ENCYCLOPEDIA MEDIEVAL ISLAMIC PART 36 [END]

ZAYD IBN THABIT

  Zayd ibn Thabit ra was a Medinan, born in 611 CE, who served as the Prophet Muhammad’s scribe after the Hijra. Since he was only eleven years old at the time of the Hijra, he must have become nabi Muhammad s.a.w scribe while he was a mere teenager. Zayd gained this prestigious position in part because of his knowledge of Hebrew and/or Syriac script.

  Zayd played a particularly important role in the collection and codification of the Qur’anic text. Reports vary in their descriptions of when the Qur’an was first collected and committed to writing. Some reports assert that the impetus to create a standard, written text came after the death of many of the qurra’ in the battles of the Ridda wars after nabi Muhammad s.a.w death. Abu Bakr ra and ‘Umar ra feared that the divine revelation would be lost if too many of those who knew it were killed in battle; they therefore urged Zayd to collect and compile the revelation. Other accounts place the establishment of a standard Qur’an text earlier, during the last year of nabi  Muhammad s.a.w  life, when he edited a final copy of the Qur’an that Zayd had written down. Still other reports suggest that there was not an agreed-upon text until the reign of ‘Uthman, when the caliph assigned Zayd and three other companions to collect variant readings and establish a canonical text. In each of these versions of the compilation and codification of the Qur’anic text, Zayd ibn Thabit was the central figure.

  During the strife at the end of ‘Uthman’s reign, Zayd was one of the few prominent Medinans (Ansar) to remain loyal to the caliph and to refuse to support ‘Ali ibn Abi Talib ra. He had been a loyal servant to Uthman ra and remained loyal to his kinsman Mu’awiya after he came to power in 41/661. Various reports indicate that Zayd served as a qadi, as head of the treasury, as keeper of the diwan, and in other capacities. He was also recognized as an expert in the distribution of inheritance (fara’id), which required both a familiarity with Qur’anic rules and considerable mathematical skill.

  Zayd’s young age and the prestige associated with his position as Muhammad’s scribe made him a particularly important hadith transmitter. He had many students, and the veracity of his hadith transmissions was not questioned by later commentators. This is to be expected, because questioning his competence as a muhaddith implicitly cast doubt upon the veracity of his recording of the Qur’an itself. Even pro-‘Alid sources do not malign Zayd’s compilation of the Qur’an, although some explain his loyalty to Uthman as a consequence of the considerable wealth he accumulated while serving the caliph. Zayd’s death date is uncertain, but it is likely sometime between 42/662 and 56/675.

Primary Sources

Ibn ‘Asakir. Ta’rikh Madinat Dimashq,ed. al-‘Amrawi. Beirut, 1995–2001.

Ibn Sa’d. Kitab al-Tabaqat,ed. E. Sachau. Leiden: Brill, 1904–1940.

Further Reading

Burton, John.The Collection of the Qur’an.Cambridge, Mass: Cambridge University Press, 1977.

No¨ldeke, Theodor. Gesschichte des Qorans.Leipzig, 1938.

ZAYDIS

  Zaydi is a branch of Shi‘i Islam that emerged in support of the abortive revolt of Zayd ibn ‘Ali in Kufa against Umayyad rule in 740 CE. Unlike the Twelver or Imami Shi‘is, Zaydis do not unconditionally condemn the first three caliphs who preceded ‘Ali ibn Abi Talib to the leadership of the Muslim community after the Prophet’s death, and they do not consider Sunni Muslims to be infidels. As such, they are often considered moderates. In political terms, however (and again unlike the quietist Twelvers), the Zaydis are militant and insist on armed rebellion against unjust Sunni rule as a religious obligation. They also seek to establish righteous rule under a qualified imam (supreme leader) from the Prophet’s family(ahl al-bayt). Thus, the Zaydi doctrine of the imamate is one of the group’s most distinctive features, and their history is dominated by a number of hugely influential imams.

