University of Pennsylvania ScholarlyCommons Publicly Accessible Penn Dissertations Summer 2011 The Echoes of Fitna: Developing Historiographical Interpretations of the Battle of Siffin Aaron M. Hagler University of Pennsylvania, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://repository.upenn.edu/edissertations Part of the Islamic World and Near East History Commons, and the Near Eastern Languages and Societies Commons Recommended Citation Hagler, Aaron M., "The Echoes of Fitna: Developing Historiographical Interpretations of the Battle of Siffin" (2011). Publicly Accessible Penn Dissertations. 397. https://repository.upenn.edu/edissertations/397 This paper is posted at ScholarlyCommons. https://repository.upenn.edu/edissertations/397 For more information, please contact [email protected]. The Echoes of Fitna: Developing Historiographical Interpretations of the Battle of Siffin Abstract The Battle of Ṣiffīn (36/657) is the flash point in the emergence of sects within the Islamic religion. This dissertation traces the presentation of the story Ṣiffīn in a specific line of Arabic universal histories, starting with the establishment of the ―vulgate‖ text, Naṣr ibn Muzāḥim al-Minqarī‘s Waqʿat Ṣiffīn, and culminating in the Sunnī Syrian works of Ibn ʿAsākir, Ibn al-ʿAdīm, and Ibn Kathīr. As the vulgate text, al- Minqarī‘s Waqʿat Ṣiffīn forms the basis for every presentation of the story that follows it, including often being reproduced word for word. Developments in the Islamic political and religious spheres, as well as developments in styles of Arabic historical writing, were highly influential in shaping the development of the story. Of particular focus is the development of a narrative voice that seeks to use the story to rehabilitate early Syrian figures by later Syrian historians. Degree Type Dissertation Degree Name Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) Graduate Group Near Eastern Languages & Civilizations First Advisor Paul M. Cobb Second Advisor Joseph Lowry Third Advisor Jamal Elyas Keywords Siffin, Fitna, Islamic History, Umayyad, Historiography Subject Categories Islamic World and Near East History | Near Eastern Languages and Societies This dissertation is available at ScholarlyCommons: https://repository.upenn.edu/edissertations/397 THE ECHOES OF FITNA: DEVELOPING HISTORIOGRAPHICAL INTERPRETATIONS OF THE BATTLE OF ṢIFFĪN Aaron M. Hagler A DISSERTATION in Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations Presented to the Faculties of the University of Pennsylvania in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy 2011 Supervisor of Dissertation Signature _____________________________ Professor Paul M. Cobb, Associate Professor, Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations Graduate Group Chairperson Signature _____________________________ Professor Richard Zettler, Associate Professor, Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations Dissertation Committee Professor Jamal J. Elias, Professor, Religious Studies Professor Joseph Lowry, Associate Professor, Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations THE ECHOES OF FITNA: DEVELOPING HISTORIOGRAPHICAL INTERPRETATIONS OF THE BATTLE OF ṢIFFĪN COPYRIGHT 2011 Aaron Morris Hagler iii Dedication This dissertation is dedicated to the memory of my grandfather-in-law, Haim Bronshtein, who always put his family first, and to my wife Elana, son Asher, and daughter Dina. iv Acknowledgements A project as extensive as the present study obviously does not appear out of nowhere, and I am indebted to a great number of people for helping bring it to completion. First and foremost is my advisor at the University of Pennsylvania, Professor Paul Cobb, who was everything an advisor should be: helpful, communicative, understanding, supportive and encouraging. He asked challenging questions that helped the rough ideas of the early part of the dissertation process morph into the more refined ideas of the final product without ever ―giving me the answer‖ or presupposing the outcome of my research. It is no exaggeration to say that I could not have done it without him. I am also deeply indebted to my committee, Professor Joseph Lowry and Professor Jamal Elias, both of the University of Pennsylvania. Professor Lowry in particular provided me with a set of detailed, thought-provoking, and insightful comments on an earlier draft that were essential in helping me express the ideas in this dissertation in a clear and full way. This study would be a much poorer one but for his insights. I would also like to thank Professor Aram Shahin for providing me with a copy of his paper, ―In Defense of Muʿāwiya,‖ as well as Professor Avraham Hakim and his editor Ahmed Chleilat for making available to me his unpublished section of Idrīs‘ ʿUyūn al- Akhbār. Thanks