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The Politics of Heresy in Medieval Khurasan: The Karramiyya in Nishapur

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2022

Margaret Malamud
Margaret Malamud*
Affiliation:
Department of History, New Mexico State University
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Extract

In the history of the medieval Middle East, Khurasan deserves special attention for a number of reasons. After the collapse of the ‘Abbasid Empire by the middle of the tenth century, local regimes and new elites replaced central governmental control throughout the provinces of the old empire. Khurasan was the first settled society that the Turkish Ghaznavid dynasty (established c. 994-98) and the Saljuqs (by 1040) encountered, and it served as a testing ground for the new elite's relations with Muslim communal organizations. Over the centuries, the ulama had developed their own structures of authority and organization (the madhhabs) independent of the state. These religious associations had come to represent Islam in its social and doctrinal aspects. In Khurasan, the religious prestige, judicial authority, and organization of the ulama made them a focus of identity and loyalty and gave them a broad base of popular support.

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Iranian Studies , Volume 27 , Issue 1-4: Religion and Society in Islamic Iran during the Pre-Modern Era , 1994 , pp. 37 - 51
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Copyright © Association For Iranian Studies, Inc 1994

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References

1. For the Ghaznavids, see Bosworth, C. E., The Ghaznavids: Their Empire in Afghanistan and Eastern Iran, 994–1040 (Edinburgh, 1963)Google Scholar; for the Saljuqs, see Boyle, J. A., ed., The Cambridge History of Iran, vol. 5, The Saljuq and Mongol Periods (Cambridge, 1975)Google Scholar.

2. The two realms had diverged by the middle of the ninth century. For a discussion of the separation of political and religious authority in Sunni Islam, see Lapidus, Ira, “The Separation of State and Religion in the Development of Early Islamic Society,” International Journal of Middle East Studies 6 (1975): 363–85CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

3. The schools of law were the oldest Muslim communal organizations. In the seventh century the schools were regionally defined and in the eighth century they came to be known by the names of particular masters. By the ninth century there were wellestablished groups of teachers and students which had become popular religious movements. The schools of law became the centers of local educational, political, and communal activities. By the end of the tenth century these informal networks had become more formalized. Madrasas became the physical centers of the schools and the endowment of funds made full-time study possible. During the tenth century there was a conjunction of the spread of religious and communal organizations, mass conversions to Islam, and the rise of the religious classes to social and political power.

4. The seminal study of the social and political history of Nishapur is Bulliet, Richard, The Patricians of Nishapur: A Study in Medieval Islamic Social History (Cambridge, Mass., 1972)Google Scholar.

5. As one historian has put it: “In short, regimes without legitimacy could assure acceptance by and the cooperation of their subjects only by supporting Muslim religious life” (Lapidus, Ira, “Ayyubid Religious Policy and the Development of the Schools of Law in Cairo,” Colloque international sur I'histoire du Caire [1974]: 274–86Google Scholar, at 281).

6. For a discussion of the Khurasanian origins of the madrasa see Makdisi, George, “Muslim Institutions of Learning in Eleventh-Century Baghdad,” Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies 24 (1961): 1–56CrossRefGoogle Scholar; for the early history of the ribāṭ see Chabbi, Jacqueline, “Le fonction du ribāt à Baghdad du Ve siècle au début du Viie siècle,” Revue des études islamiques 42 (1974): 101–21Google Scholar.

7. For a brief discussion of the importance of Khurasan and Nishapur in medieval Islamic political and religious history see Bulliet, Richard, “The Political-Religious History of Nishapur,” in Richards, D. S., ed., Islamic Civilization: 950–1150 (Oxford, 1973), 71–93Google Scholar.

