The Polemic about the "karāmāt al-awliyā'" and the Development of Ṣūfism in al-Andalus(Fourth/Tenth-Fifth/Eleventh Centuries)Author(s): Maribel FierroReviewed work(s):Source: Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London, Vol. 55,No. 2 (1992), pp. 236-249Published by: Cambridge University Press on behalf of School of Oriental and African StudiesStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/619621 .Accessed: 19/12/2011 03:04

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THE POLEMIC ABOUT THE KARAMAT AL-A WLIYA' AND THE DEVELOPMENT OF SUFISM IN

AL-ANDALUS (FOURTH/TENTH-FIFTH/ELEVENTH CENTURIES)1

By MARIBEL FIERRO

Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Cientificas, Madrid

The flourishing of Suifism in al-Andalus during the first half of the sixth/ twelfth century with mystics like Ibn al-'Arif, Ibn Barrajan (who both died in 536/1141) and Ibn Qasi (d. 546/1151) has been interpreted in different ways. For M. Asin Palacios it reflects the influence of the mystical tradition initiated by Ibn Masarra in the second half of the third/ninth century, although he himself does not fail to mention the impossibility of providing evidence for such influence.2 For other scholars, it was mainly due to the influence of al-Ghazali's works and thought.3 D. Urvoy, for his part, has shown how in the 'image' of Andalusian Islam during the fifth/eleventh-seventh/thirteenth centuries presen- ted by scholars like Ibn Bashkuwal and Ibn al-Abbar,

.Sifism appears to be

almost non existent.4 The question of what religious, intellectual and socio- political background allowed figures like Ibn al-'Arif, Ibn Barrajan and Ibn Qasi to appear, is still to be answered.

In this article, I shall deal with the polemic concerning the karanmat al- awliyd' that took place in al-Andalus during the fourth/tenth century.5 This polemic sheds new light on the development and characteristics of Andalusian

.Sifism. I shall advance the hypothesis that one of the Andalusians who took

part in that polemic, al-Talamanki, is to be considered a forerunner of the religious and political doctrines of Ibn Barrajan and of Ibn Qasi in particular.

1. The Andalusians and the karamat al-awliya' During the fourth/tenth century there were Andalusian ascetics to whom

miracles (karmarnat) were attributed: such was the case of Abui Wahb (d. 344/ 955),6 Muhammad b. Abi 'l-Husam Tahir b. Mulhammad al-Qaysi al-Tudmiri

'The abbreviations used in this paper are: AIEO Annales de l'Institut, des Etudes Orientales (Alger); BAH, Boletin de la Academia de la Historia; EOBA, Estudios Onomastico-Biogrcaficos de al- Andalus; MIDEO, MWlanges de l'Institut Dominicain d'Etudes Orientales du Caire; RHR, Revue de

l'Histoire des Religions; ROMM, Revue de l'Occident Musulmane et de la MWditerranee. 2 See his Abenmasarra y su escuela (Madrid, 1914), especially pp. 108-110. V. Lagardere, in his

article' La Tariqa et la R6volte des Muriduin en 539H/1144 en Andalus', ROMM, 35, 1983, 157-70, repeats Asin's statement, without discussion.

3 This is so, for example, for A. Bel,' Le siifisme en Occident musulman au xIIc et au xIIIc siecle de J. C. ', AIEO, I, 1934-35, 145-61 and A. Faure in his articles on the above-mentioned mystics in EI (2nd ed.). Both, following Asin, refer to the influence of Ibn Masarra, but without providing the evidence that Asin confessed was lacking.

4 See Urvoy, Le monde des uldmas andalous du v/xrI au vH/xIre sidcle (Geneve, 1978), 60, 63, 69, 73, 76, 79, 107-8, 119 et seq.

5 The subject has been dealt with by 'U. b. Hamadi, ' Karamat al-awliya': al-niqash al-hadd alladhi atharat-hu bi-l-Qayrawan wa-Qurtuba ft awakhir al-qarn 4 H./10 M. ', Dirdsat andalusiyya, 4, 1990, 354-79, but without, in my view, appreciating the full implications of the issues involved.

6 See Ibn al-Abbar, al-Takmila li-kitab al-Sila (ed. F. Codera, Madrid, 1986, BAH, v-vI), no. 2029, where Abai Wahb is mentioned as ma'ruif al-karamat and as one of the abddl. See also the study by M. Marin, ' Un nuevo texto de Ibn Ba'kuwail: Ajbdr AbT Wahb ', Al-Qantara, x, 1989, 385- 403.

THE DEVELOPMENT OF SUFISM IN AL-ANDALUS 237

(d. 378/988 or 379/989)7 and 'Umar b. 'Ubadil al-Ru'ayni (d. 378/988).8 A curious aspect of the first two is what might be called the ' Eastern connexion ': the obscure Abui Wahb was apparently a Muslim who came to al-Andalus from the East, and Muhammad b. Abi 'I-Husam Tahir's ijablt 9 and kardma-t first appeared during his stay in the East, where he is said to have labisa al-s if, an expression which would indicate that he held mystical beliefs. 'Umar b. 'Ubadil, on the other hand, according to his biographies, never left al-Andalus. It is difficult to establish whether in the previous two centuries there had been Andalusians who were alleged to have performed miracles: for example, Qadi 'Iyad (d. 544/1149) uses the term karamat as a way of defining some of the acts performed by Muhammad b. WadIdah al-Qurtubi (d. 287/900),10 but he is a late source and the word is not found in the early Andalusian biographies devoted to the same scholar. Qadi

'Iya1d., despite his Andalusian background, followed the

North African tradition of biographical writing," in which the mention of kardmat is a characteristic feature. A recent study by M. Marin on the Andalusian ascetics before the fourth/tenth century 12 shows, on the one hand, the absence of a contemporary Andalusian hagiographic tradition and, on the other hand, that the only term applied to those ascetics that may be considered as expressing a reality near, but not equivalent, to karamat is mujab al-da'wa, and that 'there are a limited number of narratives of miraculous nature' attributed to four well-known Andalusian scholars. Marin adds: 'In all these cases, attributing miracles to persons of great prestige corresponds to a desire to emphasize the didactic intent of these stories. In the majority of cases, their very origin seems to lie in eastern sources and does not fit into a local tradition.' The appellative siJff is found for the first time in an Andalusian source applied to 'Abd Allah b. Nasr (d. 315/927).'3 In the following centuries, sources like the biographical dictionaries of Andalusian 'ulamd' are reluctant to apply such a label, as can be seen in the Sila of Ibn Bashkuwal (d. 578/1183). The first use of the term walT, pl. awliya',14 that I have been able to find is in the case of Muhammad b. 'Isa b. Hilail al-Qurtubi (fourth/tenth-fifth/eleventh centuries) who is mentioned as walf li-llah min al-zuhhad in an Eastern source.'5 Forth-

7 He spent the last years of his life performing ribdt in the Middle Frontier of al-Andalus (with its capital at Toledo), where he died shahTd. A book was composed of his miracles, one of which is recorded by al-Dabbi. On Qaysi see Ibn al-Faradi, Ta'rTkh 'ulamd' al-Andalus (ed. F. Codera, Madrid, 1891-92, BAH, vII-viii), no. 1349; Qadi 'Iyad, TartTb al-maddrik wa-taqrib al-masdlik li- ma'rifat a'ldm madhhab Mdlik (8 vols., Rabat, n.d,), vii, 203-4; al-Dabbi, Bughyat al-multamisift ta'rTkh rijdl al-Andalus (ed. F. Codera and J. Ribera, Madrid, 1884-85, BAH, iii), no. 154. More bio- bibliographical references are found in M. L. Avila, La sociedad hispanomusulmana al final del califato (Madrid, 1985), no. 812.

