consent as a shining torch'' (Sura 33, v. 44-45). He is a guide, but not a paragon, except in his hope in God and in the last day, and in his diligent devotion 22 MOHAMMED AND ISLAM. (v. 21). The realization of his human weaknesses seem to have honestly influenced him, and he wishes to be regarded by his followers as a man with all the faults of ordinary mortals. His work was greater than his person. He did not feel that he was a saint, and he did not wish to pass as one. We will return to this question when w^e come to the consideration of the dogmas concerning his sinlessness. Perhaps it is this very consciousness of human weakness which makes him reject all claim to miracles, which in his time and sur- roundings were considered necessary attributes of holi- ness. And we must also take into account his progress in the fulfilment of his mission, especially during the Medina period when conditions finally changed him from a suffering ascetic into a warrior and the head of a state. It is the merit of an Italian scholar, Leone Caetani, to have put before us in a very interesting work, ^^Annali delP Islam, '^ the worldly view in the oldest history of Islam. In this work, the writer carries out more sharply than has even been done before, a com- prehensive critical review of the sources of the history of Islam. He makes many important corrections in the ideas about the activity of the prophet himself. It is indeed clear, that the saying ^ ^ More slayeth word than sword" cannot apply to his Medina work. With the departure from Mecca the times ended in which he ^^ turned away from unbelievers'' (Sura 15, v. 94) or *^ called them to the way of God merely through wisdom and good counsel" (Sura 16, v. 126) ; rather the time had come when the command sounded : ^ ^ When the sacred months are passed, kill the unbelievers wherever you find them; seize them, oppress them, and set yourselves against them in every ambush" (Sura 9, v. 5). *^ Fight in the path of God" (Sura 2, v. 245). From the visions of the destruction of this evil world, he formed with rapid transition the conception of a MOHAMMED AND ISLAM. 23 kingdom wliich is to be of this world. His character inevitably suffered many an injury arising from the political change in Arabia due to the success of his preaching, as well as to his own leadership. He brought the sword into the world, and *4t is not only with the staff of his mouth that he smites the world, and not only with the breath of his lips that he kills the Godless, '' it is a true war trumpet which he sounds, it is the bloody sword which he wields to bring about his kingdom. According to an Islamic tradition giving a correct account of his life, he is said to be known in the Thora as ^'The prophet of battle and war.''- The conditions of the community, which he felt it was his divine calling to influence, were such that he could not confidently rely on the assurance: ^^ Allah will fight for you, but you can rest in peace." He had to wage an earthly battle to attain recognition for his teachings and still more for their mastery. And this earthly war was the legacy he left to his successors. Peace was to him no virtue. ^^ Believers obey God and the Apostle: and render not your works vain. . . Be not fainthearted then, and invite not the infidels to peace when ye have the upper hand, for God is with you, and will not defraud you of the recompense of your works'' (Sura 47, v. 35, 37). Fighting must go on until ^^the word of God has the highest place." Not to take part in this war counted as an act of indifference to the will of God. Love of peace toward the heathen who hold back from the path of God is anything but virtue. ^^ Those believers that sit at home free from trouble, and those who do valiantly in the cause of God with their sub- stance and their persons, shall not be treated alike. God hath assigned to those who contend earnestly with their persons and with their substance, a rank above those who sit at home. Goodly promises hath he made to all. But God hath assigned to the strenuous a rich recom- 24 MOHAMMED AND ISLAM. pense, above those who sit at home. Rank of his own bestowal, and forgiveness and mercy, for God is indul- gent, MercifuP' (Sura 4, v. 97, 98). X. This association (entanglement) with the inter- ests of the world, the position of continuous readiness for war which forms the framework of the second part of Mohammed ^s career as his character became cor- rupted by worldly ambition, influenced also the outward form of the higher conceptions of his religion. The choice of war as the means, and \T.ctory as the aim, of his prophetic calling, influenced also his conception of God whom he now wished to clothe with power by resort to arms. It is true, he apprehended the deity ^4n whose path" he waged his wars and performed his diplomatic acts, as monotheistic, clothed with powerful attributes. He unites absolute authority, unlimited power for recompense, severity towards stubborn evil-doers, with the attribute of mercy and gentleness (halim) ; he is tolerant toward the sinner and forgiving toward the repentant. ^^ Your Lord hath laid down for himself a law of mercy'' (Sura 6, v. 54). As a commentary on this appears the tradition: '^Wlien God had completed the creation he wrote in the book which is preserved near him on the heavenly throne : My mercy is stronger than my anger. ''1 Even when **he smites with his punish- ment whomsoever he pleases, his mercy embraces all things'' (Sura 7, v. 155). Nor is the attribute of love lacking among those ascribed to him by Mohammed. Allah is wadiid, ''loving." ''If ye love God, follow me, and God will love you and forgive your sins." Verily, "God does not love the unbelievers" (Sura 3, v. 92). But he is also the God of war, which his prophets and their followers were to wage against the enemy. And it was inevitable that many mythological elements should enter into this attribute in Mohammed's conception of God, as for instance, the all-powerful warrior resists the MOHAMMED AND ISLAM. 25 intrigues and perfidies of the enemy, continually oppos- ing them with cunning even more powerful. For, according to an ancient Arab proverb, ^^ Warfare is cunning. '^ ^^They think of cunning — and I (also) think of cunning'^ (Sura 86, v. 15, 16). God characterizes the manner of war which he uses against the gainsayers of his revelations, as ''efficient'' cunning: ''We will lead them by degrees to their ruin, by ways which they know not" (Sura 68, v. 45 = 7, v. 182). The word keid—Si harmless kind of cunning and intrigue — is used through- out this passage.- The expression makr, denoting deeper cunning, is stronger ; Palmer translates it in one place as craft; in another as plot, and again as strata- gem. It includes, however, the idea of wiles (intrigue). ("They practice wiles against our signs. Say: God is swifter in the performing of wiles'' [Sura 8, v. 30].) This is not true only in regard to the contemporary ene- mies of Allah and of his message, who manifest their enmity in fighting and persecuting Mohammed. God is said to have acted in the same way toward the earlier pagan peoples who scorned the prophets sent to them; toward the Thamudites for resisting Salih who was sent to them (Sura 27, v. 51), toward the Midianites to whom was sent the prophet Shu'eib, the Jethro of the Bible (Sura 7, V. 95-97). One must not think that Mohammed conceived of Allah as a performer of intrigues. The real meaning to be taken from his threatening utterances, is that God treats each one according to his actions,^ and that no human intrigue avails against God, who frustrates all false and dishonorable acts, and, anticipating the evil plans of the enemy, turns betrayal and stratagem away from the faithful.* "That God will ward off mischief from believers, for God loveth not the false, the infidel" (Sura 22, V. 39). Mohammed's own political attitude toward the hindrances which beset him is mirrored in the action 26 MOHAMMED AND ISLAM. which he attributes to the Lord of the world against intrigues and evil-doers. His own inclinations and his militant methods in dealing with the internal adversary^ are ascribed to God in whose Cause his wars are waged. *^0r if thou fear treachery from any people, throw their treaty to them as thou fairly mayest, for God loveth not the treacherous. And think not that the infidels shall escape us. They shall not weaken God^' (Sura 8, v. 60). It is true that the terminology betrays rather the tone of a calculating diplomat, than that of a patient martyr. We must emphatically recognize that it has not influenced the ethics of Islam, which forbid*^ perfidious action even towards unbelievers. Nevertheless in Mohammed's con- ception of the deity the moment Allah is brought do^vn from his transcendental height to the level of an active co-worker with the prophets entangled in the battles of this world, outcroppings of mythology betray themselves. So the transition from the sway of the sombre eschato- logical ideas which filled his soul and his prophecies at the beginning of his career, to the mundane struggle so zealously carried on and so prominent in the final out- come, was completed in the outward growth of Moham- med's work. In this way historical Islam was stamped with the impress of religious warfare, in strong contrast to the beginning when a permanent kingdom in a world destined to destruction did not come within the range of his vision. That which Mohammed leaves behind as a legacy for the future conduct of his community is embodied in what he enacted in his Arabian environ- ment; i. e., to fight unbelievers and to spread the kingdom of Allah's power, rather than of faith. Accord- ing to this, the first duty of the Moslem warrior is the subjection of the unbeliever rather than his conversion.'^ XL Various views have been expressed concerning the question whether Mohammed's horizon was limited to his native country of Arabia, or whether the con- MOHAMMED AND ISLAM. 27 sciousness of Ms prophetic calling had a wider vision; in other words, whether he felt he was called to be a national or a world prophet.^ I think we should incline to the second proposition.^ It is of course natural that he should interpret his inward call, and his anxiety over the condemnation of the unjust, as applying first of all to those nearest him, who, because of their condition, aroused him to a perception of his calling as a prophet. ^^Warn your nearest relatives," he gives as God's com- mand (Sura 26, v. 214). He was sent *'to warn the mother of cities and those living in its neighborhood' ' (Sura 6, v. 92). But undoubtedly, even at the very begin- ning of his mission, his inner perception was already directed to a broader sphere, although his limited geo- graphical horizon would prevent his suspecting the boundaries of a world religion. At the very beginning of his mission he asserts that Allah had sent him rah- matan lil- dlamlna, ^^out of mercy for the world" (Sura 21, V. 107). It is a commonplace in the Koran that God's instruction was given as dikrun lil-' dlamlna ** remem- brance of the world. ' ' EtVroj/ Koa/xov airavra . . . irdarj ry fcrlaet (Mark 16:15) ; (Koran 12, v. 104; 38, v. 87; 68, v. 52; 81, V. 27). This ' alamun is constantly used in the Koran in all its various meanings. God is *4ord of the ^alamun." He has adopted the differences in speech and color amongst men as signs of the ' dlamun (Sura 30, v. 21). This is surely mankind in its widest sense. In the same sense Mohammed extends his mission over the whole area indicated by this word according to his own understanding of it. His point of departure is natur- ally his own people and country. Nevertheless, the con- nections which, toward the end of his career, he aspired to make with foreign powers, and the other undertakings planned by him, show a striving towards lands beyond Arabia. His goal, according to a remark of Noldeke, extended to territories in which he was sure to meet the 28 MOHAMMED AND ISLAM. Eoman enemy. The last of the expeditions which he urged upon his warriors was an attack on the Byzantine kingdom. And the great conquests undertaken directly after his death, carried out by those most familiar with his views, are indeed the best commentaries on his own desires. Islamic tradition itself, in various utterances of the prophet, indicates that he was convinced of having a mission to all mankind; to the red and black alike.^ It emphasizes the universal characteristic of his mission to the farthest boundaries imaginable.* According to tradition the prophet voices, in unmistakable words, the thought of the conquest of the world and foretells it in symbolic acts; indeed, it even finds in the Koran (Sura 48, V. 61) the promise of the imminent conquest of the Iranic and Roman states.^ Naturally we cannot follow the Moslem theologians as far as this. But making due allowance for their exaggerations for reasons pointed out, we must still grant that Mohammed had already begun to imagine a great power spreading far beyond the boundaries of the Arabian nation, and including a large part of mankind. Shortly after the death of its founder it begins its victorious course in Asia and Africa. XII. In a comprehensive characterization of Islam it would be a gross error to place the principal importance on the Koran, or to found a judgment of Islam simply on this sacred book of the Moslem community. It covers at the most only the first two decades in the develop- ment of Islam. Throughout the entire history of Islam the Koran remains as a divine foundation deeply rever- enced by the followers of the religion of Mohammed. It is the object of a veneration such as has hardly yet been given to any other book in the literature of the world.^ Even though, as a matter of course, later Islam con- stantly turns back to it as a standard by which to meas- ure the product of all ages, and believes it to be, or at MOHAMMED AND ISLAM. 29 least, strives to be in harmony with it ; we must not lose sight of the fact that it does not by any means suffice for an understanding of historical Islam. Owing to his own mental changes, as well as to various personal experiences, Mohammed himself was forced to nullify several Koranic revelations by means of newer divine revelations, thereby conceding that he abrogated by divine command that which, a short time before, had been revealed as the word of God. We must therefore be prepared for the concessions which appear when Islam crosses its Arabian boundaries and sets itself up as a world power ! We cannot understand Islam without the Koran, but the Koran does not by any means afford us a complete understanding of Islam in its course through history. In our next lectures we shall consider more in detail the phases of development which led Islam beyond the Koran. 30 MOHAMMED AND ISLAM. NOTES. I. 1. ^anleidung tot de Godsdienst wetenschap" (Amsterdam 1899) 177 fe. II. 1. This syncretic characteristic has been finally proved "by K. VoUers in an analysis of the ' ' Chidher-legends " in which he has found, together with Jewish and Christian elements, also late echoes of Babylonian and Hellenistic mythology. Archiv fiir Eeligionswis- senchaft 1909. XII 277 ff. 2. Hubert Grimme has lately emphasized the influence of the ideas prevalent in S. Arabia, especially in his ''Mohammed'^ (Munich 1904) and in the * ' Orientalischen Studien" (Noldeke-Fest- schrift) 453 ff. 3. Harnack, ''Die Mission und Ausbreitung des Christentums " 93, above. III. 1. Kultur d. Gegenw. 94, 12-23 fr. below. IV. i. Ibid. 95. 12 fr. below ff. 2. This point of view was established by C. Snouck Hurgronje in his first work ''Het Mekkaansche Feest" (Leiden 1880). V. 1. This peculiarity has been noticed by the Moslems themselves. Therefore, the following account concerning Abu Euhm al-Ghifari, a comrade of the prophet, is characteristic. During an expedi- tion he rode at the prophet's side on a she-camel. The two ani- mals came so near together that Abu Euhm's rather thick sandals rubbed the prophet's leg causing him great pain. The prophet gave vent to his wrath by striking Abu Euhm's foot with his riding whip. The latter, however, was in great perturbation ''and" he says himself, "I feared, that a Koranic revelation would be given about me, because I had been the cause of this dreadful thing. ' ' Ibn Sa' d. Biographies IV. I, 180, 4-9. 2. Of. Noldeke, "Gesehichte des Korans" (Gottingen 1860) p. 49. (New Edition by Schwally, Leipzig 1909 p. 63). 3. Nevertheless Moslem theologians do not wish to deny that cer- tain parts of the Koran are more important in content, than others. This point of view, sanctioned also by the orthodox, is established by Taki al-dia ibn Teymiyya. Jawab alii al-imdn fl tafddul ay al-Kur'dn (Cairo 1322; Brockelmann, Hist, of Arabic Lit. II 104, No. 19). VI. 1. Cf. E. Geyer in WZKM (1907) XXI 400. VII. 1. For the Jewish elements see A. J. Wensinck's dissertation, "Mohammed en de Joden te Medina" (Leiden 1908). C. H. Becker's work deals with the later development, but it also throws light on the early history. "Christentum und Islam" (Tubingen 1907). 2. For this summary of the five principal duties see Bukhari, Imdn NOTES. 31 No. 37, Tafsir No. 208, which also contains the oldest formula of the Moslem creed. It would be useful for the understanding of the earliest develop- ment of Moslem morals, to investigate what duties from time to time were considered in old documents fimdamental to the belief and religious practice of Islam. We would like to mention one which in a speech attributed to Mohammed is added as a sixth to the five points mentioned in the text and recognized since ancient times as one of the fundamentals of Islam: ''That thou shouldst offer to men what thou desirest should be offered to thee, and that thou shouldst avoid doing to men what thou dost not wish to be done to injure thee." (Ibn Sa'd VI 37, 12 ff.; Usd al-ghaha III 266, cf. 275 of the same group.) This last teaching, taken by itself, appears as a detached speech of Moham- med. The 13th of the 40 traditions of the Nawawi (according to Bukhari and Muslim) : ''none of you is a true believer until he desires for his brother, that which he desires for himself.'* Cf. Ibn Kuteiba, d. Wiistenfeld 203, 13. A similar saying by 'Ali ibn Husein, Ya'kubi, Amiales ed Houtsma II 364, 6 (3). 3. Cf. now Martin Hartmann "Der Islam" (Leipzig 1909) p. 18. 4. Cf. my treatise on "Die Sabbath institution in Islam" (Gedenk- buch fiir D. Kaufmann, Breslau 1900; p. 89. 91). VIII. 1. "Eevue Critique et Litteraire." 1906 p. 307. 2. See C. H. Becker's excellent remarks in the treatise: "1st der Islam eine Gefehr fiir unsere Kolonien." (Koloniale Eundschau, May 1909, 290 ff.) . Cf . also ' ' L 'Islam et 1 'etat marocain ' ' by Ed. Michaux Bellaire in the Eevue du Monde Musulman 1909, VIII 313 ff. for the refutation of the widespread opinion, that the principles of Islam hinder practical progress. 3. Tisdall, "The Eeligion of the Crescent" (London 1906 j Society for promoting Christian knowledge) 62. 4. Sproat, "Scenes and Studies of Savage Life" quoted by E Westermark, ' ' The Origin and Development of the Moral Ideas ' II (London 1908) 160, with numerous examples. Because of the lack of an equivalent for the word "interesting," Turkish and Arabic people have as wrongly jumped to the conclusion that the races whose native languages these are, lack intellectual curiosity. (Duncan B. Macdonald, "The Eeligious Attitude and Life in Islam" (Chicago 1909) 121 and Ibid. 122, the quotation from "Turkey in Europe" by Odysseus.) 5. Oldenberg, "The Eeligion of the Veda" (Berlin 1894) 305, 9. 6. "Le Livre des Avares" ed. G. van Vloten (Leiden 1900) 212, 3 ff. 7. Tisdall 1. c. 88. IX. 1. It is the most zealous aim of the pious to imitate even in the smallest details the Mohammed of the legends gifted with the J > 32 MOHAMMED AND ISLAM. highest perfections. This imitation at first had as its object not so much the ethical points of view as the manner of the ritual- istic observances and of the outward habits of life. 'Abdallah, the son of 'Omar, who in all things adopted the '^imitatio" in this sense as his duty, was considered the most scrupulous follower of al-amr al-awwal, ''of former things" (Ibn Sa'd IV, 1 106, 22). He tried during his expeditions always to halt where the prophet had halted, to pray everywhere where the prophet had prayed, to let his camel rest wherever the prophet's camel had rested. A tree was pointed out under which the prophet once rested. Ibn 'Omar carefully supplied this tree with water, so that it should be preserved and not wither. (Nawawi, Tahdlh 358.) In the same way they strove -to imitate the habits of the ' ' companions of the prophet. ' ' Their behavior is an example for true believers. (Ibn 'Abdalbarr al-Namari, Jami' hayan al-'ilm wa-fadlilii (Cairo 1326, ed. Mahmasani, 157); this is indeed the substance of all Sunna. The theological presentation of the prophet's biography starts from the point of view that the prophet himself believed that every detail of his actions in religious practice would count in the future. He, therefore, once omitted a formality so that the faithful should not make it Sunna (Ibn Sa'd II I 131, 19). It was natural to expect that Mohammed should soon be regarded as an ethical example. There is a great deal of litera- ture on this subject. The theologian of Cordova Abu Muhammad 'All ibn Hazm (d. 456/1069), known for his unbending tradition- alism in dogma and law, advances this ethical claim in his treatise on the "Habit and Elevation of Soul" {Kiiab-dl-akUak wal- siyar fl muddwdt al-nufus) which also deserves attention because the writer has included "Confessions" in it: "Whoever strives for the blessedness of the other world and the wisdom of this, for justice in behavior, and for the union of all good qualities, as well as for the merit of all virtues: he can follow the example of the prophet Mohammed, and as far as he is able, imitate his qualities and his manners. May God help us with His grace, that we may be able to resemble this paragon." (Cairo 1908, ed. Mahmasani p. 21.) But there was a step beyond this. Although belonging to a period of thought to be treated in a later division, we must nevertheless add in this connection, that at a higher level of development of Moslem ethics under the influence of Sufiism (Chapter IV) it became an ethical ideal that one should strive to realize (manifest) the "qualities of God" in one's daily life. Compare the Greek point of view "to follow God" with the Jewish point of view expressed in the Talmud (Sota 14a.) and in Sifre, (Deut. 49, ed. Friedmann p. 85a, 16). NOTES. 33 Even the old Sufi Abu-1-Husein al-Nuri assumes this as an ethical aim (^ Attar, TadUrat al-auliya ed. E. A. Nicholson, London 1907 II 55, 1). Ibn 'ArabT, from this standpoint of the imitation of God, demands the virtue of showing kindness to one's enemy. (Journ. Roy. As. Soc. 1906, p. 819, 10.) Under the influence of his Sufiistic religious views Ghazali shows up an exhaustive summary of the preceding discussion as follows : ' ' The perfection and happiness of man consist in the striving for the realization of the qualities of God and also in adorning one- self with the true essence of His attributes.'' In the introduc- tion to his ''Fattihat 'al-ulum" (Cairo 1322) he gives as a Hadith the saying: takhallaku di-ahUalc illahi (to try to acquire the qualities of Allah). This is supposed to give deeper signifi- cance to the idea of the names of God {al-Maksad al-asna^ Cairo, 1322, p. 23 ff.). Isma'il al-Farani (c. 1485) reflects Ghazali 's point of view in his commentary to Alfarabi (ed. Hor- ten, Zeitschr. fur Assyiiol. XX 350). This conception of the ethical aim, in the case of the Sufis, was also influenced by the Platonic conception, that the desired escape from mortal nature {dv7]T7i (pvccs) lay in ''being as much like God as possible." (Theaet. 176 B. Staat 613 A.) According to later Greek schol- ars ''growing in likeness {tashal)'buh z=: oixoicoais) to the creator according to man's measure of strength" ( Alfarabi 's "Phil- osophische Abhandlungen " ed. F. Dieterici, Leiden 1890, 53, 15 and often in the writings of the "Pure Brethren") is given by the Arabian philosophers as the practical aim of philosophy. Sufiism, however, goes a step further in the definition of the summum bonum, to which we will return further on. 2. "Oriens Christianus" 1902, 392. X. 1. Bukhari, Tauliid No. 15. 22. 28. 55. J. Barth (Festschrift fiir Berliner, Frankfurt a. M. 1903, 38 No. 6) brings this speech into a summary of the Midrashic elements in Moslem tradition. 2. Several commentators place in this group Sura 13, V 14. cf. Kali, AmciU (Bulak, 1324) II 272. 3. Cf. Hupfeld-Riehm, Commentary to Ps. 18, 27. 4. The common saying: Allah yaTcMn al TcM'in (Allah betrays the treacherous) is explained in this sense: cf. Mada' atni TcJiada'aM Allah (they have deceived me, may Allah deceive them) (Cf. Sura 4, v. 141) Ibn Sa'd VIII 167, 25. Mu'awiyya in a threatening address to the resisting 'Irakians is said to have used the words : ' ' For Allah is strong in attack and in punishment, he defrauded those who practice perfidy against him." Tabari I 2913, 6. If then malcr and Iceid, which are ascribed to God, mean nothing but the frustration of the opponent's cunning, then the phrase Malcr Allah has passed from the Koran into the speech of Islam 34 MOHAMMED AND ISLAM. and been unobjectionably appropriated by it, even in associa- tions wMcli do not fall under that interpretation. A very favor- ite Mohammedan supplication is: ''We seek refuge with Allah from the MaTcr Allah (Sheikh Hureyflsh, Kital) al-raud al-fa'ik ■fi-l-mawd' iz wal-raM'iJc, Cairo 1310, p. 10, 16; 13, 26) which belongs in the group of prayers in which one seeks help from God with God. (Cf. 'Attar, TadUrat al-auUya II, 80, 11; ZDMG XL VIII 98.) Among the prophet's prayers, which the faith- ful are commanded to use, the following plea is also mentioned: "Help me and not those against me, practice malcr for my good, but do not practice it for my evil." Nawawi, AdMr (Cairo 1312) p. 175, 6 according to tradition Tirmidl II 272. This for- mula is found in still stronger form in the prayer-book of the Shiites SahifaMmila (see Noldeke-Festschrift 314 below) 33, 6: cf. also the following speech: "Even if one of my feet were standing in paradise, and the other was still outside, I should not feel safe from the Malcr Allah" (Subkl, TahaTcdt al-Slmfi'iyya III 56, 7 below) cf. 'Attar 1. e. II 178, 21. The Moslems them- selves take this expression as meaning the "unavoidable severe punishment of God." 5. Cf. especially Ibn Sa'd II, I 31, 14. 6. Ibid. IV, I 26 above. 7. The oldest battles of Islam are set forth from this point of view in the "Annali dell Islam" by Leone Caetani, vol. II passim. XI. 1. Cf. now also Lammens, "Etudes sur le regne du Calif e Omaiy- ade Mo'awia" I 422 (in Melanges de la Faculte orientale de I'Universite Saint Joseph III — 1908 — 286), which rejects the acceptance of the early conception of Islam as a world of religion. 2. I agree with Noldeke's view (in his review of Caetani 's work, Wiener Zeitschrif t f . d. Kunde d. Morgenlandes XXI— 1907— 307) . Noldeke there emphasizes the passages in the Koran in which Mohammed (already in Mecca) feels himself to be a messen- ger and Warner Tcdffatan lil-nds "to all mankind." 3. i. e. Arabians and Non-Arabians. (Muhammudansche Studien I 269.) But already the old interpreter, Mujahid, assigns the expression "the red" to men, "the black" to the jinn ("Mus- nad Ahmed" V, 145 below). 4. It gives a scope to this universality which exceeds the circle of mankind, in truth, so that not only the jinn are included, but in a certain sense, the angels also. Ibn Ha jar al-Heitami in Ms Fatawl Hadithiyya (Cairo 1307) 114 fe. gives a lengthy explanation of the Moslem view of this question. 5. Ibn Sa'd II, I 83, 25. XII. 1. However one may judge of the rhetorical worth of the Koran, one cannot deny an existing bias. The people who were appointed to the unsettled parts, (under the Caliph Abu Bekr and 'Othman) NOTES. 35 fulfilled their task at times in a very bungling way. With the exception of the oldest short Mecca Suras, which the prophet, even before his flight to Medina, had used as liturgical texts, and which, being detached, short, isolated pieces, were in little danger of change from being edited, the sacred book, especially several of the Medina Suras, often present a picture of disorder, of lack of unity, which caused a great deal of trouble and difi- culty to the later expounders, who were obliged to regard the given sequence as inviolable. If one is to attack the text of the Koran as was lately urged by Eudolf Geyer (Gott Gel. Anz. 1909, 51), with a view to producing ^'an edition truly critical and in accord with the conclusions of science," one must also take into account the removal of verses from the original eon- text as well as interpolations. (Of. August Fischer, in the Noldeke-Festschrift 33 ff.) The confused character of the col- lection appears very clearly in the survey which Noldeke has given concerning the order of detached Suras, in his ''History of the Koran" (1 ed. pp. 70-174; 2 ed. pp. 87-234). The assumption of interpolations sometimes helps us to explain the difficulties. I should like to demonstrate this by an example. In the 246th Sura (from verse 27 on) we are told how decent people are to visit each other, how they are to announce them- selves, how they are to greet the inmates, and how women and children should then behave. The precepts concerning these rela- tionships have fallen into confusion because from v. 32-34 and from V. 35-56 digressions have been introduced which are only loosely connected with the main theme. (See Noldeke-Schwally p. 211.) Finally at v. 57 the announcement of the visit is again taken up till v. 59. Then v. 60 says: ''It is no restriction for the blind and no confinement for the lame and no confinement for you yourselves, that you eat (in anyone) of your houses, or in the houses of your mothers, or in the houses of your brothers, or in the houses of your sisters, or in the houses of your paternal uncles, or in the houses of your paternal aunts, or in the houses of your maternal uncles, or in the houses of your maternal aunts, or of any house of which you have the key, or of your friend. It lays no crime on you, whether you eat apart or together. (61) And when you enter a house, then greet each other with a greeting from Allah, fortunate and good. ' ' Mohammed here gives his people permission to sit freely at table with their relatives, to allow themselves to be invited to eat even with female blood-relatives. One can't overlook the fact that the first words of v. 60, which extends the liberty of the blind, lame and ill, in their natural connection have nothing to do with the subject. An author writing of "Medicine in the Koran" has taken this connection very seriously and has added 36 MOHAMMED AND ISLAM. the criticism to the fact that indeed the company of the blind and lame at meals was not harmful, that, ''on the contrary, a meal in common with a sick person can be very dangerous from the standpoint of health. Mohammed would have done better not to object to the disinclination to if (Opitz, ''Die Medizin im Koran,'' Stuttgart 1906, 63.) But upon closer consideration, we see that this passage so for- eign to the subject matter was introduced from another group. It did not originally concern itself with the question of taking part in meals outside of one's own house, but rather with tak- ing part in the warlike undertakings of young Islam. In the Sura 48 v. 11-16, the prophet declaims against those "Arabians who remain behind," who did not take part in the warlike expe- ditions, and threatens them with severe divine punishment. To that he adds v. 17: "It is no compulsion (leisa . . . harajun) for the blind, and it is no compulsion for the lame, and it is no compulsion for the sick ' ' — in the text word for word like Sura 24 V. 60a — , i. e., the remaining away of such people or of those seriously prevented for some other reason, counts as pardoned. This saying has now been introduced into other connections as a foreign element, and has apparently influenced the editing of the verse whose original beginning has not been construed in a right way. Even Moslem commentators, although without recog- nizing an interpolation, have tried to explain, the words accord- ing to their natural meaning as a pardon to those who remain away from battle on account of bodily inability; but they must submit to the objection to this view, that according to it, the passage in question "does not accord with what precedes and what follows." (Baidawi, ed. Fleischer II 31, 6.) CHAPTER II. THE DEVELOPMENT OF LAW. I. In Anatole France's narrative *^Sur la Pierre Blanche ' ' a group of learned men, interested in the fate of the ancient world, discuss in friendly conversation, serious questions of religious history. In the course of this exchange of thoughts he puts into the mouth of one of them : ^ ^ Qui fait une religion ne salt pas ce qu 'il fait, ' ' that is *^ Seldom does the founder of a religion know the possible historical extent of his creation. ' ' This is remarkably true of Mohammed. Even if we must grant that after the successes which he himself gained in battle, the thought of Islam's sphere of power extending far beyond the boundaries of his own country, hovered before his mental vision, still, on the other hand, the institutions organized by him could not provide for the extensive relations into which conquering Islam was very soon to enter. But the objects looming largest in Mohammed's horizon were after all those of the imme- diate future. Even under his immediate followers, the first caliphs, the community of Islam, growing out of the religious body which it had been in Mecca and out of the primi- tive political organization to which it had developed in Medina, is already on its way to become a world power — a growth partly owing to inward consolidation, partly also to propagation by conquest. In the mother country as well as in the conquered provinces, new relations were constantly emerging, which demanded regulating. It was time to lay firm govern- mental foundations for administration. The religious thoughts in the Koran, moreover, were in embryo only, and were to attain their development 38 MOHAMMED AND ISLAM. through the wide sphere which was now opening before them. It was the events through w^hich Islam came into con- tact with other spheres of thought that first awoke in the breasts of its more thoughtful followers real speculation on religious problems, — speculation hitherto dormant in the Arab. Moreover, the religious laws and ordinances pertaining to practical life, and the forms of legal ritual, were scanty and indefinite. The unfolding of the world of Moslem thought as well as the definite directions given to the various forms of its manifestations and the establishment of its institu- tions, are all the result of the work of following genera- tions. Nor is this result brought about without inward conflicts and without adjustments. How wrong it would be under these circumstances to assume, as is often asserted at present, that Islam ^'enters the world as a rounded system. ^'^ On the contrary, the Islam of Mohammed and of the Koran is immature and needs for its completion the activity of the coming generations. We wish first to consider only a few requirements of the external life. The most immediate needs were pro- vided for by Mohammed and his helpers. We may credit the tradition which tells us that Mohammed himself established a graded tariff for the impost taxes.- The conditions of his own time make it imperative to raise the zakdt from the primitive level of communistic alms to a regulated governmental tax of an obligatory amount. After his death such regulations were, by sheer neces- sity, forced more and more into prominence. The sol- diers scattered through distant provinces, especially those who did not come from the religious circle of Medina, had not gotten their bearings as to the mode of religious practices. And first now for the political demands. The continuous wars and the extensive conquests THE DEVELOPMENT OF LAW. 39 demanded the establishment of military standards as well as further laws for the conquered peoples. These laws had to deal with the legal status of the subjects and with the economic problems arising from new con- ditions. It was especially the energetic caliph, ^Omar, the actual founder of the Moslem state, whose great con- quests in Syria, including Palestine and Egypt, brought about the first definite regulation of political and eco- nomic questions. IL The details of these regulations cannot interest us here, since for our purposes the general knowledge of the fact is alone of importance, namely that the legal development of Islam began immediately after the prophet 's death and kept pace with its need. One of these details I must nevertheless take up, on account of its importance for an understanding of the character of this early period. It is not to be denied that the 'oldest demands laid upon the conquering Moslems face to face with the conquered unbelievers (in this first phase of Moslem legal development), were penetrated with the spirit of toleration.^ "Whatever semblance of religious tolerance yet remains in Moslem states, and such semblances have been frequently verified by eight- eenth century travelers, goes back to the first half of the seventh century with its outspoken principle of free- dom in religious practices granted to monotheists of another faith. The tolerant attitude of ancient Islam drew its author- ity from the Koran (2, v. 257). ^^ There is no compulsion in belief. '^^ Even in later times in a few cases people fell back on this to ward oif from those heretics who had been forced to embrace Islam the severe penal conse- quences generally the lot of apostates.^ The accounts of the first Moslem decade offer many an example of the religious tolerance of the first caliphs towards followers of the ancient religions. The direc- 40 MOHAMMED AND ISLAM. tions given to the leaders of conquering bands are very instructive. As a leading example we have the contract which. the prophet made with the Christians of Nejran, guaranteeing* the protection of Christian institutions; and also the directions which he gives Mu'ad ibn Jebel for his conduct in Yemen: ^^No Jew is to be disturbed in his Judaism.''^ The peace treaties conceded to the Byzantine empire crumbling more and more under Islam, were actuated by this lofty spirit^ though there were certain barriers against the public practice of religious ceremonies (they could practice their religion undis- turbed) by the payment of a toleration tax (jizya). On the other hand, it is noteworthy that an historical study of the sources leads to the conclusions^ that many a restriction,^ introduced in these old days, did not come into practice until a time more favorable to fanaticism. This, for example, holds true of the decree against the building of new, or the repairing of old, churches. ^ Omar II in his narrow-mindedness, was apparently the first to take such a measure seriously. His example was readily followed by rulers of the stamp of the ^Abbaside Muta- wakkil. And the fact that such stern rulers found occa- sion to attack temples of other faiths erected since the conquest, is in itself proof that there had hitherto been no hindrance to such erections. Just as the principle of tolerance ruled in the sphere of religion, so it did in that of e very-day life, — in fact the kindly treatment of heretics in civic and economic matters was raised to the level of law. The oppression of non-Moslems (ahl al-diimna) who were under Moslem protection, was condemned as a sin.^ "When the governor of the Lebanon province once took very severe action against the inhabitants, who had revolted against the oppression of the tax gatherers, he was incurring the rebuke of the prophet : ' ^ He who oppresses a protege and lays heavy burdens upon him, I myself will appear as his THE DEVELOPMENT OF LAW. 41 accuser on the judgment day.'^^ Until quite recently there used to be pointed out the site of the *^ Jew's house/' in the vicinity of Bostra, about which Porter in his book ^^Five Years in Damascus/' tells the follow- ^ ing legend. *Omar had once torn down a mosque stand- ing on this site, because the governor had seized a Jew's house in order to replace it by a mosque.^^ IIL Wliile, in this constructive period, the first task was to decide the judicial relation of conquering Islam to the subjected nations, still, the inner religious life and its legal regulation could not be ignored in any of its branches. In the case of the soldiers who had already been scattered far and wide, before the religious rites and ceremonies had been definitely fixed, and who in these distant lands formed a religious community, it became necessary to provide a fixed standard for their ritualistic duties with due allowance for necessary modi- fications. They had also to be provided — and this was especially difficult — ^with strict regulations dealing with the juridical conditions, till now entirely foreign to the majority of the Arabian conquerors. In Syria, Egypt and Persia, they were forced to compromise with the customs of the country, based on ancient civilizations, and adjust the conflict between inherited laws and those recently acquired. In other words, Moslem legal proce- dure had to be regulated on its religious, as well as its civic side. The Koranic provisions, limited to the primi- tive conditions holding in Arabia, had not kept pace with the new problems and were entirely insufficient. Its regulations could not provide for the unexpected prob- lems arising from conquests. The worldly-minded functionaries, who, especially dur- ing the prime of the Omayyad rule, promoted the external splendor of the new kingdom, manifested little care for such needs. Although they did not entirely neglect reli- gious aspects, still their greatest interests did not lie in 42 MOHAMMED AND ISLAM. the development of the legal aspect of a religious organi- zation, but rather in the strengthening of the political organization, and the retaining of that which had been won by the sword as the privilege of the Arabian race. Established custom was used to satisfy the legal demands of the day, and in debatable cases cunning, and I fear, even an arbitrary spirit, was sufficient for the adminis- tration of justice. Moreover, they did not follow very closely the rules which had already been enacted by the first pious caliphs. This could not satisfy those pious people w^ho were striving to organize the new life in the sense of a reli- gious law divinely ordained and in accord with the views of the prophet. The injunctions of the prophet were to be applied to all things, both religious and civic, and were to be considered as the standard of practice. The '^com- panions,'' that is, that group of people which had lived in the company of the prophet, had seen him act and heard him judge, proved the best source for this informa- tion. So long, then, as a ''companion" survived, his word could determine the demands of pious usage and the details of divine law. After the passing of this first generation, people had to be contented with the state- ments which the following generation had received directly from their predecessors concerning the ques- tions prevailing at that time, and so on from generation to generation to the latest times. Any kind of act or judgment was considered proper, if it could be vindi- cated as coming through a chain of tradition, dating back to a companion of the prophet, who, as an eye-witness had declared it to be in accord with the wish of the prophet. The usages of ritual and of law formed of the authority of such traditions, were sanctified as practiced under, and sanctioned by, the prophet. They were con- firmed by the authoritative founders and first adherents THE DEVELOPMENT OF LAW. 43 of Islam.i Thi^ is Sunna, — sacred custom. The form in which it is stated is Hadith, tradition. These terms are not identical The Hadith is the document of the Sunna. It is through the many credible reports transmitted from generation to generation that this Hadith declares what the ^'companions," basing their decisions on the sanc- tion of the prophet, regarded as right in religion and law, and what from this point of view should be the single rule of practice. It is clear therefore that even in Islam the theory of sacred ex-Koranic legislation could be formed, that like the Jews, Islam too could have a written and oral law.- Since the Sunna is the sum of the customs and of the conceptions of the oldest Moslem community,^ it stands as the most authoritative interpretation of the very insufficient teaching of the Koran, and through which the Koran becomes a living and active force. Adequately > to estimate the Sunna it is of vital importance to keep in mind the saying which is ascribed to 'Ali, and which he gave to 'Abdallah ibn 'Abbas as instruction, on his departure to negotiate with the insurgents: ''Do not fight them with the Koran, for it can bear different inter- pretations, and is of varying meanings ; fight them with the Sunna; from that there is no escape."^ This cannot possibly be an authentic utterance of 'Ali; but it comes, in any case, from ancient times and reflects the ancient Moslem mode of thought. We need not conclude that there is not a grain of truth here and there in the Hadith communications, of later generations, coming, if not directly from the mouth of the prophet, still from the oldest generation of Moslem authority. But on the other hand, one can easily per- ceive that the great distance from the source both in respect to time and extent brought with it the increasing danger of inventing doctrines, whether of theoretical 44 MOHAMMED AND ISLAM. value or for practical purposes, in outwardly correct Hadith-f orms and assigned to the prophet and his * ' com- panions '' as the highest authority. It soon resulted in the fact, that every opinion, every party, every advocate of any doctrine, gave this form to his proposition; consequently the most contradictory teachings bore the garb of this documentary authentica- tion. In the sphere of ritualism or dogma, in juridical relations, or in political division, there was no school or party doctrine which could not produce a Hadith or a whole group of Hadiths for their own use, which had the outward appearance of correct tradition. This condition of affairs could not remain hidden from the Mohammedans themselves. Their theologians set in motion an extraordinarily interesting scientific discipline, that of the Hadith-Criticism, so that when the opposing elements could not be harmonized the true traditions could be separated from the apocryphal. Naturally the point of view of their criticism is not ours, and the latter finds a broad field of action, where the Moslem critic believes he is producing indubitable tradition. The final outcome of this critical activity was the recognition in the seventh century of six works, as canonical standards, gathered by theologians of the third century from an almost infinite mass of traditional material and forming the Hadiths which to them seemed credible, and which were elevated by them to the rank of decisive sources of that which should be regarded as the Sunna of the prophet. Among these six Hadith collec- tions there are the first group of BuJchdri (d. 256/870) and of Muslim (d. 261/875), the most important sources of prophetic Sunna, designated as ^^ source" groups because of the formally incontestable data contained in them. To these were added also as authoritative sources, the collections of Ahit BdwTid (d. 275/888), al Nasa'i (d. 303/915), al Tirmidl (d. 279/892), Ihn Maja (d. 273/ THE DEVELOPMENT OF LAW. 45 886), the last to be added in spite of some opposition. Still earlier Malik ibn Anas had codified the customs of Medina, the home of all Sunna ; without, however, being guided by the point of view of Hadith collections. So a new group of written sources of religion arose beside the Koran, which became of the greatest impor- tance in the knowledge and life of Islam. IV. From the point of view of the religious historical development with which we are concerned, it is the pro- cess of growth rather than the final literary form of the Hadith which engages our interests. Even the questions of genuineness and age are secondary by the side of the circumstance that the struggles of the Moslem community are faithfully mirrored in the Hadith, and that furnishes inestimable documents for following the ultra Koranic religious aim. For not only have law and custom, religious teachings and political doctrines clothed themselves in Hadith- form, but everything in Islam, both that which has worked itself out through its own strength, as well as that which has been appropriated from without. In this work foreign elements have been so assimilated that one has lost sight of their origin. Sentences from the Old and New Testament, rabbinical sayings as well as those from the apocryphal gospels, the teaching of Greek philosophers, sayings of Persian and Indian wisdom, have found room in this garb among the sayings of the prophet of Islam. Even the Lord's prayer is not lacking in well confirmed Hadith-form. In this form more dis- tant intruders have acquired, in a direct or indirect man- ner, citizenship in Islam. An interesting example is found in the story belonging to the literature of the world,^ of the parable of the lame man who steals the fruit of a tree from the back of a blind man, and the application of this parable to the common responsibility of body and soul. It appears in Islam as Hadith, with a careful train 46 MOHAMMED AND ISLAM. of tradition, Abu Bekr ibn *Ayyasli>Abu Sa'id al- Bakkal>'Ikrima>ibn 'Abbas.- This parable and its use was known also to the rabbis. In the Talmud it is put in the mouth of Rabbi Yehuda ha-nasi, in order to silence the doubt of the emperor Marcus Aurelius.^ It may have entered the Moslem group from this side. In this way a whole store of religious legends have entered in, so that in looking back on the elements here mentioned as being contained in the traditional material, we can distinguish, both in the Jewish religious literature as well as in the Moslem, between halakhic (legal) and agadic (homo- litical) elements. The eclecticism which stood at the cradle of Islam thus develops into rich results. It is one of the most attrac- tive problems to investigators, who devote their attention to this part of the religious literature, to seek in the varied materials the widely branching sources, from which they are formed, and to detect the movement of which they are the documents. In this way has the Hadith formed the framework for the oldest development of the religious and ethical thoughts of Islam. The extension of the morality based on the Koran finds its expression in the Hadith which became also the subtler medium for the ethical emotions to which Islam at the time of its rise and struggle for existence was as yet insensible. The Hadith embodies definitions of that higher form of piety which is not satis- fied with bare formality and of which we have already given some examples.^ The Hadith is fond of striking the chords of tenderness — the tenderness of God as well ^ as of men. ''God created a hundred parts of mercy, of these he kept ninety-nine for himself and gave one to the world. From this flows all the gentleness, which is evinced by man."^ "If you hope for mercy from me,'' says God, "then be merciful toward my creatures." "He who cares for widows and orphans, is as highly ^ See above p. 20. THE DEVELOPMENT OP LAW. 47 honored, as lie who devotes his life to religious war in the way of God ; or he who spends the day in fasting and the night in prayer."