The period of the Umayyad Caliphate is the most significant in shaping the final appearance of Islamic civilization. The Rashidun Caliphate had kickstarted the process; the Umayyad Caliphate accelerated it. By the end of this period, the religion of Islam had attained its final configuration as we know it today. The Qur’an already had its universally recognized standard version. Ma’mar bin Rashid (Ma’mar bin Rashīd مَعمَر بِن راشِد) finished writing Hadith, Ibn Ishaq concluded sirah, Malik wrote jurisprudence, Zuhri had written history of Islam. Some of these works were published during the early years of the Abbasid Caliphate but their authors had compiled them during the last decades of the Umayyad Caliphate.
The period of the Umayyad Caliphate is the most significant in terms of the further development of the religion of Islam. Hawting observes that the spread of Islam and the development of Islam took place at the same time during the Umayyad period.1
Final version of Shahada
After studying all available examples of the Shahādah in early archaeological sources, Bacharach and Anwar point out that many different versions of the Shahada have been used over time by Muslims. Not only this, they point out that there were contemporary regional variations during the times of the Umayyad Caliphate. They take “There is no God except Allah; Muhammad is the Apostle of Allah” (لا الله اله محمد الرسول الله) as the final version. 2 Anyhow, two basic concepts were part of each version of the Shahada, one that there is no God except Allah and two, Muhammad is his Prophet. Bacharach and Anwar do not know why there were various versions of Shahada. They suggest that the addition of words to the basic concepts was in response to the neighboring religio-political groups. The main non-Muslim group in Egypt was the Christians who believed in the Holy Trinity. Egyptian Muslims used ‘waḥduhū lā sharīk’ in their Shahada to emphasize their monotheism. 3
Qur’an – a stable manuscript
The Qur’an was already in written form during the lifetime of Prophet Muhammad. The Rashidun Caliphate took measures to compile all of its material in the form of a book and to preserve only one official version. 4 The Qur’an was widely available in a written form throughout the Umayyad Caliphate. The proof is numerous Qur’an manuscripts belonging to the first Islamic century preserved in libraries all over the world. 5 None of them are dated.6 The question is how to know exactly in which year an early Qur’anic manuscript was written? 7 There are two basic methods to determine the date of a particular manuscript. One is paleography and the other is carbon dating. Both have their downsides. Paleography can determine the age of a manuscript to the precision of a quarter of a century but it is mainly subjective. A paleographer takes into account the material on which it is written, the style of writing, the ink used, the design of the page and many other parameters to determine the age of a manuscript. His conclusion is always open to debate. Carbon dating is laboratory based and objective but not precise. Its maximum power to date a manuscript is within a span of a century. 8 The most precise carbon dating of an ancient manuscript of the Qur’an with confidence interval of 95% is 77 years. 9 The combination of both dating methods establishes to near certainty that the Qur’anic Manuscripts believed to be from first Islamic century are in fact from that century. A Manuscript by name of Or. 2165 is preserved in the British Library. 10 A few of its pages are present in Bibliotheque Nationale Paris and Dār al-Athar al-Islāmiyyah Kuwait. It contains about 53% of the total Qur’anic text. DAM 01-29.1 is a Qur’anic manuscript lodged in Dār al Makhṭūtāt San’a. 11 This manuscript contains about 22% of the Qur’anic text. Another manuscript from the first Islamic century by the name of Arabe 328 is preserved in the Bibliotheque Nationale Paris. 12 Some of its folios are also present in the National Library of Russia in St. Petersburg. Few folios are at the Bibliotheca Apostolica Vaticana in Vatican City and the Nasser D. Khalili Collection of Islamic Art in London. The manuscript contains about 46% of the Qur’anic text. The combined contents of Or. 2165, DAM 01-29.1 and Arabe 328 make about 80% of the Qur’anic text as we know it from ‘Cairo Edition’. Actually about 96.1% of the Qur’anic text can be traced to the first Islamic century if we take into account the contents of other first century manuscripts as well.13
Tashkent manuscript of the Qur’an. 14
Variant versions of the Qur’an
We do not hear of any permanent regulatory body at the government level in the Umayyad Caliphate entrusted to supervise the copying of the Qur’an. Tabari gives hints that variant versions of the Qur’an might have survived in the Umayyad Caliphate. Once a Shi’a Ali came in the grand mosque of Kufa. He blamed the people present that they insist upon holding people back from the family of Muhammad and commend Na’thal (Uthman) who rent the books of the Qur’an. One person present there by the name of Suwayd bin Ghaflan, who was apparently Ahl al Jami’ah, answered that he himself had heard Ali saying that “do not call Uthman ‘him who ripped up the books of the Quran’. By Allah, he ripped them up only after consultation with us, the Companions of Muhammad. Had I come across them, (other manuscripts of the Quran) I would have done them as he did. 15. It means Ahl al Jami’ah strongly recommended Uthmanic version of the Qur’an, while the Shi’a Ali doubted its authenticity and had access to other versions.
Archaeological evidence confirms that variant Qur’an versions were present in the Umayyad Caliphate. A Qur’an manuscript dating from first Islamic century is present in Āstān-i Quds Mashhad Iran. 16 The arrangement of Sūrahs was that of Ibn Mas’ud in the original text, which was later changed to confirm with the Uthmanic arrangement.
The variations in the Qur’an manuscripts from first Islamic century and its causes are under intense research.
Qur’an – a common heritage
When Abu Muslim al-Khorasani entered Merv on January 27, 748 CE, Lieutenant Governor Nasr bin Sayyar was still perplexed about the intentions of Abu Muslim. Abu Muslim sent Lāhiz bin Qurayz to summon him. Nasr got a clue from the delegate that Abu Muslim had made up his mind to kill him. He left his residence with the excuse to make ablutions, took his horse and fled. When the delegate came back, Abu Muslim asked the members about what had made Nasr suspicious. They told that Lahiz had recited this verse of the Quran “the council are conspiring to kill you” (Qur’an 28:20). Abu Muslim shouted “Lāhiz! Would you corrupt religion?” Abu Muslim ordered execution of Lahiz by cutting off his head. 17 It appears that Lahiz wished to favour Nasr. He did not spill the intentions of his master to Nasr. Instead, he recited a verse of the Quran to give Nasr a clue. Lahiz must have thought that Abu Muslim would consider it a benign recitation of the holy book, appropriate for the occasion, and would never know Lahiz’s betrayal. The story sheds a light on one phenomenon. The Qur’an was widely understood and its passages were used in daily conversation. Actually, early Islamic sources of history are full of such incidences where the speaker uttered a few words from the Qur’an interspersed into a sentence and the listener understood just by their sequence that they were Qur’anic.
Archaeologists have discovered a number of inscriptions that are passages from the Qur’an. Some of them are dated. The scribor has only etched a few words without any lucid reference to the Qur’an. The scribe’s understanding must be that the reader could identify them to be Qur’anic just by their sequence. An inscription found near Mecca in modern Saudi Arabia was written in 699 CE by someone ‘Uthmān bin Wahran. It reads, “Oh David, We have indeed made you a vicegerent (khalīfah) on earth so judge (litaḥakkum) between men in justice, and do not follow your desires which will mislead you from the path of Allah. Verily, for those who have forgotten the Day of Reckoning.” This was inscribed by ‘Uthmān bin Wahran in the year eighty.” The discoverer of the inscription considers it to be the complete Qur’an 38:26.18 Uthman bin Wahran appears to be politically motivated and a supporter of the sitting government.
Some verses of the Qur’an used more than others
It appears from the analysis of archaeological evidence that certain verses of the Qur’an were used more often than others. An inscription sketched on a rock face at Jabal Usays in modern Syria in 711 CE is simply “Allāho lāilāhah illa huwal ḥayyi ul qauūm.” (Qur’an 2:255). 19
Reading Qur’an a pious activity
The early Islamic tradition of reading the Qur’an as worship continued in the Umayyad Caliphate. The people who were known to read the Qur’an with regularity received respectful positions in society. 20
Miscellaneous uses of the Qur’an
In addition to reading the Qur’an as an act of worship and getting its guidance in religious matters, Muslims were using the Qur’an for many other purposes.
Abu ‘Ali Ibn Rushtah visited the Prophet’s Mosque during his pilgrimage in 903 CE. His account has survived. He describes an inscription on the wall around the mosque that extended from Bab Marwan (Bab al-Salam) in the western wall around the southwestern corner and across the qiblah wall, then around the southeastern corner of the Bab ‘Ali (Bab Jibril). Ibn Rushtah reports that the inscription starts with Umm al-Qur’ān, that is surah I, complete, then continues with “wa-al-Shams wa-dhuḥaha” through “Qul a’ūdhu be Rabb in nās” to the end, thus the complete texts of surah 91 to 114. 21 An anonymous traveller from Spain visited the Haramayn between 920 and 929 CE. He also confirms that the inscriptions consisted of ‘the short chapters’ of the Qur’an. 22 This inscription belonged to the reconstruction of the mosque sponsored by Walid bin Abd al Malik and carried out between 706 and 710 by the governor of the city Umar bin Abdul Aziz. The Qur’an was inscribed on the walls of iconic buildings. It served a dual purpose. It reminded the reader of the Qur’anic injunctions and served as a mural. The use of the Qur’an to take a solemn oath has already been emphasized.23
Did Abdul Malik codify the Qur’an?
In the second decade of the last century, Mingana floated a novel idea. He proposed that the Qur’an was codified for the first time during the reign of Abdul Malik rather than during the reign of Uthman bin Affan. 24 This idea has still not died out. Furthering the same idea, Wansgrough argues that the very nature of the Qur’anic text suggests that it consists of many different traditions that had long periods of transmission independently. Over time, limited numbers of rhetorical conventions unified them. He believes that the Qur’an could not have been a coherent text before the very end of eight century CE the earliest. 25 Lately, Nevo has joined the club by trying to build his case based upon archaeological evidence.26
A report of the inscriptions written on the Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem by Berchem in 1927 intensified the debate rather than settling it. 27 The inscription contains many passages from the Qur’an and is the oldest known dated portion of the Qur’an. When the inscription is read as a whole, it has subtle variations from the Cairo Edition of the Qur’an. 28
This variance gives enough material to Crone and Cook to claim that the Qur’an was not codified in its present shape at least up to 691 CE.29 Rejecting this hypothesis, Whelan suggests that the inscriptions on the Dome of the Rock are not meant to be pure passages of the Qur’an. Instead, they are actually sermons aimed at Christians interspersed with passages from the Qur’an. 30 Whalen might be correct. We know from Islamic sources that Muslims had an established practice of modifying passages from the Qur’an to fit into the theme of an inscription. 31 Not only this, they had a habit of modifying passages of the Qur’an to fit into poetic rhyme. 32 Pious circles always frowned upon this practice.33
A passage from the Qur’an was used on the outer walls of the Mosque of the Prophet by Caliph Walid bin Abdul Malik. 34 This inscription suggests to Whelan that the sequence of surahs from 91 to 114 had already been established by 710 CE. Probably, the entire Quran from long to short surah had been adopted. Finally, surahs 1 and 113, 114 which Abdullah bin Mas’ud considered not part of the Qur’an, had already been incorporated into the text. 35
Beautification of the Qur’anic manuscripts
The Qur’an was not only a scripture guiding the Muslim people of the Umayyad Caliphate in spiritual matters. It was a cultural relic. Copiers tried their best to write the Qur’an in their most beautiful calligraphy. 36 The beautification of the manuscript was not limited to calligraphy. The Great Umayyad Quran (Codex S.an’ā DAM 20-33.1) was discovered in Sana’a and is on display at Dār al-Makhṭūṭāt San’a in Yemen. It belongs to the period of Walid bin Abdul Malik. 37 It has a unique sketch of paradise and a mosque on its front pages before it starts with sūrah fātihah.
Tombstone of ‘Abbasah
Line 1: بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم
Line 2: ان اعظم مصايب اهل الآ
Line 3: سلام مصيبتهم بالنبى محمد
Line 4: صلى الله عليه و سلم
Line 5: هذا قبر عباسة ابنت
Line 6: جريح (؟) بن سند (؟) رحمت الله
Line 7: و مغفرته و رضوانه عليها
Line 8: توفيت يوم الآثنين لآربع
Line 9: عشر خلون من ذى القعدة
Line 10: سنة (؟) احدى و سبعين
Line 11: وهى تشهد الا اله الا الله
Line 12: وحده لاشريك له و ان
Line 13: محمد ا عبده و رسوله
Line 14: صلي الله عليه و سلم
These are the wording inscribed on the tombstone of a certain ‘Abāssah bint Juraij found in a cemetery near Aswan in 1932 CE. It is currently lodged in the Cairo Museum of Arab Art. (Number: 9291). Its English translation is: “In the name of Allah, the Merciful, the Compassionate. The great calamity of the people of Islām (ahl al-Islām) is that which has fallen them on the death of Muḥammad the Prophet; may Allah grant him peace. This is the tomb of ‘Abāssah daughter of Juraij (?), son of (?) Sanad. May clemency forgiveness and satisfaction of Allah be on her. She died on Monday fourteen days have elapsed from Dhul-Qa’dah of the year one and seventy, confessing that there is no God but Allah alone without partner and that Muḥammad is His servant and His apostle, may Allah grant him peace.” 38
Tombstone of Abasa.39
Central position of Prophet Muhammad in Islam
A commemorative plaque was found from the waters of the Sea of Galilee opposite Kibbutz Ma’agan in modern Israel, and is currently housed in Israel Museum Tel Aviv. The inscription is dated but part of the slab containing date is broken. From the partial surviving date and from the events mentioned on the slab, it has been dated precisely to 73 AH (692/693 CE). It is a notice of construction of a road through a difficult pass from government funding during the reign of Abdul Malik. The starting phrase of the plaque is “bismillāh [irraḥmān] irraḥīm, lā Ilāhah illallāho waḥhahū lā Sharīka lahu, Muḥammad urrasūl ullāh.”41, 42 Despite the scarcity of space on the slab, the government was not satisfied without mentioning Prophet Muhammad after the mention of Allah.
Lengthy Islamic formula mentioning Prophet Muhammad on a small commemorative inscription.43
The admittance of the centrality of Prophet Muhammad was necessary during any expression of faith. It applied equally to all the sects of Islam. A meeting of all naqibs Hashimiyah revolution in Khorasan sat at the house of ‘Imran bin Isma’il in Merv in 747 CE. Before discussing any political issues, it affirmed unanimously certain principles. ‘That Allah, blessed be He and exalted, chose Muhammad, may He bless him and his family and give him peace, and elected him and selected him and sent him with His message to all men. Allah, be He be exalted, sent His book to him, and that Gabriel the trusted spirit (Jibrīl rūḥ ul amīn) came to him making legal what Allah permits therein, and prohibiting what He forbids, and prescribing what He lays down, and showing His ways, and that he informed him therein of what had been before, and what shall be, up to the Day of Resurrection. Allah took his prophet Himself after he had delivered the message of his Lord. The divine knowledge that was revealed to him was not raised [to heaven] with him, he left it behind him. He did not leave it behind with those who were not of his family (itrah), nor people of his house, who were the nearest of the near to him’. 46 The tradition highlights all of the basic beliefs of Islam. Allah is exalted, he chose and sent Prophet Muhammad with a message for all mankind, He revealed the Qur’an to Prophet Muhammad through Gabriel, Allah clearly set the allowed and disallowed through his revelations, Allah imparted Prophet Muhammad the knowledge of everything from the beginning to the end, Prophet Muhammad had left this world after finishing his mission, and that the world will end at the Day of Resurrection. An important belief that the meeting agreed on and which made them distinct from other Muslims was the method of preservation of the knowledge of everything from the beginning to the end. The meeting expressed unanimously that Allah had not taken back the knowledge when He took Prophet Muhammad back. Instead, the closest family members of Prophet Muhammad inherited it. It was in stark contrast to the belief system of the Ahl al Jami’ah majority. The Ahl al Jami’ah were convinced that Prophet Muhammad imparted the necessary knowledge to humankind before his death. After Prophet Muhammad’s death, Allah chose caliphs to protect and preserve the knowledge. 47, 48 Parallel to this Abbasids also claimed that Abu Hāshim bin Muhammad al Ḥanafiyyh had transmitted the esoteric knowledge to the Abbasid line.49
It is worth noting that the tombstone of ‘Abasah mentioned above records salutations only to Prophet Muhammad. The meeting of naqibs, on the other hand, extends the salutations to the family of Prophet Muhammad.
Arabic benedictions
Jobling has discovered an inscription at Wadi Shireh close to Jabal Ramm in Southern Jordan. 50 The writer of this inscription uses ‘sallah o alyhe wasalam’ for himself. The writer did not forget to date it to December 727 CE – a fact which makes the inscription very significant. Using such a benediction for a common Muslim could be equivalent to blasphemy during the later periods of Islam. During the Umayyad period, it was not fixed to the Prophet of Islam exclusively and was still a common benediction.51
Hadith Literature
Before we go into detail about the ‘Hadith collection’ and ‘Hadith preservation’, let us talk about the ‘Hadith formation’. ‘Umārah bin ‘Uqbah was a Sharif. He was sitting in the assembly of Governor Ibn Ziyād, gossiping. He boasted, “Today I have driven out some zebras; I have struck and lamed one of them.” ‘Amr bin Ḥajjāj, another Sharif present, retorted, “A Zebra that you lamed would be a stupid one.” Sensing humiliation Umarah countered, “Shall I tell you of something stupider than all this? A man whose father was an unbeliever was brought to the Apostle of Allah. He ordered his execution. The man pleaded, “Muhammad, who will there be for the children?” The Prophet answered, “Hell-fire.” You are one of his children. Ibn Ziyad could not control his laughter at the joke. 52 The anecdote establishes how some people of the Umayyad Caliphate were fabricating Prophet Muhammad’s quotations for the sake of a joke. No government regulations were preventing the concoction of a Hadith. In the absence of any regulatory mechanism, the Umayyad Caliphate was a factory of ‘Hadith formations.” Goldziher claims that a political, religious or legal argument among the Muslims would lead eventually to the elaboration of a Hadith in which one or more of the conflicting opinions would be supported by attributing it to the Prophet himself. 53
In light of the abundant evidence that inventing a new Hadith or modifying an existing Hadith was possible during the Umayyad period, one has to be cautious about the authenticity of the Hadith literature that has reached us. Yet, the entirety of Hadith literature cannot be discarded. No early historical source, Muslim or non-Muslim, claims that there was nothing like genuine Hadith.
The Umayyad Caliphate period is the single most significant era for the documentation of Hadith literature in the history of Islam. The Hadith collection and narration were already popular activities in the Rashidun Caliphate. Now, the Muslims endeavored to write the Hadith down to prevent them from future distortions. It was a private enterprise. We do not know exactly what stimulated the Hadith collectors to write them down.
None of the Hadith collection from the Umayyad period has survived.
Obeying Hadith not compulsory
Once, Governor Hajjaj bin Yousuf ordered the collection of sadaqah on every leguminous plant. Abu Burdah bin Abi Mūsa was a Sharif and Hajjaj’s advisor. He supported Hajjaj’s idea. Mūsa bin Ṭalḥah bin ‘Ubaydullah was a private citizen and son of a Companion. He could not question Hajjaj directly but he had the chance to chat with Abu Burdah. Musa said to Abu Burdah, “This man [Hajjaj] now claims that his father was among the Prophet’s Companions. The Prophet sent Mu’adh ibn Jabal to al-Yaman and gave him instructions to collect ṣadaqah on dates, wheat, barley and raisins.” 54 Legumes were not on the list that the Prophet had taxed from the Muslims. The citation of Hadith did not compel Hajjaj to change his mind. Probably, the Umayyad Caliphate was the period during which people started thinking that obeying a Hadith was praiseworthy (Sunnah) but not compulsory (Farḍ)
When Amr bin Sa’id raised an army to attack Mecca, Abu Shurayh warned him not to attack because he had heard the Messenger of Allah say that Allah had only permitted fighting in Mecca for one hour of one day. Then the city returned to its inviolable status. Amr said ‘we know more about its inviolable status than you, Shaykh,” 55 Only those objected to the actions of Amr bin Sa’id that time were victims of his attack. While giving the charge sheet against Amr, Abdullah bin Zubayr said that he was a grave sinner because he violated the things made inviolable by Allah. 56
Did Prophet Muhammad perform miracles?
