[Discussion] Medieval Islamic Discourse

Wed, 09 Jun 2004 09:09:32 -0700

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*Asma Afsaruddin.* /Excellence and Precedence: Medieval Islamic 
Discourse on Legitimate Leadership//. /Islamic History and Civilization 
Studies and Texts Series, vol. 36. Leiden: Brill, 2002. xii + 313 pp. 
Appendix, bibliography, index. $124.00 (cloth), ISBN 90-04-12043-2.

Reviewed by *Khaleel Mohammed*, Department of Religious Studies, San 
Diego State University.
Published by H-Mideast-Medieval <http://www.h-net.msu.edu/%7Emidmed> 
(March, 2004)

The common conception among both specialists and non-specialists in 
Islamic Studies is that the earliest pro-'Alid line of argument focused 
on 'Ali's kinship to Muhammad. Asma Afsaruddin, associate professor of 
Arabic and Islamic Studies at Notre Dame University, contends 
differently. She argues that the initial criteria for legitimate 
leadership in Islam were based, in fact, on two key Qur'anic concepts: 
fadila (excellence) and sabiqa (precedence in rendering service to 
Islam), and that supporters of Abu Bakr and 'Ali sought to show that 
their respective candidates possessed these attributes in greater 
measure. The dominant role of these two qualities are reflected in the 
title of her book: Excellence and Precedence: Medieval Islamic Discourse 
on Legitimate Leadership.

Afsaruddin wastes no time in getting to her task; she states her theory 
within the first two pages of her introduction, explaining that the 
aspect of kinship was a gradual development that, by the second/eighth 
century, became the cornerstone of Shi'i doctrine. This approach grabs 
the reader's attention, for certainly, a researcher who so boldly 
challenges what has become a tenet of the Shi'i creed and of Sunni 
perception must in the course of her work demonstrate a convincing 
methodology and presentation of argument. Afsaruddin is aware that 
modern research has established that the reports by early Muslims about 
Islamic history do not fulfill the requirements of academic reliability 
(she refers to such works throughout her book). This awareness raises 
two important questions: what are her primary sources? How does she 
defend their epistemological integrity?

Her principal references are Kitab (or Risalat) al-'Uthmaniyya of 'Amr 
b. Bahr al-Jahiz (d. 255/868-69), the famed Sunni-Mutazili belletrist, 
and the Bina al-Maqala al-Fatimiyya (or al-'Alawiyya) fi Naqd al-Risala 
al-'Uthmaniyya of the Imami Shi'i theologian Jamal al-Din Ahmad b. Tawus 
(d. 673/1274-5). Both works are extremely significant: the first was of 
such importance that four centuries after its compilation, although 
several Shi'i polemicists had attempted refutations, Ibn Tawus still 
deemed it important enough to warrant his attention. The second work is 
the only refutation to Kitab al-'Uthmaniyya to have remained intact, and 
it draws on the preceding centuries of arguments, using both Sunni and 
Shi'i sources, and often providing material from works no longer extant.

Both authors make extensive use of the manaqib/fada'il (traditions that 
extol the virtues of Companions) material from the hadith literature in 
order to support their positions. Since the first crisis in Islam, after 
Muhammad's death, was on the nature of leadership, it seems logical that 
the earliest and most authentically Islamic discourse on legitimate 
leadership--and so Afsaruddin propounds (p. 4)--focused on 
qualifications of the contenders for the caliphate. The use of a common 
genre of literature (wherein excellence of service and precedence of 
conversion were stressed) forced each side to "accommodate, revise, and 
reify its position in response to the other's" (p. 4).

Indeed, several Qur'anic verses buttress the merit of early conversion 
and outstanding service, linking success of a nation to its 
righteousness, and its destruction to its depravity. Examples are Qur'an 
10:13-14; 7:74; 24:55; 7:69, 169; 17:38; 57:7; 6:133; 4:133; 14:19; 
28:5-6; and 35:16. Such verses, along with the early Muslim 
understanding, are what in fact seem to have spurred Umar 1 to 
promulgate the diwan, awarding pensions based on earliness of conversion 
and distinction of service to Islam.

