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Fārābī's funny flora: al-Nawābit as “opposition”

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  15 March 2011

Ilai Alon
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In his description of the excellent city (Kitāb al-siyāsat al-madaniyah and 'Ārā ahl al-madīnah al-fāḍilah), al-Fārābī mentions those citizens who are not philosophers, but rather the opponents of the principles of their community. To these groups, of which several are enumerated al-Fārābī refers either as “the rest” (al-Bāqūn), or, “al-Nawābit”. It is this group, and in particular this name, that is intriguing, for although on the face of it it carries no politico-religious significance at all, some conclusions that touch upon these fields may be drawn by scrutinizing it. I would like to show that al-Fārābī abstracted the private name of the Nawābit and gave it the meaning of “opposition”. In order to do this I will analyze his use of the name along the following lines: first a short survey of the lexical usage of the root nbt; then I will show that the Nawābit were regarded by al-Fārābī as oppositional; then that they belong to the excellent cities; that their description entails all areas of political activity; that al-Fārābī was aware of the meaning of the name; that he used it in an abstract manner and the reasons for his choosing this particular name for “opposition”. Secondly I will show the earlier use of the name by a real historical group, and finally its later use by Ibn Bājjah

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Articles
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Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society , Volume 121 , Issue 2 , April 1989 , pp. 222 - 251
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Copyright © The Royal Asiatic Society 1989

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References

1 I should like to thank Michael Bonner, Michael Cook, Manfred Halpern, Etan Kohlberg, Prof. W. Madelung, Muhsin Mahdi and Roy Mottahedeh for their help in making the good parts of this paper. For the other parts I admit debt to nobody.

2 Al-Fārābī, 'Ārā 278, 12 as distinct from the philosophers and their followers.

3 In 'Ārā', the term Nawābit appears in a distorted manner as nawā'ib, where it indicates individuals outside the excellent cities. See below, note 69.

4 E. I. J. Rosenthal (1971) p. 53 n. 63.

5 E. I. J. Rosenthal (1955) p. 5 n. 5.

6 Madelung (1965) p. 224.

7 Qur'ān, 71, 17: “Wa-Allah anbatakum min al-arḍ nabātan”

8 Taimiyah, Ibn, Naqd al-mantiq, p. 79, 12Google Scholar.

9 They speak of “lowly and poor man” (Lisān, vol. 2 p. 403, 1) but also of “nobility” (ibid., p.403, 4) and “the young generation” (ibid., p. 402, 4), or “anything fresh” (ibid., vol. 2 p. 401, 6).

10 See note 34 below. Lisān vol. 2 p. 402, 6.

11 E. I. J. Rosenthal, e.g. divides them into four major and two minor groups (1955) p. 170, n. 31.

12 Al-Fārābī, Siyāsat p. 104, 7.

13 The root QNS was also used by two people as a name: Bazar whose mother was called Qanas(?) (Ṭabarī, op. cit. I 1111, 1) and Qanaṣ b. Ma'ād (Ṭabarī, ibid., I 748, 7).

14 Najjar translates this term as “opportunists” in Lerner, and Mahdi, , Political Philosophy, p. 53Google Scholar.

15 See 'Ārā' p. 290, 13 for the generation of improper views in “the [excellent?] cities”.

16 The distinction between views and deeds is an important element in al-Fārābī's writings. E.g., kalām is divided into two parts according to this distinction (Iḥṣā’' al-'ulūm, p. 131, 13).

17 'Ārā', p. 304, 3.

18 'Ārā', p. 492.

19 Siyāsat, p. 104, 10.

20 Al-Dārimī, op. cit. Muqaddimah, 56.

21 Al-Fārābī, , Siyasat, p. 104, 14Google Scholar.

22 Al-Fārābī, , Siyasat, p. 104, 17Google Scholar. The same group, under this name is mentioned in 'Ārā', p.280, 15. Walzer (ibid., p. 282, 22) translates the name as “those who seek the right path”.

23 The term al-Fārābī uses is tazyīf, which in a literal sense would mean “blaming for falsity”; “refutation”. See the definition of kalām (Iḥṣā' p. 131, 10) which consists in “refuting the views that oppose the religion which the mutakallim is set to defend”.