8. There are few studies on the Karramiyya, but see Bosworth, C. E., “The Rise of the Karamiyyah in Khurasan,” Muslim World 50 (1960): 5–14CrossRefGoogle Scholar; idem, “Karramiyya,” Encyclopedia of Islam (2nd ed., 1960); Chabbi, Jacqueline, “Remarques sur le developpement historique des mouvements ascétiques et mystiques au Khurasan,” Studia Islamica 46 (1977): 5–72CrossRefGoogle Scholar, esp. 48–54; Madelung, Wilferd, Religious Trends in Early Islamic Iran (Albany, N.Y., 1988), 39–54Google Scholar.

9. An important exception is the geographer Maqdisi, who described them as a pious and God-fearing madhhab (ahl zuhd wa ta'abbud). See Maqdisi, Aḥsan al-taqāsīmfī ma'rifa al-aqālīm, ed. de Goeje, M. J., Bibliotecha Geographorum Arabicorum (Leiden, 1906), 365Google Scholar. Other noteworthy exceptions are discussed below.

10. For example, the Karramiyya are unfavorably discussed by Tahir al-Baghdadi, ‘Abd al-Qahir b., al-Farq bayna al-firaq (Cairo, 1948), 130–37Google Scholar; Shahristani, Muhammad b. ‘Abd al-Karim, Kitāb al-milal wa'l-niḥal (Cairo, 1968), 1:108–13Google Scholar; al-Isfara'ini, Abu'l-Muzaffar, al-Tabṣīr fi'l-dīn, ed. al-Kawthari, M. Z. (Cairo, 1940)Google Scholar.

11. See al-Sam'ani, ‘Abd al-Karim, Kitāb al-ansāb (Hyderabad, 1962), 10:374–7Google Scholar, which contains a biography of Ibn Karram and information on one of the important leaders of the Karramiyya, ‘Abu Ya'qub Ishaq b. Mahmudshadh. See also Subki, Ṭabaqāt al-shāfi'iyya al-kubrā (Cairo, 1964), 2:304–5Google Scholar.

12. There are a number of examples in The Histories of Nishapur, published in facsimile form by R. N. Frye (Cambridge, 1965); see also ‘Utbi, al-Ta’rīkh al-Yamīnī (Cairo, 1869)Google Scholar, trans. Reynolds, James, Kitāb al-Yamīnī (London, 1858), 438–42 and 471–84Google Scholar; and al-Athir, Ibn, al-Kāmil fi'l-Ta’rīkh (Beirut, 1965–67)Google Scholar years 411/1010—11, 488/1095.

13. Maqdisi, Aḥsan al-taqāsīm, 179Google Scholar, 202, 323, 365.

14. van Ess, Joseph, “Ungenützte Texte zur Karrāmiyya: Eine Materialsammlung,” Sitzungsberichte der Heidelberger Akademie der Wissenschaften Philosophisch-Historische Klasse (1980)Google Scholar: Abh. 5; Zysow, Aron, “Two Unrecognized Karrami Texts,” Journal of the American Oriental Society 108 (1988): 577–87CrossRefGoogle Scholar. Among the other previously unrecognized sources for the Karramiyya that van Ess discusses is a manuscript by ‘Umar al-Samarqandi (flourished during the second half of the eleventh century), entitled Kitāb al-rawnaq al-qulūb. In this work, Ibn Karram is presented in a favorable light—he is mentioned along with other pious men (such as Abu Hanifa) as an exemplar of a variety of virtues. The manuscript provides a good deal of information on Ibn Karram's ascetic and mystical teachings, particularly on tawakkul. Zysow has also identified two new sources for the Karramiyya, the most important of which is an eleventh-century legal treatise, al-Nuṭaf fi'l-fatawa. This was previously thought to have been written by a Hanafi, but Zysow attributes it to a Karrami. This text provides us with important information on Karrami legal teachings.

15. Subki, Ṭabaqāt al-shāfi'iyya 2:304Google Scholar.

16. Ibid.; Sam'ani, Kitāb al-ansāb 10:375Google Scholar. Little is known about Ahmad b. Harb, but see the short biography in al-Baghdadi, al-Khatib, Ta’rīkh Baghdād (Cairo, 1931), 4:118–9Google Scholar. Hujwiri mentions him in his Kashf al-maḥjūb, trans. R. Nicholson (London, 1976), 365–6. See also Zysow, “Karrami Texts,” 584Google Scholar.