Ibn Ishaq is the earliest biographer of Prophet Muhammad. He asserts that during his Meccan life, once Prophet Muhammad called a tree and it came to him. Then he asked the tree to retire to its place and the tree obeyed. The prophet had done so to convince his Qurayshite fellow Rukānah bin ‘Abdu Yazīd that he was a true prophet.57 Interestingly, the narrator of this tradition is none other than father of Ibn Ishaq. Ibn Ishaq’s monograph is full of such miracles ascribed to Prophet Muhammad. At one point, Ibn Ishaq notes another incident. Once Abu Jahal and his companions called Prophet Muhammad for a religious debate while he was in Mecca. Abu Jahal demanded that he ask his Lord to remove the mountains from Mecca and bring a river for water, to prove to him that he was a real prophet. Prophet Muhammad answered that he was not sent for this. He had conveyed Allah’s message to them and now it was up to them to either accept it with advantage or reject it and await Allah’s judgement. 58 This incident is quite the opposite of the one mentioned earlier. Why did Prophet Muhammad not show a miracle to Abu Jahal to convince him to convert to Islam? Abu Jahal was, anyhow, a more dangerous rival of Prophet Muhammad in Mecca than Rukana. Why did Prophet Muhammad keep trying to convert Abu Jahal with logical dialogue?
When Islam reached Syria, Iraq and Egypt after Futuhul Buldan, it faced a new challenge. The concept of a prophet to the Christian population of those lands was entirely different from that of the pre-Islamic Arabs. They believed that God did not send anybody as a prophet without granting him any miracles. Horovitz had taken pains to collect the many miracles attributed to Prophet Muhammad. He has further traced their origin and antecedents in the hagiology of the East. 59 Apparently, the Muslims of the Umayyad Caliphate attributed such miracles to Prophet Muhammad, similar to those that Christians used to attribute to their saints and prophets. The purpose was to demonstrate to the Christians that Muhammad was a prophet. Ibn Ishaq attributes a number of miracles to Prophet Muhammad but does not give a single name of any known personality of early Islam who converted to Islam after seeing a miracle of the Prophet.
Blasphemy
In his letter to Lieutenant Governor Nasr bin Sayyar in 743 CE, Governor Yousuf bin Umar, who wished for Nasr to organize an oath of allegiance to the two sons of Walid II writes, “Verily Allah, may His names be blessed, His praise be made glorious and all reference to Him be exalted, made Islam the religion of His choice and He created Islam as the best thing for the chosen of His creatures. …. And by him [Prophet Muhammad] He set the seal on His revelation. ….. There is no member of the community of Muhammad who, having made to listen to anyone denying any of Allah’s prophets ….. Speaking disparagingly about him… or harming him by treating him contemptuously or giving him the lie, ….. Or denying what Allah had revealed through him, did not consider it to be licit to shed his blood and to break the bonds that existed between them, even if he were his father, son or fellow tribesman. 60 Blasphemy towards Prophet Muhammad was a serious offence in the Umayyad Caliphate. The above passage of Tabari suggests that a perceived blasphemous man sometimes faced lynching. The lynchers could even be his own family members or tribesmen.
Religiosity continues
A general religiosity in society, which started during the last decade of the Rashidun Caliphate, persisted during the first half of the Umayyad Caliphate. In a dated inscription from 693 CE, found at Hail in modern Saudi Arabia, the writer simply wants Allah’s forgiveness for himself, his children (or parents) and his friends. He does not wish for anything else. 61 Hoyland surveys many Arabic inscriptions and confirms this hypothesis. 62
A religious graffiti from 738 CE.63
Worldly prayers
Side by side with religiosity, there was a kind of liberalism in the people of the Umayyad Caliphate. Prayers for worldly matters made their appearance. “May Allah make the governor prosperous,” prays a well-wisher. 64. Such themes in prayers were taboo in the Rashidun Caliphate.
Further development of salat
The basic structure of salat did not change in the Umayyad Caliphate. Minute changes in the format can be noticed.
Tabari records a morning salat of Ibn Zubayr in October of 692 CE at Masjid il Haram. Ibn Zubayr had not gotten a proper sleep the previous night due to worries about the war. After waking up at dawn, he instructed to give the call for prayer (aḍān). The call was given from beside the maqām. Ibn Zubayr performed ablutions (wuzū) and prayed two prostrations (ruk’āt) of the Morning Prayer (fajr). Then he came forward. The muezzin gave the second call to prayer (iqāmah). Ibn Zubayr led his companions in the prayer. He recited the sūrah of the pen (sura sixty-eight of the Quran) word by word. Then, having pronounced salutations (salām), he stood up and extolled Allah, and made a speech in which he discussed the planning of the war for that day. 65
The sermon was not a part of the salat but was important publically. In the above example, we note that Ibn Zubayr gave a sermon at the end of the morning salat. This day was important. It was the last day of his life. The tradition of the sermon was after the salat. Ibn Zubayr followed it. He did not consider himself bound by the changes introduced by the Umayyad rulers.
Mu’awiya bin Abu Sufyan had changed the timing of the sermon to before the salat. Ya’qubi insists that the reason for the change was that people used to leave the mosque after the salat without listening to the sermon. They did not want to hear cursing on Ali. 66
The timings of a sermon and the way it should be delivered remained controversial. The Walid bin Abdul Malik’s delivery of the sermon at the Mosque of the Prophet in October of 710 CE has survived in vivid detail. Walid clad a durrā’ah (a Jubba with a slit in the fore part) and a qalansuwwah (a close-fitting cap or a hood) without a ridā’ (a garment covering the upper part of the body for this special occasion). He went to the pulpit and proclaimed a greeting. Then he sat and muezzins made the call to prayer (note the pleural). Then they were quiet. He delivered the first sermon sitting and then delivered the second sermon standing. Rajā’ Bin Ḥaywah, a religious scholar, was in Walid’s entourage. He was curious about the way of delivery of the sermon. He decided to investigate. He asked a local Medinite if the delivery of sermons had always been like that. The Medinite affirmed. The Medinite explained that Mu’awiya did it in that way and so on. The Medinite told Raja that the same issue surfaced the last time when Caliph Abdul Malik delivered a sermon from the pulpit of the Prophet. Abdul Malik bin Marwan had refused to change the protocol of the sermon on the grounds that Uthman bin Affan used to deliver sermons this way. Raja was not convinced. He insisted that Uthman did not deliver sermons that way. He expressed his views strongly that currently, people were doing things whichever way they wanted. 67 This particular argument was not about the timings of the sermon. Walid delivered the sermon after the call for the prayer but before salat. It was about the posture during the delivery of the sermon.
Actually, the debate around the posture for delivering a sermon was going on for a while. Mu’awiya bin Abu Sufyan used to take the pulpit out of the mosque to the place of prayer at the two feasts. 68 He did not want to deliver the sermon standing.
Another issue was about who should be cursed and who should be praised in salat. Ali bin Abu Talib had started cursing his opponents during the night prayer (‘ishā’).69 Mukhtar al Thaqafi ordered him to bless Husayn bin Ali in the salat.70 Probably, it took more twists before Muslims agreed on generic cursing and blessing. Currently, Muslims curse the kāfirs generically during the night prayer and they bless Prophet Muhammad and his descendants in all salats.
The debates and modifications were not limited to the sermon or cursing. When Abu Muslim al Khorasani took over control of Khorasan, he ordered modifications in the Eid prayer. He ordered to call “Allah is great!” six consecutive times in the first prostration (ruk’ū) and then to recite (the Quran portion), and afterwards to bow down on the seventh “Allah is Great!” In the second prostration, the leader of the prayer was to call it out five consecutive times, then recite it and bow down on the sixth call. He was to begin Khutbah with “Allah is Great!” and close it with the recitation of the Quran. Abu Muslim wished to look different from Banu Umayyah who used to employ four calls of “Allah is great!” in the first prostration on a feast day, and three in the second. 71 The report clearly demonstrates that the method of the salat was debatable in the Umayyad Caliphate and was evolving. It further demonstrates how political leaders changed the method of the salat.
The Umayyads delivered khutba during the Friday prayer and the Eid prayer seated on the pulpit in line with Mu’awiya bin Abu Sufyan’s practice. 72 Abu Muslim changed it to standing. Abu Muslim also changed the place of the khutba after prayer. 73 He, further, introduced a grand feast immediately after the Eid ul Fitr prayer to celebrate the day. 74 75
People used to pray some prostrations before and after the regular compulsory salat. They might change their position inside the mosque to symbolize it. Compulsory salat was a joint session. Other prayers were individual. Once Mukhtar al Thaqafi kept praying near the pillar of a mosque until a compulsory salat was held. He joined people for compulsory salat. After that, he went to another pillar of the mosque and offered all the prayers of the interval between Friday noontime prayer and that of the afternoon. Then he departed. 76
Public worship
Once a son of Hisham bin Abdul Malik did not attend Friday prayer. Hisham asked him “What prevented you from performing the prayer?” His son said, “My horse has died”. Hisham said, “Why didn’t you walk instead of missing the Friday prayer?” Then he deprived his son of a horse for one year. 77 Attending the public prayer on Friday had become more important than any other prayer during the Umayyad reign. The reason was simple. Attending the Friday prayer was a political affair. It registered loyalty to the sitting government. Once Mu’awiya bin Abu Sufyan ordered six prominent Shi’a Alis in Basrah to worship with the assembly. 78 No wonder, the khutbah of the Friday prayer was the most important component, which everybody had to attend. The governor’s sermon on Friday was a pious routine. 79 The reason for Khutbah being very important was that it was purely political news and views given by the government in religious disguise. 80 The opponents of the government expressed their specific politico-religious views in their khutbahs. 81
Special prayers
Special prayers remained as popular as before. Husayn bin Ali prayed the salat of fear before the Battle of Karbala. 82 In 707 CE, when Umar bin Abdul Aziz went to Mecca to lead the pilgrimage, there was a drought. People feared the scarcity of water for the pilgrims. Abdul Aziz, along with his Quraysh companions who had gone with him from Medina, prayed for rain for a long time. Rain came the same night. The heavens opened, resulting in a flash flood. People feared that the entirety of Mecca, Arafa and Jam’ (Muzdalfah) would wash out. 83
Ṣalāt Jāmi’atan, which was common during the Rashidun Caliphate, and in which the rulers broke news, got less common. Probably, the regular khutbah had replaced them. They had, in any case, not become obsolete. After reaching Kufa, Governor Ubaydullah called for Salat Jami’atan to speak to the people. 84
Leader of the salat
Leading a group in the salat was an unavoidable constitutional duty of a Caliph. 85 Everyone with the privilege to lead salat in the country was a proxy to the Caliph. In case any of them happened to pray with the Caliph, he had to give precedent to the Caliph. In fact, leading a group in salat was a political privilege rather than a religious one. Even the smallest groups, farthest from the Caliph, tipped their political leader to lead the salat. 86 The majority of times, the leader was the senior-most government servant present during the occasion. Sometimes, nobody was senior and all members of a group considered themselves equal. At that time, the decision of the leader of prayer might have led to tensions among the members. 87 To avoid such tensions in case of absence of a regular leader, for example, a governor, there was always a designated second in command. 88 The regular leader of the salat must have a genuine excuse, like sickness, if he wanted the second in command to take over. If someone did not recognize a person as a legitimate Caliph, he would not pray his salat under the leadership of that Caliph or his representative. 89 Either that person would offer the salat under leadership of someone he considers caliph, or if he considers himself a caliph, he would himself lead the prayer and his followers will follow him in the salat. When an individual did not consider the leader of the salat a leader in reality, but was compelled by circumstances to pray salat under his leadership, he would not consider his salat valid. He would repeat the salat at his earliest chance to correct his prayer. 90
Being the leader of the salat was not an arbitrary decision. It was a permanent one. Whenever the government became weak, people elected someone of special standing to lead the salat. 91
As the Umayyad Caliphate neared its end, the concept that a political leader must lead salat eroded. After his rise, Abu Muslim did not lead salat. Rather, he insisted the judge lead it and he himself prayed in the leadership of the judge. 92
Location of public salat
The mosques of each locality were still called by the name of the tribe that lived near it. 93 At the time of public salat, no one was present in the local mosques. 94 The grand mosque of each city accommodated the Friday salat. The Eid prayer was held in an open space. 95. We do not know why they did not hold the Eid prayer in the grand mosque. It could have been a tradition rather than logistics. As every citizen was expected to participate in the Friday salat, there might not be any swelling of numbers during the Eid salat. A remote possibility could be that the people of the surrounding villages joined the Eid salat with the town dwellers, increasing the number of participants.
Central mosque as town hall
The mosque retained its position as the center of political activities. Mosques were sometimes the scene of violence due to political activism. 96 Political activities in the mosque resulted in another social phenomenon. People of one kind of political or social view avoided a mosque where their opponents would pray. 97 The Umayyad Caliphate saw the beginning of the division of mosques on political, social and sectarian lines.
The site of a mosque became sacred. People were reluctant to demolish a mosque once built and used. They, however, did not mind abandoning a mosque and letting it reduce to ruins. 98
Serving the building of the mosque was a pious deed. The rich and powerful did not miss any occasion, especially if a public display of the action and a shower of praises was possible. 99
Did Muslims change the Qibla during reign of Umayyad Caliphate?
The direction in which Muslims face to pray and to which they turn the face of their dead at the time of burial is called qibla (qiblāh قِبلَه ). It is towards the current location of the Ka’ba in Mecca. An Iraqi archaeologist by the name of Fuad Safar came across a riddle during his excavations of the Islamic city of Wasit from 1939 to 1945. He found the floor plan of a mosque that was built around 703 CE and faced away from the Ka’ba, more towards the west. (To be precise, 231 degrees from the magnetic north and 33 degrees off the present location of the Ka’ba towards northwest). There was another mosque built exactly over the top of the first mosque. It was more southerly oriented than the first one and faced towards a location near the present-day Ka’ba. (It was 197 degrees from the magnetic north. It still did not face precisely toward the Ka’ba). 100 Safar inferred that the first mosque was intended to be oriented towards Jerusalem and later, the Muslims rebuilt it to orient it towards the Ka’ba. Later on, Fehervari described another mosque near Baghdab by the name of Uskāf Banī Junayd in 1961. It belonged to a similar period as Mosque I of Wasit. It also faced more towards the west, away from the Ka’ba. (It faced 228 degrees from the magnetic north and was 30 degrees off the present position of the Ka’ba towards the northeast). 101 Such discoveries gave the impression to some scholars that the Muslims might have been facing Jerusalem to pray up to the beginning of the 8th century CE and would have changed their direction towards the Ka’ba at a later date. 102 As none of the mentioned mosques faced exactly towards Jerusalem or the Ka’ba, Crone and Cook brought forward another idea. They proposed that the Muslims of that period faced towards a sanctuary located somewhere northwest of Arabia. 103 Very few mosques from the first century of Islam have reached us in their original form. All existing mosques from that period have been being used, renovated and reconstructed. There are very few original designs left to study the qibla of the earliest mosques. Furthermore, research is a time-consuming endeavour. Research in the field of history is particularly low-paid. Very few people would be interested in doing the hard work of travelling to far-off corners, determining the qibla of early mosques on the ground, publishing the data, getting remuneration equivalent to voluntary work for it, and in the end, earning a lot of criticism as a reward. Gibson measured the qiblas of present structures of about fifty mosques known to exist from the first two centuries of Islam using Google Maps. He found that their orientation is not toward the current location of the Ka’ba. 104 He proposed that most of them face towards Petra in Jordan. To settle the riddle, someone should have selected a small sample of mosques located close to each other and in an area from where directions to either Jerusalem, Petra or Mecca are distinctly divergent. Avni selected twelve mosques (10 open and 2 closed) in the Negev Highlands dating from the first two centuries of Hijra. The geographic location of Negev is such that the directions of Jerusalem, Mecca and Petra diverge away from each other. Avni found that the qiblas of all those mosques are toward the general direction of the Ka’ba but the qibla of all of them differ from each other. Eleven mosques are oriented between 158 to 172 degrees east of north. Only one is off to about 182 degrees east of north. 105 This study settles the matter that Muslims did not change qibla during period of Umayyad Caliphate or later. They have been facing Ka’ba and continued to face Ka’ba before and after Umayyad Caliphate. They never intended to face towards Jerusalem or Petra during Umayyad Caliphate or any time later.106 Why, then, qibla of so many early mosques doesn’t face exactly towards current location of Ka’ba? Most probable explanation is that the builders did not have means to determine the direction precisely. King suggests that they used ‘folk astronomy’, like summer sunset, winter sunrise or the direction of rising Canopus (Suhayl سُهيل), the brightest star in southern sky, to determine qibla from a given location.107, 108 Attempts to locate the direction of the Ka’ba more precisely came later. The first such attempts can be traced to 850 CE Baghdad where astronomer Ḥabash al- Ḥāsib produced analemma to derive direction to Ka’ba from distant locations.109 The lack of technical capabilities can explain the variations in the qiblas of the early mosques to a certain extent. Ideological concepts of early Muslims might also have played some role here. Hadith literature suggests that the qibla can be anywhere between the east and the west. 110 Early Muslims might have been content with facing a general direction toward the Ka’ba without an emphasis on precision. 111
A Syriac Christian source, the Letters of Jacob of Edessa, written sometime between 684 and 708 CE, identifies the Muslim direction of prayer towards the Ka’ba, noting it was not the same direction that the Jews faced in prayer, namely Jerusalem. 112 In brief, Muslims have been using the Ka’ba as their qibla. The direction of the qibla has, however, become more precise as the instruments advanced.
Safar’s drawing of the two mosques of Wasit.
Soum
Abu Bakr bin Muhammad, the judge of Medina in 715 CE, asked permission from Governor Uthman bin Hayyan not to hold court so he could oversleep during the morning of the twenty-first Ramadan. He told Uthman that he had to wake late at night to observe the twenty-first night of Ramadan. Uthman granted permission. Later, Uthman changed his mind on the advice of Ayyub bin Salamah, an opponent of Abu Bakr in the town. Ayyub pointed out to Uthman that Abu Bakr was merely making a show of his piety. 113 The night of the twenty-first Ramadan was more auspicious than any other night in the public eye. Not everyone indulged in late-night prayer, only a select few. Those who did pray late into the night sometimes advertised their achievement to gain political benefits.
New traditions were developing for the month of Ramadan. The Walid bin Abdul Malik government was the first to deliver food to the mosques during the month of Ramadan. 114
Secular people celebrated Ramadan in their own way. Sometimes they chose to travel during Ramadan to avoid fasting. 115
Pious people used to fast voluntarily on days outside Ramadan. Caliph Walid bin Abdul Malik was one of them. He fasted every Monday and Thursday throughout the year. 116
Zakat
Zakat remained a central government tax on the income of Muslims. Its rate was 2.5% per year during Abdul Malik’s time. 117 Probably, sadaqah was the name of a voluntary charity by the end of the Umayyad Caliphate.
Hajj
Papyrus 01 17653 is a piece of Arabic writing preserved in The Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago in the USA. It is a letter written by Sahl bin Abdul Aziz, the son of Abdul Aziz bin Marwan to ‘Uqbah bin Muslim, the ad hoc lieutenant governor of Fustat, inviting him to go for Hajj with him and pay only the rental cost of a camel to Sahl bin Abdul Aziz. Interestingly, Sahl bin Abdul Aziz writes, ‘Uqbah bin Muslim through this letter that “The Commander of the Faithful has proclaimed (izn) it [Hajj] to the people and has exhorted [them] to it.” Scholars guess that the letter was written somewhere from 705 CE to 717 CE. 118 No doubt Hajj remained a very important religious duty for the Muslims to the extent that the caliph himself encouraged the people to perform Hajj.