24 Al-Fārābī uses the verb rufī a in the third singular passive voice (Siyāsat, p. 105, 2).

25 This description of the stage of truth corresponds to al-Fārābī's definition of truth in his K. al-Fuṣūṣ, (Haidarabad 1349), p. 21, 18. See also another definition in his k. al-Millah, p. 46, 18.

26 Siyāsat p. 105, 17.

27 Siyāsat p. 105, 13. A group similar to this is mentioned in 'Ārā' p. 282, 6 f.

28 For al-Fārābī's definition of takhayyul see Siyāsat, p. 85, 5: “Representing them (i.e. the principles of existence) means that their representation (khyāt), likeness and things that imitate them be sketched in man's soul”.

29 For al-Fārābī's definition of taṣawwur see Siyāsat p. 85, 4 “. . . their (i.e. the principles of existence) essence (dhāt) be imprinted (yursamu) in man's soul as it is in reality (ḥaqīqah)”.

30 Siyāsat, p. 106, 1.

31 Translated by Walzer in 'Ārā' as “grounds for objection”, e.g. 'Ārā' p. 280, 11.

32 The term ghumr means a boy devoid of intelligence (Lane, op. cit., p. 2292), and it is used by al-Jāḥiẓ in connection with the Ḥashwiyah as traditionists (taqlīd), (Rasā'il, vol. 4, p. 243, 13). In Iḥṣā', 133, 11, the most excellent of men is like al-ṣabī wal-ḥhadath walghumr, compared to those of divine intellects.

33 Siyāsat, p. 106, 9.

34 Siyāsat, p. 106, 12.

35 Siyāsat p. 106, 13.

36 'Iḥṣā p. 71.12. His own definition of “sophists” has to do with distortion of truth rather than with scepticism. Cf. 'Iḥṣā' p. 81, 2.

37 For a condensed description of three schools of scepticism, see al-Baghdādī, Uṣūl, p. 6: one school denies reality (haqīqah) to anything, a second doubts (shakk) the reality of things, and the third claimed that all beliefs (i'tiqādāt) are true.

For the view of the speculative theologians about doubt see Rosenthal, F., Knowledge, p. 302Google Scholar. See also van Ess (1968), p. 1 who refers to Maqālāt, p. 434, 1; Ja'far, Qudāmah ibn, Naqd al-Nathr, Cairo 1938, p. 33, 11Google Scholar; al-Maqdisī, , al-Bad' wal-Ta'rikh, p. 48, 11Google Scholar; 'Abd al-Jabbār, al-Mughnī, XII 41, 1Google Scholar.

38 Al-Jushamī, , Risālah, p. 35, 4Google Scholar.

39 Van Ess (1968) I refers to Ibn 'Abd Rabbihi's al-'Iqd al-Farīd. See his note no. 1 p. 15.

40 al-Nadīm, Ibn, Fihrist p. 70, 4 ffGoogle Scholar.

41 al-Ash'arī, , Maqālāt, (ed. Ritter, ) p. 433, 11 fGoogle Scholar. Van Ess (1968) p. 2 who points to the Hellenistic roots of calling the Sceptics by the name of “Sophists”.

42 Which is known as a Zaidī school, the closest to the Sunnīs.

43 See al-Jushamī, , Risālah, p. 35, 4Google Scholar.

44 Van Ess (1968), p. 7. For the meaning of shukkāk as first applied by the Murji'ah to the Sunnī traditionalists because of their practice of istithnā', i.e. adding in shā' Allāh to the statement “anā mu'min”, see Madelung, , al-Qāsim, 236–7Google Scholar, and ibid., SI32 (1970) 239 ff. Also Ibn Abī Ya'lā, Tabaqāt al-Ḥanābilah, ed. M. M. al-Fiqī, where Ibn Ḥanbal is quoted as stating that the Murji'ah call the ahl al-sunnah “shukkak”. I am indebted to Prof. Madelung for this note.

45 al-Naubakhtī, , Firāq, p. 7, 6Google Scholar.

