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The nature of the Akhbārī/Uṣūlī dispute in late Ṣafawid Iran. Part 1: ‘Abdallāh al-Samāhijī's ‘Munyat al-Mumārisīn’ 1

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 February 2009

Andrew J. Newman
Andrew J. Newman
Affiliation:
Wellcome Unit for the History of Medicine, Oxford
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Extract

The Akhbārī/Uṣūlī controversy within Twelver Shī‘ism has been portrayed in Western-language scholarship primarily as a scholastic dispute over jurisprudential methodology which came to fruition only in eleventh/seventeenthcentury Ṣafawid Iran. Uṣūlism is generally characterized as having stressed recourse to rationalist, subjective forms of analysis—particularly the principle of ijtihād (independent judicial reasoning)—on legal questions where the revealed sources were deemed wanting. Akhbārism has been portrayed mainly in negative terms, as having forbad recourse to speculative reasoning in favour of reliance solely on the Twelver-accepted revelation— the Qur'ān and the sunna, the latter especially including the akhbār (sg. khabar), the Arabiclanguage body of statements of and narratives about the twelve Shī‘īImāms, the last of whom disappeared in 260 A.H./A.D. 873–874.

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Articles
Information
Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies , Volume 55 , Issue 1 , February 1992 , pp. 22 - 51
Copyright
Copyright © School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London 1992

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References

2 Al-Samāhijī's Akhbārism no doubt derived, at least in part, from his study with Sulaymān b. ‘Abdallāh al-Baḥrānī al-Māḥūzī (d. 1121/1709), the head of the Twelver community in al-Baḥrayn, whom al-Baḥrānī described as having Akhbārī tendencies. See al-Baḥrānī, Yūsuf, Lu'lu'at al-Baḥrayn (Najaf, 1969), 98, 7–12 esp. 10Google Scholar; Muḥammad Muḥsin, Aghā Buzurg al-Tehrānī, al-Dharī‘a ilā Taṣānīf al-Shī’a (Tehran and Najaf, 1353–98), 15: 265–6Google Scholar; al-Isbahānī, Muḥammad Bāqir al-Khwānsārī, Rauḍāt al-Jannāt, al-Kashī, M. T. and Ismā‘īliyān, A. (ed.) (Tehran-Qum, 1390–92), 4: 16–21Google Scholar; Muḥsinai-Amīn, , A‘yān al-Shī‘a (Beirut, 1960f.), 35: 105–112Google Scholar; ‘Alīb. al-Ḥasan, al-Baḥrānī, Anwār al-Badrayn (Najaf, 1377/1957–1958), 150–58Google Scholar. See also al-Samāhijī's references to his teacher in the essay reproduced below, especially numbers 5, 11 and 39. On the depth of the commitment of both al-Samāhijī and his teacher al-Mā ḥūzī to Akhbārism, see further the discussion in part two of the present essay, especially nn. 4, 34, and 35. On al-Bahrānī, see also section two of the present essay, especially nn. 4–7.

3 Al-Bahrānī, , Lu'lu'at, 98–100Google Scholar; al-Khwānsārī, , op. cit., 4: 247–9Google Scholar; ‘Alī, al-Bahrānī, op. cit., 175Google Scholar; ‘Alī b., MuḥammadMudarŗis, Muḥammad Ṭāhir, Rayhānat al-Adab (Tehran, 1328–33), 2: 223–4Google Scholar; al-Tehrānī, ibid, 23: 210–11, 20: 372. For al-Samāhijī’s essays see also Ṭabātabā'ī, Ḥ. M., An introduction to Shī‘ī law: a bibliographical study (London: Ithaca Press, 1984), 97, 108–9, 149Google Scholar. Shaykh Yāsīn was a student of al-Samāhijī and a religious official in al-Baḥrayn. He fled to Shīrāz after the destruction of al-Baḥrayn. See Yūsuf al-Baḥrānī, ibid., p. 100, n. 38; ‘Alī al-Baḥrānī, op. cit., 221

4 For the text of the abridgment, see al-Khwānsārī, 1: 127–30. References to the abridgement in the secondary sources include Scarcia, Gianroberto, ‘Intorno alle controversie tra 'Ahbari 'Usuli presso gli Imamiti di Persia’, Revista degli Studi Orientali, 33, 1958, 225Google Scholar; Falaturi, Abdoljavad, ‘Die Zwōlfer-Schia aus der Sicht eines Schiiten: Probleme inhrer Untersuchung’, Festschrift Werner Caskel, Gräf, E. (ed.) (Leiden: Brill, 1969), p. 81Google Scholar, n. 3; Kohlberg, Etan, ‘Akbārīya’, Encyclopedia Iranica, I (Leiden: Brill, 1985), 718Google Scholar, Madelung, Wilferd, ‘Akhbāriyya’, El (2nd ed.), sup. (Leiden: Brill 1980), 57Google Scholar; Ṭabāṭabā'ī, op. cit., p. 54, n. 2; Moojan, Momen, An introduction to Shi‘i Islam (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1985), p. 222, n. 1Google Scholar. See also nn. 1–3 in part 2 of the present essay.

