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Abū Ḥayyan al-Tawḥīdī and the Brethren of Purity

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 January 2009

Abbas Hamdani
Abbas Hamdani
Affiliation:
University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee
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Extract

Since the famous tenth-century man of letters Abū Hayyān al-Tawĥīdī (Ca. 320/932–414/1023) named four specific contemporary writers as the authors of the otherwise anonymous encyclopedic work Rasā'il Ikhwān al-Safā', it became almost traditional for both medieval and modern scholars to accept his story as fact.

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Articles
Information
International Journal of Middle East Studies , Volume 9 , Issue 3 , August 1978 , pp. 345 - 353
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1978

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References

Author's Note. This is the revised version of a paper presented under the same title to the Tenth Annual Meeting of the Middle East Studies Association at Los Angeles, 11–13 November 1976. I am grateful for the help given by my colleagues, Professors James Brundage and John McGovern. My thanks are also due to Ms. Ilga Strazdins for her patience and care in preparing the typescript of this article.

I dedicate this article to the memory of my friend Professor Deodaat Breebaart (d. 13 May 1977, in Cairo).

1 Among the various studies made on the life and work of Abū Hayyān al-Tawhīdī, the following prominent ones should be noted: (a) Paul, Kraus, ‘Abū Hayyān al-Tawhīdī’, in al-Thaqāfa (Cairo), 6, 284 (1944), 21–23;Google Scholar (b) 'Abd, al-Razzāq Muhyi'd-Dīn, Abū Hayyān al-Tawhīdī: sīratuhu wa Āthāruhu (Cairo, 1949);Google Scholar (c) Ibrāhīm, al-Kaylānī, Essayiste arabe du IVe siécle de l'hegire (Xe s.): Introduction à son ouvre (Beirut, 1950);Google Scholar (d) Stern, S. M., ‘Abū Hayyān al-Tawhīdī’, EI2 (1954);Google Scholar (e) Ihsān, 'Abbās, Abū Hayyān al-Tawhīdī (in Arabic) (Beirut, 1956);Google Scholar (f) Ahmad, al-Hūfī, Abū Hayyān al-Tawhīdī (in Arabic) (Cairo, 1957);Google Scholar (g) Ibrāhīm, Zakariyya, Abū Hayyān al-Tawhīdī (in Arabic) (Cairo, 1964);Google Scholar (h) Ibrāhīm, al-Kaylānī, Abū Hayyān al-Tawhīdī (in Arabic) (Cairo, 1966);Google Scholar (i) Murādiyān, Khudāmard, Barrasī Dar Ahvāl va Āsār-i-Abū HayyĀn 'Alī b. Muhammad ibn 'Abbās Tavhīdī-i-ShirĀzī (in Persian) (Tehran, 1974);Google Scholar (j) Marc, Berge, Essai sur la personnalité morale et intellectuelle d'Abū HayyĀn al-Tawhīdī (2 vols.; Paris, 1974), the latest and most exhaustive study.Google Scholar

2 The following complete editions of this work have been printed: (a) Kitāb IkhwĀn al-Hof¯', ed. Wilayat, Husayn (Bombay, 1888);Google Scholar (b) Rasā'il Ikhwān al-Safā', ed. Khayr, al-din al-Zarkalī (4 vols.; Cairo, 1928),Google Scholar with two separate introductions by Tāha, Husayn and Ahmad, Zakī Pasha; (c) RasĀ'il Ikhwān al-Safā' ( vols.; Beirut: Dar Sadir, 1957)Google Scholar (page numbers in this article refer to this edition). The following three editions of the concluding sections of the RasĀ'il have been printed: (a) Risālat JĀmi'at al-Jāmi'a, ed. 'Ārif, Tāmir (Beirut, 1959);Google Scholar (b) Al-RisĀlat al-Jāmi'a, ed. Jamil, Sālība (2 vols.; Damascus, 1969)Google Scholar (the editor considers the attribution of this work to al-MajrīTī's authorship as valid); (c) Al-Risālat al-Jāmi'a, ed. MustafĀ, Ghālib (Beirut: Dār HĀdir, 1974).Google Scholar

