A Literary History of the Arabs Part 23

"'Tis time, O ye Sellers, for one who hath sold himself To G.o.d, that he should arise and saddle amain.

Fools! in the land of miscreants will ye abide, To be hunted down, every man of you, and to be slain?

O would that I were among you, armed in mail, On the back of my stout-ribbed galloping war-horse again!

And would that I were among you, fighting your foes, That me, first of all, they might give death's beaker to drain!

It grieves me sore that ye are startled and chased Like beasts, while I cannot draw on the wretches profane My sword, nor see them scattered by n.o.ble knights Who never yield an inch of the ground they gain, But where the struggle is hottest, with keen blades hew Their strenuous way and deem 'twere base to refrain.

Ay, it grieves me sore that ye are oppressed and wronged, While I must drag in anguish a captive's chain."

[Sidenote: Qa?ari b. al-Fuja'a.]

Qa?ari b. al-Fuja'a, the intrepid Kharijite leader who routed army after army sent against him by ?ajjaj, sang almost as well as he fought. The verses rendered below are included in the _?amasa_[395]

and cited by Ibn Khallikan, who declares that they would make a brave man of the greatest coward in the world. "I know of nothing on the subject to be compared with them; they could only have proceeded from a spirit that scorned disgrace and from a truly Arabian sentiment of valour."[396]

"I say to my soul dismayed-- 'Courage! Thou canst not achieve, With praying, an hour of life Beyond the appointed term.

Then courage on death's dark field, Courage! Impossible 'tis To live for ever and aye.

Life is no hero's robe Of honour: the dastard vile Also doffs it at last.'"

[Sidenote: The Shi'ites.]

[Sidenote: The theory of Divine Right.]

The murder of 'Uthman broke the Moslem community, which had hitherto been undivided, into two _shi'as_, or parties--one for 'Ali and the other for Mu'awiya. When the latter became Caliph he was no longer a party leader, but head of the State, and his _shi'a_ ceased to exist.

Henceforth 'the Shi'a' _par excellence_ was the party of 'Ali, which regarded the House of the Prophet as the legitimate heirs to the succession. Not content, however, with upholding 'Ali, as the worthiest of the Prophet's Companions and the duly elected Caliph, against his rival, Mu'awiya, the bolder spirits took up an idea, which emerged about this time, that the Caliphate belonged to 'Ali and his descendants by Divine right. Such is the distinctive doctrine of the Shi'ites to the present day. It is generally thought to have originated in Persia, where the Sasanian kings used to a.s.sume the t.i.tle of 'G.o.d' (Pahlavi _bagh_) and were looked upon as successive incarnations of the Divine majesty.

[Sidenote: Dozy's account of its origin.]

"Although the Shi'ites," says Dozy, "often found themselves under the direction of Arab leaders, who utilised them in order to gain some personal end, they were nevertheless a Persian sect at bottom; and it is precisely here that the difference most clearly showed itself between the Arab race, which loves liberty, and the Persian race, accustomed to slavish submission. For the Persians, the principle of electing the Prophet's successor was something unheard of and incomprehensible. The only principle which they recognised was that of inheritance, and since Mu?ammad left no sons, they thought that his son-in-law 'Ali should have succeeded him, and that the sovereignty was hereditary in his family. Consequently, all the Caliphs except 'Ali--_i.e._, Abu Bakr, 'Umar, and 'Uthman, as well as the Umayyads--were in their eyes usurpers to whom no obedience was due. The hatred which they felt for the Government and for Arab rule confirmed them in this opinion; at the same time they cast covetous looks on the wealth of their masters. Habituated, moreover, to see in their kings the descendants of the inferior divinities, they transferred this idolatrous veneration to 'Ali and his posterity. Absolute obedience to the Imam of 'Ali's House was in their eyes the most important duty; if that were fulfilled all the rest might be interpreted allegorically and violated without scruple. For them the Imam was everything; he was G.o.d made man. A servile submission accompanied by immorality was the basis of their system."[397]

[Sidenote: The Saba'ites.]

[Sidenote: Doctrine of Ibn Saba.]