  Zaydi law has set a number of rigorous qualifications for the imamate, the most important of which are religious knowledge (ijtihad) and descent from either of ‘Ali ibn Abi Talib’s two sons, al-Hasan ra or al-Husayn ra. Zaydis hold that ‘Ali was the most excellent of men after the Prophet and that he and his two sons were designated by the Prophet as his legatees. After al-Husayn ra, the imamate could only be established through a summons to allegiance (da’wa) and the armed rising (khuruj) by a qualified candidate. Over the course of time, Zaydis were able to establish several states in two distinct geographical locations: (1) in the Caspian regions of Tabaristan, Daylam, and Gilan; and (2) in the highlands of Yemen. The Zaydis do not follow the legal teachings of the imam after whom they are named (i.e., Zayd ibn ‘Ali) but rather those of certain later imams, two of whom established states. In matters of theology, Zaydis are anti determinist and anti-anthropomorphist. In the Caspian, the first Zaydi state was established in 864 by al-Hasan ibn Zayd, and the last ended in 1526–1527 in eastern Gilan with the conversion of its ruler to Twelver Shi‘ism. Here two rival schools of law emerged: the Qasimiyya(followers of al-Qasim ibn Ibrahim [d. 860]) and the Nasiriyya(followers of al-Nasir al-Hasan ibn ‘Ali al-Utrush [d. 914]). These were ultimately reconciled doctrinally through the adoption of the principle that all mujtahids were correct regardless of their differences.

  It is in the Caspian that Zaydi scholars developed a theology that was heavily influenced by Mu‘tazilism, and, through their close connections with the Zaydis of Yemen, they were able to transmit these to the latter community. In the Yemen and at the invitation of the local tribes, Imam al-Hadi Yahya ibn alHusayn (d. 911; grandson of the aforementioned alQasim b. Ibrahim) established a state in Sa‘da in 897, and this lasted, under varying conditions of expansion and contraction, until 1962, with the emergence of the modern republic of Yemen. Al-Hadi’s teachings in law became dominant among the Zaydis of Yemen and ultimately even among the Caspian Zaydis. During the reign of the last great Zaydi state, the Qasimis (1635–1850s), dynastic rule became the norm, and a group of influential Sunni-oriented reformist scholars emerged under Qasimi patronage, causing a Sunnification of the religious and political environment. The most prominent Sunni-oriented scholar who helped effect this change was Muhammad al-Shawkani (d. 1834).

Further Reading

Haykel, Bernard.Revival and Reform in Islam: The legacy of Muhammad al-Shawkani.Cambridge, Mass: Cambridge University Press, 2003.

Khan, M.S. ‘‘The Early History of Zaydi Shi‘ism in Daylaman and Gilan.’’Zeitschrift der Deutschen Morgenla¨ndischen Gesellschaft125: 301–14.

Madelung, Wilferd.Der Imam al-Qasim ibn Ibrahim und die Glaubenslehre der Zaiditen.Berlin: Walter De Gruyter, 1965.

———. ‘‘Zaydi Attitudes to Sufism.’’ InIslamic Mysticism Contested,eds. Frederick De Jong and Bernd Radtke. Leiden: Brill, 1999.

ZIRYAB, ABU ‘L-HASAN ’ALI BIN NAFI’

  Abu ‘l-Hasan ‘Ali bin Nafi’ Ziryab was an Iraqi musician born around 790 CE who died in Cordoba (Al-Andalus) in 852. His figure became the embodiment of the Andalusi classical musical style, and he was allegedly the arbiter of fashion in Cordoba under the reign of the Umayyad Emir ‘Abd al-Rahman II (r. 822–852). He is historically better known by his nicknameZiryab(‘‘Jay’’) than by his full name.

  Extant sources tell us that Ziryab was forced to flee Baghdad after his musical mentor Ishaq al-Mawsili became jealous of him when Caliph Harun al-Rashid showed the young musician an esteem that might jeopardize al-Mawsili’s position in the court. Ziryab subsequently settled down in Qayrawan, Tunisia, where he served the Aglabid rulers until he fell in disgrace. He then gained the Spanish shores and entered the service of the Umayyad emir (the de facto independent ruler) of Muslim Iberia, ‘Abd al-Rahman II. Sources indicate that, until Ziryab’s death and that of the emir himself (which occurred in the same year), the Andalusi sovereign treated Ziryab with the highest consideration.

  Ziryab has traditionally been credited with introducing the refinements of the Oriental metropolis of Baghdad to Cordoba. He is said to have influenced the spread of cooking, clothing, hairdressing, and other arts and crafts fashions by introducing Eastern styles to the western Islamic world. However reliable this account is, it is true that a whole array of culture and etiquette principles that formed the bulk of Andalusi (and, later, North African) sophistication are ascribed to his merit. Modern scholarship has contested Ziryab’s real influence, identifying later figures as initiators of the practices and styles that have been previously attributed to Ziryab’s influence.

  Ziryab is said to have founded a music-teaching institution in the Andalusi capital, Cordoba, where he taught the principles of the Baghdadi school to his sons and daughters. His songs were apparently collected in Kitab fi Agani Ziryab (Ziryab’s Songbook), which is no longer in existence. Ziryab endorsed several innovations that had an effect on the fundamental instrument of Arab music, the lute (‘ud).Heis reported to have added a fifth, red-colored string to the lute; this string would correspond with the soul, following the Arab idea that each string influences (ta’thir) a particular organ of the human body. (It has also been claimed that the philosopher and humanist, al-Kindi, as well as Ziryab’s mentor, Ishaq al-Mawsili, introduced the five-stringed lute.)

