Expansion of Operation: the Shaykh, the Public Sphere, and the Local Community

63 Chapter 4 EXPANSION OF OPERATION: THE SHAYKH, THE PUBLIC SPHERE, AND THE LOCAL COMMUNITY leadership may be understood to stem from the intersection of three dimensions: a leader’s message, his areas of activity, and his modes ofspiritu operation.aL Inand this model, Charisma it is onlyti byC the leader operating in a given community that his message can take hold and his authority becomes realized. At the same time, his areas of climate of a concrete historical setting. This model, current in modern research, is my activityworking and hypothesis modes of for oper thisation chapter must that be aff situatesected b they the discussion specific cond of theitions expansion and religious of the social milieu they inhabited. charismaticThe middle Sufi of mast the twelfthers’ scope century of oper markedation withinthe beginning the broader of a new political, era in rtheeligious, history and of Syria. In the Syrian cities of the interior— Aleppo, Hama, Homs, Baalbek and Damascus— that remained under Muslim rule, the Islamic Counter- Crusade movement arose, medieaccompaniedval Muslim by a historians series of campafor his ignsdevotion for the to unificationthe military of mission Syria int ando a struggle single political against entity, and energetic efforts to render the Sunna victorious. Nūr al- Dīn, praised by the infidels, personal piety, and support for Sunni Islam within, was the first significant leaderrule over of thismost mo ofvement. Syria and Saladin, the Jazira. while By still the serving end of as the a genertwelfthal century,in the arm followingy of Nūr the al- Dīn, acquired control over Fatimid Egypt (in 1771) and subsequently consolidated his territory. Shortly after his death, however, the Ayyubid domains in Syria and Palestine becameconquest fragmented of Jerusalem amongst (in 1187), several Saladin principalities had regained based almost at Aleppo, all of the Hama, formally Damascus, Islamic and other centres. These were all held by princes of the Ayyubid family, who usually used the title malik Frequent internal strife, ongoing confrontation with the Crusades along and beyond the borders of the Latin and coastal were principalities, subject to the and loose powerful control enemiesof the Ayyubid from without, sultan in put Cair ano. were beaten back by the Mamluks, who effectively incorporated the Ayyubid kingdom intoend ttheo the Mamluk confederation. sultanate. In1 1260, the Mongols invaded Syria and sacked Aleppo. They 1 The most comprehensive study of the political and military history of the period is that of From Saladin to the Mongols: The Ayyubids of Damascus, 1193– 1260 Stephen R. Humphreys, (Albany: SUNY, 1977). 64 64 CharismatiC masters in LoCaL settings Demographically, long after the so- called “Sunni reaction,” which began with the the late eleventh century and was completed by the Zangids around the mid-tw elfth Seljukcentury, conquest the Syrian of S yriaMuslim and population—the subsequent especiall overthrowy that of of the the Shiʿi- northerntinged region—dynasties still in 2 includedafter their sizable persecution Shiʿi gr andoups massacre. Among (in them 1154). were The the Mamluk Ismāʿīlīs, Sultan who Baybars left a sombr seizede martheirk lastin the fortress southern outside Damascene the city’s quart gateser (inof Bāb1273). al- ṢagAs hīrthe fMamlukor a century period and drew a half to a close, they concentrated in the mountains between Homs and the sea and no longer exercised ideological influence. The Nuṣayrīs, another extreme Shiʿi sect, also established themselves in the mountainous area over Lattaqiya. As for the Imāmī Shiʿis, they were far from being a marginal group. In the cities and towns of northern theSyria, city) the among Shiʿi inclinationChristians andof the Sunnis. residents These seems were theto haso-ve called retained rawāfiḍ its —str thoseength. who In Damascus, some of them inhabited the Bāb Tūmā quarter (in the northwest part of 3 The Christians,“refused” t omore recognize numerous the fir thanst thr theee Jews,caliphs formed in order diverse to legitimize communities ʿAlī ibn in ASyria.bī Ṭālib In alone— a term that from the early Mamluk period covered all forms of Shiʿism. Church of Maryam (also called the Church of the Christians), located in the traditional Damascus, their presence was visibly marked by churches, notably the Greek Orthodox quarter.4 Christian quarter of Bāb Tūmā, and the church of the Jacobites south of the Christian Other churches, as well as a handful of monasteries, stood in the countryside Lebanon,surrounding it w theas the Orontes home ri ofver, the w isolatedhich flows Maronite north fr community,om Mt. Lebanon as well and as passes the tightly through knit communityHoms and H ofama, the andDruze. in theEncounters