17. Massignon, Louis, Essai sur les origines lexique technique de la mystique musulmane, 2nd ed. (Paris, 1968), 264Google Scholar.

18. According to Maqdisi, (Aḥsan al-taqāsīm, 37)Google Scholar, the Karramiyya had their own legal system and theology (fiqh wa kalām). He provides evidence for both in his description of the Karramiyya.

19. For a discussion of the various positions and schools in this period, see Watt, Montgomery, The Formative Period of Islamic Thought (Edinburgh, 1973), 279–312Google Scholar. For Karrami theological positions and doctrine, see Baghdadi, al-Farq bayna al-firaq, 130–33Google Scholar; Shahristani, al-Milal wa'l-niḥal 1:108–13Google Scholar; van Ess, J., “Une lecture à rebours de l'histoire du mu'tazilisme (premier partie),” Revue des études islamiques (1978): 163–240Google Scholar, at 188–92; Madelung, Religious Trends, 40–43Google Scholar; Massignon, Essai, 259–64Google Scholar.

20. Bosworth, “Rise of the Karamiyyah,” 5Google Scholar.

21. These fragments can be found in the Persian text of Ibn al-Da'i (flourished during the first half of the eleventh century), the Tabṣirat al-'awāmm fī maqālāt al-anām (Tehran, 1934). J. van Ess has collected and translated these passages in his “Ungenützte Texte,” 13–16 and 18–19.

22. For example: “Human beings commit sins, whereas those creatures whose meat they eat—camels, cows, sheep and the birds to which they give chase—do not bear any guilt. What kind of wisdom allows Him to let loose those who sin and go astray on those who obey?” (From al-Da'i, Ibn, Tabṣira 65Google Scholar, 13 ff., quoted in Ess, van, “Ungenützte Texte,” 14Google Scholar).

23. See Ess, van, “Une lecture,” 188Google Scholar; idem, “Ibn ar-Rewandi, or the Making of an Image,” al-Abḥāth 27 (1978–79): 5–26.

24. His followers were the poor from Shuramayn and Afshin who came with him to Nishapur during the governorship of Muhammad b. Tahir. See Shahristani, al-Milal wa'l-niḥal, 31Google Scholar; Baghdadi, al-Farq bayna al-flraq, 131Google Scholar; and Bosworth, C. E., “The Early Islamic History of Ghur,” Central Asiatic Journal 6 (1961): 116–133Google Scholar, esp. 128 ff.

25. Baghdadi sajjs a band of the poor from the rural districts of Nishapur came with him into the city and followed him in his innovation (al-Farq bayna al-firaq, 131); and Subki, quoting al-Hakim, says that Ibn Karram had with him a group of the poor (fuqarā’) (Ṭabaqāt al-shāfi'iyya 2:304).

26. R. Bulliet suggests that the Karramiyya were probably responsible for many conversions to Islam in rural regions, and also some conversions in urban areas. See his Conversion to Islam in the Medieval Period: An Essay in Quantitative History (Cambridge, 1979), 55; Ess, van, “Une lecture,” 192Google Scholar.

27. ‘Utbi, Kitāb al-Yamīnī, trans. Reynolds, 438–42; Bosworth, Ghaznavids, 186.

28. Subki, Ṭabaqāt al-shāfi'iyya 2:304Google Scholar.

29. As Chabbi has pointed out, the presence of khānaqāhs seems to be a criterion for Maqdisi in identifying the presence of Karramiyya in a given area (“Remarques,” 43). Maqdisi mentions Karrami khānaqāhs a number of times (Aḥsan al-taqāsīm, 179, 182, 238, 323, 365, 377). For general background on the khānaqāh s.v. “Khankah,” Encyclopedia of Islam.