Abundant inscriptions on Hajj routes in the Arabian Peninsula from the Umayyad period witness the Hajj traffic on those routes. 119
As the Islamic state stretched to far-off places, Hajj was no longer an affordable method of worship. A devotee spent one hundred and eighty thousand dirhams on the Hajj journey in 719 CE from Khorasan. 120 The wish to perform Hajj could be profuse but the will might be scanty. That could be the reason the Umar bin Abdul Aziz government started subsidies to women and children if they wished to go for Hajj. 121
Hajj was definitely a form of worship. Still, some people used it for political purposes. 122 The hidden political agenda of the Hajj was so obvious to observers that they could easily determine if someone’s purpose for Hajj was not pure. Ya’qubi declares that the purpose of Walid bin Abdul Malik for pilgrimage was actually the inspection of a gold guild he had given to the Ka’ba. 123
The boundaries of Haram around the Ka’ba remained well demarcated during the Umayyad period. 124 The privilege to enter into Haram was not restricted to Muslims. In 699 CE, Caliph Abdul Malik sent a Christian to build flood protection walls inside Mecca. 125
Those who did not choose to perform Hajj sometimes compensated by serving the pilgrims in different ways. Governor Khalid bin Abdullah al Qasri of Iraq, who was governor for a long time during Hisham bin Abdul Malik’s caliphate, had gotten rich. He boasted that he was better than Caliph Hisham because he had the honour of providing water to the pilgrims at Mecca. 126
The correct method of Hajj might be controversial in petty details. Early Islamic historical sources record differences of opinion among pilgrims and the leader of the Hajj about the methodology on numerous occasions. Once, Abdullah bin Umar bin Khattab criticized Ibn Zubayr for delaying Arafah as it was a pre-Islamic tradition. 127 The timings of Khutba might be a bone of contention. Many times, the sources note the timing of Khutba specifically. 128
Earliest photograph of Hajj. 129
Hajj and Umra were not the only uses of the Ka’ba. It was a general sacred precinct for the Muslims. When the Zubayrids released Mukhtar after getting reassurances from his supporters of good conduct, they asked Mukhtar to swear by Allah that he had no intentions to rebel against them. If he does so, he will sacrifice one thousand heads of livestock before the door of Ka’ba, and all his slaves, male or female would be emancipated. 134
It was customary for people to take seven circumambulations around the Ka’ba and offer two rak’as of salat there after entering into Mecca. The purpose of entering the town could be anything other than hajj.135
Four banners at Pilgrimage
In pilgrimage of 68 AH (June 16, 688 CE) Muslims participated in Hajj in four political groups. Each group had his own leader and banner. The Kharijis were under their leader, Najdah; Ibn Zubayr led his group; Shi’a Ali were under leadership of Muhammad bin Hanifiyah; Ahl al Jami’ah participated under banner of banu Umayyah. Their leader was Musāwir bin Hind.136
Musawir was so disappointed by the situation that he taunted Muslims at large:
And they have divided into branches, each tribe
Having its own Commander of Faithful and Pulpit.137
Common pilgrims, whose motivation was purely spiritual, were afraid of violent disturbances that year. One of them, Muhammad bin Jubayr, became a self-appointed voice for all of them. He talked to each of them individually. He pleaded to them that ‘the pilgrims are ambassadors of Allah to this house’. All reassured him that they did not want a fight unless their opponents insisted. 138 Probably, violence did not erupt because each of them wanted to show that he honoured the sanctity of Haram.139 Such was the political cost of the Second Arab Civil War. Political chaos during Hajj continued up to the last year of the civil war. The Hajj of 72 AH (4 May 692 CE) took place during the siege of Mecca. Hajjaj claimed to be the leader of the Hajj. Ibn Zubayr did not allow him to enter in the Haram zone. He did not get the opportunity to put on the ihram and circumambulate the Ka’ba. Hajjaj kept wearing his military gear, a coat of mail, a neck protector and a sword on the side. On their part, Ibn Zubayr and his companions sacrificed camels in Mecca on the day of sacrifice but could not proceed to Arafah. Common pilgrims, who had nothing to do with politics, circumambulated around the Ka’ba and took runs between Safa and Marwa. Then, they proceeded to Arafa where Hajjaj led them in the rituals. That day, Hajjaj vowed that he would not touch a woman nor wear perfume until he killed Ibn Zubayr. 140
Chaotic scenes at the Hajj could be the reason people wanted one Caliph, whoever he might be.
A leader for Hajj
The caliphs of the Umayyad Caliphate did not attach any significance to personally performing Hajj each year and leading it. Almost all of them led the Hajj only once in their tenure. Hisham bin Abdul Malik, for example, ruled over the Muslims for twenty years. He only bothered to lead Hajj once and that was in 725 CE. 141 The Caliph was still the theoretical leader of the Hajj. Usually, the governor of Hijaz acted as Caliph’s proxy. Sometimes Caliph appointed his close relative to honour him. A reputation of piety was not a requirement for the leader of Hajj. Ibn Shihāb al Zuhri was renowned religious scholar. He performed Hajj in 736 CE under the leadership of Abu Shakir, Maslamah bin Hisham bin Abdul Malik.142 Maslamah was known alcohol drinker.
The concept of Jihad changed
A dated graffiti comes from Knidos in modern Turkey. Somebody wrote on a marble plaque that he had participated in ‘ghazwāh’ and may Allah accept his action.143 The 717 CE date of the graffiti and its location in western most part of Turkey suggests that the writer might be a soldier who participated in the last siege of Constantinople or its preparations. A similar graffiti is discovered in Kos Island near Psalidi in modern Greece. This graffiti asks for ‘the help of Allah and the glorious victory’ (naṣr Allah o wal fath al azīm min al mahram) against non-believers (mushrikīn) in the campaign (ghazwāh).144 Again the date of the graffiti, 718 CE, and its physical nearness to the previous graffiti raises confidence that it might also be written by a soldier who might be a participant of the same campaign. The picture is clear. Fighting against non-believers living outside the country was jihad, the way it had been from the very inception of Islamic state. The modified concept of jihad applied to the infighting among Muslims. Textual sources shed light on it. Encouraging his soldiers to fight a jihad against the Syrian Troops, Yazid bin Muhallab claims that those who fight against the Syrian Troops will get more reward from Allah than those who fought against the Turks and the Daylamites.145 Before this, Muslim bin Uqba, the commander of the army that attacked Hejaz in the battle of Harrah, threatens his men if they don’t fight bravely and defend their religion they would be deprived of stipend and will be transferred to distant frontier posts. 146 Every fighting commander against fellow Muslims claimed that he was participating in jihad. Jihad against fellow Muslims had actually started during the last years of the Rashidun Caliphate. However, the opponents were dubbed as ‘kafir’ to justify fighting against them and qualifying the fight as jihad. Now, it was no longer necessary. The commanders in both above-mentioned examples were dubbing their opponents ‘tyrants’ (zālimīn), not kafir.
As the concept of jihad changed, so did the concept of martyrdom. The original concept of martyrdom – dying fighting against non-Muslims – had successfully transferred to infighting. Encouraging the soldiers to fight, Muslim bin Uqba says they will attain martyrdom. 147 Further, martyrdom was no longer restricted to the dead in a battle. When the Shi’a dissidents were brought out of jail and walked towards a cemetery outside Kufa in 670 CE during the Ziya’d crack down on the Shi’a Ali, one of the Shi’a passed by his house. He saw his daughters looking down from the rooftop. He pleaded with the police officer for the opportunity to counsel his family. The officer allowed it. He talked to his daughters, “Fear Allah, Almighty and Great, and be steadfast, for I hope for one of two happy endings from my Lord in this destination of mine: either martyrdom which is happiness, or coming back to you in good health. Indeed, the One Who has been providing for you and suffices me for your provision is Allah, Most High, Who is alive and does not die. I hope He will not neglect you, and that He will preserve me along with you.” 148 The myth of the story is that dying at the hands of a tyrant ruler was martyrdom. This kind of death was not considered martyrdom in Rashidun Caliphate. Look at the poetry written in honour of such martyrs:
If you do not know what death is, then look
At Hāni’ and Ibn ‘Aqīl in the marketplace.
The command of the governor struck them down
And they became legends for those who strive along every road.149
Not only this, common people murdered in violence were dubbed as martyrs. 150 Generally, a martyr of each religion, nation and culture needed to involve himself in a risky situation where the end result could be death. The common people of the Umayyad Caliphate dying in violence did not even intend to be involved in any such situation. They died only because they could not escape.
Whatever the definition of martyrdom, the zeal for it existed among people. The writer of an inscription near Taif in modern Saudi Arabia dated from 698 CE wishes to achieve martyrdom in addition to Allah’s mercy and paradise. 151
The portion of the booty sent to the ruler was still called a ‘fifth’ (khums). 152 Practically, in any case, it was far from a fifth. Yazid bin Muhallab snatched six million dinars in booty during his campaign against Gorgan. He promised Caliph Sulayman bin Abdul Malik that he would bring a fifth of the booty to Sulayman in the future. Yazid’s advisors told him not to mention the exact amount in the letter to the caliph. Otherwise, he might consider it a large amount and demand more than one-fifth from Yazid. Alternatively, he might confer the remaining four-fifths to Yazid after showing disdain in which case, Yazid would have to give the caliph a gift. In this scenario, the caliph would consider whatever gift he receives from Yazid insignificant. The advisors doubted that the mention of a large amount would impress the caliph but were sure that Yazid would face all kinds of risks. They suspected that if Yazid mentioned an amount, it would remain in the records of the caliph and would remain a kind of debt for Yazid. The one who would assume authority after Sulayman would demand that money. If the one who assumed power after Sulayman was not in favour of Yazid, he would demand double the money. They advised Yazid not to mention anything about money in the letter, but rather write a brief letter asking permission to appear before the caliph and speak to him directly about whatever Yazid desired. Yazid disagreed with the advisors about not mentioning the amount. He, however, changed the declared amount to four million. 153
Belief in angels
An inscription was reputedly found near Karbala in Iraq. It reads, “In the name of Allah, the Merciful, the Compassionate. Allah is the greatest Great. May Allah be abundantly thanked and May Allah be praised morning and evening. O lord of Gabriel, Michael and Isrāfīl, forgive Layth (?) Ibn Yazīd al As’adi his early sins and the ones that followed and [forgive] whoever says Amin. Amin, O Lord of the worlds. I wrote this inscription in [the month of] Shawwāl in the year four and sixty.”154
Arabic inscription mentioning prominent angels of Islam. 155
Haud Muhammad
Someone wrote about eight lines on the plaster of a room at Khirbat Nitil about 14 km southeast of Mabada in modern Jordan. This dated inscription from 100 AH is a request from Allah for forgiveness and an abode at the ‘pool of Muhammad’ (Hawḍ Muḥammad). 156 Such inscriptions clear any doubts about how ancient non-Quranic religious beliefs are.
Believe in true dreams
The belief that Allah guides his pious people through their dreams was widespread. Ṣilah bin Ashaym al- ‘Adawī was a soldier of the Basrah division of the military. In 681 CE, the recruitment clerk asked him if he should enroll him in the army that was being raised for jihad. He replied, “I will seek the decision of Allah and wait.” He prayed and sought the decision from Allah. He saw in his sleep a man approaching who came and said to him, “Go out, for you will gain profit, prosper, and be successful.” He got himself recruited. 157 Sometimes, the guide in the dream was Prophet Muhammad. Thus, Husayn bin Ali told his companions before the battle of Karbala about a vision in which Prophet Muhammad confirmed that whatever he was doing was ordered by Allah. 158
Intercession of the Prophet
The inscription on the Dome of Rock on the outer octagonal arcade prays that Allah may accept Prophet Muhammad’s intercession on the Day of Judgement on behalf of his people. The date written is 691 CE. 159 The idea that the Prophet is an intercessor is not Qur’anic. 160, 161 Textual sources confirm the presence of such ideas in the society of the Umayyad Caliphate. “By Allah, the intercession of Muhammad will not be given to a people who shed the blood of his offspring and his family (ahl al-bayt)”, shouted Zuhayr bin Qayn at the soldiers of Umar bin Sa’d during the battle of Karbala. 162
Concept of Dajjal
Dajjāl means ‘the deceiver’. The concept of Dajjal is so similar to that of the antichrist that English translators of Arabic choose this word for Dajjal. The Christians of the Umayyad Caliphate believed in Antichrist. Qur’an doesn’t mention Dajjal. Muslims of Umayyad Caliphate somehow believed in Dajjal.
Look at this poetry created to pay homage to Husayn and his companions:
They killed Ḥusayn; then they lament his death.
Verily, time brings changes to people!
Do not be far away at al- Ṭaff, O slain ones who have been left unattended
Whose heads’ resting places have been soaked by rains.
The picked troops of al-Dajjāl under his banner
Are not more astray than those whom al-Mukhtār has deceived. 163
Some physical attributes of the Dajjal might be common knowledge. Ali bin al Kirmani had lost his one eye during a battle. When Shayban came to sign a truce with Nasr bin Sayyar in 747 CE after Abu Muslim proclaimed a revolution, Ali bin Kirmani was on Shayban’s right-hand side. Salm bin Ahwāz, Nasr’s right-hand man, said to Ali bin Kirmani “One-eyed one, I do not take you to be the one-eyed man at whose hands we are told that the Muḍar will perish.” 164
Sayings of the Companions
The sayings of the Companions of Prophet Muhammad were actively quoted in the Umayyad Caliphate. Walid bin ‘Abdul Malik wished to change the status of the inhabitants of Swad to those who were acquired without fighting (Fay’). Sulaymān bin Yasār informed him about the position Umar bin Khattab had taken on this matter. Therefore, Walid had to change his mind. 165
The sayings and positions of the Companions were not limited to administrative matters. They covered religious matters as well. One of the participants of the battle of Jamajim from the rebel’s side was Abdur Rahman bin Abi Layla. He was a faqīh and was part of the Qurra contingent. He quoted Ali’s words at Siffin, which he uttered against the Syrians that ‘he who sees aggression being committed and denies it in his heart he is safe He who denies it with his tongue is worthier than his companion (who denied in heart) and he who denies it with the sword is the one who achieves the path of right guidance.’166
Sources fail to record the details of the transmission of such quotations. It is difficult to ascertain their authenticity with confidence. Probably, some of them were real, others were generated and labeled.
Awareness of new concepts
Governor Ziyad bin Abihi/ Abu Sufyan had floored the courtyard of the grand mosques of Kufa and Basrah. Pebbles were present in the courtyards of the mosque of Kufa and that of Basrah when they were still gravel. People had to clap their hands after prayer to remove the dust from their hands. This made Ziyad say, “I am afraid that in the course of time, the clapping of hands will be taken for a part of the religious ceremony.” 167
First independent religious scholars
Ya’qubi has a habit of giving the list of religious scholars (fuqahā’) pertaining to the reign of each ruler in Islam. In the case of Mu’awiya bin Abu Sufyan, he gives the lengthiest list so far, a hefty twenty-eight names. Unlike his processors, none of them was attached to the Mu’awiya government or advised the government in any capacity. Many of them were born away from Mecca and Medina and had not been in contact with the Prophet or his well-known Companions. 168
Immediately after the Umayyad Caliphate was born, the era of government-sponsored religious scholars was over. Anyone could strive to be a religious scholar. People whom they served provided them with remunerations. Abdullah bin Wāl, who fought from the Tuwwabun side, was considered as one of the religious scholars (fuqahā’) of Iraq who frequently engaged in fasting and prayer and gave religious rulings to the people. 169 Abū ‘Āmir Shurāḥīl bin ‘Abd al-Sah’bi was a leading faqīh in Kufa at the time of Mukhtar’s uprising against the Zubayrids.170
The religious scholars of the time were not called ‘ālim (knowledgeable). The word alim was generic for any sage. Ya’qubi uses it for a a non-Muslim among the population of Samarkand who advised his fellow citizens to surrender to the invading Muslim army in 712 CE. 171 The proper word for the religious scholars was imām. For example, Ṭa’ūs who died at Mecca in 723 CE, was called Imam Ta’us. The local populace knew him as an imam. Hisham bin Abdul Malik prayed over him because he happened to be in the town on the occasion. 172
Many religious scholars were non-Arab Muslims, including the Mawlas. 173
A Caliph was simply a guardian of the religion. He did not need to be knowledgeable in the religion. Still, he was the leader of every Muslim, including the religious scholars. A religious scholar was more of a professional than an official. Before his pilgrimage, Caliph Hisham bin Abdul Malik asked a religious scholar in Medina to write down the rituals (sunan) of the pilgrimage for him. The same scholar walked in the official procession in Medina behind Hisham under his leadership. 174
This is around the time the word sharī’ah emerged. Islamic historians note this word for the first time from the mouth of the Khariji Nafi’ bin Azraq when he left Basrah.175 The root of word shari’ah appears to be sharā’, which means interpretation. Interpretation of religion and guiding people to clear confusion about religious questions was the job of religious scholars.
As religion was no longer regulated by any state agency, religious scholars had the full liberty to differ from each other. During his Hajj in 716 CE, Caliph Sulayman summoned a group of religious scholars to guide him on how to perform Hajj. They all disagreed with and negated the other. Sulyaman was so frustrated that he asked them how Caliph Abdul Malik performed Hajj. Sulayman picked Abdul Malik’s way, ignoring the differing religious scholars. 176 Since their inception, religious scholars have hardly agreed with each other. A North Indian proverb does justice to their habits: do mullā’on main murghī harām. 177.
As religious scholars were free to take any religio-political position, they were of all sorts. Abdur Rahman had one squadron of Qurra during the Uprising of the Commons. Hajjaj brought his own three squadrons of Qurra against them. 178 Hajjaj might be countering the religious card used by Abdur Rahman.
Generally speaking, the common people gave more weightage to the opinion of a religious scholar on religious matters than the Caliph or his proxies. In 724 CE Ibrahim bin Hisham bin Isma’il led the pilgrimage. He asked a leading religious scholar of Mecca when he should deliver a sermon during Hajj. The scholar told him through a messenger that it should be after the noon worship a day before watering. Ibrahim misunderstood and delivered it before the noon prayer. The incident put Ibrahim to shame because it showed his ignorance. 179 Ibrahim bin Hisham led another Hajj in 728 CE. After his sermon, he opened the floor for questions and claimed that he knew much because he was a descendant of Walid bin Mughirah. A man from Iraq asked about sacrifice and if it was required or not. Ibrahim did not know the answer and had to come down from the pulpit. 180
The religious scholars were extremely influential and sometimes, they compelled a weak Caliph to review his policy. Caliph Walid II expelled many Cyprians to Syria on suspicion of their activities. The religious scholars disapproved of this act so he had to return them to their homes. 181
The extent of the influence of any religious scholar depended upon the charisma of his personality and his ability to win hearts and minds. Some religious scholars were destined to be trendsetters. One such person was Abu Ḥanīfah. He was influential even in government circles. In 744 CE, two common people from Khorasan needed to see Caliph Yazid III. Abu Hanifa wrote a letter to an official of Caliph Yazid III recommending him to facilitate a meeting between them and the Caliph. The meeting took place. 182
Not all religious scholars earned their livelihood by providing their services to the common people. Some of them had government jobs. Governors/judges regularly hired them as jurists to get their input in making decisions. 183 The central government also engaged with them to appear to be politically correct in the eyes of the people. Al Zuhri and Raja’ are classic examples. We do not know how the government paid them. Probably, they got access to project-specific government funding, like writing a book.
The Rashidun Caliphate used to appoint religious scholars over the religious affairs of the people just as it appointed governors over administrative affairs. The people had to accept anyone appointed by the caliph as a religious scholar. The authority given by the government raised a person to the status of a religious scholar. This scenario changed during the Umayyad Caliphate. None of the Umayyad caliphs ever appointed anyone over the religious matters of the people. Individuals attained the status of religious scholars by studying religion and then gathering a crowd of followers. The rulers of the Umayyad Caliphate hired a religious scholar for governmental propaganda once he had attained repute as a scholar and had developed a following. It appears that getting employment with the government tarnished the repute of a scholar. People suspected a ‘clash of interests’ in his opinions. That might be a reason those scholars of the Umayyad Caliphate who influenced the future generations of Muslims were not government yes-men.
First centre of Islamic studies – Medina
There is growing evidence that Medina functioned as an Islamic intellectual center in the Umayyad Caliphate before the cities of Iraq rivalled it. For example, Belguedj and Talmon have found evidence of the existence of a distinct ‘school’ of grammarians at Medina in the first half of the eighth century, predating the emergence of the better-known schools of Basrah and Kufa. 184 Both Ya’qubi and Tabari mention the presence of aṣḥāb al-maṣāḥif in seventh-century Medina. 185 Whelan guesses that they were copiers of the Qur’an and this was how they earned their livelihood. 186 Abu Zayd ‘Umar Ibn Shabbah al-Numayri (789 – 875 CE) has written a history of Medina. 187 Part of it has survived. Though the writer used to live in Basrah, he appears to be intimately familiar with Medina. It is an indirect clue of the association of a scholar with Medina. 188
Earliest saints
Saints are different from religious scholars. Though saints are not considered to be well-versed in the canons of religion, they are perceived to have partial access to the supernatural due to their heightened piety. Religious scholarship was achieved through hard work, while sainthood was God-given.
After the death of Mukhtar al Thaqafi, Mus’ab arrested his two wives. He interrogated them about their opinions of Mukhtar. One of them, Umm Thābit, said that she had the same opinion about Mukhtar as Mus’ab had. Mus’ab released her. The other, ‘Amrah bint Nu’man said that ‘Allah’s mercy upon him if he was one of Allah’s righteous servants.” Mus’ab jailed her and asked for Ibn Zubayr’s opinion on the matter. Mus’ab had written a note to Ibn Zubayr that she considered Mukhtar to be a prophet. Ibn Zubayr ordered for her to be killed. 189 Mukhtar’s opponents believed that Mukhtar claimed to be a prophet. This opinion spilled over to the Christian writers.