Now, the Shi'ite theory of Divine Right certainly harmonised with Persian ideas, but was it also of Persian origin? On the contrary, it seems first to have arisen among an obscure Arabian sect, the Saba'ites, whose founder, 'Abdullah b. Saba (properly, Saba'), was a native of ?an'a in Yemen, and is said to have been a Jew.[398] In 'Uthman's time he turned Moslem and became, apparently, a travelling missionary. "He went from place to place," says the historian, "seeking to lead the Moslems into error."[399] We hear of him in the ?ijaz, then in Ba?ra and Kufa, then in Syria. Finally he settled in Egypt, where he preached the doctrine of palingenesis (_raj'a_). "It is strange indeed," he exclaimed, "that any one should believe in the return of Jesus (as Messias), and deny the return of Mu?ammad, which G.o.d has announced (Kor.

xxviii, 85).[400] Furthermore, there are a thousand Prophets, every one of whom has an executor (_wa?i_), and the executor of Mu?ammad is 'Ali.[401] Mu?ammad is the last of the Prophets, and 'Ali is the last of the executors." Ibn Saba, therefore, regarded Abu Bakr, 'Umar, and 'Uthman as usurpers. He set on foot a widespread conspiracy in favour of 'Ali, and carried on a secret correspondence with the disaffected in various provinces of the Empire.[402] According to Shahrastani, he was banished by 'Ali for saying, "Thou art thou" (_anta anta_), _i.e._, "Thou art G.o.d."[403] This refers to the doctrine taught by Ibn Saba and the extreme Shi'ites (_Ghulat_) who derive from him, that the Divine Spirit which dwells in every prophet and pa.s.ses successively from one to another was transfused, at Mu?ammad's death, into 'Ali, and from 'Ali into his descendants who succeeded him in the Imamate. The Saba'ites also held that the Imam might suffer a temporary occultation (_ghayba_), but that one day he would return and fill the earth with justice. They believed the millennium to be near at hand, so that the number of Imams was at first limited to four. Thus the poet Kuthayyir ( 723 A.D.) says:--

"Four complete are the Imams 'Ali and his three good sons, One was faithful and devout; One, until with waving flags Dwells on Mount Ra?wa, concealed: of Quraysh, the lords of Right: each of them a shining light.

Karbala hid one from sight; his hors.e.m.e.n he shall lead to fight, honey he drinks and water bright."[404]

[Sidenote: The Mahdi or Messiah.]

The Messianic idea is not peculiar to the Shi'ites, but was brought into Islam at an early period by Jewish and Christian converts, and soon established itself as a part of Mu?ammadan belief. Traditions ascribed to the Prophet began to circulate, declaring that the approach of the Last Judgment would be heralded by a time of tumult and confusion, by the return of Jesus, who would slay the Antichrist (_Dajjal_), and finally by the coming of the Mahdi, _i.e._, 'the G.o.d-guided one,' who would fill the earth with justice even as it was then filled with violence and iniquity. This expectation of a Deliverer descended from the Prophet runs through the whole history of the Shi'a. As we have seen, their supreme religious chiefs were the Imams of 'Ali's House, each of whom transmitted his authority to his successor. In the course of time disputes arose as to the succession. One sect acknowledged only seven legitimate Imams, while another carried the number to twelve. The last Imam of the 'Seveners' (_al-Sab'iyya_), who are commonly called Isma'ilis, was Mu?ammad b. Isma'il, and of the 'Twelvers'

(_al-Ithna-'ashariyya_) Mu?ammad b. al-?asan.[405] Both those personages vanished mysteriously about 770 and 870 A.D., and their respective followers, refusing to believe that they were dead, a.s.serted that their Imam had withdrawn himself for a season from mortal sight, but that he would surely return at last as the promised Mahdi. It would take a long while to enumerate all the pretenders and fanatics who have claimed this t.i.tle.[406] Two of them founded the Fa?imid and Almohade dynasties, which we shall mention elsewhere, but they generally died on the gibbet or the battle-field. The ideal which they, so to speak, incarnated did not perish with them. Mahdiism, the faith in a divinely appointed revolution which will sweep away the powers of evil and usher in a Golden Age of justice and truth such as the world has never known, is a present and inspiring fact which deserves to be well weighed by those who doubt the possibility of an Islamic Reformation.