On the issue of epistemic integrity, Afsaruddin argues that, although 
the manaqib/fada'il collections are compiled later than the period of 
the people whose merits they purport to document, such material did not 
spring up spontaneously, nor was it manufactured immediately before 
being committed to writing. The common vocabulary, over several 
centuries of such literature, evidences a long period of both oral and 
written transmissions, and Afsaruddin draws on the findings of several 
scholars to support her thesis (pp. 31-32). While there is evidence of 
reworking of traditions, there is also evidence that "the kernel, if not 
more, of the older form, is often discernible in the later incarnations" 
(p. 32). Her approach then is, by a critical and close reading of 
al-Jahiz and Ibn Tawus, to tease out a reliable reconstruction of the 
arguments about leadership in early Islam. (In defending her position, 
Afsaruddin cites one of the most critical writers, Hayden White, but for 
some reason, while the bibliographical reference is provided in footnote 
134 on page 33, it is omitted in the bibliography.)

Having laid out her thesis and methodology in the extremely informative 
introduction, Afsaruddin provides elucidation in seven chapters, all 
with self-explanatory titles. The debate in chapter 1, "The Excellence 
of Precedence," revolves around two issues: who was the first male to 
convert to Islam, and whose conversion was of greatest significance to 
early Islam (p. 52)? Al-Jahiz, while reporting hadith that show Abu Bakr 
as the earlier convert, has to deal with traditions that give this honor 
to 'Ali. He therefore argues that the issue must be considered in terms 
of the significance of such conversion: 'Ali was by all reports only 
seven years old when he accepted Islam, and the conversion of such an 
inexperienced minor cannot be compared with that of a middle-aged, 
wealthy, and influential Abu Bakr. Ibn Tawus relies on Sunni reports 
that put 'Ali's age at conversion between eight and sixteen, but also 
points out that 'Ali's assumed minority is meaningless in the light of 
his well-known precocity.

Chapter 2, "The Precedence of Excellence," examines how both al-Jahiz 
and Ibn Tawus sought to show their candidate as better fitting the 
criterion of excellence of character and service to Islam, in terms of 
their spending, valor, and praiseworthy abstemiousness. The subsequent 
chapter, "The Epistemology of Excellence," examines the development of 
how the possession of knowledge came to be emphasized by both sides as 
the criterion for justifying leadership. Yet the issue became more 
complicated, in that knowledge in and of itself is not the only issue; 
such knowledge must also be examined in terms of its provenance. The 
knowledge derived from close association with the Prophet was the most 
superior, and the discourse of such closeness is the subject of chapter 
4, "The Excellence of Propinquity to the Prophet: Kinship vs. 
Companionship." For the 'Alids, such propinquity focused on blood 
relationship, while their opponents emphasized closeness in spirit and 
deed to Muhammad.

In chapter 5, "Canon of Excellence 1: Hadith as Proof-Texts and the 
Principle of Nass," while the scholastic approaches of al-Jahiz and Ibn 
Tawus become evident, such differences may in fact reflect a 
chronological development in Islamic scholarship more than individual 
intellectuality. Al-Jahiz seems to harbor a more skeptical approach to 
the reliability of hadith, often preferring historical reports, 
biographical narratives, and sometimes, even poetry. One argument of 
al-Jahiz sounds extremely modern: here, he shows that contradictory 
reports on the respective merits of Abu Bakr and 'Ali could not 
logically be true, and that such reports therefore must have been 
concocted by transmitters (p. 199). This, however, brings to light 
another issue: the earlier scholars did not view hadith with the 
reverence of their later counterparts. By the time Ibn Tawus came on the 
scene, the doctrine of hadith as a fully accepted source of Islamic 
belief had become overwhelmingly dominant. Chapter 6, "Canon of 
Excellence 2: Qur'anic Verses as Proof-texts," evidences the vast 
exegetical divide in Sunni/Shi'i approaches to the Qur'an, although Ibn 
Tawus often uses Sunni exegeses, reconfiguring and focusing to suit his 
arguments, and not always relying on the more pervasive Shi'i 
allegorical interpretations.