Historic sources, anyhow, do not record any such claim from Mukhtar’s tongue. Mukhtar’s supporters had high opinions of him. A supporter of Mukhtar claimed that he was immune from error (ma’ṣūm). 190 Another claimed that he had seen angels helping Mukhtar, and he swore by Allah to convince people of his claim. 191
Mukhtar does not have any claims to be a caliph. His opponents charge him with mimicking a prophet, while his devotees declare him immune from error. Here is an example of a typical saint.
Muslims split into religious sects
Three major streams of religion in Islam, namely Sunni, Shi’a and Khariji had started developing during the First Arab Civil War. However, they were not fully mature religious sects by that time. They were political parties expressing their political intentions in religious form. During the era of the Umayyad Caliphate, each of them became a distinct way to practice Islam, irrespective of politics. When members of a group within a religion are reluctant to share the place of worship with their co-religionists of different opinions, the group attains the status of a sect. It is difficult to ascertain the precise time when each of them separated their place of worship from the main body. There is some evidence that the Kharijis preferred separate mosques from the main body. The Kharijis can be labeled as a full-fledged sect of Islam. The Shi’a appear to have shared the mosque with the main body throughout the tenure of the Umayyad Caliphate. They differed from the main body but they were still not a separate sect.
Mainstream Muslims
The Qur’an was already codified by the end of the Rashidun Caliphate. The main concept that the religious scholars belonging to the mainstream population worked on was that of the Sunna. The Sunna, the words, customs and practices of the Prophet Muhammad as transmitted by his Companions to the later generations became an ideal norm of behavior for his followers. Eventually, the Sunna was accepted as the major source of Muslim law alongside the Qur’an. Increasingly, Muslim ideas, practices and institutions came to be justified with references to the Sunna. This Sunni Islam gained its final crystallization with the religious scholars, the guardians of Sunna, as its leading authority. 192, 193
The Khariji Muslims
The Khariji sect had separated from the main body of Islam due to differences on the constitution of the Rashidun Caliphate. 194 The basic principle of Kharijism was a demand for piety and religious excellence as the only necessary qualification for the Imam, and a rejection of the view that he should belong to the family of the Prophet, as the Shi’as demanded, or to the tribe of the Prophet (Quraysh), as the Sunnis required. 195 The Kharijis’ slogan was ‘lā ḥukmāh illallāh’. 196 Generally, people translate this slogan as ‘judgment is to Allah alone’. 197 However, probably the word judgment does not pick the true spirit of the slogan. Here, humkah is used for governance, meaning ‘governance belongs to Allah alone’.
The Kharijis of the Umayyad Caliphate did believe in the supremacy of the Qur’an and the Sunnah of the Prophet. A Khariji explained to Mutarrif bin Mughira bin Shu’ba during the negotiations that “what we advocate is the Book of God and the Sunnah of Muhammad, Allah bless him. What we object to for our people is the expropriation of the spoils, the failure to enforce the Quranic punishments, and the autocratic nature of the regime.” 198 The Kharijis of the Rashidun Caliphate saw conflict between some teachings of the Qur’an and the Hadith. 199 Probably, up until now, they had rejected those Hadith traditions which they deemed contrary to the Qur’an as hearsay.200
Kharijism had many different manifestations in the Umayyad Caliphate. An extreme view the Kharijis believed in was i’tirād. It meant that the supporters of a sinner, including his women and children, were equally responsible for his sins. 201 The extremists tended to insist on the rejection of all other Muslims. They regarded them as infidels, therefore liable to be killed unless they ‘repented’ and ‘accepted iṣlaḥ’. That is unless they recognized the Khariji imam and accepted the Khariji form of Islam. 202, 203
Sunni Muslims, and probably Shi’a Muslims as well, thought about the Kharijis on the same lines. Their argument was ‘tit for tat’. They also considered the Kharijis infidels and liable to be killed and treated like other non-Muslims. Khalid bin Abdullah’s army captured whatever they found in the Kharijis’ camp as booty (fay’) for the Muslims. 204 Once, Yazid bin Muhallab faced Turk dacoits in a desert while returning from Kish to Merv in August of 701 CE. He had a Khariji prisoner. He compelled him to fight against the dacoits, knowing that the Khariji would die in the encounter. 205 He would not have been able to order it if he did not consider the Khariji a non-Muslim.
The extreme views of Kharijism, its fierce rejection of other Muslims, involving the duty of rebellion against what was regarded as an illegitimate government, became increasingly difficult to maintain except in areas remote from the authority of the government or in times when the authority of the government for some reasons collapsed. 206 Gradually a moderate view of Kharijism emerged. The moderates did not believe in the indiscriminate killing of other Muslims without calling them to true faith. They believed in killing only those who did not respond to the call. They also believed that if they fought and overcame those who did not respond to their call, they reserved the right to their lives and properties. They might kill them but if they spared them, Allah will reward them for this kindness. 207 In this sense, they did not believe in i’tirad. A moderate form of Kharijism had the chance to spread to eastern Arabia and North Africa. It is this form of Kharijism that has survived to the modern day. 208, 209, 210
Some moderate Kharijis used to live along with other Muslims peacefully. Among the besieged Arabs in Kamarjah in Khorasan in 729 CE, there was a group of Kharijis. They were the inhabitants of the town and included Ibn Shuj, the mawla of the Banu Nājiyah. They were evacuated like any other Muslim of the town by the forces of the Umayyad Caliphate. 211, 212
The Kharijis had their own distinguishing religious rituals. They visited Nahrawan, mourned, and cried by the graves of the Kharijis killed there. On these occasions, they used to repent for not quitting Ali and his associates in time. 213
Generally speaking, the Kharijis of the Umayyad Caliphate were more principled than other Muslim groups. Once, the companions of Shabib murdered a petty government officer through treachery and looted the government treasury. Shabib did not accept the booty and threw away all the money in canal water. 214
Shi’a Muslims
The Shi’a were a distinct group among Muslims from the early years of the Umayyad Caliphate onwards.The invitation letter from Kufa, which reached Husayn bin Ali in Mecca, was written by “the believers and Muslims of the Shi’a” (mu’minin wal muslimīn al shi’āh). 215 It appears that the Shi’a were not a typical religious sect until the end of the Umayyad Caliphate. We do not find their separate places of worship in historic sources. However, the cleavage between Sunni Islam and Shi’a Islam was apparent and was gradually increasing. Many Shi’a religious beliefs were already in a mature form and the Sunnis did not share them.216
Apparently, the Shi’a and the Sunnis did not differ much on the text of the Qur’an. The Shi’a had their reservations about the way Uthman codified the text. Yet, the differences were minor and negligible. 217
The area of major difference was Hadith. Sulaym bin Qays (d. 694 – 714 CE) is the first Shi’a Hadith and Sirah writer according to Fihrist of Nadim. His Kitāb Sulaym is claimed to have survived. Its first part is about the inheritance of Prophet Muhammad. Sulaym maintains that the Prophet informed Fatima on his deathbed that her husband should be the caliph. In addition, Ali was washing the Prophet when Abu Bakr was in a meeting with Ansar about the caliphate. And that Ali was bound in ropes and was threatened by Umar to pay allegiance to Abu Bakr. 218 Many modern scholars doubt the existence of Sulaym bin Qays and they consider Kitab Sulaym a book from later ages written under a pen name. 219 Even if Sulaym bin Qays is a fictitious character and this Hadith collection belongs to a later date, still historical events suggest that the Shi’a of the Umayyad Caliphate had a special affinity towards Ahl al Bayt. They might have at least rejected the body of Hadith transmitted by Zuhri related to the circumstances around the death of Prophet Muhammad and the selection of the first caliph.220
Throughout the Umayyad Caliphate, the Shi’a produced a number of movements aimed at overthrowing the Umayyads and appointing a relative of the Prophet, usually a descendent of Ali as Imam, a title that the Shi’a tended to prefer to Caliph. Where these Shi’a movements differed from each other was in the particular member of the Prophet’s family whom they favoured and in certain other doctrines they developed. What they had in common was their devotion to the Prophet’s family and the insistence that the membership of it was a sine qua non for the imam. 221 As they supported Muhammad bin Hanifiya at one point, it is evident that their devotion was to all Ahl al Bayt rather than to only the descendants of Ali and Fatima. Moreover, as they supported Zayd and later on Abdullah bin Mu’awiya, their devotion was not limited to the official Shi’a imams, rather it was generally towards Ahl al Bayt. The earliest Shi’as proclaimed that they believed in the religion of Ali (dīn ul ‘Alī). This claim was to negate the Uthmanic thought of mainstream Muslims, rather than a fixation on Ali and his descendants from Fatima.222 Their love for Ali and his two sons, however, knew no bounds. “Oh Allah, have mercy on Ḥusayn, the martyr the son of the martyr, the right guided one (Mahdī) son of the right guided one, the righteous one the son of the righteous one,” was their prayer. 223 Abdullah bin Wāl, a Shi’a resident of Kufa, once proclaimed, “Verily, by Allah, I consider Ḥusayn and his father and brother as the best of Muḥammad’s community (who will be) imploring Allah’s favour (on behalf of the Muslims) on the Day of Resurrection. Are you not amazed at the test to which this community has been subjected by its enemies? They killed two and brought the third to the brink of death.” 224 The Shi’a called Husayn the ‘Lord of the Youth of Paradise.’ 225
The repudiation of Uthman bin Affan has perennially occupied a central place in Shi’a religious ideology, acting as the genesis of Shi’ism itself. The disapproval of Abu Bakr and Umar bin Khattab may have evolved subsequently. A discord among Zayd’s followers arose when they learned of Yousuf’s imminent arrest of Zayd. One faction questioned Zayd about his stance on Abu Bakr and Umar. Zayd, in response, invoked Allah’s mercy upon both, asserting that neither he nor anyone in his family had denounced or spoken ill of them.
However, when confronted about his pursuit of the Umayyads’ blood, Zayd contended that they, more than others, were entitled to assume the Prophet of Allah’s authority. He argued that they seized power unjustly and deviated from the Qur’an and the Sunnah. Zayd’s followers questioned why he deemed Umar and Abu Bakr tyrannical if they had not acted oppressively towards him. Zayd clarified that the Umayyads were distinct, being tyrannical to him, his followers, and themselves.
Zayd called upon people to adhere solely to the book of Allah and the Sunnah of the Prophet to revive Allah’s ordinances and eliminate innovations. Those who refused were free to do so. Consequently, the group severed their allegiance to Zayd, asserting that Abu Ja’far Muhammad bin Ali, Zayd’s deceased brother, was the true Imam, succeeded by his son, Ja’far bin Muhammad.
This group, termed Rāfiḍi, claims that Mughirah was the one who first labelled them as such. 226 Seeking guidance, some approached Ja’far bin Muhammad, who endorsed allegiance to Zayd, deeming him their master. They kept this endorsement a secret. 227 The historical account from Tabari indicates that the rejection of Abu Bakr and Umar was not universal among all Shi’a at that time. The rejection, as detailed, stemmed from logical arguments rather than historical events.
A few features of that religious stream of Islam called the Shi’a can be traced to their formative years. Mourning over the suffering of Ahl al Bayt, particularly Husayn, was an important aspect of Shi’ism. On the morning of November 18, 684 CE, the Tuwwabun went to the tomb of Husayn. They stayed there for a day and a night praying over him, asking for Allah’s pardon for him, and abasing themselves. When they reached the tomb, they shouted out in unison and wept together. Most of them expressed their wishes that they had fallen with him. The observers were of the opinion that they had never seen such an intense weeping before. Leading the prayer, Sulayman bin Surad said, “Oh Allah, have mercy on Husayn. ……. we testify to You that we follow their religion and their path, and we are enemies of those who killed them, friends of those who love them.” 228 Worth noting is that Tabari mentions a tomb. The lovers of Husayn had erected a tomb on his grave by that time. The day Tuwwabun mourned at the grave of Husayn was not his death anniversary. Tabari believes that from the time of Tuwwabun onwards, people did not cease to plead for mercy on him and his companions. 229 Later on, the mourning likely became an annual event at Husayn’s death anniversary.230
Shi’a Muslims beating themselves with knives. 231
The devotion of the tombs of sacred religious figures was present among the Shi’a. The Tuwwabun demonstrated it beyond doubt. They stood in prayer over Husayn’s tomb and asked for mercy on him and pardon for him. The viewers saw them thronging about the tomb of Husayn more thickly than thronging around the Black Stone. 233
Some Shi’a beliefs can be traced to the events of the Second Arab Civil War. One of them is the concept of Mahdi. We first hear it from the tongue of Sulayman bin Surad. 234 The concept becomes more prominent during the rule of Mukhtar al Thaqafi. Once, Umar bin Abdul Aziz withheld the salary of a Shi’a. He asked Umar the reason for it. Umar replied that he (the Shi’a) was waiting for Imam to rise and come. Therefore, when the Imam comes he can restore his salary. The man warned Umar that Allah would ask him about it. So, Umar restored his salary. 235
Hawting observes that from an early date, the conquered non-Arab peoples were attracted to the Shi’a form of Islam, and it may be that some of the Shi’a doctrines were influenced by the previous beliefs of these non-Arab supporters. 236 Mukhtar announced in the mosque, “Nothing has existed among past communities but that its like will exist in this community. Among the Children of Israel, there was the Ark, in which there was a remnant of what the family of Moses and the family of Aaron left behind [Qur’an 2:248]. Among us, this is like the Ark. Uncover it.” When they removed its draperies, the Saba’iyyah stood up, raised their hands, and shouted “Allah is great!” three times. 237 Here, Tabari is describing the appearance of a chair (kursi) in Kufa which was claimed to belong to Ali. The chair became immensely popular among the supporters of Mukhtar, who were mainly Mawlas and runaway slaves. When Mukhtar’s army left Kufa to fight against the forces of Ubaydullah bin Ziyad, it carried the chair on a grey mule. Seven men held it from the right and seven from the left. They circled it with their hands raised to heaven, praying for assistance. 238, 239 As Mukhar’s army defeated the forces of Ubaydullah bin Ziyad, the chair’s reverence increased. 240 Mukhtar appointed a keeper of the chair.241 The reverence for an inanimate object, which was novel in Islam, did not go well with the Arab component of Kufa. An Arab Muslim present in the crowd in front of which Mukhtar displayed the chair for the first time cried out, “People of Muḍar, do not become infidels.” Others present on the occasion did not listen to him but rather chased him away. 242 As the news of the chair spread, so did the disgust against it among the Sunni Muslims.
When Ibn Zubayr heard of the chair, he commented, “Why don’t some Junbads of Azd go to see it?” 243.
A poet by the name of A’shā Hamdān composed:
I bear witness against you that you are Saba’iyyah
O picked troops of Polytheism (shirk) I know you well!
I swear that your Chair is no Sakīnah [This word appears in the Qur’an in context of referring to the Ark of the Covenant. 2:248.]
Even if cloths have been draped over it.
And that it is not like the Ark among us, even if
Shibām, Nahd and Khārif walk around it.
I am a man who loves the family of Muḥammad
I have followed a revelation contained in the books [of the Qur’an]
I followed ‘Abdallah [bin Zubayr]
When the hoary-headed and noble men of Quraysh, one after another, followed him.244
Such uproar among the Ahl al Jami’ah and blame for the blatant shirk compelled the Shi’a around Mukhtar to distance themselves from the chair. The chair perished only with Mukhtar but its keepers started regretting their actions during the lifetime of Mukhtar. 245
Different shades of Islam
Formal sects of Islam do not encompass all kinds of Muslims. There were many shades and varieties within all sects.
Sa’id bin ‘Abdul Malik bin Marwan was an ascetic (nāsik). According to Baladhuri, he practiced asceticism. This was the reason he was called Sa’id al Khair. There was a jungle that was frequented by lions. Wald bin Abdul Malik gave it to Sa’id as a fief. Sa’id dug out a canal there and erected buildings. 246, 247 The tradition establishes that ascetics had a love for jungles, away from dwellings. They found spirituality in this kind of lifestyle. Tabari mentions many ascetics in the Umayyad Caliphate. 248
Jacob and Krawiec argue that the surviving Christian literature overstates the importance of asceticism in late Roman society. 249
Secular Muslims were not deficient. Probably, they formed the bulk of both Ahl al Jami’ah and the Shi’a. After crushing the Rebellion of the Commons, Hajjaj announced a pardon for anybody who could produce an affidavit that he had committed unbelief (kufr) by participating in the rebellion. Many pious people found it so disturbing that they preferred death to admitting unbelief. The government arrested a man for his part in the rebellion. Hajjaj bin Yousuf judged his case. Hajjaj commented that he would definitely not admit that you were in unbelief, would he? He asked Hajjaj not to try to trick him for he was the most unbelieving person on the earth. He was even more of an unbeliever than the pharaoh (Fir’awn), the master of stakes! Hajjaj laughed and let him go. 250
Then there were Muslims whom others would openly call kāfirs. Ubaydullah bin Ziyad was one of them. Once Sharīk called him a kafir. He also called him a fāsiq and fājir in the same breath. 251 Sharik had taken precautionary measures before uttering such words. He had ensured that Ubaydullah bin Ziyad was not present at that time.
Caliph final religious authority
The caliph was the final authority whom people had to obey in religious matters. People were free to believe in any sect or in any shade of Islam or any religious scholar, that was their personal matter. As long as they obeyed the Caliph and his appointees and prayed salat in their leadership, the state had no problem. Problems arose only when they defied the Caliph or his appointees and in doing so refused to pray salat under their leadership. The caliph had no claim to knowledge of religion, yet whatever he considered right was not challengeable.
In his letter to Lieutenant Governor Nasr bin Sayyar in 743 CE, Governor Yousuf bin Umar writes, “Next to the proclamation of Allah’s oneness, by which He distinguishes between His servants, obedience is the very pinnacle of this matter [Islam]. ….. so hold fast to obedience in Allah in those matters which may befall you, come to you, or happen to you. … for you have seen the working of Allah’s judgement on behalf of those who practice obedience, by His exalting them and making their argument prevail and by His rejecting as false those who oppose them, who attack them, who compete with them, or who want to extinguish Allah’s light which shines upon them.” 252 Here, Yousuf is trying to convince Nasr that he should accept allegiance to the two sons of Walid II as future caliphs without any hesitation. Yousuf equates obedience to Allah to obedience to the Caliph and warns that Allah punishes those who dare to disobey the caliph and rewards those who obey him without any reservations.
In the same letter Yousuf claims, “The special repository of blessing bestowed on the community (ummah) in this world, next to His caliphate [actual name of the country, also called the Umayyad Caliphate] which He established for them as a foundation and as a support for ruling them, is the covenant which Allah directed His caliphs to confirm and oversee for the Muslims in matters of the moment; so that, whenever something befalls their caliphs, it might be an assurance of refuge, a shelter in times of calamity, a means of repairing disorder and of reconciling mutually hostile men, a way of consolidating boundaries of Islam and of frustrating what which the Devil’s followers desire from the enticements and to which he incites them, which is the destruction of this religion, the division of the unity of its people, and the sowing of dissension where He has united them through His religion.” 253 This passage delineates the religious duties of a caliph that are consolidating the boundaries of Islam and frustrating the desires and efforts of the followers of the Devil to destroy the religion.
Such arguments echoed throughout the Umayyad Caliphate during the last decade of the rule when the authority of the caliph was under question. Marwan bin Muhammad claims in a letter, “Allah honors the caliph and those who honour a caliph. May destruction fall on those who vie with His caliph and who seek to follow a path different from that of a caliph. Caliphs are the trustee of what Allah has set apart for them and they appear one after another to conduct its affairs justly with the help of those Muslims who support it. Of Allah’s creatures, the Syrians were the most obedient to Him, the most zealous to defend His sacred ordinances, the most faithful in keeping His covenant, and the most severe in destroying anyone who deviated from, opposed, obliterated, and strayed from the truth. Allah’s bounty flowed copiously upon them, and Islam flourished through them. 254
Propaganda of the spiritual rightness of the caliph was so entrenched in society that people considered a caliph a supernatural being. The primary reason for Hisham bin Abdul Malik’s living in Rusafah was to avoid contracting the plague. When Hisham intended to move to Rusafah, the people asked him not to leave Damascus because the plague could not touch Caliphs. ‘It was unheard of a caliph to catch the plague’, they said. Hisham asked if they wanted to experiment with him. So he moved to Rusafah, which was a desert place. 255
Muslim philosophers
Pagan Greeks had developed an art for abstract logical thinking. They called it philosophy. The spread of Christianity in the Middle East after the 4th Century CE eclipsed this art. Still, there were pockets of pagans in the Middle East by the time Islam appeared on the horizon. They acted as islands of the art of philosophy in the sea of Christianity.
