A Literary History of the Arabs Part 36

2. Abu Na?r al-Farabi ( 950 A.D.), of Turkish race, a native of Farab in Transoxania. The later years of his life were pa.s.sed at Aleppo under the patronage of Sayfu 'l-Dawla. He devoted himself to the study of Aristotle, whom Moslems agree with Dante in regarding as "il maestro di color che sanno."

[Sidenote: Ibn Sina.]

3. Abu 'Ali Ibn Sina (Avicenna), born of Persian parents at Kharmaythan, near Bukhara, in the year 980 A.D. As a youth he displayed extraordinary talents, so that "in the sixteenth year of his age physicians of the highest eminence came to read medicine with him and to learn those modes of treatment which he had discovered by his practice."[680] He was no quiet student, like Farabi, but a pleasure-loving, adventurous man of the world who travelled from court to court, now in favour, now in disgrace, and always writing indefatigably. His system of philosophy, in which Aristotelian and Neo-platonic theories are combined with Persian mysticism, was well suited to the popular taste, and in the East it still reigns supreme. His chief works are the _Shifa_ (Remedy) on physics, metaphysics, &c., and a great medical encyclopaedia ent.i.tled the _Qanun_ (Canon). Avicenna died in 1037 A.D.

4. The Spanish philosophers, Ibn Bajja (Avempace), Ibn ?ufayl, and Ibn Rushd (Averroes), all of whom flourished in the twelfth century after Christ.

[Sidenote: Medicine, Astronomy, and Mathematics.]

[Sidenote: Biruni 973-1048 A.D.]

The most ill.u.s.trious name beside Avicenna in the history of Arabian medicine is Abu Bakr al-Razi (Rhazes), a native of Rayy, near Teheran ( 923 or 932 A.D.). Jabir b. ?ayyan of Tarsus ( about 780 A.D.)--the Geber of European writers--won equal renown as an alchemist. Astronomy went hand in hand with astrology. The reader may recognise al-Farghani, Abu Ma'shar of Balkh ( 885 A.D.) and al-Battani, a ?abian of ?arran ( 929 A.D.), under the names of Alfraga.n.u.s, Alb.u.maser, and Albategnius, by which they became known in the West. Abu 'Abdallah al-Khwarizmi, who lived in the Caliphate of Ma'mun, was the first of a long line of mathematicians. In this science, as also in Medicine and Astronomy, we see the influence of India upon Mu?ammadan civilisation--an influence, however, which, in so far as it depended on literary sources, was more restricted and infinitely less vital than that of Greece. Only a pa.s.sing reference can be made to Abu Ray?an al-Biruni, a native of Khwarizm (Khiva), whose knowledge of the sciences, antiquities, and customs of India was such as no Moslem had ever equalled. His two princ.i.p.al works, the _athar al-Baqiya_, or 'Surviving Monuments,' and the _Ta'rikhu 'l-Hind_, or 'History of India,' have been edited and translated into English by Dr. Sachau.[681]

[Sidenote: The _Fihrist_.]

Some conception of the amazing intellectual activity of the Moslems during the earlier part of the 'Abbasid period, and also of the enormous losses which Arabic literature has suffered through the destruction of thousands of books that are known to us by nothing beyond their t.i.tles and the names of their authors, may be gained from the _Fihrist_, or 'Index' of Mu?ammad b. Is?aq b. Abi Ya'qub al-Nadim al-Warraq al-Baghdadi ( 995 A.D.). Regarding the compiler we have no further information than is conveyed in the last two epithets attached to his name: he was a copyist of MSS., and was connected with Baghdad either by birth or residence; add that, according to his own statement (p. 349, l.