^ ^^He who strokes the head of an orphan, receives for each hair which his hand touches, a light on the day of resurrection/' ^^Each thing has its key ; the key to paradise is love for the small and poor. ' ' And in the Hadith we tind teachings of this kind directed to single comrades of the prophet, in which Mohammed recommends the duty of ethical and human virtues as the true essence of religion. None of these numerous teach- ings seems to me worthier of mention than that of Abu Darr, a former dissolute ^^ companion '' of the tribe of Ghifar, who turned to Islam and at the time of the first revolution was one of the most conspicuous figures of the party. He recounts: ^^My friend (the prophet) has given me a sevenfold admonition: 1, Love the poor and be near unto them. 2. Look always at those who are beneath thee, and do not look up to those who are above thee. 3. Never request anything from anyone. 4. Be faithful to your relatives, even when they anger you. 5. Speak always the truth, even when it is bitter. 6. Do not let thyself be frightened from the path of God by the taunts of the revilers. 7. Proclaim often: ^ There is no power nor strength except through Allah, for this is from the treasure which is hidden under the throne of God. ' ' '*^ The serious nature of religious formalism itself is heightened through claims which are first of all made in the Hadith. The value of the work (as we have alreadv mentioned above, p. 17) is estimated according to the sentiment which its practice arouses. This is one of the chief fundamentals of Moslem religious life. The impor- tance attributed to it is evident in the fact that a motto inculcating this has been inscribed over one of the chief entrances to the mosque of Al-Azhar in Cairo, the much frequented centre of Moslem theological learning, to serve as an exhortation to those entering, who are here 48 MOHAMMED AND ISLAM. engaged in either learning or meditation: ^^ Deeds will be judged according to intentions, and each man will be rewarded according to the measure of his intentions." This is a sentence from the Hadith, which has become the guiding thought of all religious deeds in Islam. ^ ^ God speaks: Approach me with your intentions, not with your deeds. "^ This Hadith, although of later origin, has grown from the conviction of the believer, and char- acterizes his estimate of religious values. The moral effect of the content of dogmatic teaching is heightened by the development in the Hadith. A single example, though of the utmost importance for the estimate of Moslem religious thought, will suffice. In the sense of Koranic monotheism shirk, ^* associa- tion,'' is the greatest sin, which God will not forgive (Sura 31, v. 12; 4, v. 116). In the development of this earliest dogmatic conception, as it is given in the Hadith, not only the outward veiling of the belief in the unity of God, but also every kind of worship which is not an end in itself is branded as sliirJc. A number of moral defects have also been included in this category. Hypocritical religious exercises, which are practiced in order to win the approval or the admiration of men, are classed as shirk, for the consideration of man is therein mingled with the thought of God.^ Hypocrisy cannot be recon- ciled with true monotheism. Even pride is a kind of shirk. Thus the ethics of Islam have been able to form the category of ^^ small" or ''hidden" shirk (lying in the depths of the soul). The aims also of the religious life are given a higher plane than in primitive Islam. We encounter utterances which harmonize with the mysticism of a later date. The following revelation of God to Mohammed is found, in a Hadith sanctioned by one of the best authorities and so generally accepted as to be included in the compendium of the forty- two most important sayings: ''My servant THE DEVELOPMENT OF LAW. 49 comes constantly nearer to me through voluntary pious works, until I love him ; and when I love him, I am his eye, his ear, his tongue, his foot, his hand ; through me he sees, through me he hears, through me he speaks, through me he moves and feels. "^ The legal decisions drawn up in traditional form, and also the ethical and constructive sayings and teachings, have claimed for the group in which they have arisen, the authority of the prophet. They also, by means of an unbroken chain of tradition, trace their connection back to the ''companion,'' who had heard the saying or rule from the prophet himself, or had seen certain customs practiced by him. It did not require any great ingenuity on the part of Moslem critics to question the truth of a great part of this material. This suspicion was due to the anachronisms^^ and other questionable features of many of the statements and to the contradictions manifest in them. Besides, the names of those men are explicitly mentioned who with a certain aim in mind invented and circulated Hadiths as an aid to these aims. And many a pious man toward the close of his life frankly confessed what great contribution the Hadith fiction owed to him. Little harm was seen in this if the fiction served a good end. An otherwise quite honorable man could be stamped as a suspicious medium of tradition, without having his civic or religious reputa- tion injured. On the one hand, people read that in the name of the prophet the pit of hell was prepared for those who falsely ascribed utterances to him, and on the other hand, they justified themselves by sentences in which the prophet is supposed to have anticipated such fictitious utterances from the first as his spiritual right. ''After my death the speeches ascribed to me will increase, just as many speeches have been ascribed to earlier prophets (which in reality they never uttered). That which is ascribed to me as my utterance must be 50 MOHAMMED AND ISLAM. compared with the book of God; that which is in har- mony with it comes from me, whether I have truly said it or not/' Further on: ^^That which is well spoken I have said myself. ' \ The inventors of tradition, as is evident, boldly show their cards. ' ' Mohammed has said it, ' ' means here only **it is right, incontestable from the religious point of view, indeed desirable, and the prophet himself would have sanctioned it with his approval.'' We are all reminded of the Talmudic utterances of R. Josua b. Levi that anything which a keen witted pupil might teach up to the latest period was as if revealed to Moses himself on Sinai.^^ V. The Pia fraus of the inventors of tradition was met with forbearance on all sides, when it was a question of ethical and devotional Hadiths. Stricter theologians, however, assumed a more serious attitude, when ritual- istic practices or legal judgments were to be founded on sucli Hadiths ; the more so, when the advocates advanced different points of view and different Hadiths. This was not to be the exclusive basis on which the decision as to religious ritual and practice, and as to law and justice, was to be founded. This consideration has contributed much in arousing a tendency to be found at the very beginning of the develop- ment of law, to make use of deductive methods in decid- ing the religious standards by the side of authentic tradi- tion. The representatives of this tendency also thought they could best regulate the new relations in their forma- tive thought, by the use of analogies and arguments, or even on the basis of subjective judgments. The Hadith was not discarded when it was thought to afford a safe basis but free speculative treatment was allowed, even encouraged as a legitimate method of legal reasoning. It is not surprising that the influences of foreign cul- ture have had their share in the formation of this legal THE DEVELOPMENT OF LAW. 51 method and the peculiarities of its use. Even Islamic jurisprudence bears, for example, in its methods as well as in its detailed enactments special undeniable traces of the influence of Roman law. This legal activity, which had already reached its efflorescence in the second century of the Mohammedan era, brought a new element to Moslem moral culture: that is the knowledge of fikli, of religious law, which in its caustic corruption was soon to prove disastrous for the trend of religious life and science. The political changes played an important part in its development, for they led the public spirit of Islam into new paths, marked by the fall of the Omayyad dynasty and the rise of the ^Abbasides. In earlier discussions I have had the opportunity of considering the motives which predominated in the administration of both these dynasties. Elsewiiere I have pointed out the influences calling forth those theo- cratic changes, which, aside from the question of dynasty, give to the 'Abbaside epoch its definite character, as contrasted with that of its predecessor. Here, there- fore, I wish only to indicate briefly that the ruin which the 'Abbasides brought upon the caliphate, marks, not merely a political revolution, a change in dynasty, but also a profound upheaval in respect to religion. In place of the government of the Omayyads, who had guarded the traditions and ideals of ancient Arabia at Damascus and in their desert castles, and were accused of worldli- ness by the pietist group, we find now a theocratic gov- ernment, imbued with the principles of church politics. While on the one hand the ' Abbasides base their right to the government on the fact that they are descendants of the prophet's family, on the other they also claim to establish on the ruins of a government condemned by the pious as godless, a rule in accord with the Sunna of the prophet and the demands of given religion.^ They zeal- 52 MOHAMMED AND ISLAM. ously endeavored to maintain and cultivate this appear- ance on which their claims are founded. Thus they do not wish to be mere kings, but primarily princes of the Church, to consider their caliphate as a Church state in the government of which, as contrasted with the stand- point of the Omay>^ads, divine law was to be the only standard. In contrast to the Omayyads, they endeavor while exploiting their claims of legitimacy, to apparently meet the demands involved in this claim. They fairly overflow with unctions piety in the endeavor to restore the sanctity of prophetical recollections. Their insignia, indeed, is assumed to be a prophet's mantle. They ostentatiously indulge in pious talk. They wish, in this way to emphasize the contrast between themselves and their predecessors. The Omayyads had refrained from hypocritical cant. Even though, as we shall see later, they were actuated by Moslem orthodox belief, they did not hypocritically emphasize the religious aspect of their office. Among the rulers of this dynasty, it is from 'Omar II alone, a prince brought up in the company of pious men at Medina, whose blindness to political claims contributed to the fall of his house, that we can find the denial of the right of a government to exist for the administration of purely worldly affairs in the state. For example, he was considered capable of giving the advice to his viceroy in Emessa, when the latter informed him that the city had been laid waste and a certain outlay was necessary for its reconstruction: '^ Strengthen it with justice and cleanse its streets of injustice.''- This does not sound like the Omayyads. With the 'Abbasides, who indeed, in increasing measure surrounded themselves with all the splendor and out- ward pomp of the Persian Sassanian kings, pious phrases are the order of the day. The Persian ideal of a govern- ment in which religion and government are closely united,^ is the evident plan of the 'Abbaside rulers. THE DEVELOPMENT OF LAW. 53 Religion is now not simply a matter of interest to the state, but its central business. One can easily imagine how greatly the reputation of the theologians was increased both at court and in the state. In as much as the state, law, and justice were to become regulated and develop according to religion, it was necessary to show especial favor to those who guarded the Sunna and its learning, or who disclosed divine law according to scientific methods. With the rise of the new dynasty the time had come in which the legal development of Islam was to rise from former meagre and modest beginnings. To hold the Hadiths of the prophet in high esteem, to hunt them down and to transmit them, was no longer simply a pious exercise in theory, but a matter of highly practical importance. It was necessary, therefore, that the sacred law should be presented with the greatest care, because both the rules of ritual and of the state, as well as the administration of justice in all its departments, even in the simplest civic regulations, were to be in accord with the divine law. The time for the development of law and its establishment had come, the time of fikh and of those learned in the law, the fuhaha. The Kadi is the great man. Not only in Medina, the actual birth-place of Islam and the native town of the Sunna, where a piety which strove against worldly command had cherished even till now the spirit of the sacred law, but also in the new centres of the kingdom, in Mesopotamia, in the furthermost parts of the state, both east and west, the study of the science of law expands more and more under the shadow of the theocratic caliphate. The Hadiths are transmitted hither and thither, new propositions and decisions are derived from this material. The results do not always agree ; differences appear even in the points of view and methods. Some accord the Hadith the highest authority \ 54 MOHAMMED AND ISLAM. and in those cases where contradictory Hadiths give different answers to the same question, one had to decide for the supremacy of one or the other. Others, however, considering the untrustworthy nature of the Hadith proof, were not much embarrassed by that which was positive. They desired freedom in their conclusions. Firmly established local usages and legal customs could not be simply set aside. The grades between these oppo- site tendencies gave rise to parties and schools, who dif- fered not only in the details of the decisions, but also in questions of method. They are called Maddhih (sing. madhah) which means Tendencies or Rites but not sects. From the very beginning the champions of these dif- fering claims cherished the absolute conviction that standing on the same ground, and on a basis of equality, they served the same cause ; they therefore treated each other with proper consideration."* Seldom is a harsh judgment uttered by over-zealous followers of the differ- ing schools. It is only with the increase of the over- weening self-glorification of the Fukaha that signs of fanatical Madhab opinions appear. Serious theologians have consistently condemned such one-sidedness.^ On the other hand mutual tolerance characterized the Hadith formula ascribed to the prophet: '^The differences of opinion in my community is (a sign of divine) mercy.'' There are in fact indications that this principle presents a basis of adjustment of the attacks to which the diversity of form, and uncertainty of the legal usage in Islam, are exposed from both internal and external adversaries.*^ \ Even up till the present day the view prevails that the variations in custom of the different schools should be equally recognized as orthodox, so long as they claim as authority the teaching and practice of witnesses, who have been recognized by the consensus of opinion as authoritative teachers (Imam). We will come back to this later on. The step of changing from one Madhab THE DEVELOPMENT OF LAW. 55 to the other, which could easily be taken from matured expediency, causes no change in the religious status, and is accompanied by no formalities. Mohammed ibn Khalaf (d. about 1135), a theologian of the fifth century of the Mohammedan era, won the nickname of Hanf ash *^ because he went over in succession to three different schools. He was first a Hanbalite, then he joined the followers of Abu Hanifa, and later went over to the Shafi'i. In his nickname the names of the Imams of these groups are phonetically combined.'^ Various mem- bers of the same family, father and son, may belong to the different Madahib. In fairly recent times even, we find it noted that a pious man in Damascus prayed God to give him four sons, so that each one could belong to one of the four Madahib. Our authority adds that this prayer was granted.^ It is not unusual to find in the biographies of famous theologians the constantly recur- ring trait that they gave their decisions simultaneously on the basis of two outwardly different schools.^ This presented nothing fundamentally absurd. Of the various schools with their petty rituals and legal variations, four are still in existence, which con- stitute the divisions of the great Mohammedan world. Personal considerations were at first determining factors in leading to the predominance of the one or the other school in particular districts of the Islamic world, through the disciples of a particular school obtaining recognition in a certain territory and founding schools therein. It is by such means that the school of the Imam al-Shafi'i (d. 204/820) obtained footing in some parts of Egypt, in East Africa, as well as in South Arabia, and from there extended to the Indian archipelago. Other parts of Egypt, however, alL North Africa, as well as Spain in former times, and latterly also German and English West Africa adopted the teaching of the great Imam of Medina, Malik ibn Anas (d. 179/795). On the 56 MOHAMMED AND ISLAM. other hand Turkish provinces, the Western as well as the Central Asiatic, like the Mohammedans of the Indian mainland, adopted the teachings of Abu Hanifa (d. about 150/767), the same Imam who was regarded as the founder and first codifier of the speculative law school. Comparatively the least extended at the present time is the school of the Imam Ahmed ibn Hanbal (d. 241/ 855). It represents the extreme wing of the fanatical Sunna cult. Formerly, up to the fifteenth century, it dominated Mesopotamia, Syria and Palestine. Within the territory of the Ottomans as they rose to the leading- position of the Moslem world, the intolerant Hanbalite teachings constantly lost ground, while the influence of the Hanifite system spread.^ ^ We will, however, have opportunity in the course of these lectures to speak of a renaissance of the Hanbalite movement in the eight- eenth century. The Mohammedans of the Philippines belonging to the United States, follow the Shafi^ite ritual. VI. It is now time to consider a great fundamental dogma which is more characteristic than any other of the legal development of Islam; it forms at the same time a mediating element within the divisions arising from the independent development of the schools. Despite the theoretical uncertainty of usage in the theological circles of Islam the fundamental principle was established and consistently maintained among Moslem theologians, and with varying application, which was expressed in the utterance ascribed to the prophet, ^'My community will never agree in an error (dalala),^* or as grouped in a later form, ^* Allah has afforded you protection from three things : do not curse your prophet, lest you be entirely destroyed; never amongst you will the people of falsehood gain the victory over the people of truth; and you will never agree in a heretical teaching. ' '^ THE DEVELOPMENT OF LAW. 57 Herein is declared the infallibility of the *^ consensus ecclesiae/'^ This fundamental principle of Moslem orthodoxy is expressed by the Arabic term ijmd (agree- ment). In the course of our presentation we will often meet with its use. It gives the key to the understanding of the history of the development of Islam in its civic, dogmatic, and legal relations. That which is decreed by( the whole Moslem community to be true and correct must . also be regarded as true and correct. Forsaking the Ijma separates one from the orthodox Church. That this principle first appeared in the course of the develop- ment of Islam shows that it could not easily be deduced from the Koran. A school anecdote recounts that the great Al-Shafi'i who regarded the principle of the con- sensus as one of the most authoritative criteria in the establishment of law, when asked for a confirmation of it from the Koran, had to beg for a period of three days in which to consider. At the expiration of this time, he appeared before his hearers, sick and weak, with swollen hands and feet and bloated face, — so great an effort had he been forced to make, in order to point out the verse, Sura 4, v. 115, as a support of the doctrine of ^^ consensus." ''But whoso shall sever himself from the prophet after that 'the guidance^ hath been manifested to him, and shall follow any other path than that of the faithful, we will turn our back on him as he hath turned his back on us, and we will cast him into Hell; — an evil journey thither. '^^ On the other hand he could furnish many supports from Hadith-utterances, which were accepted as teachings of the prophet.^ Everything then which is sanctioned by the consensus of sentiment of the followers of Islam is right, and lays claim to obligatory recognition; and it is regarded as right only because of this general sentiment of the con- sensus. Only those interpretations and variations of the Koranic text and of the Sunna are right which the L^ 58 MOHAMMED AND ISLAM. consensus has endorsed. In this sense it possesses the actual ''autoritas interpretativa. ' ' Only those dog- matic formulae are in accordance with religion, in which, often after violent discussions, the consensus finally acquiesces. Those forms of divine worship and of law which the consensus ratifies, are exempt from all theo- retical criticism. Only those men and writings are accepted as authorities who have recognized the common consciousness of the community, expressed not only by synods and councils, but through an almost instinctive ''vox populi," which in its collective capacity is not liable to error. We shall later on have occasion to see the application of this principle as the criterion of ortho- doxy, and to demonstrate how the universal recognition of certain religious phenomena, which from the theoreti- cal standpoint would be condemned as hostile to Islam, but nevertheless could be stamped with the mark of ortho- doxy, can be explained by the predominating position acquired by this principle in Islam. The phenomena were justified by the ijma and therefore, notwithstanding the theological objections which stood in their way, they were ultimately accepted, and even at times recognized as obligatory. The extent of this ijma was at first confined more to the general feeling than to a definite theological defini- tion. In vain has the attempt been made to limit it in time and place and to define as ijma that which could be proved as the consensus of opinion of Mohammed's-^ ''companions" or of the old authorities of Medina. Such a limitation could not sufSce for the later develop- ment. On the other hand, however, to abandon com- pletely the ijma to the instinctive feeling of the masses could not be satisfactory to a theological discipline. A satisfactory formula was evolved defining ijma as the unanimous judgment and teaching of the recognized reli- gious teachers of Islam at a specified time. They were THE DEVELOPMENT OF LAW. 59 the people of the ''binding and loosing,'^ the men who were called to formulate and announce the law and the dogma, and to decide on the correctness of its application. It will have become apparent that the germ of free- dom of action and the possibility of development in Islam is contained in this principle. It offers a desirable corrective of the tyranny of dead letters and of personal authority. It has proved itself, in the past at least, a leading factor in the adaptability of Islam. What could its consistent adaptation accomplish for the future? VII. With this principle of agreement in mind let us now take a survey of the dissensions occurring within the legal development. It is mostly in minor details that the above-mentioned rituals differ from each other, and one can understand that these differences did not give rise to the divisions into sects. Many formal differences are apparent in the form of the prayer rituals : for example, as to whether one should repeat certain formulas aloud or silently ; as to how high above the shoulder the outspread hands should be raised in the beginning of a prayer, at the introductory phrase, ''Allahu Akbar'' (God is great) ; as to whether the hands should be dropped during the prayer (so the rite of Malik), or crossed, and in this case whether above or below the navel. There are also differences in some detailed formalities of genuflections and prostrations. The disputes over the question as to whether a prayer is acceptable if a woman is beside the one praying, or if in the very midst of the line of worshippers, is very interesting. On this matter the school of Abu Hanifa takes a decided anti-feminine position, as opposed to the others. Among such details a special question under dispute has always impressed me, because in its reli- gious aspect it appears to be of far-reaching significance. 60 MOHAMMED AND ISLAM. The ritual language of Islam is Arabic. All religious formulas are repeated in the language of the Koran. If now, someone is not conversant with Arabic may he say the Fatiha, — the prayer forming the first sura of the Koran and designated as the ''Lord's Prayer^' of Islam, in his mother tongue? Only the school of Abu Hanifa, which was itself of Persian origin, is decided in the per- mission of the use of the non- Arabic tongue in the per- formance of this devotional formula. Their opponents have therefore blamed them for a tendency toward Magism. In other matters of the ritual, differences sometimes appear which are linked with considerations of a funda- mental nature. To these belong such things as the ques- tion of substitution for fasting or the breaking of a fast. While Abu Hanifa is lenient toward unintentional viola- tion of the law of fasting, Malik and Ibn Hanbal insist that the fasting on the day in question becomes invalid through the unwitting violation of the strict regulation, and demand the substitution required in the law. They demand the same substitution for omission to fast, prompted by unavoidable considerations of health. Fur- thermore when a renegade repentantly returns to Islam, he must make up for all the fast days which have passed during his apostasy, by complementary fasts on ordinary days. Abu Hanifa and Shafi'i ignore such an arith- metical view of the law of fasting. The treatment of the dietary regulations in the old traditions afford considerable opportunity for many dif- ferences in this branch of the law. First of all the sub- jective test which the Koran stipulates concerning animal food gives occasion for differences of opinion. The most remarkable, indeed, is the difference in regard to horse- ^o^e/ meat which is allowed in one madahib and forbidden in others.! In many cases, it is true, these differences of opinion are merely of a casuistic nature,- since they THE DEVELOPMENT OP LAW. 61 often refer to animals which would actually never be used as food.^ To give at least one example in this field I would mention that Malik, in opposition to the other schools, did not consider the use of wild animals for food as forbidden. The difference, indeed, is practically eliminated even for him, since he stamps as makruh (deprecated) those animals which he has taken out of the category of haram (forbidden). Attention should be called to the fact that in this instance, a great part of the ground of dispute depends upon the various conceptions as to the degree of acceptance or rejection, or as to whether certain actions or restrictions are obligatory or only desirable.* Nevertheless life, within the meaning of the law, is not exhausted in ritualistic practices. Islamic sacred law includes indeed all branches of the administration of justice, — civic, criminal and political. No single chapter of the code could escape regulation by sacred law. All actions of public and private life are subject to religious ethics, by which the theological jurists thought to harmonize the whole life of a Moslem, with religious demands. There is hardly a chapter in juris- prudence which does not include the difference of opinion of the various orthodox schools. And it is not always questions of secondary importance, but sometimes mat- ters deeply affecting family life. To mention only one : concerning the extent of the authority of the legal agent (wall) as to the bride's portion in a marriage contract. The various schools disagree concerning cases in which the wall may assert a right of protest against a marriage about to be performed, or concerning the question, as to how far the intervention of a wall is essential to the validity of a marriage. The unique position held by Abu Hanifa and a few other leaders, regarding an important question of jurid- ical procedure much discussed in older times, comes 62 MOHAMMED AND ISLAM. under these legal difficulties. They combat the usage, founded on numerous traditions, according to which in pecuniary affairs, in default of regular witnesses accord- ing to the rules for the ratification of a claim, the place of one may be supplied by the plaintiff under oath. Adhering to the strict sense of the Koran command (Sura 2, v. 282) they demand the witness of two men, or of one man and two women, on behalf of the claim upon which devolves the onus probandi. They do not accept the substitution of other means of proof for the evidence of a witness.^ The investigation of the numerous variations in Moslem law, as well as that of the arguments advanced by the champions of the opposing opinions and practices, besides the criticism of these arguments from the point of view of each school, forms an important branch of juridical theology in Islam. It has also constantly offered an opportunity for the manifestation of scientific acumen, in a field which is of the greatest religious inter- est to current Islam. An extensive literature has arisen from of old in the scientific study of law, in connec- tion with the significance laid upon this sphere of investigation.^ VIII. The prevailing trend of this legal scientific development is of greater interest than the details of the differences within the schools of law. In this connection it is to be presumed that those who desire to understand Islam, will be interested in the question of hermeneutics. In religions whose forms of confession and practice are founded on definite sacred texts, the legal as well as the dogmatic development comes under consideration in the exegesis of the sacred text. In such cases the religious history is also a history of exegesis. And this is true of Islam in a very marked sense, for its internal history is mirrored in the methods adopted for the explanation of the sacred texts. THE DEVELOPMENT OF LAW. 63 To characterize the general tendency of the legal scientific efforts we may instance the following circum- stance. It was not the aim of the purists to make life bitter for the Moslems by erecting a wall of legal restric- tions. From the beginning they laid importance on the following Koranic injunction (Sura 22, v. 77); '^ Allah hath not laid on you any hardship in religion/' and (Sura 2, v. 181) : *^ Allah wisheth you ease, and wisheth you not discomfort, ' ' principles which are variously expressed in the Hadith: ^^This religion is easy," i. e., free from uncomfortable difficulties. ** Liberal Hani- fism is most pleasing to God in religion."^ *^"We have come to make it easier, not more difficult."^ *^He who forbids that which is allowed, is as much to blame as he who interprets that which is forbidden, as allowed,"^ is given by 'Ahdalldh ihn Mas'ud (d. 32/635), one of the authorities belonging to the old Moslem generations, as a leading thought for the development of the law.^ The expounders of law have imL been faithful to this principle. Sufydn-al-Thaurl (d. 161/798), a man of the highest standing among them, says : ^ ^ It is the part of science to found a permission on the authority of a trustworthy witness. Anyone can easily justify restric- tions."* The more reasonable teachers allowed them- selves, even in later times, to be guided by such prin- ciples. The following principle from the laws concerning food is characteristic, ^^If there are doubts as to whether a thing is to be considered permitted or forbidden, the preference is to be given on the side of permission, for that is the root," i. e., in themselves all things are per- missible; prohibition is accessory, in case of doubt one should go back to the original basis.^ From this point of view they exercise all their ingenu- ity to find a way out of the burdensome situation which the wording of Koranic law sometimes lays upon the believers. Many a difficulty could be interpreted away 64 MOHAMMED AND ISLAM. or alleviated by liberal exegesis of the text. The obliga- tory character of a command or prohibition was easily nullified by hermeneutic rules. The imperative or pro- hibitive form of speech serves for the expression of the desirable^ or meritorious. The omission or commission of an act, ordered or forbidden by such a form of speech is, therefore, not a serious transgression, and does not incur punishment. A leading teacher of Moslem law of the first century, Ihrdhlm al-Nacha^l (d. 96/714-15) followed the principle, of never defining anything as absolutely commanded or forbidden, but going only up to the point of maintaining : this has been disapproved of by the companions, that has been recommended."^ A teacher of the following generation, ' Ahdallah ihn Shuhruma (d. 144/761-2) would give a definite opinion only on that which was permitted (halal). He felt there was no way to decide what (beyond that qualified as such in trustworthy tradition) was definitely forbidden (haram).^ Many more examples could be given of the predomi- nance of this legal scientific view. The Koran says (Sura 6, v. 121) : ^^Do not eat of that on which Allah's name has not been invoked for that is sin.'' He who looks at or considers this law from the point of objective exegesis will find here only a strict prohibition of the flesh of an animal which has not been ritualistically blessed at its slaughter."^ The whole context of this legal utter- ance ^ invoking Allah" indicates a definite ritualistic act, and not an inward thought of God and his kind- nesses. ^^Eat," so runs the injunction, ^'that over which the name of God has been pronounced . . . why do you not eat that over which the name of God has been pronounced. He has indeed specifically set forth that which he has forbidden you to eat." In this way those are admonished who, on ascetic grounds or because they clung to the superstitious uses of paganism — for even THE DEVELOPMENT OF LAW. 65 paganism had some food restrictions — practiced absti- nences which Mohammed declared obsolete, and annulled. But he insisted on the essential condition that the partak- ing of animal food freely permitted, should be preceded by the naming of the name of Allah.^^ This is probably borrowed from the Jewish custom of requiring herdkhd (blessing), before slaughtering and before eating. Mo- hammed stamps the omission of this as **fisk,'' sin. The unmistakable character of the custom prescribed by Mohammed is thereby definitely strengthened. That\ which had not been blessed in this manner should not be used as food. The strict interpreters of the law, — of the four schools especially that of Abu Hanifa, — apply this to the theoretical exegesis, and to the daily prac- tices of life. Moreover, those Moslems who emphasize strictness in legal acts, consider it essential to this very ^ day. Even in the chase (Sura 5, v. 6) the mention of the name of Allah must precede the sending forth of the falcon or the hunting dogs. Under these conditions only can the hunted animal be used as food.^^ The experiences of daily life soon made clear the difficulties of strict v conformity to such a law. How was a Moslem to con- vince himself that the command was really carried out? In most of the schools the interpreters of the law very- soon discovered that the prohibitive grammatical form iin which the text was expressed was not to be taken. I literally ; it was intended merely to express a wish whose ! fulfilment is desirable, but is not to be taken in a strictly ^ j obligatory sense, and therefore did not involve the con- j sequences of an indispensable law.^^ If compliance with I the law, or rather the wish, fails through oversight or. I other hindrance, this failure would not militate against the allowance of such flesh as food. In this way by a gradual leniency the principle was finally reached, viz., ''When an animal is slaughtered by a Moslem, what- ever the conditions, the food becomes allowable whether 66 MOHAMMED AND ISLAM. or not the name of God is pronounced (at tlie slaugh- ter).'' For ^'the Moslem always has God in his mind whether he declares it in speech or not.'' And when this conviction had once been reached, it was not difficult to devise some traditional verification by which such a principle could be sanctioned as a Hadith, traceable to the prophet. Under such circumstances they had the grammar indeed on their side. As a matter of fact the omission in the content of every speech appearing, in the impera- tive form, could not be stamped as a great sin. In Sura 4, V. 3, it is said for example, ^^Then marry whoever pleases you from among the women." From this, — so argue the theologians, — it cannot be deduced that one must marry; but rather that one may marry if one mil. But it must not be denied, that in fact, among many sagacious interpreters of the revealed word of God, those are not lacking who have deduced from the imperative form that it is the duty of every Moslem to marry, and that this is a prohibition of celibacy. ^^ Marry," that means ^'you must marry," not merely, * * you may marry. ' ' IX. The most marked example of the liberty advo- cated by the schools of interpretation in opposition to the restrictive attachment to word of the law is their atti- tude toward a law which is generally reckoned among those which stamped Moslem practical life, — the prohi- bition of wine drinking. The drinking of wine is stigmatized in the Koran as an ^ ^ abomination. "^ But it is known how much opposi- tion was presented to this divine prohibition in the earli- est days of Islam, by a community which did not wish to barter Arabian freedom for legal restrictions.^"" We wish simply to allude to the fact that the Moslem poetry of wine^ as well as the role which intemperance and drunkenness played in the diversions of the caliphs, — THE DEVELOPMENT OF LAW. 67 they were religious princes, — and of those in high posi- tions in the kingdom, hardly portrays a society whose religious law stamps this indulgence as ^Hhe mother of all offensive things. '^ All this can come under the head of libertinism, and be regarded as a frivolous violation of a religious law otherwise considered valid. Certain antinomian tendencies very soon make them- selves felt in this connection. Even some of the prophet's companions in Syria, among whom Abu Jandal is the most noted, would not allow themselves to be misled in the use of wine by the Koran, and justified their excess by the Koran verse (Sura 5, v. 94): ''For those who believe, and practice good works, there is no sin in what they enjoy, as long as they trust in God and practice good works. ''^ It is true that they were severely cen- sured for this exegetical freedom by the strict caliph * Omar. Of an essentially different order is the fact that the theologians of the East used their ingenuity to limit by interpretation, the extent of the prohibition of other strong drinks, which a stricter interpretation had later included in the law concerning wine. On the one hand the attempt is made to justify the conclusion that, with the exception of wine, it is not the drink itself but only intoxication that is forbidden.* Traditions are invented in favor of this, among which there is one which gives the words of the prophet in the name of Ayesha.^ ''You may drink, but do not become intoxicated." Under the protection of such documents, even pious people have not limited themselves to pure water. On the other hand every effort has been made by the strict to prove that "a drink, which when taken in quantity, results in intoxication is forbidden even in the smallest measure." There was also a widespread school of theologians which, clinging to the letter, held only wine (khamr) as for- bidden, that is, grapewine. Other fermented drinks are 68 MOHAMMED AND ISLAM only sharab (a drink) or nabid,^ not *^wine.'' In tbis way tbey could issue a license for apple and date wine, etc., and open a wide door to tbe faitbful, tbrougb wbicb, — naturally granting tbat tbis indulgence did not go so far as intoxication, — many a concession was made to ^Hbirsf in a lexicograpbical process.^ Even sucb a pious calipb as ^ Omar II is said, — according to one state- ment,^ — to bave declared tbe nabid as permissible. An 'Abbaside calipb wbo did not wisb to clasb witb tbe law, urgently questioned bis Kadi as to bis views of tbe nabid.^ And since sucb drinks could not be dispensed witb at social functions, tbe treatment of tbe question of wine wbicb was opened by tbe lawyers was also interesting to polite society, especially because it was often linked witb pbilological and aestbetic subjects. In tbe aestbetic circles wbicb tbe calipb al-Mu'tasim beld at bis court, one of tbe pet tbemes of discussion of tbe flower of tbe bigber society gatbered tbere, was to consider tbe syno- nyms of wine in classic Arabic, as well as tbe relation of tbe probibition of wine to tbese synonyms.^ "^ We will probably not go astray in tbe assumption tbat it was not tbe rigorous conception of tbis relation wbicb was pre- eminent in tbe debates of tbe bel-esprits of Bagdad. Opinions were put forward w^bicb gave tbe most radical opposition to religious restrictions, and even went so far as to ridicule tbe pious wbo accepted tbem. A poem is ascribed to Du-l-rumma in wbicb tbe latter are alluded to as ''tbieves, wbo are called readers of tbe Koran. '^^^ Or tbe saying of anotber poet: ^^Wbo can forbid rain water wben grape water is mixed witb it? In trutb tbe difficulties wbicb legal interpreters lay upon us are repugnant to me, and I like tbe opinion of Ibn Mas^ud.'^^^ Tbe subtlety of tbe Kufi tbeologians, already in tbe second century, furnisbed tbe basis of Ibn Mas^ud's tbeory. Even if ^' grape water'* could not be granted, THE DEVELOPMENT OF LAW. 69 nevertheless various legal subterfuges were provided, which were made use of even by well intentioned men.^* It is not unusual to read in the biographies, statements like the following: ''WakP ibn al-Jarrah, one of the most famous Irak theologians, who is famous for his ascetic habits (d. 197/813), persisted in drinking the nabid of the Kufis'' ignoring the fact that this drink was actually wine.^* Khalaf ibn Hisham, a famous Koran reader in Kufa (d. 229/844) drank sharab ''drink" (one does not call the devil by his real name) ''on the ground of interpretation''; his biographer indeed, adds that towards the end of his life this Khalaf repeated all the prayers which he had performed during the forty years in which he did not deny himself wine ; the prayers of a wine-drinker were invalid and ought to be replaced.^^ When Sharik, Kadi of Kufa in the time of the caliph Mahdi, recited the sayings of Mohammed to the people eager for tradition, the odor of nabid was apparent in his breath.^ ^ Taking an example from later times, .which concerns a famous religious preacher of the sixth century of the Mohammedan Era : Abu Mansur Kutb al-din al-amir, who was sent by the caliph al- Muktafi as ambassador to the Seljuk Sultan Songor ibn Melikshah. This pious man who, after his death, en- joyed the distinction of being buried near the pious ascetic al-Juneid, composed a treatise on the lawfulness of drinking wine.^^ Naturally the zeal of the more conservative element was aroused against such tendencies and phenomena within the legal group. They, "in contrast to the liberty deduced from an erroneous interpretation of the Sunna" by many, adhered firmly all their lives to drink- ing only "water, milk and honey. "^^ As in the case of all liberal tendencies appearing in the historical course of Islam, they knew how to bring forward a word of 70 MOHAMMED AND ISLAM. the prophet condemning the mitigation here described. **My community,'' thus runs the Hadith they quote, ''will one day drink wine, they will call it by a disguised name and their princes will support them in this."^^ Such people are threatened with being turned into apes and swine by God, as happened to the religious sinners of earlier nations.^^ At all events, the method adopted by the widely-recog- nized Kufic theological school, indicates that as legal subtlety was more and more applied to the deduction of religious law, many an alleviation was suggested, by means of which the severity of the text could be mitigated. A great part of the ''contrasted teachings" of the ritualistic schools, into which the Mohammedan world is divided, consists in the disputes over the admissibility of such hermeneutic arts and the measure and variations of their practice. It will be sufficient here to establish the fact from the point of view of Islamic history, that the overwhelming majority of those schools has in many cases brought into vogue the free use of such hermeneutical methods. The aim of all this was to har- monize life, from the point of view of the law, with the actual conditions of social position ; to adapt the narrow law of Mecca and Medina to the broader conditions, since, through the conquests of foreign lands, and, through the contact with fundamentally different modes of life, demands asserted themselves which could not easily be made to harmonize with the letter of the law. It is only from this point of view that the dull pedantry of the legal scholars can interest the historian of religion and culture. With this in mind I have, there- fore, alluded to these matters of significance for religious ethics. The discussion will prepare us for what we shall have to say in the last chapter about the adaptation to new conditions. THE DEVELOPMENT OF LAW. 71 10. But before closing we must speak here of two harmful consequences which issued from these sub- tleties, arising from such training of the theological mind. The one concerns a general bent of the mind called forth by such efforts, the other an erroneous value put upon the religious life as such, at the expense of the religious sentiment. The predominance of the spirit of casuistry and hair- splitting, especially in 'Irak,^ was directly due to the increase of the tendencies just described. Those who propose to explain the word of God and to regulate life accordingly, lose themselves in absurd subtleties and useless sophistries, in devising possibilities which never occur, and in the investigating of puzzling questions, in which the most subtle casuistry is closely united with the play of the boldest, most reckless phantasy. Disputes arise over farfetched cases in law never actually occur- ring and casuistically constructed, as for instance what pretension to an inheritance a great grandfather of the fifth degree could have in the property of a great grand- child of the fifth degree who died childless.- And this is a relatively moderate case. Even in earlier times laws of inheritance with their many possibilities, were an especially favorite and suited arena for these mental gymnastics of a casuistic order.^ The popular supersti- tions also offer material for such use. Since the people regarded the metamorphosis of men into animals as within the range of natural occurrences, questions con- cerning the relation of such bewitched individuals, and their legal responsibilities were seriously discussed.'* On the other hand, since demons often take on human form, the religious consequences of such a change were considered, as for example, it was argued in all serious- ness, whether such beings were to be included for the necessary number of those taking part in the Friday services.^ Furthermore, the divine law must also decide n MOHAMMED AND ISLAM. how the human offspring resulting from the marriage of a demon to a human being, a natural possibility in the minds of the people, should be treated ; what in the laws regulating family life such a marriage entailed. In fact, the question of the jinn marriage^ — ^marital combina- tions with demons — was treated in this circle with as much seriousness as any important instance of canonical lawJ The defendants of such combinations, to whom Hasan al-Basri also belongs, offer examples of such alliances with followers of the Sunna. Damiri, the compiler of a very important zoological dictionary, who has included such data in his article on the ^'jinn,'^ speaks of his personal acquaintance with a sheikh, who had lived in marital relations with four demon-women. The legal subtlety further devises artifices which serve men under certain circumstances, — ^legal fictions which form an integral part of the Fikli. They are frequently of use in appeasing the conscience in the matter of oaths. The legal scholar is consulted for the contrivance of *^ evasions, ^^ a phase of his activity that cannot be extolled as a factor of the ethical sentiment in social life. According to a poet of the time of the Omayyads, ^^ there is no good in an oath which cannot be evaded. *^^ Legal study gallantly met these requirements more than half way. Although the other schools were not behind in all this, the Hanifite school, whose cradle was in the ^Irak, did most in inventing these devices.^ It followed in this respect the example of its master, the great interpreter who devoted a long digression in his exhaus- tive commentary of the Koran, to the presentation of the excellence of the Imam Abu Hanifa. Most of the evi- dences which he gives of his profound legal knowledge refer to the solution of difficult questions concerning laws dealing with oaths.^^ One must acknowledge it is not only the pious mind THE DEVELOPMENT OF LAW. 73 which rebels against the intimate union of such matters with religion and the word of God, brought about by the ruling theology. "We shall be able to see the strongest example of such a resistance in the eleventh century, A. D. (chapter IV). But it is also the popular sense of humor which exposes these theological legal pettifoggers and their self-complacent arrogance through its sar- casm. Abu Yusuf, a disciple of Abu Hanifa whom we just mentioned (d. 182/795), the great Kadi of the caliph al-Mahdi and Harun al-Raschid, is the literary butt of the wit of the people, amusing themselves at the expense of lawyers; he also found his way into the Arabian Nights. Secondly let us note the harmful consequences on the trend of religious life. The predominance of casuistical efforts in relation to legal religious science, gradually impressed a legalistic character upon the teachings of Islam. As I have said elsewhere: ''Under the influ- ence of this tendency religious life itself was placed under a legal control, which naturally could not be favor- able to the propagation of true piety and godliness. Consequently the faithful follower of Islam stands, even in his own view, from now on, under the constraint of human laws, in relation to which the word of God, which to him is the means and source of devotion, regulates only an unimportant part of the observances of life, and retires into the background. Those who investigate the practical application of law with the help of legal niceties and who keep watch over the punctilious adher- ence to it, are recognized as religious teachers. It is only to this class, not to the philosophers of religion or to the moralists, not to mention the advocates of human science, that the word ascribed to the prophet refers: 'The scholars {'ulema) of my community are like the prophets of the Children of IsraeL' "^^ We have already shown that there were not wanting 74 MOHAMMED AND ISLAM. earnest men who raised their voices in vigorous condem- nation of this deviation from the religious ideal as it very early manifested itself in Islam, and who earnestly strove to save the inner religious life from the clutches of the hair-splitting lawyers of religion. "We have seen that they could claim reliable Hadlth. Before we can understand them we must undertake to find our way through the dogmatic development of Islam. NOTES. 