  Ziryab’s alleged novelties include exchanging the traditional wooden plectrum used for plucking the lute for a vulture quill. He is also said to have made the two lower strings of his instrument out of wolf gut, and he may have introduced a new way of cleaning the silk of the higher strings. He claimed that his lute weighed a third less than most other lutes.

  More importantly, Ziryab assumed the continuity of Oriental musical practices in the Islamic Occident. His performances began with a measured song with an unmeasured recitative. He closely followed the modes of the East; his songs increased in lightness and tempo in lyrics and tune, thereby favoring the consolidation of thenawba(vocal suite) genre, which later became the paramount Andalusi musical genre.

  More than anything else, it is the Andalusi/Maghribinawbathat justifies the musician’s fame. As previously mentioned, tradition credits Ziryab with the composition of the integral collection of Andalusi nawbas. One must bear in mind that a compilation featuring all eleven of the Moroccan nawbas requires a total of seventy three compact discs.

  Historical reality does seem to have evolved rather differently, according to French musicologist Christian Poche ´ in his work on Andalusi music. A thirteenth-century work by al-Tifashi (1184–1253) gives an account of the evolution of the so-called classical arab music through the portrayal of its greatest performers. According to his report, the main figure who helped this type of music to acquire its structure was the twelfth-century Andalusi philosopher Ibn Bajja (Latinized as Avempace). Ibn Bajja was the first to merge the singing techniques of the East with those of the western Islamic world. In Al-Andalus and North Africa, a diatonic scale is used; this is in opposition with the musical practice of the Orient. Moreover, Andalusi and Maghribi music does not include the quarter tones that are featured in Eastern styles. Ziryab seems to have historically been used as a narrative excuse rather than with any regard for his actual historical integrity.

  A nawba is a highly structured vocal and instrumental piece based on a principal mode (tab’), along with some secondary ones. It fuses Arabic rhythms with ancient Greek music modes. Each nawba adopts a suite structure, usually in a binary or ternary form, thereby allowing little scope for rhythmic variation as compared with music from the East. Every two movements are linked with a brief musical phrase that is called kursi (chair) in Arabic. A vocal solo can be substituted for this instrumental link; this style allows the singer to sing alone and demonstrate his or her vocal ability. The singer can also take this moment to move emotions in the audience by interpreting the most beautiful poetic passage of the lyrics.

A certain mystical content has traditionally been associated with the Andalusi nawba; this has led to the idea that each nawba is linked to a certain moment of the day. Thus, there may be twenty-four nawbas, one for each hour of the day. Subtle disparities can be found between the modern musical genres of Morocco’s tarab al-a’la, hawzi, and malhun; Algeria’s maluf, gharnati, and sana’a; and Tunisia’s maluf; however, they can all still be recognized as branches of the single musical form of the nawba.

Primary Sources

Al-Makkari, Ahmed ibn Mohammed.The History of the Mohammedan Dynasties in Spain,1st ed., transl. Pascual de Gayangos. London: RoutledgeCurzon, 2002.

Further Reading

Greus, Jesu´s. Ziryab: La Prodigiosa Historia del Sulta´n AndaluzyelCantordeBagdad,1st ed. Madrid: Swan, 1987.

Kennedy, Hugh.Muslim Spain and Portugal. A Political History of Al-Andalus,1st ed. London: Longman, 1996.

Parsons, David, producer.Music of Islam, vol. 7: Al-Andalus, Andalusian Music, Tetouan, Morocco (CD). Tucson, Ariz: Celestial Harmonies, 1998.

Poche´, Christian.La Musique Arabo-andalouse,1st ed., with accompanying CD. Arles: Actes Sud, 1995.

ZOROASTRIANISM

Designations

  Medieval Zoroastrians referred to their religion by the Middle Persian or Pahlavi phrase den i Mazdesn (religion of Mazda), because they regarded Ahura Mazda (Wise Lord) as the Creator. The expression Zardushtig den (Zoroastrian religion) was also used, because they regarded their devotions as having originated from the preachings of a devotional poet named Zarathushtra (Middle Persian: Zardukhsht, Zardusht; New Persian or Farsi: Zardosht). Therefore, they called themselves Mazdesnan (Worshipers of Mazda) and Zartoshtiyan (Zoroastrians).