14 sqq.), he was at Constantinople (_Daru 'l-Rum_) in 988 A.D., the same year in which his work was composed. He may possibly have been related to the famous musician, Is?aq b. Ibrahim al-Nadim of Mosul ( 849-850 A.D.), but this has yet to be proved. At any rate we owe to his industry a unique conspectus of the literary history of the Arabs to the end of the fourth century after the Flight. The _Fihrist_ (as the author explains in his brief Preface) is "an Index of the books of all nations, Arabs and foreigners alike, which are extant in the Arabic language and script, on every branch of knowledge; comprising information as to their compilers and the cla.s.ses of their authors, together with the genealogies of those persons, the dates of their birth, the length of their lives, the times of their death, the places to which they belonged, their merits and their faults, since the beginning of every science that has been invented down to the present epoch: namely, the year 377 of the Hijra." As the contents of the _Fihrist_ (which considerably exceed the above description) have been a.n.a.lysed in detail by G. Flugel (_Z.D.M.G._, vol. 13, p. 559 sqq.) and set forth in tabular form by Professor Browne in the first volume of his _Literary History of Persia_,[682] I need only indicate the general arrangement and scope of the work. It is divided into ten discourses (_maqalat_), which are subdivided into a varying number of sections (_funun_). Ibnu 'l-Nadim discusses, in the first place, the languages, scripts, and sacred books of the Arabs and other peoples, the revelation of the Koran, the order of its chapters, its collectors, redactors, and commentators. Pa.s.sing next to the sciences which, as we have seen, arose from study of the Koran and primarily served as handmaids to theology, he relates the origin of Grammar, and gives an account of the different schools of grammarians with the treatises which they wrote. The third discourse embraces History, Belles-Lettres, Biography, and Genealogy; the fourth treats of Poetry, ancient and modern. Scholasticism (_Kalam_) forms the subject of the following chapter, which contains a valuable notice of the Isma'ilis and their founder, 'Abdullah b. Maymun, as also of the celebrated mystic, ?usayn b. Man?ur al-?allaj. From these and many other names redolent of heresy the author returns to the orthodox schools of Law--the Malikites, ?anafites, Shafi'ites and ?ahirites; then to the jurisconsults of the Shi'a, &c. The seventh discourse deals with Philosophy and 'the Ancient Sciences,' under which head we find some curious speculations concerning their origin and introduction to the lands of Islam; a list of translators and the books which they rendered into Arabic; an account of the Greek philosophers from Thales to Plutarch, with the names of their works that were known to the Moslems; and finally a literary survey of the remaining sciences, such as Mathematics, Music, Astronomy, and Medicine. Here, by an abrupt transition, we enter the enchanted domain of Oriental fable--the _Hazar Afsan_, or Thousand Tales, Kalila and Dimna, the Book of Sindbad, and the legends of Rustam and Isfandiyar; works on sorcery, magic, conjuring, amulets, talismans, and the like. European savants have long recognised the importance of the ninth discourse,[683] which is devoted to the doctrines and writings of the ?abians and the Dualistic sects founded by Manes, Bardesanes, Marcion, Mazdak, and other heresiarchs.

The author concludes his work with a chapter on the Alchemists (_al-Kimiya'un_).

CHAPTER VIII

ORTHODOXY, FREE-THOUGHT, AND MYSTICISM

[Sidenote: The 'Abbasids and Islam.]

[Sidenote: Influence of theologians.]

We have already given some account of the great political revolution which took place under the 'Abbasid dynasty, and we have now to consider the no less vital influence of the new era in the field of religion. It will be remembered that the House of 'Abbas came forward as champions of Islam and of the oppressed and persecuted Faithful. Their victory was a triumph for the Mu?ammadan over the National idea. "They wished, as they said, to revive the dead Tradition of the Prophet. They brought the experts in Sacred Law from Medina, which had hitherto been their home, to Baghdad, and always invited their approbation by taking care that even political questions should be treated in legal form and decided in accordance with the Koran and the Sunna. In reality, however, they used Islam only to serve their own interest. They tamed the divines at their court and induced them to sanction the most objectionable measures. They made the pious Opposition harmless by leading it to victory. With the downfall of the Umayyads it had gained its end and could now rest in peace."[684] There is much truth in this view of the matter, but notwithstanding the easy character of their religion, the 'Abbasid Caliphs were sincerely devoted to the cause of Islam and zealous to maintain its principles in public life. They regarded themselves as the sovereign defenders of the Faith; added the Prophet's mantle (_al-burda_) to those emblems of Umayyad royalty, the sceptre and the seal; delighted in the pompous t.i.tles which their flatterers conferred on them, _e.g._, 'Vicegerent of G.o.d,' 'Sultan of G.o.d upon the Earth,'

'Shadow of G.o.d,' &c.; and left no stone unturned to invest themselves with the attributes of theocracy, and to inspire their subjects with veneration.[685] Whereas the Umayyad monarchs ignored or crushed Mu?ammadan sentiment, and seldom made any attempt to conciliate the leading representatives of Islam, the 'Abbasids, on the other hand, not only gathered round their throne all the most celebrated theologians of the day, but also showed them every possible honour, listened respectfully to their counsel, and allowed them to exert a commanding influence on the administration of the State.[686] When Malik b. Anas was summoned by the Caliph Harun al-Rashid, who wished to hear him recite traditions, Malik replied, "People come to seek knowledge." So Harun went to Malik's house, and leaned against the wall beside him.

