SAMARRA
Samarra is a city on the East bank of the
middle Tigris River in Iraq, situated 125 kilometers north of Baghdad, with a
present-day population of about two hundred thousand. Between AH 221/836 CE and
279/ 892, Samarra, the seat of the ‘Abbasid caliphs, expanded to a built-up
area of 58 square kilometers, the largest ancient city in the world whose plan
has survived.
Before Islam, Samarra was not much more than
a village, in an area that was only lightly occupied in antiquity along the
banks of the Tigris River. However, the digging of the Qatul al-Kisrawı in the sixth century, by the Sasanian king Khusraw
Anushirwa ¯n (r. 531–578), as a feeder to the Nahrawan canal, irrigated the area east of Baghdad, stimulated
interest in the area, and led the Sasanians to build a hunting park east of
modern-day al-Dur, and a monumental
tower (Burj al-Qa’im). The ‘Abbasid
caliph Harun al-Rashıd (r. 170–193/786–809) dug a supplementary canal, the Qatul Abıal-Jund, and commemorated it by
an unfinished octagonal city (modern-day Husn
al-Qadisiyya), called al-Mubarak by
al-Hamadhani,and left unfinished in 180/796. The plan is one of two surviving imitations
of the Round City of Baghdad.
Probably in 220/834–845, the caliph
al-Mu‘tasim left Baghdad in search of a new site for the court and army, a move
explained by the sources as due to conflict of the Turkish guard with the
population of Baghdad. Although there are different versions of al-Mu‘tasim’s
journey, all agree that a start was made on a city near Rashıd’s unfinished
foundation,a site identified east of Husn Qıdisiyya. Then he stopped work and
moved on to Samarra.
The caliph’s city was formally called Surra Man Ra’a (‘‘He who sees it is delighted’’).
Although Yaqut (Mu’jam sv Samarra)suggests
that the present name is a shortened form of Surra Man Ra’a, it is clear that Samarrais in reality the Arabic
version of the preIslamic toponym, Sumere
in Latin, Sumra in Syriac, And Souma in Greek.
Surra Man Ra’a was founded by al-Mu‘tasim in 221/836,
with the palace on the site of a monastery. The plan was composed of a caliphal
palace complex, called in the sources variants on the theme of ‘‘House of the
Caliphate’’: Dar al-Khilafa, Dar
al-Khalıfa,Dar al-Sultan, and Dar Amır al-Mu’minın. The interior was divided
into two major units: the official palace, Dar
al-’Amma, where receptions and public business were conducted, and the residence,al-Jawsaq al-Khaqanı, intended for
family life, where four of the caliphs are buried. The site was excavated by
Viollet (1910), Herzfeld (1913), and most recently by the Iraq
Directorate-General of Antiquities.
From the south gate of the palace, an avenue,
later referred to by al-Ya’qubı as Shari’ Abı Ahmad, was laid out over seven kilometers
parallel to the river, with a single bend, where the original mosque of al
Mu‘tasim and the markets were located. Otherwise, the plan was composed of
subunits (Ar.qata’i’) dedicated to
the military leaders and their troops, and composed also of a palace, avenue,
and a grid of houses. North of the bend, the cantonments of the Turks under
Wasıf were located on the east side, and possibly the Faraghina (from the
Farghana valley in Uzbekistan) on the west side. South of the markets were
situated the cantonments of the Maghariba from Egypt, the Iranian Arabs, and
the Khurasanı troops from Baghdad. On the north side of the palace, two quarters,
one of which was under the Turk Khaqan ’Urtuj, appear to have been dedicated to
the palace servants. Two further principal military cantonments were located
outside the city, that of the Central Asian Iranians under al-Afshın Khaydar b.
Kawus al-Ushrushanı at al-Matıra, a mainly Christian village south of Samarra
(modern-day al-Jubayriyya), and that
of the Turks under Ashinas at al-Karkh, that is, Karkh Fayruz (modern-day Shaykh Walı), ten kilometers north of
Samarra. The area east of the city was walled as a hunting park (al-Hayr),in imitation of the earlier
Sasanian parks.
Al-Mu‘tasim died in 227/842. His successor,
al-Wathiq (r. 227–232/842–846), stayed in Samarra and built a new luxurious
palace called al-Harunı, identified
at the unexcavated site of al-Quwayr, now an island in the Tigris, to the west
of the Caliphal Palace. The main feature of the short reign of al-Wathiq was
the consolidation of settlement the people are said by al-Ya’qubı to have been
more
convinced
of the permanence of the settlement and to have turned a camp (’Askar
al-Mu‘tasim) into a real city.
The reign of al-Mutawakkil (232–247/847–861) had
a great effect on the appearance of the city, for the size of the city doubled
in his reign. A list of his building projects has survived in various versions,
the new congregational mosque and twenty other construction projects that
totaled in cost between 258 and 294 million dirhams. The congregational mosque of
al-Mutawakkil with its spiral minaret was built between 235 and 237 (849 and
852) and constituted part of an extension of the city to the east. Two new hunting
palaces were built in the south, al-Istablat, identified as al-‘Arus, and
al-Musharrahat, identified as the palace of al-Shah.
The palace of Balkuwara, excavated by
Herzfeld in 1911, was also built in the south as the kernel of the cantonment
of a new army of Arabs under al-Mu‘tazz, second son of al-Mutawakkil. An important
feature of al-Mutawakkil’s reign was a sixty-six percent increase in the size
of the military cantonments, suggesting extensive new recruiting of Arabs and others
to balance the Turks of al-Mu‘tasim.
In this period, the city center reached its
greatest extent, and was described by the geographer al-Ya’qubı (Buldan 260–263). There were seven parallel
avenues. Shari’al-Khalıj, adjacent to
the Tigris, accommodated the quays for the river transport supplying the city,
and the cantonments of the Maghariba. The principal avenue of al-Ya’qu bı, al-Shari’ al-A’z,am,or al-Sarıja,
followed an irregular line passing by the tax registry (Dıwan al-Kharaj),the stables, the slave market, the police office,
the prison, and the main markets, before reaching the Bab al-’Amma (Gate of the Public) of the caliphal palace. The
third avenue, Shari’ Abı Ahmad, the
original avenue of the time of al-Mu‘tasim, terminated at the south gate of the
palace and housed the leading Turks of the period. The remaining avenues, Shari’ al- Hayr al-Awwal, Shari’
Barghamish al-Turkı, Shari’ al-Askar, and Shari’ al-Hayr al-Jadıd, were the
quarters of disparate military units, the Shakiriyya, Turks, Faraghina, Khazar,
and Khurasanis.
Al-Mutawakkil began a final new project in
245/ 859: the replacement of the caliphal city of Surra Man Ra’a by a new unit called al-Mutawakkiliyya, though
also referred to as al-Ja‘fariyya and al-Mahuza. The main palace, al-Ja‘farı,
was located at the entrance to the Qatul, and the city plan is a variant of the
already existing models at Samarra: a central avenue leading past the Abu Dulaf
Mosque, and subunits allocated to military units. After the death of
al-Mutawakkil in 247/861, the site was abandoned, and has survived virtually untouched
until the present day.
The reign of al-Mutawakkil was the climax of
the city. Vast architectural projects were undertaken though using inexpensive
techniques and large numbers of troops were recruited to balance the political power
of different ethnic units, thus stimulating the economy of the city. However,
the financial drain was fatal to the survival of the city; disturbances
stemming from revenue shortages led to the unmaking of four caliphs up to
256/870.