8 See Ibn Bashkuwal, Kitab al-Sila fl ta'rTkh a'immat al-Andalus (ed. F. Codera and J. Ribera, Madrid, 1882-83, BAH, I-II), no. 843; Qadi 'Iyad, TartTb, vii, 211-5; Avila, Sociedad, no. 1040.

9This term indicates that the person in question is mujdb al-da'wa, that is, his prayers are answered by God.

10 See the study that accompanies my edition and translation of his Kitdb al-bida' (Madrid, 1988).

1 The difference between the North African (for example, Ibn Ha.rith

al-Khushani and 'Iyad) and the Andalusian biographical dictionaries (for example, Ibn al-Faradi) of the early centuries is evident to any scholar familiar with them and deserves to be studied.

12 The early development of zuhd in al-Andalus', forthcoming in the Proceedings of the 15th Congress of the Union Europeenne des Arabisants et Islamisants, 13-19 septembre 1990. It covers the period from the conquest of al-Andalus until the beginning of the fourth/tenth century.

'3 See Asin, Abenmasarra, 145 and M. Marin, 'N6mina de sabios de al-Andalus (93-350/711- 961)', EOBA, i (Madrid), 1988, 23-182, no. 838.

14The concept of wilaya was particularly developed by al-Hakim al-Tirmidhi (third/ninth century): see B. Radtke, Al-HakTm al- Tirmid7 (Friburg, 1980), 89-94.

'~ See al-Dhahabi, Siyar a'laIm al-nubald'(23 vols., Beirut, 1981-85), xviii, 306, in the biography devoted to his son, Alhmad Ibn al-Qattan (d. 460/1067), a well-known faqTh and muftT. Cf. the material found in Ibn Bashkuwal, Sila, no. 128 and Qadi 'Iyad4, Tartfb, viii, 135-6.

238 MARIBEL FIERRO

coming, and badly needed, studies on ascetism and mysticism in al-Andalus '6 will shed more light on their terminology and characteristics. From the data available to me it seems safe to conclude that during the second/eighth-third/ ninth centuries, Andalusians seem to have been unaware that their pious Muslims performed miracles,"7 a fact they discovered in the fourth/tenth century thanks to biographers who were either of non-Andalusian background or who imitated and were influenced by Eastern sources. As for the other two religious communities in al-Andalus, the existence of saints and miracles among the Mozarabic community seems to have been an uninterrupted tradition,'8 while a belief in miracles among Andalusian Jews is attested during the fifth/ eleventh century.19

It was in the second half of the fourth/tenth century that the polemic concerning the miracles of the saints (karamat al-awliyad) which had begun in Qayrawan was imported into al-Andalus.

The main opponent of the karamat al-awliya' was Ibn Abi Zayd al- Qayrawani (d. 386/996), author of the Maliki legal handbook al-Risdla.20 His position was refuted by, among others, the Maliki-Ash'ari al-Baqillani (d. 403/ 1013) 21 and by the Meccan Siifi 'All b. 'Abd Allah b. al-Hasan b. Jahdam al- Hamadha-ni (d. 414/1023).22

In al-Andalus, Muhammad b. Mawhab al-Tujibi (d. 406/1015) 23 sided with Ibn Abi Zayd against the kardmat al-awliyd'. Another important scholar of the time, al-Asl- (d. 392/1001),24 was concerned about exaggeration (ghuluww) with regard to the 'miracles of the saints'. On the other side were two Andalusian

"6 Like those being prepared by M. Marin (fourth/tenth-fifth/eleventh centuries), Cristina de la Puente (seventh/twelfth-eighth/thirteenth centuries) and Purificaci6n Ruiz (Ibn Barrajan). The study in Al-Qantara, xii/2, 1991, by J. M. Vizcaino on ascetic and mystic works transmitted and composed in the orthodox milieu of al-Andalus enables us to define more closely the content and tendencies of its intellectual production. There is also some reference to mysticism in the fourth/ tenth century in al-Andalus in my La heterodoxia en al-Andalus durante el periodo omeya (Madrid, 1987), 129-31.

17 In the third/ninth century Adalusians may have been aware of the existence of Eastern Muslims who performed kardmdt, through works like Muhammad b.

Waddah.'s

Kitdb al-'ubbhd wa- '- 'awabid (lost). Kardmdt were attributed to the ' Mahdi' Ibn al-Qitt who rebelled in 288/900, but then he must have considered himself entitled to them as he claimed to be a prophet: see below, section 4.

18 See F. J. Simonet, Historia de los mozarabes de Espahia (repr. Amsterdam, 1967); F. de la

Grania,' Milagros espafioles en una obra polemica musulmana', Al-Andalus, xxxIII, 1968, 311-65. See Ibn Hazm, Kitdb al-fisalft 'l-milal wa-l-ahwd'wa-'I-nihal (5 vols. in 1, Cairo, 1347-8), v, 3;

transl. M. Asin Palacios, Abenhcazam de C6rdoba y su Historia Critica de las ideas religiosas (5 vols., Madrid, 1929), v, 150. See also E. Ashtor, The Jews of Moslem Spain (3 vols., Philadelphia, 1973- 84), 11, 259-61.

20 On him see El (2nd ed.) (H. R. Idris); H. R. Idris, ' Deux juristes kairouanais de l'epoque ziride: Ibn Abi Zayd et al-Qabisi', AIEO, xii, 1954, 121-98; B. M. Fahd, 'Ibn Abi Zayd al- Qayrawani (382/956)', Awrdq, 5-6, 1982-83, 31-41. On the introduction of his works in al-Andalus, see J. M. Forneas, ' Recepci6on y difusi6on en al-Andalus de algunas obras de Ibn Abi Zayd al- Qayrawd-ni, Homenaje a D. Cabanelas (2 vols., Granada, 1987), i, 315-44.

21 On him see El (2nd ed.) (R. J. McCarthy). Al-Baqillani's doctrines were well known in al- Andalus during the fifth/eleventh century, as is shown by the fact that Ibn Hazm in his Fisal attacks and refutes him in many instances. Further study of Ibn Hazm's criticism of Ash'arites like al-

Baqillani, Ibn Furak and al-Sumnani will help to achieve a better understanding of the impact of Ash'arism on the intellectual milieu of al-Andalus prior to the introduction of al-Ghazali's works.

22 See al-Dhahabi, Siyar, xvii, 275-6. Ibn Jahdam is considered the innovator of the salit al- raghd'ib and was one of the most important teachers of the Andalusian al-Talamanki, a key figure in the development of Andalusian SUifism.

23 A student of Ibn Abi Zayd. On him see al-Dabbi, Bughya, no. 278; Ibn Bashkuwal, Sila, no. 1057; Qadi 'Iyad, 7artib, vii, 188-91. See also Avila, Sociedad, no. 767 and Fierro, Heterodoxia, 168-70.

24 Al-Asflis name was 'Abd Alldh b. Ibrahim b. Muhammad; he devoted himself to the new disciplines of usil al-fiqh and usuil al-din. On him see Ibn al-Faradi, Ta'rTkh, no. 758; al-Dabbi, Bughya, no. 906; Qadi 'Iyl'd,

Tartwb, vii, 135-45 and Avila, Sociedad, no. 45.

