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Privatized Jihad and public order in the pre-Seljuq period: The role of the Mutatawwi‘a

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2022

Deborah Tor
Deborah Tor*
Affiliation:
Department of Middle Eastern History at Bar-Ilan University, Israel
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Iranian Studies , Volume 38 , Issue 4 , December 2005 , pp. 555 - 573
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Copyright © 2005 The International Society for Iranian Studies

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Footnotes

She warmly thanks Patricia Crone for her many helpful criticisms and remarks.

References

1 al-Muthanna Abu Ya ‘la al-Mawsili al-Hanbali, Ahmad b. ‘Ali b., Musnad Abi Ya‘la al-Mawsili, ed. Husayn Asad (Damascus, 1404/1984) 3Google Scholar, #1490. See also #1486, “Whoever fasts one day in the path of God while a mutatawwi‘, without its being Ramadan, is kept away from the Fire for a hundred years….”

2 Thus one finds, for example, that while Crone and Hinds adumbrate the progress of the transference of religious authority from the caliphs to the keepers of Prophetic hadith, beginning with the new assertions of the Traditionists in the late Umayyad period (Crone, P. and Hinds, M., God's Caliph: Religious Authority in the First Centuries of Islam [Cambridge, 1990], 71, 84–85)Google Scholar, through their “going public” under al-Mahdi (87) and eventual triumph by al-Mutawakkil's reign (97), Crone and Hinds never answer the question of why the Traditionists won, nor do they link the undermining of the caliph's religious authority to the undermining of his earthly authority as well. See also Hinds, sv “Mihna,” EI2 7: 6: “The principal consequences of the failure of the mihna are clear enough: it brought to a decisive end any notion of a caliphal role in the definition of Islam and it permitted the unchecked development of what in due course would become recognisable as Sunnism.” That is, Hinds focuses exclusively on the loss of caliphal religious authority without connecting this defeat to the caliphate's political disintegration.

3 Qur'an 4:74. For a discussion of the Qur'anic injunction see Firestone, R., Jihad: The Origin of Holy War in Islam (Oxford, 1999)Google Scholar, especially Part II, on Jihad in the Qur'an. In Vecchia Vaglieri's words, “Islam…instilled into the hearts of the warriors the belief that a war against the followers of another faith was a holy war, and that the booty was a recompense offered by God to his soldiers.” (Veccia Vaglieri, L., “The Patriarchal and Umayyad Caliphates,” The Cambridge History of Islam, ed. Holt, P.M. et alii, [Cambridge, 1995] 1: 60)Google Scholar. See also Fred Donner's thoughtful discussion of the tendency of some Western scholars to dismiss the traditional Muslim view of the religious motivation underlying the Islamic Conquests (Donner, F., The Early Islamic Conquests [Princeton, 1981], 270)Google Scholar.

4 Qur'an 9:110. The translation is Majid Fakhry's, The Qur'an: A Modern English Version, (Reading, 1997), p. 123, except that the present author has substituted “God” where Fakhry uses “Allah.”

5 On the religious elaboration of the idea and its early practical execution see Cook, David, Understanding Jihad (Berkeley, 2005)CrossRefGoogle Scholar, Chapter 1.

6 Thus Hugh Kennedy characterizes “the campaigns of the Muslims against the Byzantines” as “the focus of the military activities of Umayyad and ‘Abbasid Caliphs.” (Kennedy, , The Armies of the Caliphs: Military and Society in the Early Islamic State [New York and London, 2001], xivGoogle Scholar). In Ibn al-‘Adim's Bughyat al-talab there is a tradition according to which the mutatawwi‘ al-Fazari asks the even more renowned Eastern Iranian mutatawwi‘ ‘Abdallah b. al-Mubarak why he had to come all the way to the Byzantine march to battle Infidels when there were plenty of Turkish ones close at hand in Eastern Iran; Ibn al-Mubarak answers that whereas the Turks were fighting only about worldly power, the Byzantines were battling the Muslims over their faith, “So which is the more worthy of defense: our world or our faith?” (cited in Cook, D., “Muslim Apocalyptic and Jihad,” Jerusalem Studies in Arabic and Islam xx [1996]: 98Google Scholar). Abu Da'ud, a student of several of Ibn al-Mubarak's students (vide infra) likewise includes a tradition stating that there is extra religious merit in fighting ahl al-kitab (Abu Da'ud Sulayman b. al-Ash'ath al-Sijistani, Kitab al-Sunan: Sunan Abu Da'ud, ed. Muhammad 'Awwama [Beirut, 1998] 3: 204–205, in the section “Kitab al-Jihad,” chapter 8, “In praise of fighting the Byzantines above all other nations,” tradition #2480).

