The Political Attitudes of the Mu'tazilah

W. Montgomery Watt

doi:10.1017/S0035869X00121392

The Political Attitudes of the Mu'tazilah

Published online by Cambridge University Press: 15 March 2011

W. Montgomery Watt

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The following is an attempt to gain a deeper understanding of Mu'tazilite theology by looking at the political attitudes of its exponents. I am much indebted to H. S. Nyberg's pioneer work, notably his article Mu'tazila in the Encyclopedia of Islam and his edition of Kitāb al-Intiṣār. If different conclusions are reached, that is because his work has made possible a more radical estimate of the sources.

Type: Articles
Information: Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society , Volume 95 , Issue 1-2 , April 1963 , pp. 38 - 57

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/S0035869X00121392 [Opens in a new window]
Copyright: Copyright © The Royal Asiatic Society 1963

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References

^{page 38 note 1} Cf. Free Will and Predestination in Early Islam, London, 1948, 100Google Scholar.

^{page 38 note 2} 'Asākir, Ibn, Tabyīn Kadhib al-Muftarī, 383fGoogle Scholar.

^{page 38 note 3} Ibn Taymiyyah, 'Aqidah Ḥamawiyyah, cf. Schreiner, M., ZDMG., liii, 72f.Google Scholar; lii. 544.

^{page 39 note 1} GALS., i, 310, no. 7; Laoust, H., Essai sur . . . Aḥmad b. Taimīya, 172, 261Google Scholar, Cf. adh-Dhahabī, , Tadhkirāt al-Ḥuffāẓ, Hyderabad, 1956, ii. 414 (s.v. al-Ḥumaydl)Google Scholar.

^{page 39 note 2} GALS., i, 186, 16; 348, no. 7a (al-Malaṭī); 310, no. 3a.

^{page 39 note 3} Edited by G. Vitestam, Lund, 1960.

^{page 39 note 4} As-Subki, , Ṭabaqāt, ii. 238Google Scholar; Ibn-Abī-'l-Wafā', , al-Jawāhir al-Muḍi'ah, i. p. 52Google Scholar.

^{page 39 note 5} GALS., i. 281 (p).

^{page 39 note 6} Laoust, H., La Profession de Foi d'lbn Baṭṭa, text 91, tr. 167–9Google Scholar.

^{page 39 note 7} Creed quoted by Laoust, , Profession, 50n. 2Google Scholar.

^{page 39 note 8} Al-Malaṭī, , Tanbīh, 75–7Google Scholar.

^{page 39 note 9} Intiṣār, 126.

^{page 40 note 1} Ibid., 134.

^{page 40 note 2} The Muslim Creed, 104, 122–24.

^{page 40 note 3} Abī-'l-Wafā', IbnJawāhir, i. no. 23Google Scholar.

_{page 40 note 4} Ibid., no. 61.

^{page 40 note 5} Cf., El (2), s.v. “Djahm”. It should be noted, though there is probably no connection, that Abū 'l-Hudhayl had contacts with a Muḥammad ibn-Jahm al-Barmakī, Qutaybah, Ibn, Ta'wil . . . Ḥadīth, 53Google Scholar, 60f. Cf. Pellat, , Milieu Basrien, 67Google Scholar.

^{page 41 note 1} Patton, W. M., Aḥmedb. Hanbal and the Miḥna, Leiden, 1897Google Scholar; A. J. Wensinck, art. “Miḥna” in El (1).

^{page 41 note 2} Al-Farq bayn al-Firaq, 200.

^{page 41 note 3} Pines, S., Beiträge zur islamischen Atomenlehre, 124–33Google Scholar; G. Vitestam, op. cit., 15.

^{page 42 note 1} Ibn Khallikān, no. 514.

^{page 42 note 2} Al-Ash'arī, , Ibānah, 73fGoogle Scholar. (discussed in Free Will and Predestination, 49f.); K. al-Luma' (ed. McCarthy), §120f.; ash-Shahrastānī, , Milal, (Cairo, 1948), i. 57fGoogle Scholar. (at beginning of notice of Mu'tazilah).

^{page 43 note 1} Islam and the Integration of Society, 121f. For the following distinction of parties, cf. Massignon, L., Passion, i. 204Google Scholar.

^{page 44 note 1} Ibid., esp. 204–6; “The Conception of the Charismatic Community in Islam”, Numen, vii (1960), 77–90Google Scholar.