THE DEVELOPMENT OF SfFISM IN AL-ANDALUS 239

traditionists and ascetics, Ibn 'Awn Allah (d. 378/988) 25 and Abui 'Umar al- Talamanki (d. 428/1036 or 429/1037).26 The latter wrote a treatise against Ibn Abi Zayd. So did another Andalusian, Muhammad b. Ibrahim b. Miisai al- Tulaytuli, known as Ibn Shaqq al-Layl (d. 455/1063), who believed that the Prophets Ilyas and al-Khidr were alive in his time, although God had explicitly stated, as Ibn Hazm takes care to note, that Muhammad was the 'seal of the Prophets' (khatim al-anbiya") and MuIhammad himself had said that there would be no other prophet after him.27 Ibn al-Farad1i (d. 403/1012) is the transmitter of a story also related to the question of karamat 28 dealing with the view that the performer of miracles should not boast but should keep them to himself, and only disclose them under special circumstances. In the halqa of the Toledans Ibn Maymiin (d. 400/1009) and Ibn Shanzir (d. 414/1023), books on kardmdt were read.29 The polemic was of such importance and caused so much dissension (fitan) that, according to Qadi 'Iyad, al-Mansuir b. Abi 'Amir decided to expel some of the 'ulamd' involved from al-Andalus.30

Of the literature devoted to this polemic very little has survived. The most important sources are the North Africans al-Maliki3' and QadPi 'Iyad in his Tartib al-maddrik,32 as well as Ibn Rushd al-Jadd in his Fatawa"33 and al- Wansharisi's Mi'yar al-mu'rib wa-'l-jdmi' al-mughrib 'an fatawl ahl Ifriqiya wa- 'l-Andalus wa-'l-Maghrib.34 Al-Dhahabi has also preserved some information in the biographies he devotes in his Siyar to the protagonists in the polemic. The work by al-Baqillani entitled Kitab al-baydn 'an al-farq bayna 'i-mujizdt wa-'l- karamat wa-'l-h ijal wa-'l-kahdna wa-'l-sihr wa-'l-naranjdt 35 seems to correspond to the refutation he wrote against Ibn Abi Zayd. Ibn Hazm deals repeatedly with the issue of kardmat al-awliyd in his Fisal.

2. The polemic on karamat al-awliya' The term karamat in our context has the specific meaning of'miracles'

performed by people other than the prophets, i.e. the saints (awliyd'), that is, ' every act that is contrary to custom performed by someone whose religion is considered sound' (kull fi'l khdriq li-'l-'ddajard 'ald yad man zahara salahahuft dinihi).36 Some Muslim scholars have tried to locate a basis for this meaning in Qur'ainic stories like that of the food sent to Maryam in the mih rab (Qur'ain 3:37, 32) or the transportation of Bilqis's throne from the Yemen by a

25 A student of the mystic Abfi Sa'id b. al-A'rabi (d. 341/953) whose teacher was al-Junayd (d. 298/910). See on him Ibn al-Faradi, Ta'rTkh, no. 181; Ibn Bashkuwal, Sila, no. 452; al-Dabbi, nos. 452 and 1566; see also Avila, Sociedad, no. 233.

26 A student of Ibn Jahdam and also of Ibn 'Awn Allah. On him see al-Dabbi, Bughya, no. 347; Ibn Bashkuwal, Sila, no. 90; Qadi 'Iyad, TartTb al-maddrik, vill, 32-3; al-Dhahabi, Siyar, xvII, 566- 9, no. 374. See also my forthcoming study (to be published in Sharq al-Andalus, 9, 1992).

27 See Ibn Shaqq al-Layl's biography in Ibn Bashkuwal, Kitab al-sila apud Ibn al-Faradi, Ta'rTkh, no. 1758; al-Dhahabi, Siyar, xvIII, 129-30. On his beliefs see Ibn Hazm, Fisal, iv, 138, transl. Asin, Abenhhzam, v, 55-6. Ibn Shaqq al-Layl died in Talavera, a site for the performance of ribat which had been visited by Muhammad b. Abi 1-Husam Tahir.

28Preserved in Ibn Bashkuwal, Kitab al-mustaghithTn (ed., partial transl. and study by M. Marin, Madrid, 1991), no. 42.

29 On them see Avila, Sociedad, nos. 499 and 300; see also n. 65 on the book on karamat written by the Andalusian Ibn Futays (d. 402/1011).

30 See Fierro, Heterodoxia, 168. ' Riyidd al-nufis (3 vols., Beirut, 1983).

32 Q•di 'Iy•d was for the existence of the kardmdt al-awliyd', as can be seen in his al-ShifJ' bi-

ta'rTfhuqaq al-Mustafcd (2 vols., Beirut, 1399/1979). 33"ed. al-Mukhtar al-Tahir al-Tilyall (3 vols., Beirut, 1987), I, 579-85. 34 ed. in 13 vols. (Rabat, 1401/1981), 11, 387-99. 35 ed. R. J. McCarthy (Beirut, 1958). In this book a difference is established between mujizat

(miracles which are probatory of prophecy) and karamdt (miracles of the saints), while at the same time distinguishing both from magic and the tricks of imposters. Unfortunately, the part dealing with the kardmdt was missing from the manuscript used for this edition.

36 See al-Wansharisi, Mi'ydr, II, 388 and cf. Ibn Rushd, Fatdaw, I, 583-4.

240 MARIBEL FIERRO

companion of Solomon (Qur'an 27:40). These scholars argue that since neither Maryam's nor Solomon's companions were prophets, the miracles concerned could not be considered mufizdt, the term reserved for the miracles performed by prophets. The mujizdt are 'manifest miracles', that is, miracles granted by God to the prophets as proof of their mission, accompanied by a da'wa or proclamation and by a tahaddf or a challenge to the unbeliever. While the miracles of the prophets must be as widely known as possible, the saint must endeavour to conceal his kardamat.37 L. Gardet 38 has outlined the four different attitudes towards kardmdt in Islam.

(a) The Mu'tazilites deny the reality of the kardamat on the basis of Qur'an 72: 26-7 where it says that only God knows the 'unknown' (al-ghayb) and that He grants such knowledge only to those whom he accepts as his messenger (rasui).39 The problem was already raised by Al-Jubba'i: if the awliyd' had the power of performing miracles, how could they be distinguished from the prophets?

(b) The faldsifa do not see the miracles as gifts freely granted by God: the power of performing miracles is the outcome of the perfection that the soul can achieve in accordance with its own nature.40

(c) The Ash'arites, in general, admitted the authenticity of the karamat. The mujizdt are not dependent on the moral perfection of the prophet, but on the will of God. Miracles can be granted to people other than the prophets: this was the case of Maryam in the above-mentioned Qur'anic verse, 3:37,32. Maryam, of course, was denied the status of prophet.41 While in the case of the prophets the miracles are proof of their mission, in the case of the saints, the miracles are granted to them by God in order to honour them and confirm their piety.

(d) The Sitfis who do not fall into ghuluww have a position very similar to that of the Ash'arites, stressing the fact that the saint who performs miracles must not be taken as a prophet and must submit himself to the religious law given to Muhammad. Moreover, the saint must conceal his miracles, while the prophet must proclaim them. If a saint boasts or proclaims his miracles, as al- Hallaj did, he can be suspected of pretending to be a prophet. For some Siffis, miracles are not the proof of prophecy, such proof being solely the mission given to the prophet by God.

The beginning of the polemic in Western Islam was connected with the refutation written by Ibn Abi Zayd against the sect called al-fikrlya or al- bakrTya, followers of the doctrines of Abil Muhammad 'Abd al-Rahman b. Muhammad b. 'Abd Allh al-Bakri (fourth/tenth century), a Sicilian settled in Qayrawdn who maintained that the saints could see Allah while awake 42 and that they could change the ordinary course of things (kharq al-'5ddt).43 Ibn Abi Zayd and those who sided with him were accused of rejecting the possibility of saints performing miracles, at a time when there were North Africans who performed them." Their rejection was born out of a concern to protect

37 See El (2nd ed.) s.v. karilmdt (D. B. Macdonald). 38 ibid. 39 See on this issue al-Wansharisi, Mi'yar, 11, 394-5. 40 See also J. L. Kraemer, Philosophy in the renaissance of Islam: Aba Sulaymdn al-SijistdnT and

his circle (Leiden, 1986), 243-6. 41 See the end of this section, below. 42 It was admitted that a Muslim could see God in dreams. On dreams as a continuation of or

substitution for prophecy see Y. Friedmann, Prophecy continuous: aspects of AhmadT religious thought and its medieval background (Berkeley, Los Angeles and London, 1989), 83-6.