Pre-Islamic Arabs did not have any philosophical traditions. No Arab philosopher is known before Islam. The general population of pre-Islamic Arabia was too simple and too practical to think philosophically. When Muslims emerged out of Arabia and mingled with many other thought streams of the Middle East, they were introduced to philosophy. Some non-Muslims with philosophical bends also accepted Islam. Philosophy always remained limited to a handful of Muslims, who practiced it mainly for intellectual entertainment. Yet, some Muslims applied the logical thought of philosophy to Islam. If their inferences suited any political group, they became a hero for that particular group. Such Muslims are called ‘Muslim philosophers’. They did not abandon Islam but worked within its framework. Muslims did not recognize them as religious scholars (faqih or imam) but regarded them as ‘free thinkers’.
The first traceable Muslim philosopher is Abu Marwān al Ghaylān bin Muslim (or bin Marwān) al Qibṭi al Dimashqi. Ghaylan founded a school of thought which was called Qādiriyah. Qadiris advocated free will in Islam. This doctrine held some form of free will in human’s hand, against those who asserted that all human actions were predetermined by divine decree (qadr). Confusingly, the term applied to those who were accused of denying Allah’s qadr. The political implications of this logic were immense. If each and every action of a caliph is not predetermined by the Divine, some of his actions are personally determined. In that case, what grounds did the caliph have to impose them on his subjects without convincing them? In other words, the caliph’s decisions could, and should, be questioned.
Ghaylan was a contemporary of Caliph Hisham bin Abdul Malik. It is no surprise that the person who hated Ghaylan most was the caliph himself. Hisham summoned Ghaylan to his office and told him, “Fie on you, Ghaylan! People have been spreading gossip about you, so let’s hear your side of the argument. If it is the truth, we shall support you; and if it is false you will be made to stop thinking that way.” Ghaylan had to agree. Hisham called Maymūn bin Mihrān, ex-judge of Jazira under Umar II, to question Ghaylan. Maymun said to Ghaylan, “You ask first, since the case is strongest if you ask first.” So, Ghaylan said to Maymun, “Has Allah willed that he should be disobeyed?” Then Maymun replied to Ghalylan, “Was Allah disobeyed if He did not will it so?” Ghaylan was silent and Hisham said: “Give him an answer.” But Ghaylan still did not answer him. Then Hisham said to Maymun: “Allah will not forgive me for my errors if I forgive Ghaylan his.” So Hisham gave orders that Ghaylan’s hands and feet should be cut off. 256
Ideas are the most lethal weapons. They have the capacity to defeat the best-equipped armies. Once out of a pen, even the amputation of hands cannot defuse them. Hisham and his successor Walid II purged Qadiris out of society tirelessly. 257 Still, the Qadiriyah’s thinking snuck into many minds of the Umayyad Caliphate. One of them was Yazid III. 258 Killing a sitting caliph was the worst sin in the eyes of the general public. Yazid III and his associates did it because they were under the spell of Qadiriyah philosophy. 259
Beginning of Mu’tazilah
The Qadiriyyah was not the only intellectual movement in the Umayyad Caliphate. The final years of the Umayyad Caliphate had many such movements. Some of them became relevant during later periods of Islam. One of them was Mu’tazilism. People associated with Mu’tazilism were politically active in the Umayyad Caliphate. Jahm bin Ṣafwān participated in the events of Khorasan around 746 CE. 260 Another such character was Bishr bin Jurmūz al Ḍabbi. 261, 262
Khurramiyah ideology
Though we do not hear of any clear activity of Khurramiyah during the Umayyad period, we hear people accusing certain Muslims of belonging to Khurramihyah. 263 At least the ideology existed and some people were aware of it.
Muslim antagonism with other religions
It is impossible for people belonging to so many different religions to live together in one country in total harmony.
An interesting inscription came from Kasr Kharana, near Amman in modern Jordan. The inscription was written by Abdul Malik bin Umar on November 27, 710 CE. After many prayers for mercy from Allah, all of which have a Qur’anic flavor, Abdullah begs Allah to lead him and his companion Lām bin Hārūn so both could meet with Abdullah’s Prophet and Lam’s prophet in this world as well as in the next. 264 Lam is a witness to the writing. The writer calls Allah ‘Lord of Musa and Haroon’ in one place in the inscription. Clearly, Lam was a Jewish companion of a Muslim. The writer had to specifically mention that Lam’s prophet was different from that of the writer. This is a classic example of religious tolerance, acceptance of other religions and healthy inter-religious dialogue.
The question remains, was it always so? During the period of Umar bin Abdul Aziz, the Banu Nasr had a church in Damascus, claiming that the church was granted to them as a fief by one of the commanders originally occupying the city. Umar decided in favour of the Christians and returned the church to them. Later on, Yazid bin Abdul Malik again returned the church to the Banu Nasr. 265 This tradition is antagonistic to the spirit of the inscription mentioned above. We know Umar bin Abdul Aziz presided over short-lived reforms. His office was choked by complaints of injustice. We also know that Yazid bin Abdul Malik reverted all the reforms done by Umar. It means a group of Muslims had illegally encroached on a Church and concocted a false narrative to justify their action. Their narrative did not stand the trial of the court of Umar bin Abdul Aziz. Umar’s successor returned to the status quo knowing that the Muslim party was not on the right.
Anastasius of Sinai notes that he had debated with Muslims on religious matters. Hoyland thinks Anastasius of Sinai compiled his Viae dux in the 690s. The religious leaders of Muslims and Christians should have been well-versed with each other’s religion for such debates. 266
Muslims were convinced that their religion was the only true religion. The inscription on the Dome of the Rock is the first reference to Islam as ‘religion of truth’ (dīn ul ḥaqq).267
Griffith points out that the disputations between Christian and Muslim religious leaders were about the question of the attributes of a true prophet and how could one recognize authentic scriptures. Griffith further figures out that pre-Islamic Jews and Christians scarcely raised these questions before. 268
- G. R. Hawting, The First Dynasty of Islam, (London: Routledge, 2000), 2.
- Jere L. Bacharach and Sherif Anwar, “Early Versions of the Shahāda: A Tombstone from Aswan of 71 A.H., the Dome of the Rock, and Contemporary Coinage”, Islam 89 (2) (2012): 60 – 69.
- For variations of the Shahada on early Islamic coins see: Jeremy Johns, “Archaeology and the History of Early Islam: The First Seventy Years”, Journal of the Economic and Social History of the Orient, Vol. 46, No 4(2003), 426 – 427.
- See above
- For an up-to-date overview of first Islamic century Qur’an manuscripts see: S. S. Blair, Islamic Calligraphy (Scotland: Edinburgh University Press, 2006), 101 – 140. Also see: F. Deroche, Qur’ans of The Umayyads: A First Overview (Leiden: Koninklijke Brill nv, 2014.
- The first dated manuscript of the Qur’an comes from 725 CE, just outside the first Islamic Century. This manuscript is preserved at the Egyptian National Library in Cairo, Egypt. See: B. Moritz, Arabic Paleography: A Collection of Arabic Texts From the First Century of the Jidkra Till The Year 1000, (Cairo: 1905), Plate 1 – 12
- It would be interesting to see: A. Grohmann, “The Problem of Dating Early Qur’ans”, Der Islam, 1958.
- For how paleography works see: F. Deroche, Islamic Codicology: An Introduction To The Study Of Manuscripts in Arabic Script, Trans D. Dusinberre And D. Radzinowicz, Ed. M. I. Waley, (London: Al-Furqān Islamic Foundation, 2006). For how radiocarbon dating works see: W. F. Libby, E. C. Anderson and J. R. Arnold, “Age Determination by Radiocarbon Content: World-Wide Assay of Natural Radiocarbons”, Science, Volume 109 (1949), 227 – 228. AND J. R. Arnold and W. F. Libby, “Age Determination by Radiocarbon Content: Checks with Samples of Known Age,” Science, volume 110, (1949), 678 – 680 AND R. E. Taylor, Radiocarbon Dating: An Archaeological Perspective, Orlando: Academic Press, 1987. For carbon dating and its comparison with other methods see: M. Van Strydonck, A. de Moor and D. Benazeth, “C dating Compared to Art Historical Dating of Roman and Coptic Textiles from Egypt”, Radiocarbon Volume 46, No 1(2004), pp 231 – 234.
- The manuscript is called Mingana Islamic Arabic 1572a. It is located in Birmingham University. See: H. Sayou, “Statistical analysis of the Birmingham Quran Folios and Comparison with the Sanaa”, HDSKD Journal Vol 4 no 1 (December 2018), 101 – 126
- William Wright, Facsimiles of Manuscripts And Inscriptions (Oriental Series), London: the Paleographical Society, William Clowes and Sons, Ltd., 1877 – 1883. For details of the manuscript see: F. Deroche and S. N. Noseda (Eds.), Sources de la transmission manuscripte du texte coranique. I. Les manuscripts de style hijazi. Volume 2. Tome I. Le manuscript Or. 2165 (f. I a 61) de la British Library, 2001, Fondazione Ferni Noja Noseda, Leda, and British Library: London. For the dating of the manuscript see: Y. Dutton, “Some Notes on The British Library’s ‘Oldest Qur’an Manuscript’ (Or. 2105)” Journal of Qur’anic Studies Volume 6, No. 1 (2004), 43 – 71.
- For its dating see: M. J. Marx, T. J. Jocham, “Radiocarbon (14 C) Dating of Qur’an Manuscripts”, in A. Kaplony, M. Marx (eds.), Qur’an Quotations Preserved On Papyrus Documents, 7th – 10th Centuries, 2019, Document Coranica: Volume 2, Brill: Leiden pp 188 – 221. AND C. J. Robin, “L’Arabie Dans Le Coran. Reexamen De Quelques Termes A’ La Lumiere Des Inscriptions Preislamiques”, in F. Deroche, C. J. Robin And M. Zink (eds.), Les Origines Du Coran, Le Coran Des Origines, 2015, Academie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres: Paris P 95
- For dating of this manuscript see: F. Deroche, La Transmission Ecrite du Coran Dans Les Debuts de L’Islam: Le Codex Parisino-Petropolitanus, 2009, Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden: The Netherlands, P 177. AND S. Noja Noseda, “Note Esterne in margin A1 1º Volume Dei ‘Materiali Per Un’edizione Critica Del Corano”, Rendiconti:Classe Di Lettere E Scienze Morali E Storiche, , 2000, Vol. 134, Fasc. 1, pp. 19 – 25.
- The Qur’anic manuscript held at the Staatsbibliothek in Berlin, Germany, known as Kodex Wetzstein II 1913, has 210 folios. Six more folios of this manuscript are at the Bibliotheque Nationale in Paris. It contains 85% of the text from the Qur’an. On the downside, almost all folios are partly retouched. Still, it becomes the earliest most complete Qur’an. See: W. Ahlwardt, Die Handschriften – Verzeichnisse Der Koniglichen Bibliothek Zu Berlin, 1887, Volume VII – Verzeichniss Der Arabischen Handschriften, A. W. Schade’s Buchdruckerei: Berlin, P. 105 (No. 305, We. 1913). AND M. J. Marx and T. J. Jocham, “Radiocarbon (14 C) Dating of Qur’ān Manuscripts”, in A. Kaplony, M. Marx (eds.) Qur’ān Quotations Preserved On Papyrus Documents, 7th – 10th Centuries, 2019, Documenta Coranica: Volume 2, Brill: Leiden Pp 188 – 221
- Current location: Madrasah Hazrati-Imam, Tashkent, Uzbekistan.
- Abū Jā’far Muḥammad bin Jarīr al-Ṭabarī, The History of al- Ṭabarī. Vol. XXI, ed. Ehsan Yar-Shater, trans. Michael Fishbein (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1990), 114
- M Karimi-Nia, “A New Document in the Early History of the Qur’ān Codex Mashhad – An ‘Uthmanic Text of the Qur’ān in Ibn Mas’ūd’s Arrangement of Sūras”, Journal of Islamic Manuscripts, 2019, Vol 10, PP. 292 – 326. Carbon dating of this manuscript is underway.
- Abū Jā’far Muḥammad bin Jarīr al-Ṭabarī, The History of al- Ṭabarī. Vol. XXVII, ed. Ehsan Yar-Shater, trans. John Alden Williams (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1985), 103.
- S. A. Fahmi., “Naqshāni Jadīdāni Min Makkah al-Mukarramah Mu’rikhan bi-Sanat Thamānīna Hijrīyya”, Al-Manhal, Volume 53, No 454 (1987/1407 AH), 350 – 351.
- Muḥammad Abū Al-Faraj al-‘Ushsh, “Kitabāt ‘Arabiyya Ghayr Manshura Fi Jabal Usays”, Al-Abḥath, volume 17, no. 16 (1964), 241
- For an example see: Abū Jā’far Muḥammad bin Jarīr al-Ṭabarī, The History of al- Ṭabarī. Vol. XIX, ed. Ehsan Yar-Shater, trans. I. K. A. Howard (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1990), 133.
- Ibn Rushtah, Kitab al-a’laq al-nafisah, ed. M. J. de Geoje (Leiden, 1892; rept. Leiden, 1967), 70
- Abu Aḥmad ibn Rabbihi (860 – 940 CE), Kitab al-‘iqd al-farid, ed. A. Amin, I. al-Abyari, and ‘A. Harun (Cairo: 1949), 6:261.
- See above.
- A. Mingana, “The Transmission of the Qur’an,” Journal of the Manchester Egyptian & Oriental Society (1915 – 16): 25 – 47.
- J. Wansbrough, Qur’anic Studies: Sources and Methods of Scriptural Interpretation (Oxford: 1977). Similar arguments are given by: J. Chabbi, “Historie et tradition sacree: La biographie impossible de Mahomet,” Arabica 43.1 (1996): 190 – 94.
- Y. D. Nevo, “Towards a Prehistory of Islam,” Jerusalem Studies in Arabic and Islam 17 (1994): 108 – 41.
- For the description and translation of the inscription see: Max van Berchem, materiaux pour un Corpus Inscriptionum Abaricarum, 1927, Tomme 2/2, Memoires publies par les members de l’Institut Francais d’archeologie orientale du Caire, Imprimerie de l’Institut francais d’archeologie orientale: Le Caire, No. 215, Pp 228 – 255. AND Chrystal Kessler, “ ‘Abd al Malik’s Inscription in the Dome of the Rock: A Reconsideration”, Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society (1970): 2 – 64 AND K.A. C. Creswell, Early Muslim Architecture: Part I Umayyads, A.D. 622 – 750 with a Contribution on the Mosaics of the Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem and of the Great Mosque in Damascus by Marguerite van Berchem, 1932, Oxford at the Clarendon Press, Plates 6 – 9, 13 – 22. AND S. Nuseibah and O. Grabar, The Dome of the Rock, (London: Thames and Hudson, 1996).
- Estelle Whelan, “Forgotten Witness: Evidence for the Codification of the Qur’an”, Journal of the American Oriental Society, 118 (1998): 1 – 14. AND G. R. Hawting, The First Dynasty of Islam, (London: Routledge, 2000), 61
- P. Cron and M. Cook, Hagarism: The Making of the Islamic World (Cambridge, 1977), 18; 167, n. 18.
- Estelle Whelan, “Forgotten Witness: Evidence For the Codification Of the Qur’an”, Journal of the American Oriental Society, Volume 118, (1998), 1 – 14.
- For an example of a deviation from the standard text in an inscription set into the north wall of the Great Mosque in the town of Cizre (Jazirat ibn ‘Umar), on the Tigris in south eastern Turkey in August 1155 CE see: E. Whelan, “The Public Figure: Political Iconography in Medieval Mesopotamia” (Ph.D. dissertation, Institute of Fine Arts, New York University, 1979), fig 407. See also: A. Welch, “Qur’an and Tomb: The Religious Epigraphs of Two Early Sultanate Tombs in Delhi,” in Indian Epigraphy: Its Bearing on the History of Art, ed. F. M. Asher and G. S. Gai (New Delhi, 1985), 257 – 67.
- See for example: W. al-Qadi, “The Limitations of Qur’anic Usage in Early Arabic Poetry: The Example of a Kharijite Poem,” in Festschrift Ewald Wagner zum 65. Gegurtstag, vol. 2: Studein zur arabischen Dichtung, ed. W. Heinrichs and G. Schoeler (Beirut, 1994), 162 – 81.
- A fifteenth-century work condemns this practice. See: Jalal al-Din ‘Abd al Raḥmān al-Suyūti, al-Itqan fi ‘ulum al-Qru’an, 2nd ed., ed. M. A. Ibrahim (? Cairo: n.p., 1984): 1:378 – 80.
- See above.
- Estelle Whelan, “Forgotten Witness: Evidence For the Codification Of the Qur’an”, Journal of the American Oriental Society, 1998, Volume 118, pp 1 – 14. For anti-thesis to this argument see: Arthur Jeffery, Materials for the history of the text of the Qur’ān: the old codices (Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1937. AND Arthur Jeffery, The foreign vocabulary of the Qur’an (Baroda: Oriental Institute, 1938). AND Jeffery, Arthur (1938). “Abu Ubaid on the verses missing from Qur’an”. The Muslim World. Volume 28: 61- 65
- See: S. S. Blair, Islamic Calligraphy (Scotland: Edinburgh University Press, 2006), 101 – 140.
- Hans-Caspar Graf. Von Bothmer, “Architekturbilder Im Koran Eine Prachthandschrift Der Umayyadenzeit Aus Dem Yemen”, Pantheon, Volume 45 (1987), 4 – 20. AND H-C. G. von Bothmer, “Art of Islam: Heavenly Art and Earthly Beauty,” eds. M. B. Piotrovsky and J. Vrieze (De Nieuwe Kerk: Amsterdam & Lund Humphries Publishers, 1999), 101.
- Hasan Mohammed El-Hawary, “The Second Oldest Islamic Monument Known, Dated A.H. 71 (A.D. 691) from the time of the Omayyad Calif ‘Abd-el-Malik ibn Marwan”, Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society no. 2 (1932): 289 – 293.). AND A. Grohmann, Arabische Palaographie II: Das Schriftwesen. Die Lapidarschrift, 1971, Osterreichische Akademie der Wissenschaften Philosophisch – Historische Klasse: Denkschriften 94/2. Hermann Bohlaus Nachf: Wein, P 72, Plate 10:2.
- Current location: Cairo Museum of Arab Art. (Number: 9291).
- It appears that the mention of the descendants of Prophet Muhammad in Arabic Benedictions that follow his name started during the early Abbasid period. Literary sources of that era do not forget to extend the benedictions to the descendants of the Prophet. See for example Dinawri, who uses the formula ‘may Allah’s peace be upon him and his descendants (صَلَّي اللَّه عَلَيِه وَ عَلى آلِه وَسَلَّم تَسلِيماً) after each mention of Prophet Muhammad. (Abū Ḥanīfah Aḥmad bin Dāwūd al-Dīnawri, al-Akhbār al-Ṭiwāl, ed. Vladimir Guirgass, (Leiden, E. J. Brill, 1888), 76.). At that time, the Muslims were also mindful of the length of this formula and many times they just abbreviated it to ṣal’am صَلعِم to convey the meaning. (Abū Ḥanīfah Aḥmad bin Dāwūd al-Dīnawri, al-Akhbār al-Ṭiwāl, ed. Vladimir Guirgass, (Leiden, E. J. Brill, 1888), 76).
- M. Sharon, “An Arabic Inscription From the Time of the Caliph ‘Abd al-Malik”, Bulletin of the Oriental & African Studies, Volume 29 (1966): 367 – 372.
- The difficult pass referred to in the inscription is ‘Aqabat Fīq. It is a difficult mountain pass in a gorge, through which passed the great route from Bayt Jibrīn (Scythopolis) to Damascus in all ages. The road joins the River Jordan valley below to the Golan heights above, near the Sea of Galilee.
- Current location: The Israel Museum. (Item number IAA 1963 – 428). Angular Kufic script on basalt. The inscription commemorates construction of a difficult portion of road from Golan to the south of sea of Galilee on orders of Abdul Malik and carried out by Caliph’s uncle, Yahya bin Hakam, the governor of Palestine in 693 CE. Originally it stood at Fiq in the southern Golan.
- Abū Jā’far Muḥammad bin Jarīr al-Ṭabarī, The History of al- Ṭabarī. Vol. XXIII, ed. Ehsan Yar-Shater, trans. Martin Hinds (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1990), 179, 180.