7 Vide al-Harith al-Khuza‘i al-Marwazi, Nu‘aym b. Hammad b. Mu‘awiyya b., al-Fitan (Beirut, 1418/1997), 295–301Google Scholar, the chapter entitled “al-A‘maq wa-fath al-Qustantiniyya,” particularly the long tradition #1163; Ja‘far b. al-Munadi, Abu'l Husayn Ahmad b., Malahim, ed. al-’Uqayli, ‘Abd al-Karim (Qumm, 1418/1998), 145–148Google Scholar; 210. One alternative apocalyptic vision (e.g. Ibn al-Munadi, Malahim 105, 242) simply envisions the conversion of “the Romans” (and the “saqaliba”) to Islam. Note that both these authors were intimately connected with early proto-Hanbalite circles.

8 See Blankinship, Khalid Yahya, The End of the Jihad State: The Reign of Hisham Ibn ‘Abd al-Malik and the Collapse of the Umayyads (Albany, 1994), 19, 117–118Google Scholar. In the Byzantine context, Bosworth notes the fixing of the frontier in the wake of 717: “After the high point of Sulayman b. ‘Abd al-Malik's abortive attack on Constantinople in 97–99/715–717, the frontier became stabilized.” (‘Byzantium and the Syrian frontier in the early ‘Abbasid period,' The Arabs, Byzantium and Iran: Studies in Early Islamic History and Culture. Variorum Collected Studies Series [Aldershot, 1996], Article XII:56). That the conquests had a centralized nature even before the establishment of Umayyad rule is persuasively established by Donner, Fred McGraw, “Centralized Authority and Military Autonomy in the Early Islamic Conquests,” The Byzantine and Early Islamic Near East. Vol. 3: States, Resources and Armies, ed. Cameron, Averil (Princeton, 1995), 337–360Google Scholar.

9 On this change in tactic see Blankinship, The End of the Jihad State, 118. On the Eastern front the state of things was even worse from a Muslim standpoint; from 724 until circa 740 the Muslims were in a precarious defensive position (Gibb, H.A.R., The Arab Conquests in Central Asia [London, 1923], 65–86Google Scholar). As for the raids: The Prophet himself conducted raids (See Abi Hubayra al-Laythi al-Usfuri, Khalifa b. Khayyat b., Ta'rikh Khalifa b. Khayyat, ed. Fawwaz, Mustafa et al, [Beirut, 1415/1995]Google Scholar, e.g. 38, 60), as did the representatives of the Rashidun caliphs-e.g. Abu Musa al-Ash‘ari's ghazw during ‘Uthman’s caliphate (ibid. 113). In fact, ‘Uthman is the first caliph for whom we have a list of the commanders whom he appointed for the sa'ifa raids upon Byzantium (ibid. 134–135). Pace Michael Bonner's assertion (Aristocratic Violence and Holy War: Studies in the Jihad and the Arab- Byzantine Frontier, American Oriental Series [New Haven, 1996] 81:57) that ‘Abbasid interest in the summer raids- and in particular the appointing of ‘Abbasid princes to lead them- was something novel, we see the Umayyads sending their relatives on ghazi raids- and particularly the sa'ifa- constantly: e.g. Muhammad b. Marwan's leading of the sa'ifa in the years 75 (Khalifa 209) and 83 (ibid. 256, where it is also mentioned that al-‘Abbas b. al-Walid raided); the raids of the year 114, one raid of which was led by Mu ‘awiya b. Hisham, and which joined up with the forces of the legendary ghazi ‘Abdallah al-Battal, and the other of which was commanded by Sulayman b. Hisham (Khalifa 271).