[Sidenote: Shi'ite gatherings at Karbala.]

The Shi'a began as a political faction, but it could not remain so for any length of time, because in Islam politics always tend to take religious ground, just as the successful religious reformer invariably becomes a ruler. The Saba'ites furnished the Shi'ite movement with a theological basis; and the ma.s.sacre of ?usayn, followed by Mukhtar's rebellion, supplied the indispensable element of enthusiasm. Within a few years after the death of ?usayn his grave at Karbala was already a place of pilgrimage for the Shi'ites. When the 'Penitents'

(_al-Tawwabun_) revolted in 684 they repaired thither and lifted their voices simultaneously in a loud wail, and wept, and prayed G.o.d that He would forgive them for having deserted the Prophet's grandson in his hour of need. "O G.o.d!" exclaimed their chief, "have mercy on ?usayn, the Martyr and the son of a Martyr, the Mahdi and the son of a Mahdi, the ?iddiq and the son of a ?iddiq![407] O G.o.d! we bear witness that we follow their religion and their path, and that we are the foes of their slayers and the friends of those who love them."[408] Here is the germ of the _ta'ziyas_, or Pa.s.sion Plays, which are acted every year on the 10th of Mu?arram, wherever Shi'ites are to be found.

[Sidenote: Mukhtar.]

But the Moses of the Shi'a, the man who showed them the way to victory although he did not lead them to it, is undoubtedly Mukhtar. He came forward in the name of 'Ali's son, Mu?ammad, generally known as Ibnu 'l-?anafiyya after his mother. Thus he gained the support of the Arabian Shi'ites, properly so called, who were devoted to 'Ali and his House, and laid no stress upon the circ.u.mstance of descent from the Prophet, whereas the Persian adherents of the Shi'a made it a vital matter, and held accordingly that only the sons of 'Ali by his wife Fa?ima were fully qualified Imams. Raising the cry of vengeance for ?usayn, Mukhtar carried this party also along with him. In 686 he found himself master of Kufa. Neither the result of his triumph nor the rapid overthrow of his power concerns us here, but something must be said about the aims and character of the movement which he headed.

[Sidenote: The _Mawali_ of Kufa.]

"More than half the population of Kufa was composed of _Mawali_ (Clients), who monopolised handicraft, trade, and commerce. They were mostly Persians in race and language; they had come to Kufa as prisoners of war and had there pa.s.sed over to Islam: then they were manumitted by their owners and received as clients into the Arab tribes, so that they now occupied an ambiguous position (_Zwitterstellung_), being no longer slaves, but still very dependent on their patrons; needing their protection, bound to their service, and forming their retinue in peace and war. In these _Mawali_, who were ent.i.tled by virtue of Islam to more than the 'dominant Arabism' allowed them, the hope now dawned of freeing themselves from clientship and of rising to full and direct partic.i.p.ation in the Moslem state."[409]

[Sidenote: Mukhtar and the _Mawali_.]

[Sidenote: Persian influence on the Shi'a.]

Mukhtar, though himself an Arab of n.o.ble family, trusted the _Mawali_ and treated them as equals, a proceeding which was bitterly resented by the privileged cla.s.s. "You have taken away our clients who are the booty which G.o.d bestowed upon us together with this country. We emanc.i.p.ated them, hoping to receive the Divine recompense and reward, but you would not rest until you made them sharers in our booty."[410] Mukhtar was only giving the _Mawali_ their due--they were Moslems and had the right, as such, to a share in the revenues. To the haughty Arabs, however, it appeared a monstrous thing that the despised foreigners should be placed on the same level with themselves. Thus Mukhtar was thrown into the arms of the _Mawali_, and the movement now became not so much anti-Umayyad as anti-Arabian. Here is the turning-point in the history of the Shi'a. Its ranks were swelled by thousands of Persians imbued with the extreme doctrines of the Saba'ites which have been sketched above, and animated by the intense hatred of a downtrodden people towards their conquerors and oppressors. Consequently the Shi'a a.s.sumed a religious and enthusiastic character, and struck out a new path which led it farther and farther from the orthodox creed. The doctrine of 'Interpretation'