46 Cf. Cook, Early, p. 45 n. 19Google Scholar, who quotes Shabīb b. ‘Aṭiyah's al-Radd ‘alā-Shukkāk wal-Murji'ah, where the author may also have the traditionalists in mind as sceptics. See Madelung's view that Cook's hypothesis is far-fetched in his review of Cook, , Journal of Theological Studies 33 (1982) pp. 628–33Google Scholar.

47 Cook, M., Early, p. 156Google Scholar.

48 Van Ess, op. cit., p. 11.

49 Kraemer, , Humanism, p. 15Google Scholar.

50 Kraemer, op. cit., p. 181

51 Kraemer, op. cit., p. 189.

52 Van Ess (1968), p. 14

53 See van Ess (1968), p. 10 where he refers to al-Ghazālī, Faḍā'iḥ al-Bātiniyah, p. 80, 11; 13: “When we regard something as a ‘necessity’ and not to be doubted, it is only to afterwards discover that it was nevertheless false”.

54 Kraemer, , Humanism, p. 189Google Scholar.

55 Van Ess (1968), p. 6.

56 See also Kraemer, , Humanism, p. 191Google Scholar.

57 Van Ess (1980), p. 4.

58 Van Ess (1968), p. 3 refers to al-Fārābī's Risālah fimā yanbaghī an yuqaddam qabla ta'allum al-Falsafah, in Schmoelders, Documenta Philosophiae, p. 4, 1–4.

59 Siyāsat. p. 106, 15.

60 Siyāsat. p. 104, 10.

61 ibid.ibid.

62 ibid., p. 105, 7.

63 ibid., p. 106, 15.

64 E.g. the Muḥarrifah, those of ignorant goals and the distressed.

65 'Ārā', p. 252, 15: “In opposition to the Excellent cities is the ignorant city…”

66 E. I. J. Rosenthal suggests the reading of nawābit. See his (1971), p. 204, n. 59.

67 'Ārā' p. 252, 15. See Walzer's note 725 on p. 451.

68 'Ārā' p. 286, 2.

69 'Ārā', p. 290, 13.

70 The term can also mean “detention”. Cf. Lane, , Lexicon, vol 1. p. 2103Google Scholar.

71 Siyāsat, p. 106, 9.

72 In Fuṣūl al-madamī, p. 120, 4, al-Fārābī makes the distinction between the “necessary” (ḍarūriyah) and the “perfect” (fādḍilah) cities. Perhaps this pair of terms is to be interpreted on the quantitative level, i.e. the former means necessary = sine qua non, the other, the superfluous.

73 Siyāsat, p. 104, 7 – “Wa'amma al-Nawābit fi al-mudun al-Jāḍilah…”

74 Siyāsat, p. 106, 3 – “fa-ha 'ūlā' hum aṣnāf al-nābitah fi khilāl ahl al-madinah . . .”

75 'Ārā', p. 52, 2.

76 'Ārā', p. 230, 4.

77 'Ārā', pp. 230, 12–231, 14; see conclusions.

78 Sherwani, op. cit. p. 16, 14 and Mahdi (1975) p. 64.

79 Siyāsat p. 104, 7. See note 65 above.

80 'Ārā' p. 455.

81 'Ārā' p. 472.

82 'Ārā', p. 259, 13; 462.

83 Walzer, 'Ārā', p. 334.

84 Pines (1971), p. 230.

85 Pines (1971), p. 228.

86 This is a common practice with al-Fārābī. See E. Rosenthal (1955), e.g. p. 170.

87 Although Allāh is called Muḥarrif al-gulūb (“The Turner, or Incliner of Hearts”) Lane, s.v. ḤRF. For the negative sense, see Dozy, , Supplem., I, p. £271Google Scholar.

88 Al-Dārimī, , Sunan, Muqaddimah 56Google Scholar. The opposite to this term is taqbīiḥ, used by al-Fārābī in Iḥṣa', e.g. 136, 13 meaning “to refute another's argument”.

89 See Kohlberg (1972) p. 211.

90 ibid., p. 212, 11.

91 ibid., p. 213, 15.

92 ibid., p. 213, 8.