In the following decade, under al-Mu‘tamid,
the army was removed from Samarra, but the city remained the official residence
of the court until 279/ 892. Al-Mu‘tamid himself appears to have left in 269/ 884,
though he was buried there in 279/892. Reports of looting of the city occur
between 274 and 281 (887–888 and 894–895) and suggest a depopulation in these years.
Nevertheless, the area around the markets continued to be occupied, together
with the settlements of al-Matıra and al-Karkh. The two imams,‘Alı al-Hadı (d.
254) and al-Hasan al-‘Askarı, had a house in the center of the city on the
Shari’ Abı Ahmad, and were buried there. The twelfth imam disappeared in a cleft
there in 260/874. The shrine was first developed in 333/944–945 by the
Hamdanids, and later by the Buyids. The shrine was frequently rebuilt, notably
by the ‘Abbasid caliph al-Nasir liDın Allah in 606/1209–1210. Consequently,
Samarra became a pilgrimage and market town, but it remained an open city until
a wall was built in 1834.
Further Reading
Al-Ya’qu¯bı¯,Ahmad
b. Abı¯Ya’qu¯b b. Wa¯dih.Kita¯bal-Bulda¯n. Ed. de Goeje, 255–268.BGA7, Leiden,
1892.
Creswell,
K.A.C.Early Muslim Architecture. 1st ed, vol. II. Oxford, 1940.
Directorate
General of Antiquities.Hafriyyat Samarra’ 1936–1939. 2 vols. Baghdad, 1940.
Gordon, M.S.The
Breaking of a Thousand Swords: A History of the Turkish Military of Samarra (AH
200–275/ 815–889 CE). Albany, NY, 2001.
Herzfeld,
E.Ausgrabungen von Samarra VI, Geschichte derStadt Samarra. Hamburg, 1948.
Leisten,
T.Excavation of Samarra,vol. I, Architecture: Final Report of the First
Campaign 1910—1912. Mainz. 2003.
Northedge,
A. ‘‘An Interpretation of the Palace of the Caliph at Samarra (Dar al-Khilafa
or Jawsaq al-Khaqani).’’Ars Orientalis23 (1993): 143–171.
———.The
Historical Topography of Samarra. Samarra Studies 1, British Academy Monographs
in Archaeology/British School of Archaeology in Iraq, 2005.
Robinson,
C., ed.A Medieval Islamic City Reconsidered: An Interdisciplinary Approach to
Samarra,Oxford Studies in Islamic Art. Vol 14. Oxford, 2001.
Rogers, J.M.
‘‘Samarra, a Study in Medieval TownPlanning.’’ In The Islamic City, eds.
Hourani and Stern, 119–155. Oxford, 1970.
SASANIANS, ISLAMIC TRADITIONS
Islamic civilization’s Sasanian inheritance
runs broad and deep. The conquest of the Sasanian empire, which began in 638 CE
but was not completed until 651, with the death of the Sasanian king, Yazdgird III,
provided the victorious Arabs with a ready-made imperial structure and
administration that had overseen the area stretching from the eastern borders of
Syria into present-day Turkmenistan in Central Asia. The conquest also made the
Arabs heirs to a rich and ancient cultural tradition, for Sasanian civilization
was the culmination of more than a millennium of religious and artistic
traditions in Iranian and neighboring lands.
Administration and
Government
A well-organized state with an efficient bureaucracy,
the Sasanian empire provided a class of qualified administrators and scribes to
administer the conquered territories. The introduction of royal etiquette and
ceremonial practices that closely imitated the elaborate court ritual of the
Sasanian kings fulfilled the need of the newly established caliphate to
proclaim its legitimacy to the diverse peoples who came under its rule. The
prime minister of the Sasanian state, the vuzurg
framadar (‘‘Great Commander’’), was replaced by the chief official of the
caliphate, the Wazir (vizier), which as a title seems to be derived from the
Middle Persian vicir (decision). To
serve an increasingly centralized government, specialized diwans or bureaus were created, based on the Sasanian model, among
which were the diwan al-khatam (office
of the seal, or chancellery) and the diwan
al-barid (postal service), which took over the network of roads with rest
stations (Ar.Ribat) that had been developed
by the Sasanians. Under the Sasanians, priests(mobads)had directed many
administrative activities; the Muslimqadiscontinued this function. The
endowment of fires for the Zoroastrian fire temples may have influenced the
system of Islamic waqfs (Ar. pl.,auqaf).
The continuity of Sasanian court ceremony is attested
to not only in Islamic art (see the section on art below) but also in literature.
Well into the later Middle Ages, Muslim chroniclers were drawing upon such
Middle Persian literary works as the counsels (andarz) or ‘‘mirrors for princes,’’ addressed to aristocrats or to
rulers, which contributed to the development of Arabicadabliterature. Besides
presenting stories to illustrate the wisdom of the sixthcentury Sasanian king,
Khosrow Anoshirvan, or of the third-century founder of the dynasty, Ardashir, these
works describe Sasanian court practice and rules of conduct and strongly influenced
the conduct of Muslim rulers. Such ‘‘advice’’ literature was also known in the
Byzantine world, but it was not as widespread as in Persia. Arabic books based
on this literature about Sasanian administrative practices and government were
produced well into the twelfth century (AH sixth century) as far west of the
former Sasanian lands as Sicily and Spain. These works were adapted to reflect
Islamic precepts and practices.
Literature,
Mathematics, and Science
In addition to andarz literature, oral and
written narratives about the Sasanian and earlier kings and heroes had a valued
place in Islamic culture and for centuries inspired artists and writers
throughout Muslim lands. In particular, the Shahnama,
or Book of Kings, written down by the Persian Ferdowsi around 1000, provided
specific incidents about the mythic and historic Iranian past, as well as the
courtly themes of feasting, drinking, and hunting for both Persian and Arab
painters and poets; among such stories are the exploits of the hero Rustam, and
the Sasanian hunting king, Bahram Gur.
The Sasanians also gave the Arabs a wealth of
medical, mathematical, astronomical as well as astrological and other scientific
writings (partly of Indian origin); these were co-foundations of many of the
Muslim contributions to science, such as the astrolabe and other instruments
for measuring the circumference of the earth. Such Sasanian traditions carried
into the early centuries of Islam and, indeed, many of the great mathematicians
and scientists in the early centuries of Islam were of Iranian origin, among them
the ninth-century mathematician and astronomer Muhammad b. Musa al-Khwarazmi,
who wrote on algebra; the polymath Abu ‘l-Rayhan al-Biruni, who in the eleventh
century produced treatises on geography, geology, astronomy, and history; and
the eleventh-century poet ‘Umar Khayyam, who was also a mathematician and
astronomer.
Religion and Philosophy
It is of some scholarly dispute whether the
Zoroastrian religion of Sasanian Iran influenced the development of Islam. It
seems possible that Zoroastrian dualism with its ethical doctrine of the
struggle of good against evil, as well as the use of myth or mythical language
to express religious thoughts, influenced early Islamic thinkers, especially
those of Iranian origin. Some scholars have noted the similarities between
specific Zoroastrian and Muslim practices and beliefs: the five times daily
prayer, the reading of holy texts as part of the funeral rite, and the
significance of the number thirty-three. Similarly, there may be a connection
between Zoroastrian thought and some Islamic philosophies; for example, the
Illuminationist or Ishraqi school of philosopher-mystics (founded by Suhrawardi)
parallels such Zoroastrian doctrines as concern the function of angels and the
symbolism of light (goodness) and darkness (evil).
Art and Architecture
Perhaps the greatest impact the Sasanians
exerted on Islamic civilization was in the visual and building arts. Although
it had its unique stylistic and iconographic characteristics, Sasanian
monumental and decorative arts also partook of the many earlier cultures that
had flourished for millennia in Iran and Mesopotamia. This Sasanian heritage,
not surprisingly, was strongest in Iran, continuing with the Qajar dynasty well
into the nineteenth century, although aspects of the Sasanian legacy can be
found as far west as the Maghreb.