5 Descriptions of these two manuscript copies can be found in Ḥā'erī, A. et al. , Fehrest-e Ketābkhāna-ye Majles-e Shurā-ye Mellī, 9(2) (Tehran, 1347), 587–8Google Scholar; Husaynī, A., Fehrest-e Nuskhahā-ye Khaṭṭi-ye Ketābkhāna-ye ‘Umūmī-ye Ha ẓrat Ayātallāh al-U ẓmā Najafī Mar‘ashī, 3 (Qum, 1975), 214–15Google Scholar. The present writer would like to thank Dr. H. M. Ṭabaṭabāī. Professor W. Madelung, and Drs. Norman Calder and Etan Kohlberg for their comments on the Arabic text and English translation of this text, and John Cooper for his encouragement and assistance with the typesetting of the Arabic text. ‘Abd al-Ḥoseyn Ḥā'eri and Drs. Ṭabāṭabā'ī and Yann Richard are to be thanked for their assistance in facilitating access to these two manuscripts. The Arabic text itself is typeset at the Oxford University Computing Service.

6 Although ‘Abd al-Jalīl al-Qazwīnīhad used the term ‘Uṣūlī’ in his sixth/twelfth-century Kitāb al-Naqḍ, as noted by Kohlberg (‘Aḳbārīya’, 716–17)Google Scholar, al-Samāhijī’s consistent use of mujtahid suggests ‘Uṣūlī’ may not have been uniformly used in the late-Ṣafawid period. Indeed in his question, as recorded by al-Samāhijī, Shaykh Yāsīn himself used the terms mujtahid and Akhbārī. See also n. 2 in part 2 of the present essay.

7 For the Twelvers the sunna includes, in addition to the Prophetic tradition, the akhbār of the twelve Imāms.

8 On consensus, see also numbers 5, 10, 35, 36 below.

9 Al-adilla al-‘aqlīyya (the rational proofs) include, for example: (1) aṣalāt al-barā'a (the principle of presumed exoneration), that a natural condition of permission exists for actions in the absence of a specific, revealed text to the contrary. This principle was also referred to as barā'at al-asl and ibāḥat al-aṣl. See numbers 32, 33, 37. (2) Aṣ ālat al-istiṣhāb (the principle of continuance), that a previously approved state of certainty is extended to a new situation, and its judgement is extended to this situation. See 39. (3) Aṣālat al-takhyīr (the principle of freedom to select one's own choice) which applies in the presence of doubt. On these see also the notes by ‘Alī Qulī Qarā'ī, translator and annotator of al-Muḥaqqiq al-Karakī's Ṭarīq Istinbāṭ al-Aḥkām, al-Tawḥīd 2, number 3(1405), 42–55. On al-Karakī, , see numbers 25 and 31, and also our ‘The myth of the clerical migration to Ṣafawid Iran: Arab Shī‘ite opposition to ‘Alī al-Karakī and Ṣafawid Shī‘ism’, Die Welt ies Islams (forthcoming, 1993)Google Scholar.

10 That is, the Uṣ ūlīs accept the authority of consensus and reason based on some Qur'ānic verses and some statements of the Prophet and the Imāms. On this and nn. 13, 16, 18, and 29 below, the assistance of Dr. H. M. Ṭabāṭabā'ī is particularly acknowledged.

11 That is, because the actual ‘proofs’ would only be the Qur'ān and the sunna, and the other two would no longer be ‘proofs’ by themselves.

12 On the mujlahid and error see also numbers 18, 23, 30.

13 Thanks to Dr. Ḥ. M. Ṭabāṭabā'ī for this exegetical addition.

14 Some Twelver, and many Western-language, sources maintain al-Ḥasan b. Yūsuf, al-‘Allāma al-Ḥillī (d. 726/1325), was the first to establish this four-part system of classification. See, for example, al-Khwānsārī, 4: 251; Madelung, ‘Akhbāriyya’, 56Google Scholar; Kohlberg, , ‘Aḳbārīya’, 56Google Scholar, citing al-Astarābādī himself; idem, ‘Aspects of Akhbārī thought in the seventeenth and eighteenth century’, in, Nehemia, Levtzion and John O., Voll (ed.), Eighteenth-century renewal and reform in Islam (Syracuse: Syracuse University Press, 1987), 134Google Scholar. According to a remark by al-‘Allāma himself, however, Aḥmād b. Mūsā b. Ṭāwūs al-Ḥusaynī al-Ḥillī (d. 673/1274) appears to have first suggested the system; al-‘Allāma was the first to apply the division in legal discussions. See al-Amīn, A‘yān al-Shī‘a, 10: 181; Arjomand, S. A., The Shadow of God and the Hidden Imam: religion, political order, and societal change in Shi’ite Iran from the beginning to 1890 (London: University of Chicago Press, 1984), 55; Ṭabā ṭabā’ī, p. 48 and n. 2 there. See also numbers 5, 29.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

