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Jihad in Islamic History Jihad in Islamic History Jihad in Islamic History Doctrines and Practice MICHAEL BONNER PRINCETON UNIVERSITY PRESS PRINCETON AND OXFORD First published in France by Te´rae`dre under the title Le jihad, origines, interpre´tations, combats Te´rae`dre 48 rue Sainte-Croix-de-la-Bretonnerie 75004 Paris English edition copyright 2006 by Princeton University Press Published by Princeton University Press, 41 William Street, Princeton, New Jersey 08540 In the United Kingdom: Princeton University Press, 3 Market Place, Woodstock, Oxfordshire OX20 1SY All Rights Reserved Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Bonner, Michael David. [Jihad. English] Jihad in Islamic history : doctrines and practice / Michael Bonner. p. cm. Includes bibliographical reference and index. ISBN-13: 978-0-691-12574-9 (hardcover : alk. paper) ISBN-10: 0-691-12574-0 (hardcover : alk. paper) 1. Jihad—History. 2. War—Religious aspects—Islam. I. Title. BP182.B6513 2006 297.7c209—dc22 2005034086 British Library Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available This book has been composed in Janson Printed on acid-free paper. f pup.princeton.edu Printed in the United States of America 13579108642 To the memory of my sister Alisa Bonner Contents List of Maps xi Symbols and Accent Marks xiii Preface xv CHAPTER ONE. Introduction 1 What Is Jihad? 1 Just War and Holy War 4 Warfare and Jihad 6 Fields of Debate 10 Historiography and Origins 14 Readings 18 CHAPTER TWO. The Quran and Arabia 20 Combat in the Quran 21 Gift and Reciprocity 27 Fighting and Recompense 30 “The Beggar and the Warrior” 32 Readings 34 CHAPTER THREE. Muhammad and His Community 36 Sira and Maghazi: Sacred History 37 Hadith: The Norm 45 Themes of Jihad in the Hadith 49 Fighting with One’s Money 51 Readings 54 viii CONTENTS CHAPTER FOUR. The Great Conquests 56 The Course of Conquest 58 Explanations 60 Approaches to the Islamic Sources 64 Approaches to the Non-Islamic Sources 67 Readings 71 CHAPTER FIVE. Martyrdom 72 Martyrdom before Islam 73 Martyrdom in Quran and Tradition 74 Contexts of Martyrdom in Islam 76 Martyrs and Neomartyrs 79 Readings 82 CHAPTER SIX. Encounter with the Other 84 Conquest Society and Fiscal Regime 84 Treatment of Non-Muslims 87 Abode of Islam, Abode of War 92 Convivencia 93 Readings 95 CHAPTER SEVEN. Embattled Scholars 97 Syria and the Byzantine Frontier 98 Arabia 102 Iraq: The Synthesis of al-Shafi"i 106 North Africa 108 Spain 111 Central Asia 112 The Embattled Scholars: Conclusions 114 Readings 116 CHAPTER EIGHT. Empires, Armies, and Frontiers 118 The Umayyad Caliphate: Imperial Jihad 119 Revolution and Jihad 124 The "Abbasid Caliphate and Its Military Crisis 127 Frontier Societies: Against Byzantium 131 Frontier Societies: Spain and North Africa 134 Ribat 136 The Crusades 137 Ottoman Origins 144 CONTENTS ix Corsairs in the Mediterranean 149 The Western Sudan 151 Empires, Armies, and Frontiers: Conclusions 153 Readings 155 CHAPTER NINE. Colonial Empire, Modern State, New Jihad 157 Resistance and Reform 157 Fundamentalism and Islamism 161 Readings 165 CHAPTER TEN. Conclusions 167 Bibliography 175 Index 191 Maps 1. The Middle East ca. 600 CE 38 2. The Spread of Islam to 750 CE 57 Symbols and Accent Marks This book uses a limited system of transliteration for non-Latin alphabets, namely Arabic, Greek, Hebrew, and Persian. For these alphabets it does not indicate long and short vowels, and it does not use special signs to indicate consonants that do not occur in the English alphabet. The only exceptions are the Arabic glottal stop hamza indicated as ' and the deep guttural stop "ayn, indicated as ". Preface My intention in this short book is to offer an introduction to the jihad and, more specifically, to the origins of the jihad within the broader history of Islam. I have not provided a systematic overview of the doctrine of jihad, which would have required a longer book of an entirely different character. Nor have I given a comprehen- sive summary of the history of Islam, or even of its early history, as seen from the perspective of the jihad. Instead I have worked with two goals in mind. My first goal is to provide the reader with an introduction to some of the most important debates, both premodern and mod- ern, over the jihad. I think of this reader as someone who may or may not have basic knowledge of the political and religious history of the Islamic world, but who wishes to find a way through this particular terrain. I have tried to give this reader a sense of what happened—the structure and the most important particulars of historical events—without, however, simply rehashing the history of Islam, which is available now in a number of good books in