30. Indeed, one scholar has even suggested that Karrami khānaqāhs and madrasas stimulated the development of similar institutions by other madhhabs. Tarragó, J. Ribera y, “Origen del colegio Nidami de Bagdad,” Disertaciones y opúsculos (Madrid, 1928), 1:379–82Google Scholar, cited in Bosworth, “Rise of the Karamiyyah,” 8Google Scholar, note 10.

31. Bulliet lists three Karrami madrasas, which date from the tenth century (Patricians of Nishapur, 253, Appendix I).

32. ‘Umar al-Samarqandi, Rawnaq al-qulūb, Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris, Arabic MS no. 6674, 48a.

33. Opponents of the Karramiyya claimed, however, that Ibn Karram was a man of little learning who had taken a confused medley of ideas from other madhhabs and formed a heretical madhhab. See Shahristani, al-Milal wa'l-niḥal 1:31Google Scholar.

34. Maqdisi provides several specific examples of their legal teachings (Aḥsan altaādsīm, 40). For a discussion of these teachings see Zysow, “Karrami Texts,” 580. For other examples of their regulations on ṣalāt and burial see Baghdadi, al-Farq bayna al-firaq, 136–7Google Scholar; s.v. “Karrāmiyya,” Encyclopedia of Islam.

35. One example is their moderate position on the use of reason in matters of faith. See above.

36. Ibn Karram seems to have been imprisoned twice in Nishapur as well as banished from Sijistan. See Sam'ani, Kitāb al-ansāb 10:376Google Scholar; Subki, Ṭabaqāt al-shāfi'iyya 2:304Google Scholar.

37. Also, perhaps, because of his large following and popularity. See Subki, Ṭabaqāt al-shāfi'iyya 2:305Google Scholar.

38. Ibn al-Athir, al-Kāmil, year 488/109

39. Kasb in its economic sense as gain. S.v. “Kasb,” Encyclopedia of Islam, for a discussion of the various meanings of kasb. Generally, gain can take two forms: gain for simple subsistence, or for true profit. Debates on the legitimacy of gain (especially the legitimacy of commercial gain) became common from the time of the economic expansion of the ninth century.

40. Also referred to as tark al-kasb or inkār al-kasb in the sources. For the Karramiyya position on kasb, see Ess, van, “Une lecture,” 188–92Google Scholar; Massignon, Louis, The Passion of al-Hallaj, trans. Mason, Herbert (Princeton, 1982), 3:227Google Scholar. Ibn Karram's master, Ahmad b. Harb, preached in favor of inkār al-kasb. See Massignon, Essai, 258–60Google Scholar.

41. Subki characterizes Ibn Karram as among those who practice asceticism (tanassuk), piety (ta'abbud), and self-mortification (taqashshuf) (Ṭabaqāt alshāfi'iyya 2:304). See also Massignon, Essai, 259–64; s.v. “Karrāmiyya,” Encyclopedia of Islam.

42. ‘Umar al-Samarqandi, Rawnaq al-qulūb, Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris, Arabic MS no. 6674, 46a-49b. Ibn Karram appears as an exemplar of tawakkul in the section entitled tawakkul and also in the section on rizq.

43. Ess, van, “Ungenützte Texte,” 30–32Google Scholar.

44. The original is lost, but much is included in an abridgment by his pupil Ibn Sama'a (d. 847), entitled al-Iktisāb fi'l-rizq al-mustaṭāb (On Lawful Livelihood). On these texts and other relevant material see S. D. Goitein, “The Rise of the Middle-Eastern Bourgeoisie in Early Islamic Times,” in idem, ed., Studies in Islamic History and Institutions (Leiden, 1966), 217–41; and Lewis, B., “Sources for the Economic History of the Middle East,” in Cook, M., ed., Studies in the Economic History of the Middle East (London, 1970), 78–92Google Scholar.

45. In fact, such a livelihood was considered more pleasing to God than that earned from government work (either civil or military). See Lewis, “Economic History of the Middle East,” 87Google Scholar.