15 On ‘isolated traditions’ see also numbers 12, 22, 35 and n. 32, part 2 of this essay.

16 This is most likely a reference to al-Ṭūsī's discussion of al-qarāin, in his ‘Uddal al-Uṣūl. See the edition of vol. 1 of this work, together with the commentary by the Ṣafawid-period scholar Khalīl, al-Qazwīnī, (ed.) Najafī, M. M. (n.p., 1403/1983), 367–88Google Scholar. On al-Qazwīnī, see also nn. 4 and 31, part 2, and number 31.

17 This probably refers to the ‘four hundred uṣūl’, collections of narratives from the Imāms compiled in their lifetimes. On these see al-Tehrānī, , 2: 125–35, 135–67Google Scholar; Sachedina, A. A., Islamic Messianism: the idea of the Mahdi in Twelver Shī‘ism (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1981), 147Google Scholar; Kohlberg, , ‘Aḳbārīya’, 716Google Scholar; idem, ‘Al-Uṣūl al-Arba‘umi’a’, Jerusalem Studies in Arabic and Islam, 10, 1987, 128–6Google Scholar.

18 This is most likely a reference to Sulaymān al-Baḥrānī al-Māḥūzī, on whom see n. 2 and numbers 11 and 39.

19 This is a line from the famous ‘delegation’ khabar of ‘Umar b. Ḥanẓala, cited in al-Kulaynī’s al-Kāfī, and later also in al-Ṣadūq’s al-Faqīh and al-Ṭūsī’s Tahdhīb al-Aḥkām, and generally understood in the secondary sources as having been used to justify the authority of the fuqahā during the occultation. See also the reference to this khabar in number 11, nn. 30 and 36 below, and note 15 of part 2.

20 That is, a mujtahid recognized as an expert only in certain specific disciplines.

21 That is, the founders of the four Sunnī schools of law. See also number 40.

22 See also number 28.

23 See also number 28.

24 On this term see also number 17 below.

25 On al-‘āmmī, see also number 24, and n. 13, part 2.

26 This is a reference to Qur'ān 3: 7

‘ It is he who has sent down to you the

Book in which some verses are clear to be

understood and others are obscure. Those

whose hearts are perverse will follow

what is obscure therein…’

27 The five categories are: (1) wājib or farḍ, actions whose performance is to be rewarded and neglect of which will be punished: (2) sunna or mustaḥabb, or mandūb, actions recommended or voluntarily meritorious, neglect of which will not be punished, but performance of which will be rewarded; (3) mubāḥ or murakhkhaṣ, actions whose performance or neglect is neutral; (4) makrūh, actions or things whose performance or consumption is reprehensible and disapproved, but not punishable; (5) ḥarām, actions or things whose performance or consumption is a punishable sin.

28 The phrase is found in Qur'ān 3:7 and 4:162. See also n. 26 and number 2 above.

29 That is, one must refrain from any judgement.

30 The wording echoes that in the khabar of ‘Umar b. Ḥanẓala, on which see notes 19, 36 of the present section and n. 15 of section two. See also numbers 19 and 37.

31 The ḥadīth of the Prophet in question is cited by the Sunnī traditionist Abū'l-Ḥasan Muslim b. al-Hajjāj (d. 261/875) in his Ṣaḥī ḥ, 12 (Cairo, 1347–19/1929–30), 13–14, on the authority of ‘Amr b. al-‘Āṣ:

‘ If a judge makes the right decision through

ijtihād he shall be doubly compensated;

if he errs he shall be compensated once.’

32 See also number 37.

33 See also number 40.

34 The first shahīd (martyr) was Muḥammad b. Makkī al-‘Amilī (d. 786/1384). See also the reference to him in number 31.

35 The identify of this individual is unclear. Placement of his name after al-Qummī and before al-Ḥurr al-‘ Āmilī suggests, however, that al-Yazdī died between 1098/1687 and 1104/1693, the death dates of al-Qummī and al-Ḥurr al-‘Amilī respectively, making it unlikely this is a reference to ‘Abdallāh b. al-Ḥusayn al-Yazdī (d. 983/1575) or a misreference to ‘Abdallāh al-Tūnī (d. 1071/ 1660–61).

36 These are the four books of Twelver akhb𰄁r compiled in the two centuries after the occupation of the twelfth Imām. They are al-Kāfī of al-Kulaynī, Man lā Yaḥ ḍuruh al-Faqīh of al-Shaykh al-Ṣadūq, and Tahdhīb al Aḥkām and al-Istibṣār of al-Shaykh Muḥammad b. al-Ḥasan al-Ṭ ūsī.