  Medieval Muslims writing in Classical Arabic and New Persian designated all Zoroastrians as al-Majus (Magians) on the basis of the technical term for Zoroastrian priests or magi (Middle Persian: maguk, mowbed, mowmard; New Persian: mobed). Zoroastrian acts of worship customarily were conducted in the presence of fires on altars inside fire temples (Middle Persian: atakhshkadag; New Persian: ateshkade), so the New Persian term atashparast(fire worshipper), picked up from Christians, become an insult directed by Muslims at Zoroastrians, despite the latters’ protesting that their actions were similar to Muslims facing prayer niches and the Ka‘ba. Another New Persian designation that came to be used by Muslims to deride Zoroastrians as nonbelievers in God was gabr (hollow, empty, one lacking faith, infidel), despite the latter sect’s claim that their scripture—the Avesta was a holy book just like the Bible and the Qur’an.

Conversion to Islam, Minority Status, and Doctrinal Interaction

  The Arab Muslim conquest of Zoroastrian Iran and overthrow of the Sasanian dynasty (224–651 CE) during the seventh century came to be associated with apocalyptic and prophetic expectations. Zoroastrian apocalypticism alluded to doom and the final days of humanity. Islamic prophecy highlighted triumph, presenting the Prophet Muhammad (ca. 570–632) and the Muslim caliphs as successors to Zarathushtra and the Sasanian monarchs. Because people believed those statements, they acted on their beliefs. Many despondent Zoroastrians, concluding that a true deity would not have forsaken them or their religion, chose to accept the faith that had demonstrated its ascendance through political victory. Urban Irani Zoroastrians adopted Islam between the eighth and tenth centuries CE, and that faith spread among rural folk from the tenth through thirteenth centuries CE. As residents’ confessional alliance shifted to Islam, there was a diminishment of contributions to pious foundations that supported the magi. Consequently, many Zoroastrian ecclesiastical institutions, such as fire temples and herbedestans (seminaries), were either transformed into Islamic mosques and Sunni madrasas, respectively, or abandoned and destroyed by the fourteenth century. The chahar taq (four arch) style of the Zoroastrian fire precinct, with its domed roof, passed into Muslim architecture as domed mosques.

  Zoroastrianism initially represented the dominant faith numerically although no longer politically in those regions of the Islamic empire that were seized from the Sasanians and the princes of western Central Asia. To facilitate peaceful governance, medieval Muslim scholars drew upon hadith (traditions) attributed to nabi Muhammad s.a.w and caliphs like ‘Umar I (d. 644) and ‘Ali ibn Abi Talib ra (598–661) for incorporating Zoroastrians into the ahl al-dhimma (protected communities). Not all Muslims recognized Zoroastrians as a dhimmi community, but the Umayyad (661–750) and ‘Abbasid (750–1258) caliphates did.

  Because dhimmi status provided at least nominal safety to the Zoroastrians as a religious minority, magi facilitated the Zoroastrian claim to that position by making copies of the Avesta and its Zand (exegesis). Zarathushtra’s hagiography was augmented to reshape him as a Near-Eastern prophet who had preceded nabi Muhammad s.a.w . Ahura Mazda was gradually transformed into the Zoroastrian God. Angra Mainyu (Angry Spirit), who had originally been Ahura Mazda’s spiritual opposite, became the Devil. Zoroastrianism influenced Islam as well, with Iranian traditions of afterlife—including the imagery of a bridge leading to a heaven filled with pleasure and notions of an apocalypse at the end of time, followed by an eschaton—entering both Sunnism and Shi‘ism.

Medieval Migrations

  The Arab Muslim conquest of Iran triggered migrations by Zoroastrians. Some Zoroastrians, especially Sasanian nobles and military personnel, immigrated to China. Zoroastrians survived in China as late as the middle fourteenth century, after which time they were completely assimilated into the local population. The situation proved different for those who went to India in the tenth century and formed the Parsi (Persian) community there.

  The Zoroastrian migration to India is recorded as the Parsi community’s founding legend, known as the New Persian Qessa-e Sanjan (Story of Sanjan). According to that text, during the reign of the Samanid kings (892–1005), groups of Zoroastrians left the northeastern Iranian province of Khorasan to avoid forced conversion to Islam. Their descendents finally reached Gujarat in western India via the sea in 936. About five years after their arrival, the Parsis consecrated anatesh behram (victory fire, the highest level of ritual fire), called Iran Shah (King of Iran), which remained their main flame for more than eight hundred years. Most religious rituals were performed using dadgah (hearth) fires. The jizya (poll tax) was imposed on Parsis in 1297, when the Delhi Muslim sultanate conquered Gujarat. Economic hardship created by payment of the jizya, plus the stigma of designation as dhimmis, resulted in the conversion of portions of the Parsi population to Islam. However, the community persisted in their beliefs and praxes, with the result being that early European travelers began to encounter them; for example, in 1350, the Dominican friar Jordanus commented on the exposure of Parsi corpses. When their Indian religious stronghold at Sanjan was sacked by the Muzaffarid Sultan Mahmud Begath (Begada; r. 1458–1511) around the year 1465, Parsi magi transferred the Iran Shah atesh behram to a mountain cave for twelve years to ensure that it continued to burn unhindered by Muslims. Eventually, in 1479, the flame was moved to the Parsi city of Navsari to once again become the main locus of Zoroastrian piety in India.