- For the Hajj itinerary of Abdul Malik see: Ya’qūbī, Ibn Wāḍiḥ al-, The Works of Ibn Wāḍīḥ al-Ya’qūbī: An English Translation, Eds. and Trans. Matthew S. Gordon, Chase F. Robinson, Everett K. Rowson and Michael Fishbein, (Leiden: Brill, 2018), 975, 976.
- Abū Jā’far Muḥammad bin Jarīr al-Ṭabarī, The History of al- Ṭabarī. Vol. XXVII, ed. Ehsan Yar-Shater, trans. John Alden Williams (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1985), 72.
- See above.
- Later on, there were differences among the Banu Hashim about who inherited the knowledge. The Abbasids continued to claim that the knowledge was transmitted according to the law of inheritance. Prophet Muhammad did not leave any male offspring behind. Abbas bin Abdul Muttalib was the only surviving beneficiary of Prophet Muhammad’s inheritance. (Omar Faruq, The Abbasid Caliphate, 132/750 – 170/786, (London: University of London; School of Oriental and African Studies, 1967), 59 – 67).
- See above.
- B. Jobling, “Report of the Eighth Season of the ‘Aqaba-Ma’an Archaeological and Epigraphic Survey (January-February 1988),” liber Annuus 39 (1989): 255.
- Actually, a standard benediction for a personality of a specific religious character became popular during the early Abbasid period. Dinawari always uses raḥmatullāh (رِحمَةُ اللَّه) for any diseased Muslim person. He uses ‘alyhi salām (عِلَيه السِلام) for a prophet. Prophet Muhammad’s family was treated differently. Dinawri uses ‘alyhima al-salam (عِلَيهِما السِلام) for Husayn bin Ali. (Abū Ḥanīfah Aḥmad bin Dāwūd al-Dīnawri, al-Akhbār al-Ṭiwāl, ed. Vladimir Guirgass, (Leiden, E. J. Brill, 1888), 3, 4, 90.).
- Abū Jā’far Muḥammad bin Jarīr al-Ṭabarī, The History of al- Ṭabarī. Vol. XIX, ed. Ehsan Yar-Shater, trans. I. K. A. Howard (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1990), 20
- G. R. Hawting, The First Dynasty of Islam, (London: Routledge, 2000), 123, 124.
- Aḥmad ibn-Jābir al-Balādhuri. Kitāb Futūh al-Buldān, ed. and trans. Philip Khūri Ḥitti, (New York: Columbia University, 1916), 111.
- Abū Jā’far Muḥammad bin Jarīr al-Ṭabarī, The History of al- Ṭabarī. Vol. XIX, ed. Ehsan Yar-Shater, trans. I. K. A. Howard (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1990), 15. Ibn Sa’d gives Abu Shurayh’s full name. He was Khuwaylid bin Ṣakhr. He had converted to Islam before Fath Mecca. In this sense, he might be an eyewitness of the Last Sermon.
- Abū Jā’far Muḥammad bin Jarīr al-Ṭabarī, The History of al- Ṭabarī. Vol. XIX, ed. Ehsan Yar-Shater, trans. I. K. A. Howard (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1990), 16
- Ibn Ishaq, Muhammad, The Life of Muhammad, ed. and trans. Alfred Guillaume, (Karachi: Oxford University Press, 2013), 178, 179.
- Ibn Ishaq, Muhammad, The Life of Muhammad, ed. and trans. Alfred Guillaume, (Karachi: Oxford University Press, 2013), 133, 134.
- Josef Horovitz, “Zur Mu’ammadlegende”, der islam V (1914): 41 – 53. Also see: Josef Horovitz, “The Growth of the Mohammad Legend”, Moslem Word Volume 10, no.1 (1920): 49 – 58.
- Abū Jā’far Muḥammad bin Jarīr al-Ṭabarī, The History of al- Ṭabarī. Vol. XXVI, ed. Ehsan Yar-Shater, trans. Carole Hillenbrand (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1989), 106 – 108.
- Fahd b. Salih al-Hawas, Al-Sayid Anīs Hashim, ‘Abdullāh al-Shamrī Muḥammad al-Utaibi., Khalīfah al-Mūsā, Sa’d ‘Abd al-Raḥmān al-Ruisan, ‘Abdullāh ‘Abdul Muḥsin al-Khalīl, “Taqrir Ula ‘An A’mal al Tanqibāt al-Athariyyah bin Madīnah Fayd al-Tarīkhīyya bin-Mintaqa Hā’il (Al-Mawsam Al-Awwal 1427 AH – 2006 CE)”, Aṭlāl: Journal of Saudi Arabian Archaeology, Volume 20, No. 1 (2010), 35. Plat 2.3 (a)
- R. G. Hoyland, “The content and context of early Arabic Inscriptions’ Jerusalem studies in Arabic and Islam, 1997, Vol. 21, PP 97 – 100.
- Photo credit: Fariq Sahra. It reads “O Allah forgive the major sins of Muhammad bin Ibrahim bin Nafi’, maula of Abu Huraira. Written in they year one and twenty.”
- Abū Jā’far Muḥammad bin Jarīr al-Ṭabarī, The History of al- Ṭabarī. Vol. XIX, ed. Ehsan Yar-Shater, trans. I. K. A. Howard (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1990), 43
- Abū Jā’far Muḥammad bin Jarīr al-Ṭabarī, The History of al- Ṭabarī. Vol. XXI, ed. Ehsan Yar-Shater, trans. Michael Fishbein (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1990), 230
- Ya’qūbī, Ibn Wāḍiḥ al-, The Works of Ibn Wāḍīḥ al-Ya’qūbī: An English Translation, Eds. and Trans. Matthew S. Gordon, Chase F. Robinson, Everett K. Rowson and Michael Fishbein, (Leiden: Brill, 2018), 896, 897.
- Abū Jā’far Muḥammad bin Jarīr al-Ṭabarī, The History of al- Ṭabarī. Vol. XXIII, ed. Ehsan Yar-Shater, trans. Martin Hinds (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1990), 180, 181.
- Ya’qūbī, Ibn Wāḍiḥ al-, The Works of Ibn Wāḍīḥ al-Ya’qūbī: An English Translation, Eds. and Trans. Matthew S. Gordon, Chase F. Robinson, Everett K. Rowson and Michael Fishbein, (Leiden: Brill, 2018), 896
- See above.
- Abū Jā’far Muḥammad bin Jarīr al-Ṭabarī, The History of al- Ṭabarī. Vol. XXI, ed. Ehsan Yar-Shater, trans. Michael Fishbein (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1990), 32
- Abū Jā’far Muḥammad bin Jarīr al-Ṭabarī, The History of al- Ṭabarī. Vol. XXVII, ed. Ehsan Yar-Shater, trans. John Alden Williams (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1985), 67.
- Abū Jā’far Muḥammad bin Jarīr al-Ṭabarī, The History of al- Ṭabarī. Vol. XXVII, ed. Ehsan Yar-Shater, trans. John Alden Williams (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1985), 67.
- Abū Jā’far Muḥammad bin Jarīr al-Ṭabarī, The History of al- Ṭabarī. Vol. XXVII, ed. Ehsan Yar-Shater, trans. John Alden Williams (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1985), 66.
- Abū Jā’far Muḥammad bin Jarīr al-Ṭabarī, The History of al- Ṭabarī. Vol. XXVII, ed. Ehsan Yar-Shater, trans. John Alden Williams (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1985), 67.
- For the early development of aqamah, adhan and salat in early Islam see I. K. A. Howard, “The development of the Adhān and Iqāma of the Ṣalāt in Early Islam,” Journal of Semitic Studies 26, no 2 (Autumn 1981): 219 – 28
- Abū Jā’far Muḥammad bin Jarīr al-Ṭabarī, The History of al- Ṭabarī. Vol. XX, ed. Ehsan Yar-Shater, trans. G. R. Hawting (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1989) 119
- Abū Jā’far Muḥammad bin Jarīr al-Ṭabarī, The History of al- Ṭabarī. Vol. XXVI, ed. Ehsan Yar-Shater, trans. Carole Hillenbrand (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1989), 76.
- Abū Jā’far Muḥammad bin Jarīr al-Ṭabarī, The History of al- Ṭabarī. Vol. XVIII, ed. Ehsan Yar-Shater, trans. Michael G. Morony (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1987), 30, 31
- Abū Jā’far Muḥammad bin Jarīr al-Ṭabarī, The History of al- Ṭabarī. Vol. XIX, ed. Ehsan Yar-Shater, trans. I. K. A. Howard (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1990), 37.
- See for example: Abū Jā’far Muḥammad bin Jarīr al-Ṭabarī, The History of al-Ṭabarī. Vol. XX, ed. Ehsan Yar-Shater, trans. G. R. Hawting (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1989), 51
- Qasim bin Mujāshi used to lead prayers for Abu Muslim in the camp and narrate anecdotes after the afternoon prayer, mentioning the virtues of the Banu Hashim, and the shameful deeds of Banu Umayyah. (Abū Jā’far Muḥammad bin Jarīr al-Ṭabarī, The History of al- Ṭabarī. Vol. XXVII, ed. Ehsan Yar-Shater, trans. John Alden Williams (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1985), 79.)
- Abū Jā’far Muḥammad bin Jarīr al-Ṭabarī, The History of al- Ṭabarī. Vol. XIX, ed. Ehsan Yar-Shater, trans. I. K. A. Howard (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1990), 144
- Abū Jā’far Muḥammad bin Jarīr al-Ṭabarī, The History of al- Ṭabarī. Vol. XXIII, ed. Ehsan Yar-Shater, trans. Martin Hinds (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1990), 145.
- Abū Jā’far Muḥammad bin Jarīr al-Ṭabarī, The History of al- Ṭabarī. Vol. XIX, ed. Ehsan Yar-Shater, trans. I. K. A. Howard (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1990), 34.
- Whenever Islamic sources in history show a Caliph praying, they show him leading a group of worshippers. Abdul Malik used to lead people in prayer. Leading the people in the salat in a timely fashion was so important that Abdul Malik had to leave the matter of killing Amr bin Sa’id in the midst when Muezzin called Adhan. (Abū Jā’far Muḥammad bin Jarīr al-Ṭabarī, The History of al- Ṭabarī. Vol. XXI, ed. Ehsan Yar-Shater, trans. Michael Fishbein (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1990), 161).
- The leader of prayer was the leader of the group. Example given: Abū Jā’far Muḥammad bin Jarīr al-Ṭabarī, The History of al- Ṭabarī. Vol. XXVI, ed. Ehsan Yar-Shater, trans. Carole Hillenbrand (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1989), 230.)
- When the Ashraf and their Yamani tribal followers gathered at one place before the Battle of the Uprising against Mukhtar al Thaqafi, each chief disliked having his fellow take precedence over him to lead the salat. One person observed that this was the beginning of a disagreement. He asked one of the qurra’ to lead the salat because he was well-regarded. (Abū Jā’far Muḥammad bin Jarīr al-Ṭabarī, The History of al- Ṭabarī. Vol. XXI, ed. Ehsan Yar-Shater, trans. Michael Fishbein (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1990), 17)
- ‘Amr bin Ḥurayth was Ubaydullan bin Ziyad’s deputy in leading the people in the mosque. (Abū Jā’far Muḥammad bin Jarīr al-Ṭabarī, The History of al- Ṭabarī. Vol. XIX, ed. Ehsan Yar-Shater, trans. I. K. A. Howard (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1990), 54
- Whenthe people of Kufa invited Husayn bin Ali to take over the town, they informed him in the message that they no longer prayed their Friday salat in the leadership of the local governor. They expressed that they would wait exclusively for Husayn. (Abū Jā’far Muḥammad bin Jarīr al-Ṭabarī, The History of al- Ṭabarī. Vol. XIX, ed. Ehsan Yar-Shater, trans. I. K. A. Howard (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1990), 17.)
- Muslim bin Dakhwān was a mawla. Yazid III sent him as a postman to Marwan bin Muhammad, the governor of Jazira in 745 CE. During the Morning Prayer, Muslim had to pray the salat under the lead of Marwan bin Muhammad in the grand mosque. After finishing, Muslim left the place to offer his salat again because Muslim did not put any value in Marwan’s prayer. (Abū Jā’far Muḥammad bin Jarīr al-Ṭabarī, The History of al- Ṭabarī. Vol. XXVI, ed. Ehsan Yar-Shater, trans. Carole Hillenbrand (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1989), 217.)
- During Marwan II’s time, when Basra remained without a governor for a while, Marwan ordered Miswar bin Abbad bin Husayn to serve as the prayer leader. He took up lodging in the governor’s residence. Banu Sa’d rejected him. Then the people elected ‘Abbad bin Mansur, a judge, as the leader of prayer. (Khalifa Ibn Khayyat, Khalifa ibn Khayyat’s History on the Umayyad Dynasty (660 – 750), ed. and trans. Carl Wurtzel, (Liverpool, Liverpool University Press, 2015), P 306, 307, year 131.)
- When a judge was not available, Abu Muslim would pray salat under the leadership of any other pious man. However, only Abu Muslim decided who the leader of the prayer should be. See: Abū Jā’far Muḥammad bin Jarīr al-Ṭabarī, The History of al- Ṭabarī. Vol. XXVII, ed. Ehsan Yar-Shater, trans. John Alden Williams (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1985), 64, 66, 79, 80.
- Abū Jā’far Muḥammad bin Jarīr al-Ṭabarī, The History of al- Ṭabarī. Vol. XX, ed. Ehsan Yar-Shater, trans. G. R. Hawting (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1989) 118.
- Abū Jā’far Muḥammad bin Jarīr al-Ṭabarī, The History of al- Ṭabarī. Vol. XX, ed. Ehsan Yar-Shater, trans. G. R. Hawting (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1989) 118
- Abū Jā’far Muḥammad bin Jarīr al-Ṭabarī, The History of al- Ṭabarī. Vol. XIX, ed. Ehsan Yar-Shater, trans. I. K. A. Howard (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1990), 25. AND Abū Jā’far Muḥammad bin Jarīr al-Ṭabarī, The History of al- Ṭabarī. Vol. XXVI, ed. Ehsan Yar-Shater, trans. Carole Hillenbrand (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1989), 229.
- See an example: Abū Jā’far Muḥammad bin Jarīr al-Ṭabarī, The History of al-Ṭabarī. Vol. XX, ed. Ehsan Yar-Shater, trans. G. R. Hawting (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1989), 53.
- See example: Abū Jā’far Muḥammad bin Jarīr al-Ṭabarī, The History of al-Ṭabarī. Vol. XXVII, ed. Ehsan Yar-Shater, trans. John Alden Williams (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1985), 94.
- Umar bin ‘Abdul Aziz government had funded the building of a grand mosque with a cistern in Masisah. Masisah was a border town with Byzantine Rome. Nobody liked living here and gradually the mosque was reduced to ruins during the reign of Mu’taṣim. (Aḥmad ibn-Jābir al-Balādhuri. Kitāb Futūh al-Buldān, ed. and trans. Philip Khūri Ḥitti, (New York: Columbia University, 1916), 256).
- When Walid bin Abdul Malik went to pray in the Mosque of the Prophet, which his government had funded to rebuild, he took incense and its thurible to the mosque. (Abū Jā’far Muḥammad bin Jarīr al-Ṭabarī, The History of al- Ṭabarī. Vol. XXIII, ed. Ehsan Yar-Shater, trans. Martin Hinds (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1990), 181).
- Fuad Safar, Wasit: the Sixth Season’s Excavations, (Cairo: Institut Francais d’Archeologie Orientale, 1945). (The book is in Arabic)
- See: G. Fehervari, Development of Miḥrāb down to the XIVth Century, (London: Ph.D. thesis for School of Oriental and African Studies (University of London), 1961), 89.
- See: K. A. C. Creswell, Early Muslim Architecture, volume I, Part I, (Oxford: 1969), 40, 137.
- P. Crone and M. Cook, Hagarism: The Making of the Islamic World, (Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1977), 23 – 24.
- Dan Gibson, Qurʾānic Geography, (Surrey B.C: Independent Scholar’s Press, 2011). AND Dan Gibson, Early Islamic Qiblas: A Survey of mosques built between 1 AH/622 CE and 263 AH/876 CE, (Vancouver BC: Independent Scholars Press, 2017
- G. Avni, “Early Mosques in the Negev Highlands: New Archaeological Evidence on Islamic Penetration of Southern Palestine”, Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research, 294, (1994), 83 – 100.
- Take it under the line: Qibla of two mosques cannot be precisely the same as they are located at different parts of the earth.
- D. A. King, “Science in the Service of Religion: The Case of Islam” in Astronomy in the Service of Islam, (Variorum: Hampshire (Great Britain), 1993), 260 and fig. 12. AND D. A. King, “The Sacred Direction in Islam: A Study of Interaction of Religion and Science in the Middle Ages”, Interdisciplinary Science Reviews, 10, (1985): 319. (for bibliography 315 to 328).
- Take it under the line: Qibla of early mosques in North West Africa is towards the rising of the Sun at the equinoxes, due east; qibla of the early mosques in Egypt is towards the rising of the Sun at midwinter; the qibla in Yemen is towards the direction from which the north wind blows or is towards the Pole Star, which does not rise or set but whose position defines north; the qibla in Syria is towards the rising of the Canopus; the qibla in Iraq is towards the setting of the Sun at midwinter; the qibla in India is towards the setting of the Sun at the equinoxes, due west; and qibla of early mosques in Spain is oriented to road scheme of pre-existing Roman towns. (D. A. King, “Science in the Service of Religion: The Case of Islam” in Astronomy in the Service of Islam, (Variorum: Hampshire (Great Britain), 1993) AND D. A. King, “The Sacred Direction in Islam: A Study of Interaction of Religion and Science in the Middle Ages”, Interdisciplinary Science Reviews, 10, (1985): 320.
- See: E. S. Kennedy & Yusuf ‘I D, “Ḥabash al-Ḥāsib’s analemma for the qibla”, Historia Mathematica, 1 (1974), 3 – 11.
- Muwaṭṭa’ Mālik.
- Rubin notes that Hagarism fails to prove that the earliest qibla was not located in Mecca. Archaeological evidence of the qibla of the early mosques simply shows that it was in the general direction of Arabia. It was towards the west in Iraq and the east in Egypt. In Judaism as well, it is not obligatory to search the exact direction of Jerusalem, the general direction of the ‘mizrah’ (east) being sufficient (eve of Islam, rubin/haniffiya P 285).
- M. P. Penn, When Christian First Met Muslims: A Sourcebook of the Earliest Syriac Writings on Islam, (University of California Press, 2015) P 172, 173.
- Abū Jā’far Muḥammad bin Jarīr al-Ṭabarī, The History of al- Ṭabarī. Vol. XXIV, ed. Ehsan Yar-Shater, trans. David Stephan Powers (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1989), 4.
- Ya’qūbī, Ibn Wāḍiḥ al-, The Works of Ibn Wāḍīḥ al-Ya’qūbī: An English Translation, Eds. and Trans. Matthew S. Gordon, Chase F. Robinson, Everett K. Rowson and Michael Fishbein, (Leiden: Brill, 2018), 1001
- Jarrah bin Abdullah, lieutenant governor of Khorasan, was one such person. When he was dismissed at the hands of Umar bin Abdul Aziz, he chose to travel during the Ramadan of 100 AH to report to Umar in Damascus. Umar asked him angrily, “Why didn’t you wait to break the fast?” He gave the excuse that he was a champion of Arab nationalism and that Arabs used to travel during Ramadan in pre-Islamic times. (Abū Jā’far Muḥammad bin Jarīr al-Ṭabarī, The History of al- Ṭabarī. Vol. XXIV, ed. Ehsan Yar-Shater, trans. David Stephan Powers (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1989), 84).
- Ya’qūbī, Ibn Wāḍiḥ al-, The Works of Ibn Wāḍīḥ al-Ya’qūbī: An English Translation, Eds. and Trans. Matthew S. Gordon, Chase F. Robinson, Everett K. Rowson and Michael Fishbein, (Leiden: Brill, 2018), 1001
- Abū Jā’far Muḥammad bin Jarīr al-Ṭabarī, The History of al- Ṭabarī. Vol. XXII, ed. Ehsan Yar-Shater, trans. Everett K. Rowson (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1989), 92.
- P. M. Sijpesteijn, “An Early Umayyad Papyrus Invitation For the Hajj”, Journal of Near Eastern Studies, 2014 Volume 73, No. 2. PP 179 – 190.