43 See the biography of al-Bakri al-Siqilli in Ibn Niji, Ma'dlim al-Tman (Tunis, 1978), III, 244, n. 267. See also al-Wansharisi, Mi'yar, 11 392; Idris, ' Deux juristes ', 146-7.

44 See, for example, the case of Ibn Abi Zayd's contemporary, Zahrfin b. Hasrufn al-Hammil, in al-M~liki, Riydd, II, 383-8. See also H. R. Idris, Mandqib d'Aba Ishdq al-JabanydnTpar Abui I-Qasim al-LdbidT et Mandqib Muhriz b. Ijalaf par Abu I--Tdhir al-Fdrist (Paris, 1959).

THE DEVELOPMENT OF SUFISM IN AL-ANDALUS 241

prophecy (tahsTn al-nubuwwa). The miracles performed by the prophets were the proof of their prophethood. To have other people performing miracles as well would threaten the position of the prophets. Nevertheless, it was judged that Ibn Abi Zayd had gone too far in his condemnation of the kardmat al-awliyd'. Some authors observe that he afterwards qualified his opinion, in the sense that he did not deny the possibility of the saints performing miracles, so long as those miracles (karadmt) were clearly differentiated from the mu'jizdt or miracles of the prophets and that a distinction was also drawn for the false miracles of imposters. This seems to me to reflect not Ibn Abi Zayd's real opinion but an effort to solve the problem posed by the fact that such a great and authoritative scholar was known to have opposed the karamat al-awliyd' when it was later accepted by a large section of the Muslim community.45 Ibn Abi Zayd's followers were called jamd'a mmin du 'afa' al-muhadditfn.46

The North Africans and Andalusians who accepted the karamat al-awliyd' have a tendency to accuse their opponents of being innovators (sahib bid'a),47 which may be seen as an attempt to emphasize their belief that the ' miracles of the saints' themselves were not an 'innovation' in the Muslim community but were rooted in its very tradition. Ibn Abi Zayd's opponents are defined by Qa<idi

'Iyad. as al-mutasawwifa and as forming a majority of the ashab al-hadfth;48 one

of them, bearing the nisba 'al-Murji', states that to claim the existence of the karamat al-awliyd' is a way of refuting the Mu'tazilites, an idea that recurs again and again in the fatawa collected by al-Wansharisi.

In the case of the Andalusian al-Asili, it is said that he disapproved of exaggeration in relation to the karamat al-awliyd', but accepted those that were established according to all the necessary guarantees of transmission, or that sprang from the prayers of pious people (du'd' al-salihTn).

The polemic concerning the karamat al-awliyd' in al-Andalus ran parallel with a polemic concerning the prophecy (nubuwwa) of women. Ibn Mawhab, a scholar opposed to the miracles of the saints, admitted the existence of prophecy among women. Al-Asili, who held an 'intermediate' position between Ibn Mawhab and Ibn 'Awn Allah (a supporter of the existence of the miracles of the saints), denied the capacity of women to receive prophetic inspiration.49 Ibn Hazm, who is our informant on this issue, sided with the former position and justified his view with Qur'anic references to prophets who were women, like Maryam, Isaac's mother and Moses's mother.5" As has already been said, those who accepted the existence of the karamat al-awliyd' put forward as proof the example of Maryam,5 whose miracle is attested in the Qur'ian and who, as a consequence of this argument, could not possibly have been a prophet. A counter-argument put forward by those who were against the karamat al- awliyd' was to state that Maryam and the other women were 'prophets'. Thus the only reason for discussing the nubuwwat al-nisd' was clearly to strengthen

45 There is an anecdote in which Ibn Abi Zayd seeks the help of a person considered mustajdb (the Ifriqiyan equivalent of Andalusian mujdb al-da'wa) in order to cure his daughter: see al-Maliki, Riydd, II, 501. However, those who were opposed to the karamat al-awliva' could at the same time have accepted the ijabat al-da'wva.

46 See al-Wansharisi, Mi'yar, II, 388, in the answer given by the North African mufty Ibn al- 'Abbas al-Qusantini (d. 871/1467): on him see Ibn Hamadi, art. cit., 37.

47This is so for three scholars from Ifriqiya, Muhammad b. al-Fath al-Murji' (d. 334/945), Hasan b. Muhammad b. Hasan al-Kanishi (d. 347/958, himself a performer of miracles) and Ibn Abi Hisham al-Raba'i

al-Hann-.t (d. 371/981): see al-Maliki, Rivdd, II, 314 and Qadi 'Iyad, TarThb,

vi, 46 and 213. See also Ibn Rushd, Fatawa, I, 579. 48 See TartTb, vi, 219. 49 See Qadi

'Iy.d, TartTb, vii, 141.

50 See Fierro, Heterodoxia, 168-9. 1' See al-Wansharisi, Mi'yar, II, 391 and Ibn Rushd, Fatawa, I, 580.

242 MARIBEL FIERRO

the position of the followers of the ' miracles of the saints' (Maryam was not a prophet) or the position of its opponents (Maryam was a prophet).

Another related issue was the alleged ' eternity' of prophets like al-Khidr, a doctrine which Ibn Abi Zayd argued ran counter to Qur'an 21:34, where God explicitly says that He has made nobody immortal, neither Muhammad nor any other prophet before him. Ibn Abi Zayd's opponents answered that al-Khidr was alive but that he would die before the Last Hour and therefore could not be considered immortal.52 An Andalusian opponent of Ibn Abi Zayd, Ibn Shaqq al-Layl, was accused of holding precisely such a belief. Ibn HI-azm attacked him for this, seeing in it a threat to the dogma that prophecy ended with Muhammad.3

The problem of the karamat al-awliyd', as thefatawa collected by Ibn Rushd and al-Wansharisi show, was not solved in Qayrawan or in Qurtuba. The issues at stake arose again many times in the following centuries, the chief among them being the different coexisting conceptions within Islam as to what a ' saint' was and what was the nature of the 'gifts' granted to him by God.54

3. The Prophet and the miracles The polemic concerning karamat al-awliyd' was especially important in

relation to the Prophet Muhammad. The performance of miracles was, and still is, a debated aspect of his personality. It was given greater importance and stress mainly as a result of inter-faith controversies with Jews and Christians, the miracles of Muhammad having probatory value of his prophecy.55 Miracles performed by prophets other than Muhammad are mentioned in the Qur'an, as in the case of Jesus,56 and a number of Qur'ainic verses were interpreted as establishing certain miracles performed by Muhammad. However, in Islam the attribution of miracles to Muhammad was not taken for granted; the predominant tendency was to consider that the sign which authenticated Muhammad's mission and was proof of his prophetic character was the Qur'in itself,57 because of its inimitability (ijdz).58 Among the most highly debated issues is the question of whether Muhammad had knowledge of the 'unseen' ('ilm al-ghayb) 59: the answer in fifth/eleventh-century al-Andalus seems to have been positive.60

52 See this issue in Qadi 'Iyad, TartTb, vI, 220. 13 On the formation and development of this dogma see Friedmann, Prophecy continuous,

49-82. 54 See the definition without kardmat made by Abfu Mahalli (eleventh/seventeenth century) in J.