(_Ta'wil_) opened the door to all sorts of extravagant ideas. One of the princ.i.p.al Shi'ite sects, the Hashimiyya, held that "there is an esoteric side to everything external, a spirit to every form, a hidden meaning (_ta'wil_) to every revelation, and to every similitude in this world a corresponding reality in the other world; that 'Ali united in his own person the knowledge of all mysteries and communicated it to his son Mu?ammad Ibnu 'l-?anafiyya, who pa.s.sed it on to his son Abu Hashim; and that the possessor of this universal knowledge is the true Imam."[411]

So, without ceasing to be Moslems in name, the Shi'ites trans.m.u.ted Islam into whatever shape they pleased by virtue of a mystical interpretation based on the infallible authority of the House of Mu?ammad, and out of the ruins of a political party there gradually arose a great religious organisation in which men of the most diverse opinions could work together for deliverance from the Umayyad yoke. The first step towards this development was made by Mukhtar, a versatile genius who seems to have combined the parts of political adventurer, social reformer, prophet, and charlatan. He was crushed and his Persian allies were decimated, but the seed which he had sown bore an abundant harvest when, sixty years later, Abu Muslim unfurled the black standard of the 'Abbasids in Khurasan.

[Sidenote: The oldest theological sects.]

Concerning the origin of the oldest theological sects in Islam, the Murjites and the Mu'tazilites, we possess too little contemporary evidence to make a positive statement. It is probable that the latter at any rate arose, as Von Kremer has suggested, under the influence of Greek theologians, especially John of Damascus and his pupil, Theodore Abucara (Abu Qurra), the Bishop of ?arran.[412] Christians were freely admitted to the Umayyad court. The Christian al-Akh?al was poet-laureate, while many of his co-religionists held high offices in the Government. Moslems and Christians exchanged ideas in friendly discussion or controversially. Armed with the hair-splitting weapons of Byzantine theology, which they soon learned to use only too well, the Arabs proceeded to try their edge on the dogmas of Islam.

[Sidenote: The Murjites.]

The leading article of the Murjite creed was this, that no one who professed to believe in the One G.o.d could be declared an infidel, whatever sins he might commit, until G.o.d Himself had given judgment against him.[413] The Murjites were so called because they deferred (_arja'a_ = to defer) their decision in such cases and left the sinner's fate in suspense, so long as it was doubtful.[414] This principle they applied in different ways. For example, they refused to condemn 'Ali and 'Uthman outright, as the Kharijites did. "Both 'Ali and 'Uthman," they said, "were servants of G.o.d, and by G.o.d alone must they be judged; it is not for us to p.r.o.nounce either of them an infidel, notwithstanding that they rent the Moslem people asunder."[415] On the other hand, the Murjites equally rejected the pretensions made by the Shi'ites on behalf of 'Ali and by the Umayyads on behalf of Mu'awiya. For the most part they maintained a neutral att.i.tude towards the Umayyad Government: they were pa.s.sive resisters, content, as Wellhausen puts it, "to stand up for the impersonal Law." Sometimes, however, they turned the principle of toleration against their rulers. Thus ?arith b. Surayj and other Arabian Murjites joined the oppressed _Mawali_ of Khurasan to whom the Government denied those rights which they had acquired by conversion.[416] According to the Murjite view, these Persians, having professed Islam, should no longer be treated as tax-paying infidels. The Murjites brought the same tolerant spirit into religion. They set faith above works, emphasised the love and goodness of G.o.d, and held that no Moslem would be d.a.m.ned everlastingly. Some, like Jahm b. ?afwan, went so far as to declare that faith (_iman_) was merely an inward conviction: a man might openly profess Christianity or Judaism or any form of unbelief without ceasing to be a good Moslem, provided only that he acknowledged Allah with his heart.[417] The moderate school found their most ill.u.s.trious representative in Abu ?anifa ( 767 A.D.), and through this great divine--whose followers to-day are counted by millions--their liberal doctrines were diffused and perpetuated.