The Sasanian architectural legacy consists of
building techniques and architectural forms. The main techniques are squinches
to support a dome on a square base and brick or rubble construction coated with
plaster; a key building form is the chahar
taq,a domical room or structure resting on four pillars with arches in
between, which characterized Zoroastrian fire temples and served as the
prototype for the kushkor kiosk mosque, with its vaults and domes. Of
pre-Sasanian origin but put to spectacular effect in the great Sasanian palace
at Ctesiphon (the Taq-i Kisra) in
Iraq was the iwan (aiwan), a vaulted
hall open on one end when joined to the domed kiosk, it influenced religious
architecture from Egypt to Central Asia. These architectural forms were also used
for palatial structures, as their association with the Ctesiphon audience hall
imbued them with the power and ceremony of kingship and conferred legitimacy
upon the ruler who held audience within.This was certainly the intent of the
late thirteenthcentury Mongol ruler who built a palace at Takht-i Suleiman in
northwestern Iran by incorporating surviving Sasanian palatial and religious
buildings and thus presented himself symbolically as the heir of the Sasanian
dynasts.
Plaster or stucco, a material not used in
pre-Islamic architecture west of Iran but a major decorative medium in Sasanian
architecture, became widely used, as it was well-suited for carrying the rich
vocabulary of decorative motifs geometric, floral, vegetal, faunal, and even
human required for the interiors of religious and secular buildings. Many of
these motifs, mainly of Sasanian origin (though some derived from the classical
Mediterranean world) the stepped merlon, rosette, palmette, the fantastical
Senmurv, griffin, and harpy were transferred across Islamic territories through
highly portable small-scale works of art, such as metalwork and textiles; in
particular, richly patterned silks were an important means of transmittal.
The conquering Arabs readily adopted other
Sasanian motifs bound up with imperial imagery and iconography. The winged
crown, topped by a crescent and globe, which from the fifth century was worn by
every Sasanian emperor to symbolize his divine fortune, was the typical
headgear worn by enthroned, feasting, and even hunting kings in Islamic works
of art. Abstracted into a crescent and globe between a pair of wings, the motif
became a generic symbol of royal power and legitimacy; abstracted further, it
is a decorative design that appears as far west as the ninth-century Great
Mosque in Qairouan, Tunisia.
Other motifs taken from Sasanian royal
iconography include the ribbons that flutter to either side of the crown or from
the necks of various animals, and the crescent (Ar.:hilal), an emblem closely
associated with Islam to the present day; its pairing with a star, also
widespread in Islamic contexts, occurs on Arab–Sasanian coins and is a
continuation of late Sasanian coin designs. Although winged animals (griffins,
horses, bulls, and lions) have a long history in the art of the ancient Near
East, they are ubiquitous in Sasanian art and are taken into Islamic design; similarly,
the lion-bull combat comes from this long tradition as both an astronomical
symbol and one of royal power and as
such was transferred through Sasanian into Islamic art.
The image of the Sasanian ruler holding court
or engaged in the pleasures of the banquet and the hunt, as depicted in a
variety of artistic media, was readily adopted by the Muslim rulers to
illustrate their power and greatness. Despite the prohibitions against figural
art, Muslim rulers and their well-todo subjects perpetuated these pictorials,
as well as a range of literary themes, through commissioned works in metal,
ceramic, fabric, and paint.
Further Examples of the
Sasanian Legacy
Such games as backgammon, chess, and polo
were developed or invented under the Sasanians. Backgammon, ubiquitous in
Islamic lands, and chess were brought (probably in the sixth century) from
India to Iran, where they became an important part of princely education. The
earliest treatises on the games are in Middle Persian and date from this period
of late Sasanian rule. As a training game for elite cavalry, polo may be a Persian
invention. Considered the sport of kings, it was played in much of the Islamic world
and was often associated with a royal architectural complex (for example,
Timurid Samarkand, Safavid Isfahan, and Mughal Agra).
Finally, the Islamic garden, both a heavenly
and earthly creation, is based on Sasanian and much earlier Iranian designs; in
fact, ‘‘paradise’’ derives from Old Persianpairidaeza. The typical ‘‘four
garden’’ plan (chaharbagh), in which
intersecting streams or avenues divide the enclosed area into quarters that are
planted with trees and flowers, informs not only actual gardens in the Islamic
world but also some carpet designs. Indeed, the numerous mentions of the
celestial garden in the Qur’an reflect this garden design.
Further Reading
Arnold,
Thomas W.Survivals of Sasanian and Manichaean Art in Persian Painting. Oxford:
The Clarendon Press, 1924.
Baer,
Eva.The Human Figure in Islamic Art: Inheritance and Islamic Transformations.
(Bibliotheca Iranica. Islamic Art and Architecture Series, 11). Costa Mesa, CA:
Mazda Publishers, 2004.
Bier,
Lionel. ‘‘The Sasanian Palaces and their Influence in Early Islam.’’Ars
OrientalisXXIII (1993): 57–66.
Daryaee,
Touraj. ‘‘Mind, Body, and the Cosmos: Chess and Backgammon in Ancient
Persia.’’Iranian Studies 35/4 (2002): 281–312.
Ettinghausen,
Richard. ‘‘Hilal, ii.—In Islamic Art.’’ In Encyclopaedia of Islam, new ed.,
vol. III. Leiden: Brill, 1971, 381–385.
Reprint,Islamic
Art and Archaeology: Collected Papers [of] Richard Ettinghausen. Prepared and
edited by Myriam Rosen-Ayalon. Berlin: Gebr. Mann Verlag, 1984, 269–280.
———.From
Byzantium to Sasanian Iran and the Islamic World: Three Modes of Artistic
Influence. (L. A. Mayer Memorial Studies in Islamic Art and Architecture, 3). Leiden:
Brill, 1972.
Frye,
Richard N.The Golden Age of Persia: The Arabs in the East. London: Weidenfeld
and Nicolson, 1975.
Grabar,
Oleg. ‘‘Notes sur les ce´re´monies umayyades.’’ In Studies in Memory of Gaston
Wiet, edited by Myriam Rosen-Ayalon, 51–60. Jerusalem: Institute of Asian and
African Studies, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, 1977.
———.The
Formation of Islamic Art. Revised and enlarged ed. New Haven and London: Yale
University Press, 1987.
Hartner,
Willy, and Richard Ettinghausen. ‘‘The Conquering Lion, the Life Cycle of a
Symbol.’’ Oriens17 (1964): 161–171.
Reprint,Islamic
Art and Archaeology: Collected Papers [of] Richard Ettinghausen. Prepared and edited
by Myriam Rosen-Ayalon. Berlin: Gebr. Mann Verlag, 1984, 693–711.
Hillenbrand,
Robert.Islamic Architecture: Form, Function and Meaning. New York: Columbia
University Press, 1994.
Irwin,
Robert.Islamic Art in Context: Art, Architecture, and the Literary World. New
York: Harry N. Abrams, Inc., 1997.
Kro¨ger,
Jens. ‘‘Vom Flu¨gelpaar zur Flu¨gelpalmette. Sasanidische Motive in der
Islamischen Kunst.’’Bamberger Symposium: Rezeption in der Islamischen Kunst vom
26.6–28.6.1992. Ed. Barbara Finster, Christa Fragner, and Herta Hafenrichter,
193–203. Beirut: Franz Steiner Verlag Stuttgart, 1999.