93 Al-Nasafī, op. cit. p. 57. One example of a group that might have been in people's minds in this regard is the Jahmiyah who were accused of distortingly interpreting verse 5, 93 of the Qur'ān so as to allow them to disregard Islamic dietary laws. See Ash'arī, , Maqalat, vol. I, p. 170, 7Google Scholar. On the other hand, in the fourth form the verb is also employed positively, i.e. “serving God as if He were before one's eyes” (Muslim, Iman, (1).) The opposite to this term is taqbīḥ, used by al-Fārābī in Iḥṣā', e.g. 136, 13 meaning “to refute another's argument”.

94 E.g. Dā'ud, Abu, Manasik, 56Google Scholar: “The Qur'ān will come down to him (i.e. the Prophet), and he knows its interpretation (ta'wīl)”.

95 See al-Bukhāri, , Diyat, 6 “Wal-māriq fī al-dīn al-tārik al-jamā'ah”Google Scholar

96 Ibn Abī Hadīd, op. cit., VI, p. 129, 10

97 Al-Tirmidhī, Bab ṣifāt al-māriqah.

98 Al-Jāḥiẓ, Risālah fī al-Nawābit., Rasā'il, vol. 4, p. 243Google Scholar. The other groups being the Rāfiḍite and the Murji 'ite.

99 Ṭabarī, Annales, p. 2235, 10Google Scholar.

100 Al-Ash'ari, , Maqalat, I, 191, 10Google Scholar.

101 Ṭabarī, Annales, p. 2174, 9Google Scholar.

102 Taimiyah, Ibn, Mu'āwiyah, p. 31, 2Google Scholar.

103 Siyāsat, p. 104, 15.

104 Lane, vol. 1, p. 718.

105 Dozy, , Supplem., vol. 1, p. 358Google Scholar.

106 Lisān, s.v. khrj.

107 See Taḥṣīl, e.g. p. 45, 6.

108 See S. Pines (1957)

109 See above, p.5.

110 See Mas'ūdi, , Tanbīh, p. 395, 13Google Scholar.

111 See below, p. 38.

112 Al-Khayyāt, , Intiṣār, p. 55, 15Google Scholar.

113 The group has been the subject of a number of scholarly works since van Vloten published al-Jāḥiẓ's treatise in 1897. In his article he described this group as related to the Mu'tazilah and the Hashwiyah (p. 112), or even as part of them (ibid., p. 113), a view that Halkin adopted (1936, p. 4, n. 5): “without a shadow of a doubt”. The Nawābit in turn are associated with the Sufis and the Karāmiyah (van Vloten, p. 114). For Lecomte (op. cit., p. 338) the Nawābit were identical with the ‘Uthmāniyah, a group that he thought had started at about the same time as the Nawābit.

114 Sometimes attributed to Abū al-Walid Muḥammad b. Aḥmad ibn Abi Da 'ūd. See Majallat Lughat Al-'Arab (1930) as quoted by al-Hajiri, op. cit. p. 191.

115 Pellat (1956), p. 56–7.

116 Al-Jāḥiẓ, , Rasā'il, vol. 1, p. 300, 5Google Scholar.

117 Al-Jāḥiẓ, , R. Fi al-Nābitah, p. 119, 2Google Scholar.

118 Al-Jāḥiẓ, , Hayawān, 2nd ed. vol. 3, p. 130, 4Google Scholar.

119 Al-Jāḥiẓ, , Risālah fī al-Nābitah, p. 112, lOfGoogle Scholar.

120 Liddell, and Scott, , Lexicon, vol. 2, p. 1000Google Scholar. See The New Catholic Encyclopaedia, McGraw-Hill, 1967, vol. 10, p. 333fGoogle Scholar.

121 Al-Jāḥiẓ, , Risālat al-Nubl wal-nubalaā in Rasā'il, vol 2, p. 173, 13Google Scholar.

122 Lambton, op. cit. p. 62.

123 Al-Jāḥiẓ, , R. fī al-Nābitah, p. 122, 2Google Scholar.

124 Dodge, , Fihrist, p. 918Google Scholar.

125 Mas'ūdī, , Murūj, vol. 4, p. 338Google Scholar.

126 Ṭabarī, , Annales, vol. 3, p. 1098Google Scholar; Mas'ūdī, , Murūj, vol. 7, p. 91Google Scholar; See Pellat (1965) p. 55.