Malik said, "O Prince of the Faithful, whoever honours G.o.d, honours knowledge." Al-Rashid arose and seated himself at Malik's feet and spoke to him and heard him relate a number of traditions handed down from the Apostle of G.o.d. Then he sent for Sufyan b. 'Uyayna, and Sufyan came to him and sat in his presence and recited traditions to him. Afterwards al-Rashid said, "O Malik, we humbled ourselves before thy knowledge, and profited thereby, but Sufyan's knowledge humbled itself to us, and we got no good from it."[687] Many instances might be given of the high favour which theologians enjoyed at this time, and of the lively interest with which religious topics were debated by the Caliph and his courtiers. As the Caliphs gradually lost their temporal sovereignty, the influence of the _'Ulama_--the doctors of Divinity and Law--continued to increase, so that ere long they formed a privileged cla.s.s, occupying in Islam a position not unlike that of the priesthood in mediaeval Christendom.

It will be convenient to discuss the religious phenomena of the 'Abbasid period under the following heads:--

I. Rationalism and Free-thought.

II. The Orthodox Reaction and the rise of Scholastic Theology.

III. The ?ufi Mysticism.

[Sidenote: Rationalism and Free-thought.]

I. The first century of 'Abbasid rule was marked, as we have seen, by a great intellectual agitation. All sorts of new ideas were in the air. It was an age of discovery and awakening. In a marvellously brief s.p.a.ce the diverse studies of Theology, Law, Medicine, Philosophy, Mathematics, Astronomy, and Natural Science attained their maturity, if not their highest development. Even if some pious Moslems looked askance at the foreign learning and its professors, an enlightened spirit generally prevailed. People took their cue from the court, which patronised, or at least tolerated,[688] scientific research as well as theological speculation.

[Sidenote: The Mu'tazilites and their opponents.]

These circ.u.mstances enabled the Mu'tazilites (see p. 222 sqq.) to propagate their liberal views without hindrance, and finally to carry their struggle against the orthodox party to a successful issue. It was the same conflict that divided Nominalists and Realists in the days of Thomas Aquinas, Duns Scotus, and Occam. As often happens when momentous principles are at stake, the whole controversy between Reason and Revelation turned on a single question--"Is the Koran created or uncreated?" In other terms, is it the work of G.o.d or the Word of G.o.d?

According to orthodox belief, it is uncreated and has existed with G.o.d from all eternity, being in its present form merely a transcript of the heavenly archetype.[689] Obviously this conception of the Koran as the direct and literal Word of G.o.d left no room for exercise of the understanding, but required of those who adopted it a dumb faith and a blind fatalism. There were many to whom the sacrifice did not seem too great. The Mu'tazilites, on the contrary, a.s.serted their intellectual freedom. It was possible, they said, to know G.o.d and distinguish good from evil without any Revelation at all. They admitted that the Koran was G.o.d's work, in the sense that it was produced by a divinely inspired Prophet, but they flatly rejected its deification. Some went so far as to criticise the 'inimitable' style, declaring that it could be surpa.s.sed in beauty and eloquence by the art of man.[690]

[Sidenote: Rationalism adopted and put in force by the Caliph Ma'mun.]

[Sidenote: Mutawakkil returns to orthodoxy.]

The Mu'tazilite controversy became a burning question in the reign of Ma'mun (813-833 A.D.), a Caliph whose scientific enthusiasm and keen interest in religious matters we have already mentioned. He did not inherit the orthodoxy of his father, Harun al-Rashid; and it was believed that he was at heart a _zindiq_. His liberal tendencies would have been wholly admirable if they had not been marred by excessive intolerance towards those who held opposite views to his own. In 833 A.D., the year of his death, he promulgated a decree which bound all Moslems to accept the Mu'tazilite doctrine as to the creation of the Koran on pain of losing their civil rights, and at the same time he established an inquisition (_mi?na_) in order to obtain the a.s.sent of the divines, judges, and doctors of law. Those who would not take the test were flogged and threatened with the sword. After Ma'mun's death the persecution still went on, although it was conducted in a more moderate fashion. Popular feeling ran strongly against the Mu'tazilites.

The most prominent figure in the orthodox camp was the Imam A?mad b.