3 Ed. Abmad Amīn and Ahmad al-Zayn (3 vols. in I; Beirut, 2d ed., 1953) (hereafter referred to as al-Imtā'). Contains at the end two lists of observations and criticisms by Mustafā, Jawād and Paul, Kraus.Google Scholar

4 Abū, Shujā‘’sDhayl to Miskawayhī's Tajārib al-Umam in the Eclipse of the ‘Abbāsid Caliphate, ed. and trans. Amedroz, H. and Margoliouth, P. S. (6 vols.; Oxford, 1920–1921), text III, 109, trans. VI, 113. This particular reference and the outline of Ibn Sa‘dān's career are based on Abū Shujā’.Google Scholar

5 Ibid., VI, 102.

6 Ibid.., p. 113.

7 Ibid.., p. 102.

8 Ibid., p. 113.

9 The Fātimid caliph al-'Azīz and ‘Adud al-Dawla had exchanged ambassadors, ostensibly to form a united front against Byzantium. During the Shī'ite-Sunnī rioting in Baghdad during Bahā al-Dawla's amīrate, in 398/1007–1008, the Shī'ite battlecry was the name of the Fātimid caliph al-Hākim (Ibn, al-Jawzī, al-Muntazam [10 vols.; Hyderabad: Dār al-Ma'Ārif, 1939 ff.], VII, 238,Google Scholar cf. Kabir, M., ‘The Relation of the Buwayhids with the Fātimids’, Indo-Iranica, 8 [1955] 31). Such Fātimid influence it Baghdad between 369/980 and 398/1008, I believe, could conveniently have been exercised through the good offices of the Qarmatians. See also n. 25 below.Google Scholar

10 a This is evidenced by Abū Hayyān himself in the third séance of his Imtā', I, 41–50.Google Scholar Abū Hayyān is relating the report of Ibn Barm¯uyeh about Ibn Sa'dan's friendship with such people as Ibn Shāhūyeh who is expressly stated to be the agent of the Qarmatians, Bahrām b. Ardeshir the Zoroastrian, Ibn Makīkha the Christian, Ibn Tāhir, and Ibn 'Abdān. Abū Hayyān is relating Ibn Barmūyeh's report to Ibn Sa'dān himself on the latter's insistence and with great reluctance. In another work, Risālat al-Sadāqa wa'lSadāqa (Damascus, 1964), pp. 63–64, Abū Hayyān describes various companions of Ibn Sa'dān, ‘the weightiest and the closest to his heart’, according to him, being Ibn Shāhūyeh. Bahram is also included and Ibn Sa'dān is reported as having had a very high opinion of him. Bahrām was executed with Ibn Sa'dān in 375/985. Ibn Shāhūyeh escaped.Google Scholar

11 Details in Abū, Shujā' in Amedroz, and Margoliouth, , eds., Eclipse of the 'Abbāsid Caliphate, IV, 103–113.Google Scholar

12 Of the 956 notices scattered throughout al-Imtā', a great number of them belonged to people under the patronage of Ibn Sa'dān.Google Scholar

13 Al-Sadāqa wa'l-Sadīq, ed. Ibrāhīm, al-Kaylānī (Damascus, 1964), pp. 63–7 I.Google Scholar

14 Al-Muqābasāt, ed. Hasan, al-Sandūbī (Cairo, 1929), p. 85,Google Scholar notice 3. Total number of notices, including those of a few companions of Ibn Sa'dān, are 71, according to the calculation of Berge, , Essai, I, 543.Google Scholar

15 Biographical notices on these people can be had from Berge, , Essai, 1, 511–583, based mainly on the three works of Abū Hayyān mentioned above in nn. 3, 13, and 34.Google Scholar

16 A1-Imtā', I, 29–43, second séance.Google Scholar

17 Ibid., I, 41–50, third séance. See n. 10 above.

18 Ibid., II, 3–6, seventeenth séance. See 'Alī, A. Ahmad, 'Zaid, b. RifĀ'a and His Abridgement of Ibn al-Sikkīt's Islāh al-Mantiq', Zeitschrzjt der Deutschen Morgenländischen Gesellsehaft, 90 (1936), 201–208.Google Scholar