127 Sourdel (1962) p. 39.

128 A governor who had been appointed to his post by al-Ma'mūn.

129 Al-Khaṭib, al-Baghdādī, Ta'rīkh Baghdād, vol. 12Google Scholar.

130 Al-Ma 'mūn appointed his successor 'Alī ibn Ja'far Ibn M. b. 'Alī b. Ḥusain b. ‘Alī Ibn abī Ṭālib, a direct offspring to 'Alī, in disregard of both the ‘Abbasids and the other 'Alawites.

131 Ṭabarī, , Annales, p. III, 1026, 8Google Scholar.

132 And in particular in Wāsit. See Madelung (1965) p. 224.

133 Al-Khayyāt, , Intiṣār, p. 102, 2 (”al-fi'ah al-baghiyah min ahl al-sha'm”)Google Scholar.

134 al-Baghdādī, Al-Khaṭīb, Ta'rīkh, vol. 12, p. 464Google Scholar.

135 Aghānī, XXIII, 50, 8.

136 Mas'ūdī, , Tanbīh, 273, 13Google Scholar. Naming our group in this context is quite curious. It may be explained by a scribal error, a name shared by two different groups or by retroactive attribution of the name to 'Alī.

137 Al-Khayyāt, , K. al-intiṣār, p. 68, 10Google Scholar.

138 See p. 31 below.

139 Qutaibah, Ibn, Ta'wīl. Cairo 1966, p. 80Google Scholar

140 Mas'ūdī, , Tanbih, Beirut 1965, p. 337Google Scholar

141 Al-Khayyāṭ repeatedly quotes “those of the Nawābit who theologize (man takallama min al-Nawābit) e.g. p. 22, 5.

142 Al-Jāḥiẓ, , Risālah, p. 119, 9Google Scholar. E. Rosenthal (1971) p. 53, n. 63. Al-Ḥanafī, , al-Farq, p. 40, 13Google Scholar.

143 Cf. also Lambton, op. cit. p. 63.

144 The connection between Mu'āwiyah and the stem NBT is indicated in Lisān, vol. 2, p. 402, 8, where the noun Nabitah is used in a general way.

In the context of the positive attitude towards Mu'awiyah, another name was used with the same connotation as “Nabitah”, namely “nāshi'ah”. See Salim, Sīrat, in Cook, , Early, p. 160, 15Google Scholar. Could these two names be related?

145 Al-Ḥanafi, , al-Farq, p. 40, 13Google Scholar.

146 Quoted in al-Hajiri, op. cit. p. 191, note 1 from al-munyah wal-'amal, on the authority of al-Jubbā'ī. See also al-Murtadā, Ibn, Tabaqāt, p. 82Google Scholar. See Madelung, , al-Qasim, p. 227Google Scholar.

147 Hajiri, op. cit. p. 189. Funnily enough, the most outspoken supporter of Mu'āwiyah was, reportedly, al-Asamm the Mu'tazilite who claimed that 'Alī had never been an Imam and that there was no necessity that an Imam should be in the world.

148 Tabarī, , Annales p. 2167, 12Google Scholar.

149 Pellat (1956) p. 58.

150 Pellat (1956) pp. 56–7.

151 For him see Mas'ūdī, , Murūj, vol. 4, p. 316 ffGoogle Scholar.

152 Pellat (1956) p. 55; Ṭabarī, , Annales, vol. 3, p. 1098Google Scholar; 2164; Mas'ūdī, , Murūj, vol. 7, p. 90Google Scholar; Baihaqī, , Maḥāsin, p. 151Google Scholar.

153 Named after al-Ḥasan b. 'Ali b. Khalaf a. M. al Barbahārī (d. 387/997). See H. Laoust in El 2, vol. 1, pp. 1039–1040.