In her conclusion, Afsaruddin revisits the issue of historical veracity 
and points out that, since the Shi'i concept of kinship had crystallized 
long before Ibn Tawus's work, had the arguments he reports been mere 
Shi'i reconstructions of earlier debates, one would have expected to see 
more of a focus on kinship. As is evident in her work, this is not the 
case, and supports her theory for epistemic reliability. She also points 
out that the issue of kinship for the 'Alids became extremely powerful 
in response to the Umayyad recognition of kinship as "a natural right to 
rule and in the awarding of administrative appointments" (p. 281). While 
the works of al-Jahiz and Ibn Tawus form her principal source material, 
she supports her conclusions by referencing several other medieval works 
on history, exegesis, biography, firaq (books about the various sects), 
and apologetic material, resulting in excellent cross referencing, and a 
truly impressive bibliography section.

She concludes that in the early period, the lines of divide between 
Sunni and Shi'i were, unlike later rigid taxonomy, somewhat elastic. The 
changes in the connotation of tashayyu' as analyzed by Ibn Hajar (d. 
856/1449) indicate this point. To earlier scholars, the term seemed to 
mean a preference for 'Ali over 'Uthman, and the acceptance of Abu Bakr 
and 'Umar as rightful caliphs in their time, due to their precedence. 
Later scholars saw the term as implying a rejection of the first three 
caliphs (p. 283). Further examination of the manaqib literature 
indicates that several early scholars who extolled the virtues of 'Ali 
did not necessarily hold that he was therefore the best to succeed the 
Prophet--as in the examples of Ibn 'Abdel Barr and others who wrote 
laudatory works about 'Ali, but remained Sunni. And when Ibn Tawus 
interprets the Qur'an to indicate that walaya (loyalty) to 'Ali is a 
Qur'anic injunction, he has to rely on later Shi'i works--thereby 
showing that the aspect of kinship was indeed a later creedal development.

Afsaruddin's work, based on her 1993 thesis, is truly seminal, written 
in a fluid, convincing style, and showing a command of primary source 
material as well as contemporary scholarship on her subject. While 
Excellence and Precedence is directed towards the specialist reader, and 
its hefty price tag ensures this, the book's epistemic value is immense. 
Faith-based readers may find that which allows them to question 
sectarian reports with a discerning eye, and eschew the harsh polemic 
that has recently resurfaced between Sunni and Shi'i authors (e.g., the 
books of al-Tijani al-Samawi). In academe, the work should be a vital 
part of any reading list for graduate comprehensive examinations in 
Islamic studies.

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Asma Afsaruddin. Excellence and Precedence:
Medieval Islamic Discourse on Legitimate Leadership. Islamic History and Civilization Studies and Texts Series,
vol. 36. Leiden: Brill, 2002. xii + 313 pp.
Appendix, bibliography, index.
$124.00 (cloth), ISBN 90-04-12043-2. 
Reviewed by Khaleel Mohammed, Department of
Religious Studies, San Diego State University. 
Published by <a href="http://www.h-net.msu.edu/%7Emidmed">
H-Mideast-Medieval</a> (March, 2004)

 
The common conception among both specialists and non-specialists in
Islamic Studies is that the earliest pro-'Alid line of argument focused
on 'Ali's kinship to Muhammad. Asma Afsaruddin, associate professor of
Arabic and Islamic Studies at Notre Dame University, contends
differently. She argues that the initial criteria for legitimate
leadership in Islam were based, in fact, on two key Qur'anic concepts: <cite>fadila</cite>
(excellence) and <cite>sabiqa</cite>
(precedence in rendering service to Islam), and that supporters of Abu
Bakr and 'Ali sought to show that their respective candidates possessed
these attributes in greater measure. The dominant role of these two
qualities are reflected in the title of her book: <cite>Excellence and
Precedence: Medieval Islamic Discourse on Legitimate Leadership</cite>.