19 See ‘Abū'l-Wafā al-Būzdjānī’ in EI2.

20 In fact it was Zayd b. Rifā'a who had introduced Abū Hayyān to Ibn Sa'dān (see Stern, ‘Abū Hayyān’).

21 On these individuals see the information collected in Ahmad 'Alī, ‘Zaid b. Rifā'a’, also in Stern's, S. M. ‘The Authorship of the Epistles of the Ikhwān al-Safā'’, Islamic Culture, 20, 4 (10. 1946), 367–372, together with an addendum inGoogle ScholarIbid. 21, 4 (Oct. 1947), 403–404, and in his ‘New Information about the Authors of the Epistles of the Sincere Brethren’, Islamic Studies, III (1964), 405–428.Google ScholarCf., Susanne Diwald, Arabische Philosophie und Wissenschaft in der Enzyklopäedie… (Wiesbaden, 1975), pp. 10–14,Google Scholar Introduction. For the reading al-'Awqī instead of al-'Awfī, see 'Alī's, M. Kurd Introduction to his edition of Bayhaqī's Ta'rīkh Hukamā' (Damascus, 1940), p. 36.Google Scholar

22 Al-Imtā', II, 157–160.Google Scholar

23 Stern, , ‘New Information’, p. 406.Google Scholar

24 Abū Hayyān, Risālat al-Hadāqa, 62 seq. See biographical notes by the editor on the individuals mentioned by Abū, Hayyān. Stern (‘Authorship’, p. 369) is mistaken in assuming that this Risāla was dedicated to Zayd.Google Scholar

25 'Abd, al-Jabbār, Tathbīt Dalā'il Nubuwwat Sayyidnā Mzhammad, ed. Abd, al-Karīm 'Uthmān (2 vols.; Beirut: DĀr al-'Arabiyya, 1966), II, 611.Google Scholar The same passage taken from MS 1575 of the library of Shahīd 'Alī Pāsha, Istanbul, has been quoted in Stern, ‘New Information’, pp. 407–455. It is notable that al-Zanjānī's group is described by 'Abd al-Jabbār as ‘dā'is’, propagating the cause of the Fātimid imāms of the Maghrib. It is possible that ‘Abd al-Jabbār may have mistaken Qarmatian dā'īs for the Fātimid or, what is more likely, they were Qarmatian dā'īs working in Iraq in collaboration with the Fātimid caliphate (see n. 9 above). Besides the Basra group, 'Abd al-Jabbār names other Fātimid da'īs of his time (Tathbīt, II, 594–595).Google Scholar For ‘Abd aI-Jabbār as a useful source of information on the Fātimid Da'wa, see Ritter, H., ‘Philologika III: Muhammadanische Haresiographen’, Der Islam, 18 (1929), 34–55 (esp. p. 42).Google Scholar

26 For a brief notice on him see Stern ‘Abū Sulaymān al-Mantikī’, EI2.

27 Al-Mantiqī, , Kitāb Siwān al-Hikma (MS 1408, Mehmet Murad Library, Istanbul), fol. 174,Google Scholar quoted in Stern, , ‘Authorship’, p. 375.Google Scholar

28 I understand that Dr. Wadad al-Qādī is now working on the problem of the additions to al-Mantiqī's work made by the author of al-Muntakhab.

29 Diwald, , Arabische Philosophie, p. 16. See my review on this work in a forthcoming issue of Journal of the American Oriental Society.Google Scholar

30 Sharh Nahj al-Balāgha, ed. Hasan, Tamīm ( 5 vols.; Beirut: Dār Maktabat al-Hayāt, 1963–1964), III, 556–566.Google ScholarIbn, Abī'l-Hadīd (pp. 564–566)Google Scholar exposes Abū Hayyān's tendency to fabricate, which, he says, is also evident in Abū Hayyān's Kitāb al-Basān'ir. See also Stern, ‘Abū Hayyān’, and Berge, , Essai, I, 21.Google Scholar