75 NOTES. I. 1. Abraham Kuenen, ' ' National Keligions and Universal Keligions. ' ' (Hibbert Lectures 1882) 293. 2. See for example Ibn Sa'd IV, II 76, 25. — Ancient traditions concerning the impost tariff Muh. Stud. II 50 note 3; 51 note 3. Outside of the tariff the tax collectors are given written instruc- tions of a positive nature, which have to do with the careful administration of the tariff, ibid. VI 45, 16. II. 1. <'In the earliest times the Arabs were not fanatical, but were on almost brotherly terms with their Christian Semitic cousins. However, after the latter had very soon become Moslems, they brought into the new religion that implacability and blind hostility toward the believers of Byzantium, which formerly had been the cause of the decline of oriental Christendom. Leone Caetani ''Das historische Studium des Islams" (Berlin 1908, from a lecture at the international historical congress held in Berlin) 9. 2. Cf. 'Omar's application of this principle to his Christian slaves. Ibn Sa'd VI 110, 2. Proselytism is not ascribed even to Moham- med. "If you turn to Islam, it is well; if not, then remain (in your former faith) ; Islam is wide" (or broad, ibid. 30, 10). 3. According to Kifti ed. Lippert 319, 16 ff., Maimuni, who before his emigration had been forced to assume in Spain for a short time the appearance of a Moslem, was denounced in Egypt where he stood at the head of Judaism, by a Spanish Moslem fanatic, Abu -1-' Arab, who reported him to the government as an apostate. According to the law, death is the punishment for apostasy. 'Abdalrahim ibn 'AH, famous as al-Kad% al-fddil, pronounced the sentence however "that the confession of Islam by a person who is forced to it, is invalid according to the religious law," so the charge of apostasy could not be carried out. The Mufti of Constantinople made the same decision toward the end of the 17th century, in the matter of the Maronite emir Yunus, who was forced by the Pasha of Tripoli to confess Islam, but very soon after openly renewed his allegiance to Christianity. The Mufti gave the verdict that the enforced confession of Islam was null and void. The Sultan ratified the Mufti's verdict. The con- temporary patriarch of Antioch, Stephanus Petrus, alludes to this in a circular letter: "postea curavit (Yiinus) offerri sibi litteras ab ipse magno Turcarum Rege atque Judicum sententias, quibus declarabatur negationem Fidei ab ipso per vim extortam irritam esse et invalidam." (De la Roque, "Voyage du Syrie et du Mont Libanon "—Paris 1722—11 270-71) cf. also Moulavi Kheragh 'AH, "The proposed political, legal and social Reforms in the 76 MOHAMMED AND ISLAM. Ottoman Empire (Bombay 1883) 50-58," concerning the ques- tion of the treatment of apostasy in Islam. 4. Wakidi ed. Wellhausen (''Skizzen und Vorarbeiten" IV). Text 77, 1. 5. Baladori, ''Liber expugnationis regionum" ed. de Goeje 71, 12. 6. Cf. de Goeje, "Memoire sur la Conquete de la Syrie" (Leiden 1900) 106. 147. 6a. See about such agreements and their criticism Caetani "Annali dell Islam'' III 381; 956-59. 7. So, for example, if we assume that at the conquest of Syria the Christians were forbidden to let the knockers (ndTcus) of their Churches be heard, an anecdote told of the Caliph Mu' awiyya by Ibn Kuteiba ' Uyun al-akhbdr, ed. Brockelmann 138, 11 ff., would be impossible. The noise of these knockers disturbs the aging caliph; he sends a messenger to Byzanz to cause the cessa- tion of the noise. For the building of Churches cf. ZDMG XXXVIII 674. 8. Tabari I 2922, 6 ff, ' Omar deprecates the use of violent measures towards the conquered, on account of the separatists. The prophet has said: "He who tortures man in this world, him will God torture on the day of judgment." Ya'kiibi, "Historiae" ed. Houtsma II 168, 11. cf. the instruction given to the gov- ernor of the district of Emesa (Ibn Sa'd IV, II 14, 8). 9. Baladori ibid. 162, The Sheikh ul-Islam Jemal al-din must have had maxims of this kind in mind, when in reference to religious equality in the new Turkish constitution, he explained to the correspondent of the "Daily News" (August 8, 1908) "You may rest assured that however liberal the constitution is, Islam is still more liberal." Nevertheless the fanaticism towards unbelievers has, according to a precedent to be examined later, brought into the field sayings of the prophet favoring the harsh treatment of non-Moslems. The prophet's command to prevent unbelievers from giving the salaam-greeting, and to reply to them with ambiguous word- play, has been received as true even in well substantiated Hadith. (Bukhari, Jihad no. 97, Isti'ddn no. 22, Da- aw at no. 67. Cf. Ibn Sa'd IV, II 71, 6; V 393, 26.) That it was nevertheless not always found to be compatible with the spirit of Islam, is evident in the statements of Ibn Sa'd V 363, 26; VI, 203, 3 ff. Other utterances of this kind have been rejected as apocryphal, e. g. "When anyone shows a friendly face to a dimmi (Jew or Christian ward) it is as if he had punched me in the ribs." (Ibn Ha jar Fatdwl hadithiyya — Cairo 1307 — 118) cited as an absolutely unfounded invention: "The prophet once met the angel Gabriel and wished to take his hand; the angel pushed him away with the justification, 'you have just seized the hand { NOTES. 77 of a Jew; you must first perform the ceremonial cleansing (before you may touch me)' " (Daliahl, ''MIzan al-iHidar, " Lucknow 1301, II 232, and further ibid. 275 as Tchahar hatil.) "If anyone (Moslem) has intercourse with a 'dimmi' and humbles him- self before him, on the day of judgment a stream of fire will be raised between them, and the Moslem will be told: 'Go through the fire to the other side, so that you may settle your account with your community.' " (ibid. II 575.) At the time of this saying, partnerships between Moslem and Jew were very fre- quent. The relations arising from it repeatedly form the theme of Jewish theological-legal discussion (see Louis Ginzberg, Geonica, New York 1909, II 186). The fanatical Hadith seriously warns against such business partnerships, from the standpoint of Islam. Every phase of opinion has been marked with words adapted from the prophet. People like the Hanbalites who take excep- tion to Moslems who differ from them in their social tolerance (ZDMG LXII 12 ff.), are naturally no less hostile to those of another faith, and readily cling to the spiteful sayings, while they endeavor to undermine tolerant teachings. It is character- istic that some (indeed his school) make the Imam Ahmed ibn Hanbal reject as false the tradition, "Whoever harms a dimmi, it is as if he had harmed me," (Subki, Tabakat al-Shafi'iyya I 268, 6 fr. bel.). The leading Moslem teachings have always taken exception to such views, as well as to the documents upon which their upholders depend. 10. Porter, "Five Years in Damascus.'" (London 1870) 235. III. 1. For example the question whether it is permitted to remove a body from its place of death to another place, is decided by al-Zuhri by bringing up the precedent that the body of Sa'd ibn abi Wakkas was brought from al-'Akik to Medina. Ibn Sa'd III, I 104-105. 2. ZDMG LXI 863 ff. 3. Judging from some of Ibn Sa'd's writings XI 135, 19 ff. impor- tant for the conception of the Sunna, it appears that in the Ist century, the opinion was held that only those sayings could count as Sunna which the prophet had attested, not those attested by his companions. But this limitation could not be carried out. 4. "Nahj al-Balagha" (the speeches ascribed to 'AH) II 75, 7 (ed. Muhammed 'Abduh, Beirut 1307). The word "escape" is expressed in the text by mahtsan. Cf. Huart, "Textes persans relatifs a la secte des Houroufis" (Leiden-London 1909), Gibb series IX, text, 76, 17 has mis-read this word as masiyyan, and brought out the strange meaning (Tr. 120, 23) "car Us ne trouveront pas personne qui en soit chatree. " IV. 1. Steinschneider, "Die Hebraischen tjbersetzungen des Mittel- alters" 852 note 43; also his " Kangstreit-Literatur " (Vienna 78 MOHAMMED AND ISLAM. 1908, Sitzungsber. d. Akad. d. W. Phil, history Kl. Bd. 155) 58. Much literature of this character can be found collected by E. Galtier FutuJi al-Bahnasd (Mem. Inst, franc, d'arch. orient du Caire XXII, 1909) 20 note 1. 2. Ibn Kayyim al-Jauziyya, Kitab al-ruh (Haidarabad 1318.) 294. 3. Bab. Sanhedrln 91a. at the bottom. 4. Bukhari, Kitdh al-adah no. 18. 5. Ibid. no. 24. 25. 6. Ibn Sa'd IV, I 168 below. 7. Ibn Teymiyya, Easai'l (Cairo 1324) II 342. 8. Ibn Hajar, Isaba ed. Calcutta II 396. ''At the time of the prophet we regarded hypocrisy as a minor sJiirJc." 9. ''Arba'un al-Nawawi" no. 38. 10. The critics have sometimes a sharp eye for anachronisms. But endeavor, in their efforts, to justify utterances that in their form appear to be authentic, by finding means to set aside inherent difficulties; even to the extent of admitting as possible anticipa- tions of later conditions in the ancient Hadith. There is a story in the Musnad of Ahmed b. Hanbal according to which the woman Ummal-Darda tells how the prophet once saw her in the street and asked her whence she came. "From the bath" (hammam) was her answer. Ibn al-Jauzi, who was writing a book of his own on false Hadith, does not hesitate to throw aside both the story and the moral for which it is the backgrovmd, on the ground that at that time there were no baths in Medina. While others quiet the scruples of Ibn al-Jauzi in spite of the anachro- nisms, see Ibn Hajar al-Askalani, al-Kaul al-musaddad fi-l-dabb' an al-Musnad (Haidarabad 1319) 46. 11. Jerus. Talmud KTiagigd 1, 8 toward the end. V. 1. See Kult. d. Gegenw. 108, 7 ff. cf. Muh. Studien II 52 ff. 2. Beihaki, Mahdsin ed. Schwally 392 — " Pseudo- Jahiz " ed. van Vloten 181 above. 3. Cf. ZDMG LXII note 2. 4. The saying of Yahya b. Sa'Id (d. 143/760) is very important for judging of this decision: "Men of (religious) science are people of broad horizon. Differences of opinion are constantly prevailing among those who have to give decisions. What one proclaims as permitted the other holds as forbidden. Neverthe- less they are far from finding fault with each other. Each one feels the question which is put before him weighing on him like a heavy mountain, and when he sees a gate open (for his release) he feels himself relieved of the burden," Dahabi, Tadkirat al-7iuffdB 1 124. Yahya 's statements resemble those of El'azar ibn Azarya (b. Talmud Babli Khagiga 3 b) about the difference of opinion in Jewish law (referring to Eccles. 12, 11). "Although some proclaim as clean what others hold unclean, some allow NOTES. 79 what others forbid, some declare as forbidden what others admit . . . nevertheless all (these contradictory opinions) are given by one shepherd, by God, 'who spake all these words' " (Exod. 20, 1). In like manner it is said of the controversial schools of Shammai and Hillel that ''both are the words of the living God." (Talmud Babli Eriibhin 13 b.) On the other hand R. Simon ibn Jokhai regards such legal differences of opinion as forgetfulness of the Thora (Sifre, Deuteron. 48 ed. Friedmann 84 b, 11). 5. A very remarkable judgment of later times against the Madhab- Fanaticism of the Fukaha is to be found in Taj al-din al-Subki, Mu'td al-ni' am wamubid al-nikam ed. Myhrman (London 1908) 106-109. At the same time a proof of the fact that at the time of the writer (d. 771/1370) such fanatical opinions were very common among the legal authorities of Syria and Egypt. 6. Concerning this principle see my ' ' Zahiriten " 94 ff. That the differences in religious practice were very early objects of cen- sure, is to be seen in Ma'mun's discussion of it in Taifur, Kitdb Baghdad ed. Keller 61, and from a very important passage in an epistle to the caliph ascribed to Ibn al-Mukaffa. (Arab. Zeitschrift Muktabas III 230 — Basd'il al-iulaghd Cairo 1908 54.) 7. Dahabi, Mizan al-i' tidal II 370. 8. Muhibbi, Khuldsat al-athar fl a'ydn al-Jcarn al-hddi' ashar (Cairo 1284) I 48, Ibrahim ibn Muslim al-Samadi (d. 1662). 9. For example Ibn al-Kalanisi, "History of Damascus" ed. Amedroz 311 (from the 6th century of the Hijra) the Kadi who is introduced as an illustration, gives his decisions on the ground of Hanifite and Hanbalite Madhab, cf. the present attribute mufti al-firalc i. e. mufti of the various parties, to whom he can give decisions in each case from the standpoint of their own Madhab teachings. 10. Cf. Kult. d. gegenw. 104, 13-29. VI. 1. Ke7i2 al-'ummdl VI 233 no. 4157 from Musnad Ahmed. 2. Their consensus can only be one upheld by errors; "fa-ijma- 'uhum ma 'sum" (Ibn Teymiyya, Basd'il 1 17, 3; 82, 10). Ma'sum (upheld immune) means about the same thing as infalli- ble; the same expression as the one applied to the infallibility of the prophets and Imams. (See below V § 10.) S. wa nuslihi. E. Palmer translates: "We will make him reach hell" on the assumption that only the 1st form and not the 4th conjugation of the verb said can have the meaning of cook, burn, heat. Baidawi confirms this distinction ib., who gives the meaning ajala (IV stem) to let one come in, for the colloquial reading. But from the statements in Lisan al Arab XIX 201 it is evident that the 4th form also permits of the translation we prefer. 80 MOHAMMED AND ISLAM. 4. Subki, Tabdkdt al-Shdfi'iyya II 19 below. Elsewhere the collec- tion of Koranic evidence does not seem to have cost the Shafi'i so much trouble. He finds for example in Sura 98 v. 4 the strong- est proof against the teachings of the Murjiites (Subki 1. c. I 227) rather far-fetched. Later other Koranic proofs have been found for the I jma-teachings ; as for example Fakhr al-din al-Eazi {Mafdtlh al-ghaib III 38) deduces it from Surah 3 v. 106. cf. for other documentary proofs Snouck Hurgronje in ^'Eevue de PHistoire des Religions^' XXXVII (1898) 17. 5. Abu Dawud II 131. Tirmidi II 25, Baghawi, Masabili al-Sunna I 14. VII. 1. Cf. about this question and the Koran material involved, Snouck Hurgronje in his review of Van den Berg's "Beginseln van het Mohammedaansche Recht" 1 art. 26-27 of the reprint; ''Juyn- boll Handbuch des Islamischen Gesetzes" (Leiden 1908) 175 ff. 2. Cf. the casuistic, and in part quite preposterous questions, in Jahiz, Hayawdn VI 52, laid before Sha* bi. "With reference to the Sura 6 v. 146 ("I find in that which is revealed to me, noth- ing forbidden for those eating, that they may enjoy &c. . . . ") he proclaims the eating of elephant flesh as permissible. 3. In the zoological encyclopedia of Damiri, the author at the close of each article treats the question of the legal religious posi- tion of the animal in question, as well as the differences in this regard of the madahlb. 4. Cf . About these categories ' ' Zahiriten " 66 ff. Juynboll. ' ' Handbuch des Islamischen Gesetzes " 56 ff. 5. Cf. especially Zurkani to Muwatta (Cairo 1279/80) III 184. 6. Friedrich Kern has discussed most extensively the literature of this branch of Moslem jurisprudence, ZDMG LV 61 ff. and in the introduction to his work of the Kitdh iTchtildf al-fukahd of Tabari (Cairo 1902) 4-8 on the difference of the schools. Among the comprehensive works, the big "Book of the Scales" by the Egyptian mystic 'Abd al-Wahhab al-Sha'rani (d. 973/1565) is the one most used. This work has been partly translated into French by Perron: "Balance de la loi Musulmane ou Esprit de la legislation islamique et divergences de ses quatre rites juris- prudentiels" (Algiers 1898 published by the general govern- ment of Algeria). VIII. 1. Bukh., Imdn no. 28. The sentence has also been cited as a Koran verse, Noldeke-Schwally "Gesch. d. Korans" 181. 2. Bukh., Ilm no. 12; WudU' no. 61; Adab no. 79. 3. Ibn Sa'd VI 126, 3. 4. 'Abdalbarr al-Namari, Jdmi'baydn al-ilm wa-fadWii (published in extract form, Cairo 1320) 115, 9. Cf. with this aspect the Talmudic principle: "the power to permit is more valuable," Talmud Babli Berdkhoth 60a and frequently. NOTES. 81 5. ''Damiri," '^Hayat al-hayawan," s. v. sun jab II 41, 21. 6. The Hadith in the Bukh.; K. at i'tisam no. 16 treats of this. 7. Al-Darimi, Sunan (Cawnpore 1293) 36. The (permitted) account gives a meaning if one substitutes for haloX of the text the expression '^ absolutely commanded'^ as I have assumed. 8. Ibn. Sa' d VI, 244, 20. 9. According to the Nomokanon of the Barhebraeus also, must "the name of the living God be invoked in battle." (See Bocken- hoff, ' ' Speisegesetze Mosaischer Art in mittelalterlichen Kirchen- rechtsquellen " — Miinster 1907-49.) See concerning the same facts in the Nomokanon, S. Fraenkel, Deutsche Literaturz. 1900, 188. 10. Cf. Ibn Sa'd VI 166, 21. 11. Muwatta II 356. See my article '^Bismillah" in Hastings Encyclopedia of Eeligion and Ethics II 667b. 12. Cf. Subki, Mu'ld al-ni' am ed. Myhrman 203, 10. IX. 1. This subject is now well handled by Caetani 1. c. 449. 477: ''II vino presso gli Arabi antichi e nei primi tempidell' Islam." la. ''Muh. Stud." I 21 ff. cf. now also Lammens, "Etudes sur le regne du Calif e Mo'awiyya" I 411 (Melanges Beyrouth III 275). . ^ 2. The poets of the 'Omayyad epoch sometimes declare the wine of which they speak, explicity "halal" (legally permitted); Jemil al-'Udri (Aghani, VII, 79, 15). Ibn Kais al Rukayyat (ed. Ehodokanakis 57, 5 ahallahu Alldhu land). We must not deduce from this an allusion to the distinctions of the theologians Ckhizdnat al-adah IV 201). 3. Usd al-ghaha V 161, Suheili, commentaries of Ibn Hisham ed. Wiistenfeld II 175. 4. Cf. Subkl ed. Myhrman 147. 5. Nasa'i, Sunan (ed. Shahdra 1282) II 263-269. 6. Nahid also means a drink of which the prophet himself partook. Ibn Sa'dll, I 131, 5. 9. 7. That, however, conscience troubled a good many on this ques- tion, is shown in the story to the effect, that the Caliph, Ma 'mun, who allowed the Kadi Yahya ibn Aktham to be present at his meals at which he himself indulged in the "nabid," never offered the Kadi a drink. "I cannot suffer a Kadi to drink nabid." Tayfur Kitab Baghdad 258, 8 ff . Ma'mun expressed himself in the same way toward the Kadi of Damascus, who rejects the date-nabid offered him. Aghani X 124, 12. 8. Ibn Sa'd V 276, 16. 9. Yakut ed. Margoliouth II 261, 2. 10. Mas'udi, Muriij (ed. Paris) VIII 105, 4. 11. Kali, Amall (Biilak 1324) II 48, 12. 12. Ibn Kuteiba, TJyun al-ATclibdr ed. Brockelmann 373, 17. The monograph of Ibn Kut. concerning drinks there mentioned, for 82 MOHAMMED AND ISLAM. which until now we had been directed to the compendium in Ilcd al-farld, has now been published by A. Guy in the Cairo Arabic monthly Al-MuMahas II (1325/1907) 234-248; 387-392; 529-535. 13. Ibn Sa^ d VI 67 penult. ; 175, 20. 14. Dahabi, TadMrat al-liuffdz I 281. 15. Ibn Khallikan ed. Wiistenfeld no. 217. 16. Ibid. no. 290. 17. Ibid. no. 733. 18. Ibn Sa'd VI 64, 3. 7. 19. Vsd al-ghaha V 12, 1. 20. Bukh., Ashriha no. 6. X. 1. In the 'Irak the taulnd (the discussion of questions of belief) was moved to the background; the filch is predominant ('Attar, TadMrat al-auliyya II 175 above). 2. Ibn KhaUikan no. 803. 3. Cf. Th. W. JuynboU's article ATcdanya in the Encyclopedia of Islam I 242. The question of the inheritance of a grandfather was from ancient times an object of legal casuistry (Ibn Sa'd XI 100, 9) and of difference of opinion. (Damiri I 351, s. v. Jiayya.) Cf. Eitab al-imdma walsiydsa (Cairo 1904) II 76. The accounts collected in the Kenz al-' ummdl VI 14-18 concerning this question of inheritance give a very instructive glimpse of the conditions of the rise of jurisprudence in the early days of Islam. 4. Damiri II 289-90, s. v. Icird. 5. Ibid. I 265, s. v. jinn. 6. Sexual relations between men and jinn is a type of fable which passed from the Babylonian group of stories, through the medium of the folk-lore of the Arabs, into Moslem superstitions. The names of persons of ancient Arabia as well as those of other peoples who were the fruit of such a misalliance are given. Cf . Jahiz, Hayawan I 85 ff., where such fables are energetically rejected. Jahiz calls those who concede such a possibility "wicked scholars" and declares explicitly that he only cites the report. (Cf. also Damiri II 25-27 s. v. si 'Idt.) Examples of Moslem popular beliefs by E. Campbell Thompson, ''Proc. of Soc. of Bibl. Arch." XXVIII 83 and Sayce. ''Folk- lore" 1900 II 388. The reality of such a imion can also be deduced from the Koran 17 v. 66, 55 v. 56. 74 (Damiri 1. c. 27, 19). The difference in species of those contracting such a union (with reference to Sura 16 v. 74 "Allah has given you wives from yourselves") was brought to bear by the religious laws as impedimentum dirimens, against the permissibleness of such alliances, but was not everywhere recognized as such (Subki, TahaMt al-Shdfiiyya V 45, 5, fr. bel.). It is evident that this NOTES. 83 legal repudiation of such unions, was not taken as indisputable, for Yahya ibn Ma' in and other orthodox authorities attribute the keenness of several scholars whom they mention by name to the fact that one of their parents was a Jinn (Dahabi, ^'Tad- kirat al-huffaz" II 149). Ibn Khallikan mentions a foster brother of the Jinns no. 763. Cf. also ^'Abhandl. zur arab Phil'' II CVIII; now also Macdonald, '^The Eeligious Atti- tude and Life in Islam ' ' 143 f . ; 155. Alfred Bel recounts that the people of Tlemcen had it from an inhabitant of the town who had died not long since (1908) that besides his legitimate wife he had also been married to a Jinniyya. (''La popula- tion musulmane de Tlemcen" 7 des S.-A. from "Revue des etudes ethnographiques et sociologiques " 1908.) The ques- tion as to whether angels and jinn have the lawful right to acquire possessions is discussed from the legal point of view. (Subki 1. c. V 179.) 7. Cf. "Abhandl. zur Arab. Phil." I 109. We can here name al-Shafi'i as the exception to the ruling spirit of theological jurists. His school proclaims the following principle founded on his teaching. "If an otherwise irreproachable man announced that he had seen Jinn, we would consider him imfit for legal evidence." (Subki 1. c. I 258, 4 fr. bel.) 8. Jarir, Dlwdn (ed. Cairo 1313) II 128, 13; Naka'id ed. Bevan 754, 3. 9. ZDMG LX 223. Abu Yusuf was the first to publish a tractate on such hiyal (Jahiz Eayawdn III 4, 2). And from this time on this subject forms a permanent part of the practical filch, especially in the Hanifite school. One of the earliest works of this kind by Abu Bekr Ahmed al-Khassaf (d. 261/874) the court- jurist of the caliph al-Muhtadi, is the standard work of this kind of law; this work is now also generally accessible in a Cairo edition (1314). 10. Mafdtih al-ghaib 1 411-413. 11. Kultur d. Gegenw. Ill, 16 ff. CHAPTER III. DOGMATIC DEVELOPMENT. A prophet is not a theologian. The message which he brings, springing from an impulse of his inner con- sciousness, and the conception of faith which he creates, do not present themselves as a carefully planned system. Indeed he generally defies the temptation to form a definite system. It is only in later generations, when the principles which inspired the first followers had taken deep root and led to the formation of a compact com- munity, that the efforts of those who feel themselves the chosen interpreters of the prophetic utterances,^ find acceptance, through the events taking place within the community as well as through external influences of the broader environment. These interpreters supplement and round off deficiencies in the teachings of the prophet, while often offering an incongruous interpreting of these teachings, — and ascribing meanings that were never intended by the founder. They give answers to ques- tions which had never occurred to him, remove contradic- tions which had not in the least troubled him, devise vapid formulas and erect a broad rampart of associa- tion of ideas, by means of which they endeavor to insure these formulas from internal and external attack. They then derive from the words of the prophet and often from his letters, the sum total of their well-organized and systematized doctrines, and on this ground claim these teachings as those which he had in view from the very beginning. They quarrel over them and with sharp-witted and subtle arguments polemicize in arro- gant fashion against those who, by the same means, reach other conclusions drawn from the living words of the prophet. DOGMATIC DEVELOPMENT. 85 Such efforts presuppose the canonical summary and the definite form of the prophetic utterances as a sacred writing. Dogmatic commentaries gather round the sacred texts and obscure the spirit which originally im- bued them. These commentaries are more concerned with proof than with explanation; they constitute the steady sources from which flow the speculations of the dogmatic systematizers. Very shortly after its birth Islam also enters into a like theological development. Synchronous with the events which form the subject matter of our second chapter, the religious content of Islam became an object of reflection ; parallel with the development of ritualistic speculation there arises an Islamic dogmatic theology. It would be a difficult task to build up from the Koran itself a unified system of dogma compact in itself and free from contradictions. For the most important reli- gious doctrines we obtain merely general impressions which in many of their details are contradictory. The religious conceptions reflected in the prophet's soul vary in color according to the predominating mood. Very soon therefore, the task of reconciling the theoretical difficulties arising from such contradictions was laid upon a harmonizing theology. In the case of Mohammed the search for contradic- tions in his teachings seems very early to have begun. The revelations of the prophet were even in his life- time exposed to critics who were lying in wait for its defects. The indecision, the contradictory character of his teachings, were objects of derisive remarks. As a result, however much he may once have stressed the fact that he reveals *^a clear Arabic Koran, free from deviations'' (Sura 39, v. 29; cf. 18, v. 1; 41, v. 2), in Medina he had to admit that in the divine revelation *^some of its signs are of themselves perspicuous, — these are the basis of the Book — and others are figurative. But 86 MOHAMMED AND ISLAM. they whose hearts are given to err, seek for what is perplexing to arouse unrest, yet none knoweth its inter- pretation but God. And those firm in knowledge say: *We believe in it: it is all from God our Lord' '' (Sura 3,v. 5). Such criticism of the Koran was especially marked in the next generation since not only the opponents of Islam were busy with the discovery of its weaknesses, but even in the company of the faithful the apparent contradictions in the Koran formed the subject of dis- cussion. An example will presently be introduced to show how the Koran could supply arguments both for and against one of the fundamental tenets of the reli- gion, — to wit, the question of the freedom of the will. As in all other aspects of the internal history of Islam, it is the Hadith that affords the picture of this spiritual agitation in the community. According to the Hadith the question is traced back to the time of the prophet, and he is drawn into the discussion. In reality the question belongs to the time of budding theological reflection. The Hadith claims that the faithful began troubling the prophet himself by pointing out the dog- matic contradictions in the Koran. Such debates aroused his wrath. ^^The Koran,'' he says, *^was not revealed so that you should fight one part as a weapon against another, as earlier people did with the revela- tions of their prophets. In the Koran rather, one thing corroborates the other. Act according to that which you understand; that which arouses perplexity in you, take on faith. "^ The view of the naive believer is announced as the word of the prophet. Such is the Hadith 's method. II. It was partly owing to political conditions, and partly to the impelling effect of external contact that the group of earlier adherents, little accustomed to dogmatic subtleties, was forced to take a stand in regard DOGMATIC DEVELOPMENT. ^ to the questions to which the Koran gives no direct or definite answer. As a proof that it was the political situation which gave rise to the internal dogmatic issues, we may point to the Omayyad revolution which offered the first occa- sion in the history of Islam, to pass beyond the discussion of new political conditions and public law, to the domain of theology and to decide from the viewpoint of religious requirements, the constitution of the organization. At this stage we must once more come back to a point in the earlier history of Islam that we have already touched upon in the preceding chapter, namely the ques- tion of the religious character of the Omayyad rule. The view formerly current regarding the relationship of the Omayyads to the religion of Islam may now be regarded as entirely set aside. Following Islamic his- torical traditions, the Omayyads and the spirit of their government were formerly harshly contrasted with the religious requirements of Islam. The rulers of this dynasty, its governors and government officials, were represented as heirs of the old enemies of rising Islam, against which the old spirit, of the Koreish hostility, or at least of indifference toward Islam, revived in new forms. To be sure they were not pietists and strict observers. The life at their court did not accord in every thing with that narrowing, self-denying standard which the pious expected the heads of the Moslem state to uphold, and the details of which they proclaimed in their Hadiths as laws imposed by the prophet. While it is true that stories of the details of the pious practices of some of them have come down to us,^ they surely would not come up to the standard of the pietists whom the Medina government under Abu Bekr and ^Omar held up as ideals. We cannot deny to them the consciousness that they 88 MOHAMMED AND ISLAM. stood as Caliphs or Imams at tlie head of a kingdom built up on the basis of religious revolution, and that they regarded themselves as faithful followers of Islam.^ To be sure, there is a wide gulf between their ideas of the government of the Islamic state, and the pietistic expectations of the strict observers who witnessed their deeds with impotent displeasure, and to whose partisans we owe to a great extent the transmission of their his- tory. In the estimation of '' readers of the Koran'' they failed to comprehend their duty to Islam. Their idea was to lead Islam into new paths. One of their strongest advocates,— the ill-famed Hajaj ibn Yusuf,— reflects their attitude when he makes a scoffing remark about the **ancien regime" by the sick-bed of 'Omar's son.^ It is undoubtedly a new system which enters with them. The Omayyads frankly viewed Islam ''from the political side by which he had united the Arabians and led them to the conquest of the world. "^ The satisfac- tion which they find in the religion is largely based on the fact that through Islam "great fame has been attained, the rank and the inheritance of the people have been secured."^ They considered it their task, as rulers, to maintain and spread, both at home and abroad, this political power of Islam, and in this way rendered a service to religion. Whoever opposes them is treated as a rebel against Islam, much as the Israelite King Ahab treated the zealous prophets as "okher Jisra'el," troubler of Israel (I Kings, 18 :17). When they are fight- ing insurgents, who base their revolt on religious grounds, they are convinced that they are dutifully using the sword to punish the enemies of Islam, in the interests of Islamic progress and stability.^ Even when they attacked sacred cities, and directed their missiles against the Ka' ba, an act which for centuries their pious enemies laid at their door as a heinous profanation, they them- selves believed that whenever the needs of the state DOGMATIC DEVELOPMENT. 89 demanded it, the enemies of Islam should be punished, and the revolutionary movements, directed against the unity, and the internal power of the state, should be quelledJ All those who in any way disturbed the unity of the state, consolidated by the statesmanship of this caliphate, w^ere regarded by it as enemies of Islam. In spite of all their partiality for the prophet's family the proof of which Lammens, in his recent work on Mu^awiyya's^ dynasty, was the first to collect, they oppose the ^Aliite pretenders, who were threatening their state. \y They do not shun the day of Kerbela, whose bloody field ' furnishes to the present time the subject of martyr- ologies of their bitter Shiitic opponents. The interests of Islam were not to be separated from those of the state. The attainment of power was identical with religious success. Their faithful followers appre- ciated their acts as performed in the interest of Islam. In the panegyrics of the poets belonging to their group they are continually celebrated as the defenders of Islam. Among their partisans there were groups who even went so far as to attach to their person the same reli- gious sanctification which the champions of the rights of the family of the prophet ascribed to the ^Allite pretenders, by virtue of their holy descent.^ This was not the view of those pious people who dreamt of a kingdom not of this world and who under various pretexts opposed the Omayyad dynasty and the spirit of its government. According to the judgment of most of them this dynasty rested on a sin that became a hereditary element. The new government was unlawful and irreligious in the eyes of those dream- ers. It did not accord with their theocratic ideals, and appeared a hindrance to the practical realization of the kingdom of God for which they were striving. In its very beginnings it curtailed the rights of the holy family of the prophet and in its political activities showed 90 MOHAMMED AND ISLAM. itself absolutely reckless toward the sanctuaries of Islam. .Moreover in the estimation of the pious, the rulers of this dynasty did not in their personal bearing, rigidly conform to the ideal law of Islam, and were regarded as people, ^^who,'' as the first ^Aliite pre- tender Husein, the grandson of the prophet is reported to have said, ' ' obey Satan, and forsake God, are publicly corrupt, thwart divine commands, appropriate to them- selves an unlawful share of the booty of war,^^ permit that which is forbidden by God, and forbid that which is permitted by him.''^^ They forsake the sacred Sunna and issue arbitrary decrees, that run counter to religious ordinances.^^ The imperative demand of the irreconcilable religious party was, that such people should be strenuously opposed, or that at least every sign of recognition of their rule should be passively withheld. It was easy to maintain such a position, but all the more difficult to convert the theory into practice. How- ever, the welfare of the state, and the interest of the religious community being regarded as the first concern, it was imperative to avoid all agitation, and therefore to endure the existing government. Their appeal to the judgment of God, expressed in pious curses,^^ proved an impotent weapon. That which God tolerates, man may not oppose. He may cling to the hope that God will in the future fill with righteousness the world which now is filled with unrighteousness. Out of these silent hopes arose the Mahdi idea, the firm belief in the future resurrection of a theocratic ruler divinely guided {as a reconciliation between the actual and the ideal). We will return to this later on. (Chapter V, 12.) One of the external indications of authority in Islam was a function connected with the theocratic character of the prince, — the function which the ruler or his substitute fulfilled as leader in public worship, — i. e., of the Imam, DOGMATIC DEVELOPMENT. 91 the liturgical head. However much it might irritate the pious to behold the representative of godlessness in this sacred role, — from which a state of intoxication even did not debar them, — they reconciled themselves to it. It was permissible, in the interests of peace in the state, to perform one's saldt (prayer) standing behind the pious and the evil-doer. On this formula the tolerance of the pious was based. But they did not aU stop at this passive attitude. The question had to be adjusted on principle also. The experiences of daily life, the convictions of the irreconcil- able advocates of religious demands, forced into prom- inence the question as to whether it was altogether right to exclude entirely from the faith the transgressor of law and to regard oneself as forced to submit to power. They are, after all, Moslems who confess God and the prophet with their hearts as well as their lips. It is true, they are guilty of infringing the law which was looked upon as disobedience and insubordination, nevertheless, they are believers. A large party answered this question in a sense which accorded much more with the demands of actual conditions, than the average standpoint of passive tolerance. They advanced the theory that it is a question of confession. To the believer practices can- not be harmful, any more than lawful deeds can be of use to the unbeliever. Fiat applicatio. The Omayyads, then, must be looked upon as truly good Moslems ; they were to be recognized as ahl al-hihla, included among the people who turn toward the Kibla (the Ka'ba in Mecca) in prayer, and who thereby confess themselves, as of the company of the true believers. The scruples of the pious, it was held, were quite without foundation. The party, whose followers theoretically set up this tolerant teaching, called themselves Miirji'a}^ The word means ''postponers,'' that is to say they did not pretend to judge the fate of men, but left it to God to sit in 92 MOHAMMED AND ISLAM. judgment on them.^^ As to their temporal relations they were satisfied with the knowledge of their incorporation in the community of the faithful.^^ A similar tolerant judgment had already prevailed in an earlier period of internal strife, when those debating, at the time, the stormy question as to whether 'Othman or ^Ali were to be regarded as orthodox or sinner, and in the latter case unworthy of the caliphate, did not take a partisan attitude but left the decision of the question to God.^"^ Such a modest view naturally did not suit the pious element who saw vain ungodliness and disgrace in the ruling politics of the state and in those who advocated them. Moreover the indulgent views of the Murjis were in direct opposition to those of the followers of the ^Allite claims, with their idea of a theocratic state, founded on divine right and to be ruled by the family of the prophet. For this reason the Murjis and the followers of *Ali stand in sharp opposition to one another.^ ^ The opposition to another seditious move- ment was much more decisive. As the successes of the Omayyads increased and the objections of the opposing party culminated, certain of the Murji' partisans took occasion to define their principles, to go one step farther in their declarations and definitely to waive the charge of heresy against the ruling dynasty. This was all the more possible since the Kharijites (to be men- tioned again later — Chapter V, 2), the bitterest political opponents of the existing form of government, were troubling the kingdom with the rebellious assertion that it was not simply a question of general belief, but that the commission of serious transgressions should merci- lessly exclude men from the faith. What then shall be said for the poor Omayyads, who were considered by the KHiarijites as the worst legal transgressors?^^ The reason for the origin of this dissension, which goes DOGMATIC DEVELOPMENT. 93 back to the early days of Islam, though a definite date cannot be set for it, is accordingly to be found in the peculiarity of the political form and in the position which the various social strata of the Moslem people adopted // in regard to it. The discussion of the question as to what role should be accorded to the 'amal, — works, — in the qualification of a Moslem as such, did not arise first of all from any dogmatic need.^^ A time, however, came in which the state is no longer primarily interested in the answer to this question. It thereupon becomes a question of common academic interest and further complicated by the addition of some dogmatic minutiae and subtleties. If ^Svorks'' do not form a necessary element in the definition of ortho- doxy, — say the opponents, — then a hair-splitting Murji^ might conclude that a person could not be branded as a kafir because he bows before the sun : such a deed is only a sign of unbelief, not unbelief in itself (kufr).-^ One particular question of dogmatic difference about which the Islamic theologians were constantly indulging in sophistries, developed from the Murji'ite mode of thought: is it possible to distinguish iri~the true faith, between an accurately graded more or less I Naturally according to the opinion of the people who do not regard practice as an integral part of Islamic qualifications, such a distinction does not hold. It is not a question of extent. Belief cannot be measured by ells, nor can it be weighed in the balance. On the other hand, those who consider practice as well as confession, a necessary ele- ment in the definition of a true Moslem, admit the possi- bility of an arithmetic measurement of the extent of belief. The Koran itself, indeed, speaks of the 'increase of belief ^^ (Sura 3, v. 167; 8, v. 2; 9, v. 125) and of guidance (Sura 47, v. 19). The larger or smaller extent of belief is measured by the larger or smaller amount of * * works. ' ^ Orthodox Islamic theology is not theoretically 94 MOHAMMED AND ISLAM. a unit on this question. Side by side with dogmatists who wish to hear nothing concerning a plus or minus in relation to belief, there are also those who hold to the formula : ^ ^ Faith is confession and works, it can be there- fore added to or diminished. ' '^^ It depends indeed on the direction of one's orthodoxy. Thus a controversial question which arose on political ground ended in such finesses as these.^^ III. Nevertheless about the same time there arose in connection with another question, the beginnings of truly dogmatic interest. In general those discussing these questions did not indulge in sophistries as to whether this or that person could be regarded as a true believer. They maintained, however, with an extraordinarily definite view of their own beliefs, a very definite position toward the naive beliefs of the people not given to reflection. The first unsettling of naive belief in Islam is not contemporaneous with the entrance of scientific specula- tion, as though a result of the latter. It is not due to growing intellectualism. It appears, rather, to have been called forth through a deeper insight into questions of belief: through piety, and not through unrestrained thought. The idea of absolute dependence had given rise to the grossest representations of the deity. Allah is an unre- strained potentate: ^4ie cannot be questioned as to what he does'' (Sura 21, v. 23). Man is a plaything in his hands, without a will of his own. One must be con- vinced that the will of Allah cannot be measured by human will, bounded by limitations of all kinds, and that human ability crumples into nothing beside the unlimited will of Allah and his absolute power. This power of Allah dominates the human will. Man can wish only where Allah guides his will; and this is true also with regard to his moral acts. Concerning these his will is DOGMATIC DEVELOPMENT. ^ determined by the almighty power and eternal decree of God. But the faithful must clearly understand that Allah does not constrain man. They must not imagine him as zalim, unjust or tyrannical or exerting such power as would mar the conception of even a human ruler. Indeed, it is in connection with reward and punishment that the Koran repeatedly asserts that Allah does no injustice toward anyone, not even so much as a fibre of a date (kernel) (Sura 4, v. 52) or ^^as a pit in the seed'' (v. 123) ; ^Hhat he lays no burden on anyone which cannot be borne ; that he has a book which speaks the truth, and no injustice will reach them" (Sura 23, v. 64). ^^And Allah has created heaven and earth in truth, and in order to reward each soul according to what it deserves, and injustice shall not reach them'' (Sura 45, v. 21). But, on the other hand, the pious man must raise the question whether there can be a greater injustice than to punish actions, the definite will to perform which does not lie within the range of human ability; is it conceiv- able that God should rob man of all freedom and self- determination in action, determine his behaviour even to the smallest details, take from the sinner the possi- bility of doing good, ^^seal up his heart, spread a thick covering over his sight and hearing" (Sura 2, v. 6) and then in spite of this punish him on account of his diso- bedience, condemn him to eternal torture ? By virtue of an exaggerated feeling of dependence, many very pious Moslems preferred to imagine their God as such an arbitrary being. The sacred book afforded them many a support for this. The Koran has many parallels to the account of the hardening of Pharoah's heart, also many passages which in varying languages convey the thought that whom God wishes to guide, his heart he expands for Islam, and whom he desires to deceive, his breast he makes narrow, as if he wished to / 96 MOHAMMED AND ISLAM. scale the heavens (Sura 6, v. 125). No soul can believe unless God decrees (Sura 10, v. 100). There is no single teaching for which the Koran allows such contradictory interpretations as this very question. In opposition to the many definite utterances of the prophet, there were brought forward many expressions in which it is not Allah who is represented as the deceiver, but Satan, the evil enemy and treacherous tempter (Sura 22, v. 4; 35, v. 5-6; 41, v. 36; 43, v. 35; 58, V. 20) since Adam (2, v. 34; 38, v. 83 ff). And he who wished to champion man's complete freedom of will, not even threatened by Satan, could find innumerable unequivocal passages in the same Koran from which the very opposite of the servum arbitrium can be inferred. Man's good and evil deeds are characteristically desig- nated as his ^ ' acquisition, " that is actions which he has secured through his own efforts (e. g.. Sura 3, v. 24 et als). **What they have acquired (of evil) lies on their hearts like rust" (Sura 83, v. 14). And even when it is a question of the ** sealing up of the heart," this is made to agree with the thought that they *^ follow their inclination" (Sura 47, v. 15, 18). Desire leads man into sin (Sura 38, v. 25). God does not harden the hearts of sinners, but '^they become hard (through their own wickedness) . . . they are like a stone, or still harder" (Sura 2, v. 69). Satan himself rejects the imputation that he leads man astray; man errs (through himself) (Sura 50, v. 26). And the same conception is confirmed by historical examples. God says, for example, that he ^* guided the wicked people of the Thamouds in the right path: And as to Thamoud, we had vouchsafed them guidance, but to guidance did they prefer blindness, wherefore the tempest of a shameful punishment over- took them for their doings. But we rescued the believing and the God-fearing" (Sura 41, v. 16). That is: God had guided them, they did not follow ; of their own free DOGMATIC DEVELOPMENT. 97 will they sinned against God's decree, tliey freely cliose evil. God guides man into the path; but it depends on man whether he gratefully submits to the guidance or obstinately rejects it (Sura 76, v. 3). ^^Each man acts in his own way'' (Sura 17, v. 86). ^^The truth is from your God, let him who will believe, and let him who will be infidel" (Sura 18, v. 28). '^This truly is a warn- ing: And whoso willeth, taketh the way to his Lord" (Sura 76, v. 29). In this also God does not stand in the way of the wicked. He gives them the power and disposition to do evil, just as he grants the good the disposition, smooths the path to do good (Sura 92, v. 7, 10). In this connection I should like to take the oppor- tunity for a remark, which is not unimportant to the understanding of the problem of free-will in the i^oran. Many of those expressions of Mohammed which are generally quoted to prove that it is God himself who is the cause of the sinfulness of man, and leads him into error, will appear in a different light if we consider more carefully the meaning of the word which is gen- erally used to express this ^ heading astray." If, in many passages of the Koran it is said *^ Allah guides v/hom he will, and lets whom he will go astray," such passages do not imply that God directly brings the latter class into the evil path. The decisive word adalla is not to be taken in such a connection, as meaning to ^4ead astray," but to allow to go astray, not to trouble about a person, not to show him the way out. ^^We let them (nadaruhum) wander in his disobedience" (Sura 6, v. 110). Let us conjure up the picture of a lonely wanderer in the desert, — it is from this idea that the language of the Koran concerning leading and wandering has sprung. The wanderer errs in a boundless expanse, gazing about for the right direction to his goal. So is man in his wanderings through life. He who, through faith and 98 MOHAMMED AND ISLAM. good works, has deserved the good will of God; him he rewards with his guidance. He lets the evil-doer go astray. He leaves him to his fate and takes his protec- tion from him. He does not offer him the guiding hand, but he does not bring him directly to the evil path. For this reason the figure of blindness and groping about is often used for sinners. They do not see and must there- fore wander without plan or goal. Since no leader comes to their aid, they fall irrevocably into destruction. * * Now have proofs that may be seen come to you from your Lord, whoso seeth them, the advantage will be his own : and whoso is blind to them, his own will be the loss'' (Sura 6, v. 104). Why did he not make use of the light offered him? ^^ Assuredly we have sent down the Book to thee for man and for the ends of truth. Whoso shall be guided by it — it will be for his own advantage, — and whoso shall err, shall only err to his own loss" (Sura 39, V. 42). This abandoning of man to himself, — the withdrawal of God's care, is a prominent thought in the Koran with regard to those who because of their former life make themselves unworthy of divine grace. It is said of God that he forgets the wicked, because they forget him, the conclusion is consistently drawn that God forgets the sinner (Sura 7, v. 49; 9, v. 68; 45, v. 33), i. e., he does not concern himself with him. Guidance is a reward of the good. ^' Allah does not guide the wicked" (Sura 9, v. 110). He allows them to wander aimlessly. Unbelief is not the result, but the cause of straying (Sura 47, v. 9; especially 61, v. 5). Indeed, *^Whom God leaves in error, he does not find the right path" (Sura 42, v. 45) and ^'whom he leaves in error that one has no leader" (Sura 40, v. 35) and goes headlong to destruction (Sura 7, V. 177). It is everywhere the withdrawal of grace as a punishment that is the cause of godlessness, and not the circumstance of being led astray. The early Moslems DOGMATIC DEVELOPMENT. 99 who stood close to the original points of view both real- ized and felt this. It is said in a Hadith, ^'The heart of him who contemptuously neglects three Friday serv- ices {tahdivunan) is sealed by God.''