Berque, UlImas,fondateurs, insurgis du Maghreb XVIIe sidcle (Paris, 1982), 65 and cf. 53-4. See also M. Asin, El Islam cristianizado (2nd ed., Madrid, 1981), 198-215.

55 See I. Goldziher,' Influences chr&tiennes dans la litterature religieuse de l'Islam ', RHR, xvIII, 1888, 180-99; R. Brunschvig,' L'argumentation d'un theologien musulmane du xe siecle contre le Judaisme', Homenaje a Millis Vallicrosa, I (Barcelona, 1954), 225-41, 226 and 228; A. T. Khoury, Polhmique byzantine contre l'Islam

(viIIe-xeIIe sikcle) (Leiden, 1972), 45; A. Rippin, Muslims: their religious beliefs and practices, I: The formative period (London and New York, 1990), 25-6.

56See A. Bouamama, La litterature polkmique musulmane contre le christianisme depuis ses origines jusqu'au xJlf siecle (Alger, 1988), 27.

57 See Bouamama, 218. This modern scholar is a Muslim who rejects the miracles of Muhammad: see especially op. cit., p. 219.

58 The book by al-Baqillani Ijfaz al-Qur'a n was particularly important in imposing this dogma. For its presence in al-Andalus see al-Baji's answer to the letter of the ' Monk of France ', in A. M. Turki, ' La lettre du " Moine de France " i al-Muqtadir billah, roi de Saragosse, et la reponse d'al- Baji, le faqih andalou (presentation, texte arabe, traduction)' Al-Andalus, xxxi, 1966, 73-153, 145, and Ibn Hazm, Fisal, iv, 156, 166, 167, transl. Asin Palacios, Abenhazam, v, 106-7, 130, 134.

59 See El (2nd ed.) (D. B. Macdonald-L. Gardet). For a discussion of this question in modern India see U. Sanyal, 'Wahhabis are Kafirs: Ahmad Riza Khan Barelwi and his Sword of the Haramayn ', paper presented in the SSRC conference on 'The making of a Fatwa ' (Granada, 10-13 January 1990).

61 See Ibn Hazm, Jawvmi' al-sTra (ed. I. 'Abbas and Nisir al-din Asad, Cairo, n.d.), p. 10, n. 10 and al-Bdiji's answer to the letter of the ' Monk of France', Turki's edition, 144-5 and 148-9.

THE DEVELOPMENT OF SUFISM IN AL-ANDALUS 243

Mention of the miracles of Muhammad can already be found in the STra of Ibn Hisham and the Tabaqdt of Ibn Sa'd.6' It was later that a special genre developed, the dald'il and the a'lim al-nubuwwa,62 exemplified in the books written by Abui Nu'aym al-Isbahani (d. 430/1038) 63 and al-Mawardi (d. 450/ 1058).64 In the second half of the fourth/tenth century a work of this genre was written in al-Andalus by Ibn Futays (d. 402/1011), A 'Iam al-nubuwwa,65 and later Abii 'Ubayd al-Bakri (d. 487/1094) wrote his Kitaibfta'lim nubuwwat nab7- nd Muhammad.66 Both are lost, but they must have included a list of the miracles performed by the Prophet and probably also references to the mention of Muhammad in the Books of Jews and Christians.67 In the Andalusian literature composed during the fifth/eleventh century we find several examples of lists of and texts on the Prophet's miracles,68 which show an increasing interest in this aspect of Muhammad's personality, probably connected with the need to defend Islam against the growing expansion and influence of Christianity.69 It was also during the fifth/eleventh century that there arose the polemic on whether the Prophet was illiterate. This was based on the interpretation of a hadTth in which it is reported that the Prophet wrote on the day of IHudaybiya, a statement which contradicts consideration of the Prophet as 'illiterate', as understood by the Qur'anic usage of the word ummT.70 The polemic started in Denia, where the Miliki faqfh Abfi 'l-Walid al-Baji explained the hadith of Hudaybiya as meaning that the Prophet actually wrote on that day. The ascetic (zdhid) Ibn al-Sai'igh accused al-Biji of infidelity (kufr) and incited the people (al- 'dmma) against him. The point was reached where al-Biji was cursed and sermons were pronounced against him. Al-Bfiji wrote a risala to justify his doctrinal position, which gave rise to further writings, both for and against him. Scholars from Ifriqiya and Sicily entered into the polemic, in support of al- Baji.71 The issue was twofold: on the one hand, the relationship between the

6' Bouamama, op. cit., p. 21, n. 1. He points out that the latter is the only one who ' affirme que Muhammad renouvelle.. le miracle de la Pentecote: " Chaque messager reput le don de parler la langue du pays ou ii devait se rendre ".'

62 See S. Stroumsa, ' The Signs of Prophecy: the emergence and early development of a theme in Arabic theological literature', Harvard Theological Review, 78, 1985, 101-14. Stroumsa (whom I thank for sending me an off-print) points out the direct relationship between this genre and the polemics on prophecy with Christians and Jews.

63 Dald'il al-nubuwwa, 3 vols. (Beirut, 1988). 64 A 'lam al-nubuwwa (Beirut, 1989). 65 See M. Jarrar, Die Prophetenbiographie irn islamischen Spanien: ein Beitrag zur Uberlieferung

und Redaktionsgeschichte (Frankfurt, 1989), 134-5. The same Ibn Futays wrote a book entitled Kardmdt al-salihtn: see F. Pons Boigues, Ensavo bio-bibliografico sobre los historiadores y ge6grafos arabigo-espanoles (Madrid, 1898), 103.

66See R. Dozy, Recherches sur I'histoire et la litterature de l'Espagne pendant le Moyen Age (3rd ed., Leiden, 1881), 1, 263. The comment by A. Cour in EI (lst ed.), s.v. Abi 'Ubayd al-Bakri, that this work 'was probably written to defend himself from the charge of heresy and religious indifference, which was so often brought against scholars in the early Almoravid period' is totally unfounded.

67 See on this point A. Bouamama, 32, 44, 201-15. 68 See Ibn Hazm, Fisal, v, 6, transl. Asin, Abenhazam, v, 158-9. See also Ibn Hazm, Jawami' al-

sTra, 7-14; al-Baji's answer to the letter of the ' Monk of France', ed. Turki, 127 and n. 68; 'Abd Allfih al-Ziri, The 'Tibydn', transl. A. T. Tibi (Leiden, 1986), 5/36; E. Tornero, 'Cuestiones filos6ficas del Kitcb al-masd'il de Ibn al-Sid de Badajoz ', Al-Qantara, v, 1984, 15-31, esp. 17 and 28-9. For a later period see M. Asin Palacios, ' La polemica anticristiana de Mohimed el Caisi', Revue Hispanique, xxI, (repr. 1963), 339-61.

69 See my forthcoming study Religi6n en el s. v/Xi, included in vol. viii of the Historia de Espaha fundada por R. Menendez Pidal y dirigida por J. Ma Jover, where I advance the hypothesis that the refutation of Islam by al-Kindi was introduced into al-Andalus in the fifth/eleventh century and that its attack on the miracles of the Prophet made the Muslims stress their belief in those miracles.

70 See now on this point N. Calder,' The ummTin early Islamic juristic literature ', Der Islam, 67, 1990, 111-23.

7' All these writings have been edited and studied by Abfi 'Abd al-Rahmin b. 'Aqil al-Zdhirh in TahqTq al-madhhab yatliLhi ajwibat al-'ulamd' bayna mu 'ayyad wa-mu'drid

h.awla da'wa kitdbat al-

rasul sl'm lismi-hi yawm sulh Hudaybiyya (Ryad, 1403/1983).