31 Ta'rīkh Hukamā', ed. Lippert, J. (Baghdad and Leipzig, 1903), pp. 82–88.Google Scholar

32 For other theories about authorship see Husayn, Hamdani, ‘Rasā'il Ikhwān al-Hafā’ in The Literature of the Ismā'īlī Tayyibī Da‘wat’, Der Islam, 20 (1932), 281–300,Google Scholar and idam., Bahth Ta'rīkhī fī Rasā'il Ikhwān al-Safā' wa ‘Aqā'id al-Ismā'īliyya fīha (Bombay, 1935), pp. 3–32.Google ScholarFlügel, G. (‘Inhalt und Verfasser…’, Zeitschrift der Deutschen Morgenländischen Gesellschaft, 13 [1859’, 22–24)Google Scholar relates the report of al-Amīr al-Safadī about many theories current in his time concerning the authors of the Rasā'il. Some attribute authorship to the Imām Ja'far al-Sadiq (d. 148/765) and some, on the latter's authority, to his ancestor ‘Alī b. Abī salib. Some attribute authorship to Ja'far's contemporary and friend, the alchemist Jābir b. Hayyān, others to an unknown Mu'tazilite theologian. Some say it was the famous al-Ghazzālī (d. 505/IIII) and others, on the latter's authority, that it was the great mystic martyr Mansür al-Hallāj. The seventeenth-century historian of Spain and North Africa, al-Maqarrī, in his voluminous work, Nafh al-Tīb, reports that the great mathematician of Spain, Abū'l-Hākim 'Umar b. 'Abd al-Rahmān al-Kirmānī (d. 462/1070) visited the Sābian city of Harrān and from there brought back with him copies of the Rasā'il to Spain. Al-Maqarrī's translator, De Gayangos, P. (Muhammadan Dynasties in Spain [London, 1840–1843], I, 427–429)Google Scholar says that it was Maslama b. Ahmad al-Majrītī (d. 395/1005) who introduced the Rasā'il in Spain, basing his conclusion on Hājjī Khalīfa who notices under the year A.H.395 that the Rasā'il were written by al-Majrītī. This was echoed by A. Nicoll, J. Uri, and M. Casiri, catalogers of Arabic manuscripts at Oxford and Escurial (Flügel, , ‘Inhalt und Verfasser’, pp. 22–24).Google Scholar

33 Ibid..

34 It can be argued that this is not al-Shahrazūri's conjecture but the opinion derived from al-Mantiqī, Siwān al-Hikma, the complete version, which al-Shahrazūrī must have seen and which has since been lost. Since we cannot check against this complete version, such an argument would become a case of a conjecture about al-Shahrazūrī's conjecture!

35 Sprenger, A., ‘Notices of Some Copies of the Arabic Work Entitled Rasā'il Ikhwān al-Safā'’, Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal, 17 (1848), Part I, 501–507; Part II, 183–202. The relevant passage from al-Shahrazūrī is quoted by Sprenger in Part I of his article, p. 502.Google Scholar

36 For example Rasā'il, IV, 20, 45, 63, 65, 67, 71, 76, 77, and elsewhere.

37 See the passage quoted in Stern, , ‘Authorship’, p. 372.Google Scholar

38 Flügel, ‘Inhalt und Verfasser’.

39 Dietirici, F., Die Philosophie der Araber in X Jahrhundert N. Chr. aus den schriften der Lautern Bruder (8 vols.; Leipzig, 1858–1872).Google Scholar

40 Lane-Poole, S., Studies in a Mosque (Cairo, 1883; reprinted, Beirut, 1966), pp. 193–196.Google Scholar

41 de Boer, T., History of Philosophy in Islam, English trans. Jones, E. R. (London, 1903 reprinted, New York, 1967), pp. 81–84.Google Scholar

42 Ahmad Zakī in his introduction to the Cairo edition of the Rasā'il Ikhwān al-Safā' (1928), p. 21.Google Scholar

43 Hamdani, ‘Rasā'il Ikhwan al-Safā',’ and idem., ‘Bahth Ta'rikhī’, cited above.

44 Stern, ‘Authorship’ and ‘New Information’.

45 Yves Marquet, ‘Ikhwān al-Safā'’, E12.

46 The first of these papers is entitled ‘Al-Fārābī and the Brethren of Purity’ which I am revising for publiéation in a volume edited by Professor Parvez, Morewedge, and the second is entitled ‘An Early Fātimid Source on the Time and Authorship of the Rasā'il Ikhwān a1-Safa'’, in press for a forthcoming issue of Arabica (Paris).Google Scholar