10 On the Berber Revolt see Brett, M., “The Arab Conquest and the rise of Islam in North Africa,” Cambridge History of Africa. Volume 2: From 500 BC to AD 1050, ed. Fage, J.D. (Cambridge, 1978), 516–521Google Scholar. For an account of the internal turmoil in the central lands of the Caliphate see Sharon, Moshe, Revolt: The Social and Military Aspects of the ‘Abbasid Revolution (Jerusalem, 1990), 25–48.Google Scholar

11 Bosworth, “Byzantium and the Syrian Frontier,” 56.

12 Thus Bosworth (“Byzantium and the Syrian Frontier,” 58) notes that it was not until the 760s, when “the Abbasid caliphate, under the vigiorous direction of al-Mansur, achieved a greater degree of internal stability…[that] a more activist policy along the frontier was…pursued.”

13 Ibid. 57.

14 Muhammad al-Sam‘ani, ‘Abd al-Karim b., Kitab al-Ansab, ed. ‘Abd al-Qadir ‘Ata (Beirut, 1419/1998) 5:213Google Scholar.

15 Although it is debatable whether or not the sources which mention such groups are not anachronistically projecting the term back in time, since the earliest of those sources dates to the ninth century. The earliest references this author has been able to find occur in works of the late-9th century writer al-Baladhuri, Ahmad b. Yahya, Ansab al-ashraf, ed. Mahmud al-Fardaws al-Azm (Damascus, 1997) 6:422Google Scholar; and the tenth-century works of Tabari (Ta'rikh, ed. Muhammad Ibrahim [Beirut, no date] 6:532) and the anonymously composed Akhbar majmu‘a fi fath al-Andalus wa-dhikr umara'iha, ed. Ibrahim al-Abyari (Cairo and Beirut, 1989), 14, which ends with the reign of ‘Abd al-Rahman b. Muhammad al-Nasir (d. 961).

16 It is unclear where he was born. The number of conflicting traditions that Al-Mizzi reports (Tahdhib al-kamal fi asma’ al-rijal [Beirut 1418/1998] 11:314–315) regarding the nisba would suggest that the attempts to explain its origin were simply guesswork on the part of the biographers; although, significantly, one of the traditions claims that his origins were to be found in Sind (315). This, of course, would mean that, like the other founding figures, he came from the Iranian East.

17 Bonner, Aristocratic Violence, Chapter 4, 107–130.

18 Thus, to give just a few of the more spectacular examples, Ibrahim b. Adham is said to have subsisted on clay alone for 20 days while on the Hajj (Abu Nu‘aym al-Isbahani, al-Imam Ahmad b. ‘Abdallah, Hilyat al-awliya’ wa-tabaqat al- asfiya', ed. al-Qadir ‘Ata, Mustafa ‘Abd [Beirut, 1418/1997] 7:435Google Scholar); at another point, during Ramadan, he tormented himself by hard physical labor and sleep deprivation: “[He] harvested the crop during the day and prayed at night, so that he lived for thirty days, not sleeping at night nor during the day.”(Ibid. 7:439).

19 Associating, for instance, with such proto-Sufis as Junayd, Sufyan al-Thawri, and Shaqiq al-Balkhi.

20 E.g. ‘Abdallah b. al-Mubarak, Kitab al-zuhd wa'l-raqa’iq, ed. Habib al-Rahman al-A‘zami (Beirut, no date).

21 On the very strong ahl al-hadith leanings of the early Mutatawwi‘a, vide D.G. Tor, The ‘Ayyars: A Study in Religious Warfare, Chivalry, and Violence in the Medieval Eastern Islamic World (Istanbuler Texte und Studien series of the Deutsche Morgenländische Gesellschaft, forthcoming), chapter 2.

