Al-Maʼmūn, the inquisition, and the quest for caliphal authority / John Abdallah Nawas.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Nawas, John Abdallah, 1960-

Contributor:

Constance L. Rosenthal Book Fund.

Series:

Resources in Arabic and Islamic studies ; 4.

Resources in Arabic and Islamic studies

Language:

Arabic

English

Subjects (All):

Maʼmūn, Caliph, 786-833.

Maʼmūn.

Qurʼan--Criticism, interpretation, etc--History.

Qurʼan.

History.

Miḥnah.

Islam--Doctrines--History.

Islam.

Islam--Doctrines.

Islamic civilization.

Physical Description:

xvi, 131, 208 pages ; 26 cm.

Place of Publication:

Atlanta, Georgia : Lockwood Press, 2015.

Language Note:

Chiefly in English with some Arabic.

Summary:

The "inquisition" (Ar. Mihnah) unleashed by the seventh Abbasid caliph, 'Abdallah al-Ma'mun (r. 813-833), has long attracted the attention of modern scholars of the intellectual, political, and religious history of the early Abbasid era. Because this event, which began in 833 and stretched through the reigns of two of al-Ma'mun's successors, appears at a convergence of prominent currents in systematic theology, rationalist thought, theocratic politics, and nascent trends in Shiism and Sunnism, historians have seen it as the key to a wide array of puzzles and problems in early Islamic history. In this incisive study, John Nawas subjects the various proposed explanations of these events to a sober and searching analysis and, in the process, presents a new interpretation of al-Ma'mun's political and religious policies, contextualized against the background of early Abbasid intellectual and social history. Appended to the volume is a reprint edition of Walter M. Patton's Ahmed ibn Hanbal and the Mihna (Leiden 1897), which still has much that is useful for modern scholarship, including one enormous additional benefit; it contains most of the relevant passages in Arabic from the primary sources. Book jacket.

Contents:

Chapter 1 Introduction 1

1.1 Aim of This Study 1

1.2 Previous Explanations of al-Ma'mun's Motives 2

1.3 The Approach of This Study 3

1.4 Sources 5

1.5 The Caliphates 5

1.6 The Sunnites and the Shi'tes 11

1.7 The Mu'tazilites 14

1.8 The Doctrine of the Createdness of the Qur'an 16

1.9 The Mihna 16

Chapter 2 'Abdallah Al-Ma'Mun: His Life and Reign 21

2.1 Early Life 21

2.2 The Civil War 23

2.3 Al-Ma'mun's Reign 24

Chapter 3 The Mu'tazilism, The Sh'Ism, and the 'Alid Hypotheses 31

3.1 The Mu'tazifism Hypothesis 31

3.2 The Shi'ism Hypothesis 37

3.3 The 'Alid Hypothesis 41

Chapter 4 The Caliphal Authority Hypothesis 51

4.1 Modern Scholars' Formulations of This Hypothesis 51

4.2 The Argument of This Study 54

4.3 Al-Ma'mun's Vision of the Caliphate 56

4.4 The Mihna Letters 59

4.5 The Timing of the Mihna 65

4.6 The Strategic Value of the Doctrine of the Createdness of the Qur'an 67

4.7 Interrogated Individuals 69

Chapter 5 Conclusion.

Notes:

"Appended to the volume is a reprint edition of Walter M. Patton's Aḥmed ibn Ḥanbal and the Miḥna (Leiden 1897)"--Back cover.

Includes bibliographical references and indexes.

Local Notes:

Acquired for the Penn Libraries with assistance from the Constance L. Rosenthal Book Fund.

Contains:

Patton, Walter Melville, 1863-1928. Aḥmed ibn Ḥanbal and the Miḥna.

ISBN:

1937040550

9781937040550

OCLC:

922458277

Publisher Number:

99966482861