46. Quoted in Goitein, “Middle-Eastern Bourgeoisie,” 224Google Scholar.

47. Ibid., 220–21.

48. Ess, Van, “Ungenützte Texte,” 76Google Scholar; see Rawandi's, Ibn Maqālāt al-lslāmiyyīn 467, 14 ss.Google Scholar, cited in Ess, van, “Une lecture,” 188Google Scholar.

49. Ibid., 188–90.

50. On this point see Madelung, Religious Trends, 43 note 21Google Scholar.

51. Bulliet suggests that weaving was a rural cottage industry and weavers an oppressed group ripe for conversion (Patricians of Nishapur, 12). See also Baghdadi, al-Farq bayna al-firaq, 131Google Scholar

52. A section of the city where access to water (provided by qanāts) was difficult. See Bulliet, Patricians of Nishapur, 13Google Scholar. The name of the quarter was Manashik (Maqdisi, Aḥsan al-taqāsīm, 336)Google Scholar.

53. For a thorough discussion of these factions and their control of the judiciary and educational systems see Bulliet, Patricians of Nishapur, esp. 28–47.

54. Bulliet, “Political-Religious History,” 75Google Scholar.

55. Ishaq b. Mahmudshadh was the ancestor of the family that dominated the Karramiyya community in Nishapur until the middle of the sixth/twelfth century. See the genealogy and information on this family assembled by Ess, van, “Ungenützte Texte,” 33–5Google Scholar.

56. Sam'ani called him the shaykh of the Karramiyya and their imam, a zāhid, an ‘ābid, a mujtahid, and one who had renounced the world (Kitāb al-ansāb 10:377).

57. Shahristani, al-Milal wa'l-niḥal, 31Google Scholar; ‘Utbi, Kitāb al-Yamīnī, trans. Reynolds, J., 438–42Google Scholar; Bosworth, Ghaznavids, 186Google Scholar

58. On the importance of Abu Bakr see Bosworth, “Rise of the Karamiyyah,” 7–13Google Scholar.

59. For this and the following, see Bosworth, ibid.; idem, Ghaznavids, 185–89; Bulliet, Patricians of Nishapur, 67Google Scholar.

60. ‘Utbi describes the inquisition in his Kitāb al-Yamīnī, trans. Reynolds, 471–84.

61. Bosworth, “Rise of the Karamiyyah,” 11–12Google Scholar. He was poisoned on his way back home to Nishapur in 406/1015–16, perhaps by the Karramiyya.

62. See Munawwar, Muhammad b., Asrār al-tawḥīd fī maqāmāt al-shaykh Abū Sa ‘īd, trans. Achena, M., les Étapes mystiques du sheikh Abū Sa'īd (Paris, 1974)Google Scholar, 85–90; ‘Utbi, Kitāb al-Yamīnī, trans. Reynolds, 473.

63. Bosworth, “Rise of the Karamiyyah,” 11–12; ‘Utbi, Kitāb al-Yamīnī, trans. Reynolds, , 471–84Google Scholar.

64. Ibid., 478–9.

65. Bosworth, “Early Islamic History of Ghur,” 127–9Google Scholar.

66. Ibid.; Ibn, al-Kāmil, year 411/1020.

67. For the proscription of Ash'ari theology and the politics of the vizier Kunduri see Allard, Michel, Le problème des attributs divins dans la doctrine d'al-Ash'ari et ses premiers grands disciples (Beirut, 1965), 75–7Google Scholar; Bulliet, “Political-Religious History,” 71—93Google Scholar; Halm, Heinz, “Der Wesir al-Kunduri und die Fitna von Nishapur,” Die Welt des Orients 6 (1971): 205–33Google Scholar.