Medieval Iran

  Between the eighth and fifteenth centuries,the lives of Zoroastrians as members of a dhimmi community were governed by religious tenets and by a sectarian society dominated by Muslim men. Realizing that cross-communal contacts threatened the traditional way of life, magi outlawed sex, marriage, and most forms of interaction by Zoroastrians with Muslims unless such contact was vital for a Zoroastrians livelihood or safety. Likewise, Muslim jurists such as Malik ibn Anas (716–795) ruled that Zoroastrians should not be permitted to marry Muslims unless Islam was adopted. However, intermarriage across confessional boundaries became increasingly frequent, with Zoroastrian spouses experiencing rejection from their co-religionists. In response to this, they adopted Islam and raised their children as Muslims. Because Zoroastrians were regarded as unclean, Muslims initially were not supposed to eat food prepared by Zoroastrians. Traditions attributed to various early caliphs, including ‘Ali and an ex Zoroastrian companion of the Prophet Muhammad s.a.w named Salman al-Farisi (d. 656), developed to overcome that barrier, eventually resulting in Muslim jurists such as Ahmad ibn Hanbal (780–855) decreeing that meals prepared by Zoroastrians could be consumed by Muslims.

  Such social interactions between Muslims and Zoroastrians notwithstanding, their minority status resulted in considerable hardship for followers of Zoroastrianism. For example, the powerful Seljuk vizier Nizam al-Mulk (d. 1092 CE) enjoined that Zoroastrians, like other dhimmis, should not be appointed to positions of authority over Muslims, and he even equated them with Muslim groups that he regarded as heretical. Even more problematic was that Zoroastrians’ standing under Islamic law was secondary to members of the majority confessional group, thereby affecting the equitable resolution of commercial and social disputes. The jizya was usually collected by community leaders rather than paid directly to Muslim officials by each Zoroastrian; here, too, however, there was an impact of legal inequality. Mahmud ibn ‘Umar al-Zamakhshari (1075–1144), an important Muslim theologian, suggested that Zoroastrians be publicly humiliated each time the jizya was paid. After 850 CE, Zoroastrians were required to wear yellow caps, shawls, belts, and badges so that Muslims could easily identify them, and the use of horses and saddles by Zoroastrians was forbidden by Muslim authorities.

  Conquest and rule of Iran by the Mongols (1219– 1256), Ilkhanids (1256–1335), and Timurids (1370–1507) resulted in violence against urban Zoroastrians residing in city quarters that had been specifically designated for them. Those seeking to avoid harm often sought protection through reaffiliating their faith to Islam. Those Zoroastrians who survived sought refuge by moving to out-of-the-way locales within the Fars, Yazd, and Kerman provinces of Iran. There the magi attempted to maintain Zoroastrian rites and beliefs by compiling religious literature known as the Pahlavi Books in Middle Persian and the Revayats (Treatises)in New Persian.

Further Reading

Boyce, Mary.Zoroastrians: Their Beliefs and Practices. London: Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1979.

Choksy, Jamsheed K.Conflict and Cooperation: Zoroastrian Subalterns and Muslim Elites in Medieval Iranian

Society. New York: Columbia University Press, 1997.

———. ‘‘Hagiography and Monotheism in History: Doctrinal Encounters Between Zoroastrianism, Judaism, and Christianity.’’Islam and Christian-Muslim Relations 14 (2003): 407–15.

Kreyenbroek, Philip G. ‘‘The Zoroastrian Priesthood After the Fall of the Sasanian Empire.’’ InTransition Periods in Iranian History, 151–66. Louvain: Peeters, 1987.

de Menasce, Jean. ‘‘Zoroastrian Literature After the Muslim Conquest.’’ In Cambridge History of Iran,vol. 4, ed. Richard N. Frye, 543–65. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1975.

Morony, Michael G.Iraq After the Muslim Conquest. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1984.

Shaked, Shaul.From Zoroastrian Iran to Islam. Aldershot: Ashgate-Variorum, 1995.