?anbal, who firmly resisted the new dogma from the first. "But for him," says the Sunnite historian, Abu 'l-Ma?asin, "the beliefs of a great number would have been corrupted."[691] Neither threats nor entreaties could shake his resolution, and when he was scourged by command of the Caliph Mu'ta?im, the palace was in danger of being wrecked by an angry mob which had a.s.sembled outside to hear the result of the trial. The Mu'tazilite dogma remained officially in force until it was abandoned by the Caliph Wathiq and once more declared heretical by the cruel and bigoted Mutawakkil (847 A.D.). From that time to this the victorious party have sternly suppressed every rationalistic movement in Islam.

[Sidenote: The end of the Mu'tazilites.]

According to Steiner, the original Mu'tazilite heresy arose in the bosom of Islam, independently of any foreign influence, but, however that may be, its later development was largely affected by Greek philosophy. We need not attempt to follow the recondite speculations of Abu Hudhayl al-'Allaf ( about 840 A.D.) of his contemporaries, al-Na??am, Bishr b. al-Mu'tamir, and others, and of the philosophical schools of Ba?ra and Baghdad in which the movement died away. Vainly they sought to replace the Mu?ammadan idea of G.o.d as will by the Aristotelian conception of G.o.d as law. Their efforts to purge the Koran of anthropomorphism made no impression on the faithful, who ardently hoped to see G.o.d in Paradise face to face. What they actually achieved was little enough. Their weapons of logic and dialectic were turned against them with triumphant success, and scholastic theology was founded on the ruins of Rationalism. Indirectly, however, the Mu'tazilite principles leavened Mu?ammadan thought to a considerable extent and cleared the way for other liberal movements, like the Fraternity of the _Ikhwanu 'l-?afa_, which endeavoured to harmonise authority with reason, and to construct a universal system of religious philosophy.

[Sidenote: The Ikhwanu 'l-?afa.]

These 'Brethren of Purity,'[692] as they called themselves, compiled a great encyclopaedic work in fifty tractates (_Rasa'il_). Of the authors, who flourished at Ba?ra towards the end of the tenth century, five are known to us by name: viz., Abu Sulayman Mu?ammad b. Ma'shar al-Bayusti or al-Muqaddasi (Maqdisi), Abu 'l-?asan 'Ali b. Harun al-Zanjani, Abu A?mad al-Mihrajani, al-'Awfi, and Zayd b. Rifa'a.

"They formed a society for the pursuit of holiness, purity, and truth, and established amongst themselves a doctrine whereby they hoped to win the approval of G.o.d, maintaining that the Religious Law was defiled by ignorance and adulterated by errors, and that there was no means of cleansing and purifying it except philosophy, which united the wisdom of faith and the profit of research. They held that a perfect result would be reached if Greek philosophy were combined with Arabian religion.

Accordingly they composed fifty tracts on every branch of philosophy, theoretical as well as practical, added a separate index, and ent.i.tled them the 'Tracts of the Brethren of Purity' (_Rasa'ilu Ikhwan al-?afa_). The authors of this work concealed their names, but circulated it among the booksellers and gave it to the public. They filled their pages with devout phraseology, religious parables, metaphorical expressions, and figurative turns of style."[693] Nearly all the tracts have been translated into German by Dieterici, who has also drawn up an epitome of the whole encyclopaedia in his _Philosophie der Araber im X Jahrhundert_. It would take us too long to describe the system of the _Ikhwan_, but the reader will find an excellent account of it in Stanley Lane-Poole's _Studies in a Mosque_, 2nd ed., p. 176 sqq.

The view has recently been put forward that the Brethren of Purity were in some way connected with the Isma'ili propaganda, and that their eclectic idealism represents the highest teaching of the Fatimids, Carmathians, and a.s.sa.s.sins. Strong evidence in support of this theory is supplied by a MS. of the Bibliotheque Nationale (No. 2309 in De Slane's Catalogue), which contains, together with fragments of the _Rasa'il_, a hitherto unknown tract ent.i.tled the _Jami'a_ or 'Summary.'[694] The latter purports to be the essence and crown of the fifty _Rasa'il_, it is manifestly Isma'ilite in character, and, a.s.suming that it is genuine, we may, I think, agree with the conclusions which its discoverer, M. P.

Casanova, has stated in the following pa.s.sage:--

[Sidenote: The doctrines of the Brethren of Purity identical with the esoteric philosophy of the Isma'ilis.]