English. I have tried to keep my analytic focus on the jihad, even as I touched on other broad historical topics, and even as I outlined some of the debates regarding methods and approaches that have gone on among modern specialists in the study of Islamic society, religion, and culture. In this way, I have sought to acquaint the reader with the most important ways in which the jihad has been identified and approached, both in the past and in the present. I have tried to identify the most important and challenging prob- lematics regarding this theme which, as everyone now knows, has far more than academic importance. xvi PREFACE My second goal is to present a connected series of theses of my own regarding the jihad and its origins. Some of these have been presented in earlier work of mine, some not; they boil down to the following. One thesis has to do with the Quranic message and its lasting heritage in Islamic societies. In chapter 2, I identify two different thematic areas within the Quran. One of these has to do with the notions of gift and reciprocity, and with generosity, charity, and the care of the poor and unfortunate. The other has to do with recompense, requital, and reward, relating especially to jihad and the conduct of war. These two thematic areas do not conflict with each other; in fact, it is impossible to have either of them without the other. It is precisely the combination of the two that provided much of the transforming power of the Quran and the early mes- sage of Islam. This has implications for our contemporary world, which I allude to at the end of the book. Another thesis has to do with the extended origins of the jihad. The basic elements of the jihad as we know it came into existence during the first rise of Islam and the lifetime of Muhammad (around 570–632 CE). Other elements of the jihad came into the world soon afterward. However, I argue that the doctrine of jihad, as we recognize it today, and the distinctive set of social practices that are associated with it, did not come into existence until con- siderably later, toward the end of the eighth century of the Com- mon Era, when the "Abbasid Caliphate was consolidating its power. It is only then that the jihad becomes fully recognizable as a doctrine, as a source of inspiration and guidance in the building of a series of new Islamic states, and as what we may call, in Linda Darling’s phrase, a piece of “contested territory” among a variety of groups within Islamic society.1 This view of extended origins has a number of consequences for our view of the jihad in history, which I will spell out as I go along. Another thesis grows directly from the one just mentioned. This has to do with the long series of dynastic states that arose and succeeded one another in the various parts of the Islamic world, over the centuries. I propose to view many of these as fron- tier societies and thus, to a large extent, as an outcome of the doc- trine and practice of the jihad. A key to this thesis—and what made 1 Linda Darling, “Contested Territory.” PREFACE xvii me notice the phenomenon in the first place—is the participation in warfare along the frontiers of many religious scholars who were specialists in the holy law, mystics, preachers, and sometimes sim- ply fighters (chapter 7). These three themes—reciprocity/gift and recompense/reward in the original Quranic message, the prolonged gestation period of the jihad, and the rise and growth of many Islamic states as frontier societies—correspond broadly to three stages in the de- velopment of the jihad within Islamic societies and states. An earlier version of this book has appeared in France, in a new series called Islam in Debates.2 In the spirit of that series, it pro- vides nonspecialist readers with a concise introduction to a com- plex and controversial area of study. It points out what the main areas of contention are within this field and where its main argu- ments seem to be headed. It also provides suggestions for further reading. This English-language version is somewhat longer than the French one, in large part because I have taken into account the highly useful suggestions made by three anonymous readers for Princeton University Press. Any study of the jihad runs the risk of including an unmanagea- bly large amount of Islamic history and doctrine. I have sought to avoid this by limiting myself to a fairly precise set of questions, set out in the introduction. I concentrate mainly on the early period of Islam, and it is there that my own contributions and ideas stand the best chance of being considered original, and perhaps even right. However, I also sketch out certain aspects of the jihad over the many centuries of Islamic history.
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