22 J. Chabbi, “Ribat,” EI2 8:495; she identifies as a “new type of activism” the understanding of Jihad being advocated by “circles yet to be identified,”—which we are here identifying as the mutatawwi‘—“[which] began to stress the meritorious aspect of military service on the frontier.”

23 Vide Mottahedeh, Roy and al-Sayyid, Ridwan, “The Idea of Jihad in Islam before the Crusades,” in The Crusades from the Perspective of Byzantium and the Muslim World, ed. Laiou, Angeliki and Mottahedeh, Roy (Washington, D.C., 2001), 26–27Google Scholar. On one important point the present author disagrees with the article: Mottahedeh and Sayyid attribute the obvious doubt manifested in the questions to Malik regarding the legitimacy of participating in border warfare led by the Umayyads to reservations about the legitimacy of Umayyad rule. The present author believes, rather, that the question at that time- particularly in light of the ideological competition- was whether or not it was legitimate at all for a volunteer warrior to place himself under the political establishment. This would recast the debate from one about the nature or legitimacy of Umayyad rule into one about the nature of tatawwu‘, which seems a far more likely topic for religious discussion in the context of this time.

24 Crone and Hinds, God's Caliph 82–93.

25 Vide infra for a description of how they were regarded in their own time.

26 Juynboll, G.H.A., “An excursus on the ahl al-sunna in connection with Van Ess, Theologie und Gesellschaft, vol. IV,” Der Islam lxxv (1998): 330Google Scholar. Juynboll points out (321) that the first definition of a sahib sunna is given by ‘Abdallah b. al-Mubarak in Ibn Abi Ya‘la's Tabaqat al-Hanabila.

27 ‘Asakir, Ibn, Ta'rikh madinat Dimashq, 7:238Google Scholar.

28 Sam‘ani, , al-Ansab 3:358Google Scholar; ‘Asakir, Ibn, Ta'rikh madinat Dimashq 7:236, 238Google Scholar.

29 Ahmad b. ‘Uthman Dhahabi, Shams al-Din Muhammad b., Siyar a‘lam al-nubala’ (Beirut, 1403/1983) 8:456Google Scholar.

30 Thus termed by ‘Asakir, Ibn, Ta'rikh madinat Dimashq 13:385Google Scholar.

31 ‘Abd al-Razaq b. Hammam; Mu‘tamir b. Sulayman; Yahya b. Sa‘id al-Qattan: Ibrahim reported as having transmitted from them: ‘Abd al-Rahman al-Mizzi, Yusuf b. al-Zaki, Tahdhib al-kamal 1:413Google Scholar; Ibn al-Mubarak reported as having taught them: al-Mizzi, , Tahdhib al-kamal 10: 469-471Google Scholar; Ja‘far b. Sulayman al-Duba‘i, ‘Abd al-Rahman b. Mahdi: Ibn ‘Ar‘ara listed as having studied with them in Dhahabi, , Siyar a‘lam al-nubala’ 11:480Google Scholar.

32 Sa'd al-Zuhri, Muhammad Ibn, al-Tabaqat al-kubra (Beirut 1417/1995) 7:173Google Scholar, for death date. Dhahabi, , Ta'rikh al-Islam 17:69–70Google Scholar for death date and partial list of students; idem, Siyar a‘lam al-nubala’ 1:480; al-Mizzi, , Tahdhib al-kamal 1:413–414Google Scholar; death date on 415.

33 Who, however, studied with a different one of Ibn al-Mubarak's students; vide infra.

34 Dhahabi, , Siyar a‘lam al-nubala’ 11: 400Google Scholar; Mizzi, , Tahdhib 4: 456Google Scholar.

35 Dhahabi, , Siyar a‘lam al-nubala’ 11: 116Google Scholar; Mizzi, , Tahdhib 16: 5Google Scholar.

36 Dhahabi, , Siyar a‘lam al-nubala’ 11: 401Google Scholar.

37 Ibn Abi Ya‘la al-Baghdadi al-Hanbali, Abu'l-Husayn Muhammad, Tabaqat al-fuqaha' al-hanabila, ed. ‘Umar, ‘Ali Muhammad (Cairo, 1419/1998) 2: 201Google Scholar.

