Hassan Ansari

The literary-religious tradition among 7th/13th century Yemenī Zaydīs: The formation of the Imām al-Mahdī li-Dīn Allāh Ahmad b. al-Husayn b. al-Qāsim (d. 656/1258)*

The rich sīra literature relating to the careers of imāms is a genre characteristic for the Zaydī communities in Yemen and in Iran. These documents were composed by close companions, secretaries or other personnel in their vicinity, often inspired in structure and terminology by the sīra of the Prophet Muhammad. Their primary function was to legitimize the imāms, and describing their merits therefore formed an important element of such documents. The sīra of the Imām al-Mahdī li-Dīn Allāh Abū Tayr Ahmad b. al-Husayn (d. 656/1258) was composed by Sharaf al-Dīn Yahyā b. al-Qāsim al-Hamzī (d. 677/1278-9). The primary significance of the section of the sīra that is devoted to Ahmad b. al-Husayns formation, which is edited and analysed in the article, is that it provides a detailed picture of the intellectual scene in Yemen during the 7th/13th century and informs us about the characteristics of the formation of scholars during this period. Moreover, the document informs us about the works that were part of the transfer of knowledge from Iran to Yemen that began with the unification of the Caspian Zaydiyya and the Zaydīs in Yemen during the imamate of Abū Tālib al-akhīr (d. 520/1126) and gradually increased throughout the 6th/12th century until the death of the Imām al-Mansūr bi-llāh in 614/1217.

Abū Saʿd al-Ḫargūšī and his Kitāb al-Lawāmiʿ A Ṣūfī Guide Book for Preachers from 4th/10th century Nīšāpūr 1

Abstract Abū Saʿd ʿAbd al-Malik b. Abī ʿUtmān Muḥammad b. Ibrāhīm b. Yaʿqūb al-Ḫargūsī l-Nīsābūrī (al-wāʿiẓ al-Ḫargūsī, d. 406/1015-16 or 407/1016), a contemporary and compatriot of the well-known Ṣūfī Abū ʿAbd al-Raḥmān al-Sulamī (d. 412/1021), is well known for his Kitāb Tahdīb al-asrār, a Ṣūfī manual in the form of a collection of sayings of earlier Ṣūfī authorities. Ḫargūsī is known to have written another comprehensive work that is of utmost significance for the study of the classical period of mysticism, viz. Kitāb al-Lawāmiʿ. The Vatican Library owns a unique manuscript of the work that so far seems to have escaped the attention of modern scholars. The article offers a description of the Lawāmiʿ together with a detailed table of contents.

Philosophical Theology among Sixth/Twelfth-Century Twelver Shīʿites: From Naṣīr al-Dīn al-Ṭūsī (d. after 599/1201-2 or 600/1202-3) to Naṣīr al-Dīn al-Ṭūsī (d. 672/1274)

MS Yale, Landberg 510, a multitext volume, contains unique copies of two doctrinal works composed as it seems by an Imāmī scholar of the sixth/twelfth century, ʿAbd Allāh b. Ḥamza b. ʿAbd Allah b. Ḥamza al-Ṭūsī al-Mashhadī al-Shāriḥī al-maʿrūf bi- Naṣīr al-Dīn al-Ṭūsī, al-Wāfī bi-kalām al-muthbit wa-l-nāfī and al-Masʾala fī tanzīh dhāt al-khāliq ʿan al-talawwuth bi-waṣmat al-fanāʾ wa-l-ʿadam . Both tracts show the author’s close familiarity with the doctrinal systems of the followers of Abū Hāshim al-Jubbāʾī (d. 321/933) on the one hand and Abū l-Ḥusayn al-Baṣrī (d. 436/1044) on the other. The discussions revolve around the contested Bahshamite notion that the “non-existent” ( maʿdūm ) is a “thing” ( shayʾ ), as well as the related doctrine that essences ( dhawāt , sg. dhāt ) are “real” or “actual” ( thābit ) in the state of non-existence ( ʿadam ). The paper introduces the author and the two tracts and provides critical editions.

L’imamat et l’Occultation selon l’imamisme

Cette these est composee d’une preface, d’une introduction, deux chapitres et un annexe. Dans l’introduction, ont ete examines l’evolution des concepts d’imamat et d’occultation dans le shi’isme en general et dans l’imamisme en particulier, ainsi que les contextes historique et religieux de « la crise de l’Occultation » laquelle aboutit au passage de l’imamisme au duodecimanisme. Le premier chapitre comprend deux parties. Dans la premiere, ce passage a ete etudie de maniere plus fine a travers les trois compilateurs les plus importants de l’epoque dont les œuvres ont ete decisives dans l’elaboration et la consolidation de ces deux concepts. Nous avons notamment essaye de voir comment ces auteurs ont exploite les traditions et Ecoles anterieures pour repondre aux besoins du temps de l’absence de l’imam. Dans la seconde partie du premier chapitre, ont ete etudiees les evolutions de la litterature du Hadith imamite ainsi que les auteurs principaux, au tournant de l’epoque qui marqua le passage de la crise de l’Occultation a la consolidation de la doctrine imamite, en articulant toujours notre recherche sur les deux points doctrinaux majeurs que sont l’imamat et la ghayba. Ces evolutions, observables chez la quasi-totalite des auteurs-compilateurs etudies, repondaient aux necessites doctrinales et socio-politiques de la communaute imamite pendant un siecle et demi qui separent le debut du 4e de la moitie du 5e siecle, et chacun des savants qui ont joue un role important pendant cette periode s’est efforce d’y apporter sa contribution en se fondant sur de nombreux canaux de transmissions, sources ecrites ou orales et Ecoles shi’ites , appartenant a des localites et des traditions doctrinales differentes. Cependant, ces intellectuels ne furent pas seulement de simples « courroies de transmission » entre le passe et l’avenir. Ils jouerent en effet un role determinant dans la selection du materiau litteraire dont ils disposaient, sa reelaboration, au besoin sa reecriture et sa nouvelle presentation.