- A dated inscription of 719 CE, mentions Hajj and asks for paradise for all of them. It is found in Abū Ṭāqah on the Hajj route in Saudi Arabia. (H. B. A. H. Al-Kilabi, Al-Nuqūsh Al-Islāmīyah ‘ala Ṭarīq al- Ḥajj al-Shāmī bi-Shamāl Gharb al-Mamlakah al-‘Arabīyah al-Sa’ūdīyah, (Riadh: Maktabat al Malik Fahd al-Waṭāīyah, 2009): 72 – 73.). The writer of another dated inscription from 702 CE requests Allah to accept hajj. He etched this inscription at Hail on Darb Zubayda. Worth noting is that it is earliest mention of Hajj in a dated text. Further noteworthy is that the inscription is written by a Mawla and is in Arabic. (Fahd b. Salih al-Hawas, Al-Sayid Anīs Hāshim, ‘Abdullāh al-Shamrī, Muḥammad al-Utaibī, Khalīfah al-Mūsa., Sa’d ‘Abd al-Rahmān al-Ruisan, ‘Abdullāh ‘Abdul Muh.sin al-Khalīl, “Taqrir Ula ‘An A’māl al-Tanqibāt al-Athariyyah bin Madīnah Fayd al-Tarīkhīyya bin-Mintaqa Hāi’il (Al-Mawsam Al-Awwal 1427 AH – 2006CE)”, Aṭāl: Journal of Saudi Archaeology, Volume 20, No. 1 (2010) P 35, Plate 10 (a).)
- Abū Jā’far Muḥammad bin Jarīr al-Ṭabarī, The History of al- Ṭabarī. Vol. XXV, ed. Ehsan Yar-Shater, trans. Khalid Yahya Blankinship (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1989), 75.
- Abū Jā’far Muḥammad bin Jarīr al-Ṭabarī, The History of al- Ṭabarī. Vol. XXIV, ed. Ehsan Yar-Shater, trans. David Stephan Powers (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1989), 96.
- See above.
- Ya’qūbī, Ibn Wāḍiḥ al-, The Works of Ibn Wāḍīḥ al-Ya’qūbī: An English Translation, Eds. and Trans. Matthew S. Gordon, Chase F. Robinson, Everett K. Rowson and Michael Fishbein, (Leiden: Brill, 2018), 993
- Aḥmad ibn-Jābir al-Balādhuri. Kitāb Futūh al-Buldān, ed. and trans. Philip Khūri Ḥitti, (New York: Columbia University, 1916), 84.
- Aḥmad ibn-Jābir al-Balādhuri. Kitāb Futūh al-Buldān, ed. and trans. Philip Khūri Ḥitti, (New York: Columbia University, 1916), 83.
- Abū Jā’far Muḥammad bin Jarīr al-Ṭabarī, The History of al- Ṭabarī. Vol. XXV, ed. Ehsan Yar-Shater, trans. Khalid Yahya Blankinship (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1989), 173.
- Abū Jā’far Muḥammad bin Jarīr al-Ṭabarī, The History of al- Ṭabarī. Vol. XXI, ed. Ehsan Yar-Shater, trans. Michael Fishbein (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1990), 152
- Tabari, for example, notes specifically that In 109 AH Ibrahim bin Hishām was the leader of the pilgrimage. He delivered a sermon to the people at Minā on the day after sacrifice (10th Dhu al Hijjah) following the noon worship. (Abū Jā’far Muḥammad bin Jarīr al-Ṭabarī, The History of al- Ṭabarī. Vol. XXV, ed. Ehsan Yar-Shater, trans. Khalid Yahya Blankinship (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1989), 44.)
- prayer in the Ka’ba. Photo credit: Sayyad ‘Abd al Ghafar. 1888. Current location: British Library.
- Aḥmad ibn-Jābir al-Balādhuri. Kitāb Futūh al-Buldān, ed. and trans. Philip Khūri Ḥitti, (New York: Columbia University, 1916), 76.
- Aḥmad ibn-Jābir al-Balādhuri. Kitāb Futūh al-Buldān, ed. and trans. Philip Khūri Ḥitti, (New York: Columbia University, 1916), 76.
- The pre-Islamic Arabs could afford only pieces of leather and ma’āfir cloth for Kiswa. The Prophet covered the Ka’ba with Yamani cloth. ‘Umar and ‘Uthman covered it with Coptic cloth. Yazid bin Mu’awiya covered it with Khusruwāni cloth. Ibn Zubayr and Hajjaj covered it with silk. Silk was the most expensive cloth material in the world. Its use corresponds with the Umayyad Caliphate’s trade with China through Khorasan. Then, silk became the gold standard for Kiswa in the Umayyad Caliphate. The old curtains were stripped off the Ka’ba just before Hajj and new silken curtains were put on. (Aḥmad ibn-Jābir al-Balādhuri. Kitāb Futūh al-Buldān, ed. and trans. Philip Khūri Ḥitti, (New York: Columbia University, 1916), 76)
- Walid bin Abdul Malik used brocade – a high quality silk, with raised patterns in gold and silver – to make Kiswa. They spread it over the ropes. Nobody had ever seen such a lavish kiswa before. (Abū Jā’far Muḥammad bin Jarīr al-Ṭabarī, The History of al- Ṭabarī. Vol. XXIII, ed. Ehsan Yar-Shater, trans. Martin Hinds (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1990), 181.)
- Abū Jā’far Muḥammad bin Jarīr al-Ṭabarī, The History of al- Ṭabarī. Vol. XX, ed. Ehsan Yar-Shater, trans. G. R. Hawting (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1989) 184.
- Mukhtar did it. (Abū Jā’far Muḥammad bin Jarīr al-Ṭabarī, The History of al- Ṭabarī. Vol. XX, ed. Ehsan Yar-Shater, trans. G. R. Hawting (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1989) 112.)
- Abū Jā’far Muḥammad bin Jarīr al-Ṭabarī, The History of al- Ṭabarī. Vol. XXI, ed. Ehsan Yar-Shater, trans. Michael Fishbein (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1990), 152. AND Ya’qūbī, Ibn Wāḍiḥ al-, The Works of Ibn Wāḍīḥ al-Ya’qūbī: An English Translation, Eds. and Trans. Matthew S. Gordon, Chase F. Robinson, Everett K. Rowson and Michael Fishbein, (Leiden: Brill, 2018), 962. Khalifa insists that the largest contingent was that of Ibn Zubayr. (Khalifa Ibn Khayyat, Khalifa ibn Khayyat’s History on the Umayyad Dynasty (660 – 750), ed. and trans. Carl Wurtzel, (Liverpool, Liverpool University Press, 2015), P 122, Year 66.)
- Ya’qūbī, Ibn Wāḍiḥ al-, The Works of Ibn Wāḍīḥ al-Ya’qūbī: An English Translation, Eds. and Trans. Matthew S. Gordon, Chase F. Robinson, Everett K. Rowson and Michael Fishbein, (Leiden: Brill, 2018), 962
- Abū Jā’far Muḥammad bin Jarīr al-Ṭabarī, The History of al- Ṭabarī. Vol. XXI, ed. Ehsan Yar-Shater, trans. Michael Fishbein (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1990), 152
- On a positive note, Muir believes that the event of the four banners could take place only due to a temporary lull in the Second Arab Civil War. (William Muir, The Caliphate; its Rise, Decline and Fall, from Original Sources (Edinburgh: John Grant, 1915), 326.)
- Abū Jā’far Muḥammad bin Jarīr al-Ṭabarī, The History of al- Ṭabarī. Vol. XXI, ed. Ehsan Yar-Shater, trans. Michael Fishbein (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1990), 208, 209)
- Abū Jā’far Muḥammad bin Jarīr al-Ṭabarī, The History of al- Ṭabarī. Vol. XXV, ed. Ehsan Yar-Shater, trans. Khalid Yahya Blankinship (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1989), 19.
- Abū Jā’far Muḥammad bin Jarīr al-Ṭabarī, The History of al- Ṭabarī. Vol. XXV, ed. Ehsan Yar-Shater, trans. Khalid Yahya Blankinship (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1989), 166.
- F. Imbert, “Graffiti Arabes De Cnide Et De Kos: Premieres Traces Epigraphiques De La Conquete Musulmane En Mer Egee”, Travaux Et Memoires, Volume 17, 2013, PP 734 – 736.
- F. Imbert, “Graffiti Arabes De Cnide Et De Kos: Premieres Traces Epigraphiques De La Conquete Musulmane En Mer Egee”, Travaux Et Memoires, Volume 17, 2013, 746 -747.
- Abū Jā’far Muḥammad bin Jarīr al-Ṭabarī, The History of al- Ṭabarī. Vol. XXIV, ed. Ehsan Yar-Shater, trans. David Stephan Powers (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1989), 123
- Abū Jā’far Muḥammad bin Jarīr al-Ṭabarī, The History of al- Ṭabarī. Vol. XIX, ed. Ehsan Yar-Shater, trans. I. K. A. Howard (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1990),210
- Abū Jā’far Muḥammad bin Jarīr al-Ṭabarī, The History of al- Ṭabarī. Vol. XIX, ed. Ehsan Yar-Shater, trans. I. K. A. Howard (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1990), 212
- Abū Jā’far Muḥammad bin Jarīr al-Ṭabarī, The History of al- Ṭabarī. Vol. XVIII, ed. Ehsan Yar-Shater, trans. Michael G. Morony (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1987), 144
- Abū Jā’far Muḥammad bin Jarīr al-Ṭabarī, The History of al- Ṭabarī. Vol. XIX, ed. Ehsan Yar-Shater, trans. I. K. A. Howard (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1990), 22
- See an example where a commoner killed at the hands of the Kharijis in 673 CE was considered a martyr. (Khalifa Ibn Khayyat, Khalifa ibn Khayyat’s History on the Umayyad Dynasty (660 – 750), ed. and trans. Carl Wurtzel, (Liverpool, Liverpool University Press, 2015), P 76, Year 53).
- Nāṣir bin ‘Alī al- Ḥārithī, “Naqsh Kitābī Nadar Ya’arrikhu ‘Imarah al-Khalīfah al-Umawi. ‘Abd al-Malik bin Marwān ‘Ām 78 AH”, ‘Ālam al-Makhṭuṭāṭ wa al-Nawādir Volume 12, No. 2, (2007): 533 – 543.
- See an example of the word ‘khums’ used in this sense during the Umayyad period: Khalifa Ibn Khayyat, Khalifa ibn Khayyat’s History on the Umayyad Dynasty (660 – 750), ed. and trans. Carl Wurtzel, (Liverpool, Liverpool University Press, 2015), 179, Year 94.
- Abū Jā’far Muḥammad bin Jarīr al-Ṭabarī, The History of al- Ṭabarī. Vol. XXIV, ed. Ehsan Yar-Shater, trans. David Stephan Powers (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1989), 59, 60.
- ‘Izz al-Dīn al- Ṣanduq, “Ḥajar Ḥafnat al-Abyad.”, Sumer, 1955, volume 11, P 213 – 218.
- Current location: The Iraq Museum, Baghdad. See: Isa Salman, Usama al-Naqshabandi and Najat al-Totonchi, Texts in the Iraq Museum, Vol VIII, Arabic Texts, Part I (Baghdad: Directorate General of Antiquities, 1975), 12, Pl. on 13.
- A. Musil, “Zwei Arabische Inschriften Aus Arabia Petraea”, Vienna Oriental Journal (later Weiner Zeitschrift fur die Kunde Des Morgenlandes) Volume 22 (1908): 81 – 85.
- Abū Jā’far Muḥammad bin Jarīr al-Ṭabarī, The History of al- Ṭabarī. Vol. XIX, ed. Ehsan Yar-Shater, trans. I. K. A. Howard (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1990), 186, 187
- Abū Jā’far Muḥammad bin Jarīr al-Ṭabarī, The History of al- Ṭabarī. Vol. XIX, ed. Ehsan Yar-Shater, trans. I. K. A. Howard (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1990), 73.
- Max van Berchem, materiaux pour un Corpus Inscriptionum Abaricarum, 1927, Tomme 2/2, Memoires publies par les members de l’Institut Francais d’archeologie orientale du Caire, Imprimerie de l’Institut francais d’archeologie orientale: Le Caire, No. 215, Pp 228 – 246. AND Christel Kessler, “’Abd al Malik’s Inscription in the Dome of the Rock: A Reconsideration”, Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society (1970): 2 – 64 AND K.A. C. Creswell, Early Muslim Architecture: Part I Umayyads, A.D. 622 – 750 with a Contribution on the Mosaics of the Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem and of the Great Mosque in Damascus by Marguerite van Berchem, 1932, Oxford at the Clarendon Press, Plates 6 – 9, 13 – 22. AND S. Nuseibah and O. Grabar, The Dome of the Rock, (London: Thames and Hudson, 1996.
- Jeremy Johns, “Archaeology and the History of Early Islam: The First Seventy Years”, Journal of the Economic and Social History of the Orient, Vol. 46, No 4(2003), 429.
- For a detailed history of the idea see Feras Hamza, To Hell and Back: A Study of the Concepts of Hell and Intercession in Early Islam, (Unpublished: Ph.D. thesis for the University of Oxford, 2002), 124 – 49).
- Abū Jā’far Muḥammad bin Jarīr al-Ṭabarī, The History of al- Ṭabarī. Vol. XIX, ed. Ehsan Yar-Shater, trans. I. K. A. Howard (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1990), 126.
- Abū Jā’far Muḥammad bin Jarīr al-Ṭabarī, The History of al- Ṭabarī. Vol. XXI, ed. Ehsan Yar-Shater, trans. Michael Fishbein (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1990), 52
- Abū Jā’far Muḥammad bin Jarīr al-Ṭabarī, The History of al- Ṭabarī. Vol. XXVII, ed. Ehsan Yar-Shater, trans. John Alden Williams (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1985), 78.
- Aḥmad ibn-Jābir al-Balādhuri. Kitāb Futūh al-Buldān, ed. and trans. Philip Khūri Ḥitti, (New York: Columbia University, 1916), 423
- Abū Jā’far Muḥammad bin Jarīr al-Ṭabarī, The History of al- Ṭabarī. Vol. XXIII, ed. Ehsan Yar-Shater, trans. Martin Hinds (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1990), 35, 36.
- Aḥmad ibn-Jābir al-Balādhuri. Kitāb Futūh al-Buldān, ed. and trans. Philip Khūri Ḥitti, (New York: Columbia University, 1916), 436.
- For the list see: Ya’qūbī, Ibn Wāḍiḥ al-, The Works of Ibn Wāḍīḥ al-Ya’qūbī: An English Translation, Eds. and Trans. Matthew S. Gordon, Chase F. Robinson, Everett K. Rowson and Michael Fishbein, (Leiden: Brill, 2018), 926 – 929.
- Abū Jā’far Muḥammad bin Jarīr al-Ṭabarī, The History of al- Ṭabarī. Vol. XX, ed. Ehsan Yar-Shater, trans. G. R. Hawting (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1989) 150.
- Abū Jā’far Muḥammad bin Jarīr al-Ṭabarī, The History of al- Ṭabarī. Vol. XX, ed. Ehsan Yar-Shater, trans. G. R. Hawting (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1989), 197.
- Ya’qūbī, Ibn Wāḍiḥ al-, The Works of Ibn Wāḍīḥ al-Ya’qūbī: An English Translation, Eds. and Trans. Matthew S. Gordon, Chase F. Robinson, Everett K. Rowson and Michael Fishbein, (Leiden: Brill, 2018), 996, 997.
- Abū Jā’far Muḥammad bin Jarīr al-Ṭabarī, The History of al- Ṭabarī. Vol. XXV, ed. Ehsan Yar-Shater, trans. Khalid Yahya Blankinship (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1989), 9.
- For example, Imam Ta’us was a Mawla of Baḥir bin Raysān al Ḥimari. (Abū Jā’far Muḥammad bin Jarīr al-Ṭabarī, The History of al- Ṭabarī. Vol. XXV, ed. Ehsan Yar-Shater, trans. Khalid Yahya Blankinship (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1989), 9.)
- Abū Jā’far Muḥammad bin Jarīr al-Ṭabarī, The History of al- Ṭabarī. Vol. XXV, ed. Ehsan Yar-Shater, trans. Khalid Yahya Blankinship (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1989), 19.
- Abū Jā’far Muḥammad bin Jarīr al-Ṭabarī, The History of al- Ṭabarī. Vol. XX, ed. Ehsan Yar-Shater, trans. G. R. Hawting (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1989) 103
- Ya’qūbī, Ibn Wāḍiḥ al-, The Works of Ibn Wāḍīḥ al-Ya’qūbī: An English Translation, Eds. and Trans. Matthew S. Gordon, Chase F. Robinson, Everett K. Rowson and Michael Fishbein, (Leiden: Brill, 2018), 1011.
- Two religious scholars won’t be able to agree if eating chicken is acceptable
- Abū Jā’far Muḥammad bin Jarīr al-Ṭabarī, The History of al- Ṭabarī. Vol. XXIII, ed. Ehsan Yar-Shater, trans. Martin Hinds (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1990), 26.
- Abū Jā’far Muḥammad bin Jarīr al-Ṭabarī, The History of al- Ṭabarī. Vol. XXV, ed. Ehsan Yar-Shater, trans. Khalid Yahya Blankinship (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1989), 4.
- Abū Jā’far Muḥammad bin Jarīr al-Ṭabarī, The History of al- Ṭabarī. Vol. XXV, ed. Ehsan Yar-Shater, trans. Khalid Yahya Blankinship (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1989), 44
- Aḥmad ibn-Jābir al-Balādhuri. Kitāb Futūh al-Buldān, ed. and trans. Philip Khūri Ḥitti, (New York: Columbia University, 1916), 238.
- Abū Jā’far Muḥammad bin Jarīr al-Ṭabarī, The History of al- Ṭabarī. Vol. XXVI, ed. Ehsan Yar-Shater, trans. Carole Hillenbrand (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1989), 235.
- See above.
- M. S. Belguedj, “La demarche des premiers grammaires arabes dans le domaine de la syntaxe,” Arabica 20 (1973): 168 – 85 AND R. Talmon, “An Eighth-Century Grammatical School in Medina: The Collection and Evaluation of the Available Material,” Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies 48 (1985): 225, 228.
- The author gives citation from Cairo edition.
- Estelle Whelan, “Forgotten Witness: Evidence For the Codification Of the Qur’an”, Journal of the American Oriental Society, 1998, Volume 118, pp 1 – 14.
- Ibn Shabbah 4 volumes Beirut 1410/1990.
- Estelle Whelan, “Forgotten Witness: Evidence For the Codification Of the Qur’an”, Journal of the American Oriental Society, 1998, Volume 118, pp 1 – 14.
- Abū Jā’far Muḥammad bin Jarīr al-Ṭabarī, The History of al- Ṭabarī. Vol. XXI, ed. Ehsan Yar-Shater, trans. Michael Fishbein (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1990), 111
- Abū Jā’far Muḥammad bin Jarīr al-Ṭabarī, The History of al- Ṭabarī. Vol. XX, ed. Ehsan Yar-Shater, trans. G. R. Hawting (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1989), 212.
- Abū Jā’far Muḥammad bin Jarīr al-Ṭabarī, The History of al- Ṭabarī. Vol. XXI, ed. Ehsan Yar-Shater, trans. Michael Fishbein (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1990), 28
- For a brief discussion on the development of the Sunna during the Umayyad Caliphate see: G. R. Hawting, The First Dynasty of Islam, (London: Routledge, 2000), 2, 3.
- One of the earliest scholars to study the development of distinct schools of thoughts among Muslims is Schacht. See: Joseph Schacht, Introduction to Islamic Law, (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1964). Later scholars worked on this area further. See: M. M. Bravmann, The Spiritual Background of Early Islam, Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1972. Another work that touches this topic is: Arabic Literature to the end of the Umayyad period, ed. A. F. L. Beeston, T. M. Johnstone, R. B. Serjeant and G. R. Smith, (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1983).
- See above.