244 MARIBEL FIERRO

Qur'an and hadTth; on the other, the prophetic dignity of Muhammad. Al-Baji himself defined the accusations brought against him as 'the elimination of the prophetic miracle, the refutation of Islamic law, and impugning the truth of the Qur'an' (ibtadl al-mujiza wa-radd al-shari'a wa-takdhTb al-Qur'an).72 The fact that Muhammad could not read or write is one of the proofs of his prophecy, because, his being illiterate, it is a miracle that the Qur'an was revealed to him. Al-Baji does not deny this miracle; on the contrary, he says that there were two miracles: first, the Prophet was illiterate yet was able to read the Qur'an, and second, on the day of Hudaybiya he was able to write, being illiterate. The point had been made before him by Abit Dharr al-Harawi, a Meccan traditionist who played an important role in the transmission of the Hudaybiya tradition (found in Bukhairi's collection).73

The growing veneration of the Prophet in Western Islam is reflected in subsequent centuries in works like Qadi 'Iyid's al-Shifd' bi-ta'rZf

h.uqfiq al-

Mustafa 74 and in the establishment of the mawlid of the Prophet.75 A Siifi development was the ideal of the Prophet as the Perfect Man (al-insdn al- kamil).76

The dangers to the Prophet Muhammad involved in this issue of the karamat al-awliyd' are clearly stated by Ibn Hazm, who was their opponent. The many references to this problem that are found throughout his Fisal can be summarized as dealing with the following points:

1. Who is the most excellent Muslim after the Prophet Muhammad? Can there be Muslims more excellent than the Prophet? 77 For Ibn Hazm the answer is clear: nobody was or could be more excellent than the Prophet.78 He also stresses that impeccability (isma) was a privilege granted only to Muhammad as a prophet.79 Not all Muslims shared this view. According to Ibn Hazm, al-

Baiqillani was of the opinion that there could be people more excellent than those to whom risala or nubuwwa were granted, including Muhammad. Ibn Ijazm also points out that a Sitfi group (td'ifa) maintained that among the saints there could be one more excellent than all the prophets and messengers (fi awliyd' Alldh ta'kla man huwa

afd.al min jamT' al-anbiyd' wa-l-rusul). He

mentions also that two Eastern Christian followers of IbriThim al-Nazzaim insulted the Prophet for his polygamy and observed that Abui Dharr al-Ghiffri was more ascetic than he.80 This must have been an open issue in al-Andalus in the fifth/eleventh century. One of the accusations brought against Ibn Haitim al- Tulaytuli, accused of zandaqa and ilhad in 457/1064, was his saying that the

72 See Tah.qTq,

171. 7" See al-Biji, TahqTq, 198-9 and M. I. Fierro, ' Obras y transmisiones de hadit (ss. v/xi-vII/xiii)

en la Takmila de Ibn al-Abbr ', Ibn al-Abbar politic i escriptor arab valencid (1199-1260) (Valencia, 1990), 205-22, 212-3.

7As already pointed out by Goldziher, ' Influences chretiennes', 182. 75 See F. de la Granja, ' Fiestas cristianas en al-Andalus (Materiales para su estudio). I: al-Durr

al-munazzam de al-'Azafi', Al-Andalus, xxxIv, 1969, 1-53. See also A. Schimmel, And Muhammad is His Messenger (Chapel Hill, 1985).

76 See M. Takeshita, Ibn 'Arabt's theory of the Perfect Man and its place in the history of Islamic thought (Tokyo, 1987).

77See Fisal, Iv, 126-9, 150, 169-71 and v, 14-18; transl. Asin, Abenhazam, v, 21-6, 88, 137-41, 182-4. See also for related questions Fisal, iv, 161-2, transl. Asin, Abenhazam, v, 118-19 and 120- 21. See also Friedmann, Prophecy continuous, 77-80.

78 See also al-Wansharisi, Mi'yar, II, 398-9 and the partial translation by E. Amar (based on the lithographic edition of Fes 1214-5 A.H.) in Archives Marocaines, xII, 1908, 348-9.

79 See Fisal, Iv, 155, transl. Asin, Abenhazam, v, 103; A. M. Turki, Polkmiques entre Ibn IHazm et BdfT sur les principes de la loi musulmane (Alger, 1973), 169-70. Ibn HIIazm launches a serious attack against those passages of the Old Testament where prophets appear as having committed sins: see I. di Matteo, 'Le pretese contraddizioni della S. Scrittura secondo Ibn Hazm', Bessarione, xxxix, 1923, 85.

8o See Fisal, Iv, 150; trans. Asin, Abenhazam, v, 88.

THE DEVELOPMENT OF SUFISM IN AL-ANDALUS 245

asceticism of the Prophet was not sought after, but imposed by the circum- stances in which he lived: had opportunity arisen, he would have behaved in a different way (law

ista.td'a 'ala raqTq al-ta'dm lam ya'kul khashinahu wa-inna

zuhdahu lam yakun 'an qasdin).8" 2. Are the miracles of the Prophet a proof of his prophecy? 82 According to

Ibn Hazm, they are, but he points out that the Ash'arite doctrine undermines this belief. Among other examples, the Ash'arites would maintain that miracles are such only on condition that a challenge (tahaddi) was laid to unbelievers and Muhammad did not do so in all cases.

3. Can men who are not prophets perform miracles? For Ibn Hazm they cannot, but he deals extensively with those who thought otherwise.8"

On each of these three points, Ibn Hazm demonstrates his opposition to the doctrines elaborated by the Ash'ari-Maliki al-Baqillani, while he is in accord with the doctrines developed by the Ash'arf-Shafi'i al-Isfara'ini (d. 418/1027).84 Ibn IHazm was not the only Andalusian scholar to engage in the defence of prophecy in the fifth/eleventh century; so also did Ibn 'Abd al-Barr.85

4. Prophets, claimants to prophethood and saints Where does one draw the line between prophets (anbiyd' or rusuls6) and

saints (awliyd') if both can perform miracles? Will not the performer of miracles end by claiming prophethood or by being taken as a prophet? That this was an important issue in the polemic is evident from the fact that one of the fatawa collected by al-Wansharisi in the section dealing with the karamat al-awliyd' deals with those who claim to be prophets (tanabba'a).87 Precedents were known in al-Andalus of persons who had tried or were alleged to have tried to present themselves as 'prophets', as had happened in others parts of the Muslim world: 88

1. Abui 'Ubayd al-Bakri mentions that Yhinus al-Barghawati made the rihla to the East together with other North Africans and Andalusians of whom three claimed to be prophets, among them, Yiinus himself.89 This rihla took place in the first half of the third/ninth century.

2. In the year 237/851 a teacher (mu'allim) who claimed to be a prophet rebelled in the east of al-Andalus. He promoted a peculiar interpretation (ta'wJl) of the Qur'ain. His slogan was la taghyTr li-khalq Allah, and he preached that it was forbidden to cut the moustache and the nails or to depilate the body (natf

81 al-Wansharisi, Mi'yar, 11, 328 and see my study 'El proceso contra Ibn HFitim al-Tulaytull (afios 457/1064-464/1071) ', Anaquel de Estudios Arabes, Iv, 1993 (forthcoming).