68. For the spread of Ash'ari theology in Khurasan (particularly in Nishapur) and its connection with the Shafi'i school of law see Allard, Le Problème, 75–7Google Scholar and 312–55; Halm, Heinz, Die Ausbreitung der Shaft'itischen Rechtsschule von den Anfängen bis zum 8/14 Jahrhundert (Wiesbaden, 1974), 32–41Google Scholar; Makdisi, George, “Ash'ari and the Ash'arites in Islamic Religious History,” Studia Islamica 17 (1962): 37–80CrossRefGoogle Scholar; 18 (1963): 19–39.

69. For example, the Simjurid governor Nasir al-DawIa Abu'l-Hasan Muhammad built the well-known Shafi'i-Ash'ari theologian, Ibn Furak, a madrasa sometime before 372/982; and sometime before 405/1014, a madrasa was built for Abu Ishaq al-Isfara'ini (d. 418/1027). For Ibn Furak's madrasa see Subki, ṭabaqāt al-shāfi'iyya 4:128Google Scholar; Bulliet, Patricians of Nishapur, 93Google Scholar, 159, 250; Halm, Die Ausbreitung, 51–2Google Scholar. For Abu Ishaq see Subki, ṭabaqāt al-shāfi'iyya 4:256Google Scholar.

70. This attempt on the part of a governmental official to enforce religious doctrine is reminiscent of the attempt of the Caliph Ma'mun, in the ninth century, to enforce adherence to Mu'tazilite theology. Kunduri's attempt to dictate religious matters was also ultimately unsuccessful.

71. For the policies of Nizam al-Mulk see Makdisi, “Muslim Institutions,” 1–56Google Scholar.

72. See above and the evidence assembled in Chabbi, “Remarques,” 38–45Google Scholar; s.v. “Khankah,” Encyclopedia of Islam.

73. For Sulami's khānaqāh see the references in Bulliet, Patricians of Nishapur, 299Google Scholar; s.v. “Sulami,” Encyclopaedia Iranica (G. Bowering); for Daqqaq's khānaqāh see Munawwar, Muhammad b., Asrār al-tawḥīd, 57Google Scholar; Bulliet, Patricians of Nishapur, 250Google Scholar.

74. Munawwar, Muhammad b., Asrār al-tawḥīd, 136–7Google Scholar.

75. A translation of this rule can be found in Schimmel, Annemarie, Mystical Dimensions of Islam (Chapel Hill, N.C., 1975), 243Google Scholar. For evidence on the way of life in the khānaqāh see al-Munawwar, Muhammad b., Asrār al-tawḥīd, 79Google Scholar, 81, 97, 165, 180, 356.

76. Muhammad b. Munawwar describes one such foundation in his biography of the Sufi Abu Sa'id. After meeting Abu Sa'id, a wealthy man bought a house which he transformed into a khānaqāh. He then installed forty Sufis in it (Asrār al-tawḥīd, 180–81).

77. See the evidence assembled in Bausani, A., “Religion in the Saljuq Period,” Cambridge History of Iran 5:300Google Scholar; s.v. “Khankah,” Encyclopedia of Islam.

78. Munawwar, Muhammad b., Asrār al-tawḥīd, 183Google Scholar.

79. Bulliet has compiled a chart from two extant biographical dictionaries from medieval Nishapur that lists both the terms used to describe mystics and, where possible, their legal affiliation. The Histories of Nishapur lists no Hanafis or Karramis as Sufis, only Shafi'is (Patricians of Nishapur, 41–2).

80. In addition, at this time Sufis began to develop their own institutions and structures of authority. These matters are discussed at greater length in M. Malamud, “Sufi Institutions and Structures of Authority in Medieval Nishapur,” International Journal of Middle East Studies 26 (1994): 427–42.

81. See Chabbi, “Remarques,” 65–8Google Scholar.

82. Ibid., esp. 48–54.

83. Zysow, “Karrami Texts,” 581Google Scholar, note 36.

84. This is not to dismiss the theological fervor that surely moved many critics of the Karramiyya.

85. See Ibn al-Athir, al-Kāmil, year 488/1095.