154 Aḥsan al-taqāsim, p. 126, 14. Other groups who took up the issue of Mu'āwiyah in a like manner to that of the Nawābit were the Shāfi'iyah who claimed that Mu'awiyah belonged to the people of paradise. (Safadī, , al-Ghaith, vol. 1, p. 165, 15)Google Scholar, and the Ḥanbalites whom Maqdisī blamed for excessive love towards Mu'āwiyah (Maqdisī, Bad', p. 126) and ahl al-sunnah wal-hadīth, (Lecomte, op. cit. p. 337).

155 Al-Jāḥiẓ, , Risālah, p. 3Google Scholar; Ibn Taimiyah, Yazid, p. 21, 9.

156 Pellat (1956) p. 59.

157 Among the philosophers, Ibn Rushd agreed with the view that with Mu'āwiyah the Caliphate had deteriorated into timocracy = mulk. See Ibn Rushd, (1956), p. 223; 291. This view is in line with traditional political thought in Islam. See e.g., Ibn al-Ṭiqtaqā, Fakhrī, p. 102.

158 Lecomte, op. cit. p. 338.

159 Houtsma, , ZA 26 (1911) p. 196Google Scholar.

160 Halkin, op. cit. p. 3.

161 Lecomte, op. cit. p. 337.

162 See E. I. J. Rosenthal, (1956) p. 290, who refers to Rushd's, IbnTalkhīṣ Siyāsat Aflātūn. The same attitude in al-Jaḥiẓ, Risālah, p. 117, 13 fGoogle Scholar.

163 Election of the Imām is practised by the Shūrā, and was advocated by a faction of the Zaidites. See Maqalat I p. 135, 1.

164 Al-Khayyāṭ, , Intiṣār, p. 102, 1Google Scholar. The solidarity is that agreed on by the Mu'tazilah and other Sunnites with all the companions except for Mu'āwiyah, who was only supported by al-Nābitah and al-fi'ah al-bāghiyah min ahl al-Sha'm. I am indebted to Prof. Madelung for this remark.

165 Al-Jāḥiẓ, , Risālah, p. 119, 4Google Scholar. Al-Khayyāt, , Intiṣār, p. 105, 14Google Scholar.

166 For the views of the Rāfiṣite on this issue see Maqālāt, I, 102, 12. The views of the Nawabit on anthropomorphism correspond to those of ahlal-ḥadīth wal-sunnah, ibid. I, 320 ff. The Nābitahshare anthropomorphistic views with the Rawāfiḍ, and both are clear heresy. [al-Jāḥiẓ, , al-Qur'ān, Khalq, Rasa'il, III, 296, 13]Google Scholar; ibid. [al-Jāḥiẓ, al-Radd''alā al-naṣārā, I, 300, 4, ibid, ibid. 351.]

167 al-Jāḥiẓ, , al-Radd:alā al-naṣārā, Rasā'il, III, 351Google Scholar.

168 Al-Isfarā'inī, op. cit. p. 100, 2.

169 On the controversy regarding the creation of the Qur'ān in the period that preceded the Mihnah, see Madelung (1985), especially p. 617 n.

170 Al-Jāḥiẓ, , Risālah, p. 121, 2Google Scholar.

171 Al-Kh'ayyāt, , Intiṣār, p. 55, 15Google Scholar.

172 Madelung, (1985) p. 121 where he also refers to van Vloten. See also Sourdel (1962) p. 45.

173 Al-Mas'ūdī, , Tanbīh, p. 273, 13fGoogle Scholar.

174 Mas'ūdī, , Tanbīh, p. 337, 7Google Scholar. The views of the Nawābit correspond, although with a difference, to the report in Maqālāt I, p. 321.

175 Al-Khayyāt, , Intiṣsār, p. 105, 15Google Scholar.

176 al-Nadīm, Ibn, Fihrist, (English translation), I, p. 446, 3Google Scholar.

177 Zimmermann, Introduction to his edition of De int. pp. cxi and cxvi. Compare al-Fārābī's, definitions of choice (ikhtiyār)in ffa, p. 124, 4Google Scholar; Siyāsat p. 72, 9 and 'Ārā p. 205, 14 which certainly accept human choice.

178 Al-Jāḥiẓ, , Risālah, p. 120, 22Google Scholar. Cf. Maqālāt, vol. 1, p. 322, 23 for the attribution of this position to aṣḥāb al-ḥadith wa-aht al-sunnah.