Lerner,
Judith. ‘‘A Note on Sasanian Harpies.’’Iran (Journal of the British Institute
of Persian StudiesXIII (1975): 166–171.
Melikian-Chirvani,
Assadullah Souren.Islamic Metalwork from the Iranian World 8th–18th Centuries.
London: Victoria and
Albert Museum; Her Majesty’s Stationery Office, 1982.
———.
‘‘Reka¯b: the Polylobed Wine Boat from Sasanian to Saljuq Times.’’ InAu
Carrefour des religions me´langes offerts a` Philippe Gignoux. (‘‘Res Orientales,
VII), edited by Rika Gyselen, 187–204. Bures-sur-Yvette: Groupe pour l’E´ tude
de la Civilisation du Moyen-Orient, 1995.
Pinder-Wilson,
Ralph. ‘‘The Persian Garden: Bagh and Chahar Bagh.’’ InThe Islamic Garden.
(Dumbarton Oaks Colloquium on the History of Landscape Architecture, 4, 1974).
Ed. Elisabeth B. MacDougall and Richard Ettinghausen, 69–85. Washington:
Dumbarton Oaks, Trustees for Harvard University, 1976.
Simpson,
Mariana Shreve. ‘‘Narrative Allusion and Metaphor in the Decoration of Medieval
Islamic Objects.’’ In Pictorial Narrative in Antiquity and the Middle Ages. (Studies
in the History of Art, 16). Ed. Herbert L. Kessler and Marianna Shreve Simpson,
131–149. Washington, D.C.: National Gallery of Art, 1985.
Sims,
Eleanor, with Boris I. Marshak and Ernst J. Grube. Peerless Images. Persian
Painting and Its Sources. New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 2002.
SCHOLARSHIP
Scholars
The word for scholar in the Arabic Islamic
tradition is ‘alim (pl. ‘ulama’,
meaning wordly, ‘‘knowing,’’ learned). It denotes scholars of almost all
disciplines: traditions of the Prophet and his Companions; traditionist (muhaddith), Qur’anic exegesis; exegete
and other Qur’anic fields like variant readings; reader (muqri’); jurisprudence: jurist (faqih),
and connected areas like successions; specialist of successions, or the one who
is recognized as a mufti (that is, having the competence of delivering juridic
or theological decisions), or judicial power; judge (qadi); dialectic theology: dialectic theologian (mutakallim); grammar, lexicography, and
philology; knowledge of poetry and poets; learned in (ancient) poetry and poets(‘alim bi-l-shi‘r wa-l-shu’ara’); tribal
traditions of the ancient Arabs, such as ‘‘the days of the Arabs’’ (ayyam al-‘Arab, above all their battles); genealogy: genealogian;
chronology and historiography and related disciplines such as prosopography;
learned in the ‘‘men,’’ that is, in the biography of traditionists or others;
belles-lettres; man of letters (adib);
and later, philosophy and medicine, astronomy, mathematics, and other sciences.
Those last five disciplines are usually called ‘‘foreign sciences,’’ most having
their origin in the Greek legacy.
However, the term‘alim refers more specifically to the scholars of religious
sciences, considered as Islamic, because in this religious realm the central component
of science is the knowledge of religious precepts and duties. In the
Indo-Iranian world, and especially but not exclusively in the Shi‘i environment,
the scholars in religious sciences are called ‘‘Molla,’’ a word derived from Arabic mawla (master). The word scholars (‘ulama’) to denote a group devoted to religious sciences compelled
recognition only progressively, as scholars recognized as such succeeded in occupying
a favored rank in the society, and even in the various governments in the
Islamic countries. In the two first centuries of Islam they consisted of a relatively
small number of people engaged in the elaboration of jurisprudence (fiqh) on the basis of the Qur’an and
its exegesis, and the traditions of the Prophet and his Companions (also local
customs, often presented as coming from the Prophetic Tradition). They were
concentrated in Medina, in the South of Irak (Basra, Kufa), then in Baghdad
after its construction. However, they had a consciousness of their identity
that marked them as a distinct group.
As a general tendency was to be observed in the
practitioners of religious sciences to consider as certain knowledge only that
transmitted (or attributed) to the Prophet, that is, Qur’an and Sunna
(transmitted in the Hadith), traditions were attributed to nabi Muhammad s.a.w ,
which emphasized the precedence of knowledge and the scholars, most of them
dating probably from a period in which the influence and prestige of the latter
were not yet well established. Therefore nabi Muhammad s.a.w is supposed to have declared: ‘‘Scholars are
the heirs of the prophets,’’ or that they are superior to ‘‘martyrs’’ (shuhada’, those who are killed in the
Holy War), or that the best of his community are the scholars and among the
latter the jurists.
Indeed, the scholars were progressively
constituted as such by the practice of jurisprudence; however, the notion of
‘‘heirs’’ was very important in their self consciousness, because their
essential characteristic was definitely the knowledge of hadith, this being the
science par excellence in that
religious representation and imaginaire, because it was transmitted (inherited)
from the Prophet (like the Qur’an). All the scholars studied the Qur’an and the
Sunna, but not all were specialists in law, and those engaged in theology were
fewer still.
The ‘Abbasids, with the exception of the
caliph al-Ma’mun, preferred to have the scholars and the army on their side,
rather than with bureaucracy. During the first five centuries of Islam the
scholars developed their own practices and organization independent of the
state. It is a fact that the Umayyads, then the ‘Abbasids, had recourse to
scholars and employed them as judges, but they did not found lasting
institutions with personnel dedicated to the study of religion and law.
The political traumas of the AH fourth/tenth
CE centuries and the eighth/eleventh centuries, and the disintegration of the
‘Abbasid state, contributed not alittle to the consolidation of the power of
scholars. Whereas they had been essentially a religious elite, scholars also
became a social and political elite. This evolution and the creation and
development of new institutions of learning, such as the ‘‘higher colleges’’ (madrasas) from the fifth/eleventh
century onward, and pious foundations
(waqfs),resulted in a certain professionalization of scholars, at least of
groups among them. In Cairo, for instance, between the second half of the
eighth/thirteenth century and the eleventh/seventeenth century, appointments to
post in the education were often controlled by the Mamluks or by the
intellectual elite itself. Concerning that, some have spoken of the scholars at
this time as an intermediate class. Despite the evidence of social mobility, this
schlolarly elite experienced certain forms of selfreproductions, if not inbreeding,
and this led to the emergence of veritable dynasties of scholars. Evolution
toward professionalization reached its culminating point under the Ottomans,
who among other things established a hierarchy of muftis, presided over by the
senior mufti in Istanbul.
Scholarship and Scholars
Given the importance of the Qur’an in Islamic
culture, the Qur’anic disciplines have played a great role in education,
activities, and works of scholars, first of all exegesis. We can distinguish
several periods in this huge production. During the formative period three types
of exegesis emerged. The first type was paraphrastic, such as the Meccan
Mujahid b. Jabr (d. 104/ 722), the Kufan Sufyan al-Thawri (d. 161/778), the Kufan
then Meccan Sufyan b. ‘Uyayna (d. 196/811); most of these people were also
traditionists and jurists. The second genre was the narrative exegesis. It
featured edifying narratives, generally enhanced by folklore from the Near
East, especially that of the Judeo-Christian milieu. To this genre belongs the exegesis
of al-Dahhak b. Muzahim (d. 105/723), who delivered moral lessons to the young
warriors of Transoxiana, that of the genealogian and historiograph al-Kalbi (d.
146/763). The third genre was legal exegesis, like the exegesis of Ma‘mar b.