"Surtout je crois etre dans le vrai en affirmant que les doctrines philosophiques des Ismaliens sont contenues tout entieres dans les Epitres des Freres de la Purete. Et c'est ce qui explique 'la seduction extraordinaire que la doctrine exercait sur des hommes serieux.'[695] En y ajoutant la croyance en l'_imam cache_ (_al-imam al-mastur_) qui doit apparaitre un jour pour etablir le bonheur universel, elle realisait la fusion de toutes les doctrines idealistes, du messianisme et du platonisme. Tant que l'imam restait cache, il s'y melait encore une saveur de mystere qui attachait les esprits les plus eleves.... En tous cas, on peut affirmer que les Carmathes et les a.s.sa.s.sins ont ete profondement calomnies quand ils ont ete accuses par leurs adversaires d'atheisme et de debauche. Le fetwa d'Ibn Taimiyyah, que j'ai cite plus haut, pretend que leur dernier degre dans l'initiation (_al-balagh al-akbar_) est la negation meme du Createur. Mais la _djami'at_ que nous avons decouverte est, comme tout l'indique, le dernier degre de la science des Freres de la Purete et des Ismaliens; il n'y a rien de fonde dans une telle accusation. La doctrine apparait tres pure, tres elevee, tres simple meme: je repete que c'est une sorte de pantheisme mecaniste et esthetique qui est absolument oppose au scepticisme et au materialisme, car il repose sur l'harmonie generale de toutes les parties du monde, harmonie voulue par le Createur parce qu'elle est la beaute meme.

"Ma conclusion sera que nous avons la un exemple de plus dans l'histoire d'une doctrine tres pure et tres elevee en theorie, devenue, entre les mains des fanatiques et des ambitieux, une source d'actes monstrueux et meritant l'infamie qui est attachee a ce nom historique d'a.s.sa.s.sins."

Besides the Mu'tazilites, we hear much of another cla.s.s of heretics who are commonly grouped together under the name of _Zindiqs_.

[Sidenote: The _Zindiqs_.]

"It is well known," says Goldziher,[696] "that the earliest persecution was directed against those individuals who managed more or less adroitly to conceal under the veil of Islam old Persian religious ideas.

Sometimes indeed they did not consider any disguise to be necessary, but openly set up dualism and other Persian or Manichaean doctrines, and the practices a.s.sociated therewith, against the dogma and usage of Islam.

Such persons were called _Zindiqs_, a term which comprises different shades of heresy and hardly admits of simple definition. Firstly, there are the old Persian families incorporated in Islam who, following the same path as the Shu'ubites, have a _national interest_ in the revival of Persian religious ideas and traditions, and from this point of view react against the _Arabian_ character of the Mu?ammadan system. Then, on the other hand, there are freethinkers, who oppose in particular the stubborn dogma of Islam, reject _positive religion_, and acknowledge only the moral law. Amongst the latter there is developed a monkish asceticism extraneous to Islam and ultimately traceable to Buddhistic influences."

[Sidenote: Persecution of _Zindiqs_.]

The 'Abbasid Government, which sought to enforce an official standard of belief, was far less favourable to religious liberty than the Umayyads had been. Orthodox and heretic alike fell under its ban. While Ma'mun harried pious Sunnites, his immediate predecessors raised a hue and cry against _Zindiqs_. The Caliph Mahdi distinguished himself by an organised persecution of these enemies of the faith. He appointed a Grand Inquisitor (_?a?ibu 'l-Zanadiqa_[697] or _'Arifu 'l-Zanadiqa_) to discover and hunt them down. If they would not recant when called upon, they were put to death and crucified, and their books[698] were cut to pieces with knives.[699] Mahdi's example was followed by Hadi and Harun al-Rashid. Some of the 'Abbasids, however, were less severe. Thus Kha?ib, Man?ur's physician, was a _Zindiq_ who professed Christianity,[700] and in the reign of Ma'mun it became the mode to affect Manichaean opinions as a mark of elegance and refinement.[701]

[Sidenote: Bashshar b. Burd.]

The two main types of _zandaqa_ which have been described above are ill.u.s.trated in the contemporary poets, Bashshar b. Burd and ?ali?

b. 'Abd al-Quddus. Bashshar was born stone-blind. The descendant of a n.o.ble Persian family--though his father, Burd, was a slave--he cherished strong national sentiments and did not attempt to conceal his sympathy with the Persian clients (_Mawali_), whom he was accused of stirring up against their Arab lords. He may also have had leanings towards Zoroastrianism, but Professor Bevan has observed that there is no real evidence for this statement,[702] though Zoroastrian or Manichaean views are probably indicated by the fact that he used to dispute with a number of noted Moslem theologians in Ba?ra, _e.g._, with Wa?il b.

'A?a, who started the Mu'tazilite heresy, and 'Amr b. 'Ubayd. He and ?ali? b. 'Abd al-Quddus were put to death by the Caliph Mahdi in the same year (783 A.D.).