Ibn'Aqil: Religion and Culture in Classical Islam 9781474470636

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Ibn tAqil Religion and Culture in Classical Islam

In Memoriam Louis Massignon, t 31 October 1962 Henri Laoust, t 12 November 1983 Louis Gardet, t 17July 1986

Ibn

~Aqil

Religion and Culture in Classical Islam

George Makdisi

EDINBURGH UNIVERSITY PRESS

© George Makdisi, 1997

Edinburgh University Press 22 George Square, Edinburgh Transferred to digital print 2007

Typeset in Baskerville by Koinonia, Bury, and printed and bound in Great Britain by CPI Antony Rowe, Eastbourne A CIP record for this book is available from the British Library ISBN 0 7 486 0960 1 The right of George Makdisi to be identified as author of this work has been asserted in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patent Act (1988).

CONTENTS

Preface

Xlll

Part One Ibn 'Aqil: His Life and Times Section One: The Retraction and the Qadiri Creed

I. Ibn 'Aqil's Public Retraction of 465/1072 1. Text of the Retraction 2. Its Witness-Notaries 3. Import and Significance of the Retraction 4. Hanbali Historians and Ibn 'Aqil 5. Hallajism, Mu'tazilism, and Ibn 'Aqil II. Edicts and Creed of Caliph al-Qadir 1. Edicts of al-Qadir and Edicts of al-Ma'mun 2. Al-Qa'im's Proclamation of the Qadiri Creed 3. Proximate and Remote Causes for Edicts and Creed 4. Import and Significance of the Qadiri Creed 5. Application of the Creed's Terms III. Retraction and Qadiri Creed in Western Scholarship 1. The Retraction The Retraction Discovered by Ignaz Goldziher Louis Massignon 's Interest in the Retraction The Retraction in History The Retraction in Ibn 'Aqil's Life 2. The Qadiri Creed The Qadiri Creed Discovered by Adam Mez The Creed Absent from Wensinck 's Muslim Creed The Background of the Qadiri Creed

3 5 5

6 7 8 9

10 10 11

12 12 13 14 14 15 15 15 16

vi

THE LIFE AND TIMES OF IBN 'AQIL

Section Two: The Biography of Ibn 'Aqil I. Birth, Family, and Early Studies: 431-47 1. Date and Place of Birth 2. Family Background 3. Hanafi-Mu'tazili Origins 4. Two Cultural Forces: Humanism and Scholasticism 5. Maktab-School Studies: To 446

17 17 18 19 20

II. Legal Studies and Change of Guild: 44 7-58 1. First Year of College in Hanafi Law 2. Turning-Point: Hanbali Patron and Hanbali Guild 3. Legal Studies in the Hanbali Guild

21 21 23

III. Beginning of Professorial Career: 458-60 1. Professorial Chair in Mosque of al-Mansur 2. Trouble with Sharif Abu Ja'far 3. Death of Patron-Protector, Abu Mansur Ibn Yusuf

23 24 25

IV. Persecution, Prison, and Retraction: 458-65 1. Events Reported Prior to the Retraction 2. Negotiations Leading to Exile 3. Long Period of Silence Before the Retraction 4. Legal Basis and Underlying Motive for the Retraction 5. Hallaj and Ibn 'Aqil 6. Mu'tazilism and Ibn 'Aqil

29 36 41 41 43 43

V. Period of Obscurity: 460-70

43

VI. Resumption of Professorial Career: c.470-c.513 1. Students of /fadlth 2. Students of Law

44 45

VII. Ibn 'Aqil in the Judgement of Posterity 1. Silafi (d. 576/1180) 2. Ibn al:Jauzi (d. 597 /1200) 3. Ibn Qudama (d. 623/1220) 4. Majd ad-Din b. Taimiya (d. 652/1254) 5. Taqi ad-Din Ibn Taimiya (d. 728/1328) 6. Dhahabi (d. 748/1347) 7. Ibn Shakir al-Kutubi (d. 764/1363) 8. Ibn Kathir (d. 774/1373) 9. Ibn Rajah (d. 795/1393)

46 47 47 48 48 49 50 50 50

Notes to Part One

51

Vll

CONTENTS

Part Two Ibn 'Aqil and Scholasticism Section One: The Organisation of Professional Higher Learning Preliminary Remarks

I. The Guild of Law 1. Transformation of Law Madhhabinto Legal Guild Three Stages in the Development of the Law Madhhab Motivation for Tabaqat-Biography Change in the Arrangement of the Tabaqat Tabaqat and the Law Madhhab as Legal Guild One Legal Guild Inclusive of All Traditionalists Tabaqat-Biography and the Rise of Multiple Guilds Pervasiveness of Traditionalism 2. Scholasticism and Orthodoxy

II. The WtuJ,ih and the Guild College Curriculum 1. Original Scholarship and Learning 2. Ibn 'Aqil's Wtu!ih and the Law Curriculum The Wa