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EARLY ISLAMIC HISTORIOGRAPHY: IDEOLOGY AND METHODOLOGY The Ohio State University Ph.D. 1986 University Microfilms I nternstionsi300 N. zeebRoad, Ann Arbor, Ml 48106 Copyright 1986 by Roberts, Joseph Bradin All Rights Reserved EARLY ISLAMIC HISTORIOGRAPHY: IDEOLOGY AND METHODOLOGY DISSERTATIOI Presented in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Doctor of Philosophy in the Graduate School of the Ohio State University By Joseph Bradin Roberts, B.A., M.A. The Ohio State University Dissertation Commnittee: Approved by M.R. Waldman C.H. Fleischer " ^ Adviser S.F. Dale Department of History Copyright by Joseph Bradin Roberts 1986 To My Parents 1 1 ACKNOWLECGMOmS I would like to thank the American Research Center in Egypt for awarding me a dissertation research fellowship with funding provided by the International Communications Association» The officials of Dar al- Kutub al-Misriyya and Ma'had al-Makhtûtât of the Arab League in Cairo kindly allowed me access to their manuscripts and permitted me to micro­ film several of them. I am indebted above all to my teacher and friend. Professor Marilyn Waldman, who introduced me to the subject of Islamic history and over many years taught me to think as a scholar and to appreciate texts written by medieval Muslims. Her insights and painstaking suggestions lie behind much of this dissertation, and her kindness and patience made a difficult task easier. My other committee members. Professors Cornell Fleischer and Stephen Dale, helped in more ways than I can mention. I am grateful to Prefessor Fleischer for his encouragement, for his incisive comments that helped me to clarify my thoughts on many points and to improve the quality of this study, and for his generous help in translating some difficult Arabic passages. I am equally indebted to Professor Dale for his encouragement and sound advice and for the many hours he spent talking with me about this dissertation. Many other teachers, colleagues, and friends contributed to this dissertation. If I do not mention them by name, I am no less grateful. iii My wife, Diane, endured with grace and good-humor even when I showed neither and kindly took time away from her own dissertation to read parts of mine and to make many valuable suggestions. For her understanding and encouragement I will always be grateful. Finally, I should express my appreciation of P. Porlock's infectious optimism. VITA August 25, 1950 .................. Born, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 1973 ........................ B.A. The Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio 1975 ............................ M.A., The Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio FIELDS OF STUDY Major Field; Medieval Islamic History Studies in Ottoman History, Greco-Roman History, and Literary Criticism. TABLE OF CONTENTS DEDICATION.................................................. ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS............................................ iii VITA ........................................................ V TRANSLITERATION SYSTEM ...................................... viii CHAPTER PAGE I. INTRODUCTION ...................................... 1 Selection of material ..... .............. 12 Selection of form ......... 16 Notes 22 II. Religious and Political Background ................. 30 Partisan Loyalty: A.H. 10-33 (632-750) .... 31 The First Fitna (36-41/656-61) 35 The Second Fitna (60-73/679-92) .............. 36 The Third Fitna and the Demise of Partisanship (127-133/744-750) .... 38 Assimilation and Conversion D'xcing Marwâni T i m e s .......... ............. 40 Piety-Minded Concerns During Marwâni Times . 42 The Shi*at *Ali— From Partisan Loyalty to Sectarianism...................... 44 Political Background 809-945 (194-334) ........ 51 Notes ..................... 60 III. KHALIFA B. KHAYYÂT (d. 240/854) ..................... 65 The Account of the Battle ........... 68 N o t e s ............ 78 IV. IBN QUTAYBA (213-276/828-889) ........... 81 The Account of the Battle ........... 84 N o t e s ......... ..... ........................ 92 VI V. PSEUDO-IBN QUTAYBA (d. after 196/811) 94 The Account of the Battle ........ 95 The Bay* a ............ 107 Portrayal of Characters ............ ..... 116 Notes ...... .............. ....... 127 VI. AHMAD B. YAHYÂ AL-BAIÂDHURI (d. 279/892) 132 The Account of the Battle ........... 136 Al-Baladhuri and the Hadith Format .......... 148 Al-Balâdhuri's Loyalties ...... ........ 152 Notes ...... ............ ........ 166 VII. AD-DÎNAWARÎ (d. 282/893) ................ ..... 173 The Account of the Battle ....................... 175 Ad-Dinawari's Loyalties ............ 181 Notes ..................... 187 VIII. AL-YA'QÜBI (d. ca.284/897) ........................ 190 The Account of the Battle ................. 192 Al-Ya'qubi's Loyalties .......... ...... 196 Notes .................... 204 IX. AL-GHALÂBI (d. 298/910) 207 The Account of the Battle ......... 208 Al-Ghalabi's Loyalties .................. 212 Notes ................... 218 X. AT-TABARI (224-311/838-923) 221 The Account of the Battle .................... 226 At-Tabari's Loyalties ........................ 266 Notes ............. ........ ... 282 XI. CONCLUSION........................................ 288 Ideology ......................... 289 Methodology............... 292 BIBLIOGRAPHY ........................... 296 Vll Transliteration System The system of transliteration is essentially that used by tiie International Journal of Middle East Studies. Some Arabic words taken into English have been spelled in their English form; e.g., "caliph," not khalifa. 1 > 4 b J, t LL t Ji z th E j ^ gh C h ^ f t kh d J k j dh J 1 j r j.m z j 0 " s 0 h sh 5 « s ^ y 2 -a (at in construct) Vowels Long 'or u; â Dipthongs 5 au ^ Û <-5' aa Doubled "/iyy (final i) uww (final u) Vlll CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION Relative to other fields of history, the study of Arabic/Islamic histories and historiography is under-developed. It received considerable attention at the end of the nineteenth and beginning of the twentieth century when the field of Islamic studies as a whole came into being; but after important initial efforts, interest in questions of historiography declined and has only recently begun to revive. As a consequence, the conclusions of the pioneers in the field have continued to inform the way scholars deal with and understand medieval Muslim histories, in spite of the appearance in the interim of many new texts and the development of new literary critical techniques of reading and understanding texts. Many of these early studies focused on the history of Muhammad and the early community during and immediately after Muhammad's lifetime. The major sources on which these scholars relied were the slra/maghazi works of such authors as Ibn Ishaq (d. 151/768) (in the recension of Ibn Hisham (d. 218/833), al-Waqidi (d. 208/823), and Ibn Sa‘d (d. 1 231/845) and supplementary material in the collections of hadith. Subsequent studies of the periods of the conquests and the Râshidûn and Umayyad caliphates were made possible largely through the publication of the lengthy and detailed history of at-Tabari (d. 310/923).^ All of these sources have four noteworthy characteristics: 1) They are composed in what we shall term the hadith format. That is, they are made up of sequences of hadith, each of which consists of the actual report or narrative— the matn— and a chain of individuals who had transmitted the report and attested to its accuracy— the isnad. In theory, the first link or figure in the isnad (the first name one sees when reading the isnad) was the person from whom the author of the work (al-Waqidi or at-Tabari, for example) had received the hadith and the last link was the person who had witnessed what the matn described and had narrated what (s)he had witnessed to the penultimate person in the chain. 2) The authors of the surviving histories