MS Berlin, State Library, Glaser 51: A Unique Manuscript from the Early 7th/13th-Century Bahšamite Milieu in Yemen

Jan Thiele would like to thank the Gerda Henkel Foundation for granting him an M4Human Fellowship during the preparation of this chapter

The Kitāb al-waṣiyya of ʿĪsā b. al-Mustafād: The History of a Text

From the early days of Shī‘ī thought on the issue of the Imāmate, there have been writings on the subject often bearing the title of Kitāb al-imāma,2 alongside writings on the concept of the sacred bequest, bearing titles such as Kitāb al-waṣiyya or Kitāb al-awsiyā’ (“Book of the heirs”, i.e., the Imāms). Waṣiyya is an old Shī‘ī concept, broader than the evolutionary notions of Imāmate and Caliphate, but gradually becoming synonymous with the Imāmate and the doctrine of investiture (nass). These concepts originate in the belief that the Prophet had designated ‘Alī as his “heir” for a variety of tasks. The concept, then, simultaneously encompassed the responsibility of the Prophet in the naming of his heir, the status of ‘Alī as the object of this nomination, and the question of the succession of the Prophet and the sacred heritage of the prophecy.3

Between Aleppo and Ṣaʿda: The Zaydī Reception of the Imāmī Scholar Ibn al-Biṭrīq al-Ḥillī

Departing from a collective manuscript copied partly in the hand of the renowned Yemenī scholar ʿAbd Allāh b. Zayd al-ʿAnsī (d. 667/1268) and partly in the hand of his nephew, Muḥammad b. Aʿsad, that contains three works concerned with Qurʾānic passages taken to support ʿAlī b. Abī Ṭālib and the ahl al-bayt and pro-ʿAlid traditions culled from of Sunnī ḥadīth collections, the reception of the Kitāb al-ʿUmda of the Twelver Shīʿī author Ibn al-Biṭrīq al-Ḥillī (d. 600/1203–1204 or 601/1204–1205)—one of three works contained in the codex—among the Zaydīs of Yemen is analyzed in detail. It is shown that this work, together with Ibn al-Maghāzilī’s (d. 483/1090) Manāqib ʿAlī b. Abī Ṭālib, were the principal available sources for the Zaydīs of Yemen up until the time of the Imām al-Manṣūr bi-llāh (d. 614/1217) for the Sunnī canonical ḥadīth collections.

The Muʿtazilī and Zaydī Reception of Abū l-Ḥusayn al-Baṣrī’s Kitāb al-Muʿtamad fī Uṣūl al-Fiqh:

The article focuses on the reception of the Kitāb al-Muʿtamad fī uṣūl al-fiqh of Abū l-Ḥusayn al-Baṣrī among Muʿtazilī and non-Muʿtazilī Sunnīs (Shāfiʿīs, Ḥanbalīs and Ḥanafīs) and among Zaydīs. Special attention is paid to a summary of the work by Abū l-Ḥusayn’s later follower, Rukn al-Dīn Ibn al-Malāḥimī (d. 536/1141), entitled Tajrīd al-Muʿtamad. Apart from a detailed description of the Bodleian manuscript of the text, a second manuscript of the text is discussed, the current whereabouts of which are unclear.

Ibn Ḥazm selon certains savants shīʿites

This volume represents the state of the art in research on the Muslim legal scholar, theologian and man of letters Ibn Ḥazm of Cordoba (d. 456/1064), who is widely regarded as one of the most brilliant minds of Islamic Spain.

Un muḥaddiṯ muʿ tazilite zaydite : Abū Saʿ d al-Sammān al-Rāzī et ses Amālī *

Resume Abū Saʿd Ismāʿīl b. ʿAlī b. al-Ḥusayn al-Sammān al-Rāzī l-Ḥāfiẓ (m. 445/1053) etait un transmetteur de ḥadīṯs (muḥaddiṯ) avec un attachement muʿtazilite. Il etait un disciple de Qāḍī ʿAbd al-Ğabbār al-Hamaḏānī (m. 415/1025), et vivait a Rayy. Sa particularite la plus importante tient au fait que, malgre son appartenance au courant muʿtazilite, il etait a la fois celebre parmi les autorites de Ḥadīṯ sunnites – qui etaient naturellement adversaires des muʿtazilites –, grâce a ses profondes connaissances du Ḥadīṯ et grâce a ses nombreux voyages effectues dans des villes differentes pour entendre et apprendre des traditions prophetiques aupres de differents transmetteurs. Il a compose un recueil de ḥadīṯs sous le titre Amālī.