179 For God's ability to do injustice, see al-Ash'arī, , Maqālāt, I, p. 138, 19 ffGoogle Scholar. where part of the Zaidiyah is described as holding this view. The main discussion though, is that of the Mu'tazilite views on the topic (ibid. I, p. 252 ff.). Even some Mu'tazilites agreed that Allāh is capable of doing injustice, e.g. al-Iskāfi (ibid. I, p. 253, 13).

180 Al-Jāḥiẓ, , Risālah, p. 119, 9; 14Google Scholar

181 For his detailed position on the issue, as well as that of the other Mu'tazilites, see R. Frank, “Can God do what is wrong?”

182 Al-Khayyāṭ, , Intiṣār, p. 22, 4Google Scholar.

183 Al-Khayyaṭ, , Intiṣār, p. 22, 22Google Scholar.

184 Al-Khayyaṭ, , Intiṣār, p. 22, 4Google Scholar.

185 Al-Khayyaṭ, , Intiṣār, p. 59, 18Google Scholar.

186 Al-Khayyaṭ, , Intiṣār, p. 105, 17Google Scholar. The same idea, this time in reference to the similarity between the Mu'tazilah and aṣḥāb al-ḥadith, ibid. p. 101, 21.

187 See above, pp. 11; 21; 30; 36; 37.

188 E.g. al-jāḥiẓfī, , Khalqal-Qur'ān, Rasā'il, vol. 1, p. 287, 14 fGoogle Scholar; al-Jushamī, K. al-'Ūyūn fi alradd 'alā ahl al-bida', MS. Ambrosiana B66 fol. 12a; ibid., k. fi Naṣīḥat al-'āmmah, MS. Ambrosiana C5 fol. 23a as quoted by Modarisī, H. in al-Jushamī, , Risālah, p. 8, n. 1Google Scholar. I am grateful to Prof. Modarisī for giving me his edition of the book.

189 Of the leaders of the Mu'tazilah. In prison, where he was jailed by Harun, he composed poems on justice, Tauḥīd and Wa'īd.

190 Al-Jāḥiḥ, , Ḥayawān, vol. 6, p. 62, 10Google Scholar.

191 Al-Jāḥiḥ, , fī Khalq al-Qur'ān, in Rasā'il, vol. 1, p. 296, 13Google Scholar.

192 Rosenthal (1955), p. 25.

193 Bājjah, Ibn, Tadbīr, p. 43, 1Google Scholar.

194 Bājjah, Ibn, Tadbīr, p. 43, 9Google Scholar. See also E. I. J. Rosenthal, (1971), p. 51, n. 23.

195 Al-Fārābī, , Fuṣūl muntaza'ah, p. 95, 12Google Scholar.

196 Bājjah, Ibn, Tadbīr, p. 42, 17Google Scholar.

197 Bājjah, Ibn, Tadbīr, p. 42, 18Google Scholar.

198 Except for one instance where Ibn Bājjah uses al-Fārābī's term. Tadbīr, p. 41, 3.

199 Bājjah, Ibn, Tadbīr, p. 43, 3Google Scholar.

200 Bājjah, Ibn, Tadbīr, p. 43, 1Google Scholar.

201 Bajjāh, Ibn, Tadbīr, p. 42, 14Google Scholar.

202 Bajjāh, Ibn, Tadbīr, p. 57, 9Google Scholar.

203 Bājjah, Ibn, Tadbīr, p. 43, 5Google Scholar.

204 This view stands in opposition to Rosenthal's assertion that “al-Fārābī had a purely theoretical interest in politics as a part of practical philosophy” [(1956), p. 199].

205 Mahdi (1971) p. 524.

206 On the whole, a process similar to that was undergone by the Rāfḍdite. See Kohlberg (1972).

207 Mahdi, M., “Science, philosophy and religion in al-Fārābi's enumeration of the sciences”, in Murdoch, J. E. and Sylla, Edith Dudley (edit.) The Cultural Context of Medieval Learning, Dordrecht-Boston, pp. 113–47, especially pp. 131–37Google Scholar.