also to Nancy Khalek, who provided bibliographical guidance in the v context of a jocular Facebook discussion about Ṣiffīn. I am grateful to my colleague Carolyn Brunelle for scanning and sending me a chapter that I needed on extremely short notice. Similarly, I would like to thank the staff at the University of Pennsylvania‘s Van Pelt Library, both for assistance within the library in locating sources and sending me books in Denver through the Books by Mail program. I am also highly appreciative of the tireless efforts of my father, Professor James Hagler (mathematics) of the University of Denver, who, in addition to his emotional and technical support throughout the process, not only gave me access to his Interlibrary Loan Account at the University of Denver‘s Penrose Library, making possible my family‘s move to Denver in the midst of the dissertation writing process, but also in almost all cases picked up, hand delivered, and returned books to the Penrose Library for me. Access to Penrose Library through his account also made available to me a set of online materials unavailable to me through Penn‘s library. He, along with my mother Vivien Hagler and sister Leah Hagler (who earned her MA in East Asian Languages and Civilizations at Penn), also spent a great deal of time and energy babysitting my son Asher and daughter Dina, giving me precious uninterrupted hours in which to complete this project. Leah was also very helpful with technical assistance in the construction of the PowerPoint for my defense. Speaking of my children, Asher (two years old) and Dina (five months old): what they sapped in energy, time and sleep was more than replaced by what they provided in joy, excitement, hilarity and inspiration. Last but certainly not least, I would like to thank my wife, Elana Hagler, for her emotional support and understanding of the process. I have learned much from her, but nothing more relevant to the dissertation creation process than the first time I saw her work for days on a section of a painting and then, vi ultimately dissatisfied with the outcome, scrape off her work with a palette knife, sandpaper it down, and start on that section anew, without even a small hesitation. Her example kept me from becoming disheartened when, inevitably, I needed to select hours of work of my own with the mouse, press the delete key, and start again. The standard disclaimer naturally applies: while this study is indebted to the brilliant work of a great number of scholars, none of them bears any responsibility for any possible errors appearing within it. vii Abstract THE ECHOES OF FITNA: DEVELOPING HISTORIOGRAPHICAL INTERPRETATIONS OF THE BATTLE OF ṢIFFĪN Aaron M. Hagler Paul M. Cobb, Supervisor The Battle of Ṣiffīn (36/657) is the flash point in the emergence of sects within the Islamic religion. This dissertation traces the presentation of the story Ṣiffīn in a specific line of Arabic universal histories, starting with the establishment of the ―vulgate‖ text, Naṣr ibn Muzāḥim al-Minqarī‘s Waqʿat Ṣiffīn, and culminating in the Sunnī Syrian works of Ibn ʿAsākir, Ibn al-ʿAdīm, and Ibn Kathīr. As the vulgate text, al-Minqarī‘s Waqʿat Ṣiffīn forms the basis for every presentation of the story that follows it, including often being reproduced word for word. Developments in the Islamic political and religious spheres, as well as developments in styles of Arabic historical writing, were highly influential in shaping the development of the story. Of particular focus is the development of a narrative voice that seeks to use the story to rehabilitate early Syrian figures by later Syrian historians. viii Table of Contents Dedication ....................................................................................................................................... iii Acknowledgements ......................................................................................................................... iv Abstract .......................................................................................................................................... vii Table of Contents .......................................................................................................................... viii A Note About Transliteration and Arabic Words and Names ........................................................ xi Abbreviations ................................................................................................................................. xii Introduction ...................................................................................................................................... 1 Previous Scholarship .................................................................................................................... 9 Methodology