^ By the sealing of the heart is understood a condition into which man falls only after the neglect of religious demands. An old prayer which the prophet taught Husein, the neophyte who embraced Islam, runs: ^^0, Allah, teach me my right path and guard me from the evils of my own soul, ' '^ i. e., do not leave me to my own devices, but extend to me a guiding hand. This is not a question of misleading. The feeling that to be abandoned to oneself is the direst kind of divine punishment is expressed in an ancient Moslem oath, ^^If my declaration prove untrue (in cases of assertion), or if I do not keep my promise (in promis- sory oaths), then may God cut me off from his care and strength and leave me to my own care and strength,''^ i. e., may he withdraw his hand from me, so that I am obliged to see how I can get along, deprived of his guidance and help. It is in this sense that we are to understand the allowing of a sinner to go astray^ — and not that he has been led astray. IV. We have seen that the Koran can be used in the defense of the most contradictory views in regard to one of the most important, fundamental questions of religious and ethical knowledge. Hubert Grimme, who has gone very deeply into the analysis of the theology of the Koran, has found a view which can help us out of this confusion. He thinks that the contradictorv teachings which Mohammed gave concerning the freedom of the will and the choice of grace, belong to different epochs of his life and correspond to the impressions made upon him by his environment and experiences of the time. In the first Meccan period he takes the standpoint of com- plete freedom of will and responsibility. In Medina, how- ever, he tends more and more to the teaching of the lack 100 MOHAMMED AND ISLAM. of freedom and of the servum arbitrium. The crassest teachings on this subject appear toward the close of his life.^ Provided the chronological order could be surely carried out, this view could serve as a guide for those who can consider it historically. "We cannot, however, expect this from the early Moslems, who had to thread their way through the contradictory teachings, to declare themselves for one or another of the conflicting views and to evolve some sort of harmony out of the opposing opinions. The attitude of dependence which is prom- inent in the whole of the Moslem system was undoubtedly favorable to the denial of the freedom of the will. Virtue and iniquity, reward and punishment, should be entirely dependent on God's gracious choice. Man's will was not to be considered. Very early, however (we can trace the movement to about the end of the seventh century), such a tyrannical conception disturbed the pious mind, which could not rest content with the unjust God implied in the current point of view. External influences also contributed to the rise and growing confirmation of the pious views. The earliest protest against unlimited predestination finds its home in Syrian Islam. Kremer- forcibly points out the fact, that the early Moslem teachers were incited by their Christian theological environment to question unbounded determinism. For already in the Eastern Church the disputes over this point were absorbing the attention of the theologians. Damascus, the seat of Moslem learning at the time of the Omayyad caliphate, became the centre of the discussion of kadar^ fatalism, and from here it was rapidly disseminated. Pious views were put forward to establish the con- tention that man in his ethical and legal acts cannot be the slave of an unchangeable predestination, but rather that he is himself the author of his own acts and so DOGMATIC DEVELOPMENT. 101 becomes the cause of his salvation or his condemnation. The motto of these people later became Jchalk al-afdl — creation of acts. Because they limited the scope of kadar the}^ came to be known as Kadarites, on the prin- ciple of lucus a non lucendo. On the other hand they called their opponents ^'people of blind compulsion'' (jabr) Jabarites... This was the earliest dogmatic dis- sention within ancient Islam. Although the Koran could supply both parties with arguments, still a mythological tradition, which either developed very early as a kind of hagada in Islam, or perhaps first appeared in the course of these disputes, — exact dates cannot be furnished — favored the deter- minists. According to this, immediately after the creation of Adam, God took from his bodily substance, — imagined as gigantic, — all his descendants in the form of small ants, and at that early time, determined the classes of the blessed and the damned, and incorporated them in the right and left side of the body of the first man. An angel appointed for this special task indicates for each separate embryo the whole fate of his life (according to an expression borrowed from India: ^^ written on his forehead'')^ ; among other things whether he is destined to be saved or condemned. The corresponding eschato- logical tradition was also developed from the standpoint of determinism. God sends the poor sinner quite arbi- trarily to Hell. The ^intercession'' attributed to the prophet is the only mitigating element here. The representations on which were based such con- ceptions, were far too deeply rooted in the popular mind, for the very contradictory teachings of the Kadarites, emphasizing free choice and full responsibility, to gain many adherents. The Kadarites defended themselves with difficulty against the attacks and opposition of the opponents who brought forward the old interpretations of the sacred text and the popular fables mentioned 102 MOHAMMED AND ISLAM. above. The Kadarite movement is of great importance in the history of Islam, as the oldest effort to free itself from inherited and prevailing conceptions, not, indeed, in the interest of freedom of thought, but in the interest of the demands of the pious mind. It is not the note of protest of the intellect against pedantic dogma which sounds from the mouth of Kadarites, but the voice of the religious conscience, protesting against an unworthy representation of God and his relations to the religious impulses of his servants. A number of traditional sayings invented to belittle them, show what opposition these tendencies encountered, how little sympathy the Kadarite ways of thought secured. As in other cases, here also an effort is made to base the general orthodox feeling on the teaching of the prophet himself. They were the magi of the Moslem community. As the followers of Zoroaster account for evil by opposing a principle of evil to the creator of the good, so the Moslems eliminate the evil deeds of man from the sphere of Allah's creation. It is not God, but the autonomous will of man who creates disobedience. The efforts of the Kadarites to prove their thesis by alleged disputes between Mohammed and ^Ali are sharply condemned and every possible abuse and con- tumely are hurled at their heads.**^ Another remarkable fact appears here. Even the rulers in Damascus, who ordinarily showed very little interest in dogmatic questions, were greatly annoyed by the Kadarite movement spreading in Syrian Islam. They sometimes took an outspoken stand against those who advocated the freedom of the will.* These declarations of opinion by the rulers who were busy with the great work of building up a new state, did not perhaps find their motive in aversion to theological wrangling. To be sure, men who are struggling with DOGMATIC DEVELOPMENT, 103 extensive plans for the development of a state, and had to fight enemies of the dynasty on all sides, must have found it quite disagreeable to have the minds of the masses aroused by subtleties over the freedom of the will and self-determinism. Strong dominating person- alities are not apt to be pleased with the reasoning of the masses. There was a deeper reason for the Omay- yads to foresee a danger in the weakening of the dogma of fatalism, — not a danger to faith, but to their own politics. They knew perfectly well that their dynasty was a thorn in the flesh of the pious, of those very men who, on account of their piety, possessed the hearts of the com- mon people. They knew very well that to many of their subjects they were usurpers who had seized the reins of government by tyrannical force and were looked upon as enemies of the prophet's family, murderers of holy persons, profaners of the sacred places. There was one belief which was best fitted to restrain the people and prevent a movement against them and their representa- tives, — the belief in fate. God had decided from all eternity that these people should reign, and all their deeds were absolutely decreed by fate. It was very acceptable to them to have such views take hold of the people. They listened with pleasure when their poets praised them in terms which recognized their rule as willed by God, as a decretum divinum. The faithful could not resist this. The poets of the Omayyad caliphs, therefore, praised their princes as rulers: ^^ whose rule was foreordained by the eternal decree of God.'^^ When the acts of the rulers appeared tyrannical and unjust, this dogma served to satisfy the people, as well as to legitimatize the dynasty. The submissive subjects should regard ^^the Emir-al-mu' minin and his oppressive acts in the light of fate, whose acts no one should criti- 104 MOHAMMED AND ISLAM. cise/'^ These are the words of a poet of the gruesome deeds of an Omayyad prince, and follow them as an echo. The belief was to take root that all acts must neces- sarily occur as decreed by God, and it was impossible for the will of man to prevent them. ^ ^ These Kings ' ' accord- ing to some of the older Kadarites, ^^shed the blood of the true believers, unjustly seize the goods of others, and claim, ^ our deeds spring from kadar. ' ' '" The Omayyad caliph ^Abdalmalik, who confirmed himself in power after a severe struggle, locked one of his rivals in his palace and murdered him with the approval of his ^^ palace'' priest. He then had the head of the murdered man thrown into the crowd of followers of his victim, who were awaiting his return before the palace. The caliph sent word to them: ^^The prince of the faithful has killed your lord, as it was ordained in the eternal destiny of fate and in the unchangeable divine decree . . . '' Thus runs the tale. Naturally it was impossible to resist the divine decree of which the caliph was the only instrument. Everyone acquiesced and did homage to the murderer of the man, whom but a short time before, they had considered a true believer. Even though this may not be implicitly accepted as history, it can nevertheless testify to the connection claimed between the acts of the government and inevitable fate. I must not, indeed, omit the fact that the appeal to the divine decree was accompanied by a number of dirhems, which were to mitigate the horror of the spectators at the sight of the head of ^Amr ibn Sa'id which was thrown into the crowd.^ The Kadarite movement during the Omayyad dynasty is the first stage on the way to a weakening of universal Mohammedan orthodoxy. This is its greatest historical service, even though this was not contemplated by it. This significance of the movement must justify me in DOGMATIC DEVELOPMENT. 105 discussing its various aspects at such length in this lecture. Soon, however, the breach which had now been made in the customary na'ive belief of the people, was to widen and be spread over a wider area by the criti- cisms of the usual forms of belief, in so far as this was made possible by intellectual and spiritual growth. V. In the meantime the Moslem world had become acquainted with Aristotle's philosophy which greatly a:ffected the religious thought of many of the learned. However much the effort was made to reconcile the religious traditions with the newly acquired tenets of philosophy, Islam was threatened with immeasurable danger. But in certain points it seemed almost impos- sible to connect Aristotle, even in his Neo-Platonic garb, with the premises of Moslem faith. Belief in the creation of the world in time, in special providence, and in mira- cles, was not to be vindicated by Aristotle's philosophy. In order to preserve Islam and its tradition for the chosen, however, there developed a new speculative system, known in the history of philosophy as kalam and whose advocates are called Mutakallimun, At its origin the word 7nutaJcaUirn — ^literally 'speaker' — was used to i indicate one who takes up some dogma or dogmatic I problem, and adduces speculative proofs for his con- tentions. Accordingly miitakallim entails as a supple- ment the special question with which the speculative activity of the theologian is concerned. For example any one who discusses those questions raised by the Murji' would be called: ''min al-mutakallimma fi-1-irja."^ The term, however, is soon expanded to designate those ' ' who take up the doctrines which are accepted in religious beliefs as truths not to be subjected to discussion, and make them objects of discussion and argument, and formulate them so that they may become plausible to thinking minds." Speculative activity in this direction then received the name of 'kaldm (speech, oral discus- 106 MOHAMMED AND ISLAM. sion). According to its tendency of serving as a sup- port of religious teachings, kalam passed from the anti Aristotelian premises, and came to mean, in the true sense of the word, a philosophy of religion. Its oldest adherents are called Mu'tazilites, This word indicates ^Hhose who separate themselves.'^ It is not necessary to repeat the fable generally cited in explanation of the motive for this appellation, it is suffi- cient to accept as the right explanation of it the fact that the origin of this party lay in pious impulses. It was pious, partly ascetic people, mu^tazila, i. e., ^Hhose who withdrew themselves'' — ascetics^ — who gave the first impetus to that movement, which through the accession of rationalistic circles came more and more into opposi- tion to the predominating beliefs. In their final development only, do they justify the name of * * freethinkers in Islam, ' ' a name given to them by the Zurich professor Heinrich Steiner, who was the first (1865) to write a monograph on this school.^ They start from religious motives like their predecessors, the old Kadarites. In their beginnings the Mu^tazila do not show the slightest tendency to free themselves from uncomfortable bonds, to break away from the strict orthodox conception of life. It is not a sign of great mental exaltation, that one of the first questions consid- ered by the Mu' tazila and settled in their own mind is whether, in contradistinction to the Murji' conception, the commission of ^* major sins" constitutes essentially kafir^ and accordingly, liability to eternal punishment, to the same degree as does unbelief. It introduces into dogma the notion of a middle ground between the believer and the unbeliever, — strange subtleties for philosophical minds ! Wasil ibn ^Ata, who, in the history of Islamic dogma, is called the founder of the Mu* tazila, is described as an ascetic by his biographers. In an elegy he is praised as DOGMATIC DEVELOPMENT. 107 one who ''never touched either a dinar or a dirhem''^ and his comrade also, ' Amr ihn 'JJheid, is designated as an ascetic (zahid) who spent whole nights in prayer, performed the pilgrimage to Mecca forty times on foot, and always looked as mournful * ' as if he had just come from the burial of his parents/' There is extant a pious ascetic exhortation of his, very well written, directed to the Caliph al-Mansur, in which we notice nothing of a rationalistic tendency.^ If the ''classes'' of Mu'tazilites be examined, it will be found that for a considerable period^ their asceticism holds an important place in the noted peculiarities of many of these people. In the religious points of view which their teachings especially advanced— the lessening of the omnipotence of God in favor of the demands of justice— there were indications of the beginnings of opposition to the cur- rently accepted orthodoxy, many important considera- tions, which could easily attract even sceptics to their side. The connection with the kalam soon gives a ration- alistic color to their modes of thought, and leads them more and more in the direction of rationalistic aims, the development of which on the part of the Mu'tazilites brings them into a steadily growing attitude of opposi- tion to the general orthodoxy. In our final summary of them it will be found that they labor under the disadvantage of many unsympa- thetic traits. One service, however, they undoubtedly rendered. They were the first to broaden the religious sources of knowledge in Islam so as to embrace reason, 'akl, which had been until then strictly avoided in this religion. Some of their most distinguished adherents go so far as to say that "the first condition of knowledge is doubt."' "Fifty doubts are better than one cer- tainty,"* and other expressions of this order. One could say of them that according to their method there was a sixth sense, the ' ahl (reason^). They made it the 108 MOHAMMED AND ISLAM. criterion in matters of belief. One of their older adher- ents, Bishr ibn al-Mu' tamir from Baghdad, in a didactic poem on natural history, preserved and commentated upon by his associate Jahiz, dedicates a true hymn of praise to reason: How beautiful is reason as an emissary and comrade in evil and good! As a judge who decides on that which is absent, as one judges that which is present ; .... some of its deeds, that it decides between the good and the evil ; Through the possession of powers which God has distinguished with unsullied holiness and purity.^*^ Many of those who carried skepticism to the extreme, assigned to the testimony of our senses as low a place as possible among the criteria of knowledge.^ ^ At any rate they were the first in the theology of Islam to emphasize the right of Reason. In doing this, it is true, they radically strayed from their point of departure. In its highest point of development it characterizes a reckless criticism of those elements of the popular belief, which had long been regarded as an indispensable part of orthodox confession. They caviled at the rhetorical inaccessibility of the terms of the Koran, at the authen- ticity of the Hadith, in which the documents of popular belief take shape. Their negation directed itself espe- cially within this system, against the mythological ele- ments of eschatology. The accounts of the Sirat-bridge, as fine as a hair and as sharp as a sword, over which the faithful pass into paradise with the swiftness of light- ning, while those destined to condemnation, in attempting to pass with uncertain steps, fall into the yawning abyss of hell; of the waves on which the deeds of men are tossed; and many other such presentations are elimi- DOGMATIC DEVELOPMENT. 109 nated by them from the group of obligatory beliefs, and explained allegorically. The predominating view which guided them in their \ religious philosophy was the purification of the mono- theistic conception of God from all obscurity and dis- figurement to which it had been subjected in the tradi- tional popular belief, especially in two directions, — the ethical and the metaphysical. All representations which are derogatory to the belief in his justice must be dis- carded. The God idea must be purified of all representa- tions which could obscure his absolute unity, singleness and unchangeableness. They nevertheless cling to the idea of the creative, active, foreseeing God and protest strongly against the Aristotelian idea of God. The Aristotelian teachings concerning the eternity of the world, the confession of the inviolability of the laws of nature, the rejection of a providence which reaches to the individual, are divisions which differentiate these rationalistic Islamic theologians with all the freedom of their speculative activity, from the followers of the Stagirite. On account of the inadequate proofs which they advanced, they had to bear the scorn and the sar- castic criticism of the philosophers, who would neither recognize them as equal opponents, nor their method of thought as worthy of consideration.^ ^ The reflection could justifiably be made on their course of action, that philosophical independence and the lack of an hypothesis were quite foreign to them; for they are fettered by a positive religion for whose purification they wished to work through intellectual methods. As has already been mentioned, this work of purifica- tion has been applied especially to two themes, — divine justice and divine unity. Every Mu'tazilite handbook consists of two groups, — the one is embraced in the '' chapter of justice," the other ^^that of the confession of unity. ' ' This division determines the character of all 110 MOHAMMED AND ISLAM. Mu^tazilite theological literature. Because of this trend in their religious philosophical efforts, they have given themselves the name of ^^ people of justice and of the confession of unity. ' ' In the historical sequence in which these questions appear, the question of justice takes the first place. They attach themselves directly to the prop- ositions of the Kadarites, which are further developed by the Mu' tazilites. They start from the claim that man has unlimited freedom of will in his deeds, that he him- self is creator of his actions. Otherwise it would be unjust for God to hold him responsible. In the conclusion drawn from this fundamental idea, set up as an axiom, they go farther than the Kadarites, While inscribing on their banners the dogma of man's free will, and rejecting the idea of God's arbitrariness, they further maintain in connection with the conception of God that he is necessarily just. The notion of justice is not to be separated from the conception of God. No act of God can be thought of which does not correspond to the terms of justice. God's universal power has one limit and that is in the demands of justice, from which it cannot escape, which it cannot remove. Through this method of reasoning, there is introduced into the conception of God an idea that was quite for- i eign to ancient Islam, that of necessity. There are things V in relation to God which are designated as necessity. God must, is an assertion which from the point of view c of ancient Islam would have appeared as a striking ^ absurdity, if not indeed as blasphemy. Since God created man with a view to happiness, he was obliged to send prophets to teach the ways and means of attaining hap- piness. This was not the result of his sovereign will, a divine gift which his absolute independent will could have withheld ; it was a necessary act of the divine good- will. He could not be conceived as a being whose deeds are good, unless he had given mankind a chance to be guided. DOGMATIC DEVELOPMENT. Ill He had to reveal himself through prophets. He himself admitted this necessity in the Koran. ^^It rests upon Allah (it is his obligation) to lead into the right path/' — so they explain Sura 16, v. 9.^^ By the side of this conception of necessity, another very closely affiliated with it is introduced into the con-i ception of God, namely that of utility. God's decrees contemplate the good of man, and this again by virtue of necessity. Man can freely accept or reject these teach- ings, revealed for his own good. But the just God must reward the good and punish the evil. The orthodox fancy concerning his arbitrary wish to people paradise and hell according to his caprice, and the harsh fact that virtue and obedience offered no guarantee to the just for future reward, were eliminated through an oppor- tunism whose implications God necessarily fulfills. They emphasize the law of compensation which be- comes another limit to God's arbitrariness, as set up by orthodox conception. The just, who suffer undeserved trouble and pain here on earth, in as much as God neces- sarily appears to them as useful and beneficial, must be recompensed in the other world. In itself this was nothing particularly characteristic. By a modification of the critical little word ^'must" it was made to accord with an orthodox postulate. But many of the Mu'tazil- ites applied this postulate not only to true believers, or to innocent children, who have been subjected to unde- served pain and suffering here on earth, but also to animals. Animals must be recompensed in another existence for the suffering which the selfishness and cruelty of man imposes upon them here. Otherwise God is not just. We thus obtain, as it were, a transcendental protection of animals — an instance of the consistency with which they carry out their doctrine of the justice of God and how, in the last resort they set up in opposition to man free in his choice, a God who in a certain sense 112 MOHAMMED AND ISLAM. lacks freedom. Closely affiliated with this view is another conception in the domain of ethics. To the ques- tion, what from an ethical religious point of view is good and what is evil, or according to theological terminology, what is beautiful and what ugly, the orthodox answers : the ' ' good-beautiful ' ' is what God commands ; the ' ' evil- U2:iv" is what God forbids. The absolute divine will and its decrees are the measure of good and evil. There is nothing inherently good, or inherently evil. Murder is to be condemned because God has forbidden it. It would not be evil if divine law had not stamped it as such. Not so the Mu^tazilite. For him there is absolute good and absolute e\dl, and reason offers the measure for this judgment. This is the premise and not the divine will. A thing is not good because God has commanded it, but God has ordained it because it is good. If we could change these definitions of the theologians of Basra and Baghdad into modern terms, would it not amount to this ; that God is bound in his giving of laws by the categorical IMPERATR'E ! VI. We are thus confronted with a series of ideas and fundamental principles which are well adapted to show that the opposition of the Mu^tazilites to the simple- beliefs of orthodoxy, is concerned not only with meta- physical questions, but that the conclusions dra^vn b^^ them enter deeply into fundamental ethical conceptions, and in positive Islam are of decisive importance in \T.ews concerning divine legislation. But they had much more to accomplish in the other field, which forms the object of their rationalistic reli- gious philosophy, namely in the field of the monotheistic idea. Within this field they first had to clear away a lot of rubbish which had obscured the purity of the idea. In the first place they strove to efface the anthropomor- phic conceptions of traditional orthodoxy, as incompatible with a worthy view of God. Orthodoxy would not listen toi DOGMATIC DEVELOPMENT. 113 any but the literal interpretation of the anthropomorphic and anthropopathic expressions of the Koran and of tra- ditional texts. God's seeing, hearing, anger, smile, his rising and sitting, even his hands, feet and ears, which are mentioned so often in the Koran and other texts, were to be taken in a literal sense. The Hanbalite school contended especially for this primitive conception of God. It was Sunna to them. At most these old believers were willing to confess that while clinging to the literal inter- pretation of the text, they were unable to specify how these conceptions were to be actually thought out. They demand blind belief in the literalness of the text hild keif *^ without a how,'' whence this point of view is known as halkafa. To determine further the reason why is beyond the grasp of human powers, and men should not meddle with things which transcend the range of human thought. The names of some of the older exe- getes are preserved, by whom the assertion that God was ^^ flesh and blood," and that he had limbs, was regarded as a correct statement. It is sufficient to add that these were not by any means to be thought of as like those of man, according to the word of the Koran: ** There is nothing like unto him, and he is the hearing and seeing one" (Sura 42, v. 9). But one cannot imagine anything as actually existing, which has not substanti- ality. The conception of God as a purely spiritual being appears as atheism to these people. To be sure the Islamic anthropomorphists have some- times carried this conception to a degree incredibly coarse. Let me mention here certain facts from later times, in order to give an idea of how unrestrained such views must have been at a time when no spiritual opposi- tion had yet mitigated them. The example of an Anda- lusian theologian will show the excesses which were possible in this field. A very famous theologian from Majorca, who died in Baghdad about 524/1130, Muham- 114 MOHAMMED AND ISLAM. med ihn Sa'dun, known by the name Abu ^Amir al- Kurashi, went so far as to offer the following explana- tion of the verse of the Koran to which the heretics referred: ** * There is nothing like unto him (God)/ This means only that nothing can be compared to him in his divine essence; but as regards form, he is like you and me. That is to be taken much as the Koran verse, in which God calls upon the wives of the prophet, *0h, wives of the prophet, ye are not as other women' (Sura 33, v. 32), i. e., other women are on a lower plane of virtue, but in form they are exactly like you.'' One must confess that there is considerable blasphemy in this orthodox hermeneutics. The same authority did not recoil from the most extreme consequences. On one occasion he read the Koran verse (Sura 68, v. 42), which says of the last judgment day: *^0n the day when the thigh shall be bared, and they shall be called to worship." And in order to refute as energetically as possible any metaphorical explanation of this sentence, Abu ^Amir slapped his own thigh and said: ^^a true thigh, one just like this one."^ Similarly, two centuries later, the famous Hanbalite Sheikh Taki al-din ibn Teymiyya (d. 728/1328) in Damascus, in a lecture is said to have quoted one of those texts, in which the ^^ descending" of God is mentioned. In order to get rid of any doubt and to illustrate his conception of the rising of God ad oculos, the Sheikh descended a few steps of the pulpit saying: ^'just as I descend here." Such is the outcome of the old anthropomorphic ten- dency, against which the Mu^tazilites first took up arms in the religious field, by spiritualizing, from the point of view of the purity and worth of the Islamic conception of God, all those anthropomorphic expressions of the sacred text, through the medium of a metaphorical inter- pretation. These efforts resulted in a new method of Koranic exegesis, to which was given the old name ta'wil i DOGMATIC DEVELOPMENT. 115 in the sense of figurative interpretation, an exegetical trend, against which the Hanbalites at all times protested.^ In the case of traditions they could resort to the method of rejecting as false, texts which reflected a too crude anthropomorphic representation, or gave rise to such. In this way Islam was to be freed from a whole mass of foolish fables, which, favored by the greed for fables in the popular circles, had been piled up in the field of eschatology, and in the form of hadiths had received religious sanction. From a dogmatic point of view nothing has been so strongly stressed by the orthodox, as the conception founded on the words of the Koran, Sura 75, v. 23, that the just should see God bodily in the other world. This the Mu^tazilites could not accept. They were little impressed by the fine defini- tions, refusing every taVil, which finds this idea of * sight' in the tradition: *'as you see the bright moon in the firmament.''" The material vision of God — an idea from which the Mu^tazilites eliminated the direct literal sense by a spiritual explanation of the phrase — con- tinued to be a real apple of discord between them and such theologians as were imbued with their ideas, and the orthodox, clinging to the old tradition, with whom the conciliatory rationalists united in this question. Of these more will be said in the course of this chapter. VII. In phases of the problem involved in the question of tauhld, the confession of unity, the Mu^tazilites passed on to a still higher general point of view, raising in a very comprehensive manner the question of the divine attributes. Is it possible to ascribe attributes to Godj without disturbing the belief in his individual unchang- ing unity! The answer to this question called forth a great expenditure of hairsplitting dialectic on the part of the various Mu^tazilite schools themselves, — for they offer 116 MOHAMMED AND ISLAM. no definite unity in the various definitions of their dogmas, — and also on the part of those who tried to mediate between the orthodox point of view and their own. For we must anticipate here — to which we will later return — that from the beginning of the tenth cen- tury conciliatory tradition arose which poured a few drops of rationalism into the oil of orthodoxy, in order to save the old formulas from the unfettered rational views. The formulations of the orthodox dogmas atten- uated by a few rationalistic phrases, which in their essence signify a return to traditional orthodoxy, are linked with the names of Ahu-l-Hasan al-Ash^ art (d. in Baghdad 324/935) and Ahii Mansur al-Mdturidl (d. in Samarkand 333/944). While the system of the former holds sway in the central provinces of Islamic territory, that of the latter gained its hold in the wider east, in Central Asia. There are no essential differences between the two tendencies. It is mostly a question of minor quarrels over words, of whose extent we can get an idea if we look at the following questions of difference as examples : The question should a Moslem use the mode of speech, ^^I am a true believer, so please God,'' was decided by the followers of al-Ash^ari and Maturidi in a contradictory manner, each one substantiating his views by a dozen subtle theological arguments. In general the point of view of the Maturidi is freer than that of their Ash^arite colleagues. They are a shade nearer the Mu^tazilites than the Ash^arites. Let us take as an example the various answers given to the question: **what is the basis of the obligation to know God?'' The Mu^tazilites answer: ^'Reason"; the Ash^ arites : ^^ because it is written one must recognize God"; the Maturidi: ''The obligation to confess God is based on the divine command, which is grasped by reason; reason is not the source, but the instrument of the conception of God." DOGMATIC DEVELOPMENT. 117 This example gives us a good idea of the whole scho- lastic method of dogmatic strife in Islam. In the further hairsplitting definition regarding homousia and homoiousia, extending even to single let- ters, we are reminded of the minute verbal disputes of the Byzantine theologians. Can we impute attributes to God? To do so would bring about a division in the essential unity of God. If one thinks of an attribute, as one naturally does in relation to God, as not separate from his essence, — not added to it but inherent in it from eternity, there would follow from the simple predi- cation of such eternal entities, even though belonging to the essence of God and inseparable from it, the admission of an eternal essence by the side of an eternal God. But this would be shirk, i. e., association of something with God. The postulate of the tauMd, of the pure confes- sion of unity, involves the rejection of attributes in God, whether of eternal inherent attributes or such as are added to his being. This method of reasoning led neces- sarily to the denial of attributes. God cannot be omnis- cient through Knowledge, nor omnipotent through Power, nor existing through a Life. There is no separate knowl- edge, power and life in God. All things which appear to us as attributes are inseparably one, and not different from God himself. ^^God is knowing" is nothing else than that *^God is powerful,'^ and ^^God is loving,'' and if we increased these expressions indefinitely, we would nevertheless assert nothing more than that God is. There is no doubt that such considerations served to place the monotheistic idea of Islam in a purer light than was possible in the obscuring of the idea through popular beliefs that cling to the letter. But to the ortho- dox this purification necessarily appeared as ta'til, i. e., robbing the conception of God of its content, a genuine kenosis. 118 MOHAMMED AND ISLAM. An orthodox of the old school who flourished when this dogmatic strife was at its beginning naively char- acterizes the thesis of his rationalistic opponents by the statement: *^The arguments of these people result in having no God in heaven.'' The absolute is not acces- sible, not knowable. If God is to be identified with his attributes conceived as a unity, then one could pray: **0h, knowledge, have pity upon me!'' And further- more, the rejection of the attributes constantly clashes with the clear Koranic sayings, which speak of God's wisdom, his power, etc. These attributes, therefore, can, indeed must, be predicated of him. To deny them is undisguised error, unbelief and heresy. It was now the task of the intermediary to reconcile the rigid denial of the rationalists with the old concep- tion of attributes through acceptable formulas. The people who wander in al-Ash'ari's intermediary paths, found the formula: God knows through a knowledge which is not separate from his essence ; the supplemen- tary clause was intended to dogmatically save the pos- sibility of attributes. But we are far from being through with the hairsplitting formulas. The Maturidis also strive to erect a connecting bridge between the ortho- dox and the Mu^tazilites, while accepting in a general way the agnostic formulation that there are attributes in God for they are set forth in the Koran, but that it is impossible to say either that they are identical with God, or that they are separate from God; nevertheless the Ash^aritic conception of the doctrine of attributes appeared to some of them as a formula derogatory to the deity. God is knowing through his eternal knowl- edge. Does not the expression ^through' give the im- pression of something instrumental! Is not the knowl- edge, the power, the will of God, all those divine energies which form the complete fullness of his essence, made manifest immediately, and if so is not this conception of DOGMATIC DEVELOPMENT. 119 an immediate manifestation offset by the little syllable hi (through), which in speech has the function of an instrumental particle? In their dread of grammatically belittling the majesty of God, the sheikhs of Samarkand resort to the subtle method of expressing the interme- diary formula thus : ' ^ He is knowing and has knowledge, which is attributed to him in the sense of eternity, etc." It is evident that the Islamic theologians in Syria and Mesopotamia did not live in vain in the neighborhood of the dialecticians of the conquered nations. VIII. The conception of the Word of God formed one of the most serious objects of this dogmatic strife. How is it to be understood that the attribute of speech is to be ascribed to God, and how is the activity of this attri- bute to be explained through the revelation embodied in the sacred writings? Although these questions belong to the doctrine of attributes, they are nevertheless treated separately as an independent bit of dogmatic speculation, and at an early period formed an object of dispute independent of the connection with the question of attributes. Orthodoxy answers such questions as follows : * ' Speech is an eternal attribute of God. As such, like his knowl- edge, his power and other traits of his eternal essence, it had no beginning and was never interrupted. Accord- ing to this, that which is to be recognized as the activity of a speaking God, his revelation, — primarily in Islam, the Koran, — did not arise within time, through a special creative act of the will of God, but is from eternity. The j Koran is uncreated, — an orthodox dogma maintained upj till the present time. < According to this, it is naturally to be expected that the Mu^tazilites will discover here also a breach of mono- theistic purism. In the anthropomorphic attribute indi- cated by the expression ^*the speaking one'' ascribed to God, equivalent to the recognition of an eternal being 120 MOHAMMED AND ISLAM. beside God, they saw nothing less than the negation of the unity of the divine being. In this case the opposition gained in popularity, since it does not (as in the ordinary questions of attributes) merely treat of abstract things, but moves something that is entirely concrete into the foreground of speculation. Separated from the strife over attributes, in which it had its origin, the burden of the question resolves itself into this formula: **Is the Koran created, or uncreated!'' This formulation of the question was bound to arouse the interest of even the most ordinary Moslem, despite the fact that the answer involves a series of considerations to which he would be entirely indifferent. The Mu^tazilites conceived for the explanation of the ** speaking God'' a very remarkable mechanical theory, which as it were carried them from ^'the frying pan into the fire." It cannot be the voice of God which manifests itself to the prophet, when he feels God's revelation working in him through his organs of hearing. It is a created sound. When God desires to declare him- self phonetically, he does it by a special act of creation, and communicates speech through a material substratum. This the prophet hears. It is not the immediate speech of God but something created by him, manifesting itself indirectly, and corresponding to the will of God in its i content. This view provided the form for their theme ' of the ^^ created Koran," which they opposed to the orthodox dogma of the ^^ eternal, uncreated word of God." Over none of the Mu^tazilite innovations did such a violent strife rage as over this, — a strife which passed beyond scholastic bounds and made itself felt in every- day life. The caliph Ma'mun espoused the cause, and as the chief priest of the state he decreed, with threats of severe punishment, the acceptance of the belief in the creation of the Koran. His successor MuHasim followed DOGMATIC DEVELOPMENT. 121 in his steps, and the orthodox theologians, and those who declined to take sides, were subjected to tortures, vexations, and imprisonment. Willing Kadis and other officers of religion took upon themselves the office of inquisitors, in order to annoy and persecute the unyield- ing adherents of the orthodox formula, and also those who did not declare themselves decisively enough for the only saving belief in the creation of the Koran. An American scholar, Walter M. Patton, has set forth in an admirable work, published in 1897, the course of this rationalistic inquisitorial movement as illustrated by a thorough study of the fate of the man, whose name has become the rallying cry of Moslem rigorism, the Imam Ahmed ihn Hanhal} I have said elsewhere and can repeat it here: ^^The Inquisitors of liberalism went if possible, to greater extremes than their brothers who clung to the letter. At all events their fanaticism is more repulsive than that of their imprisoned and ill- treated victims.''^ It was not until the time of the Caliph Mutawakkil, a repulsive reactionary who knew well how to combine a life of debauch and the patronage of obscene literature with dogmatic orthodoxy, that the adherents of the old dogma were able to again raise their heads. From being persecuted they now become the persecutors, and they know well how to turn the old principle derived from experience ^S^ae victis'' to the greater glory of Allah. This was the time of political decline, — the time which has ever been the harvest season for the foes of enlight- enment. The dogma of the uncreated Koran continues to spread. One is no longer satisfied with a general formulation of the dogma, indefinite in its statement, that the Koran is eternal and uncreated. What is the uncreated Koran? Is it the thought of God, the will of God, which finds its expression in this book? Is it the definite text, which God has imparted to the prophet, 122 MOHAMMED AND ISLAM. '4n distinct Arabic language without any obscurity T' In the course of time orthodoxy became very aggressive in the contention that **that which is between the two covers is the word of God, therefore the conception of the uncreated includes also the manuscript copy of the Koran with its letters formed in ink and written on paper. And that also which is ^^read aloud at the prayers, '* that is, the daily Koran recitation, as it proceeds from the mouth of the faithful, is not different from the eternal, uncreated word of God. At this point the inter- mediary Ash^arites and Maturidis made a few conces- sions dictated by reason. Al-Ash^ari had advanced the theme in considering the main question: God's speech (kalam) is eternal; but this refers only to spiritual speech (kalam nafsi) as an eternal attribute of God, which has had no beginning, nor has ever been inter- rupted. On the other hand the revelation made to the prophets as well as other forms of manifestation of the divine word, were in each case the expression of the eternal, unceasing speech of God.^ He applies this notion to every material manifestation of revelation. Let us hear what Maturidi says of the view of those desiring to find a middle way in these questions : ^^"When it is asked : What is that which is written in the copy of the Koran? we say: ^It is the word of God; therefore also that which is recited in the mosque and which issues from the mouth (organs of speech) is the word of God; but the (written) letters and the sound, the melodies and the voices are created things.' This limitation is advanced by the sheikhs of Samarkand. The Ash^ arites, however, say : ^ That w^hich appears written in the copy of the Koran is not the word of God, but a communica- tion of this word, a narration of that which is the word of God.' They therefore hold the burning of certain parts of a written copy of the Koran as permissible since it is not in itself the word of God. They base DOGMATIC DEVELOPMENT. 123 this on the fact that the word of God is his attribute. His attribute cannot be separated from him in manifesta- tion. Therefore what appears in a separated form, as the content of a written page, cannot be regarded as the word of God. But we (the Maturidis) say to that: *this assertion of the Ash'arites is much more inane, than that of the Mu'tazilites.* '* From this it can be seen, that those taking a middle ground do not agree among themselves. Orthodoxy is much more consistent in extending indefinitely the circle included in the doctrine of the uncreated word of God. The formula ''my utterance of the Koran is created" became an arch heresy to them. A pious man like Bukhari, whose canon of tradition is to the true believer the next holiest book to the Koran, was exposed to annoy- ances because he considered such formulas admissible.* Al-Ash'ari himself, to whose followers as we have already seen, is ascribed a slightly freer tendency in the definition of the word of God, did not sustain his ration- alistic formulas. In the last definite statement of his belief he speaks thus : The Koran is on the well-guarded (heavenly) scroll, it is in the breast of him to whom knowledge is given ; it is read by the tongue, it is written in books forsooth, it is recited by our tongues forsooth; it is heard by us forsooth, as it is written. "And when an idolator comes to you for protection, offer him protection that he may hear the word of God" (Sura 9, v. 6), what you say to him are therefore God's own words. That is to say : All this is identical in essence with the word of God writ- ten on the heavenly scroll, which is uncreated, from eternity, in truth (fi-1-liakikat) ; not in a figurative sense, not in the sense that all this is a copy, a quotation, a communication of the heavenly original. No: all this is identical with the heavenly original; what is true of this, is true also of the local and temporal forms of phenomena apparently produced by man.^ 124 MOHAMMED AND ISLAM. IX. In view ^f this character of the Mu^ tazilite move- ment, these students of the philosophy of religion may lay claim to the title of ^^Eationalists." We will not disparage this title. They have the merit of being the first in Islam to raise keason to the position of a beli- Gious souKCE OF KNOWLEDGE; the first, indeed, to have undisguisedly recognized the use of scepticism as the first impetus to knowledge. Can they on this account be also called liberal? That title, indeed, must be denied them, since they are the real founders of dogmatism in Islam by virtue of their for- mulas which run contrary to the orthodox principle. He who seeks salvation must preserve faith only in these fixed formulas, and no others. They endeavored to ( harmonize (by their definitions) religion and reason; but they produced narrow, uncompromising formulas, which they opposed to the more elastic traditionalism of the old believers, and which they defended with tiresome ^disputations. Moreover, they were intolerant to the extreme. Dogmatism always embodies an innate tend- ency toward intolerance. When the Mu^tazilites were fortunate enough to have their teachings accepted as the dogma of the state during the rule of three ^Abbaside caliphs, these dogmas were maintained by the inquisi- tion, by imprisonment and by terrorism, until a counter movement afforded opportunity to breathe freely again to those who believed they possessed in religion the sub- stance of pious tradition, not the results of doubtful rationalistic theories. A few quotations will show the intolerant spirit of the MuHazilite theologians. *'He who is not a MuHazilite is not to be called a believer, '^ is a definite expression of one of their teachings. This is a result of their gen- eral teaching to the effect that no one can be called a believer who does not fathom God *4n the way of specu- lation.'' According to this, the common people with DOGMATIC DEVELOPMENT. 125 their naive beliefs have no part with Moslems. There can be no belief without the operation of reason. The question ^ ^ takf ir-al-' awamm, ' ' '^who shall be condemned as unorthodox of the people in general/' is a standing formula in the Mu^ tazilite science of religion. There are those who assert that a person should not perform his prayers behind a naive believer who does not reason, that would be equivalent to performing one's worship behind some godless heretic. A famous member of this school, Mu^ammar ibn ^Abbad, reckoned everyone un- believing, who did not share his view of attributes and freedom of will. From the same point of view another pious Mu' tazilite, Abu-Musa al-Mazdar, whom we could regard as an example of the pietistic beginnings in this direction, declares his own views as the only ones which will insure salvation. One could, therefore, accuse him of upholding that only he and, at most three of his scholars, could enter into the paradise of the true believers.^ It was indeed fortunate for Islam that the time during which the state favored such opinions was limited to those three caliphs. How far might not the Mu^tazilites have gone, if they had had the ruling power longer at their command to foster their views. The teachings of Hisham al-Futi, one of the most radical opponents of the acceptance of these views concerning the divine attributes and of fatalism, shows us from what point of view the subject was regarded. *^He considered it admissible, treacherously to kill those who opposed his teachings ; secretly or openly to deprive them of their power, — as unbelievers their life and power were for- feit."^ These are naturally only theories of the school- room, but these theories went so far as to advance the idea that the territories in which the Mu* tazilite faith did not rule, were to be regarded as hostile lands (dar al-harb). In place of the division of the world into seven 126 MOHAMMED AND ISLAM. climates the Moslem geography offers a more circum- scribed division, viz., ^Hhose in Islamic lands and in hostile lands. ^'^ To the second category belong all the territories whose inhabitants in spite of the call (da'wa) which has come to them to confess Islam, remain unbe- lievers. It is the duty of the head of Islam to attack such territories. This is the Jihad, religious war, com- manded in the Koran, one of the surest ways to martyr- dom. Many a Mu^tazilite included in these ^'hostile lands,'' those lands which were not controlled by their formulas of dogma. They should be attacked with the sword, as in the case of unbelievers and heathens.