38 Dhahabi, , Siyar a‘lam al-nubala’ 13: 205Google Scholar.

39 On al-Yarbu‘i vide Dhahabi, , Siyar a‘lam al-nubala' 10: 457Google Scholar; for the list of al-Hasan b. Salih's students, ibid. 7: 362. The canonical authors also number Mutatawwi‘a among their most prominent students. One of al-Nasa'i's important pupils, for instance, was Abu'l-‘Abbas al-Hasan b. Sa‘id b. Ja‘far al-‘Abbadani al-Muttawwi‘i (d. 981); he is described as “al-shaykh al-imam, shaykh al-qurra'.” (Dhahabi, , Siyar a‘lam al-nubala' 16: 260–261Google Scholar); It is stated under Ibn Maja's biographical entry that one of “… the most famous in relating traditions from him…[was] Abu Ja‘far Muhammad b. ‘Isa al-Muttawwi‘i,” ‘Abd al-Karim b. Muhammad al-Rafi‘i al-Qazwini, al-Tadhwin fi akhbar Qazwin (Beirut, 1408/1987) 2:49–50Google Scholar.

40 Ya‘la, Ibn Abi, Tabaqat al-fuqaha' al-hanabila 1: 548Google Scholar; al-Dhahabi, , Ta'rikh al-Islam 21: 338Google Scholar.

41 Abu Bakr Ahmad b. ‘Ali al-Khatib al-Baghdadi, Ta'rikh Baghdad (Beirut, no date) 14: 289; Ibn al-Jawzi, Abu'l Faraj ‘Abd al-Rahman, al-Muntazam fi ta'rikh al-muluk wa'l-umam, ed. ‘Ata, M. A. et alii (Beirut, 1412/1992) 12: 414–415Google Scholar.

42 Ta'rikh Baghdad 3: 415–416. Note that both of these latter two figures composed some of our earliest contributions to the Kitab al-jihad literature as well.

43 Ta'rikh Baghdad 3: 415–416.

44 Ta'rikh Baghdad 3: 417; al-Dhahabi, , Siyar a‘lam al-nubala' 12: 281Google Scholar. An even stronger statement is the following: “I used to hear our religious leaders [masha'ikhana] saying: The tradition that Muhammad b. Yahya does not know is not worth knowing [lit.: is insignificant].” Ibid. 12: 280.

45 Al-Dhahabi, , Siyar a‘lam al-nubala' 12: 280Google Scholar. A similar tradition states: “The Imam of imams Ibn Khuzayma said: Muhammad b. Yahya al-Dhuhli, the imam of his age, may God cause him to dwell in His garden with those who love him, related to us.” (ibid. 12: 284).

46 Dhahabi, , Siyar a‘lam al-nubala’ 12: 273–274Google Scholar.

47 For Abu'l Husayn Ahmad b. Muhammad b. Yahya al-Naysaburi al-Ghazi see al-Sam‘ani, , al-Ansab 4: 244Google Scholar, #7476; for al-Dhuhli's pupil Abu Hamid Ahmad b. Muhammad al-Rifa' al-Ghazi al-Naysaburi, see ibid. 4: 245, #7477; his pupil Abu'l-‘Abbas Hamid b. Mahmud b. Muhammad al-Sikshi al-Naysaburi al-Shahid can be found in ibid. 3: 292, #5269.

48 Melchert, Christopher, “The Adversaries of Ahmad b. Hanbal,” Arabica xliv (1997): 2, pp. 244–245Google Scholar; al-Dhahabi, , Ta'rikh al-Islam 20: 93Google Scholar also speaks about Muhammad b. Yahya's having warned against these doctrines of Da'ud's.