Rashid (d. 154/770) in the recension of the Yemenite ‘Abd al-Razzaq al-San‘anı (d. 211/827). An intermediary and decisive
stage was the introduction of grammar and the linguistic sciences, with works
such as The Literary Expression of the
Qur’an of the Basran Abu ‘Ubayda (d. 210/825) or The Significations of the Qur’an of the Kufan grammarian al-Farra’
(d. 207/ 822). A latter development was represented by the constitutive exegetical
corpora, such as The Sum of Clarity
Concerning the Interpretation of the Verses of the Qur’an of the Sunnite Abu
Ja‘far al-Tabari (d. 310/923), or Unveiling
the Elucidation of the Exegesis of the Qur’an of the Shafi‘ite of Nishapur al-Tha‘labi (d.
427/1035), or the commentary of the Cordoban Malikite al-Qurtubi (d. 671/1272),
which is especially oriented in legal matters.
This type of exegesis includes all the
elements of the different exegetical production of the previous period:
exegetical traditions coming from ancient exegetes, historical and legendary
material, grammar, variant readings, poetry of the ancient Arabs, legal exegesis,
and so on.
Scholars of all theological and/or
‘‘sectarian’’ orientations were active in this realm: Mu‘tazilites, such as Abu
‘Ali al-Jubba’i (d. 303/915) and Abul-Qasim al-Ka‘bi al-Balkhi (d. 319/931);
Kharijite Ibadites such as Hud b. Muhakkam (living in the second half of the
third/tenth century); Shi‘is such as ‘Ali al-Qummi (still alive in 307/919);
Shi‘is who were also Mu‘tazilites in theology, such as Abu Ja‘far al-Tusi (d. 460/1067);
and Sunnites who were Ash’arites in theology, such as Fakhr al-Din al-Razi (d.
606/1210). Of course, the Qur’anic disciplines do not constitute the whole of
Islamic scholarship, but it is a mirror of many of its components: grammar and
philology, poetry, hadith and traditions of the ancient Muslims, law, and
theology.
The sciences of traditions(‘ulum al-hadith) were matters necessary
in the formation of every Muslim scholar. Some of them, however, became more specialized
in this field, such as Ibn Hanbal (d. 241/ 855), whose Summa of prophetical
traditions (Musnad) contains
approximately thirty thousand traditions, and al-Bukhari (d. 256/870), whose Summa
of traditions is the second book in Sunni Islam after the Qur’an. This book,
like others of the same type, has been often commentated on.
It
should be noted that the different genre of the commentary and gloss in almost
every field of knowledge is one of the characteristics of Islamic scholarship:
in poetry, grammar, law, traditions, theology, and so forth. To give only two
examples, the compendium on Arabic grammar, a poem in a thousand verses (Alfiyya) of the Andalusi grammarian Ibn
Malik (d. 672/1274) has been commented on several hundreds of times; that has
also been the case for the Creed of Abu Hafs al-Nasafi (d. 537/1142).
In Islamic scholarship the oral transmission
of knowledge has played a great role: memorizing the Qur’an and vast quantities
of traditions, as well as poems and stories, was of major importance. However, Muslim
civilization was a civilization of the written word. Both aspects, orality and
literacy, are present together in several ways of the transmission of knowledge
from masters to students, for instance, in the ‘‘license of transmission’’(ijaza), by which an authorized
guarantor of a text or of a whole book (his or her own book or a book received
through a chain of transmitters) gives the person the authorization to transmit
it in his or her turn. To the institutions of Islamic scholarship belong also
the journeys for seeking knowledge.
Primary
Sources
Marc¸ais,
William (Trans and annot). Le Taqrıˆb de enNawawıˆ. Paris: Imprimerie
Nationale, 1902.
al-Qabisi,
Abu l-Hasan.Epitre de´taille ´e sur les situations des e´le `ves, leur re`gles
de conduite et celle des maıˆtres, edition of the Arabic text and translation
by Ahmed Khaled. Tunis: Socie´te ´ Tunisienne de Diffusion, 1986.
Further Reading
Gilliot,
Claude.Exe´ge`se, langue et the´ologie en islam. L’exe´ge`se coranique de
Tabari. Paris: Vrin (E ´tudes Musulmanes, XXXII), 1990.
———. ‘‘La
transmission des sciences religieuses.’’ InE´tats,socie´te ´s et cultures du monde
musulman me´die´val Xe-Xve sie`cle, II, edited by Jean-Claude Garcin et al, 327–351.
Paris: PUF (Nouvelle Clio), 2000.
——— et al.
‘‘‘Ulama’.’’EI, X, 801–10: Joseph E. Lowry, Devin J. Stewart, and Shawkat M.
Toorawa (Eds).Law and Education in Medieval Islam. Studies in memory of Professor
George Makdisi. Warminster: E. J. W. Gibb Memorial Trust, 2004.
Makdisi,
George.Rise of Colleges. Institutions of Learning in Islam and the West,
Edinburgh: EUP, 1981.
Melchert,
Christopher. ‘‘The Etiquette of Learning in the Early Islamic Study Circle.’’
In Law and education, edited by Lowry et al., 33–44.
Rosenthal,
Franz.Knowledge Triumphant. The Concept of Knowledge in Medieval Islam. Leiden:
Brill, 1970.
———.The
Technique and Approach of Muslim Scholarship. Roma: Pontificum Institute
Biblicum (Analecta Orientalia), 24, 1947.
Weisweiler,
Max. ‘‘Das Amt des mustamli in der arabischen Wissenschaft.’’OriensIV (1951):
27–57.
SELIMIYE MOSQUE, EDIRNE
The Selimiye Mosque complex was built in AH
976–982/1569–1575 CE by the architect Sinan for Sultan Selim II in Edirne, the
Ottoman empire’s European gateway. The new architectural foundation celebrated the
recent conquest of Cyprus and was financed by its rich spoils. Regarded by most
modern historians as the culminating achievement of Sinan’s distinguished fifty-year
career as chief architect to the Ottoman court, Sinan himself (according to the
‘‘autobiography’’ that he wrote with Sa’i Mustafa Cˇelebi) undertook the
Selimiye project in a competitive frame of mind. He stated, ‘‘Those who
consider themselves architects among Christians say that in the realm of Islam
no dome can equal that of the Hagia Sophia.[but] in this mosque, with the help
of God and the support of Sultan Selim Khan, I erected a dome six cubits higher
and four cubits wider than the dome of the Hagia Sophia’’ (Kuran). He was determined
both to outdo the size and grandeur of that venerable Byzantine monument
(finished in 537) and to continue a dialogue with his own Suleymaniye Mosque
that was built twenty years earlier.
The Selimiye has a magnificent presence on
the skyline of Edirne its hilltop position and imposing profile were intended
to overwhelm and to suggest, through architectural grandeur, the imperial
majesty of the patron. It stands on a high platform and, unlike comparable
Ottoman ku¨lliyes (religious complexes), has few dependent buildings. The
complex consists of a large enclosure with a centrally placed mosque, and a medrese (theological college) and Qur’an
school of equal size symmetrically filling the southeast and southwest corners
of the greater enclosure. The complex was entirely symmetrical until a covered
market was added on the west side of the enclosure in the 1580s to provide
rental income.
The mosque consists of a rectangular prayer
hall and rectangular courtyard of equal size (sixty by forty-four meters) with
an ablution fountain in its center. A large, single central dome dominates the prayer
hall; from the prayer hall’s corners rise four exceedingly slender fluted
minarets that at approximately seventy meters are taller than any others in the
Ottoman realm. Their soaring verticality provides a marked contrast to the
massive and imposing domical structure of the prayer hall and provides a
spatial frame that both draws attention to the mosque in Edirne’s skyline and
sets its apart. Sinan wished to make the central dome higher than the Hagia
Sophia (which he had not quite outstripped in the Suleymaniye). Although from
floor level the Hagia Sophia rises to 55.60 meters while the Selimiye rises to
only 42.25 meters, if calculated from the base of the dome, the latter’s
profile is indeed steeper and higher.