Afsaruddin wastes no time in getting to her task;
she states her theory
within the first two pages of her introduction, explaining that the
aspect of kinship was a gradual development that, by the second/eighth
century, became the cornerstone of Shi'i doctrine. This approach grabs
the reader's attention, for certainly, a researcher who so boldly
challenges what has become a tenet of the Shi'i creed and of Sunni
perception must in the course of her work demonstrate a convincing
methodology and presentation of argument. Afsaruddin is aware that
modern research has established that the reports by early Muslims about
Islamic history do not fulfill the requirements of academic reliability
(she refers to such works throughout her book). This awareness raises
two important questions: what are her primary sources? How does she
defend their epistemological integrity? 
 Her principal references are <cite>Kitab (or
Risalat) al-'Uthmaniyya</cite> of 'Amr b. Bahr al-Jahiz (d.
255/868-69), the famed Sunni-Mutazili belletrist, and the <cite>Bina
al-Maqala al-Fatimiyya (or al-'Alawiyya) fi Naqd al-Risala
al-'Uthmaniyya</cite>
of the Imami Shi'i theologian Jamal al-Din Ahmad b. Tawus (d.
673/1274-5). Both works are extremely significant: the first was of
such importance that four centuries after its compilation, although
several Shi'i polemicists had attempted refutations, Ibn Tawus still
deemed it important enough to warrant his attention. The second work is
the only refutation to Kitab al-'Uthmaniyya to have remained intact,
and it draws on the preceding centuries of arguments, using both Sunni
and Shi'i sources, and often providing material from works no longer
extant. 
 Both authors make extensive use of the <cite>manaqib/fada'il</cite>
(traditions that extol the virtues of Companions) material from the
hadith literature in order to support their positions. Since the first
crisis in Islam, after Muhammad's death, was on the nature of
leadership, it seems logical that the earliest and most authentically
Islamic discourse on legitimate leadership--and so Afsaruddin propounds
(p. 4)--focused on qualifications of the contenders for the caliphate.
The use of a common genre of literature (wherein excellence of service
and precedence of conversion were stressed) forced each side to
"accommodate, revise, and reify its position in response to the
other's" (p. 4). 
 Indeed, several
Qur'anic verses buttress the merit of early conversion and outstanding
service, linking success of a nation to its righteousness, and its
destruction to its depravity. Examples are Qur'an 10:13-14; 7:74;
24:55; 7:69, 169; 17:38; 57:7; 6:133; 4:133; 14:19; 28:5-6; and 35:16.
Such verses, along with the early Muslim understanding, are what in
fact seem to have spurred Umar 1 to promulgate the <cite>diwan</cite>,
awarding pensions based on earliness of conversion and distinction of
service to Islam. 
 On the issue of epistemic integrity, Afsaruddin
argues that, although the <cite>manaqib/fada'il</cite>
collections are compiled later than the period of the people whose
merits they purport to document, such material did not spring up
spontaneously, nor was it manufactured immediately before being
committed to writing. The common vocabulary, over several centuries of
such literature, evidences a long period of both oral and written
transmissions, and Afsaruddin draws on the findings of several scholars
to support her thesis (pp. 31-32). While there is evidence of reworking
of traditions, there is also evidence that "the kernel, if not more, of
the older form, is often discernible in the later incarnations" (p.
32). Her approach then is, by a critical and close reading of al-Jahiz
and Ibn Tawus, to tease out a reliable reconstruction of the arguments
about leadership in early Islam. (In defending her position, Afsaruddin
cites one of the most critical writers, Hayden White, but for some
reason, while the bibliographical reference is provided in footnote 134
on page 33, it is omitted in the bibliography.) 
Having laid out her thesis and methodology in the
extremely informative
introduction, Afsaruddin provides elucidation in seven chapters, all
with self-explanatory titles. The debate in chapter 1, "The Excellence
of Precedence," revolves around two issues: who was the first male to
convert to Islam, and whose conversion was of greatest significance to
early Islam (p. 52)? Al-Jahiz, while reporting hadith that show Abu
Bakr as the earlier convert, has to deal with traditions that give this
honor to 'Ali. He therefore argues that the issue must be considered in
terms of the significance of such conversion: 'Ali was by all reports
only seven years old when he accepted Islam, and the conversion of such
an inexperienced minor cannot be compared with that of a middle-aged,
wealthy, and influential Abu Bakr. Ibn Tawus relies on Sunni reports
that put 'Ali's age at conversion between eight and sixteen, but also
points out that 'Ali's assumed minority is meaningless in the light of
his well-known precocity. 
 Chapter 2,
"The Precedence of Excellence," examines how both al-Jahiz and Ibn