49 Aybek al-Safadi, Salah al-Din Khalil b., Kitab al-wafi bi'l-wafayat (Wiesbaden, 1970) 5: 187Google Scholar; Melchert, ibid. 245–246. For this quarrel, and Ahmad b. Hanbal's alliance with Muhammad b. Yahya on this matter, see al-Dhahabi, , Siyar a‘lam al-nubala' 12: 284–285Google Scholar.

50 Nu‘aym, Abu, Hilyat al-awliya' 8: 178Google Scholar, #11799.

51 Pace Bonner, who noted the unusual Jihadi behaviour, but considered it, rather, to be a countermeasure to the “weakening of central power” which he attributed to the supposed power of aristocratic warlords; Vide Michael Bonner, Aristocratic Violence and Holy War, chapter 3.

52 Thus Abu Nu ‘aym al-Isbahani, Hilyat al-awliya’ 8: 172, calls him “Friend [alif] of the Qur'an, the Hajj and the Jihad.” Note that these religious priorities are echoed in at least one of the traditions of Ahmad b. Hanbal: “The Prophet…was asked: What is the most praiseworthy of works? He replied: Faith in God and His Messenger. [The inquirer] said: Then what? He responded: The Jihad in the path of God. It was said: Then what? [The Prophet] replied: Then the blessed Hajj [hajjun mabrurun].” (Muhammad b. Hanbal, Ahmad b., al-Musnad, ed. Shakir, A. M. (Cairo, 1950–1956) 14: 23–24Google Scholar, tradition #7580)

53 While the Umayyads (at least until decline set in) did make a practice of appointing their relatives to conduct raids against the Infidel (vide supra, note 9), the scale of the raids, their frequency, and the prominence of the people involved—including the caliph himself and his own sons—was something new and qualitatively different during the early ‘Abbasid period from what came before.

54 Ibn ‘Asakir, , Ta'rikh madinat Dimashq 59: 444–445Google Scholar; Tabari, , Ta'rikh 8: 116–117Google Scholar, 128, 136, 146, 148, 150; Dhahabi, , Ta'rikh al-Islam 10: 14Google Scholar, 17;. al-Jawzi, Ibn, al-Muntazam 8: 227Google Scholar; and, most spectacular of all, Harun's successful raid in 165/782, which reached the Sea of Marmara and succeeded in extracting tribute payments (which the Muslims interpreted as the jizya) from the Empress Irene and the Byzantines. Al-Maqdisi, , Kitab al-bad’ wa'l-ta'rikh (Beirut, 1980) 6: 96Google Scholar; repeated in Tabari, Ta'rikh 8: 152–153; al-Jawzi, Ibn, al-Muntazam 8: 277–278Google Scholar; Dhahabi, , Ta'rikh al-Islam 10: 18–19Google Scholar.

55 For a summary of the raiding activity between 170 and 189, see Bonner, Aristocratic Violence 89–95.

56 Thus Bosworth (The History of al-Tabari Vol. XXX: The ‘Abbasid Caliphate in Equilibrium [Albany, 1989], xvii), refers to “his image as the great Ghazi-Caliph;” cited and concurred with by Bonner, Aristocratic Violence 99. See also Bonner's article on the subject, “Al-Khalifa al-Mardi: The Accession of Harun al-Rashid,” Journal of the American Oriental Society cix (1988): 79–91Google Scholar, passim.

57 Tabari, Ta'rikh 8: 302; Ibn al-Athir, al-Kamil 6: 189. Khalifa (Ta'rikh 375) and al-Ya‘qubi (Ta'rikh 2: 297) do not speak of the dedication to God and sacrifice.