^{page 45 note 1} Gabrieli, F., “La successione di Hārūn ar-Rašid . . .;”, RSO., xi. 341–97Google Scholar, esp. 395f.; Al-Ma'mūn e gli 'Alidi, Leipzig, 1929, 29fGoogle Scholar.

^{page 45 note 2} EI (2), s.v.

^{page 45 note 3} Ibn-Abī 'l-Wafā', Jawāhir, i. no. 1146.

^{page 45 note 4} Gabrieli, , RSO., xi. 354fGoogle Scholar.

^{page 46 note 1} Cf. Integration, 122.

^{page 46 note 2} Cf. R. Walzer, in Radhakrishnan, S., Philosophies East and West, i, 125fGoogle Scholar.

^{page 46 note 3} Al-Mas'ūdī, , Murūj, vi. 370Google Scholar.

^{page 46 note 4} Ibid., viii. 301; EI(2) s.v. “Abū 'l-Hudhayl”.

^{page 47 note 1} Al-Ash'arī, , Maqālāt, ii. 456f., 453Google Scholar; an-Nawbakhtī, , Shi'ah, 13fGoogle Scholar.

^{page 48 note 1} Similarly the Zaydiyyah (see below) are not men planning to revolt under a descendant of Zayd.

^{page 48 note 2} Ed. Vitestam, 99.

^{page 49 note 1} An-Nawbakhtī, 43. The possibility that the Rāfidites wanted a purely spiritual imamate, though not mentioned, has not been overlooked. The whole question needs much further investigation.

^{page 50 note 1} Mentioned together as upholders of the 'Uthmānite doctrine by al-Iskāfī in Ibn, Abl'-Ḥadīd, Sharḥ Nahj al-Balāghah, al-Jāḥiẓ, ap., 'Uthmāniyyah, Cairo, 1955, 305Google Scholar.

^{page 50 note 2} Qutaybah, Ibn (d. 889), Ta'wil . . . Ḥadith, 71Google Scholar. In 'Uthmāniyyah, 176, the ‘Uthmānites are said to be mostly jurists and Traditionists.

^{page 50 note 3} Al-Ashāpos;arī, , Maqālāt, ii. 457, 453Google Scholar.

^{page 50 note 4} Ibid., 460, 456.

^{page 50 note 5} 'Uthmāniyyah, 176.4.

^{page 51 note 1} Al-Ash'arī, , Maqālāt, ii. 459Google Scholar. He also held (ib. 463) that Baghdad was dār kufr.

^{page 51 note 2} Intiṣār, 89; Milāl, i. 259f. Cf. Massignon, L. in Der Islam, iii (1912), 409Google Scholar.

^{page 52 note 1} Intiṣār, 134; 'Uthmāniyyah, 265.10. For the sources of the heresiographers see Ritter, H. in Der Islam, xviii. 34ffGoogle Scholar.

^{page 52 note 2} An-Nawbakhtī, 11.16.

^{page 52 note 3} Al-Malaṭī, , Tanbīh, 30Google Scholar; Massignon, L., Essai . . . Lexique Technique², 167Google Scholar; see also Free Will and Predestination, 104.

^{page 53 note 1} Intiṣār, 126.

^{page 54 note 1} The Mu'tazilah in general approved of armed operations where these were likely to be successful — al-Ash'arī, , Maqālāt, ii. 451Google Scholar. Early statements of the conception of the manzilah are Intiṣār, 164f.; al-Ash'arī, , Maqālāt, i. 270.1Google Scholar.

^{page 54 note 2} An-Nawbakhtī, 11f.; Intiṣār, 97f.

^{page 54 note 3} Nyberg, art. “Mu'tazila”, EI (1); Pellat, C., Le Milieu Baṣrien, 175fGoogle Scholar. Nyberg's more recent treatment of 'Amr ibn 'Ubayd in the Bordeaux Symposium (Classicisme et Déclin Culturel, Paris, 1957, 125–36Google Scholar, esp. 127) makes clear the dependence of his theory on the interpretation of the verses.

^{page 55 note 1} eg., Ghaylān; cf. Munyah, ed. Arnold, 33.5, 14; 35.3; 69.15; an-Nawbakhtī, 9 foot.

^{page 55 note 2} e.g., Maqālāt, i. 132–41, 266–70.

^{page 56 note 1} Cf., Intiṣār, 89.

^{page 56 note 2} EI (1) art. “Mu'tazila: for another instance cf. at-Tibrīzī, , Sharḥ al-Ḥamāsah, Būlāq, 1296, ii. 36Google Scholar.

^{page 56 note 3} Intiṣār, 126.

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