The dome rests on eight enormous piers, which
is a departure from Sinan’s earlier four-pier plans at the Shahzade and Suleymaniye
mosques. Each pier rises from a fluted, then faceted shaft that transitions, without
a capital to mark the shift in architectonic function, to a great arch that
springs from muqarnas. The piers are ingeniously pushed toward the walls of the
prayer hall so that, rather than permitting their manifest architectonic function
to obstruct interior space, they seem to frame and articulate it. The
consequence is an extraordinarily unified interior in which there is no perceptible
distinction between the space beneath the central dome and the auxiliary spaces
below the half domes that fill the corners of the hall. The equidistant
positioning of the piers also diminishes the sense of lateral axiality that
such a rectangular space might have provoked, and the side arcades bearing
galleries are pushed to the far walls, where they do not interrupt or intrude
on the open interior. Instead, the dominant axis runs from the mosque’s
northern entrance, through the courtyard, into the prayer hall, and culminates
at the mihrab. Indeed, the axis is slightly prolonged by the spatial recession
of the mihrab apse. The sole interruption in the mihrab axis is a platform for
Qur’an reading (dikka),poised above a
fountain, which temporarily shifts the visual focus from the horizontal axis to
the vertical, directing vision upward to the great dome overhead.
The airy interior is flooded with light from
the rows of windows encircling the base of each dome and semidome. Furthermore,
enormous arches of alternating red and white voussoirs relieve the supportive function
of the mosque’s walls so that instead of wall mass, the space is filled by thin
tympana with windows. The recessed mihrab is likewise lined on both the qibla and side walls, with windows that
filter light through windows with ornate mullions. Beautiful Iznik glazed
ceramic covers much of the qibla wall, reflecting light and giving the interior
a gleaming luminosity. A band of inscription in blue and white tile runs around
the upper part, while below there are panels with floral designs that were
probably intended to suggest paradise, a common theme in mosque ornament.
The brilliance of Sinan’s design appears not
only in the spatial plasticity of the manipulation of domes, semidomes, and
arches within the prayer hall but also in the clarity of the design’s
structural logic from without. Although from afar the building appears as a single
mountainous dome surrounded by elegant spires, at middle distance the eight
piers, capped by small cupolas and descending into mighty buttresses, have
clear presence on the building’s exterior, revealing a well-composed,
symmetrical, and geometrically conceived figure of discrete geometrical units
subordinated to a harmonious whole. The Selimiye is a tour de force of interior
and exterior space.
Further Reading
Bates, U¨lku
¨. ‘‘Architecture.’’ In Turkish Art, edited by Esin Atıl, 44–136. Washington,
D.C., and New York, 1980.
Blair,
Sheila and Jonathan Bloom.Art and Architecture of Islam, 1250–1800. New Haven:
Yale University Press, 1994.
Goodwin,
Geoffrey.A History of Ottoman Architecture. London: Thames and Hudson, 1971.
Kuban,
Dog˘an. ‘‘The Style of Sinan’s Domes Structures.’’ Muqarnas4 (1987), 72–98.
———.
‘‘Architecture of the Ottoman Period.’’ InThe Art and Architecture of Turkey,
edited by in Ekrem Akurgal, 137–169. New York, 1980.
Kuran,
Aptullah.Sinan, The Grand Old Man of Ottoman Architecture. Washington, D.C.,
and Istanbul, 1987.
Sa’i,
Mustafa.Tezkiretu¨’l-Bu ¨nyan (Istanbul, 1897).
Transl. M.
So¨zen, and S. Saatc¸I, Mimar Sinan, and Tezkiret-u ¨l Bu¨nyan. Istanbul, 1989.
SELJUKS
The Seljuk dynasty was a Turkish dynasty that
ruled much of the Middle East from the late eleventh through the twelfth
century CE. The eponymous Seljuk ibn Duqaq was the chief of a confederation of
Oghuz Turkmen tribes that migrated in search of land, perhaps pressured by
other tribes, from the area between the Caspian and Aral seas to Transoxiana in
the mid-tenth century. Settling in Jand on the left bank of the Jaxartes (Syr
Darya), Seljuk and the
Oghuz
became Muslims. In the early eleventh century, these Oghuz were caught between
the expansionist ambitions of the Qarakhanids from the north and the Ghaznavids
from the south. In 1040, Seljuk’s grandsons, Chaghri Beg and Toghril Beg,
defeated the Ghaznavids at Dandanqan near Merv. This victory opened the Middle
East to large-scale Turkish immigration. Thus began the long-term movement,
laden with enormous social, economic, and political consequences, of Turkish peoples
from Central Asia to the Middle East, changing the linguistic and cultural zones
of that region from Arabic and Persian to Arabic and Turko-Persian.
Having taken the title of sultan and
proclaiming himself the protector of the ‘Abbasid caliph and defender of Sunni
Islam, Toghril entered a politically fragmented Muslim world. Many areas were
ruled by Shi‘i dynasties. One of them, the Buyids, held sway over the ‘Abbasid
caliphs in Baghdad. From Cairo the Fatimid caliphs claimed authority over the
entire Muslim world. Toghril attempted to put an end to these Shi‘i dynasties
and reunite Muslims under Sunnism. In 1055, he entered Baghdad and destroyed the
Buyids. In 1058, the caliph al-Qa’im formally acknowledged him as sultan and
later gave him a daughter in marriage. Toghril consolidated his power in Iraq,
destroying pro-Fatimid forces in 1060, while keeping the caliph under tight
control, and sending various family members to conduct further conquests. The
empire in turn was parceled out to these family members. Toghril thus laid the foundation
of the Great Seljuk Empire. He died in 1063 at Rayy, his capital.
Toghril had no children. His nephew, Alp
Arslan, succeeded him in 1064 after a brief struggle for the throne. Alp Arslan
reorganized the government and appointed the brilliant Nizam al-Mulk as grand
vizier. Nizam ran the empire and tried to mold the state along traditional
Persian lines. Alp Arslan was continuously in the field suppressing revolts and
campaigning on the frontiers. In 1071, he defeated the Byzantine emperor
Romanus Diogenes at Manzikert. Byzantine defenses collapsed and Anatolia was
open to Turkmen tribes, who streamed into it. Also in 1071, another Turkmen
army under Atsiz captured Jerusalem from the Fatimids. These two victories reverberated
in Europe where Pope Urban II eventually called for a crusade in 1095. After
Manzikert, Alp Arslan marched east to Transoxiana, where he faced a crisis with
the Qarakhanids. There he was murdered in 1073.
Alp Arslan was succeeded by his son
Malikshah, during whose reign the Great Seljuk Empire reached its height.
Malikshah made Isfahan his capital and kept Nizam as grand vizier. Besides
settling various family quarrels, he further expanded Seljuk power by bringing
the Qarakhanids to terms and extending his authority down the west coast of
Arabia to Yemen. Furthermore, in the early years of his reign an independent
Turkmen chief, Sulayman ibn Qutulmish (r. 1081–86), founded the Seljuk Sultanate
of Anatolia. In 1092, shortly after Nizam was assassinated, Malikshah died. The
empire, stretching from Khwarazm to the Mediterranean, was then torn by struggles
for succession. His sons Muhammad I Tapar (r. 1105–1118) and Sanjar (r.