58 Nu‘aym, Abu, Hilyat al-awliya' 6: 146–147Google Scholar.

59 Nu‘aym, Abu, Hilyat al-awliya' 6: 147–151Google Scholar.

60 From whom al-Awza‘i related traditions; Vide al-Dhahabi, Siyar a‘lam al-nubala’ 6: 227.

61 Ahmad b. Hanbal, Musnad 2: 47–48, #622. In this tradition, the Prophet himself has appointed a particular commander over a group of the Ansar, and enjoined that they obey him. When the commander orders the troop to cast themselves into a fire, however, they balk and inquire of the Prophet, who says to them: “If you had entered [into] it you would never have left it forever, for obedience is only in [what is] good [al-ma‘ruf].”

62 Crone and Hinds, God's Caliph, 58.

63 Dhahabi, , Siyar a‘lam al-nubala’ 8: 399Google Scholar.

64 Dhahabi, , Siyar a‘lam al-nubala’ 8: 408Google Scholar.

65 ‘Umar b. ‘Ali b. Ahmad b. al-Mulaqqin, Siraj al-Din Abu Hafs, Tabaqat al-awliya’, ed. ‘Ata, Mustafa ‘Abd al-Qadir (Beirut, 1419/1998), 206Google Scholar.

66 Bonner, Aristocratic Violence, 110.

67 Nu‘aym, Abu, Hilyat al-awliya’ 8: 174Google Scholar.

68 That is, they do so only under compulsion, when prodded by armed troops. Khallikan, Ibn, Wafayat al-a‘yan wa-anba’ abna' al-zaman, ed. ‘Abd al-Hamid, Muhammad (Cairo, 1949) 3: 23Google Scholar; Al-Mizzi, , Tahdhib al-kamal 10: 476Google Scholar; Dhahabi, , Siyar a‘lam al-nubala’ 8: 384Google Scholar.

71 Hinds, M., “Mihna,” reprinted in Studies in Early Islamic History, ed. Bachrach, J. et alii (Princeton, 1996), 243Google Scholar.

69 Although al-Ma'mun campaigned as well, he seems to have realized that he was fighting a losing battle with the Traditionists to reclaim the lost religious luster from the ‘ulama’ on Jihadi grounds, hence his courting of the Shi‘ites and then the Mu‘tazilites to counterbalance the Traditionists. For his Shi‘ite experiment, vide Tor, D.G., “A Re-examination of the Appointment and Death of ‘Ali al-Rida,” Der Islam lxxviii (2001): 103–128CrossRefGoogle Scholar. Regarding the mihna, Watt notes that “The doctrine of createdness [of the Qur'an] enhanced the power of the caliph and the secretaries, that of uncreatedness the power of the ‘ulama.” (Watt, W.M., The Formative Period of Islamic Thought [Edinburgh, 1973], 179Google Scholar).

70 In reference to the mihna alone, rather than to the much longer and larger struggle of which the mihna was only the last battle.

72 Ibn al-Athir, al-Kamil 6: 360.

73 Ibn al-Athir, al-Kamil 6: 361.

74 Under the biography of Abu Ishaq Ibrahim b. Muhammad b. 'Abdallah b. Yazdadh al-Mudhakkir al-Muttawwi‘i, for instance, we are told that he was “… among the army of the muttawwi‘a going out to Tarsus … and Abu Ishaq was their faqih and their preacher…” Al-Sam'ani, al-Ansab 2: 365.

75 Dhahabi, , Ta'rikh al-Islam 18: 33Google Scholar; Hibatallah Ibn Makula, Abu Nasr ‘Ali b., al-Ikmal, ed. Yahya Mu'allimi, ‘Abd al-Rahman b. (Hyderabad, 1967) 1: 21Google Scholar.

76 This is in consonance with what we know about the behaviour of the groups to which they were most closely akin: the Hanbalites. Vide Cook, Michael, Commanding Right and Forbidding Wrong in Islamic Thought (Cambridge, 2000), 116–121Google Scholar.

77 Ahmad b. ‘Uthman al-Dhahabi, Shams al-Din Muhammad b., al-‘Ibar fi khabar man ghabar, ed. Munjjid, Salah al-Din and Sayyid, Fu‘ad (Kuwait, 1960) 1: 408Google Scholar.