[Sidenote: The Mu'tazilites.]

During the Umayyad period Ba?ra was the intellectual capital of Islam, and in that city we find the first traces of a sect which maintained the principle that thought must be free in the search for truth. The origin of the Mu'tazilites (_al-Mu'tazila_), as they are generally called, takes us back to the famous divine and ascetic, ?asan of Ba?ra (728 A.D.). One day he was asked to give his opinion on a point regarding which the Murjites and the Kharijites held opposite views, namely, whether those who had committed a great sin should be deemed believers or unbelievers. While ?asan was considering the question, one of his pupils, Wa?il b. 'A?a (according to another tradition, 'Amr b. 'Ubayd) replied that such persons were neither believers nor unbelievers, but should be ranked in an intermediate state. He then turned aside and began to explain the grounds of his a.s.sertion to a group which gathered about him in a different part of the mosque. ?asan said: "Wa?il has separated himself from us" (_i'tazala 'anna_); and on this account the followers of Wa?il were named 'Mu'tazilites,' _i.e._, Schismatics.

Although the story may not be literally true, it is probably safe to a.s.sume that the new sect originated in Ba?ra among the pupils of ?asan,[418] who was the life and soul of the religious movement of the first century A.H. The Mu'tazilite heresy, in its earliest form, is connected with the doctrine of Predestination. On this subject the Koran speaks with two voices. Mu?ammad was anything but a logically exact and consistent thinker. He was guided by the impulse of the moment, and neither he nor his hearers perceived, as later Moslems did, that the language of the Koran is often contradictory. Thus in the present instance texts which imply the moral responsibility of man for his actions--_e.g._, "_Every soul is in pledge_ (with G.o.d) _for what it hath wrought_"[419]; "_Whoso does good benefits himself, and whoso does evil does it against himself_"[420]--stand side by side with others which declare that G.o.d leads men aright or astray, as He pleases; that the hearts of the wicked are sealed and their ears made deaf to the truth; and that they are certainly doomed to perdition. This fatalistic view prevailed in the first century of Islam, and the dogma of Predestination was almost universally accepted. Ibn Qutayba, however, mentions the names of twenty-seven persons who held the opinion that men's actions are free.[421] Two among them, Ma'bad al-Juhani and Abu Marwan Ghaylan, who were put to death by 'Abdu 'l-Malik and his son Hisham, do not appear to have been condemned as heretics, but rather as enemies of the Umayyad Government.[422] The real founder of the Mu'tazilites was Wa?il b. 'A?a ( 748 A.D.),[423] who added a second cardinal doctrine to that of free-will. He denied the existence of the Divine attributes--Power, Wisdom, Life, &c.--on the ground that such qualities, if conceived as eternal, would destroy the Unity of G.o.d. Hence the Mu'tazilites called themselves 'the partisans of Unity and Justice' (_Ahlu'l-taw?id wa-'l-'adl_): of Unity for the reason which has been explained, and of Justice, because they held that G.o.d was not the author of evil and that He would not punish His creatures except for actions within their control. The further development of these Rationalistic ideas belongs to the 'Abbasid period and will be discussed in a subsequent chapter.

[Sidenote: Growth of asceticism.]

[Sidenote: ?asan of Ba?ra.]