* This is indeed a very energetic rationalism. Never- theless we cannot praise as advocates of liberal and tolerant views, those whose teachings were the point of departure and soil of such fanaticism. Unfortunately, the historians of the virtues of the Mu^tazilites do not always think of this, and in many a casuistically phan- tastic description of a possible development of Islam the attempt is made to show how favorable it would have been for the unfolding of Islam, if the Mu^tazilites had obtained possession of the leading spiritual power. After what we have just heard, it would be difficult to believe this. We must not deny, however, that the result of their activity was salutary. They are the ones who helped to procure the recognition of ^aM reason, in ques- tions of belief. This is their undisputed, and far reach- ing service, which assures to them an important place in the history of the religion and culture of Islam. In spite of all difficulties and repudiations the claim of ^akl made its way to a greater or less degree as a result of their aggressiveness, even into orthodox Islam. It was no longer easy entirely to avoid it. X. Up to this point we have repeatedly mentioned the names of the two Imams Ahu-l-Hasan al-Ash^ari and Abu Mansur al-Mdturldl. These two men, the former DOGMATIC DEVELOPMENT. 127 in the heart of the caliphate, the latter in Central Asia, settled through mediating formulas the controversial questions of dogmatism, — formulas now recognized as doctrines of orthodox Islam. It is not worth while to enter into the minute points of difference between these two closely allied systems. The first system obtained historical importance. Its founder, himself a Mu^tazilite scholar, — legend speaks of a vision in which the prophet appeared to him and instigated this change, — suddenly became disloyal to his school, and openly returned to the bosom of orthodoxy. He and others of his school dissemi- nated the same conciliatory formulas, of more or less orthodox stamp. Nevertheless, even these were unable to satisfy the taste of the old conservatives, and for a long time they could not find entrance into the public theological instruction. It was not until the famous Seljuk vizier, Nizam al-mulk, in the middle of the eleventh century, created public chairs for the new theological teachings, in his great schools at Nisabur and Baghdad, that the Ash^arite dogma became officially recognized and was taught in the system of orthodox theology. Its most famous advocates could receive appointments in the Nizam-institutions. It was here that the victory of the Ash^arite school, warring on one side with the Mu^tazil- ites and on the other with intransigent orthodoxy, was determined. The activity of these places of teaching marks an important epoch, not only in the history of Moslem instruction, but also in that of Moslem dogma- tism. Let us consider this movement more closely. In speaking of al-Ash*ari as one who took the middle way, this characterization of his theological trend does not extend to all questions of doctrine over which the controversy of contradictory interpretations arose in the Islamic world in the eighth and ninth centuries. It is true he advances midway formulas also concerning the questions of the freedom of the will and the nature of 128 MOHAMMED AND ISLAM. the Koran. But the position which he takes in a question which concerns more deeply than any other the religious views of the masses, must be regarded as the most authoritative for the indication of his theological atti- tude. I refer to the definition of the idea of God in its relation to anthropomorphism. Indeed one cannot call his position in relation to this question conciliatory. Fortunately, we possess a com- pendium of the teachings of this greatest of dogmatic authorities in orthodox Islam, in which he presents hif, teachings in a positive form, as well as his polemica' replies to the opposing opinions of the Mu'tazilites, — and it must be added, not without fanatical fury. This important treatise,^ supposed to have been lost and which till lately has been known only through fragmentary quotations, has become accessible in the last few years through a complete edition published in Haidarabad. It is a treatise of fundamental importance for everyone who is interested in the history of Islamic dogmatics. In the introduction al-Ash^ari's relation to rationalism becomes doubtful: The religious position to which we adhere is the acceptance of the book of our God, of the Sunna of our prophet, and in addition, of that which has reached us concerning his compan- ions and their successors and the Imams of tradition. In this we find our strong support. And we adhere to that which Abti- 'Abdallah Ahmed Muhammed ibn Hanbal (may God make his face to shine, and may he elevate his rank, and make rich his reward), teaches us and we oppose everything which his teaching opposes ; for he is the most eminent Imam and the most perfect head; through him has Allah made clear the truth and taken away error, made clear the right way and put to naught the evil teachings of the heretic and the doubt of the doubter. May God have mercy upon him! He is the chief Imam and the exalted friend. DOGMATIC DEVELOPMENT. 129 At the very beginning, then, of his credo al Ash^ari declared himself a Hanbalite. This does not, to be sure, suggest a middle way. In fact when he takes up the anthropomorphic question, he pours the whole vial of his scorn upon the rationalists, who seek a figurative explanation for the sensuous words of the sacred texts. He does not stop with the severity of the orthodox dogmatisers, but turns to the philologists. God himself says that he has revealed the Koran *4n clear Arabic language " ; it can then be understood only on the basis of the correct Arabic usage. But where in all the world, would any Arab have used the word ^*hand,'' etc., for good- will, and have made use of all that artificial speech, which those rationalists wish to read into the clear text, in order to rob its contents of the conception of God! *^Abu-l-Hasan 'Ali ibn Isma'il al-Ash'ari says: We seek right guidance through God, and in him do we find all that we need, and there is no might nor power, except with Allah, and it is on him that we call for aid. But this is what follows: When someone asks us: ^Has God a facer we answer: 'He has one,' and thus con- tradict wrong teaching, for it is written: 'The face of the Lord endures full of majesty and honor' (Sura 55, V. 27). And when someone else asks : ' Has God hands T we answer : ' Indeed, for it is written : the hand of God is above their hands' (Sura 48, v. 10), furthermore, 'that which I have created with my two hands' (Sura 38, V. 74). And it is reported: 'God stroked Adam's back with his hand and brought forth from it the whole of the descendants of Adam.' And it is reported: 'God formed Adam with his hand, and formed the Garden of Eden with his hand, and planted therein the tree Tuba with his hand, and he wrote the Torah with his hand.' And it is written 'both his hands are stretched forth' (Sura 5, v. 69) ; and in the words of the prophet: 'both 130 MOHAMMED AND ISLAM. his hands are right hands.' Thus literally and not otherwise. ' ' In order to avoid gross anthropomorphism, he adds the clause to his credo that by face, hand, foot, etc., in these cases we are not to understand human members, and that all this should be taken as hild heif, without questioning, ''without a how'' (see above). This does not smack of a middle way, it corresponds entirely to the old orthodoxy; nor does it represent a conciliatory position between Ibn Hanbal and the Mu' tazilites ; on the contrary, as appears from the introductory explana- tion of al Ash'ari, it is an unconditional surrender of the Mu'tazilite renegades to the views of the unbending Imam of the traditionalists and that of his successors. Because of his wide-spread concessions to the beliefs of the people, he forfeited for the Mohammedan people the important achievements of the Mu'tazilites.- From his point of view the belief in magic, in witchcraft, not to mention the miracles of the saints, remains intact. All these things the Mu'tazilites had swept aside. XI. The conciliation, which forms an important ele- ment in the history of Islamic dogmatism and whose sub- stance can be regarded as the basis of dogmatic precept, sanctioned by the consensus (ijmd'), is not to be coupled with the name of al Ash'ari himself, but with the school which bears his name. Even by deviation in the direction of orthodoxy, 'aU, reason, as a source of religious knowledge, could no longer be set aside. We have just seen that part of al Ash'ari's confession, in which he expresses himself in a dignified manner concerning the sources of his religious knowledge. Nothing appears there as to the claims of reason, even as a subsidiary means to the knowledge of truth. The school is quite different. Although not so irreconcilable as the Mu'tazilites, stiU here the nazar, the speculative knowledge of God, is DOGMATIC DEVELOPMENT. 131 claimed for all the world, and taklid, — the simple, thoughtless traditional repetition, — is condemned. And in connection with this common claim, the authoritative leaders of the Ash^arite school, have in many points kept in line with the Mu^tazilites, and have remained true to a method, which as I have just shown, their Imam not only denounced, dogmatically, but also stormed with arrows which he had drawn from the quiver of philology. The Ash^arite theologians have payed little attention to the protests of the master, and have made great use of the method of ta'wU (see above). In no other way could they avoid tajslm, — anthropomorphism. The claim that the Ash^arite and Hanbalite conclusions are the same, was quite impossible of proof. But what would al Ash- lar! have said to that method which now continued to extend its influence in the orthodox trend of the taVil? All the tricks of an unnatural hermeneutics were brought into action in order to eliminate from the Koran and tradition the anthropomorphic expression, — we can use no other word. As far as the Koran was concerned, the Mu^tazilites had already sufficiently completed the necessary work. They cared less about tradition. In this regard they found an easy way out of the difficulty arising out of utterances in which there were objectionable expressions, by explaining them as spurious, and so not troubling themselves in the least about their reasonable interpreta- tion. In this effort, however, orthodox theology could not participate, and the emphasis in its exegesis is prin- cipally placed on traditional texts. And how widespread had anthropomorphism become, even within the narrow limits of Hadith! As a proof the following may be instanced taken from the collection of traditions of Ahmed ibn Hanbal. One morning the prophet appeared among his companions with a very happy expression on his face. When he was asked the reason of his happy 132 MOHAMMED AND ISLAM. mood, lie answered, '^Why should I not be happy? Last night the most Sublime appeared to me in the most beautiful form imaginable, and called to me with the question, *Over what dost thou think the heavenly com- munity is now disputing?'^ When I had answered for the third time that I could not know, he laid his two hands on my shoulders, so that their coolness penetrated even to my breast, and it was revealed to me, what is in heaven and what is on earth/' Then follow declara- tions about the theological discussions of the heavenly company.^ It would indeed have been a useless undertaking to remove such crass anthropomorphism by means of exe- gesis, and, besides, the rationalistic theologians did not feel themselves at all called upon to consider a text which, like the one we have just cited, had not been included in the canonical collection. Their responsibility is greater toward the texts which are to be found in the canon, and therefore are recognized by the whole community of true believers as authoritative. On these they used their arts. The following occurs in the influential collection of Malik ibn Anas : ' ^ Every night our God descends to the lowest heaven (there are seven), when a third of the night is still left, and says: ^Who has a request to make of me, that I may grant it ; who a wish, that I may fulfill it; who cries to me for forgiveness of sins, that I may forgive them!' "^ This anthropomorphism is now disposed of by a grammatical artifice, which is made possible by the peculiarity of the ancient Arabic con- sonantal writing in which the vowels are not written. Instead of yanzilu,^ **he descends,'' they read the causa- tive form, yunzilu, *^he causes someone to descend," that is, the angels. Thus they avoid the impression given in the text of God's change of place. It is not God who descends, but he causes angels to descend, and make those appeals in his name. Or another example, from DOGMATIC DEVELOPMENT. 133 Genesis I, 27, Mohammedan tradition had taken over the saying: **God created Adam in his image. '^ God has no form. The little word his refers to Adam, — God created him in the form which he (Adam) maintained.^ These examples show the means constantly used to get rid of dogmatic difficulties by means of grammatical subterfuges. In like manner recourse is often had to lexicographical devices, in which the many significations of an Arabic word may have been of great assistance. Here is an example, * * Hell will not be full, until the Almighty places his foot upon it (hell) ; then it says : * enough, enough.' ''^ The depth of ingenuity, which has been applied to the interpretation of this text, so inimical to a refined con- ception of God, gives us a perfect example of the her- meneutic art so dear to the Ash^arite school. First of all it was thought that a purely external means of help could be found in the fact that in the traditional text the subject of the sentence: ^^he places his foot'' was replaced by a pronoun : ' ' Hell is not full until he places his foot upon it." Who! that is left in the dark; at least the natural predicate is not connected with a sub- ject which would mean ^^God." This is naturally self- deception, and nothing is gained by it. Others wish to remedy this, by retaining the subject al-jahdr, the Al- mighty, but explaining that the word did not refer to God. They can easily prove from the language of the Koran and of tradition that this word also means a stubborn person. So the jabar who places his foot on hell is not God, but some violent person, a man sent to hell, whose violent intervention brings to an end the populating of hell. But even this way of avoiding the difficulty proved, on serious consideration, very illusive. The meaning of the traditional saying was established by a number of parallel versions, and thus placed beyond all doubt. In many parallel texts, instead of jabar, Allah 134 MOHAMMED AND ISLAM. or ^^tlie lord of majesty'^is expressly used. One can- not get out of this cul-de-sac. The subject must be God. But what does not the dogmatic exegete attempt in his desperate ingeniousness f His art failed mth the sub- ject, he now tries it on the object. He (without doubt then, ^^God'') places his foot: kadamahu. Must this word be explained as foot 1 It is indeed a homonym, and means several things. Kadam means among other things, also ^*a group of people, who have been sent in advance,'' in this case into hell. It is these people, then (not his foot) whom God sets in hell. But an authentic parallel version appears which unfortunately substitutes for the word kadamahu a synonym rijlahu. This undoubtedly means: ^^his foot.'' There is, however, no ^^undoubt- edly" in the Arabic lexicon. The same word can mean so many things. Rijl also means jama' a, ^'the congre- gation." Naturally God places such a congregation of sinners at the gate of hell, and the latter cries : ^* enough, enough, enough." Although it is justifiable to call the process, apparent in this short extract, an example of exegetical absurdity yet the exegetes were not Mu^tazilites but Ash'arites of the deepest dye. How the founder himself would have poured forth the vials of philological wrath on the heads of his followers ! XII. This rationalistic attempt of the Ash^arite school, however welcome it was as the escape from the tajsim condemned on all sides, was bound to call forth decided discontent on the part of all the orthodox, faith- ful to tradition. In conjunction with this there is another fact of importance to be considered. The method of the Ash^arites aroused opposition among the orthodox theo- logians, because of the teaching which they had in common with the Mu^tazilites and which is the essential basis of every Kalam: ^'that a demonstration based on traditional factors does not ensure certain knowledge." DOGMATIC DEVELOPMENT. 135 The knowledge which depends only on traditional sources, is uncertain; it is dependent on factors which can have only a relative value in the establishment of the facts, as for example of the subjective factor in the interpretation of peculiarities of rhetorical expression (tropes, metaphors, etc.). Absolute value can be ascribed to such sources of knowledge only in questions of legal practice, and even here they afford ground for variations in regard to the consequences. In questions of creed they have only a subsidiary value. The point of depar- ture must be proofs through reason. They alone ensure definite knowledge.^ In this sense the late Egyptian Mufti Mohammed ^Abduh could recently affirm as a funda- mental of true Islam ''that in a conflict between reason and tradition the right of decision belonged to reason, a principle," he says, ''which very few oppose, in fact only those oppose who need not in any way be considered.''^ If then the Ash'arites with their proofs of reason generally uphold orthodox dogma, and true to their master's principle, guard against using their syllogisms to attain formulas which lead away from true orthodoxy, then the prerogative granted to reason over tradition in dogmatic demonstration was bound to be an abomination in the eyes of the intransigent old school. How much the more in the eyes of the anthropomorphists, clinging to the letter, and who would not listen to metaphors and tropes and other rhetorical exegetical expression of the written attributes of God! To the adherents of the old traditional school then, there was no difference between Mu'tazilites and Ash- 'arites. The Kalam in itself, its principle, c'est Vennemiy whether it leads to heretical or orthodox results.^ "Flee Kalam — no matter in what garb, as you flee before a lion," becomes the motto. Their feeling is expressed in a wrathful speech, attributed by them to al-Shafi'i. "My 136 MOHAMMED AND ISLAM. judgment of the Kalam-people is, that they should be beaten with scourges and shoe-soles, and then led through all tribes and settlements with the cry, 'this is the reward of those who leave to one side the Koran and Sunna and give themselves to Kalam/ ''* Kalam is a science, which does not result in the reward of God even if one reaches truth through it, and on the other hand one may easily become a heretic if one falls into error through it.^ The true believer in Islam should not bow the knee to 'akl, reason. Reason is not necessary for grasping religious truth ; this is contained in the Koran and Sunna.^ There is no difference between Kalam and Aristotelian phi- losophy — both lead to heresy. They could use no phrase such as ''fides quaerens intellectum. ' ' Belief is exclu- sively bound to the letters which have come down through the centuries; and reason must not intrude in this sphere. One can, therefore, assert of the mediating theology of the Ash'arites, that it feU between two stools. This is the reward of every mongrel movement looking in two directions. Philosophers and Mu'tazilites alike turn up their noses at the Ash'arites, as obscurantists, unme- thodical minds, superficial dilettantes, with whom one cannot allow oneself to enter into serious disputation, but even this condemnation did not save them from the fanatical curse of the orthodox. Little gratitude was shown them for having fought Aristotelian philosophy in the interests of religion. XIII. In addition to the actual theology of the Ash- 'arites, their natural philosophy also deserves special consideration. It may be said that it represents orthodox Islam's ruling conception of nature. The philosophy of Kalam is by no means to be regarded as a compact system, even though it can in general be said, that its philosophical view of the world follows mostly that of the pre-Aristotelian nature philosophers,^ especially that DOGMATIC DEVELOPMENT. 137 of the Atomists. From the very beginning, even in the pre-Ash'arite days, its adherents are reproached with not recognizing the constancy of nature and the regular- ity of phenomena. The Mu'tazilite al-Jahiz mentions the objection of the Aristotelians to the adherents of his party, that their method in trying to prove unity, can be accepted only with the denial of all truths of nature.^ Opponents unfamiliar with the deeper con- nection and meaning of his philosophical theories, could reproach Nazam, one of the boldest followers of the school, with the charge that he denied the law of the im- penetrability of the body.^ In fact there is handed down an opinion held by him, which appears to be the result of his tendency to adopt the view of nature held by the Stoics.^ Nevertheless, although the Mu'tazilites opposed the peripatetic philosophy, quite a few of them wrapped themselves in an Aristotelian mantle and wished to make themselves more tolerable by means of philosophical flourishes, which had little influence with the philoso- phers. The latter contemptuously look down upon the methods of Kalam and do not regard the Mutakallimun as equal opponents, worthy of dispute. They could not find any ground in common. A serious strife over ideas was, therefore, impossible with them. ''The Mutakalli- mun assert that the most important source of knowledge is reason; but what they call reason, is in reality not reason, and their method of thought does not correspond, in a philosophical sense, to the rules. What they call reason, and with which they try to act according to reason, is only a tissue of phantastic suppositions.'' To a still greater degree does this apply to the Ash- 'arites. What the Aristotelians, and neo-Platonists from the tenth to the thirteenth centuries, assert about the phantasies and unreasonableness of the natural philosophy of Kalam,^ is also especially true of the Ash- ^ 138 MOHAMMED AND ISLAM. 'arites, who, in the interest of their dogmatic supposi- tions, oppose themselves to all modes of viewing things, which proceed from the regularity of law in nature. With the Pyrrhonists they deny the reliability of the sensuous perceptions and allow as wide room as possible to the supposition of the illusion of the senses. They deny the law of causality, the ** source and loadstar of all rational knowledge.''* Nothing occurs in the world as an absolute necessity according to unchangeable laws. What precedes is not the cause of that which follows. They entertain such fear of the idea of causality, that they do not even readily consider God as the first Cause, but rather as the *^ maker'' (fa41) of nature and its manifestations.^ They consequently grant the possibility of the unnatural. It is possible to see things which do not fall within the field of sight. It could sarcastically be said of them, that they grant the possibility of a blind man in China seeing a gnat in Andalusia."^ For the law of nature they substitute the idea of habit. It is not law, but simply the habit laid upon nature by God, that makes certain things follow others; this succession is not, however, necessary. It is not neces- sary that abstinence from food and drink should be fol- lowed by hunger and thirst but it is usually so. Hunger and thirst arise because the accidence of hungriness and thirstiness is attached to the substance ; if the accidence is left out (and God can withhold it), then hunger and thirst are also left out. The Nile rises and falls from habit not as a result of causal natural events. If the accidence of the rise is left out, then the level of the river would not change. Each and every thing then, is 'explained by the hypothesis: *^what appears to us as a law, is only a habit of nature. ' ' God has laid the habit upon nature, that definite constellations of the stars should correspond to definite consecutive occurrences. * Th. Gomperz. DOGMATIC DEVELOPMENT. 139 The astrologers, accordingly, may be right. They only express themselves wrongly.^ Every occurrence, whether in a positive or negative sense, is a special creative act of God. As a rule he follows the usual way in nature. This, however, is not without exception; when God sus- pends habitual natural phenomena, there occurs what we call a miracle, and they an interruption of habit. The continuity of habit corresponds to new acts of creation. We are accustomed to ascribe shadows to the fact that the sun is absent from a place. Not at all! The shadow is not the result of the absence of the sun; it is created and is something positive. In this way the adherents of Kalam are able to explain the tradition that in paradise there is a tree in whose shadow one can ride a hundred years without leaving its shade. How is this possible since before the entrance of the pious into paradise ' ' the sun is folded up " ( Sura 81, v. 1) ? "Where there is no sun there can be no shade ! But shade has nothing to do with the sun; God creates the shadows; here is an example of the interruption of the habitual.^ This view of nature runs through the whole world con- ception of the Ash'arite dogmatists. Al Ashlar! himself had already widely used it. To him, for example, is ascribed the teaching that it is only a custom of nature that scent, taste, etc., cannot be perceived by eye-sight; God could give our eye-sight the power of noticing smell. But this is not the habit of nature.^^ Thus, the orthodox dogmatism based on Ash'arite fundamentals, demands the rejection of the views of causality, in whatever form. Not only is the working of unchangeable and eternal natural laws as the cause of all acts of nature denied, but even the formulas of causality which approach the standpoint of Kalam are condemned, as for example, that ''causality is not eternal, but arose within time, and that God has given to the causes the power to constantly call forth the consequent events. "^^ 140 MOHAMMED AND ISLAM. If this view of the world excludes the conception of chance it does so in the sense that it stipulates a de ^isive aim for that which happens. But it does not take this exclusion of chance in the sense that, that which happens is the infallible consequence of a natural causality expressing itself in law. Within this view of nature there was found then, sufficient place for all the demands of dogmatism. How easily a formula was given for mir- acles, has just been shown. The same is true for the acceptance of all supernatural things, which are de- manded by the dogmas of Islam. Since there is no law and no causality, there is also nothing miraculous or supernatural. If the accidence of life vouchsafes decay- ing bones, resurrection is to follow. It is a special act, just as all natural phenomena are to be traced back to special acts, and not permanent laws. In this way Kalam, in the form given to it by al Ashlar! and as accepted by Moslem orthodoxy, set up a system of thought in opposition to Aristotelianism which adapted itself very well to the support of the doctrines of faith. This has been the ruling Moslem philosophy of religion since the twelfth century. But the essential values of their subtleties were to be degraded by a counterpoise, through the introduction of a religious historical factor, which will form the subject of the next chapter. s NOTES. 141 NOTES. I. 1. This claim is expressed in Islam in the sentence: *'al-'ulamd waratliat al-anMyd" : 'Hhe theologians are the heirs of the prophets. ' ' 2. See the parts of the Hadith bearing on the disapproval of such movements Ibn Sa'd IV, I 141, 15 ff. ZDMG LVII 393 f. Cf. also B. Tafsir no. 237 (Sura 41), where a number of contra- dictions in the Koran are given, which were submitted to Ibn ' Abbas. II. 1. Ibn Sa'd V 174, 13. Before his accession to the government, ^Abdalmalik led a pious, ascetic life. For the piety of 'Abdal- malik, see Wellhausen: ^^Das Arabische Eeich und sein Sturz'' 134. The Kitdh al-imama wal-siyasa, (Cairo 1904) wrongly ascribed to Ibn Kuteiba; (cf. de Goeje, ' ' Kivistadegli Studi Orientali I 415-421), is fond of dates for the piety of the Omayyads. ' Abdalmalik 's father, Merwan I — who, according to another source, worked zealously as caliph for the founding of religious law (Ibn Sa'd XI 117, 8) — was discovered by the people, who came to offer him the caliphate, before a little lamp busy with recitations of the Koran (II 22 end). 'Abdal- malik himself, calls the people to a ''revival of the Koran and Sunna. . . . There could be no disagreement as to his piety'' (ibid. 25, 9). Acts of devotion to God are mentioned even of Hajaj, scorned by the pious (72, 3; 74, 10; cf. Tab. II 1186 arrangements of days for fasting and prayer in the Mosques; note especially Jahiz, Hayaivan V 63, 5 from below, where it is said of him that he manifested religious reverence for the Koran in contrast to the devotion of the Omayyad circle to poetry and genealogy). Further proof is furnished by the encomiums as religious heroes bestowed by the poets on caliphs and statesmen by way of flattery; e. g. Jerir, DTwcln (Cairo 1313) I 168, 8; II 97, 5 fr. bel. (Merwan, the ancestor of 'Omar II, is caUed du-l-nur [possessor of light] and introduced as adding to the fame of the pious caliph). Naka'id ed. Bevan 104 V. 19 the same poet calls the caliph imam al-liuda, "the Imam of the (religious) correct guidance"; see also 'Ajaj, append. 22, 15. cf. Muh. Stud. II 381. 2. Becker, "Papyri Schott-Eeinhardt ' ' I (Heidelberg 1906) 35. 3. Ibn Sa'd IV, I 137 5. 20.— Husein and his partisans are opposed as "people who are disloyal to din and oppose the Imam (Yazid, the son of Mu'awiyya)." (Tabari II 342, 16.) 4. Thus characterized by Wellhausen, ' ' Die religios-politischen Oppo- 142 MOHAMMED AND ISLAM. sitionsparteien im alten Islam" (Berlin 1901, Abhand lungen d. Kgl. Ges. d Wiss. Gottingen, PhH. Hist. 01. V no. 2)7. 5. Tabari I 2909, 16. 6. The defeat of such rebels is praised by Jarir {Blwdn I 62, 13) as the conquest of the muMadi' fi-l-din (innovators in religion). 7. Van Vloten, ''Recherches sur la domination arabe etc.*' (Amsterdam 1894) 36. 8. Lammens, "fitudes sur le regne de Mo'awiyya" 154 ff. (Melan- ges Beyrouth II 46 ff.) 9. This foUows from Ibn Sa'd V 68, 23 ff. 10. This is frequently mentioned in colored accounts as one of their faults. (Yasta'tJiiruna Mlfey'), Ibn Sa'd IV, I 166, 11; Abu Dawud, Sunan II 183. 11. Tabari II 300, 9 ff. 12. For their hi' da's Kumeit is very important, Hdshimiyydt ed. Horovitz 123, 7 ff . 13. e. g. Sa'id ibn al-Musayyab, who in every prayer cursed the Banu Merwdn (Ibn Sa'd V 95, 5). 14. This, however, does not exclude the possibility of a Murji'ite opposing the cruelties of the Hajaj (Ibn Sa'd VI 205, 12); without, however, involving a judgment with regard to the Omayyad caliphate. 15. For example: Ibn Sirin is spoken of arja' al-nds U-hddihi-l- ummati, i. e. he was the most indulgent in his judgment of his fellow-men, but severe with himself (Nawawi, Tahdil) 108, 7 fr. bel.). 16. According to the report of several Murji'ites the pious caliph 'Omar II, with whom they discussed these questions, attached himself to their point of view. Ibn Sa'd VI 218, 20. 17. Ibn Sa'd, ibid. 214, 19, al-murji'at al-uld. The views of Bureida ibn al-Husaib furnish an example of this tendency, ibid. IV, I 179, 11 ff. 18. Murji'ites contra the adherents of 'All, see ''Muh. Stud." II 91 note 5. cf. Saba'i, the fanatical Shi'ite (adherent of 'Abdallah ibn Saba) in contrast to Murji'. Ibn Sa'd VI 192, 17. This contrast lasts up till the time when the Murji' con- fession assumed only a theoretical importance. Jahiz (''Bayan" ed. Oairo, 1311-13, II 149 below) cites the following Shi'ite epigram : ''If it amuses you to see a Murji 'ite dying of his illness before his (real) death. Keep on praising 'Ali before him, and pronounce pious blessings for the prophet and those of his family (ahli beytihi)." 19. The judgment of the Omayyad ruler is made very clear by these pious fanatics, Aghani XX 106; the Kharijites kill in a most horrible manner a man, who disseminates a Hadith, in which NOTES. 143 the prophet warns against rebellion and recommends passive sufferance, Ibn Sa'd V 182, 15 ff. 20. This does not contradict the dates given by van Vloten on the Irja', ZDMG XLV 161 ff. 21. Ibn Khallikan ed. Wiistenfeld, no. 114 Bishr al-Merici. 22. For differences of opinion on this question within the limits of orthodoxy (Ash'arites and Hanifites) see Fr. Kern, ^'Mitteil- ungen des Semin. fiir Orient. Spr." Jahrg. XI (1908) section II 267. It is very characteristic of the Hadith, to ascribe already to a ''companion" the theory of the ''increase and decrease of faith," Ibn Sa'd IV, II 92, 15 ff. 23. It finally happened that the designation of Murji'a came to correspond to deistic views held in common by Moslems which set aside completely ritualistic observances, while clinging firmly to the princii^les of monotheistic faith. The characteristic sign of the Murji'ites is the depreciation of the ' amal. Mukaddasi (wrote 375/985) designates Murji, 'Moslems in name' whom he had observed in the province of the Demawend, and of whom he reports, that there are no mosques within their territory, and that the population neglect the practical practices of Islam. They content themselves with the fact that they are muwahhidun, ' monotheists ' and that they pay their taxes to the Islamic state ("Biblioth. geograph. arab. " ed. de Goeje III 398 below). III. 1. Musnad Ahmed (Jabir) quotes Ibn Kayyim al-Jauziyya Kitab al-saldt wa-alikdm tdrikihd (Cairo, Na'asani 1313) 46. 2. Tirmidi II 261 below; a favorite prayer formula begins: "O God, do not abandon us to ourselves, so that we become impo- tent." Beha al-din al-'Amili, Mikhlat (Cairo 1317) 129, 2, where a large number of old prayer formulas are collected. 3. Such formulas of oaths (bara'a) in Mas'udi, Muruj VI 297; Ya'kubi ed. Houtsma II 505, 509; Ibn al-Tiktika ed. Ahlwardt 232. 4. I see subsequent to the completion of this chapter that my view coincides with that of Carra de Vaux, "La Doctrine de 1 'Islam" (Paris 1909) 60. IV. 1. Hubert Grimme, Mohammed vol. II (Miinster 1895) 105 ff. 2. Alfred v. Kremer, " Culturgeschichtl. Streifziige auf dem Gebiete des Islams" (Leipzig 1873) 7 ff . 3. Cf. on this ZDMG LVII 398. 4. WeUhausen, "Das Arab. Eeich und sein Sturz" 217, 235. WeU- hausen emphasizes in the later passage, that such a partisan- ship did not arise from dogmatic but political considerations. The advocates of free-will refer to letters, which Hasan al Basri is said to have sent to the caliphs 'Abdalmalik and Ha- jaj, in which the pious man wishes to convince those in power of the absurdity of their clinging to a belief in a servum arbi- 144 MOHAMMED AND ISLAM. trium. Cf. Aimed ibn Yahya, Kitdh al-milal wal-niJial (ed. T. W. Arnold, Al-mu' tazUah (Leipzig 1903) 12 ff.)- 5. ZDMG ibid. 394. Note the fatalistic verse of Farazdak, ibid. LX 25. 6. Aghani X 99, 10. 7. Ibn Kuteiba, Ma'drif 225. 8. al-Imdma ival-siydsa II 41. V. 1. Ibn Sa'd VI 236, 19. Some name Mob. ibn al-Hanafiyya as the one who first defended the thesis of the Murji'; ibid. V 67, 16. For the definition given here see ' ' Kultur D. Gegenw. " I, V 64. 2. For this meaning of the appellation Mu'tasila see ZDMG XLI, 35 note 4. ef. Ibn Sa'd V 225, 4, where MuHazilite is used as a synonym of ' dhid and zdliid to denote ascetics. In an old Arabic translation of the N. T., (publ. 1233) originating in Nestorian cii-cles, Pharisee (one who sets himself apart) is trans- lated by the same word (Mashrik XI 905 penult). 3. A recent monograph has been written by Henri GaUand, ''Essai sur les Mo' tazelites, les rationalistes de Tlslam" (Geneva 1906). 4. Cf. the biography by T. W. Arnold, Al-Mu'tazilah 18, 12. 5. In Beihaki ed. Schwally 364, penult, ff.j the ascetic picture in Arnold, 1. c. 22, 5 fe. 6. In the 4th century already sheikh min zuhhdd al-mu' iazila : **a sheikh of the Mu'tazilite ascetics," Yalcut ed. Margoliouth II 309, 11. 7. Kremer, ' ' Culturgeschichte des Orients unter den Chalifen" II 267. 8. In Jahiz, Eayawdn III 18 (cf. VI 11 on sceptics). Such prin- ciples make their impression even on a man as far from the Mu'tazilite point of view as Ghazali; it is apparent in his expression (Mozne sedek, Hebrew ed. Goldenthal, 235): '^he who does not doubt, cannot think rationally." The Arabic original of Ghazali's saying is quoted by Ibn Tufeil, Hayy ibn Yakzan (ed. Gauthier, Algiers 1900) 13, 4 fr. below. 9. Maturidi, Commentary to al-Fikh al-akbar (Haidarabad 1321; authenticity very improbable) 19. 10. Jahiz 1. c. VI 95 (in place of the gap here designated by dots, the Arabic text as well as in the Vienna Jahiz-manuscript has a word, evidently corrupt, according to the metre, which cannot be made out). To this independent activity of reason (96, 6) is opposed the dependent traditional repetition (talclid), which marks the average man. 11. Cf. Maimuni, ''Guide des egares" I c. 73, propos. XII. On the scepticism of the Mutakallimun see ZDMG LXII 2. 12. *'Buch vom Wesen der Seele" 13, note to 4, 5 ff . 13. Fakhr al-din al-Eazi, Mafdtih al-ghaib see St. V 432. NOTES. 145 VI. 1. Ibn 'Asakir, Ta'riTch Dimashlf, section 340. (Lanberg Coll., now in the library of Yale University, New Haven, Conn.) 2. The Hanbalite theologian Muwaffak al-din 'Abdallah ibn Kudama (d. 620/1233) wrote: Damm al-ta'wU (the condemnation of the ta'wil), of which two manuscript copies have lately been acquired for the library of the Asiatic Society of Bengal ("List of Arabic and Persian Mss. acquired" . . . 1903-1907 no. 405. 795; add to Brockelmann I 398). In various writings Ibn Teymiyya (see concerning him ch. VI) frequently attacks the ta'wll of the Mutakallimun and indicates the proper boundary of ta'wil in the traditional sense (e. g. Tafs^r Surat al- ilchlas 71 ff., Bisalat al-iTclil fi-l-mutasMMJi wal-ta'iml, in Majmu' at al-rasd'il (Cairo 1323) II). 3. Abu Ma' mar al-Hudali (d. 236/850 in Baghdad), TadTcirat al- huffds II 56. VIII. 1. ^' Ahmed ibn Hanbal and the Mihna" (Leiden 1897). Cf. ZDMG LII 155 ff. 2. Muh. Stud. II 59. 3. Shahrastani ed. Cureton 68. 4. ZDMG LXII 7. 5. Kitdb al-ibdna 'an usul al-dijdna (Haidarabad 1321) 41. IX. 1. For references and further discussion see ZDMG LII 158 and the introduction to ''Le livre de Mohammed ibn Toumert" (Algiers 1903) 61-63; 71-74. 2. Shahrastani, 1. c. 51 ult. 3. Mawerdi, ' ' Constitutiones politicae" ed. Enger 61 ff. The Imam al-Shafi'i makes no difference between the two zones, ddr al-Isldm and ddr al-harl. On this account differences arise with other schools in regard to derivative questions cf. Abu Zeid al-Dabbusi, Ta'sts al-nasar (Cairo o. J.) 58. 4. T. W. Arnold, Al-Mu' tazilah 44, 12, 57, 5. X. 1. For the title see above VIII note 5. 2. M. Schreiner "Zur Geschichte des Ash' aritentums. " (Actes du Huitieme Congres international des Orientalistes, Section I A, 105.) XI. 1. In the ra]jbinical Hagada we find likewise the view expressed that questions of law are discussed after the manner of the school; bab. Pesdchim 50a beginning Khagigd 15b below, Gittm 6b below; God himself is supposed to occupy himself with the con- sideration of the varying opinions of rabbinical authorities, he himself searches in the law; a point of view often expressed in Seder Eliyyahu rabba (ed. Friedmann, Vienna 1900) 61 penult. 2. Musnad Ahmed IV 66. 3. Muwatta (ed. Cairo) I 385. Other examples, which have formed the object of the ta'wU will be found in the author's work: "Die Zahiriten" 168. A collection of Hadiths, as a support of the 146 MOHAMMED AND ISLAM. most crude anthropomorphism, was made, see Yakut ed. Mar- goliouth III I 153. Also Bukh. Tauhid no. 35 (ed. JuynboU 448), in Damascus by Hasan ibn 'Ali al-Ahwazi (d. 446/1055). 4. In one version of Ibn Sa'd VI 37, 23 yahhitu closing: ''and when morning comes he again returns on high." 5. Other explanations also have been attempted to explain away the anthropomorphism of this utterance; they are put together in Abu Muh. ibn al-Sid al-Batal-yusi, al-Intisaf (ed. 'Omar al- Mahmasani, Cairo 1319) 120 f. (this book is of great importance for the knowledge of the questions treated here), Moh. al-'Ab- dari's Kiial al-majal (Alexandria 1293) II 25 ff. cf. also Subki, Tabakdt al-Shafi' iyya II 135, 13. 6. Bukh, Tafsir no. 264 (Sura 50 v. 29) with Ibn al-Athir, Nihdya 1 142; LA s. v. jbr V 182 cf. Bukh. Tauhid. no. 7 (ed. Juyn- boU 448). XII. 1. See on this the definite formulation in Fakhr al-din al Kazi, Ma'dlim usiil al-din ch. II par. 10 (ed. Cairo 1323, and the same author's work Muhassal p. 9). After enumerating the sub- jective elements of the traditional demonstration he says: ''from this it follows, that the traditional proofs only give conjectures, the proofs of reason, on the contrary have apodictical power; con- jecture cannot be opposed to apodictical knowledge." The funda- mental principle of Kalam is invariably al-dald'il al-ndkliyya Id tufld al yakln, al-Iji Jordjani, MawdMf (Stambul 1239) 79. 2. al-Isldm wal-nasrdniyya ma'al-'ilm wal-madaniyya (Cairo 1323, printed after the death of the author) p. 56. 3. Cf. Schreiner, "Beitrage zur Geschichte der theologischen Bewegungen im Islam." (Leipzig 1899) 64-75 = ZDMG LII 528- 539. 4. Ibn Teymiyya, in the great 'Akida hamawiyya, Majmu' at al- ra^d'il al-kubrd I 468 below. 5. Subki, TahaTcdt al-SMfi' iyya I 241, 5. 6. A famous authority in tradition, Abu Suleyman al-Khattabi al- Busti (d. 388/998), wrote a book: al-ghunya (not al-ghayla, as in " Abu-1-Mahasin ibn Taghri Birdi" annals ed. W. Popper, Berkeley 1909, 578, 15) 'an al-lcaldm wa-ahlihi, "the superfluity of Kalam and its people." Subki, ibid. II 218, 15. XIII. 1. On the sources of the metaphysics and natural philosophy of the Mu'tazilites we now have the investigation of S. Horovitz: " Tiber den Einfluss der Griechischen Philosophic auf die Entwick- lung des Kalam" (Breslau 1909) and cf. the review by M. Hor- ten in Oriental Literatur-Zeitung XII 391 ff. On the philos. of Kalam see Horten: "Die philosophischen Probleme der spekulativen Theologie im Islam" (Bonn 1910; "Eenaissance und PhHosophie" III). 2. Kitdb al-hayawdn II 48. NOTES. 147 3. Mawakif, 1. c. 448. 4. Cf. S. Horovitz, 1. c. 12 and Horten, ZDMG LXIII 784 ff. 5. See above note 5, 11 and 12. 6. Maimuni, Daldlat al-Jid'inn I c. 69 beg. 7. Jorjani to Mawakif 512, 3 fr. bel. 8. Ibn Hajar al-Heitami, Fatdwl hadithiyya (Cairo 1307) 35. 9. Itlidf al-sddat al-muttdkin (ed. Cairo 1302) X 53. 10. Mawakif 506. 11. The unacceptable formulas of the conception of causality are col- lected in Senusi (toward the end of the 15th century), '*Les Prolegomenes theologiques, " published and translated by J. D. Luciani (Algiers 1908) 108-112. Senusi, whose compendia count as fundamentals of dogmatic orthodoxy, as is apparent in the list of his works (Belkacem al-Hafnaoui, "Biographies des savants musulmans de I'Algerie'^ I 185 penult.) has devoted another special work to the refutation of causality, "in which he opposes with strong arguments the doctrine of invariable causes. ' ' CHAPTER IV. ASCETICISM AND SUFIISM. I. Early Islam was ruled by the consciousness of absolute dependence, and the conception of world negation. As has been seen, it was the vision of the destruction of the world and of the judgment of mankind which first made Mohammed a prophet. This view bred a spirit of asceticism among his followers, and contempt of the world became their motto. Nevertheless, although Mohammed, to the very end, proclaimed the blessedness of paradise as the goal of all faithful life, owing to the changing conditions in Medina and to the spread of his warlike activities, the world point of view soon unconsciously came to play an important part in his considerations. The vast majority of Arabs who came over to him were chiefly won and held by the prospect of material advan- tages. Not all belonged to those of whom the early histo- rians of Islam speak, hurra (praying brothers) and hakTia'un (weeper, penitents). The prospect of spoils was indeed a most magnetic recruiting force for Islam. The prophet himself recognized this when he tried to heighten the zeal of the warrior through the maglidnim hatlivra (much booty) promised by Allah (Sura 48, v. 19). In the old accounts of the maglidzl (expeditions) of the prophet, it is surprising to note the vast and varied spoils which with the regularity of a natural law appear to follow in the wake of every holy war. To be sure, the prophet does not deny the higher ends to be attained by means of these marauding expeditions. He preaches against the finality of merely worldly aims, of dunyd: ** There are many maghdnim with Allah 99 ASCETICISM AND SUFIISM. 149 (Sura 4, V. 96). **Ye strive after the trumpery of this world; but AUah wishes what is beyond'^ (Sura 8, v. 68). The ascetic tone of the first Mecca utterances passed over, to a certain extent, into the Medina realism. But actual conditions had led the spirit of the young Moslem community into quite other paths than those in which the prophet moved at the beginning of his activity, when he first called his faithful to follow him. Even before his death and notably immediately after, the watchword had changed. In place of the denial of the world came the idea of the conquest of the world. Confession of Islam was to result for the faithful in ^Hhe attainment of material prosperity, in supremacy i over the Arabs and subjection of the non- Arabs, and i besides all this a kingly estate in paradise.''^ And this ; conquest of the world was not as a matter of fact, aimed only toward the ideal. The treasures of Ktesiphon, Damascus, and Alexandria were no inducement to the strengthening of ascetic inclinations. Far more surpris- ing is it to find accounts as early as the third century of Islam, telling of the great wealth collected by the pious warriors and worshippers, of the great pieces of land which they called their own, the comfortable houses, which they built, both at home and in the conquered countries, and the luxury with which they surrounded themselves. These facts are manifest in the accounts of the pos- sessions of those people, whom Moslem piety most loves ;to honor. Take for example the property left by the iKureishite al-Zubeir ibn al-*Awwam, a man so pious that he was counted among the ten people whom the prophet, Iduring his life-time, could assure of an entrance into paradise because of their merit in Islam. The prophet icalled them his apostles (hawari). This Zubeir left an estate, which after the deduction of all debts, yielded et proceeds amounting in the various reports to 150 MOHAMMED AND ISLAM. between 35,200,000 and 52,000,000 dirhems. It is true he is accredited with great generosity; but he was never- theless a Croesus, and the inventory which could be drawn up of the estates which he called his own in the various parts of the recently conquered lands does not look like contempt of the world, eleven houses in Medina besides those in Basra, Kufa, Fostat, Alexandria.^ Another one of the ten pious men whom the prophet assured of paradise, Talha ibn ^Ubeidallah possessed lands worth roundly thirty million dirhems. When he died his treasurer disposed of 2,200,000 dirhems in cash, above and beyond this. His property in cash is valued according to another account in the following way: he left one hundred leather bags, of which each held three kintars of gold.^*^ A heavy load that for paradise ! About the same time (37/657) there died in Kufa a pious man, named Khabbab, originally a very poor devil, who in his youth was a craftsman in Mecca, according to Arab views at that time not even an honorable business for free gentlemen.^ He became a Moslem and had to suffer much from his heathen fellow-townsmen. He was tor- tured with red-hot irons and threatened with still other torments, but he remained steadfast. He also took a zealous part in the wars of the prophet. When this man, so zealous in his faith, lay on his death-bed in Kufa, he could point to a trunk in which he had collected forty thousand — probably dirhems — and expressed the fear that through this wealth he had anticipated the reward for his endurance in f aith.^ The rich share which came to the warriors of plunder and money offered favorable opportunities for amassing such worldly goods. After a campaign into North Africa under the leadership of ^Abdallah ibn Abi Sarh during the time of the Caliph ^ Othman, each rider received three thousand mithkals in gold from the booty. Those who, like Hakim ibn Hizam, declined to accept the stipend ASCETICISM AND SUFIISM. 151 offered them by Abu Bekr and *Omar, must have been very rare.^ The predominant note in the Arab rush of conquests, was, as Leone Caetani shows with great clearness in several places in his work on Islam, material need and greedJ This is to be explained by the economic condi- tion of Arabia, which kindled the enthusiasm for migra- tion from the inherited land to more favorable points. For this migration, founded on economic necessity, the new faith furnished a welcome motive.^ By this we do not mean to assert that it was these avaricious aims alone that prevailed in Islam's holy wars. Besides those warriors who ^^had entered the war through worldly desires,'' there were always men who, inspired by reli- gious zeal, took part in the battles for the sake of para- dise.^ But, to be sure, it was not this last faction which really stamped the character of the fighting masses. So, in a very early epoch of its history, did Islam's immediate outward success force the ascetic ideas, once so dominant, into the background. Frequently worldly considerations and worldly wishes, could be satisfied by a zealous share in the spread of the religion of Moham- med. Even in the generation after Mohammed it could be said that at this time every pious deed had double value, *' because it is no longer the next life which is our care, as formerly, but the dunya, the interest of this life, which attracts us."^^ 11. There was no break in the steady decline of ascetic tendencies, when with the rise of the Omayyads the theocratic spirit»got the worst of it even in the govern- ment, and public spirit was no longer guided by the saints. According to a saying of the prophet which reflects the view of the pious, ^Hhere will be no more emperors in Syria and no Khosroes in ^Irak. By God, ye will spend your treasures in the path of God." In gadiths bearing on the subject, the spending of the v' 152 MOHAMMED AND ISLAM. treasures gained as booty ^4ii the way of God'^ and for the good of the poor and needy goes far to offset the materialistic aim and success of conquests.^ But this did not exactly suit the people who had to decide about the spending of the acquired goods. The treasures which were amassed through conquests and continually increased through clever administration, were not, in the Hadith, simply to be spent *4n the way of God,^^ i. e., for pious ends. The classes, into whose hands such worldly goods fell wished to use them for the enjoyments of this world. They did not wish simply to *' gather up treasures in heaven. ' ^ An ancient tradition tells that Mu* awiyya, the Syrian governor at the time of the caliph *Othman, the subsequent founder of the Omayyad dy- nasty of caliphs, fell into a quarrel with the pious Abu Darr al-Ghifari, over the interpretation of the Koran verse (Sura 9, v. 34), ^^And those who hoard up gold and silver and do not give it out in the way of Allah, to them carry the message of painful punishment. ^ ^ The worldly-minded statesman held that this was a warning which could not be applied to the actual condition of the Moslem state, but which was directed against the covetous leaders of other religions (the preceding words apply to them) ; the pious ones, on the other hand, con- tended, *^the warning is directed against them and against us.'^ This did not suit Mu^ awiyya, and he considered Abu Darr's exegesis dangerous enough to rouse the caliph against him. The latter summoned the man to Medina, and exiled him to a small place in the neighborhood, so that he should not, by his hostile teach- ings, influence public opinion against the ruling spirit.