Tawus sought to show their candidate as better fitting the criterion of
excellence of character and service to Islam, in terms of their
spending, valor, and praiseworthy abstemiousness. The subsequent
chapter, "The Epistemology of Excellence," examines the development of
how the possession of knowledge came to be emphasized by both sides as
the criterion for justifying leadership. Yet the issue became more
complicated, in that knowledge in and of itself is not the only issue;
such knowledge must also be examined in terms of its provenance. The
knowledge derived from close association with the Prophet was the most
superior, and the discourse of such closeness is the subject of chapter
4, "The Excellence of Propinquity to the Prophet: Kinship vs.
Companionship." For the 'Alids, such propinquity focused on blood
relationship, while their opponents emphasized closeness in spirit and
deed to Muhammad. 
 In chapter 5, "Canon
of Excellence 1: Hadith as Proof-Texts and the Principle of Nass,"
while the scholastic approaches of al-Jahiz and Ibn Tawus become
evident, such differences may in fact reflect a chronological
development in Islamic scholarship more than individual
intellectuality. Al-Jahiz seems to harbor a more skeptical approach to
the reliability of hadith, often preferring historical reports,
biographical narratives, and sometimes, even poetry. One argument of
al-Jahiz sounds extremely modern: here, he shows that contradictory
reports on the respective merits of Abu Bakr and 'Ali could not
logically be true, and that such reports therefore must have been
concocted by transmitters (p. 199). This, however, brings to light
another issue: the earlier scholars did not view <cite>hadith</cite>
with the reverence of their later counterparts. By the time Ibn Tawus
came on the scene, the doctrine of <cite>hadith</cite>
as a fully accepted source of Islamic belief had become overwhelmingly
dominant. Chapter 6, "Canon of Excellence 2: Qur'anic Verses as
Proof-texts," evidences the vast exegetical divide in Sunni/Shi'i
approaches to the Qur'an, although Ibn Tawus often uses Sunni exegeses,
reconfiguring and focusing to suit his arguments, and not always
relying on the more pervasive Shi'i allegorical interpretations. 
In her conclusion, Afsaruddin revisits the issue of
historical veracity
and points out that, since the Shi'i concept of kinship had
crystallized long before Ibn Tawus's work, had the arguments he reports
been mere Shi'i reconstructions of earlier debates, one would have
expected to see more of a focus on kinship. As is evident in her work,
this is not the case, and supports her theory for epistemic
reliability. She also points out that the issue of kinship for the
'Alids became extremely powerful in response to the Umayyad recognition
of kinship as "a natural right to rule and in the awarding of
administrative appointments" (p. 281). While the works of al-Jahiz and
Ibn Tawus form her principal source material, she supports her
conclusions by referencing several other medieval works on history,
exegesis, biography, <cite>firaq</cite> (books about the various
sects), and apologetic material, resulting in excellent cross
referencing, and a truly impressive bibliography section. 
She concludes that in the early period, the lines of
divide between
Sunni and Shi'i were, unlike later rigid taxonomy, somewhat elastic.
The changes in the connotation of <cite>tashayyu'</cite> as analyzed
by Ibn Hajar (d. 856/1449) indicate this point. To earlier scholars,
the term seemed to mean a preference for 'Ali over 'Uthman, and the
acceptance of Abu Bakr and 'Umar as rightful caliphs in their time, due
to their precedence. Later scholars saw the term as implying a
rejection of the first three caliphs (p. 283). Further examination of
the manaqib literature indicates that several early scholars who
extolled the virtues of 'Ali did not necessarily hold that he was
therefore the best to succeed the Prophet--as in the examples of Ibn
'Abdel Barr and others who wrote laudatory works about 'Ali, but
remained Sunni. And when Ibn Tawus interprets the Qur'an to indicate
that <cite>walaya</cite> (loyalty) to 'Ali is a Qur'anic injunction,
he has to rely on later Shi'i works--thereby showing that the aspect of
kinship was indeed a later creedal development. 
Afsaruddin's work, based on her 1993 thesis, is
truly seminal, written
in a fluid, convincing style, and showing a command of primary source
material as well as contemporary scholarship on her subject. While <cite>Excellence
and Precedence</cite>
is directed towards the specialist reader, and its hefty price tag
ensures this, the book's epistemic value is immense. Faith-based
readers may find that which allows them to question sectarian reports
with a discerning eye, and eschew the harsh polemic that has recently
resurfaced between Sunni and Shi'i authors (e.g., the books of
al-Tijani al-Samawi). In academe, the work should be a vital part of
any reading list for graduate comprehensive examinations in Islamic
studies. 
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