The founder of Islam had too much human nature and common sense to demand of his countrymen such mortifying austerities as were practised by the Jewish Essenes and the Christian monks. His religion was not without ascetic features, _e.g._, the Fast of Rama?an, the prohibition of wine, and the ordinance of the pilgrimage, but these can scarcely be called unreasonable. On the other hand Mu?ammad condemned celibacy not only by his personal example but also by precept. "There is no monkery in Islam," he is reported to have said, and there was in fact nothing of the kind for more than a century after his death. During this time, however, asceticism made great strides. It was the inevitable outcome of the Mu?ammadan conception of Allah, in which the attributes of mercy and love are overshadowed by those of majesty, awe, and vengeance. The terrors of Judgment Day so powerfully described in the Koran were realised with an intensity of conviction which it is difficult for us to imagine. As Goldziher has observed, an exaggerated consciousness of sin and the dread of Divine punishment gave the first impulse to Moslem asceticism. Thus we read that Tamim al-Dari, one of the Prophet's Companions, who was formerly a Christian, pa.s.sed the whole night until daybreak, repeating a single verse of the Koran (xlv, 20)--"_Do those who work evil think that We shall make them even as those who believe and do good, so that their life and death shall be equal? Ill do they judge!_"[424] Abu 'l-Darda, another of the Companions, used to say: "If ye knew what ye shall see after death, ye would not eat food nor drink water from appet.i.te, and I wish that I were a tree which is lopped and then devoured."[425] There were many who shared these views, and their determination to renounce the world and to live solely for G.o.d was strengthened by their disgust with a tyrannical and impious Government, and by the almost uninterrupted spectacle of bloodshed, rapine, and civil war. ?asan of Ba?ra ( 728)--we have already met him in connection with the Mu'tazilites--is an outstanding figure in this early ascetic movement, which proceeded on orthodox lines.[426] Fear of G.o.d seized on him so mightily that, in the words of his biographer, "it seemed as though h.e.l.l-fire had been created for him alone."[427] All who looked on his face thought that he must have been recently overtaken by some great calamity.[428] One day a friend saw him weeping and asked him the cause.

"I weep," he replied, "for fear that I have done something unwittingly and unintentionally, or committed some fault, or spoken some word which is unpleasing to G.o.d: then He may have said, 'Begone, for now thou hast no more honour in My court, and henceforth I will not receive anything from thee.'"[429] Al-Mubarrad relates that two monks, coming from Syria, entered Ba?ra and looked at ?asan, whereupon one said to the other, "Let us turn aside to visit this man, whose way of life appears like that of the Messiah." So they went, and they found him supporting his chin on the palm of his hand, while he was saying--"How I marvel at those who have been ordered to lay in a stock of provisions and have been summoned to set out on a journey, and yet the foremost of them stays for the hindermost! Would that I knew what they are waiting for!"[430] The following utterances are characteristic:--

"G.o.d hath made fasting a hippodrome (place or time of training) for His servants, that they may race towards obedience to Him.[431] Some come in first and win the prize, while others are left behind and return disappointed; and by my life, if the lid were removed, the well-doer would be diverted by his well-doing, and the evildoer by his evil-doing, from wearing new garments or from anointing his hair."[432]

"You meet one of them with white skin and delicate complexion, speeding along the path of vanity: he shaketh his hips and clappeth his sides and saith, 'Here am I, recognise me!' Yes, we recognise thee, and thou art hateful to G.o.d and hateful to good men."[433]

"The bounties of G.o.d are too numerous to be acknowledged unless with His help, and the sins of Man are too numerous for him to escape therefrom unless G.o.d pardon them."[434]

"The wonder is not how the lost were lost, but how the saved were saved."[435]

"Cleanse ye these hearts (by meditation and remembrance of G.o.d), for they are quick to rust; and restrain ye these souls, for they desire eagerly, and if ye restrain them not, they will drag you to an evil end."[436]

[Sidenote: ?asan of Ba?ra not a genuine ?ufi.]

The ?ufis, concerning whom we shall say a few words presently, claim ?asan as one of themselves, and with justice in so far as he attached importance to spiritual righteousness, and was not satisfied with merely external acts of devotion. "A grain of genuine piety," he declared, "is better than a thousandfold weight of fasting and prayer."[437] But although some of his sayings which are recorded in the later biographies lend colour to the fiction that he was a full-blown ?ufi, there can be no doubt that his mysticism--if it deserves that name--was of the most moderate type, entirely lacking the glow and exaltation which we find in the saintly woman, Rabi'a al-'Adawiyya, with whom legend a.s.sociates him.[438]