1118–1157) were more or less able to keep the core of Iraq and Iran together,
although the latter’s reign ended in disaster in 1153, when the Oghuz revolted
and took him captive. While Anatolia had been independent from the beginning (1081–1307),
other regions of the empire broke away: Kirman (1048–circa 1188) and Syria
(1078–1117). The last of the Great Seljuks, Toghril III, was killed in 1194 in
the east, fighting the Khwarazm-Shah Tekish.
The major reason for the disintegration of
the empire was the lack of a well-ordered means of succession. The Seljuks
followed the custom whereby the state was considered the common property of the
dynasty. Consequently, each member of the dynasty could claim to be the ruler.
This resulted in a struggle for the throne with each passing sultan. These
struggles in turn provided opportunities for the ‘Abbasid caliphs to try to
reassert their worldly authority and also allowed theatabegs, the guardians and
tutors of various princes, to take local power into their own hands. Some, like
the Zankids, established their own dynasties. All of this contributed to the
further fragmentation of the empire.
Primary Sources
Ibn
al-Athir. The Annals of the Saljuq Turks. Transl. and annot. D.S. Richards.
London: Routledge Curzon, 2002.
Zahir al-Din
Nishapuri.The History of the Seljuq Turks. Transl. Kenneth Luther. London:
Curzon, 2001.
Further Reading
Bosworth,
C.E. ‘‘The Political and Dynastic History of the Iranian World (A.D.
1000–1217.’’ In The Cambridge History of Iran, vol. 5, The Saljuq and Mongol
Periods, ed. by J.A. Boyle, 1–202. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1968.
Cahen,
Claude. ‘‘The Historiography of the Seljuqid Period.’’ InHistorians of the
Middle East, edited by B. Lewis and P.M. Holt, 59–78. London: Oxford University
Press, 1962.
Lambton, Ann
K.S. ‘‘The Internal Structure of the Saljuq Empire.’’ InThe Cambridge History
of Iran, vol. 5,
The Saljuq
and Mongol Periods, ed. by J.A. Boyle, 203– 202. Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press, 1968.
———.Continuity
and Change in Medieval Persia. Albany, NY: Bibliotheca Persica, 1988.
Leiser,
Gary.A History of the Seljuks: Ibrahim Kafesog˘lu’s Interpretation and the Resulting
Controversy. Carbondale, IL: Southern Illinois University Press, 1988.
SEVEN SLEEPERS
The legend of the Seven Sleepers of Ephesus,
in its earliest form, relates the fabulous experience of seven (or eight)
Christian soldiers who are saved from the persecution of the Roman Emperor
Decius (r. 249–251) by a miraculous sleep, from which they awake only during
the reign of the Christian Emperor Theodosius II (r. 408–450). The Seven
Sleepers of the Christian legend appear in the Qur’an as the ‘‘Companions of
the Cave’’ of Chapter Eighteen (named accordingly ‘‘the Cave’’[al-kahf]), a chapter in which narratives
based on the Jewish legend of Joshua ben Levi and the Christian Romance of Alexander
also appear. Louis Massignon, pointing to the fact that the recitation of this
chapter is encouraged every Friday at Islamic common prayer, describes the
legend of the Seven Sleepers as a pointof mystical and eschatological meeting
between Islam and Christianity.
The origins of the legend, however, are
unclear. Although some reports credit Steven, bishop of Ephesus during the
Second Council of Ephesus (449), with compiling the original version in Greek, T.
No¨ldeke and P. Huber argue that the legend was originally written in Syriac.
Indeed, the first extant form thereof appears in two Syriac homilies of Jacob of
Sarug (d. 521), while Gregory of Tours (d. 594), author of the first Latin
version, employed the services of a Syriac translator for the job. In any case,
the spread of the legend into numerous languages (it entered later into
English, German, Nordic, French, and Spanish literature) testifies to its
attraction. Popular Christian devotion to the Sleepers, embraced as saints by
both Catholic and Orthodox tradition, spread as well. Feast days were devoted
to them. Chapels and shrines were dedicated to them, not only in Ephesus itself
but also throughout the Middle East and Europe, including the Church of the Seven
Sleepers in Rome, which is decorated with vivid paintings of the seven heroes.
The attraction of the story in the Christian
context lies in the fact that it is at once edifying and didactic. On one hand,
it celebrates the devotion of Christian martyrs and, more generally, the
victory over paganism. On the other hand, it serves as a proof for the resurrection,
as the sleep of the seven saints in most recensions is only a metaphor for
death (see John 11:11 and I Thessalonians 4:13), from which they are raised by
God.
In the Qur’an, meanwhile, certain details of
the cristian legend remain: the Cave as a refuge (Q 18:10) from unbelief (Q
18:14–15), the sensation of the sleepers that only a day had passed (Q 18:19), their
plan to buy food with a coin they had preserved (Q 18:19), and the building of
a shrine above the spot where they slept (Q 18:21). Other elements of the Qur’anic
narrative are novel: a watch dog (Q 18:18; on the model of the Greek Cerberus,
protecting the domain of the dead), the insistence on ‘‘pure’’ food (Q 18:19),
confusion over the number of sleepers (Q 18:22), and 309 years as the duration
of sleep (Q 18:25; early Christian sources state 372 years). Still other
elements of the Qur’a¯nic account present a mystery to Muslim interpreters, not
least of which is the introductory line, which speaks of the ‘‘Companions of
the Cave’’ andal-raqım. This latter word is interpreted variously as: tablet,
inscription, name of the sleepers, their ancestry, their religion, the thing from
which they fled, the town from which they came, the mountain of their cave, or
the name of their dog.
Most important, perhaps, is the particular
tone with which the Qur’an relates the legend of the cave. While in the Christian
legend the Emperor Decius closes up the cave in order to kill the saints, in
the Qur’an there is no protagonist other than God Himself, and it is He who
shuts in the ‘‘Companions of the Cave’’ (Q 18:11). In the Christian legend it is
shepherds stumbling across the site of the sleepers that causes their
awakening. In the Qur’an it is God Himself who awakens them, in order to test
them, by seeing if they are able to calculate the duration of their sleep (See
Q 18:12, 18:19). Ultimately (Q 18:19), one of the sleepers shouts out the pious
solution to the test: ‘‘Your Lord knows best how long you have tarried.’’ In its
Qur’anic form the legend of the Seven Sleepers becomes an affirmation of human limitation
before an omnipotent, and omniscient, God. Thus if this legend indeed serves as
a point of contact between Christianity and Islam, it also manifests the
uniqueness of each tradition.
Further Reading
Avezzu`,
Guido.I Sette Dormienti: Una leggenda fra Oriente e Occidente. Milano: Medusa,
2002.
Coleridge,
Mary.The Seven Sleepers of Ephesus. London: Chatto & Windus, 1893.
Huber, P.
Michael.Die Wanderlegende von den Siebenschla¨-fern. Leipzig: Harrassowitz,
1910.
Massignon,
Louis. ‘‘Les ‘Septs Dormants’ Apocalypse de l’Islam.’’ In Opera Minora, edited
by Y Moubarac. 3 Vols. Beirut: Da¯r al-Ma‘a ¯rif, 1963, 3:104–118.
Torrey,
Charles.The Jewish Foundation of Islam. New York: KTAV, 1967, esp. Chap. 5
SEVILLE
Seville (Ar.Ishbiliyya, a derivation from the Latin place name Hispalis) was a major town of
al-Andalus on the bank of the Guadalquivir River (an Arabic name,Wadi ‘l-kabir, meaning ‘‘The Wide
River’’). It was the capital of thekurathat bore its name, akura being the
basic territorial division of al-Andalus.