78 Vide Tor, D.G., “Historical Representations of Ya‘qub b. al-Layth al-Saffar: A Reappraisal,” Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society xii (2002): 247–275CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

79 Thus we have the extensive attestations not only regarding Ya ‘qub b. al-Layth as a leader in the holy war (ibid.), but also regarding Isma‘il b. Ahmad, the real founder of Samanid greatness and power. On his holy warrior activities and persona vide e.g.Anon., Ta'rikh-i Sistan., ed. Muhammad Taqi Bahar (Tehran, 1935) 254, 256; al-Athir, Ibn, al-Kamil 7: 264–265Google Scholar; Tabari, Ta'rikh 10: 34; and Dhahabi, Ta'rikh al-Islam 20: 243. Mahmud b. Sebuktegin, of course, is known to history as “Mahmud Ghazi.”

80 Vide D. Tor, The ‘Ayyars, chapter 3.

81 al-Rashid b. al- Zubayr, Al-Qadi Ahmad b. (attributed), Kitab al-Dhakha'ir wa'l-tuhaf, ed. Hamid Allah, M. (Kuwait, 1959), 145Google Scholar.

82 Tabari, Ta'rikh 10: 116; Ibn al-Athir, al-Kamil fi'l-ta'rikh 7: 533.

84 Ibid. 687.

83 Ibn al-Athir, al-Kamil 8: 686.

85 Sayyid Burhan al-Din Khwavand Shah, Mir Muhammad b., Tarikh-i rawdat al-safa (Tehran 1339) 4: 133Google Scholar.

86 Zayid Bayhaqi, Abu'l Hasan ‘Ali b. (Ibn Funduq), Tarikh-i Bayhaq, ed. Bahmanyar, Ahmad (Tehran, n.d.), 220Google Scholar.

87 On the role of Tarsus as the epicenter of volunteer holy warfare, vide Bosworth, C.E., “The city of Tarsus and the Arab-Byzantine frontier,” The Arabs, Byzantium and Iran: Studies in Early Islamic History and Culture. Variorum Collected Studies Series (Aldershot, 1996)Google Scholar, Article XIV.

88 Paul, J., “The State and the Military: The Samanid Case,” Papers on Inner Asia 26 (1994): 16Google Scholar; cf. Anon., The sea of precious virtues (Bahr al-fava'id): a medieval Islamic mirror for princes, tr. and ed. Scott Meisami, Julie (Salt Lake City, 1991), 216Google Scholar: “…The Bayt al-Mal rightfully belongs to the ‘ulama’, the judges, the Koran readers, the poor, the orphans, and the ghazis. But [the unjust, tyrannical kings] have taken it all, and have established a treasury for astronomers, physicians, musicians, buffoons, cheats, winesellers, and gamblers. ‘Woe to them; and again woe to them.’” Mottahedeh, too, seems to view this episode much in the same light as does Paul- that is, one of conflicting agendas and priorities (Mottahedeh, R., Loyalty and Leadership in an Early Islamic Society [London, 2001], 34Google Scholar).

89 Miskawayh, Ahmad b. Muhammad b., Tajarib al-umam: The Eclipse of the ‘Abbasid Caliphate, ed. and trans. Amedroz, H.F. and Margoliouth, D.S. (Oxford, 1920) 2: 223Google Scholar.

90 Paul, The State and the Military 16.

91 Ibn al-Athir, al-Kamil 9: 404.

92 Ibid. 413.

93 Ibid. 418; Ibn al-Jawzi, al-Muntazam 15: 213–214; an abbreviated version can be found in Ibn Kathir, al-bidaya wa‘l-nihaya 12: 35. Presumably, the meaning of “yawm” here would be the archaic one of the Prophet's time- that is, “battle,” with the implication that the Sunnis were doing battle in the name of, or in defense of the reputation of, Mu‘awiya. According to Ibn al-Jawzi's version the Sunni volunteers shouted “this is the day of the maghazi,” but Ibn al-Athir's version seems to be more in line with the other partisan Sunni cries and the hostile reaction of the Shi‘ites.