82 See Fisal, Iv, 164 and 167-8, transl. Asin, Abenhazam, v, 124 and 134-7. 83 See Fisal, v, 2-11, transl. Asin, Abenhazam, v, 147-75; see also Fisal, 1, 89-90, transl. Asin,

Abenhaczam, n, 228-9. 84 On him see EI (2nd ed.), s.v. (W. Madelung). Ibn Hazm and al-Isfari'ini seem to have reached

the same conclusions independently. 85 See Friedmann, Prophecy continuous, 62. 86 For definitions of the difference see Friedman, Prophecy continuous, 69: 'Several commen-

tators define a messenger (rasul) as a person to whom Allfih revealed a book and a law; a Prophet (nabi), on the other hand, is said to be a person who was commanded by Allfih to propagate a law brought by someone who had preceded him. In theory, this distinction could have enabled the Muslims to accept the possibility that prophets (as distinguished from messengers) would appear after Muhammad's death: not only would they not supersede his law, but they could also reaffirm it. It seems, however, that only late Sitff thinkers availed themselves of this intriguing opportunity and drew this conclusion from the classical distinction between legislative and non-legislative prophecy.' See also ibid., 88.

87 See Mi'vdr, 11, 393-4. 88 See Friedmann, Prophecy continuous, 65-8 and also H. Ferhat and H. Triki,' Faux prophetes et mahdis dans le Maroc medieval', Hespiris-Tamuda, xxvI-xxvI, 1988-89, 5-24. 89 See Fierro, Heterodoxia, 45-8.

246 MARIBEL FIERRO

al-ajniha wa-l-istihdad). He was crucified and while on the cross he pronounced the Qur'anic verse 'Would you kill a man who says " My lord is God "?' (40:29).90

3. In the year 288/900 a member of the Umayyad family known as Ibn al- Qitt led a rebellion against the Umayyad amfr 'Abd Allah. Initially, he managed to attract the support of Berber tribes by means of predictions and the call for jihad against the Christians. He soon presented himself as the Mahdi and came to be considered a prophet by his followers (aqamuhu maqa-m al-nabT l-sadiq qawluhu). He claimed that God had granted him the ability to perform 'miracles' (karamat): he grasped a bunch of dry sticks and squeezed them until liquid was produced.9' He also claimed that the moment he approached the Christian town of Zamora, the walls would collapse. In fact, the sources say, he was a sha'badh and a kahin.92

4. In the year 333/944 in Lisbon, a man who claimed to be a descendant of 'Abd al-Muttalib and of Fatima 93 stated that he was a prophet and that the angel Gabriel visited him with a revelation (wa-dda'6a... anna JibrTl yunzilu 'alay-hi). He gave his followers a set of traditions and laws (sunan, shard'i), requiring them, among other things, to shave their heads (halq al-ra's), a well- known practice among North African Khairijites.94 He disappeared suddenly.95

5. The head of the Masarri group of Pechina (Almeria), Isma'il b. 'Abd Allah al-Ru'ayni (living in the first half of the fifth/eleventh century), held that prophecy could be acquired, claimed that he knew the language of birds, and predicted future events.96

There were other claimants to prophethood in al-Andalus in later times.97 An Andalusian who lived in the first half of the fourth/tenth century is

worth mentioning here as he seems to have dealt with the problem of what Friedmann calls 'substitutes for prophecy' that arose from the need not to cut off the channel linking the believers with God and giving them the assurance that 'the cessation of prophecy does not imply the disappearance of divine guidance for the Muslim community' and that 'divine inspiration would find alternative ways to reach the community'.98 The Andalusian referred to was Maslama b. Qaisim b. Ibrahim b. 'Abd Allah, a disciple of the mystic Abui Sa'id b. al-A'raibi who transmitted in al-Andalus the work of the Egyptian Dhfi 'l-Nfin, and who was accused of practising magic (sdhib ruqan wa-nTranjdt) 99 He seems to me to correspond to the unidentified 'Maslama b. al-Qaisim b. 'Abd

Allih ' cited by Friedmann as maintaining that there was a considerable degree of affinity between the prophets and the muhaddathuin (' people who are spoken to ').100 This idea seems to have been developed in particular by al-Hakim al-

90 ibid., 70-4. 91 cf. a similar miracle attributed to the Prophet in Ibn HIazm, Jawami' al-sira, p. 8, no. 4. 92 See Fierro, Heterodoxia, 106-11. 93 This ' Fatima' must be understood as referring to Fatima bint 'Amr, the wife of 'Abd al-

Muttalib and mother of Abui Talib, and not to the Prophet's daughter. Those Talibids called 'al-

Fa.timi' were named so after this Fatima bint 'Amr: see my study 'On al-Fatimi and al-

Fatimiyyfin', a paper read to the fifth International Colloquium From Jahiliyya to Islam, 1-6 July 1990.

94 This was a practice of the Jazufliyya and it is also attributed to the Khariji 'Umar al-Mu'ayti on whom see al-Wansharisi, Mi'ytr, 11, 396-8.

95 See Fierro, Heterodoxia, 128-9. 96 ibid., 166-8. 97 See on them M. I. Fierro y S. Faghia, ' Un nuevo texto de tradiciones escatol6gicas sobre al-

Andalus', Sharq al-Andalus, 7, 1990, no. 14. 98 Friedmann, Prophecy continuous, 83 and 84. 99 On him see my Heterodoxia, 129-30.

100 Prophecy continuous, 86.

THE DEVELOPMENT OF SUFISM IN AL-ANDALUS 247

Tirmidhi and later by Ibn al-'Arabi 0' who is one of the sources for the spiritual claims of the founder of the Alhmadiya.

5. The political implications of a religious issue Al-Talamanki was one of those who undertook the defence of the karamat

al-awliyd' and his case may be taken to elucidate some of the political considerations in the religious issue. Al-Talamanki was concerned with the spiritual renewal of Islam in a direction similar to that later espoused by al- Ghazali. As a Maliki faqTh, al-Talamanki was interested not in the masd'il literature, like most of his contemporaries, but in the discipline of the usil al- fiqh, recently introduced into the intellectual milieu of al-Andalus.'02 He also devoted his efforts to other new disciplines like the qird'dt and non-rationalist theology (usuil al-diyanat). At the same time, he can be described as a representative of shar'Tmysticism, that is, a mysticism that rejected the extremes of the batinTya but which also went further than the ascetism (zuhd) already assimilated by orthodoxy: on the one hand, he refuted Ibn Masarra and the batinTya, accusing the former of having claimed to be a prophet; 103 on the other hand, he wrote ascetic treatises (now lost) such as the Kitib al-dalTl ild ma'rifat al-Jalfl in which it seems that the life and deeds of the Prophet Muhammad were presented as a model to be emulated. 04 He supported the karamat al-aw/liyi' and his name appears in the SWifi isnad that joins al-HIasan al-Basri to the Andalusian mystic Ibn al-'Arif through al-Fudayl b. 'Iyad.os5

Born in Talamanca (near Madrid, in the Middle Frontier) and after studying in Qurtuba and the East, al-Talamanki left the capital of the collapsing Umayyad caliphate in 403/1012, the year that the Berbers pillaged it. After- wards, he visited various towns of al-Andalus: Almeria, Murcia, Zaragoza. It was in this last town (the capital of the Upper Frontier) where a group of fuqaha' and notables (nubahd'), among them various Umayyad clients, testified against him, bringing upon him accusations of heresy (khildfal-sunna), of being a follower of the doctrines of the first Kharijites (the Hartirites), and of holding that in the battle against those considered to be unbelievers or innovators it was of no importance if virtuous people were also killed (yard wad' al-sayffJsalih 'l- muslimina). The qiddT of Zaragoza granted al-Talamanki the opportunity to challenge the witnesses who had accused him and eventually declared him innocent. The whole affair took place in 425/1034, when the Tujibi kings of Zaragoza acknowledged the last Umayyad caliph, Hishaim III, who had taken refuge in Lerida, also in the Upper Frontier. After being absolved, al- Talamanki left Zaragoza for Talamanca, where he devoted himself to ribit life and where he died in 428/1036 or 429/1037.