^ This is a reflection of the ruling opinion, to which even the interpreters of the religious teachings had to yield. Those who interpreted the original ideal of Islam and, like Abu Darr, in the name of the prophet propounded the teaching **Gold and silver amassed by him who does ASCETICISM AND SUFIISM. 153 not use it for pious purposes, it shall be to him as coals of fire,'^ — such a person was regarded as a recluse, since he declined to recognize anyone as his brother who, in spite of his fidelity to Islam, erected large buildings and claimed fields or herds as his own.^ As a matter of fact, we find in the specimens of religious thought, signs of the unconcealed disapproval of the asceticism which went beyond the norm of legal requirement, although in the first decade of the prophet's career it had received his unconditional approbation. We encounter an entirely changed spirit, with the Hadlth form supplying the neces- sary documents for its confirmation. The ambition to acquire transcendental possessions could naturally not be blotted out of the Islamic view of the world ; but it was to share its power with the appre- ciation of worldly interests. In support of this Aristo- telian mean a teaching of the prophet was produced: '^The best among you is not that one who deserts this world in favor of the next, nor he who does the opposite ; the best among you is he who takes of both.''^ Examples of excessive asceticism are constantly given in such a manner in the traditional sources as to imply that the prophet disapproved of such tales. The most important documents on this subject are the reports of the ascetic tendencies of ^Abdallah, the son of the general ^Amr ibn al-^Asi, famous in the early history of Islam. The story pictures him in contrast to his father, as one of the leading religious disciples of the prophet and the most zealous searcher of his law.^ The prophet hears of his inclination to impose continuous fasts on himself, and to deprive himself of sleep in order to recite the Koran during the whole night; and he exhorts him earnestly to limit these ascetic habits to a reasonable degree. ^^Your body has claims upon you, and your wife has claims upon you, and your guest has claims upon you."^ **He who practices continuous fasts 154 MOHAMMED AND ISLAM. has (in truth) not fulfilled the fast,'* that is, it will not be counted to him as a religiously meritorious act.'^ The prophet is made to blame people who give them- selves up to unbroken devotional exercises to the neglect of their worldly business. Once a traveler was praised because when riding his pack animal he did nothing but repeat litanies, and when he dismounted he did nothing but pray. ^^But," asked the prophet, ^^who cared for the feed of his pack animal, and who prepared his own food!'* ^^We all cared for his needs." ^^Then every one of vou is better than he. ^'^ There is an unreliable tendency in a great number of traditional stories of exaggerated penitential vows, bodily self torment and chastisement, which have as a type a certain Abu Isra 'il.^ To explain such efforts is of no religious, or at least of minor religious value. ^^If the monk (rdhib) Jureij (a diminutive of Gregorius) had been a true student of religion, he would have known that the fulfilment of his mother's wishes were of more value than his devoting himself to the service of God.''^^ Celibacy received the specially severe censure of the prophet. He sets to right a certain ^Aldiaf ibn Wada al-Hilali, who had determined on a celibate life, with the following words : * * You have then determined to belong to the brothers of Satan! Either you wish to be a Christian monk, in which case join them publicly; or you belong to us, then you must obey our Sunna. Our Sunna, however, demands married life. ' '^^ Such sayings are also attributed to him with regard to those who wish to abandon their goods in order to devote them to pious ends, to the detriment of their own families.^ ^ These teachings of the prophet connected with con- crete cases correspond also to the current maxims ascribed to him. ^^ There is no monasticism in Islam; ! the monasticism of this community is religious war. ''^^ This sentence is especially noteworthy for the way ASCETICISM AND SUFIISM. 155 in which it contrasts the pious, contemplative life of the cloister cell, with the active life of a soldier which has just been mentioned as the cause of the disappearance of the ascetic tendencies of earliest Islam. In considering the words of the prophet directed against monasticism, one cannot overlook the fact that they appear generally as a direct polemic against the ascetic life in Christendom. The prophet in several speeches is said to take a stand against the exaggerated fasts, beyond the number of legal restrictions. *^For every bite which the true believer takes into his mouth, he receives a divine reward." ^^God loves better the Moslem who cares for his physical strength than the weakling." ^^He who eats with gratitude (to God) is as worthy as the self-denying faster."^* It is no virtue to dispose of one's goods and then to become a beggar oneself. Only he who has a superfluity should give alms, and even then he should first think of the members of his family.^^ In all these teachings the thought seems to predominate, that the limit of worldly goods to be acquired is determined by law, and that no chastise- ments are desired beyond these. It is important for our consideration to emphasize once more that it is hardly likely that Mohammed made any of the speeches which we have given here as linked with his name. He himself had, with due respect for worldly necessities, and with all the indulgence which he claimed for himself, as is evident in many places in the Koran,^^ the highest regard for true asceticism, pray- ing brotherhoods, penance and fasting, — with one excep- tion perhaps, — celibacy. His thoughts, indeed, lie nearer to those sayings in which restraint (zuhd) from every-, thing worldly is commended as a great virtue, through' which one acquires the love of God.^^ But it is also as important to notice how the anti-ascetic views of life, called forth by the external religion of Islam, expresses 156 MOHAMMED AND ISLAM. itself in speeches and judgments which in accord with the procedure above set forth (p. 151 seq.) was attached to the authority of the prophet. The same tendency is also apparent in another sphere of tradition and literature: in the accounts of the life of the prophet and of the Companions. It is precisely from the little intimate traits, which tradition half unconsciously mingles with the portrayal of the representative of sacred interests, that we can best see the predominance of the anti-ascetic spirit. The prophet's own biography is full of such traits. On the whole, indeed, we may accept Mohammed's con- tinually increasing sensuality as an authentic fact. Nevertheless it is an unique phenomenon in the religious literature of all times and all peoples that Islam offers us in its view of the prophet. Never has the founder of a religion, without prejudice to the ideal picture which has been formed of him (page 20) been so described on his human, indeed his far too human side, as Moham- med has been described by Moslem tradition.^ ^ The widespread dissemination of such traits would no doubt have been suppressed or modified in a circle in which asceticism was considered the perfect way of life. In- stead, such views were regarded as furnishing a com- mentary to his own words: *^I am only flesh as ye" (Sura 18, v. 110). Nowhere is there a sign of an effort to remove from him human lusts and passions. On the contrary one finds the frank effort to bring him humanly near to his faithful for all time. He is freely made to confess: ^^In your world women and sweet scents have become precious to me'' — ^with the addition ^^and the comfort of my eyes is prayer." Every opportunity was embraced to give him attributes which are quite foreign to any inclination toward asceticism. Tradition, frankly enough, even lets his opponents accuse him of associating ASCETICISM AND SUFIISM. 157 only with women, which could not very well accord with the character of a prophet.^^ We notice the same tendency in the intimate biograph- ical notices which have come down to us from the pious Companions. Through the publication of the great com- pilation of Ibn Sa^d we are now in a position to follow this phase of Islamic biographical tradition, since we now have biographical material extending to the most minute details of the private life of the oldest hero of Islam, formerly neglected. It is notable that these biographies as a rule offer elaborate traditions of how these sacred persons were wont to perfume themselves, how they dyed their beards and hair, how they dressed and adorned themselves.-^ Perfuming especially, which the praying brotherhoods, sworn enemies of the cosmetic arts, zeal- ously attacked, is always given a leading place. For example, ^ Othman ibn ^ Ubeidallah recounts as a memory of his school days, that the children were holding per- fumes to their noses on an occasion when four men, men- tioned by name, passed before the schoolhouse. Among them was Abu Hureira, one of the weightiest authorities on Islamic tradition.^^ They revel also in the accounts of luxury which those who are recognized as models of piety manifested in their dress. One often reads that they wrapped themselves in velvet garments. For the justification of such luxury a saying which has come down from the prophet is often used: *^When God favors a man with wealth, he likes the signs of it to be apparent.'' With this teaching the prophet blames wealthy people who appear before him in poor clothes.^^ This would scarcely be in keeping with a religious tradition having its ideal in the denial of all worldliness. Of the numerous examples which serve to characterize the spirit and the manner of life of the circle which 158 MOHAMMED AND ISLAM. cherished these traditions, I wish to mention only a small detail which illustrates in a naive manner the point under consideration. The figure of Mohannned ibn al-Hanafiyya ibn *Ali, whom a crowd of religious zealots acclaimed as the Mahdi, God's chosen redeemer of Islam, is the bearer of the theocratic idea under those first Omayyads decried as godless usurpers. His father, *Ali, even before the birth of this son, was given the privilege by the prophet of giving the child the prophet's own name: like the prophet he was to bear the name Mohammed Abu-1 Kasim. To him was attached the belief in the bodily continuance of the future parusia of the person chosen by God and recognized as the Mahdi, a belief with which we shall become more familiar in the following chapter. In this respect he was the object of the religious hopes of the pious and of the praise of poetical followers. We read the following details in the biographical tradition about this sacred personage. Abu Idris reports ^'I saw that Mohammed ibn al-Hanafiyya made use of various dyes. He confessed to me that his father *Ali was not wont to use such cosmetics. ^Why do you do it thenT . . . *In order to woo the women with success,' was the answer. "23 Que would seek in vain indeed for such confessions in the Syrian or Ethiopic lives of saints. To be sure this Mahdi, if we test his character with historical accuracy, is to all appearances a worldly-minded man, not averse to sensual pleasures and advantages.^* Yet in the tradition of Islam he is the embodiment of sacred interests. There was no contradiction of fact between this character and the apparently irreconcilable con- fession which perhaps not without a humorous intent is put into his mouth. Many other biographical accounts from the old times of Islam could be given as further examples to illustrate what we have seen to have been the teachings of the prophet. ASCETICISM AND SUFIISM. 159 III. Such utterances and teachings, however, would not have been emphasized, if at the time of their appear- ance, there had not manifested itself in the Moslem com- munity, a powerful under-current, which continues to cherish the ascetic spirit of Islam and recognizes in it the true and pure religious manifestation. We have just mentioned that there were praying brotherhoods,^ who regarded even the aestheticism of external appearances as a breach of the Islamic ideal of life ; naturally we find Abu Isra'il (referred to above, page 154) among these. Of ^Abdalrahman ibn al-Aswad respected in the com- munity, but whose garb did not suggest an unworldly demeanor, he says : ^ ' When I see that man, I think that I see before me an Arab who has turned into a Persian landlord. He is dressed like them, perfumed like them and rides like them.'^^ Especially in ^Irak does this tendency seem to have found many adherents. Soon after the conquest and in the first Omayyad period, they are generally called 'uhhdd (sing, ^abid) that is, those who devote themselves to the pious service of God, persons like Mi^ dad ibn Yezid from the line of 'Ijl, who fought under the Caliph ^Othman in the war in Adarbeijan. He returned with a number of the Companions to the cemetery in order there ^^to I serve God.^'^ A perfect type of this character is to be found in the manner of life and views of al-Rabi* ibn Khuthyam in Kufa, his sole interest in the things of this world revolved around ^'the number of mosques that have arisen in the tribe of the Teim family. '' He did not allow his little daughter, the most harmless childish games ; he himself naturally turned away with all his soul from the frivolities introduced from Persia. He scorns the share of ]30oty coming to him from the wars.* For we must understand especially, that — as the two examples show us — the asceticism of these people did not extend to exemption from warfare, in as much as it contributed to the spread of the faith. We accordingly 160 MOHAMMED AND ISLAM. find ascetic traits at this epoch of Islam among people whose share in war is given in detail. To Mohammed's speech against ^^monasticism'' is added the clause: *^the monasticism of my community is Jihad'' (crusade). The more public life turned to material interests and enjoyments, the more motives did those persons find who sought the ideal of Islam in the conditions prevailing at the time of its origin, to demonstrate in their own persons by laying aside all worldly interests the pro- test against secularization. In the biographies of the oldest professors of Islam even the martial heroes are portrayed as representatives of this ascetic tendency, in order to hold them up as models of true believers, pro- testing against all kinds of worldliness, and as types of asceticism.^ As a matter of fact we have data for the assumption that the trend toward asceticism coincides with resistance against the authorities. It is under the caliph ^Othman that an investigation is started against a man, who was famed for having affronted the Imam, and who did not take part in the public Friday cere- monies as a protest against the recognition of the gov- ernment. He was a vegetarian and a celibate.^ In view of the public conditions of which they disapproved in their hearts, many entrenched themselves in a retired life, denying the world and writing on their banner the motto : ^ ' Escape from the world. ' ' In connection with this there is still another important external factor. It has just been noted that many of the anti-ascetic speeches bore ear-marks of an undisguised polemical opposition to the ascetic tendencies of Chris- tianity. This is due to the fact that it is Christian asceticism which at the beginning of Islam offered the immediate example for the manifestation of the ascetic view of the world. Those who in Islam fostered inclina- tion toward the denial of the world, were first aroused and influenced by the example of the wandering monks ASCETICISM AND SUFIISM. 161 and penitents in Christendom. Even before the time of Mohammed the penitents mentioned in the ancient Ara- bian poems gave to the Arabs a glimpse of the ascetic manner of life. In many parts of the heathen Arabian poetry Christian monks and nuns in their customs and their manner of dress are used as metaphors to illustrate a variety of things.'^ It is they who suggest to Moham- med himself the appellation which he uses in the Koran (Sura 9, v. 113; 66 j v. 5) for the pious ascetic members of his community, sd^ihun, sci'ihat, i. e., those of both sexes who ^wander about.' He was thinking at that time of the wandering monks with whom he had probably come in contact during the pre-prophetic period of his life.^ A variant of the traditional speech directed against monasticism runs as follows: ^^ There is no itinerant monasticism'' (la siyahata) in Islam. The two expres- sions are synonymous.^ By the spread of Islam, especially in Syria, Babylonia and Egypt, those with ascetic tendencies had still greater opportunity of observing this mode of life, and the experience which they could gain from their contact with ^ Christians developed the school of asceticism in Islam. Such inclinations now appear in increasing measure and win for themselves constantly broadening circles. The adherents of this trend even complement their doctrinal material from the New Testament from which they take parables and maxims and use them for the propagation of their view of life. The oldest literary work of this kind, as Professor Margoliouth has lately pointed out, is full of veiled borrowings from the New Testament.i^ This ascetic note constantly increasing in the doctrines and life, impressed the believer of the usual type as very strained. This is evident, for example, in the story that a lady once saw a company of young people who were very deliberate in their gait and slow in their speech— a strong contrast indeed to the Arabs' liveliness in 162 MOHAMMED AND ISLAM. speech and motion. On inquiring as to who these unusual people were, she was told that they were nussdh, that is, ascetics. She could not refrain from remarking: ''For- sooth, when 'Omar spoke he was heard, and he hurried when he walked, and when he struck he hurt — such was the truly pious man (nasik).''^^ If one turns to Sura 31, V. 18, one would be inclined to say that the bearing of these young ascetics would have obtained the approval of Mohammed. It is easy to understand that these people first mani- fest their asceticism in the line of food. That they should fast much is fairly comprehensible. Against such people, are directed the traditional sayings and stories dealing with the evil of immoderate fasting.^^ Together with this tendency we find examples of abstinence from meat, a form of asceticism for which examples are being drawn even from the time of the Companions.^^ A certain Ziyad ibn abi Ziyad, who belonged as a client to the tribe of the Makhzum, and is represented as an ascetic, world- renouncing individual, who constantly performed pious acts, clothed himself in coarse woolen garb (sfif) and refrained from meat, is said to have been the type of a whole class in the time of 'Omar 11.^* The saying ascribed to the prophet attacks them as follows: "He who tastes no meat for forty days, acquires a bad character. "^'^ Side by side with these negative elements in practical life there also arise positive aspects of worship and of the philosophy of life. They are not in themselves contradictory to the teachings of the Koran, but are rather exaggerations of single elements in its religious teaching and its ethics. But although in the Koran they are regarded as proper links in the chain of Moslem doc- trines, in the circles to which Mohammedan asceticism owes its development, they are looked upon as of funda- mental importance, by the side of which all other ele- ASCETICISM AND SUFIISM. 163 ments of the religious life move into the background. In this one-sided exaggeration lies the seed of the split which later broke out between such efforts and the teachings of Moslem orthodoxy.^^ IV. Two factors especially appear in the oldest stage of Moslem asceticism as objects of such exaggeration: a liturgical and an ethical. The liturgical appears in the terminus dikr^ literally ^'mention" (of the name of Allah), which has kept its place in the whole develop- ment of Moslem mysticism. Official Islam limits the liturgical worship of God to definite moments of the day and night. This limitation and demarcation is disregarded by the ascetic view, for they regard the exhortation of the Koran ^^ Allah should be thought of frequently'* (Sura 33, v. 14) from the point of view of religious practice, and exalt the devotional practices to which they give the name Dikr to first place in practical religion, by the side of which other practices lose their value and shrink into insignificance. It is these mystical litanies which to-day still form the backbone of the groups representing the heritage of those ancient ascetics. The ethical peculiarity, which is sharply apparent in the asceticism of that ancient period, is the exaggeration of the confidence in God (tawakkul), which these Moslen^^ ascetics have carried to the highest stage of inactive quietism. It is the complete indifference and the laying aside of all initiative in their personal interests. They completely give themselves over to God's care of them and his fate. They are in the hands of God like the corpse in the hands of the one who washes it •} absolutely weak and indifferent. They call themselves mutawak- hilun, that is, those *who trust in God.' A number of their principles have come down to us from which it is evident that they scorn to raise a hand to obtain the needs of life. That would be a violation of the trust in God. 164 MOHAMMED AND ISLAM. They do not trouble themselves about the ** means/' but commit their needs directly to God, and consider their trustful inactivity in contrast with the cares of tradesmen, the humiliation of the artizan and the self- debasement of the beggar as the most exalted kind of self-preservation. *^They experience the Most High and receive their nourishment directly from His hand, with- out looking for the means." It is recounted as a special virtue of these people that they do not count the morrow in the number of days." The future and its cares is completely left out of their sphere of thought. A Hadith (to be sure a very suspected one)^ is quoted: ^^ Wisdom comes down from heaven, but it does not enter the heart of any man who thinks of the morrow. " ^ ' He who trusts in God is the ^ child of the moment' (^of time,' ihn al- wakt), he neither looks back into the past nor forward into the future.''* It is to be expected that complete aktemosure, poverty, and the rejection of all material goods, are regarded of the greatest importance by these people. He who belongs to them is a faJclr, a poor man. Furthermore, as they are indifferent to hunger and physical hardships of all kinds, so are they also indifferent to all other bodily discomforts. Bodily ills must not arouse in them the desire of alleviation by medical aid. Nor are they affected by the judgment and the opinion of men. ^'No man has entered into the trust in God to whom the praise and blame of mankind is not absolutely indiffer- ent. ' ' "With this quietism comes a complete indifference to the treatment they may receive from men. ^^Eesist notevH" (Matt, v, 39). That such a conception of life did not agree with the usual views of Islam, which in the first century had already started in the path of realism, is shown by a systematic collection of Hadith speeches and tales, which ASCETICISM AND SUFIISM. 165 can only be understood in their signification as an obvi- ous polemic against the religious consequences of the extravagant trust in God. How could this quietism find acceptance in a religious community which had just reached the height of its career of conquest, which had but a short time ago forsaken the deserts to establish itself comfortably in cities, surrounded by luxury and well-being ? V. At this period in Islam, two currents were striv- ing against each other. They find expression in a dia- logue between two pious men, Malik ibn Dinar and Mohammed ibn Wasi% who converse on the theme of the summum bonum. While one finds the highest happi- ness in possessing a piece of ground from which sub- stance can be obtained independent of man, the other is of the opinion that that man is blessed who finds his breakfast without knowing what will be his evening meal, and who finds his evening meal without knowing with what he will satisfy his hunger the next morning.^ The pious reaction against excessive worldliness — a reaction reflecting the ascetic beginnings of Islam — manifests itself in the extreme expression of this quietistic view of life.2 It has already been noted that this tendency received its impetus from Christian monasticism, with whose aims the principles just referred to correspond almost word for word. It is noteworthy that the parts of the Gospel which are most used in the ascetic sayings. Matt, vi, 25-34; Luke xii, 22-30, about the birds of the air which sow not neither do they reap nor gather into barns, but are nourished by their heavenly father — find an almost literal reproduction in the core of the Tawakkul doctrine.^ Imitating the habit of Christian anchorite or monk, these world-denying penitents and ascetics of Islam were wont to clothe themselves in coarse woolen 166 MOHAMMED AND ISLAM. clothes (suf).^ This custom can be traced back at least to the time of the Caliph ^Abdalmalik (685-705) and is the source of the appellation Siifi,^ an appellation which the followers of the ascetic tendencies assume at a time when their practical asceticism leads to further develop- ment and gives rise to a special kind of philosophy, which also influences the conception of religion. VI. In this development the penetration of neo- Platonic speculation into the intellectual circles of Islam was of marked importance. This philosophical tendency whose marked influence on the development of Islam will be taken up again later, offered a theoretico-theological background for the practical ascetic tendencies which have just been described. He who is scornful of all earthly things, and fixes his soul on the only lasting thing, on the divine, can prepare himself for this ^^transcend- ent divine life and attitude,'^ through the 'Emanation' doctrine of Plotinus with its dynamic pantheism. He feels the radiation of divine strength in the whole uni- verse. The things of this world are like a mirror in which the divine is reflected. But these reflected images are only appearances and have only a relative reality, in so far as they reflect the only true existence. Man must direct all of his efforts accordingly. He must through introspection and the stripping off of the material covering, let the eternal beauty and goodness of the divine penetrate his being, and through inner aspiration get rid of the semblance of his personal existence, in order to attain the absorption of his per- sonality in the one real di\dne existence. In the beginning, my soul and thine were one: my appear- ance and thine, my disappearance and thine ; it would have been untrue to speak of Mine and Thine. The I and the Thou have ceased between us !^ I am not I, Thou are not Thou, nor art thou I. I am simul- taneously I and Thou, Thou art simultaneously Thou and I. ASCETICISM AND SUFIISM. 167 In relation to Thee, fair one of Khoten, I am at a loss to know if Thou art I or I am Thou.^ The limits of personality form the veil which hides the divine from man. With a little exaggeration, the prophet whom the Sufis claim is the herald of their theories, is made to say : * ^ Thine existence is a sin, with y" which no other sin can be compared. ' '^ By this is meant the manifestation of one's existence, the assertion of life as an independent individual. Through inward self -contemplation, through pious practices, through ascetic chastisement which results in ecstatic conditions where the person seems drunk with the divine,"* the per- sonality, the ego, the duality toward God, is overcome, and there is attained a complete lack of feeling toward bodily conditions and an existence ^^ without cares, with- out thought and needs and ills.*' — This is pictured by Jelal al-din Rumi, the greatest interpreter of this view of the world: Cleanse thyself of all the attributes of self, So that thou may'st see thy shining being.^ Even time and space cease in his consciousness to be the categories of his existence : My place is without place ; my track is trackless.^ For the Sufi who comprehends the truth of heaven and earth there is no above and below, no before and after, no right and left."^ ^^He who does not go out of the palace of natural being, ' ' say Hafiz, ' ^ cannot reach the village of truth. ' '* This stripping of all natural qualities (sifdt) which are called forth through the sensitiveness of the individual to the impress of the outer world, the denial of all acts of the will and feeling, the inner moods which he defines 168 MOHAMMED AND ISLAM. with the word jam' (concentration, the Indian samadhi)^ in contrast to the condition of the soul which is affected by externalities, the Sufi conceives under the picture of drunkenness. He is intoxicated by the stupefying draught of the beauty of the light of God, which streams into his soul and filling it, robs him of his physical sense. The final goal of the Sufi life, the rise of the individual : into the one reality of the divine being is also represented by the picture of love. Of this love {mahahha), Hallaj who, because of his claim to complete oneness with the godhead, was executed by the true believers in Baghdad (309/921), is seized, and he speaks of it to his followers before he gives himself up to the executioner. The most famous Arab Sufi poet, 'Omar ibn al-Farid (d. Cairo 632/1235), one of whose mystic poems Hammer-Purgstall introduced into German literature under the title The Arabic Canticle of Love* (Vienna 1854), on account of the prevailing theme of his poems received from later ages the epitaph Sultan al- dsliikm (prince of lovers). Intoxicating liquor itself, the Sufis like to call the love potion {sharab-al-mahahha) }^ Love is the quenching of the will and the burning up of all physical qualities and longings.^ ^ Love came and freed me from all else; it graciously raised me, after it had thrown me to the ground. Thank the Lord that he has dissolved me like sugar in the water of union with him. I went to the physician and said to him : ' ' thou intelligent one; what dost thou prescribe (as medicine) for love-sickness?" Thou prescribest the giving up of qualities (sifat) and the extuiction of my existence. This is, "Leave everything that is." As long as you are sober, you will not attain the joy of drunk- enness; as long as you do not surrender your body, you will not attain the cult of the soul ; as long as you do not annihilate yourself in love towards your friend, as water through fire, you will not attain being. * Das Arabische Holie Lied der Liebe. ASCETICISM AND SUFIISM. 169 On the day of judgment he is justified by this love : On the morrow when man and woman go to the judgment- place, their faces will become yellow with the fear of the reckon- ing. I come before thee holding my love in my hand, and say: ''My reckoning must be made through this."^^ Love toward God is then the formula for the concen- trated effort of the soul to let the appearance of the| personal existence pass over into the Truth of the divine, all-comprehending being; a thought which has engen- dered a poetic literature of the choicest character in all the languages of cultured Moslems. This view of the world has adapted itself now as a theocratic basis for quietism and Dikr-cult of the prac- tical ascetic. They strove by means of meditation and Dikr practices to reach the ecstatic condition in which their divine intoxication and their love of God might be made manifest; an entirely different path from that by which orthodox Islam strove to attain the love of God commended in the Koran and in tradition.^ ^ Sufiism, accordingly, surpasses the ideal of the phi- losophers by setting up an aim for human perfection of soul, and by defining the summum bonum. Ibn Sab^ in of Murkia (d. 668/1269 in Mecca), a philosopher and a Sufi, who was charged with the answers to the ^ ^ Sicilian questions'^ of the Hohenstaufen Frederick II, finds the formula for this ^Hhat the ancient philosophers set up as their highest aim (see above p. 31) to become like God, while the Sufi wishes to reach the merging into God through the ability to let divine grace penetrate him, to wash away the sensuous, and to purify the spiritual impressions."^* VII. As is the case elsewhere in religious orders, the Sufis in so far as they attached any value to it at all, wished to stand within the bounds of Islam, or at least, to be recognized as doing so. They wished to interpret 170 MOHAMMED AND ISLAM. their view of the world into the Koran, and into the hallowed tradition, and prove their theories by the sacred texts. Thus they caused Islam to enter into the inheri- tance of Philo and manifested in their writings the con- viction that beyond the apparent, indifferent meaning of the words of the sacred text are contained deep philo- sophical truths which are to be discovered by allegorical interpretation. Wlien, for example, in the Koran (Sura 36, V. 12 ff.) the simile is introduced regarding the inhabitants of the people of the city when the messengers came to it. When we sent two unto them and they charged them both with imposture — therefore with a third we strength- ened them : and they said, ' ' Verily we are those sent unto you of God." They said, "Ye are only men like us : Nought hath the God of mercy sent down. Ye do nothing but lie." They said, * ' Our Lord knoweth that we are surely sent unto you. ' ' This word of God, they contend, can surely not denote as common a daily occurrence as the sense of the word would imply. Eather is the city nothing else but the body, the three messengers being the spirit, the heart and reason. On this basis the whole story, the refusal of the two first, the reception of the third messenger and the behavior of the inhabitants of the city, as well as their punishment, is explained allegorically. Thus the Sufi exegetes have their own allegorical ta'wil (see above p. 114), an esoteric interpretation of the scriptures, which has resulted in much literature,^ and which permeated aU Sufi writings. In order to make this esoterism correspond to Islam by means of legitimate tradition they borrowed from the Shiites (see below Chapter V) the belief that Mohammed entrusted the hidden sense of revelation to his proxy *Ali; this teaching, cherished among the chosen only, forms the Kabbalah of SUfiism. The Arab Sufi poet mentioned ASCETICISM AND SUFIISM. 171 above, ^Omar ibn al-Farid, expresses this idea so deep- rooted in Stif 1 circles, as follows : And by means of Ta'wil did 'Ali explain what was dark, by means of a knowledge which he received (from the prophet) as a legacy (wasiyya).^ To them ^Ali was the patriarch of Moslem mysticism, a view which from the standpoint of the orthodox Sunnas was decidedly to be rejected. The prophet kept nothing from the great generality of his community, he shared no secret knowledge with any one.^ Together with this, however, we find the phenomenon that the worship of ^Ali appears to an extravagant extent in many Sufi circles, at times even penetrates into the form of its mystical teachings, and that many varia- tions of the fictitious chain of Sufi tradition in the measure that it departs from orthodoxy, is carried along the line of the ^Aliite Imams. The Bektashi orders, on whose ^Ali- and Imam-cult the recent investigations of George Jacob have thrown light, are an example of the steadily increasing prominence accorded in Siifiism to the worship of *Ali. VIII. English scholars who have in recent years made a thorough study of the origin and development of Sufiism, such as E. H. Wliinfield, Edward G. Browne, and Reynold A. Nicholson, have clearly shown the neo- Platonic character of Sufiism.^ At the same time, other influences are not denied, which in the course of the devel- opment of this religio-philosophical system furnish essen- tial elements. In a consideration of historical Sufiism there are decisive factors which cannot be set aside, such as the influence of India which make themselves felt from the time when Islam by its spread eastward to the very boundaries of China, brings Indian thought more and more into its horizon. This Indian influence has mani- 172 MOHAMMED AND ISLAM. fested itself partly in literature and partly in the intro- duction of Indian elements into the sphere of religious imagery. When in the second century, activity in translation en- larged the literary treasures written in Arabic, and Bud- dhist works were embodied in Arabic literature, we find an Arabic version of the ^ ^ Bilauhar wa-Budasif ' ^ ( Barlaam and Joasaf), and also a ^^Budd-book.''^ In the highly cultivated circles, which led the adherents of the most varied religious views to a free exchange of ideas, fol- lowers of the Shumaniyya, i. e. of the Buddhistic view of the world, are not lacking.^ I should like merely to men- tion the fact that the religious view which arose in oppo- sition to legal Islam, known as zuhd (asceticism), and which is not identical with our Sufiism, shows strong evidences of the impression of Indian ideals of life. One of the leading upholders of the ziihd conception, Abu-1- ^Atahiya, is set up as an example of a highly honoured man: ^^the king in the garments of a beggar, — it is he whose reverence is great among men.^^ Is this not the Buddha?* And to anticipate a later period we may be reminded of what Alfred v. Kremer has said concerning the Indian elements which, as he showed, are to be found in the religious and social views of the world as expressed in the principles found in the life and philosophical poems of Abu-l-'Ala al-Ma'arri.^ The wandering Indian monks bear witness to the fact that the Indian world did not appear on the Moslem horizon in a theoretical way alone. As early as the time of the ^Abbasides in Mesopotamia, these monks were a factor of practical importance to the adherents of Islam, just as in earlier times the wandering Christian monks (sa'ihun) had attracted attention in Syria (above page 161). Jahiz (d. 255/866) pictures very graphically the ASCETICISM AND SUFIISM. 173 wandering monks who could have belonged neither to Christianity nor to Islam. He calls them ' ^ Zindlk monks, ' ' an ambiguous appellation, which, nevertheless, as our case shows cannot be limited simply to Manichsean. His source of information tells him that such begging monks always go in pairs: ^4f thou seest one of them, thou art sure with careful observation to find his companion nearby. ' ' Their rule consists in never spending the night twice in one place. Four characteristics signalize their wandering life : holiness, purity, truth and poverty. One of the anecdotes told of the beggar lives of these monks, goes so far as to say that one of them preferred to bring the suspicion of theft upon himself, and endure mal- treatment, rather than betray a thieving bird. He did not wish to be the cause of the death of a living being.^ If these people were not actually Indian Sadhus or Buddha monks, they were at least men who were follow- ing the example and method of the latter. It was from such points of view, by such experiences and contact, that Suf lism, which by virtue of its original tendencies shows itself so closely related to Indian thought, was to be influenced. We may, for example, take as signs of the influence of Buddhism the fact that the ascetic literature of the Mohammedans richly fos- tered the type of the powerful master who has cast aside his earthly kingdom and has denied the world.'^ This teaching to be sure is very trivial in the presentation of this motive, and does not attain the overpowering sublimity of the Buddha type. A powerful king once saw two gray hairs in his beard: he pulled them out: they constantly reappeared, which led him to reflection: ** these are two messengers, whom God is sending me in order to exhort me to forsake the world and give myself up to him. I will obey them.'' So he suddenly forsook his kingdom, wandered in forests and deserts, and 174 MOHAMMED AND ISLAM. devoted himself to the service of God to the end of his life.^ There are a large number of ascetic stories which are concerned with this motif— the satiety of worldly power. It is of decisive importance for the point under consid- eration that the legends of one of the leading patriarchs of Sufiism bears the character of a Buddha biography. I refer to the legends of the saint Ibrahim ibn Edhem (d. about 160/2=776/8) . The motives for his flight from the world are variously explained in different legends. All the versions agree, however, in representing Ibrahim as the son of a king from Balkh, who was induced to cast aside his princely cloak and to exchange it for the garment of a beggar, to forsake his palace, to give up all his relations in the world, even his wife and child, to wander into the desert, and there to lead a wandering life. According to some reports he was bidden to do this by divine voice : according to others, by the observa- tion of the life of a poor man without any needs whose conduct he observed from the window of his palace. Of the motives assigned for the flight from the world one deserves special mention. The story is told by Jelal al-din Riimi, that one night Ibrahim ibn Edhem 's palace- guard heard a noise on the palace roof. When the noise was investigated, men were caught who pretended that they were looking for their runaway camel. The intrud- ers were brought before the prince, and when he asked them: ''Who has ever looked for a camel on the roof of a house r' they answered: ''We are simply follow- ing thy example, since thou dost strive after union with God while thou sittest on thy throne. Who has ever been able to draw near to God in such a place T' Thereupon he was said to have fled from the palace never again to be seen of any one.^ IX. Under Indian influence the Sufi conception became much intensified. The pantheistic idea surpasses ASCETICISM AND SUFIISM. 175 the confines assigned to it within neo-Platonism. It is especially the idea of the absorption, however, of the per- sonality which moves on the plane of the Atman concept. Even if it does not entirely attain to it, the Sufis call the state of absorption fand (destruction),^ **niahw" (ex-\ tinction), ^'istihlak'' (annihilation) an almost indefin- j able goal, and of which they assert that it will bear no ' coherent definition. It manifests itself, they say, as an intuitive knowledge and defies logical comprehension. *^When the temporal joins the eternal, no existence is left to the former. Thou hearest and seest nothing but Allah. When thou attainest the conviction that nothing exists outside of Allah, when thou dost recognize that thou thyself art he, that thou art identical with him, nothing exists outside of him.'' The denial of self-exist- ence is the condition of union with God. Let me become non-existent, for non-existence Calls to me with the tone of an organ. ''To him let us turn back.''^ Individual being merges completely into the all-being of the Godhead. Neither time nor space, not even the modalities of existence limit its boundlessness. Man raises himself to a complete identity with the foundation of all being, the comprehension of which lies beyond all knowledge. As Buddhism has the ** noble path,'' the eight-fold way by which man attains by degrees the highest degree of the annihilation of individuality, so Sufiism also has its tarlka, its path with manifold degrees and stations of perfection. Those who are on this path are wanderers {al-sdlikuna, ahl al-suluk). Even if the peculiarities of the way differ they nevertheless agree in principle. For example, in both, meditation,^ called in Sufiism mura- kaba, in Buddhism dhyana, forms an important part of 176 MOHAMMED AND ISLAM. the preparatory steps to perfection. ''Even the medi- tator and the object of meditation become completely one. ' ' This is the aim of Sufi tauMd, the interpenetration of Unity. It is fundamentally different from the usual Moslem monotheistic conception of God. A Sufi goes so far as to say it is Shirk (above page 48) to assert that *^I KNOW God'^ for in this sentence duality between the perceiving subject and the object of knowledge is in- volved. This also is Indian theosophy.* . X. Siifiism is demonstrated as an institution in ex- ternal life through the various Sufi societies and orders whose members cherish the Sfifi views of the world and religion. Ever since about 150/770 these people have gathered together more and more in their own houses and cloisters where, far from the noise of the world, they try to live up to their ideals and perform in common the practices leading up to them. Indian influences are very evident also in the development of this cloister life, just as the beggar's life of the Sufis outside of the monastic community offers a reflex of the Indian begging monk (sadhu). The consideration of neo-Platonic influence alone is no longer sufficient for the practical demonstra- tion of Sufi asceticism. The reception of the initiates into the Sufi community takes place through the investi- ture of the Khirka, i. e., of the garment which symbolizes the Sufi's poverty and flight from the world. In its way the Sufi legend carries the origin of the Khirka back to the prophet himself.^ It is unmistakable, nevertheless, that this symbol of initiation resembles that of the initia- tion into the community of the Bhikshus through 'Hhe receiving of the robe and the rules. ' '^ Many forms also of the religious practice of the Dikr in the Sufi conmiunities as well as the means used for the bringing about of the ''kenosis'' and ecstacy, the discipline of breathing,^ ASCETICISM AND SUFIISM. 177 have been investigated by Kremer in his Indian examples, and their dependence on the latter pointed out. Among these means of devotion is the rosary which soon spread beyond the Sufi circle, the Indian origin of which and its use in Islam in the nineteenth century are beyond question. It began in Eastern Islam which is the hearth of Indian influence exerted on Sufi society. Like other innovations this foreign usage had to encounter for a long time the opponents of all religious innovations. As late as the fifteenth century al-Suyiiti was obliged to issue a defense of the use of the rosary which has since then become so popular.^ In a historical estimate of Sufiism one must always take into consideration this Indian influence which was of so much importance in the development of this reli- gious system growing out of neo-Platonism. Snouck-Hurgronje in his Leiden inaugural lecture justly brought forward among his proofs of the Indian descent of Islam in those countries, that in East Indian Islam Sufi ideas form the kernel and foundation itself of the popular conception of religion.^ XI. In the preceding description of the Sufi concep- tion of life we showed the chief points of view common to Sufiism, and how they made their appearance at the height of its development. In course of time these points of view were elaborated. The detailed histor- ical development we cannot enter upon here, nor is it necessary to do so, since we may shortly expect a treat- ment of the subject by an authority on Sufiism, Reynold A. Nicholson. Besides Sufiism does not represent either in its theories or in its activities a unified and complete system. Not even in the formulation of the universal aim is any actual unanimity to be found, far less in the details of its philosophy. Besides the inner development, 178 MOHAMMED AND ISLAM. we must not forget the external factors and historical influences which were very active in different parts of the Sufi world, and caused many divergences and differ- ences in the theoretical formation of the system.^ This complexity is evident even in the treatment of the concept of Sufiism. Nicholson in a survey of the course of development taken by Sufiism^ has been able to gather from the literary sources up to the fifth cen- tury of the Hijra, seventy-eight different definitions of the concept of Sufiism (tasawuf). Even this does not seem to exhaust the list of definitions of a scholar of Nisabiir Abii Mansur 'Abdal-Kahir al-Baghdadi (d. 429/1037) who taught in Baghdad and whose writings concern themselves especially with the internal dogmatic ramifications of Islam. He gathered from the writ- ings of the authorities on Sufiism in alphabetical order, about a thousand definitions of the terms of Siifi and Tasawwuf.^ This differentiation in the fundamental conception naturally corresponds to differences in detail.* In the various Siifi ramifications, various theories deviating from each other have appeared, according to the teachings of the founders who were regarded as the masters. Even the ascetic practices and customs, in which the practical side of Siifi life is manifested, show many formal differences. The organization of the mani- fold Siifi brotherhoods scattered over the whole Moslem territory rests on a variety of diverging rules. Their relation toward legal Islam shows a fundamental difference. The first patriarch of the Siifi concept of religion had, to be sure, preferred ^'the works of the hearf as they said, to the formal fulfilment of the Moslem laws: '^the actions performed by the limbs,'* without nevertheless, calling the latter worthless or superfluous. But they were only of value when accom- panied by the former. It was not the limbs but the hearts which were to be recognized as the organs of religious ASCETICISM AND SUFIISM. 179 life. In this connection Sufiism acquired the nomistic tendency, which claims to harmonize with formal legal Islam, but at the same time finds the entelechy of legal life in the intensifying of formal observances.^ On the other hand, there were those who, without denying the relative worth of legal formality, saw in the legalistic externalities symbolical metaphors and allegories. Still others made themselves absolutely free from the forms of Islam. The chains of the law do not bind those who understand. In fact, not only single members, but whole dervish orders (such as the Bektashi monastery) are reported to have been absolutely unscrupulous with regard to the legal norms of Islam.^ Nor are there those lacking who not only apply this freedom to the laws of ritual, but hold that all laws of conventional morality and of social custom are not binding for the Sufi. In fact they regard themselves as ^^ beyond good and evil.'' They have as examples the Indian Yogis^ and Christian Gnostics^: an analogy in occidental mysticism, as, for example, among the Amalrikites with their libertine principles of life, which in common with the Islamic Sufis they deduced from their pantheistic concept of the world. As the world of phenomena possesses no reality in the eyes of the Sufis they strongly deny all the attri- butes of this untrue apparent existence. To the de- mands of this life which is without substance, they are entirely indifferent. From the point of view of their relationship to law the Sufis have been divided into two groups, the nomistic (with law) and the anomistic (without law). This dual- ism reminds us of the contrast reported by Clement of Alexandria in regard to the ancient gnostic Hermeneu- tics who otfer two points of view in relation to law; some preaching a life of freedom and indifference to the law (aSta a leading Imam (in the sense of a "learned man") concerning whose excellence there is general agreement; he is included among the Fukaha (learned in law) of the city of Medina. ''^^ How ditferently the Shi'ites characterized this individual whom they regarded as their Fifth Imam. To them he is not simply a lawyer from Medina, but a sharer of the stainless light-substance of the Prophet's family. Even the Shi'ite who has already been mentioned, a modern soul, who writes in English and is permeated with rationalistic ideas, alludes to Husein for example as "primordial cause of existence'' . . . "this essential connection between cause and effect" . . . "the golden link between God and man."