- The Kharijis did not question the rule of Abu Bakr and Umar bin Khattab. They considered both of them as the embodiments of piety and ideal in Islam. They had problems with Uthman bin Affan, and later with Ali bin Abu Talib and whoever led the country after him. A Khariji by the name of ‘Abīdah bin Hilāl negotiated the future set up of the government with Ibn Zubayr in Mecca. ‘Abidah accepted that Abu Bakr and Umar were correct and followed the Book and the Sunnah. He had objections to the governance of Uthman. He blamed Uthman for creating hima’, favouring kinship, appointing youth to positions of authority, abolishing the lash and laying aside the whip, destroying the Book, shedding the blood of Muslims, beating those who rejected oppression, granting shelter to him whom the Messenger had expelled, beating those with precedence in merit, driving them out and dispossessing them. He seized the fay’ that Allah had given to them and shared it among the godless ones of Quraysh and the shameless ones of the Arabs. (Abū Jā’far Muḥammad bin Jarīr al-Ṭabarī, The History of al- Ṭabarī. Vol. XX, ed. Ehsan Yar-Shater, trans. G. R. Hawting (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1989) 100.). The failure of Ibn Zubayr to denounce Uthman was the splitting point of the political alliance of the Kharijis and Ibn Zubayr. The Khariji doctrine, that all Muslims had an equal right to be a ruler and the only criterion to pick a ruler out of them was piety, becomes evident from the negotiations between Mutarrif bin Mughirah bin Shu’bah and the Kharijis. Mutarrif offered the Kharijis to agree to a council on the pattern of Umar bin Khattab that would approve a ruler out of the Quraysh. The Kharijis completely disagreed with him. Shabib later commented that in his opinion, the Quraysh did not have any right in this matter more than other Arabs did. Shabib further said, that if they (the government) thought the Quraysh had more of a right to govern than the rest of the Arabs due to kinship to Prophet Muhammad, in that case, it would not have been befitting for our pious forefathers, the first immigrants (Abu Bakr and Umar, to exercise authority over the family of Muhammad – including even children of Abu Lahab, if they had been the only surviving members. If they Abu Bakr and Umar) did not know that the best of the people in Allah’s eye is the most pious of them, the most excellent and the one with the greatest strength to bear the burden of people’s affairs, they would not have accepted the authority. Shabib claims that the Kharijis were the first to protest oppression, to work to undo tyranny, and to fight against the factions. (Abū Jā’far Muḥammad bin Jarīr al-Ṭabarī, The History of al- Ṭabarī. Vol. XXII, ed. Ehsan Yar-Shater, trans. Everett K. Rowson (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1989), 132, 133, 134.). See also comments of Hawting on the matter: G. R. Hawting, The First Dynasty of Islam, (London: Routledge, 2000), 3, 4.
- For this slogan from the Shabib’s companions see: Abū Jā’far Muḥammad bin Jarīr al-Ṭabarī, The History of al- Ṭabarī. Vol. XXII, ed. Ehsan Yar-Shater, trans. Everett K. Rowson (Albany: the State University of New York Press, 1989), 103
- G. R. Hawting, The First Dynasty of Islam, (London: Routledge, 2000), 3, 4.
- Abū Jā’far Muḥammad bin Jarīr al-Ṭabarī, The History of al- Ṭabarī. Vol. XXII, ed. Ehsan Yar-Shater, trans. Everett K. Rowson (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1989), 132.
- See above.
- For a detailed description of the Khariji religious beliefs during Umayyad times see: Walter Young, “Stoning and Hand-amputation: the pre-Islamic Origins of the Hadd penalties for Zina and Sariqa,” Master’s thesis, Institute of Islamic Studies (Montreal: McGill University, September 2005): 34 to 38.
- For this concept from the Kharijis see: Abū Jā’far Muḥammad bin Jarīr al-Ṭabarī, The History of al- Ṭabarī. Vol. XVII, ed. Ehsan Yar-Shater, trans. G. R. Hawting (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1996), 125, 129
- G. R. Hawting, The First Dynasty of Islam, (London: Routledge, 2000), 3, 4
- In one incident, the Kharijis killed a lunatic Muslim and his daughter despite pleas for mercy from his daughter. However, they spared a Christian nurse at that time. (Abū Jā’far Muḥammad bin Jarīr al-Ṭabarī, The History of al- Ṭabarī. Vol. XXI, ed. Ehsan Yar-Shater, trans. Michael Fishbein (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1990), 129)
- Abū Jā’far Muḥammad bin Jarīr al-Ṭabarī, The History of al- Ṭabarī. Vol. XXI, ed. Ehsan Yar-Shater, trans. Michael Fishbein (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1990), 205
- Abū Jā’far Muḥammad bin Jarīr al-Ṭabarī, The History of al- Ṭabarī. Vol. XXIII, ed. Ehsan Yar-Shater, trans. Martin Hinds (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1990), 27
- G. R. Hawting, The First Dynasty of Islam, (London: Routledge, 2000), 3, 4
- Abū Jā’far Muḥammad bin Jarīr al-Ṭabarī, The History of al- Ṭabarī. Vol. XXII, ed. Ehsan Yar-Shater, trans. Everett K. Rowson (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1989), 37, 38.
- G. R. Hawting, The First Dynasty of Islam, (London: Routledge, 2000), 3, 4
- For details of arguments between extremist and moderate Kharijis see: Abū Jā’far Muḥammad bin Jarīr al-Ṭabarī, The History of al- Ṭabarī. Vol. XX, ed. Ehsan Yar-Shater, trans. G. R. Hawting (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1989)103, 104.
- For further study of Kharjism as a sect of Islam see: William Thomson, “Kharijitism and the Kharijites’, in The MacDonald presentation volume, eds. Williams G. Shellabear, Edwin E. Calverley, Elbert C. Lane and Ruth S. Mackensen, (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1933), 371 – 390. Also see: M. W. Watt, “Kharijite thought in the Umayyad Period”, Der Islam Volume 36: Number 3(1961): 215 – 231.
- Abū Jā’far Muḥammad bin Jarīr al-Ṭabarī, The History of al- Ṭabarī. Vol. XXV, ed. Ehsan Yar-Shater, trans. Khalid Yahya Blankinship (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1989), 62
- Kamarjah is an unknown location. It was probably somewhere around Donkara in modern Uzbekistan Samarkand.
- For one such episode in September of 695 CE see: Abū Jā’far Muḥammad bin Jarīr al-Ṭabarī, The History of al- Ṭabarī. Vol. XXII, ed. Ehsan Yar-Shater, trans. Everett K. Rowson (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1989), 51.
- Abū Jā’far Muḥammad bin Jarīr al-Ṭabarī, The History of al- Ṭabarī. Vol. XXII, ed. Ehsan Yar-Shater, trans. Everett K. Rowson (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1989), 106, 107
- Abū Jā’far Muḥammad bin Jarīr al-Ṭabarī, The History of al- Ṭabarī. Vol. XIX, ed. Ehsan Yar-Shater, trans. I. K. A. Howard (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1990), 25
- One of the earliest studies dealing with the Shi’a sect in Islam is: Julius Wellhausen, The religio-political factions in early Islam, (New York: Amsterdam North-Holland Publishing Company, 1975). This study was originally published in the German language in Berlin in 1901 as Die religios-politischen Oppositionsparteien im alten Islam. For further study on this topic see: M. Hodgson, “How did the early Shi’a become sectarian?” Journal Of American Oriental Society, 75 (1955). AND W. M. Watt, “Shi’ism under the Umayyads’, Journal of the Royal Asciatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland, No. 3/4 (Oct. 1960): 158 – 172. AND Syed Husain. M. Jafri, “The Origins and Early Development of Shi’a Islam”, London: Longman, 1979. This study emphasizes the religious aspect of the Shi’a sect during its development rather than the political aspect. AND Anthony, Sean W. The Caliph and the Heretic: Ibn Saba’ and the Origins of Shī’ism. Leiden: Brill, 2012.
- See above.
- Sulaym ibn Qays, The Book of Sulaym ibn Qays al-Hilālī, trans. Muḥammad Bāqir al-Anṣārī, (Bayrut: Dār al- Ḥawrā’, 2005.
- For example see: Modarressi Hossein. Tradition and Survival: A Bibliographic Survey of Early Shi’ite literature. (Oxford: Oneworld, 2003), 82 – 83
- Early Islamic sources mention many other scholars in closeness to Ali. One of them is Ḥabba bin Juwayn al-‘Uranī. (Ya’qūbī, Ibn Wāḍiḥ al-, The Works of Ibn Wāḍīḥ al-Ya’qūbī: An English Translation, Eds. and Trans. Matthew S. Gordon, Chase F. Robinson, Everett K. Rowson and Michael Fishbein, (Leiden: Brill, 2018), 881. AND Khalifa Ibn Khayyat, Khalifa ibn Khayyat’s History on the Umayyad Dynasty (660 – 750), ed. and trans. Carl Wurtzel, (Liverpool, Liverpool University Press, 2015), 142 Year 79.). Some of them must be active in collecting and narrating Hadith from the Shi’a point of view.
- G. R. Hawting, The First Dynasty of Islam, (London: Routledge, 2000), 3.
- Nāfi’ bin Hilāl fought from Husayn’s side at Karbala. He recited: I am al-Jamali. I believe in the religion of Ali. A man called Muzāhim bin Ḥurayth came against him, crying, “I follow the religion of ‘Uthmān.” Nafi’ replied, “Rather you follow the religion of Shaytān.” (Abū Jā’far Muḥammad bin Jarīr al-Ṭabarī, The History of al- Ṭabarī. Vol. XIX, ed. Ehsan Yar-Shater, trans. I. K. A. Howard (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1990), 136, 137).
- Abū Jā’far Muḥammad bin Jarīr al-Ṭabarī, The History of al- Ṭabarī. Vol. XX, ed. Ehsan Yar-Shater, trans. G. R. Hawting (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1989) 132.
- Abū Jā’far Muḥammad bin Jarīr al-Ṭabarī, The History of al- Ṭabarī. Vol. XX, ed. Ehsan Yar-Shater, trans. G. R. Hawting (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1989)133.
- Abū Jā’far Muḥammad bin Jarīr al-Ṭabarī, The History of al- Ṭabarī. Vol. XXI, ed. Ehsan Yar-Shater, trans. Michael Fishbein (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1990), 77.
- They are called Rafidi because they deserted Abu Bakr and Umar. See Ibn ‘Abd Rabbihi, I 217. Footnote 196
- Abū Jā’far Muḥammad bin Jarīr al-Ṭabarī, The History of al- Ṭabarī. Vol. XXVI, ed. Ehsan Yar-Shater, trans. Carole Hillenbrand (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1989), 38, 37.
- ‘Abū Jā’far Muḥammad bin Jarīr al-Ṭabarī, The History of al- Ṭabarī. Vol. XX, ed. Ehsan Yar-Shater, trans. G. R. Hawting (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1989) 132.
- Abū Jā’far Muḥammad bin Jarīr al-Ṭabarī, The History of al- Ṭabarī. Vol. XX, ed. Ehsan Yar-Shater, trans. G. R. Hawting (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1989) 132
- For the festival of ‘Āshūrah among Muslims see: G. E. von Grunebaum, Muhammadan Festivals, (New York: Schuman, 1951), 85 – 94.
- Youm Ashura, Quetta, Pakistan.
- For an example of such oration see: Abū Jā’far Muḥammad bin Jarīr al-Ṭabarī, The History of al- Ṭabarī. Vol. XX, ed. Ehsan Yar-Shater, trans. G. R. Hawting (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1989), 90, 91, 92
- Abū Jā’far Muḥammad bin Jarīr al-Ṭabarī, The History of al- Ṭabarī. Vol. XX, ed. Ehsan Yar-Shater, trans. G. R. Hawting (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1989) 133
- See above.
- Ya’qūbī, Ibn Wāḍiḥ al-, The Works of Ibn Wāḍīḥ al-Ya’qūbī: An English Translation, Eds. and Trans. Matthew S. Gordon, Chase F. Robinson, Everett K. Rowson and Michael Fishbein, (Leiden: Brill, 2018), 1022.
- G. R. Hawting, The First Dynasty of Islam, (London: Routledge, 2000), 3.
- Abū Jā’far Muḥammad bin Jarīr al-Ṭabarī, The History of al- Ṭabarī. Vol. XXI, ed. Ehsan Yar-Shater, trans. Michael Fishbein (Albany: the State University of New York Press, 1990),70,71
- Abū Jā’far Muḥammad bin Jarīr al-Ṭabarī, The History of al- Ṭabarī. Vol. XXI, ed. Ehsan Yar-Shater, trans. Michael Fishbein (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1990), 68, 69, 70, 71
- As per Tabari’s account, the origin of the chair traces back to Ṭufayl bin Ja’dah bin Hubayrah, who observed a chair at an oil merchant’s place, obscured by filth. Ṭufayl informed Mukhtar that this chair was once used by Ja’dah bin Hubayrah, who seemed to believe that it held a trace of knowledge associated with it. (atharah min ‘ilm). Mukhtar asked for the chair. The chair was washed and it turned out to be tamarisk wood, shining from the oil it had absorbed. Mukhtar ordered Tufayl to buy it for twelve thousand dirhams and introduced it in congregational prayer. Tabari reports that some people believed that there was no such chair to begin with. According to them, Mukhtar insisted to Tufayl to bring the chair on which Ali used to sit. Tufayl understood the hint and brought a chair. Mukhtar’s companions wrapped it with silk and brocade and displayed it. Ja’dah bin Hubayrah was the son of Umm Hāni, full sister of Ali bin Abu Talib. (Abū Jā’far Muḥammad bin Jarīr al-Ṭabarī, The History of al- Ṭabarī. Vol. XXI, ed. Ehsan Yar-Shater, trans. Michael Fishbein (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1990),69, 70, 72)
- Abū Jā’far Muḥammad bin Jarīr al-Ṭabarī, The History of al- Ṭabarī. Vol. XXI, ed. Ehsan Yar-Shater, trans. Michael Fishbein (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1990),70,71
- Abū Jā’far Muḥammad bin Jarīr al-Ṭabarī, The History of al- Ṭabarī. Vol. XXI, ed. Ehsan Yar-Shater, trans. Michael Fishbein (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1990), 44, 73
- Abū Jā’far Muḥammad bin Jarīr al-Ṭabarī, The History of al- Ṭabarī. Vol. XXI, ed. Ehsan Yar-Shater, trans. Michael Fishbein (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1990),70,71
- Abū Jā’far Muḥammad bin Jarīr al-Ṭabarī, The History of al- Ṭabarī. Vol. XXI, ed. Ehsan Yar-Shater, trans. Michael Fishbein (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1990), 72. Junbad bin Ka’b of Azd was the man who had killed the magician. (See above.)
- Abū Jā’far Muḥammad bin Jarīr al-Ṭabarī, The History of al- Ṭabarī. Vol. XXI, ed. Ehsan Yar-Shater, trans. Michael Fishbein (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1990), 71
- Abū Jā’far Muḥammad bin Jarīr al-Ṭabarī, The History of al- Ṭabarī. Vol. XXI, ed. Ehsan Yar-Shater, trans. Michael Fishbein (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1990), 70, 71, 73
- Aḥmad ibn-Jābir al-Balādhuri. Kitāb Futūh al-Buldān, ed. and trans. Philip Khūri Ḥitti, (New York: Columbia University, 1916), 280
- For Ascetic nasik see: Abū Jā’far Muḥammad bin Jarīr al-Ṭabarī, The History of al- Ṭabarī. Vol. XXI, ed. Ehsan Yar-Shater, trans. Michael Fishbein (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1990), 22
- For an example of one at the time of Mukhtar’s entrance of Kufa, see: Abū Jā’far Muḥammad bin Jarīr al-Ṭabarī, The History of al- Ṭabarī. Vol. XX, ed. Ehsan Yar-Shater, trans. G. R. Hawting (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1989) 117
- Andrew Jacobs and Rebecca Krawiec, “Fathers know the Best? Christian Families in the Age of Asceticism,” Journal of Early Christian Studies 11 (2003): 257 – 263.
- Abū Jā’far Muḥammad bin Jarīr al-Ṭabarī, The History of al- Ṭabarī. Vol. XXIII, ed. Ehsan Yar-Shater, trans. Martin Hinds (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1990), 46
- Abū Jā’far Muḥammad bin Jarīr al-Ṭabarī, The History of al- Ṭabarī. Vol. XIX, ed. Ehsan Yar-Shater, trans. I. K. A. Howard (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1990), 41
- Abū Jā’far Muḥammad bin Jarīr al-Ṭabarī, The History of al- Ṭabarī. Vol. XXVI, ed. Ehsan Yar-Shater, trans. Carole Hillenbrand (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1989), 110.
- Abū Jā’far Muḥammad bin Jarīr al-Ṭabarī, The History of al- Ṭabarī. Vol. XXVI, ed. Ehsan Yar-Shater, trans. Carole Hillenbrand (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1989), 111.
- Abū Jā’far Muḥammad bin Jarīr al-Ṭabarī, The History of al- Ṭabarī. Vol. XXVI, ed. Ehsan Yar-Shater, trans. Carole Hillenbrand (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1989), 214.
- Abū Jā’far Muḥammad bin Jarīr al-Ṭabarī, The History of al- Ṭabarī. Vol. XXVI, ed. Ehsan Yar-Shater, trans. Carole Hillenbrand (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1989), 80, 81.
- Abū Jā’far Muḥammad bin Jarīr al-Ṭabarī, The History of al- Ṭabarī. Vol. XXVI, ed. Ehsan Yar-Shater, trans. Carole Hillenbrand (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1989), 75.
- ‘Amr bin Sharāḥīl was a Qadari. Hisham bin Abdul Malik had banished him and his associates to Dahlak (a group of islands off the west coast of the Red Sea opposite Eritrea. Khalak al Kabīr was used by the Umayyads as a high-security prison to banish their opponents). ‘Amr and his associates expected that the death of Hisham and the ascension of Walid II would ease their lives. When their case came up before Walid II, he refused to pardon them, saying Hisham had not done anything more deserving than to kill and banish the Qadiriyya. (Abū Jā’far Muḥammad bin Jarīr al-Ṭabarī, The History of al- Ṭabarī. Vol. XXVI, ed. Ehsan Yar-Shater, trans. Carole Hillenbrand (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1989), 129.)
- Abū Jā’far Muḥammad bin Jarīr al-Ṭabarī, The History of al- Ṭabarī. Vol. XXVI, ed. Ehsan Yar-Shater, trans. Carole Hillenbrand (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1989), 243. AND Ya’qūbī, Ibn Wāḍiḥ al-, The Works of Ibn Wāḍīḥ al-Ya’qūbī: An English Translation, Eds. and Trans. Matthew S. Gordon, Chase F. Robinson, Everett K. Rowson and Michael Fishbein, (Leiden: Brill, 2018), 1057.
- For many of Yazid III’s companions and supporters to be Qadiri see: Abū Jā’far Muḥammad bin Jarīr al-Ṭabarī, The History of al- Ṭabarī. Vol. XXVI, ed. Ehsan Yar-Shater, trans. Carole Hillenbrand (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1989), 186, 216. The most renowned among them was Mansur bin Jamhur.
- Abū Jā’far Muḥammad bin Jarīr al-Ṭabarī, The History of al- Ṭabarī. Vol. XXVII, ed. Ehsan Yar-Shater, trans. John Alden Williams (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1985), 29, 30.
- Abū Jā’far Muḥammad bin Jarīr al-Ṭabarī, The History of al- Ṭabarī. Vol. XXVII, ed. Ehsan Yar-Shater, trans. John Alden Williams (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1985), 35.
- See also: Saleh Said Agha, “A Viewpoint of the Murji’a in the Umayyad Period: Evolution Through Application,” Journal of Islamic Studies Volume 8, No 1 (Jan. 1997): 1 – 42.
- Abū Jā’far Muḥammad bin Jarīr al-Ṭabarī, The History of al- Ṭabarī. Vol. XXV, ed. Ehsan Yar-Shater, trans. Khalid Yahya Blankinship (Albany: the State University of New York Press, 1989), 125
- Et. Combe, J. Sauvaget and G. Weit, Repertoire Chronologique D’Epigraphie Arabe, Imprimerie De L’Institut Francais D’ Archeologie Orientale: Le Caire (1931): 18 – 19 and 21. AND N. Abbot, “The Kasr Kharāna Inscription of 92 H. (710 A. D.), A New Reading”, Ars Islamica, Volumes 11 – 12 (1946): 5 – 8.
- Aḥmad ibn-Jābir al-Balādhuri. Kitāb Futūh al-Buldān, ed. and trans. Philip Khūri Ḥitti, (New York: Columbia University, 1916), 190
- Sidney H. Griffith, “Comparative Religion in the Apologetics of the First Christian Arabic Theologians,” in Proceedings of the Patristic, Medieval, and Renaissance Conference (University of Villanova, Pennsylvania), 4 (Villanova, PA: Augustinian Historica Institute, 1979): 63 – 86.
- G. R. Hawting, The First Dynasty of Islam, (London: Routledge, 2000), 61
- Sidney H. Griffith, “Comparative Religion in the Apologetics of the First Christian Arabic Theologians,” in Proceedings of the Patristic, Medieval, and Renaissance Conference (University of Villanova, Pennsylvania), 4 (Villanova, PA: Augustinian Historica Institute, 1979): 63 – 86.