The available data on the trial against al-Talamanki are scarce and of such a nature as to make it very difficult to ascertain the real issues at stake. There is no evidence that the amTr of Zaragoza intervened in the trial at all which would point to the conclusion that al-Talamanki's doctrines and activities were not seen as a threat to the political power. If so, one might conclude that the trial

'01 See Friedmann, Prophecy continuous, 89 and M. Chodkiewicz, Le sceau des saints. Prophetie et saintete dans la doctrine d'Ibn al-'Arab7 (Paris, 1986). For a similar problem in Christendom see M. Reeves, The influence of prophecy in the later Middle Ages: a study in Joachinism (Oxford, 1969).

102 See the study of Turki, Polhmiques entre Ibn IHazm et Bdak7 sur les principes de la loi musulmane.

103 See al-Dhahabi, Siyar, xv, 558: qdla 1-TalamankTfi raddihi 'alid -badtinya: Ibn Masarra idda 'd 1-nubuwwa wa-za'ama annahu sami'a l-kalam fa-thabata ft nafsihi annahu min 'inda Allah.

S04I have already pointed out that this tendency to propose the Prophet as a model to be followed was countered by those who set him in his historical context, see 3.2 above.

o05 See Ibn Ibrfhim, al-I'lam bi man halla bi-Marrakush, vol. n (Rabat, 1974), 19.

VOL. LV. PART 2. 19

248 MARIBEL FIERRO

was born out of a rivalry between 'ulama' who held different views on their interpretation of the religious and legal doctrines of Islam. But the accusation of Kharijism is always associated with the question of the imamate and this could well have also been so in the case of al-Talamanki.

There are thus two possibilities: (a) The intellectual activities of al-Talamanki aimed at the renovation of

Andalusian Islam through the introduction of new disciplines and the develop- ment of those already introduced. This effort provoked opposition from certain sectors 106 of the 'ulam&' unwilling or unable to adapt to the novelties proposed. The most disturbing element for them must have been those of al-Talamanki's doctrines which were close to Suifism and/or Ash'arism. The defence of the karamat al-awliyd' was seen by some groups as a threat to the figure of the Prophet Muhammad in that it could ultimately lead to saints becoming the rivals of the prophets. The stress on the kardamt was at the same time a threat to the absolute separation between God and man, as it implied that the channel linking the believers with God was not severed. The accusation of being a harurT and a saffdk al-dima' could then be interpreted as a way of discrediting al- Talamanki's moral rigour and his ideals of spiritual perfection.

(b) But al-Talamanki's doctrines might also have led him to give a 'dangerous' answer to the problem of the caliphate, one of the main issues of fifth/eleventh-century al-Andalus (which involved the collapse of the Umayyad caliphate, the appearance of the Hammiidi/Fatimi caliphs, the existence of numerous pretenders to the imamate, etc.). It is my view that al-Talamanki must have proposed that the imdm should be the most excellent Muslim, thus freeing the caliphal institution from the ties of genealogy. This doctrine would fit with the accusation of Kharijism. An existing text adds further support to this possibility: it states that during the trial, the qddI of Zaragoza asked the advice of a muftT of the same town: shawarahu 'l-qJdd... .fima shuhida bihi 'ala ... al-Talamank min kawnihi harurlyan 'ald khil f al-sunnafijama'a ma'ahu kana huwa ra'sahum wa-sadrahum wa-l-musammi fihim awwal al-jamr'a.107 I understand this to mean that around al-Talamanki a group (jamd'a) of followers had been constituted, he being its leader and considered awwal al- jamd'a. If the text is correctly interpreted, al-Talamanki's situation was, at a certain point, similar to that of the Masarri Ism-'Ti al-Ru'ayni as leader of his community in Pechina. Given the fact that al-Talamanki, unlike al-Ru'ayni, was a key figure in the intellectual milieu of al-Andalus in terms of numbers of pupils and the diffusion of his works, we may have in him a precedent for the path taken a century later by Ibn Barrajin and Ibn Qasi in their claims to the

im-mate.'18

6. Conclusions The polemic concerning karamat al-awliyd' that took place in Ifriqiya and

106 R. W. Bulliett in his Conversion to Islam (Cambridge, Mass. and London, 1979), 126, maintains that the 'traditional' groups would have been the 'old' converts, while the recent or ' new' converts would have been those who more easily accepted the new disciplines like the usul al- fiqh and usul al-din and S ifism. This is an interesting theory but has still to be proved. In the case of al-Talamanki, all the available evidence points to his being an 'old' Muslim and he was far from being 'traditional'.

107This text is to be found in Ibn al-Abbar, Takmila, no. 1292. Ibn Hamadi in his article, mentioned in note 4, interprets the text as referring to the muftT who would have been the leader of the jama'a (?) in charge of giving legal opinions. This interpretation is not supported by the vocabulary used in Andalusian biographical dictionaries when referring to the muftTs and the fuqaha' mushdwari7n.

108 See Lagardere, art. cit., and J. Dreher, 'L'imamat d'Ibn Qasi Mertola (automne 1144-ete 1145). Legitimite d'une domination soufie?', MIDEO, 18, 1988, 153-210.

THE DEVELOPMENT OF SU•FISM IN AL-ANDALUS 249

al-Andalus during the fourth/tenth-fifth/eleventh centuries had at its centre the issue of what constituted sainthood (wiliya). Ibn Abi Zayd and his followers supported a definition in which the performance of miracles was not included because of the dangers involved for the realm of prophecy. This realm seems to have been discussed by the Andalusian Maslama b. Qasim already in the first half of the fourth/tenth century.

Ibn Abi Zayd's opponents belonged to two groups which are not always easy to distinguish:

.Sifis and Ash'ari theologians. The latter claimed that a

difference could be established between the miracles performed by prophets and those performed by saints: the former should be made public as a challenge to unbelievers, while the latter must be kept concealed. The reticence found in Andalusian sources about attributing or referring to the karamat of Andalusian ascetics or mystics could be one of the results of the polemic concerning karamnat al-awliyd' and the stress placed upon their not being spoken of.

Among the Andalusians who opposed Ibn Abi Zayd, al-Talamanki is a key figure for an understanding of the intellectual and religious development that was taking place in al-Andalus. He was a scholar who attempted to introduce the new discipline of usul al-dTn in al-Andalus. He was also involved in ascetism and is linked in a Suiff chain with Ibn al-'Arif. The renewal of Andalusian Islam in the direction of 'non-rationalist' theology and mysticism had thus started before the introduction of al-Ghazali's works.

Al-Talamanki's trial seems to indicate that he attempted to define the imamate in terms of' excellence ', not genealogy. This was also a charge brought by Ibn HIazm against the Maliki-Ash'ari al-Baqillani, a scholar with whom al- Talamanki seems to have shared many views.

The persistence of the two issues mentioned (the continuity of prophecy and who is entitled to the imaimate) can be seen especially in the career and the writings of Ibn Qasi,109 a SufY who rebelled against the Almoravids, proclaiming himself imam, and who in his Kitdb khal' al-na'layn 110 developed a concept of wilaya which was a substitute of prophecy.

109 Also in those of the North African Ibn Tuimart: see 'Abd al-Majid al-Najj ir, Al-Mahd7 Ibn Timart (Beirut, 1983), 225-53.

110 The Arabic text was edited by D. R. Goodrich, 'A " Sufi " revolt in Portugal: Ibn Qasi and his " Kitab khal' al-na'layn "' (Columbia univ. Ph.D., 1978), and by J. Dreher, Das Imdmat des islamischen Mystikers Abalqdsim Ahmad ibn Husain ibn QasT (gest. 1151). Eine Studie zum Selbsverstindnis des Autors des 'Buchs vom Ausziehen der beiden Sandalen '(KitSb Hal' al-Na'lain) (Bonn, 1985).