History
Seville was conquered around 713 or 716 CE in
the first wake of the Muslim occupation of the Iberian Peninsula. Subsequently,
contingents of mainly Yemeni warriors settled in the city and its outskirts, and
formed the core of its ruling classes until the end of the Muslim-ruled period,
when the city was conquered by the Castilian king, Ferdinand III, in 1248.
Overt or more concealed Islamic lifestyles, however, continued to be conducted
in Seville, as in other parts of Spain, until the expulsion of the Moriscos (converted-to-Christianity
Muslims) from Spain in 1609–1610, that is to say, almost four centuries after the
Christian conquest of the city.
The Arab warrior elite of Seville often
revolted against the central power based in Cordoba during the time of the
first Umayyad ruler, al-Andalus Emir. ‘Abd al-Rahman I (756–788). He was
succeeded in the throne by Hisham I (r. 788–796) and al-Hakam I (r. 796–822).
Both reigns were periods of relative peace for Seville, according to the
sources. In 844, under the Emir ‘Abd al-Rahman II (r. 822–852), Seville was stormed
by the Normans (named Majus in the Arabic chronicles). Normans pillaged the
whole of Western Andalusia for almost a month and a half, until they were driven
out by an army dispatched from the Andalusi capital of Cordoba.
The following years under the ruling of Emir
‘Abd Allah I (844–912) saw a widespread outburst of rebellions all over Al-Andalus,
including in Seville. A de factoautonomous state was established by the local powerful
clan of the Banu Hajjaj from 889 to 913.
Seville was seiged and pacified by the first
Andalusi caliph, ‘Abd al-Rahman III, in 913. The period of the caliphate
(929–1031) was one of certain prosperity for the city. Only an uprising
instigated by the Banu Hajjaj family in 974 troubled to some extent the stability
of the period.
With the downfall of the caliphal regime and
the outburst of thefitna(civil war) in Al-Andalus from 1009 to 1031, Seville
became the capital of one of the taifa (party)
kingdoms into which Al-Andalus had split. The new dynasty of the Banu ’Abbad or
’Abbadids (1013–1090) seized power, leading the
town into what is generally considered to be its cultural and economic
peak. It was, objectively speaking, the moment when the greatest territory was
ruled from Seville.
The most celebrated ’Abbadid ruler was Muhammad
bin ’Abbad al-Mu’tamid (1069–1090), who is still widely regarded as one of the
finest classical Arab poets. His verses about his concubine Rumaykiyya have never
ceased to be a part of the common Arab poetic curriculum.
In the political sphere, the ’Abbadid rulers
were forced to pay parias(levies) to the Castilian kings. This forced
al-Mu’tamid and many othertaifasovereigns to seek the help of the Almoravid
sultan, Yusuf bin Tashufin, whose territorial base was in the current territory
of Morocco. In 1086 and 1088, Yusuf bin Tashufin disembarked in the Iberian
Peninsula in assistance of his coreligionists. Sources tell us that he motivated
by Islamic religious scholars (fuqaha)
and with popular spur resolved to seize power of Iberian Muslim-ruled lands and depose the
taifa rulers, including al-Mu’tamid. In 1090, Yusuf bin Tashufin conquered Seville
and sent al-Mu’tamid to exile.
Seville remained under Almoravid rule for
more than half a century. Aspects of daily life during this period can be
deduced by reading Ibn ’Abdun’shisba (market policing) treatise. During the
Almoravid period, Seville was transformed into a key port where troops were disembarked.
Seville also became a gathering point for the army. Archaeological evidence
implies that the last wall ring of Seville was built by the Almoravids as a
compound crowned by eight fortified towers.
In 1132, the King of Castile, Alphonse VII,
sacked the region of Seville and even killed the Almoravid governor. In 1147,
Seville was incorporated into the Almohad caliphate, which had before replaced
the Almoravids. An Almohad governor of Seville, Abu Ya’qub Yusuf, was
proclaimed caliph and made his second (with Marrakesh, in Morocco) capital in
the town since 1171/1172. He conducted a full public works program that
included an improvement to the fortifications of the town, a new palace outside
the walls, a new pontoon bridge over the Guadalquivir River that linked the
town and the Triana quarter at the other side of the river, and a new Friday
mosque. Construction of this new central mosque began in 1172. Its minaret is a
twin of the famous Kutubia minaret in Marrakesh. After the Christian conquest, the
whole site of the great mosque was dedicated to the new cathedral. The minaret
is today the ‘‘Giralda’’ bell tower, which is recognized as the major symbol of
the city throughout the world.
Frequent Castilian raids threatened the
safety and stability of Seville during the Almoravid period. Additionally, the
periodic floods of the Guadalquivir contributed to the unease of the
population.
Since 1220, the Almohad power approached its final
decline. Following a number of unsuccessful revolts, the people of Seville
turned to the Ibn Hud family against the Almohads in 1229. In 1248, the Castilian
King Ferdinand III conquered the city after seventeen months of siege. Soon
after, the Moroccan Marinid dynasty attempted to seize control of the city, but
they could only pillage the outskirts, and in 1275 made an unsuccessful siege
on the city.
Islamic Heritage in Modern
Seville
Although Seville was counted among the
richest cities of al-Andalus, its extant Islamic built heritage is not abundant,
since a myriad of new buildings in the Renaissance and Baroque styles were
commissioned in the prosperous period which lasted from the sixteenth to the
seventeenth centuries as a result of Seville’s key role in economic exchange
with the Spanish colonies in America.
The walls that defended the city against
attacks both from the navigable Guadalquivir and from the surrounding plains
are a major extant that remains. Numerous accounts in extant sources report
building and repair work being conducted in the Umayyad and subsequent periods.
In 1220–1221, a new angled defensive outwork was built, ending in a
twelve-sided stronghold, the ‘‘Golden Tower’’ (Torre del Oroin its current
Spanish denomination), which is still a landmark of the city. Originally
standing three stories high, only the two lower ones have been preserved, as
the upper lantern was modified after the Christian conquest.
A compound of residential palaces, known as
the Reales Alca´zares, is still the official residence for the Spanish royals
when they are in Seville. It is, together with the Alhambra and the ruins of
Medina Azahara in Cordoba, a fine example of Andalusi architecture. Its
foundations were laid in the time of Umayyad Emir ‘Abd al-Rahman II (822–852).
Before the construction of the current
cathedral, the third largest cathedral in the world, the Friday or central
mosque, occupied the same site. The mosque was itself a building of
considerable size, probably measuring 150 meters by 100 meters. Its most
relevant feature was the aforementioned minaret. In its present form, the
belfry is 16.1 meters wide and 50.85 meters high.
Primary Source
Ibn ’Abdun,
Muhammad bin Ahmad al-Tujibi. Sevilla a Comienzos del Siglo XII: el Tratado de
Ibn Abdun. 1st ed. Transl. Emilio Garcı´aGo´mez and Evariste Le´viProvenc¸al.
Sevilla: Servicio de Publicaciones del Ayuntamiento de Sevilla, 1981. Reprint,
1948.
Further Reading
Arberry,
Arthur John.Moorish Poetry. 1st ed. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press,
1953.
Burkhardt,
Titus.Moorish Culture in Spain. 1st ed. London: Allen and Unwin, 1972.
Kennedy,
Hugh.Spain Muslim and Portugal: A Political History of Al-Andalus. 1st ed.
London: Longman, 1996.
Latham, John
Derek.From Muslim Spain to Barbary. 1sted. London: Variorum Reprints, 1986.
Wasserstein,
David.The Rise and Fall of the Party-Kings. 1st ed. Princeton, NJ: Princeton
University Press, 1985.
Whishaw,
Bernhard.Arabic Spain: Sidelights on Her History and Art. 1st ed. Reading:
Garnet, 2002 Reprint, 1912.
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