^^ The orthodox Sunni estimate of the prophet and his holy successors is not affected by fairy-like, childish con- ceptions with which fancy clothed the prophet, but which never formed an element of obligatory belief. The mystic al-Sha'rani has a whole chapter in which the fol- lowing traits are ascribed to the prophet and others: "He could see behind him as well as in front of him, he also possessed the gift of sight in the dark; if he approached a man who was naturally taller than he, he attained the latter 's height, when sitting he was head and shoulders above those around him; his body never cast a shadow, for it was full of light. "^^ There can be no doubt that such views are developed under the influence of the extravagant theories which the Shi'ites had formed with regard to their Imams. The prophet naturally could not be regarded as inferior to these Imams,!^— a further proof, therefore for the manner in which Sufiism attached itself to Shi'itic ideas, to which we have already alluded. 238 MOHAMMED AND ISLAM. X. In Shi4tic Islam all these questions gain quite another significance. They raise the attributes ascribed to the soul of the Imam above the measure of human nature— as we have already seen, *'By virtue of the fact that they are free from evil impulses. '' They are not accessible to sin; the divine light-substance which they harbor, could not unite with sinful inclinations. On the other hand, it affords the highest degree of true knowledge, complete Infallibility.^ The Shfites teach that utterances which can be traced back to the Imam through the medium of reliable tradition, furnish stronger evidence than the immediate data of our senses. Owing to the infallibility of their originators such tradi- tions are absolutely reliable, while the latter are exposed to appearances and illusions.- In addition to the reli- gious knowledge within the reach of all Moslems the Imams possess a secret knowledge which comes down through their line, an apocalyptic tradition which is inherited by the sacred family from generation to gen- eration, and which includes all the truths of religion as well as all worldly happenings. *A1I knew not only the true meaning of the Koran, hidden from the common understanding, but also everything which would happen till the judgment day. Every revolution which up till then ^^ would send a hundred on the wrong path and a hundred on the right," was known to him; he knew who would be their leaders and agitators.^ The belief in this secret prophetic knowledge of * All's gave his followers the opportunity to invent peculiar literary productions supposed to contain these secret revelations.* ^Ali's knowledge is inherited as a secret tradition by the Imams succeeding him. They also are inspired and can proclaim only truth. They are therefore the only and highest authority in doctrine and therefore the legitimate successors of the prophetic office. Only their sayings and decisions can command unbounded belief and obedience. MOHAMMEDAN SECTS. 239 All religious teachings, accordingly, in order to be recog- nized as authentic must be traced back to one of the Imams. This manner of verifying all teachings pre- dominates in Shl4te religious literature. The spring of all Hadith sayings is not the ''Companion,'' who heard them from the Prophet, but the Imam who is the sole authority in the proclamation and interpretation of the will of God and of the Prophet. A special Koran exegesis has grown up which goes back to the Imams. In this exegesis the most important as well as the most trivial matter is considered in its relation to its association with the Imam theory and to other ShI'ite doctrines. The knowledge of this literature is essential to a thorough penetration into the spirit of Shi'ism.^ We may conclude from all this that many of the prin- ciples which Sunni theology recognizes as revealing what is right and true from a religious standpoint are belittled by the Shi'ites, because of the stress which they lay on the sources of knowledge. Even the Ijma' here sinks to the level of a mere formality. The influence which this principle has upon the decision of religious questions is theoretically granted, but the significance of the con- sensus consists, according to Shi'itic theology, in the recognition that it could never have been brought about without the direct cooperation of the Imams. It is this integral element alone which gives that principle its im- portance. For that matter historical experience does not point to the Ijma' as the test of truth. If the Sunnis on the one hand depend for their recognition of the his- torical caliphate upon the consensus of the true believers, which after the death of the prophet called forth and sanctioned the Moslem form of state then existing; the Shi'ites, on the other hand, find in that same fact a proof that the simple Ijma' is not always coextensive with the principle of truth and righteousness. In the decision of the question of the Caliph, according to the Sunnis, the 240 MOHAMMED AND ISLAM. Ijma' sanctified injustice and violence. In this way this collective authority, therefore, is depreciated or is con- fined to the agreement of the Imams If we wish to characterize concisely the basic differ- ence between Sunnites and Shi4tes we might say: the former is a church based on an Ijma% the latter on authority.^ XI. It has already been noted that even in the earliest days of the development of the Imam theory there was no agreement among the Shf ite community as to the personalities of the Imam. One of the earliest mani- festations of Shi'ite idea as we have seen (page 224) appeared in connection with an Imam who did not trace his descent from the Fatimide line of ^Ali. And even within the Fatimide descendants various groups of ^Ali adherents have set up quite distinct lines of Imams — a divergence due to the numerous ramifica- tions of the ^Ali family. After the death of the Imam Abu Muhammed al-'Askari, the Shi'ites were alreadv split into about fourteen divisions,^ each claiming the privilege of direct descent from 'All.- The series of Imams most widely recognized at the present time among the Shi4tes is that set up by the sect of the so-called ' ' Twelvers ' ' ( or Imamites ) . According to them ^Airs rank as Imam was directly inherited by ^ Visible'^ Imams, up to the eleventh, whose son, Muhammed Abu-1- Kasim (born in Baghdad 872), was removed from the earth when scarcely eight years old, and since then lives hidden from the sight of men, in order to appear at the end of time as the Imam Mahdl, the saviour, to free the world from injustice and to set up the kingdom of peace and justice. This is the so-called '' hidden Imam,'' who has lived on ever since his disappearance, and whose reap- pearance is daily awaited by the faithful Shi^te. This belief in a hidden Imam is to be found in all branches of Shi^ism. Each one of the parties believe in the con- MOHAMMEDAN SECTS. 241 tinued existence and ultimate appearance of that Imam who in the special order of Imams is regarded as the last. The various parties based their belief in the continued existence of the final Imam who is to reappear, on supposedly authoritative utterances which, however, were invented as a support for the belief. An example of the nature of such proof is to be found in a saying, put in the mouth of Musa al-Kazim (d. 183/799) the seventh Imam of the Twelvers, but regarded by this party as the ''Hidden One,'' who will eventually reap- pear. ''Whoever shall say to thee that he nursed me in my illness, washed my dead body, embalmed, wrapped me in shrouds and lowered me into the grave, and that he shook the dust of my grave from his feet, him thou canst declare to be a liar. If (after my disappearance) any one asks about me, answer: he lives, thank God; cursed be anyone who is questioned about me, and answers : he is dead. ' '^ The "Return" is therefore one of the decisive factors in the Imam theory of all subdivisions of the Shi'ites; they differ only in regard to the person and order of the hidden and returning Imam.* From the very beginning, those who set their hopes on 'All and his successors, held the firm conviction that the Imam who had disappeared would eventually return. This belief was attached in the first place to 'All him- self by a group of adherents who were followers of 'Abdallah ibn Saba. They regarded him even during his lifetime as a supernatural being and, refusing to believe in his death, were convinced (in a docetic manner) of his ultimate return. This is the oldest testimony to the extravagant 'Ali cult and indeed the first manifestation of Shi'ite schism.^ The next person to be regarded as a vanishing Imam who would some day return, was 'All's son, Mohammed ibn al-Hanafiyya, whose adher- ents were convinced of his continued existence, and his reappearance. 242 MOHAMMED AND ISLAM. The idea of the ''Return'' is not of itself an original doctrine. Probably this belief came over into Islam through Judaic Christian influences.^ The prophet Elias, removed to heaven to reappear at the end of time to reestablish the rule of justice on the earth, is evidently the prototype of the removed and ''invisible Imams'' who are to reappear as Mahdis bringing salvation to the world. Similar beliefs and eschatological hopes attached to them are to be found in numerous other circles. The sect of Dositheites did not believe in the death of their founder Dositheos, but clung to the conviction of his survival."^ According to the belief of the Indian Vaish- navas, at the end of the present world period Vishnu incarnate as Kalkhi will appear, in order to free the land of the Arians from their oppressors by which are meant the Islamic conquerors. The Abyssinian Chris- tians look for the return of their Messianic king Theo- dorus.^ Among the Mongolian people the belief is still prevalent, that Jengiskhan, at whose grave sacrifices are brought, announced, before his death, that in eight or ten centuries he would reappear on earth to free the Mongols from the foreign yoke of the Chinese.^ Within Islam heresies arose, which after the failure of the move- ments inaugurated by them, clung to the reappearance of their founder. The followers of Bihafrid, who at the beginning of the 'Abbaside period attempted a Parsee reaction against Islam, believe after his execution that their leader who had ascended into heaven would reap- pear on earth to take revenge on his enemies.^ *^ The same belief was held about al-Mukanna', the "veiled one," who appeared as a divine incarnation after he had sought a voluntary death^^ by fire. Up till comparatively modern times this phase of belief has sustained itself among Moslem groups standing outside of the Shi'itic circle. The Moslems in the Cau- MOHAMMEDAN SECTS. 243 casus believe in the return of their hero Elija Mansur, a forerunner of Shamil (1791), who is to reappear a hundred years after the expulsion of the Muscovites.^ ^ In Samarkand the people believe in the reappearance of the sacred persons of Shah-zinde and Kasim ibn ' Abbas.^^ Just as among the Kurds we find from the eighth cen- tury after the Hijra the belief in the return of the executed Taj al-^arifin (Hasan ibn ^Adi).^^ But among similar beliefs arising from the hope of a political or religious restoration among eastern and western peoples, the belief of the Shi'ites in the hidden and returning Imam has been most effectively developed. The theological basis and defence of this belief against the scorn of the doubter and opponent, forms a prominent feature of their religious literature. Quite recently, a work has appeared in Persia aiming to strengthen the belief in the existence of the hidden ^^Imam of the age," against increasing scepticism. Just as many Jewish theologians and mystics have endeavored to compute the exact time of the appearance of the Messiah (based largely on the book of Daniel), so Sufiites and Shf ites have calculated by means of caba- listic use, verses of the Koran and numerical combinations of letters of the alphabet, the exact time of the reappear- ance of the hidden Imam. Treatises dealing with such calculations are enumerated in the bibliographies of the older Shi4tic literature. But just as in Judaism the ** calculators of the end of time'' as they are called, encountered severest reproaches, so the orthodox authori- ties of the moderate Shf ites have branded '^the time determiners'' (al-wakkatun) as liars, and have found in utterances of the Imams the condemnation of such speculations. The disillusiomnent resulting from the failure of such computations easily shows the dejection which such definite promises brought about. XII. While the belief in the ultimate appearance of a 244 MOHAMMED AND ISLAM. Messiah is more specifically a doctrine of SM^tic Islam, it must be recognized that even the followers of orthodox Sunna did not stand aloof from the belief in a Redeemer to appear at the end of time, and whdm they themselves recognized as the Imam ^^Mahdi,'' i. e., as the one guided by God on the right way.^ This hope voices the long- ing in the pious circles of Islam for relief from political and economic conditions against which their religious consciousness rebelled. Public life and its relations appeared to them a breach with the ideal claims maintained by them, as a continu- ous offence against religious and social justice. They, while admitting that the Moslem must not ^^ split the staff,'' in the interest of the unity of the community, submit to the ruling injustice as a divine decree and suffer existing ills. They were prompted by their feel- ings towards a reconciliation between existing conditions with the demands of their faith. The hope in the Mahdi furnished the point of departure of such a recon- ciliation.^ The proof has been furnished that the first stage of this hope coincides with the expectations of the Second Advent of Jesus, who as Mahdi will bring about the restoration of justice and order in the world. In the course, however, of the further development of the hope, the eschatological activities of Jesus became merely an accompanying phenomenon. Those inclined to a realistic view conceded occasionally that the hopes of the Mahdi were brought nearer to fulfillment through certain rulers from whom the restoration of divine justice was expected. Much was hoped for in this respect, after the overthrow of the ' Omayyads, from certain rulers of the 'Abbaside dynasty. This idle dream, however, was soon dispelled. In the eyes of the pious, the world remained as base as before. The Mahdi idea consequently began to take the form of a Mahdi Utopia, whose realization was removed into a hazy MOHAMMEDAN SECTS. 245 future, which encouraged the steady growth of crude eschatological embellishments. God will stir up a man from the family of the prophet, who will restore the dis- organized work, fill the world with justice, as it is now filled with injustice. To the Judaic Christian elements to which the Mahdi belief owes its origin there were added features taken from the Parsee picture of Saosh- yaht, and in addition the irresponsible phantasy of idle speculation contributed its share to produce a rich Mahdi mythology. The Hadith seized upon this material which formed the subject of so much discussion among the circle of the believers. To the prophet himself there was attributed a detailed description of the personality of the Redeemer proclaimed by him. While such tradi- tions were excluded from conscientious collections they were taken up and repeated by those who were less scrupulous. In the course of the history of Islam this belief was well calculated to serve the political religious rebels as a justification for their aspirations to bring about the overthrow of existing conditions, as well as to secure for the representatives of the Mahdi idea great popularity, and to promote a spirit of unrest in extended portions of the Islamic world. Such occurrences are familiar to us through recent occurrences in the history of Islam. For even at the present time claimants for the post of Mahdi have appeared in various parts of Islam, chiefly to oppose the growing influence of European states on Moslem territory.^ We are indebted to Martin Hartmann for interesting accounts of present tendencies in the Turkish world, from which it appears that in many circles the confident hope is held in the advent of the true Mahdi (fixed for 1355, i. e., 1936), who will subject the whole world to Islam, and with whom the ' ' golden age ' '^ will be inaugurated. Shi4sm, by virtue of its principles, is well adapted to the cultivation of these hopes in the Mahdi. 246 MOHAMMED AND ISLAM. From the very beginning Shi' ism represents tlie protest against the violation and suppression of divine justice which runs through the entire history of Islam, marked by the exclusion of the family of ^All from the universal rule to which they are alone entitled. The Mahdi doctrine thus becomes the vital nerve of the entire Shi'itic system. Among the Sunnis the expectation of a Mahdi, despite its authorization in tradition and its theological elabora- tion,^ never became a fixed dogma, but appeared as mythological elaboration of the .future ideal, as a supple- ment to the orthodox system. Sunni Islam emphatically rejects the Sh^itic form of this belief. It ridicules the long-lived, hidden Imam. It is sufficient for the Sunnis to regard the claim of the '^ Twelvers'' as absurd, because according to Sunni tradition the Mahdi must bear the very same name as the prophet (M. ibn 'Abdallah), whereas the father of this hidden Imam, i. e., the eleventh visible Imam, bore the name Hasan.^ Besides since the Shi'itic Mahdi disappeared as a child, he is disqualified canonically by virtue of his immaturity from the dignity of Imam, which can only be accorded to an *^adulf {bdligh). Others even deny the existence of a surviving son of Hasan al-^ Askari. On the other hand, the belief in an ultimate fulfilment of the Mahdi hope is of prime dogmatic significance in Shl^itic Islam. It forms the backbone of the Shi4te system and is completely identical with the return {raja') of the hidden Imam into the visible world, and who as the new law-giver is to take up the work of the prophet and to restore the rights of his family. He alone can fill the world with right and justice. Sober-minded Shi'itic scholars, in answer to the taunts of the Sunnites, make a serious endeavor to prove physiologically and his- torically the possibility of his extraordinary long life.''' Even during his bodily absence the hidden Imam is the genuine ^ deader of the time'' and not without the MOHAMMEDAN SECTS. 247 power to manifest Ms will to believers.^ He is the object of extravagant paeans on the part of the faithful, who not only praise and flatter him as a potentate among the living, but also apply to him the superhuman epithets commensurate with belief in him as the hidden Imam. According to them he surpasses even the high intellect of the spheres in spiritual greatness ; he is the source of all knowledge and the goal of all longing. The ShT^tic poets are firmly convinced that such praises reach the hidden throne of the sublime personality of the Imam.^ A remarkable proof of the active force still attached in Shi4tic circles to the belief in the hidden Imam is furnished by recent events in Persia, where, upon the introduction of a new constitution, ^'the consent and approval of the Imam of the time'' was invoked. The authority of this invisible power is thus recognized as supreme in religious and political affairs. Every inno- vation must submit to the approval of his authority, even though this be only a matter of form. Thus we find the revolutionary party in Persia declaring in an ^^ appeal to the public,'' issued in October, 1908, for the restoration of parliamentary government after the coup d 'etat of Shah Mohammed ^ Ali, as follows : ' ' You are perhaps not aware of the clear and undisputed decision of the 'Ulema of the holy city of Nejef, according to which everyone who opposes the constitution is to be compared to him who draws the sword against the Imam of the Time (i. e., against the hidden Imam)— May Allah grant you the joy of his return !"^^ The doctrine of the Imam, accordingly, maintains its active force. It has attained a dogmatic significance of fundamental importance and is an active, essential ele- ment of the religious and political system. XIII. Now that we have learned to know the nature and significance of the dignity of the Imam as the very root of Shi4tic faith, in so far as the latter is distinct 248 MOHAMMED AND ISLAM. from Sunni Islam, one question still remains to be con- sidered which is essential to a complete understanding of Shi'ism. Attachment to Islam is not covered by an act of sub- mission to a definite form of political argument, whether in a theoretical or an actual sense ; it demands, in addition, the recognition of a definite number of doc- trines, in regard to the formulation of which various parties differ. It further demands the fulfilment of a definite series of ritualistic practices regulating life with legal nicety, the details of which form the subject of differences among the various recognized schools. The question now arises whether Shi' ism has developed out- side of the Imam theory other peculiarities of a dog- matic or practical character, which further separate this sect in an essential degree from Sunni Islam. By way of answer we should like to point out that the character- istic doctrine of Shi'itic Islam involves a deviation from the point of view of the Sunna that extends to other dogmatic points of a basic character. The Shi^tic con- ception of the nature of the Imams necessarily exercises an influence on the form taken by their idea of God, their view of law and of the function of the prophet. Another point to be taken into consideration is the circumstance that within the various tendencies of the many branches of Shi4sm, various points of view have come to the fore in questions of dogma, including, in the case of some of the schools, a crude anthropomorphic disposition. It can be proved, however, that that phase of Shi' ism which obtained an authoritative position in matters that were not connected with the doctrine of the Imam, is closely allied to the Mu'tazilite point of view,^ which we discussed in a previous chapter (Chapter 3, page 110). It shows how far the theologians went in incorporating in their teachings the Mu'tazilite point of view. Their designation of themselves as *' adherents of MOHAMMEDAN SECTS. 249 justice, forms as we have seen, one half of the designa- tion which the Mu^tazilites give to themselves. The point of union between the two appears to be their assertion that ^Ali and the Imams were the original founders of Mu^tazilite dogmatism, and that the later followers of Kalam merely developed doctrines already propounded by the Imams.^ We accordingly find in their theological works an Imam named as the originator of a Mu' tazilite proposition. An opinion attributed to the Imam Abii Ja^far al-Bakir which recalls in its second part the well known utterance of a Greek philosopher, will illustrate what we have in mind : God is designated as knowing and powerful in the sense that he grants knowledge to those who know and the ability to carry out to those who have the power. What you regard as his special traits, are created and brought about and in so far as these attributes are to be separated from his Unity, they represent the products of your own mind. It is the same as in the case of the snails who might imagine God to have two horns because these are necessary for their own perfection, and the absence of them would constitute, from their point of view, a defect precisely of the same order as when rational beings attribute their own traits to God.^ The connection between the prevailing dogmatism of the Shrites and the doctrines of the Mu'tazilites seem to be maintained as a definite fact and finds an unmis- takable expression in the declaration of the ShI'ite authority, that the doctrine of the hidden Imam is a part of the teachings of those who accept the 'adl and taulud which represent the Mu' tazilite teachings.'* It is in par- ticular a branch of the Shi'ites kno^vn as the Zeiditic which is even more closely and more consistently related to the Mu' tazilite doctrines than is the Imamitic. The Mu' tazilite influence has maintained its hold in the ShI'itic literature up to the present time. It is a 250 MOHAMMED AND ISLAM. serious error to declare that after the decisive victory of the Ash'arite theology the Mu'tazilite doctrine ceased to play any active part in the religion or the literature. The rich dogmatic literature of the ShI'ites extending into our own days refutes such an assertion. The dogmatic works of the Shi'ites reveal themselves as Mu'tazilite expositions by their division into two parts, one embracing the chapters on ''the unity of God'' and the other the chapter on ''justice'' (above, page 110). Naturally the presentation of the Imam doctrines of the infallibility of the Imam are also included. But even in regard to this latter point it is not without significance that one of the most radical of the Mu'tazilites, al Naz- zam, agrees with the Shi'ites. And it is especially char- acteristic of the ShI'itic theology that their proofs for the theory of the Imamate are based entirely on Mu'tazil- ite foundations. The absolute necessity of the presence of an Imam in every age and the infallible character of his person are brought into connection with the doctrine peculiar to the Mu'tazilites of an absolutely necessary guidance through di\dne wisdom and justice (page 111). God must grant to each age a leader not exposed to error. In this way ShI'itic theology fortifies its fundamental point of view with the theories of Mu' tazilite doctrine.^ XIV. So far as the ritualistic and legal sections of their teachings go, the differences between Sunnites and Shi' ites are entirely of a minor character, rarely affecting usages of a fundamental kind. The ritualistic and legal practice of the Shi' ites differs from the legal practices of the rest of Islam merely in the same way as within the sphere of orthodoxy there are which represent the Mu' tazilite teaching.* It is in par- ticular a branch of the Shi'ite known as the Zeiditic which is even more closely, consistently related to the shades of varying practice, involving invariably only insignificant formal differences, just as we find such MOHAMMEDAN SECTS. 251 differences between the Hanifites and Malikites.^ The observation has been made that the Sh^itic ritualism shows the closest affiliation to the Shafi4tic school. Fun- damental principles are not involved. To the Sunnites, the Shi4te appears as a dissenter, not because of any peculiarities of his ritual, or because of the tendencies of his doctrines, but chiefly because of his deviation from the accepted statecraft of the Sunna. How unimportant the ritualistic differences of the Shi' ites are from the practice of the Sunnite community, may be inferred from the modifications involved in the case of a Sunnitic community being forced to adopt Shi4tic ritual as a result of conquest. We select for this purpose the instructions issued by a Shi'itic conqueror in the year 866 in which are set forth the changes neces- sary to establish Shi'itic authority in Tabaristan. You must require your subjects to regard the book of Allah and the Sunna of his messenger as the guide, as well as every- thing which has been handed down by the ruler of the faithful 'All ibn Abi Talib, as authentic as regards the fundamental teachings of value and its branches. Furthermore the suprem- acy of 'All over the entire congregation of the true believers must be publicly recognized. You must forbid them to believe in the absolute fatality {jahr) in the anthropomorphic concep- tion, or to oppose the confession of the unity and justice of God. They must be forbidden to hand down traditions which accord virtues to the enemies of God and to the enemies of the Lord of the true believer ('All). You must command them to repeat aloud the Bismillah-formula (the first Sura of the Koran at the beginning of a prayer) ; to recite the Kunut-request at the morning prayer ;- to repeat the Allah-akbar-formula five times in the funeral service, abandon the custom of rubbing the foot gear (in place of the washing of the feet before prayer) ^ to add to the addn (call to prayer) and the Ikdma (the announce- ment of the beginning of the service in connection with the Adan) the sentence: "Come hither for the best of pious deeds"*: and to recite the Ikama twice. 252 MOHAMMED AND ISLAM. Except for the dogmatic principles, therefore, it is a question of minor ritualistic differences such as those found in greatest number within the orthodox sections.^ There are in all only seventeen points in which the ShV- itic law takes a separate stand and does not agree with one or the other of the orthodox customs.^ XV. The most serious differences between Shi'ite and Sunnite law is to be found within the province of mar- riage laws. At all events this variation is of more im- portance for our consideration and estimate of Shi' ism than those minute ritualistic differences in the religious practice. There is more specifically one point in the mar- riage law which merits attention from this point of view, to wit legitimacy or illegitimacy of a marriage agreement with a limitation as to time, the so-called temporary marriage.^ Even in Plato's ideal state temporary marriage is recognized as legitimate in the selected circles, desig- nated as 'the guardians,' though, to be sure, this is done from points of view that are removed from those pre- vailing in Islam. Theodore Gomperz has pointed out an analogy from New England in the case of the ''Per- fectionists'' founded by John Humphrey Noyes, and which maintained its seat at Oneida for an entire genera- tion,- and advocated among its principles trial marriage. Naturally, the motives were different Avhich actuated Mohammed at the beginning of his career as a lawgiver to tolerate a form of marriage which was common in heathen Arabia (for which we have also the testimony of Ammianus Marcellinus), technically known as "sen- sual marriage" (mut'a), but which it is preferable to designate as 'temporary marriage.' At the end of the period agreed upon in such a union, the validity of the marriage according to agreement ceases eo ipso without any formality or divorce.^ The validity of this form of MOHAMMEDAN SECTS. 253 marriage was, however, abrogated after some years; it is a mooted question whether the prophet himself or (which is more likely) ^Omar was the first to declare such a marriage to be the ^^ sister of prostitution" and to forbid it to the true believers. Even after this prohibition, however, it was indulged in to a limited degree, e. g., for the pilgrimage to Mecca. Since the recognition of the Mut'a form goes back to a Haditli of Ibn 'Abbas, it has been satirically desig- nated ''as a marriage according to the fetwa of Ibn ' Abbas. "^ The Sunnis in the course of the estab- lishment of Islamic institution have accepted the pro- test against temporary marriage whereas the Shi'ites, basing their claim (Sura 4, v. 28),^ on the Koran, still recognize such a contract as valid.^ Its repeal by the Prophet they claim is not satisfactorily vouched for, nor is its abrogation by 'Omar^ valid, since, even if the tradition in regard to his attitude is accepted, his authority in matters of law is not recognized. This difference between Sunnitic and Shi'itic Islam is therefore to be recognized as the most significant in the domain of legal practice. XVI. In this connection several customs and usages belonging to the realm of historical reminiscences should be mentioned. These deal with the commemoration of the ' Aliides, the mourning of the Shi'ites over the martyr- dom of the members of the sacred family. The Buyide regents, under whose protection the ShI'ite opinions could be more freely expressed, instituted a special religious feast ('id al-ghadir), to commemorate the act of immersion which took place in the pond of Klmmm, whereby the prophet appointed 'AH as his successor. Upon this occurrence 'All's adherents have, since earliest times, based the legitimacy of their Shi' ite belief s.^ Older than this is the observance of the 'Ashura (10. Muhar- 254 MOHAMMED AND ISLAM. ram) as a day of repentance and mourning in memory of the Kerbela catastrophe, which tradition fixes on this day. The pilgrimages also to the cities and graves in arak,2 sacred to the memory of 'All, give to the cult of graves and saints in Shi4sm a peculiar individual stamp, which far surpasses in inner significance the richly developed Sunni cult of saints. XVII. Before we proceed from the exposition of the political, dogmatic and legal peculiarities of this Moslem sect to the religious-historical combinations, which mani- fested themselves on the basis of Shf ite doctrines, it is essential to call attention to some erroneous views about Shi' ism which are still widely prevalent. Let me briefly consider three of these erroneous views, which cannot be passed over in silence in this connection. (a) The mistaken view that the main difference between Sunni and ShT'ite Islam lies in the fact that the former recognizes, in addition to the Koran, the Sunna of the prophet as a source of religious belief and life, whereas the ShI'ites limit themselves to the Koran and reject the Sunna.^ This is a fundamental error involving a complete mis- understanding of Shrism, and has arisen largely from the antithesis in the nomenclature between Sunna and SMa'. No ShI'ite would allow himself to be regarded as an opponent of the principle of Sunna. Rather is he the representative of the true Sunna, of the sacred tradition handed down by the members of the prophet's family, while the opponents base their Sunna on the authority of usurping ''Companions'' whose reliability the Shi'ites reject. It very frequently happens that a great number of traditions are common to both groups; differing only in the authorities for their authenticity. In cases where MOHAMMEDAN SECTS. 255 the Hadiths of the Sunnites favor the tendencies of the Shi^ites, or at least are not opposed to them, Sh^itic theologians do not hesitate to refer to the canonical collection of their opponents. As an example we may- instance the circumstance that the collection of Bukharl and of Muslim, as well as of other collectors of Hadiths were used at the court of a fanatical Shi^te vizier (Tala'i^ ibn Ruzzik) as subjects for pious reading at the sacred Friday gatherings.^ Tradition is therefore an integral source of religious life among the Shi'ites. How vital a role it plays in Shi4te teachings may be inferred from the circumstance that ^ All's teaching about the Koran and Sunna, as above set forth (page 43) is taken from a collection of solemn speeches and sayings of ^ All, handed do^vn by the Shi^tes. Reverence for the Sunna is therefore as much of a requirement for the Shi4tes as for the Sunnites. This is illustrated also in the abundant Sunnite literature of the Shi^tes, and the discussions attached thereto, as well as in the great zeal with which the Shi'ite scholars fabricated Hadiths, or propagated earlier fabrications which were to serve the interests of Shi' ism. We must therefore reject the supposition that the Shi'ites in principle are opposed to Sunna. It is not as rejecters of the Sunna that they oppose its adherents, but rather as those faithful to the family of the prophet and its followers— that is the meaning of the word SM'ite—ov as the elite {al-hhassa) as opposed to the common people {al-'dmma) sunk in error and blindness. (b) It is also an erroneous view which traces the origin and development of ShI'ism to the modifications of the ideas in Islam, brought about by the conquest and spread among Iranic nations. This widespread view is based on an historical mis- understanding, which Wellhausen has overthrown con- 256 MOHAMMED AND ISLAM. clusively in his essay on the ^ ' Religios-politischen Oppo- sitions-Parteien im alien Islam. '^ The ^Aliite movement started on genuine Arabic soil. It was not till the upris- ing of al-Mukhtar that it spread among the non- Semitic element of Islam.^ The origins of the Imam theory involving the theocratic opposition against the worldly conception of the state ; the doctrine of the Messiah into which the Imam theory merges and the belief in the parousia in which it finds an expression, as we have seen, can be traced back to Jewish- Christian influences. Even the exaggerated deification of *Ali was first proclaimed by 'Abdallah ibn Saba, before there could possibly have been a question of the influence of such ideas from Aryan circles, and Arabs joined this movement in great num- bers.^ Even the most marked consequences of anthropo- morphic doctrine of incarnation (see above page 233) owe their origin in part to those who are of indisputable Arabic descent. Shi4sm as a sectarian doctrine was seized upon as eagerly by orthodox and theocratically minded Arabs as by Iranians. To be sure, the Sh^ite form of opposition was decidedly welcome to the latter, and they readily identified themselves with this form of Moslem thought on whose further development their old inherited ideas of a divine kingship exercised a direct influence. But the primary origins of these ideas within Islam do not depend on such influence; Shi4sm is, in its roots, as genuinely Arabic as Islam itself. (c) It is likewise a mistaken view that Shi4sm repre- sents the reaction of independent thought against Sun- nitic incrustation. Quite recently Carra de Vaux has advocated the view that the opposition of Shi' ism against Sunnitic Islam is to be regarded as ''the reaction of free and liberal thought against narrow and unbending orthodoxy. ' '^ This view cannot be accepted as correct by any stu- MOHAMMEDAN SECTS. 257 dent of Shritic doctrines. To be sure, it might be urged that the cult of 'All forms to such an extent the centre of religious life among the Shi'ites as to remove all other elements into the background. (See above page 231.) This feature cannot, however, be regarded as characteristic of the principles underlying ShI'itic doc- trines, which in no respect are less strict than those of the Sunnites. Nor should we be led astray in the his- torical appreciation of the principle of Sh^ism by an increasing lack of regard among the Shi4te Mohamme- dans of Persia for certain restrictions demanded bv the ritual.^ ''In giving the preference to infallible personal authority as against the force of general public senti- ment, the Shi'ites set aside these potential elements of liberal thought, which manifest themselves in the Sunnitic form of Islam. ' ^^"^ It is the spirit of absolutism rather which permeates the Shi'itic conception of religion. We further recall that broadmindedness and nar- rowness in religious views are to be judged primarily according to the degree of tolerance exercised towards those having divergent views : it must be admitted that the Shi'ite development of Islam as compared with that of the Sunnite occupies a lower level. What we have in mind are not certain modern manifestations among the ShI'ites, we are concerned only with the definite reli- gious and legal institutions of this branch of Islam, as expressed in its doctrines. These, to be sure, have been considerably modified by the actual demands of life in modern days, and at present are carried out with entire strictness in social intercourse only in the most outlying districts. If we judge from the legal documents, the intercon- fessional conception of the law of Shi' ism appears harsher and cruder than that of the Sunnites. Then- laws reveal an increasing intolerance toward opponents 258 MOHAMMED AND ISLAM. in faith. Slii4te interpretation of the law did not avail itself of the concessions which Sunnitic orthodoxy accepted as against the narrowness of some of the older views. Whereas Sunnitic Islam has practically set aside by its interpretation the harsh statement of the Koran (Snra 9, v. 28), that ^ * non-believers are unclean, '* ShI'itic law clings to the literal sense, and declares the body of the unbeliever to be unclean in a ritualistic sense, and includes contact with such a person among the things that bring about ritualistic uncleanliness.^ It is an exact reflection of this view when the Haji Baba of James Morier ^^ regards it as one of the most extraordinary traits of the English that they do not look upon any one as unclean. They would as soon touch an Israelite as one of their own race.'' From the point of view of Shrite law, such an attitude towards those of another faith is not regarded as strange.^^ Other examples of this point of view may be found in writings of Europeans who have come into contact with Shi4tes. Let me quote some remarks from the work of a reliable observer of Persian life. Dr. J. E. Polaks, who for many years was the body physician of the Shah Nasir al-din. **If by chance a European arrives at the beginning of a meal, the Persian is in a quandary, for decency forbids sending him away, and his presence offers difficulty^ because food touched by an unbeliever is unclean. ''^^ ** Anything left- over from the table of a European is scorned by the servants and is given to the dogs.'' Speaking of his travels in Persia, he says * ^ The European must not fail to take a drinking cup with him; none is ever offered to him, for according to the belief of the Persians every dish becomes unclean as soon as it is used by an unbe- liever."^^ Of the contemporary minister of foreign affairs, Mirza Seyyid Khan, the same authority says that **at the sight of a European he washes his eyes, to guard them from contamination." This minister was a very MOHAMMEDAN SECTS. 259 pious Moslem, who consented very unwillingly to take wine as a medicine. This remedy in the course of time became so agreeable that ^^ despite his piety he was never found sober. '^^^ ^he Shfites show the same intol- erance to the Zoroastrians living among them. Professor Browne tells of many experiences he had during his stay in Yezid. A Zoroastrian received a bastinading because his dress by chance touched some fruit which had been exposed for sale in the Bazaar. Because of the touch of an unbeliever the fruit was regarded as unclean and could not be eaten by one of the true faith.^^ We find this state of things frequently among the uneducated Shi4tic groups outside of Persia. In South Lebanon, between Baalbek and Safed and eastward toward Coelo-Syria and the Anti-Lebanon, there is a Shi4tic sect to be found among the peasants living in villages, known as Metawile (sing. Mitwali=MutawalI, i. e., ^ ^faithful followers of the ^Ali family), and con- sisting of fifty or sixty thousand adherents. According to an unauthenticated report they are supposed to be descended from Kurdish settlers, who in the time of Saladin were transplanted from Mesopotamia to Syria. If this were true they would be Iranians^^ in origin; but the supposition is entirely without foundation. They are to be found in largest numbers in Baalbek and the surrounding villages. The Emir family of Har- fush reckons its descent from them. Now these peasants share with other Shf ites the above-mentioned feeling against unbelievers. Although they practice the virtue of hospitality toward everyone, they regard any dishes in which they have served food and drink to an unbeliever as infected. On this point the American scholar, Selah Merill, who traveled through this part of the country for the American Palestine Exploration Society 1875-77, says: *^They consider that they are polluted by the touch of Christians. Even a vessel from which a 200 MOHAMMED AND ISLAM. Christian has drunk, and anything from which he may have eaten, or even handled while eating, they never use again, but destroy at once.'^^^ Although we must reject the view that Shi4sm in its rise is the result of Iranic influences on Arab Islam, the relative severity towards those of another faith must be ascribed to Persian influence, but as a secondary development of the ideas of Shl'ism.^^ This severe atti- tude of Shi4tic law towards those of another faith approaches the regulations in Persian religious writings, which for the most part are regarded by the present Zoroastrians as obsolete, and of which the Shrite attitude seems to be an echo. **A Zoroastrian must purify himself with Nirang after having touched a non-Zoroastrian. A Zoroastrian can partake of no nourishment prepared by a non-Zoro- astrian; neither butter, nor honey, not even on a journey. '^^"^ It is more particularly the acceptation of these Per- sian regulations that has given rise to ritualistic dif- ferences between the branches of Islam. In spite of the specific concession made by the Koran (Sura 5, v. 7), the Shf ite law forbids the partaking of food prepared by Jew or Christian ; what has been slaughtered by them cannot be eaten by a Moslem.^ ^ The Sunnites adopt the broader view for which the Koran itself offers a justification.^^ In another division of the religious law the ShVites do not avail themselves of the freedom given by the Koran, but in contradiction to their sacred writings, draw the consequences of their intolerant \dews. The Koran permits a Moslem to wed an honorable woman of Jewish or Christian faith (Sura 5, v. 7). From the Sunnitic point of view therefore, according to the theory of ancient Islam, such mixed marriages are considered unobjectionable.^^ The Caliph ^Othman married the MOHAMMEDAN SECTS. 261 Christian Na'ila.^i The Shi'ites condemn such mar- riages, with reference to the law in Sura 2, v. 220, for- bidding marriage with polytheists (mushrikat). The Koran verse favoring marriage with monotheists of another faith is deprived of its original meaning, by an interpretation/^^ The intolerance of the true Shi4te, however, extends not only to non-Moslems, but to Moslems who think dif- ferently. Their literature is saturated with this view. The temper of the Shi4te as an ''ecclesia oppressa,'^ fighting against persecution and oppression, and which restricted the free expression of opinion to secret con- claves of followers, is filled with hostility toward its reli- gious opponents. It regards its enforced takiyya as a mar- tyrdom, which only serves to nourish its hatred towards those responsible for this condition. We have already seen that its theologians have raised the cursing of the enemy to the rank of a religious duty (above page 229). In their hatred of dissenters many of the theologians go so far as to add to the Koran verse commending alms-giving the qualification that unbelievers and those opposing ^Airs cause were to be excluded from all deeds of mercy. According to them the prophet said: ''He who gives alms to our enemies, is like him who robs the sanctuaries of God.''23 The Sunnites can cite the caliph 'Omar for a more humane interpretation. On entering Syria he commanded that helpless, sick Christians should be aided by the tax (sadakat) raised for the public purposes of the Moslem community.-^ The tradition of the ShI'ites are almost more hostile to the other Moslems than to non-Moslems. In one of their sayings the Syrians (i. e., the Sunni opponents) are placed lower than the Christians, and the people of Medina (who accepted the caliphate of Abu Bekr and 'Omar) lower than the Meccan heathen.^^ There is no room here for tolerant views, indulgence, and forbear- 262 MOHAMMED AND ISLAM. ance toward those of another belief. The following detail shows to what an unreasonable degree their con- tempt for opponents extends. One of their standard authorities teaches that in doubtful cases in which the sources of religious law fail to give a handle for definite decision the best line of procedure is to do the opposite of what the Sunnis would consider right. **That which contradicts the ^anuna (the Sunnitic view) is correct. ''^^ Such is their theology of hate and intolerance. XVIII. Of the many branches of Shi4sm which, in the course of time, have completely disappeared from the scene, two sects besides the Twelvers have survived: the Zeidites and the Isma*ilites. (a) The former deviate with the succession of Imams at the fifth one after the twelve and derive their name from Zeid ibn *Ali, a great-grandson of Husein. In opposition to Ja^far al Sadik, recognized by the general body of Shi^tes as the hereditary Imam, Zeid steps for- ward in the year 122/940, in Kufa as the ^Alidic pre- tender, and dies in battle against the Omayyad caliph. His son, Yahya, continued his father's unsuccessful struggle, and fell in Khorasan in 125/743. As a conse- quence, the Imamship in the group of those Shi4tes who do not recognize the Twelve, abandons the principle of direct succession from father to son with the efforts of Zeid as the watchword of their schism. The Zeidites, indifferent to line of descent, recognize any *Aliite as their Imam, who in addition to his qualities as religious leader becomes a warrior for the holy cause, and as such, secures the devotion of the community. Their concep- tion is that of the active Imamship, not the passive con- ception of the ^Twelver' Shrites which closes with the hidden Mahdi. Even the fables of supernatural wisdom and divine qualities as possessed by the Imam are rejected by them. In place of such phantasies the real- istic character of the Imam is emphasized as an active, MOHAMMEDAN SECTS. 2G3 openly belligerent leader and teacher of true believers. Following the view of their leader they show themselves tolerant in their judgment of the Sunna caliphates of the beginning of Islam. They do not share in the absolute condemnation of Abu Bakr and ^Omar and the com- panions of the prophet, who because of their failure to recognize the supernatural qualities of 'All, did not accord to him the immediate succession. Such short- sightedness, however, does not stamp the early adherents of Islam as wrong-doers; nor those chosen by them as usurpers. From this point of view they form the most moderate wing of the Shi4te party opposed to the Sun- nite. Like the dynasty of the Idrisites in Northwest Africa (791-926 A. D.), Zeidite rulers arose from the Hasanide line of the descendants of 'Ali. In this way was founded the Shi4te dynasty of Hasan ibn *Ali which in 863-928 A. D. obtained the sovereignty over Tabar- istan, just as (since the ninth century) the Imamship in South Arabia, although belonging to the line of Hasan, bases its justification on Zeiditic claims. This branch of the Shrite sect is still to be found in South Arabia and is popularly known as al-zuyud, (b) The Isma'ilites derive their name from the fact that in distinction from the 'Twelvers,' they end their line of visible Imams with the seventh. Their Imam, not recog- nized by the 'Twelvers,' is Isma'il, son of the sixth Imam Ja'far (d. 762 A. D.) who, however, for one reason or another did not actually accept the dignity of Imam, but allowed it to pass on to his son Mohammed, who then took Isma'iPs place as the true seventh Imam. His descendants follow in unbroken line as hidden, latent Imams, denying themselves publicity until, as a result of long practiced secret propaganda, the true Imam publicly appeared as Mahdi in the person of 'UbaidaUah, the founder of the Fatimide kingdom in North Africa (910 A. D.). The followers of this Shi'ite system, in 264 MOHAMMED AND ISLAM. contradistinction to the usual Imamites, are therefore called ^'Seveners.^' The merely formal significance of this distinction would not of itself have sufficed to differentiate sharply this sect from the many branches of Shi* ism. The prop- aganda of the Isma^lites, however, furnished the framework for a movement of great importance in the history of Islam. In addition, their secret intrigues resulted in giving to the political history of Sunna note- worthy expression. Those who were striving for a recognition of the Isma^ilite form of the doctrine of Imam utilized this aspect of the movement to blend their view with theories which questioned the validity of traditional Islam, even in its Shritic form, and led to its complete dissolution. One of the most potent influences upon the evolution of the Islam idea arose from the neo-Platonic philosophy. The thoughts of this philosophical system influenced the widest circles of Islam, and have even penetrated into documents in which the unquestionably orthodox con- tents of Islam find expression.