Skip to main content Accessibility help

We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.

Close cookie message
×
  1. Home
  2. Search

Refine search

Refine search

Access:
Content type:
Publication date:
Apply   From and To filters
Subject: Show more
Journals Show more
Publishers: Show more
Societies Show more
Series: Show more
Collections: Show more

Actions for selected content:

Select all | Deselect all
  • View selected items
  • Export citations
  • Download PDF (zip)
  • Save to Kindle
  • Save to Dropbox
  • Save to Google Drive

Save Search

You can save your searches here and later view and run them again in "My saved searches".

Please provide a title, maximum of 40 characters.
Cancel
×

2 results

  • 3 - The Life of Mūsā b. Ja‘far al-Kāẓim (d. 183/799)

  • Najam Haider, Barnard College, New York
  • Book:
    The Rebel and the Imãm in Early Islam
    Published online:
    06 September 2019
    Print publication:
    19 September 2019, pp 115-192

  • Summary

    This chapter is centered on the biography of Musa al-Ka?im (d. 183/799). Sunni historical chronicles utilized al-Ka?im to highlight the deterioration of the relationship between the ‘Abbasids and the ‘Alids. Many chroniclers integrated these familial tensions into a broad narrative detailing the rise and fall of ‘Abbasid power. Sunni biographical works, by contrast, included al-Ka?im in a wider community of pious scholars, focusing on his generosity and piety. Zaydi authors focused almost exclusively on court and caliphal politics, citing al-Ka?im’s refusal to support the rebellion at Fakhkh to compare him unfavorably with Ya?ya b. ‘Abd Allah. Twelver authors appropriated malleable narrative elements to craft interpretive frameworks that reflected the community’s political and social conditions. Overall, the chapter highlights the fact that all Muslim historians operated within the presuppositions of rhetoricized historiography with no real methodological difference between those of Sunni and Shi‘i backgrounds.

The Rebel and the Imãm in Early Islam
  • Najam Haider
  • Published online:
    06 September 2019
    Print publication:
    19 September 2019
  • Engaging with contemporary debates about the sources that shape our understanding of the early Muslim world, Najam Haider proposes a new model for Muslim historical writing that draws on Late Antique historiography to challenge the imposition of modern notions of history on a pre-modern society. Haider discusses three key case studies - the revolt of Mukhtar b. Abi 'Ubayd (d. 67/687), the life of the Twelver Shi'i Imam Musa al-Kazim (d. 183/799) and the rebellion and subsequent death of the Zaydi Shi'i Imam Yahya b. 'Abd Allah (d. 187/803) - in calling for a new line of inquiry which focuses on larger historiographical questions. What were the rules that governed historical writing in the early Muslim world? What were the intended audiences for these works? In the process, he rejects artificial divisions between Sunni and Shi'i historical writing.