villages ofbetween the Beqaa Muslim Valley and (see non- Figs. Muslim 2 and ur 3).ban As dwellers for Mt. and villagers in built and natural environments were a matter of course, a fact reflected actiin theve saintlparticipantsy vitas. in the Sunnization movement that aspired to recast Islamic religious andThe social chapt lifeer based commences on the normswith an of e thexamination Holy Law of and the therole prophetic played by tradition Sufi mast anders asto how their constant concern with self- purity and morality was tightly tied to the concern forcleanse the moralsociety conduct of immor ofality others and anddeviant how pr theyactices. employed Specificall theiry, itcharismatic seeks to demonstr virtuesate to make fellow believers repent, spur their Shiʿi neighbours to turn from their deviant 2 Damas et sa principauté sous les Saljoukides et les Bourides On the “Sunni reaction” in Syria, see Jean- Michel Mouton, (468– 549/1076– 1154) (Cairo: Institut Français d’Archéologie 3 Damas, 250–55; and Geoffroy, Orientale), 377. Le Soufisme On the various Shiʿi groups that came under Sunni rule, see Pouzet, 4 Damas , 63. On which, see Pouzet, , 306–7. 65 65 expansion of operation (Photo: Daniel Demeter/Syria Photo Guide.) Figure 2. The Valley of the Christians west of Homs. practices, and prompt Christian neighbours to forsake their old faith. The narratives depicting the encounters leading to conversion attest to the shaykh’s prominent stature, the breadth of his activity, and the fascination with his presence and marvels. Drawing converts to Islam is displayed as yet another manifestation of the virtues and powers of expectations of the converted people. the TheSufi shadiscussionykh. At the that same follows time, accountscentres onof contheversion role of also the echo revered the moti shaykhsvations who and served as patron saints and communal leaders. It examines how they understood the modes of their interaction with ruling authorities and ordinary Muslims. These and practised the activist, community- oriented Sufi tradition they embraced and ability to take over the role of central political leadership in lobbying for public welfare modesand mediating are related disputes to the in influence addition the to shathe ykhsenactment exerted of on their local extraordinary governors and virtues their situating the accounts of their activities, my further aim is to highlight the correlation to protect their fellow believers from their external enemies and unjust rule. In so the surrounding society. between the presentation of the saintly figures and the concerns and expectations of 66 66 CharismatiC masters in LoCaL settings Figure 3. Late- twelfth– early- thirteenth- century frescoes in the historic Roman Orthodox Church of St. Elian in Homs. (Photo: Daniel Demeter/Syria Photo Guide.) Arbiters of Normative Praxis and Disseminators of True Religion Like other representatives of the emerging Sunnization movement that began in the teasterno shape lands Islamic of Irreligiousan and Ir andaq and social filt eredlife and int opurify Syria society.in the tw Theelfth phrases century “he, Ibn was Qa wānone ofal- Bālisīthe performers and ʿAbdallāh of commandingal- Yūnīnī joined right scholars and forbidding of the established wrong” Sunni(al- amr leg bi-al l-schoolsmaʿrūf wa-l- nah y ʿan al-munk ar) and a disseminator of the traditional knowledge and the proper Islamic conduct (al- ʿilm wa- l-ʿamal ) reoccur in the biographies of scholars, Sufis, and pious figures of their epoch. The sources sometimes specify the details of the Qurʾanic theinjunction private t odrinking command of rigwine,ht and or fsellingorbid wr ofong, wine, and wrongs where andthat hoperformersw it was perf of ormed.this duty In encounteredthe Syrian milieu, from theearlier revered times sha.5 ykhs inhabited, this injunction most often concerned 5 For an extensive discussion on the wrong of wine as a recurring theme from early Islamic history, see the monumental work of Michael Cook, Commanding Right and Forbidding Wrong in Islamic Thought (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2000), 67ff. 67 67 expansion of operation Sufi masters who performed the duty “to command and forbid” were generally affiliated with legal and theological schools that relied heavily on the prophetic traditions for belief and conduct and as a source of the law. Some figures thus assimilated into the Shafiʿīmadhhab rite, inof whichlegal int pietyerpretation and religious that g ainedactivism6 dominance had been in a Asolidyyubid base and for Mamluk the position Syria andof leadership cultivated fromAshʿarī the theological time of itstendencies founder.,7 while others found a home in the Ḥanbalī narratives about their encounter with wrongs that were transmitted by their disciples However,

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