^ "We have already called attention to the consequential application of neo-Platonic ideas to Sufiism. In the same way attempts were made in Shf itic circles to combine Imam and Mahdi theories with the neo-Platonic doctrine of emanation of ideas.- This influence manifested itself more particularly by the use which the Isma^ilite propaganda made of this doctrine. With this difference, however, that whereas Sufiism aims only at an inner construction of religious life, the influence of neo-Platonic ideas among the Isma* il- ites laid hold of the entire organization of Islam with a view to its modification. The Imam idea is merely the form of this evolutionary activity offering an apparently Islamic point of departure to this movement. The Isma41ites start out with the neo-Platonic doctrine of emanation which was developed by a band of so-called MOHAMMEDAN SECTS. 265 ^faithful' of Basra in the form of a religious systematic encyclopedia, into a religious-philosophical system, the postulates of which led to extreme consequences. As the historical counterpart to the cosmic scope of the neo-Platonic doctrine of emanation, a system of periodic manifestations of the world intellect is constructed, which in Noah, Abraham, Moses, Jesus, Mohammed up to the Imam following upon the sixth in the Shi^tic order (Isma'il and his son ibn Isma41), thus forming a cyclic series of seven ''speakers" (natik). The periods inter- vening between these ''speakers'' are filled up with series of seven individuals, likewise emanations of the transcendental powers, who confirm the work of the pre- ceding "speaker'' and prepare that of the succeeding one. In this way there is established a close, artificially constructed hierarchy, through which, since the begin- ning of the world, the divine spirit manifests itself to mankind successively in ever more perfect manner. Each successive manifestation completes the work of its pred- ecessor. The divine revelation is not confined to a given moment of time in the history of the world. With the same cyclic regularity the Mahdi follows the Seventh Natek, endowed with the mission to surpass as a still more perfect manifestation of the world spirit, the work of his predecessors, even that of the prophet Mohammed. By this turn given to their doctrine of the Mahdi, one of the fundamental principles of Islam, which ordinary Shi' ism had not dared to touch, is set aside. In the eyes of the faithful, Mohammed is the "seal of the prophets" — ^he himself liad ^iven himself this attribute though probably in a different sense (Sura 33, V. 40),— and the Mohammedan Church in its Sunni as well as its Shf a form, had interpreted this as meaning that Moham- med ended forever the line of prophets, that he was fulfilling for all times what his predecessors had prepared, that he was the bearer of God's last message to mankind. The "expected Mahdi" was merely the restorer of the works of the last 266 MOHAMMED AND ISLAM. prophet spoiled by the corruption of mankind, the prophet in whose path he treads, whose name he bears. He is not himself a prophet, much less the teacher of an evolutionary principle of salvation going beyond the form given to it by Mohammed.^ In the Isma'ilite system of emanation, Mohammed's prophetic character and the law that he brought in the name of God loses the significance attributed to it by the rest of Islam, even in its Shi'itic form. Using the flag of the Shf itic party of the Isma^ilites as a pretext, these teachings so destructive to Islam spread by means of a secret propaganda, which involved a gradual introduction of its initiates into successive grades within the organization until, when the highest grade was received, the attachment to the religion of Mohammed became an empty form. In its final aim Isma^ilism is thus the destruction of the positive con- tent of Islam. But even in the preliminary grades the law and tradition of Islam as well as the sacred history of the Koran are interpretations in an allegorical sense. The literal wording is pushed into the background as merely the outward form of the true spiritual signifi- cance. ^^ Just as the neo-Platonic doctrines aim to strip off the material cloak, and lead into the heavenly home of' the universal soul, so the enlightened person must remove the corporeal form of the law by rising to a constantly higher and purer knowledge and thus attain the world of pure spirituality. Law is merely a peda- gogical means of temporary and relative value for the immature''^ — an allegory the real significance of which is to be found in the spiritual treasure implied in the allegory. The Isma^lites go so far as to recognize as true believers only those who follow these destructive doctrines. Those who take the laws and stories of the Koran literally are unbelievers. This allegorical conception of the law and the invalid- ity of its literal meaning was indeed anticipated in the MOHAMMEDAN SECTS. 26T circumstance that Isma'il who gave the name to the sect was rejected by the opposing Imamites because he was guilty of wine-drinking and thereby rendered himself unworthy of the Imamship. Against this, however, those to whom the name of Isma'il became the rallying cry, claim that a person, who by birth is singled out for the dignity of the Imamship, must be free from sinfuhiess. The prohibition of wine, had, therefore, merely allegori- cal significance for Isma'il and also for his followers. It was the same with the other laws ; fasting, pilgrim- age, etc. The opponents of the sect claim that this reli- gious conception was extended to the abolition of moral laws and to the approval of all kinds of shameful prac- tices.^ We cannot, however, believe that spiteful pictures of this kind correspond to the actual facts. This system, so admirably adapted to the grades of initiation to secret propaganda, has with the aid of a clever policy set on foot movements which have had a widespread influence on Mohammedan circles. The foundation of the Fatimide kingdom in North Africa and later in Egypt with the territories belonging thereto (909-1171), was the result of an Isma41itic intrigue. Consistent Isma^lites could not be satisfied with the last temporal manifestation of the world-intellect in the Fatimide Imam. The circle was to be closed. They regarded the year 1017 as the time when the Fatimide caliph Hakim should reveal himself as the incarnation of God. When he disappeared in the year 1021, presumably through murder, his few followers refused to believe in his actual death ; they declared he was living in hiding, and would return (see above, page 241). The belief in Hakim's divine nature persists among the Druses of the Lebanon up to the present time. The group known in the history of the crusades as Assassins are also a consequence of the Isma41ite movement. The relation of their religious movement to positive 268 MOHAMMED AND ISLAM. Islam is to be judged by its own central principle, namely, the allegorical interpretation of religious facts. Truth is contained in the inner meaning (hatin), the outer (zahir) is a mere veil for the uninitiated; accord- ing to the measure of their preparation, the veil will be drawn aside to allow them to gaze into the face of naked truth. Hence the designation Batiniyya, applied among theologians to the adherents of these theories which, by the way, the Isma^lites share with the Sufis. In Suflism also, this doctrine of the '4nner meaning,'' coming from the same neo-Platonic source, has attained central significance. An Isma'ilite Batini could have written word for word the lines of the mystic poet Jelal al-din al Rumi, embodying the true significance of all interpretation. Know, the words of the Koran are simple; nevertheless beyond the external they hide an inner, secret meaning ; By the side of the secret sense there is still a third, which bewilders the finest intellect ; The fourth meaning no one has kno\\^i but God, the Incompar- able and All-sufiicient. Thus can one proceed toward seven meanings, one after the other. So my son, do not confine thyself to the external meaning, as the demons saw only clay in Adam ; The external meaning of the Koran is like Adam's body; for only his form is visible, his soul is hidden.'^ These increasingly subtle degrees of the secret inner meaning which are hid by the external cloak of the written word, remind us of what the Isma^Hiyya call ta'wil al-ta'wll, i. e., the secret interpretation of the secret interpretation. By an ascending scale the mysti- cism and symbolism of each preceding interpretation advances to a still subtler view of the material sub- stratum, until the complete dissolution of the original Islamic kernel. MOHAMMEDAN SECTS. ,>«'.) Isma^lism, with its unlimited excesses in fa'ivJl, has resulted in some offshoots of minor significance, among which special mention should be made of the secret doctrine of the so-called Hurufl (the interpretation of letters of the alphabet founded by Fadl- Allah of Astarfi- bad in the year 800/1397-8). This system is like- wise founded on the construction of the cyclic evolution of the world-spirit, within which Fadl-AUah regarded himself as the manifestation of the deitv, and his mes- sage as the most complete revelation of the truth. It was for this that he suffered a martyr's death at the hands of Timur. He joined to his teachings a suLliu symbolism of letters and their numerical value, to which he attached cosmic significance and powers. On the basis of this cabalistic method further developed by his adherents, the Hurufi people have come to a ta'wU of the Koran, which contains almost nothing of its original intent. Their pantheism offered many points of con- tact with the teachings of the Sufis, among whom the order of the Bektashis has adopted this system." In other developments emanating from the Isma'ilites, the numerical aspects of the system of the Imamship assume a minor significance, although they are compat- ible with the recognition of the line of the Twelve. The essential thing in these sub-branches of the movement is the rejection of the literal meaning of the Moslem beliefs, and the extreme application of the 'Allite tradi- tions as bearers of their own Gnostic secrets concerning progressive revelation, and its incarnation in ever renewed manifestations of the divinity. XIX. The philosophizing trait in the system of the Isma^mtes has not freed them from the narrow views which are characteristic of the ordinary Shrite, espe- cially in two directions. In the first place the unlimited belief in authority which is closely associated with the Imam theory is 270 MOHAMMED AND ISLAM. carried by them to an extreme. Isma41ism, therefore, bears the name of ta'llmiyya, *Hhe being taught/' i. e., the absolute dependence upon the doctrinal authority of the Imam, in contradiction to the justification of indi- vidual study and the collective force of the Ijma^ (gen- eral consent). Al-Ghazali attacks them in various writ- ings, under the name of ta'limiyya, among others in the form of a Platonic dialogue, which he carries on with one of the representatives of the ta^limiyya} "Within the allegorical interpretation of the law of the Koran they find in these laws merely the form embodying the demand for submission to the authority of the Imam.^ With this cult of authority is joined the duty of uncon- ditional obedience to superiors, which appears in a par- ticularly terrifying form among the Assassins, a branch, as we have seen of the Isma41ite movement.^ Furthermore the Isma^ilians share with the Shi4tes, the extreme intolerance towards those who differ from them. It will be sufficient to give as a single example a paragraph from an interesting Isma^ilite work about the poor-tax and its allegorical interpretation, found in a Leiden manuscript: ^^He who associates (ashraka) with his Imam another authority, or doubts him, is like the person who associates someone else with the prophet, and doubts him. Thus he is like the person who recog- nizes another God besides Allah. He, therefore, who associates (anyone with the Imam), doubts him or denies him, is najas (unclean), not clean (tdhir) ; it is forbidden to make use of that which such a man has acquired.''* Apart from their connection with the Druses who deify Hakim and who are scattered throughout Middle Syria^ and other parts of Islamic territory, the Isma^ilites are also to be found in Persia and India under the designa- tion of Khojas.^ Quite recently, an Isma41ite assembly house was erected in Zanzibar.'^ These modern Isma^il- ites recognize as their head a man with the title Agha MOHAMMEDAN SECTS. 271 Khan. This office-bearer traces his descent to a branch of the Fatimide dynasty (Nizar), as a descendant of the Assassin princes who claim to be descendants from this branch.^ The followers of Agha Khan, who at present has his seat in Bombay and other parts of India, pay homage to him through Zakat-tribute (governmental tax) and rich gifts. The present incumbent of this office is a rather worldly gentleman possessed of modern ideas of culture, having at his disposition large means which he himself is fond of using for extensive travel. He has been to London, Paris, the United States and also to the court in Tokyo. There are few traces in him of the fundamental principles of the system which he is sup- posed to represent. He gives freely of his possessions for the furtherance of the modern cultural movements in Indian Islam, which we shall have an opportunity of considering, and in the administration of which he takes a leading part.^ Quite recently he was chosen president of the All India Moslem League.^ ^ He is a strong adherent of British rule in India, which he recognizes as a blessing for the Indian peoples. During the latest Swaraji movement he gave a warning to the Moslem Indians, which was meant also for the Hindus. In this he pointed out the folly and immaturity of the desire for independence and showed the necessity and beneficence of British rule as the unifying and mediating principle for the various peoples of the Indian Kingdom, separated from one another by virtue of their varying aims. XX. Since the Shi4te form of belief credits *A1T and his successors with superhuman attributes, these very ideas have served as supports for the remnants of degenerate mythological traditions. Such tales as existed in the traditions of the peoples converted to Islam about superhuman powers, but which with the disappearance of the old religion had lost their hold, could be adapted 272 MOHAMMED AND ISLAM. to the form of 'Aliitic legends and, thus transformed, continue to flourish. The persons of the *Ali family appropriate the attributes of mythological figures, and these attributes take their place in the Shi'ite train of thought, without any difficulty. Within Shfism few scruples prevent the object of this veneration from being raised above earthly things and made to partake of superhuman strength. How far the ordinary Shrite view goes in this direc- tion, we have already seen. The light-substance of 'All and his family form part of the divine throne. Accord- ing to a legend Hasan and Husein wore amulets which were filled with down from the wings of the angel Gabriel.^ In these circles therefore it was very easy to weave mythological material into the figures of the ' Alitic family. For example, *Ali became a god of thunder; he appears in the clouds and produces thunder and light- ning; the latter the scourge which he brandishes. Just as the myths explain the glow of sunset as the blood of Adonis killed by a wild boar, there appears in Shi'itic legends the explanation that the sunset is the blood of the slaughtered Husein; there was no such glow before his death.- The cosmographic writer Kazwini (d. 682/ 1283) reports that the Turkish people of Baghraj were ruled by a dynasty which traced their descent from the 'Allite Yahya ibn Zeid. They treasure a golden book on the outside of which is written a poem on the death of Zeid, and they accord to this book religious adoration. They call Zeid the ''king of the Arabs'^ and 'Ali "The God of the Arabs." When they look toward heaven they open their mouth and with fixed gaze say: "There the God of the Arabs mounts and descends.''^ It is more particularly neo-Platonic and gnostic ele- ments in which the Isma'ilite sects invested the Moslem conception of belief, that have aided in the preservation of the ruins of the ancient heathen religion. As the MOHAMMEDAN SECTS. 273 persons of the sacred famHy had been raised to the sphere of divinity, they could easily serve as substitutes for ancient deities, hidden under a Moslem nomenclature. Thus in the valleys of the Lebanon ancient Syrian heathenism survives in an external Shi^tic form, in the sect of the Nusairiah (between Tripoli and Antioch). In the 'Twelver' cult of this sect unmistakable heathen con- ceptions predominate. One must take into consideration, that in the districts in which this Shi'itic sect flourishes, the ancient heathenism still prevailed until shortly before the introduction of Islam, and Christianity itself was very late in gaining a foothold.* It is, therefore, natural that the ideas brought by Islam should have been intertwined with old heathenish elements. Islam is merely a surface phenomenon. As a matter of fact the hearts of the people have cherished the heathen traditions of their forefathers, and have carried them over to the new manifest objects of cult. In the amalgamation of heathenism, gnosticism and Islam, the Moslem element is nothing more than a form differing from the heathen nature cult, and merely provides a name for the heathen religious ideas. 'All — as they say in a prayer — is ''eternal in his divine nature; our God according to his inner being, although our Imam externally.''^ In the various sects he is identified with various divine forces of nature. To the majority he is the moon god, with the augmentation of a Shi'ite appellation, the "Emir of the bees," i. e., of the stars. We have already men- tioned that Mohammed himself by the side of 'All sinks to the subordinate significance of the "veil." "With 'All and Selman he rounds out a trinity which, with all that belongs to it, is allied to a heathenish nature cult. In the worship offered to 'All and his family, the persons linked to them by legend and to the Imams, we have, in reality, the worship of heaven, the sun, the moon and other forces of nature. These traditions have 274 MOHAMMED AND ISLAM. been adapted with the help of gnosticism, which is to be found in all these remains of heathenism. Their true inwardness is revealed to the initiated according to the measure of their graded initiation. If the Islamic law among the Isma^ilites, who, by the way, are hostile to the Nusairiah, has even in the lower grades merely a symbolical significance, for the initiated Nusairiah, all positive Islam is completely dissipated. The Koran itself takes a position subordinate to another sacred book, which book, in spite of all attempts at secrecy, has become known through a Christian neophyte in their midst, and which has formed the subject of investiga- tions by European and American scholars.^ They them- selves set themselves up against the rest of the Moslems as the true ^'believers in the divine unity'' (ahl al tauhid), as true interpreters of the Shi'itic thought. They regard the general Shi4te as Zdliiriyya, that is, as adherents to an ^external' conception of religion, who have not penetrated into the depths of true monotheism, as mukassira, i. e., those who have not attained the • • • 7 7 required degree of perfection in their worship of * Ali.''' In reality it is merely a nominal Islam which is repre- sented in these forms of old Asiatic heathenism, embody- ing in their developed form certain Christian elements such as the consecration of food and wine, a kind of communion meal, and the celebration of holidays peculiar to Christianity. The history of religion often shows that such sect-degenerations lend themselves to syncretism. We have so far considered those dissenting forms of Islam which exerted an influence on the development of Islam up to the time of the definite establishment of the orthodox phase. But even after this perished the agita- tion continued. We have now to consider later move- ments, the results of which reach to our own day. NOTES. 275 NOTES. I. 1. On this ancient misunderstanding see my ^'Beitrage zur Litter- aturegeschichte der Shi' a and der Sunnitischen Polemik" (Vienna 1874). 9 Sitzungsber der k. Akad. d. Wiss. Phil. Hist. Kl. LXXVIII 445) and ' ' Denombrement des seetes Musulmanes" in ''Eevue de THistoire des Religions" XXVI, 129 ff., cf. ZDMG LXI, 73 fe. 2. ZDMG LXII 5 note 2. The practical application of this view is reported by al-Harith al-Muhasibi (d. in Baghdad 243/857) (Kusheiri, Bisala 15, 5), which is all the more remarkable as Harith belonged to the ascetic division which attaches little importance to dogmatic subtleties. According to other reports (Kaswim ed. Wustenfeld II 215, 16; Subki, Tahdkat al-SMpiyya II 38, 12) the father was Eafidi (Shi'ite), which gives a better account of the disparitas cultus. 3. Ibn al-Fakih al-Hamadani, Kitdh al-holddn, ed. de Goeje 44, 18. II. 1. ''Der Islam im Morgen- und Abendlande," I 283. 2. See especially Wellhausen's treatise "Die Religios-politisehen Oppositionsparteien im alten Islam" (see above p. 141). 3. A classic presentation of the Kharijite views as opposed to those of the other Moslem groups is Aghani XX, 105 ff. 4. Kremer, "Geschichte der herrschenden Ideen des Islams" 360. 5. Dervish al-Mahruki, Kitab al-dald'il fi-l-lawdzim wal-wasd'il (Cairo 1320) 20. The same thought in moral maxims 'Uyun al-ATchhdr; 419, 18 ff. 6. Klein "The Religion of Islam" (London 1904), 132. 7. Cf. ZDMG XLI, 31 ff. 7a. The leading authority on this literature was the late Motylinski, director of the Medressa in Constantine (Algiers) (d. 1907). 8. Cf. "Revue de PHistoire des Religions" LII, 232. A practical example is the use of the verse in the Koran Sur. 20, 4 in an Iba- dite sermon, preached in Tahert in the third century after the Hijra. (Actes du XV Congres des Orientalistes, Algiers 1905— III 126.) The Text published there offers a very clear picture of the inner life of the Ibadite gatherings of that time. 9. Cf. ZDMG LXI 864 note 5. 10. Shahrastani "Book of religions and philosophical sects" 95, 4 fr. below; 96, 8 fr. below concerning the Meimuniyya. 11. Fakhr al-din al-Razi, Mafatlh al-ghalh (Buliik 1289) I 268 (quoted according to al-Khatib al-Baghdadi). 12. Cf. for details Sachau "Religiose Anschauungen der Ibaditschen Muhammedaner in Oman and Ost -Afrika" (Mitteil. d. Seminars f. Orient. Spr. 1898 II 2, 47-82). 276 MOHAMMED AND ISLAM. 13. Zwemer in ^'The Mohammedan World of to-day" (1906) (p. 102) is mistaken in speaking of tlie Abadhi sect as of Shi' a origin. 14. According to a notice of Ibn Hazm (d. 456/1064) there were Ibadites in Andalusia in his day. Kitab al Milal (ed. Cairo) IV 179, cf. 191, 8. They probably came over from North Africa, or were in Spain temporarily only, where Ibn Hazm came in contact with them. 15. M. Hartmann, Zeitschr. f . Assyr. XIX 355 ff. III. 1. Amall al-Kali III 173, 3 ; 198 penult. 2. Muh. Studien II 117. Indeed Hadiths of Sunnitic origin are not lacking, in which Mohammed is supposed to have announced his wish concerning his successor (cf. ibid. II 99 note 1). These announcements, however, do not appear as definite decisions of the question of succession, and do not have the form of a solemn act of apporntment as the Shi'ites claim for 'Ali. In a tradition of Ibn Sa' d III, I 46, 5 ff . we find support for the claim that the prophet himself chose 'Othman as one of his caliphs; it is interesting to note that this statement goes back to a maula Othmdn (''client of Othman"), as its source which is indicative of the character of the tradition. 3. Abu Ja'far Muh. al-Kulini (d. 328/939) in Baghdad, al-Usul min al-Jdmi 'al-Tcdfl (Bombay 1302) 261. 4. Van Berchem "Journal Asiatique" 1907 I 297 ff. M. Griin- baum, "Gesammelte Aufsatze zur Sprach- und Sagenkunde" (Berlin 1901) 226. 5. See the criticism of these assumptions by an 'Aliite Ibn Sa'd V 239, 2 ff. 6. In a number of very clumsy traditions in which God himself, as well as Khadir and Mohammed, verify by name the line of Imams of the 'Twelvers.' A Jew of the line of Aaron knows of them from the "Book of Harun" (for the latter cf. Zeit- schrift f. alttest. Wiss. XIII 316). These Shiite fables have been collected by Kulini, Usui al-Kdfl 342-346. The proof of the Imam theories in the Old Testament (just as the Sunni apolo- gists prove from biblical books that Mohammed was an apostle) have been collected by a modern Shi'ite theologian Seyyid 'Ali Muhammed in a little book known as Zdd hdlil, which was pub- lished in lithographic form by the Ithna-' asharyya Press in Lucknow (1290/1873). 7- This kind of Koran exegesis can be illustrated by the following explanation at the beginniug of the 91st Sura: The sun and its light (that is Mohammed) ; the moon when it follows the sun (i. e. 'AH), the day when it surrounds the sun (Hasan and Husern) the night, when it hides the sun (the Omayyads). This explanation appears in Hadith form as a revelation given by the prophet himself, in Suyuti, al-La'dll al-MasmV a fi-l-ahddlth al-Maudu'a (Cairo, Adabiyya 1317) I 184. NOTES. 27 n* IV. 1. Ibn Sa' d V 234 below. 2. Ibid. VI 261, 9 ff. 3. From the point of view of a follower of 'AIT, the 'Abbaside al-Mansur, in spite of the claims to legitimacy, is ''ja'ir" (usurper) ; this was said to his face by the pious theologian Abu Du'eib (Nawawi, TaMil) 112, 6). 4. For the mihan of the Shi'ites see a letter of Abu Bekr al-Khwiir- izmi to the Shi^te community in Nisabur, Easa'll (Stambul 1297) 130 ff. The traditional saying about the trials of the followers of 'AH is found in Ya'kubl, ''Historiae" ed. Houtsma II 242. 5. Kenz al-'ummal VI 81 No. 1271. 6. Dahabi, Tadkirat al liuffdz IV 11. 7. Cf. E. G. Browne, ''A Catalogue of the Persian Manuscripts in the Library of the University of Cambridge" (Cambridge 1896) 122-142 (where further bibliography will be found). For off- shoots of this literature WZKM XV 330-1; later ones in E. Haupt's " Orientalisch. Literaturebericht " I no. 3080-1. The Martyrologies are also called makMil. 8. Tha' alibi, Yatlmat al-daJir I 223. Ibn Khallikan ed. Wiisten- feld IX 59, where instead of ma'dthimund we should read md 'dtimund. 9. Meidani (ed. Bulak) I 179: arakku. 10. A. F. Bajah Husain, ''Husain in the Phil, of Hist." (Lucknow 1905) 20. 11. Ibid. 9. 18. 30. V. 1. Kulini 1. c. 466. The withdrawal of both the guardian angels is also assumed in another instance: as soon as that which is allotted to man by divine fate has been fulfilled (al-mukaddar) ; they do not try to guard him against it; they must allow the decision a free course, Ibn Sa'd III, I 22, 13. 2. Cf. about TaMyya ZDMG LX 213 ff. 3. Commentary of the Imam Hasan el-'Askari to the second Sura verse 17. 4. Kulini 105. VI. 1. Kulini 105. 2. Various teachings about this in Kulini 368 ff. chapter; da'd'im al-isldm. Therefore the true Shi'ite is mutawdll, i. e. "the adher- ent" (to the 'AH community) which is the special name of a Syrian branch of the Shi'ite sect. 3. Suyuti, al-La'dli al-masnu'a I 184. In this chapter (166 ff.) is included an anthology of the Hadiths, which were invented by partisans to support the Shi'ite point of view. 4. Aghani XX 107, 19 ff. VII. 1. 'AH al-Kari, Sharh al-FiTch al-aUar (Cairo 1323) 132 above. 2. The 'Abbaside caliphate does not lag behind in this respect. It 278 MOHAMMED AND ISLAM. likes to be called mlmth al-nubuwwa (inheritance of the prophets) (Agh. X 124, 10; XVIII 79, 5 cf. Ibn Jubeir, '^ Travels"- ed. de Goeje 92, 2); therefore an attribute of the 'Abbaside cali- phate is al-ndbawl (''going back to the Prophet"), Ibn al-Kala- nisi, ' ' History of Damascus ' ' ed. Amedroz 155, 9. 5 f r. below, 165, 5 fr. below, 193, 11; Yakut, Mu' jam al-uddba ed. Margoliouth II 54, 12) ; however only in the sense of the legitimate descent from the royal dignity of the prophet, to whose family the 'Abbasides also belong, not as in the case of the 'Aliite Imams and Fatimide caliphs in the sense of recognition as a theological authority. Occasionally we find in Omayyad times also, by way of flattery, the office of caliph designated as an inheritance from the prophet, as in an epistle of the Katib 'Abdallhamid ibn Yahya to his caliph (in Easd'il al-hulaghd I [Cairo 1908] 92, 9). The inheritance here can only be taken in the sense of a claim to legitimacy. 3. Quoted as an utterance of the Imam Ja'far al-sadik by Suhra- wardi in Keshkul (Bulak 1288) 357, 19. 4. Cf . more fully in d. Zeitschr. f. Assyr. XXII 325 ff. 5. Ibn Sa'd V 74, 14. 6. Ibid. I, I 113, 8 on the basis of Sura 5 v. 71 : " God guards thee from men" which is interpreted as referring to the cor- poreal immunity of the prophet. The eighth chapter of Mawerdi's A' lam al-nubuwwa (Cairo 1319) 53-59, deals with this. 7. Montet, ''Le Culte des saints Musulmans dans PAfrique du Nord" (Geneva University Jubilee 1909) 32; cf. Achille Eobert in Revue des Traditions Populaires XIX, Feb. (no. 12, 13). VIII. 1. Such ' Ali-ilahi-adherents are to be found, e. g. : among the Turkman peasants of the district of Kars (Ardaghan), since the war of 1877-78 belonging to Eussia, — whose conditions Devitzki has lately studied. 2. Friedlander, The Heterodoxies of the Shiites according to Ibn Bazm (Journal of the Am. Or. Soc. XXIX) 102. Similar doctrines were propounded by the self-deified al-Shalmaghani who was beheaded in Baghdad 322/934. According to his system of the graded incarnations of the Godhead, Moses and Moham- med are regarded as deceivers, the former because he was unfaithful to the mission entrusted to him by Aaron, the latter because unfaithful to the mission entrusted to him by 'Ali. (Yakut ed. Margoliouth I 302, 13.) 3. ZDMG XXXVIII 391. Ibn Sa'd III, I 26, 10 ff.; V 158, 18 ff. cf. Friedlander in "Zeitschr. f. Assyr." XXIII 318 note 3. 4. Friedlander, Heterodoxies (Jour. Amer. Or. Soc. XXVIII) 55 ff. IX. 1. Klein 1. c. 73. Even the philosopher Avicenna admits as unassail- able that the prophets ''are in no way subject to error or for- NOTES. 279 getf ulness. " (''Die Metaphysik Avicennas," translated and explained by M. Horten, Halle 1907 88, 19.) 2. Nawawi, Tahdil) 624, 3. Yahya ibn Z. is otherwise favored (Ibn Sa'd IV, II 76, 11). 3. Ibid. VI 32, 5. 4. 'All al-Kari, Sharh al-Filch al-aklar 51; a treatise on this Hadith by Subki, TabaTcat V 123. The prophet is made to express concern about his future fate: "I know not what wUl happen to me'' (Ibn Sa'd III, I 289 ult.). 5. Al-Kali, Amm II 267. 6. The tradition connects this saying with the Hudeibiya-agreement in the 6th year of the Hijra (Ibn Sa'd II, I 76), which strangely enough it regards as a "victory," while in truth it involved a "humiliation." Even Moslem historians have felt this: 'Omar, they say, would not have made such an agreement (ibid. 74,5). 7. For the explanation of the phrase A. Fisher, ZDMG LXII 280. 8. In Damlrl II 216, 21, s. v. Ghirnik. 9. 'All al'Kdri 1. c. 136 below. 10. Nawawi, Tahdlh 113, 7. 11. "Bajah Husain" 1. c. 5. 12. Kashf al-ghumma 'an jami' al-umma (Cairo 1281) II 62-75, according to Suyuti. 13. As a matter of fact the peculiarities of the prophet brought forward by Sha'rani are traits given to him by the phantasy of the Shi'ites as e. g. in a popular work on the Shi'ite doctrine pub- lished in Turkish by 'Abdalrahim Khuyi. (Stambul 1327) 10. X. 1. Jahiz, Tria Opuscula ed. van Vloten (Leiden 1903) 137, 17 ff. (=EasdHl ed. Cairo 1324, 129 bel.) mentions the Shi'ite view, that the Imams stand higher than the prophets inasmuch as the latter may sin but do not err, while the former neither sin nor err. 2. Asad Allah al-Kazimi, Kashf al-Jcind' 'an wnjilh hujiyyat al- ijmd' (lith. Bombay 209). 3. Ya'kiibi, Histoiriae, ed. Houtsma II 525 below. Concerning a book of 'All's which reaches down to the deeper meaning of the Koran, see Ibn Sa'd XI 101, 19. The secret attainments ascribed to Ali were scorned by the Kharijites, Agltdnx XX 107, 16 ff. 4. They pretend to possess the secret works ascribed to Ali (see previous note), which are sometimes pictured as containing all the religious knowledge of the prophets and again designated as apocalyptic writings in which the occurrences of all times are revealed. They are supposed to have been entrusted to 'Ali by the prophet and are passed on from generation to genera- tion in the line of the legitimate Imams, as the bearers of the 280 MOHAMMED AND ISLAM. secret knowledge of 'Ali. The most frequently-mentioned of these books are the J^fr and the JamVa. The old Mu'tazilite Bishr b. al-Mu'tamir of Baghdad (IX Cent.) in one of his didactic poems calls the Shi' ah people ''Those who have been deluded by Jafr.'' (Jahiz, Eayawdn VI 94, 1.) Even the out- ward form of these so-caUed secret books are described in Shi'ite literature; e. g. the Jami'a as a roll of 70 lengths (measured by the prophet's arm) (Kulini 1. c. 146-148, Kazimi 1. c. 162). See the literature on the subject ZDMG XLI 123 ff. Besides these two secret writings, Kulini mentions also the Mashaf Fatima in the possession of the Imams, which the prophet is said to have entrusted to his daughter before his death; it is supposed to be three times as large as the Koran. As a consequence, mystical books of prophecy became known everywhere as Jafr. This word seems also to be concealed in the Maghribite lenjefdr (E. Doutte: "Un texte arbe en dialecte oranais," 13, 25 in Memoires de la Societe de Linguistique " XIII 347). The treatment and explanation of the Jafr books is a favorite subject of Islamic occultism. Cf. e. g. Cairo cata- logue VIII 83. 101. The famous mystic Muhyi al-din ibn 'Arabi is largely represented in this literature (ibid. 552). For a Jafr work of Abu Bekr al-Dimishki (d. 1102/1690) preserved in the treasury of the Turkish Sultan, see Muradi, SilTc al-durar (Bulak 1301) I 51. 5. See above note 3, 7. 6. The modern Shi'ite scholar Bajah Husain (1. c. 14) condemns in an entirely Shi'itic spirit the '* pseudo-democratic form of government (of the ancient caliph times), based on the con- sciousness of the general tendency of the people." XI. 1. The theologians of the various Shi'ite sub-sects have developed a rich polemic literature against each other. This literature deals not only with their differences about the Imamship, but also with other dogmatic and legal questions, to which the differ- ences between the Shi'ite groups led. At the end of the third and the beginning of the fourth century (Hijra era), the Imamite theologian Hasan ibn Muhammed al-Naubakhti, a thorough Mutakallim, wrote a Kitdh firak al-ShV a (on the Sects of the Shi'ites) ; furthermore al-Badd 'aid firaJc al-Sht'a mdlckald, al-Imdmiyya (refutation of the sects of the Shi'ites with the exception of the Imamites) cf. Abu-1' 'Abbas Ahmed al-Najashi, Kitdh al-rijdl (Lives of Shi'itic scholars, Bombay 1317) 46. Jahiz (d. 255/869), who was nearer to the beginning of the sects, wrote a book on the Shi'ites {Kitdh al-rdfida), which unfor- tunately does not appear to have been preserved. He refers to it in a short treatise fi haydn Maddhih al-Shi'a (Easa'il ed. Cairo NOTES. 281 178-185; the quotation itself p. 181, 3d line from bottom), which however offers less than its title promises. 2. Kazimi 1. c. 80. 3. Najashi 1. c. 237. 4. On this belief see now the important treatise above referred to by I. Friedlander on the inner forms of the Shias: -The Heterodoxies of the Shiites" II 23-30. 5. On ^Abdallah ibn S. and the doctrines propounded by him on All s nature, see now the treatise of I. Friedlander in Zeitschr f. Assyr. XXIII 296 ff. On the belief in the return of 'Ali see Jahiz, Kayawan V 134. For the raj' a belief cf. Ibn Sa'd'lII 126,16; VI 159, 13. Even in (non-Shi' itic) Sufi circles, in connection with the apotheosis of 'Ali generally accepted by them, the conception of his continuous existence and of his return finds an expression Sha'rani tells of the holy 'Ali Wefa that he said: '' 'All ibn Abi Talib was raised up (into heaven) as Jesus was; as the latter he will in the future descend." To this Sha'rani adds: ''The same thing was taught by (my master) Seyyidi 'Ali al- Khawwas. I heard him say: 'Noah preserved from the ark a board in the name of 'Ali ibn Abi Talib, on which he would one day be raised on high. This board was preserved by divine power, until ^Ali was raised by means of it' " {LawaUh al-anwar II 59). This Sufi legend is, by the way, a supplement to the Islamic legend of the building of the ark. God commanded Noah to prepare 124,000 boards for the construction; on each one appeared the name of some prophet from Adam to Noah. It finally developed that four more boards were necessary to complete the ark; these Noah prepared and on them appeared the names of four "companions" (by which are meant the four first Sunnite Caliphs, of whom the fourth is 'AH). In this way the ark was fitted out against the flood. The legend is told at length in Muhammed ibn 'Abdalrahman al-Hamadani 's book on the days of the week (Eitdh al-SuhHyyat fl mawa'iz al-bariy- ydt. Biilak 1292, — the margin to Fashni's commentary to the 40 traditions of Nawawi) 8-9. 6. Wellhausen, "Die religiosen Oppositionsparteien " 93. An ' attempt has also been made to find older sources for this belief. In the "Proceedings of the Society of Biblical Archaeology" VII 71, Pinches concluded on the basis of cuneiform texts, that already in ancient Babylon there existed the belief in the return of the ancient king Sargon I, who was to reestablish the ancient power of the kingdom. The interpretation has, however, been rejected by other Assyriologists. 7. Hilgenfeld " Ketzergeschichte " 158 (according to Origen). 282 MOHAMMED AND ISLAM. 8. See Basset's introduction to ^'Fekkare Jyasous" (Les Apoc- ryphes ethiopiens XI Paris 1909) 4-12. 9. ^'Eevue des Trad, populaires" 1905 416. 10. Biruni: '* Chronology of Ancient Nations," translated by E. Sachau 194. Concerning Bihafrid see Houtsma in WZKM 1889, 30 ff. 11. Barhebraeus, ''Hist. Dynastiarmn " ed. Beirut 218; cf. Zeitschr. f. Assyr. XXII 337 ff. 12. Bosworth-Smith, ''Mohammed and Mohammedanism," 2d ed. (London 1876) 32. 13. Landsdell: "Kussian Central Asia." I 572. 14. Muh. Studien II 324. 15. B. Talm. Sanhedrin 97t». On the calculation for the appearance of the Messiah from the numerical value of the words haster astir in Deut. 31:18 and from Dan. 12:11. 13, see Biruni "Chronologic orientalischer Volker" ed. Sachau 15-17 (Schreiner ZDMG XLII 600) cf. for this literature the bibliography by Steinschneider ZDMG XXVIII 628 note 2; S. Poznanski "Miseellen iiber Sa'aja" III (in Monatschr. f. Gesch. u. Wiss. d. Judentums XLIV 1901). 16. Kadaha al-waJckdtiina : "those who fix the time lie." The utterances of the Imams on this subject in a special chapter (hah Tcaraliiyyat al-taukit-, on the uselessness of determined time) by Kulini 1. c. 232-33 and enriched with further material in the Shi' itic work of Dildar ' Ali : Mir 'at al-' ukul fl ' ilm al-usul (also ' Imdd al-isldm fl Him al-'kaldm) I 115 f. (Lucknow 1318-9.) A Kitdh waTct Tcliuruj al-kdHm (the time of the appear- ance of the Mahdi) is mentioned in Tusi "List of Shi' ah books" no. 617 composed by Muhammed ibn Hasan ibn Jumhur al-Kummi who has a bad reputation as an exaggerator and inventor of false traditions. The same thing applies to the characterization of a Shi' itic theologian as an "exaggerator" fi-l-waTct, i. e. with regard to the (calculation of) time, (of the appearance of the Mahdi, Najashi 1. c. 64, 8). Ibn Klhaldun, Prolegomena ed. Quatremere Not. et Extr. des Mss. XVII 167, criticises at length a Mahdi calculation of Ibn 'Arabi. Such calculations are rejected by the Hurufis (see p. 269), in spite of the fact that from the first such cabalistics were attributed primarily to them (Clement Huart, "Textes persans relatifs a la secte des Hourou- fis" Leyden-London 1909: Gibb Memorial Series IX, Texte 70 ff.). Eelated to the calculations of the appearance of the Mahdi are the cabalistic calculations in regard to "sa'a" ("hour" i. e. the end of the world, the resurrection). Eef erring to Sura 6, 59 ("With him are the keys of the hidden, no one knows them but he") and 7, 186 ("They wiU ask thee con- cerning the 'hour,' for what time it is fixed: Say: the knowl- NOTES. 28a edge of it is with my God alone; he alone will make it known at the proper time" = Matth. 24, 36), genuine orthodoxy has rejected such computations as opposed to the Koran. The mate- rial for this theological subject is to be found in full in Kastal- lani's Commentary (Bulak 1285) on Bukharl, Ijarat no. 11 (IV 150) ; Tafsir no. 88 (VII 232) ; no. 335 (ibid! 458 ff.) ; Rikak no. 39 (IX 323). The astronomers of Islam have also occupied themselves consid- erably with calculations, through the constellations of the duration of the Islamic kingdom. The philosopher al-Kindi has a special monograph on this, which O. Loth has published in the ' ' Morgen- landische Forschungen" (Fleischer-Festschrift, Leipzig 1875) 263-309. Besides the astrological suppositions, Kindi uses also letter cabalistics and mystic numbers (ibid. 297). He regards it as a merit of the Arabic script that it is admirably adapted to such use (Balawi, Kitab Alif-bd 1 99, 6). TJie Ilchwdn al-safd (ed. Bombay IV 225) also teach that the appearance of the sahib al-amr, for whom they carry on a propaganda, is determined by conjunctions. XII. 1. In its older religious application the word had not yet the eschatological meaning which was attached to it later on. Jerir (Naka'id ed. Bevan no. 104 v. 29) applies this epithet to Abra- ham. When Hasan ibn Thabit in his lament on the death of Mohammed (Diwaii ed. Tunis 24, 4) praises him as Mahdl, he does not mean to attach to it any Messianic conception, but to designate the prophet as a man always taking the right way (cf. also al-muhtadl in the fifth verse of the same poem, or al-murshad likewise in a dirge on the prophet, Ibn Sa'd XI 94, 9). Among the ancient caliphs, this epithet has often been applied in Sunnitic circles to 'AH. In a comparative view of the prophet's immediate successors Abu Bekr is designated as a pious ascetic, 'Omar as energetic and sure, 'Ali as Mdiyan mahdiyyan, ''guide and rightly guided" {Usd al-glwba IV 31, 3). Suleiman ibn Surad, Husein's avenger, calls the latter (after his death) malidi, son of the mahdi (Tabari II 546, 11). The court poets of the Omayyad caliphs also apply this title to their princes. Farazdak bestows it on the Omayyad (Naka'id 51 V. 60) precisely as on the prophet (ibid. v. 40). We find the same term very often in Jerir (Diwan ed. Cairo 1313, I 58, 16 applied to 'Abdalmalik; II 40, 7 from below to Suleiman; 94, 5 from below to Hisham; cf. imam al-huda above 141). Under the Omayyad princes pious people, however, regarded 'Omar II as the true Mahdi (Ibn Sa'd V 245, 5 ff.). Not till later (5-6/ 1180) did a flattering poet, Ibn al-Ta'awIdi, give this epithet to his caliph in an enlarged sense: The 'Abbaside cahph (al- 284 MOHAMMED AND ISLAM. Nasir) whom he is glorifying, is the Mahdi; it is superfluous to await any other messianic Mahdi (Diwan of the R. ed. Mar- goliouth— Cairo— 1904 103 v. 5, 6). The use of the word to denote Moslem converts is well known (the Turks use the form Muhtedi). Two of the rectors of the Azhar mosque were given the surname al-Mahdi, used in this capacity: (1) the Copt Muhammed (orig. Hibat Allah) al- Hifni (1812-1815) and Sheikh Muhammed al-'Abbasi al-Mahdi (in the 7th and 8th decades of the previous century; ZDMG LIII 702 ff.). 2. For the Mahdi doctrine in Islam and its applications see James Darmesteter ^'Le Mahdi depuis les origines de 1 'Islam jusqu'a nos jours" (Paris 1885); Snouck Hurgronje in the '* Revue coloniale Internationale" 1886); van Vloten ^^Les croyances messianiques " in his ''Eeeherches sur la Domination arabe" etc. (Amsterdam, Academy, 1894) 54 ff.; the same in ZDMG LII 218 ff.; E. Blochet, '*Le Messianisme dans THeterodoxie Musulmane" (Paris 1903); I. Friedlander ''Die Messiasidee im Islam" (Festschrift, fur A. Berliner, Frankfurt a. M. 1903, 116-130). 3. Especially in Maghribite (N. African) Islam have such move- ments constantly arisen; the Maghribites hold the traditional belief that the Mahdi will appear on Moroccan territory (Doutte, ' ' Les Marabouts, ' ' Paris 1900, 74) for which also certain Hadiths are brought forward (ZDMG XLI 116 ff.). There have also appeared in Maghrib from time to time people who claimed to be the reappearing Jesus and under this title stirred up their followers to fight foreign rule (Doutte 1. c. 68). While some of these Mahdi movements (as e. g. that which led to the founda- tion of the Almohad kingdom in Maghrib) exercised little influence after the dissipation of the political events superinduced by them, the traces of such movements among Shi'itic sects con- tinue to the present day. In the last centuries several such sectarian movements have occurred in various parts of Indie Islam through persons who claimed to be the expected Mahdi, and whose adherents up to the present day believe that the expec- tation of the Mahdi was fulfilled in such and such a person. Such sects are therefore called Gliair-Malidi, i. e. people who no longer look for the coming of a Mahdi. Some of them (Mahdawi sects) maintain a wildly fanatical attitude toward others. Details about these sects can be found in E. Sell, ' ' The Faith of Islam ' ' (London 1880) 81-83. In the district of Kirman (Beluchistan) the memory of an Indian Mahdi of the end of the XV century still lingers. As against the orthodox Sunni (Namazi, so-called because they practice the legal Salat-rite, known as Namaz) we there find the sect of the Dikri whose adherents belong mostly NOTES. 285 to the nomad population and trace their teachings and practices (deviating from orthodox Islam) to a Mahdi, Muhammed of Jaunpur, who, driven from India, and wandering from place to place died in the vaUey of Hehnend (1505) (Revue du Monde Musuhnan V 142). In the ''night of fate" (leilat al-kadr, 27 Eamadan) sacred to orthodox Islam, they erect a circle of stones (da'ira. cf. Herklots Qanoon-i-Islam 259) within which they practice their heretical ritual. For this reason this sect is called Da'ire wall, i. e. ''People of the circle." Josef Horo- vitz, to whom I owe this latter information, is preparing a special publication on these Da'ire Wali. 4. M. Hartmann, "Der Islamische Orient" III 152. 5. E. g. Brockelmann, "Gesch. d. Arab. Lit." I 431 No. 25. — criti- cism of the Mahdi-Hadiths in Ibn Khaldun "Mukaddima" (ed. Bulak 1284) 261. The Meccan scholar Shihab al-din Ahmed Ibn Hajar al-Heitami (d. 973/1565) has gathered together in various writings under the theological authorities of orthodoxy, the Mahdi tradition of Sunnite Islam. He has written a special work on this subject, which is noted by Brockelmann 1. c. II 388, No. 6, and in which he refers to a Fetwa (Fatdwl hadlthiifya. Cairo 1307 27-32), in which he summarizes the Sunni teachings on the Mahdi doctrine, on the occurrences to accompany his appearance as well as on false Mahdis. This Fetwa gave rise to a query "about people, who believe that a man who died forty years before was the Mahdi promised for the end of the world, and who consider those as unbelievers who do not believe in this Mahdi." This belief probably refers to someone who appeared as the Mahdi in the tenth century, to whom we have referred in the above note 3. Ibn Hajar has furthermore col- lected orthodox Mahdi traditions in a discourse against Shiism held by him in Mecca in the year 1543, Al-^awa'ik al-muhriJca (Cairo 1312) 97-100. 6. The "Twelvers" weaken this objection by the claim that the text of the tradition confirming the Mahdi has been corrupted. Instead of ' ' and the name of his father agrees with the name of my (i. e. the prophet's) fatlier (abi) " it originally read "with that of my son" (ibni) ; i. e. the name of the Mahdi 's father, Hasan, is like that of the prophet's grandson. That the grand- son should be designated as^ibn, forms no objection. (Introduc- tion to Menini's commentary to the pasan of Behfi al-din al-'Amili on the Mahdi, in the appendix to the Keslikul 395.) 7. Cf. " Abhandlungen zur Arab. Philol." II, LXII ff. 8. Of certain selected individuals it is believed that they enjoyed personal intercourse with the hidden Imam; examples are to be found in Tusi, "List of Shi' ah books" 353; Kazimi 1. c. 230-231. The Egyptian §ufi 'Abd al-Wahhab al-Sha'rimi (d. 286 MOHAMMED AND ISLAM. 973/1565), who himself had extravagant hallucinations about mystic adventures, tells in his Sufi biographies that an older §ufi colleague Hasan al-' Iraki (d. about 930/1522) told him that in his early youth he had entertained the Mahdi under his roof in Damascus for a full week, and was instructed by him in Sufi practices of devotion. He owed his great age to the blessing of the Mahdi; at the time of this intercourse with Sha'rani, Hasan is said to have been 127 years old. Fifty years he spent in long journeys to China and India, at the end of which he settled in Cairo, where he suffered much from the jealousy of other Sufi people. They regarded him probably as a swindling adventurer. {Lawakili al-anwdr f% tahakdt ol-aTchyar — Cairo 1299 — II 191.) There are also fables about written intercourse with the hidden Mahdi. The father of the famous Shi'ite the- ologian Abu Ja'far Muhammed b. *Ali ibn Babuya al-Kummi (d. 351/991) is said to have sent a written petition to the ''master of time" through the mediation of a certain 'Ali ibn Ja'far ibn al-Aswad. In this he, having no children, besought his inter- cession with God to remove this misfortune. Soon after, he received from the Mahdi a written answer in which he was promised the birth of two sons. The first born was Abu Ja'far himself, who throughout his life boasted of the fact that he owed his existence to the intercession of the sdliib al-amr, (Najashi, Eijal 184). Concerning a scholar who corresponded with the hidden Imam about legal questions see ibid. 251 below. ■9. Such a Kasida to the hidden Imam was composed by the court scholar of the Persian Shah 'Abbas, Beha al-din al-'Amili (d. 1031/1622) embodied in his KeshMl 87-89; the text of this Kasida and the commentary by Ahmed (not Muh., Brockelmann I 415, 18) al-Menini (d. 1108/1696, whose biography wiU be found in Muradi, Silh al-durar 1 133-45), are published in the appendix to this work (Bulak 1288) 394-435; cf. also "Eevue Africaine" 1906, 243. 10. Eevue du Monde mus. VI 535. The Fetwa of the 'Ulema of Nejef is given in translation in ibid. 681. We read there: "All zeal must be used to strengthen the constitution by means of holy war while at the same time holding to the stirrups of the Imam of the age — ^may our life be his ransom. The slightest contravention of this law, and the slightest carelessness (in the fulfillment of this duty) are equivalent to the desertion and opposition to his Majesty." The latter title does not refer, as the translator explains, to the prophet Mohammed, but to the "Imam of the age" mentioned in the preceding sentence, i. e. the hidden Mahdi-Imam. The advocates of the anti-constitu- tional reaction similarly refer in a docmnent, favoring the with- •drawal of the constitution, to the fact that this step of the Shah 's NOTES. 287 ( c is inspired by God and the Imam of the age" (Revue du Monde mus. VII 151). XIII. 1. Already noticed by Mukaddasi ed. de Goeje 238, 6. 2. ZDMG LIII 381. 3. Muhammed Bakir Damad, al-Bawashih dl-samawijya fi shark al-ahadUh al-imamiyya (Bombay 1311) 133. 4. Kazimi 1. c. 99. The Fatimide caliph al-Mustansir says expressly in a little poem ascribed to him, that his profession of faith is al-tauJnd wal-'adl; Ibn al-Kalanisi, "History of Damascus" e