The Kitab Al Kasb Attributed to Al Shaybani Poverty Surplus and Teh Circulation of Wealth

7/30/2019 The Kitab Al Kasb Attributed to Al Shaybani Poverty Surplus and Teh Circulation of Wealth

http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/the-kitab-al-kasb-attributed-to-al-shaybani-poverty-surplus-and-teh-circulation 1/19

The Kitāb al-kasb Attributed to al-Shaybānī: Poverty, Surplus, and the Circulation of Wealth

Author(s): Michael BonnerReviewed work(s):Source: Journal of the American Oriental Society, Vol. 121, No. 3 (Jul. - Sep., 2001), pp. 410-427Published by: American Oriental SocietyStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/606670 .

Accessed: 11/12/2011 04:17

Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at .http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp

JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of

content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms

of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected].

American Oriental Society is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to Journal of

the American Oriental Society.

http://www.jstor.org/action/showPublisher?publisherCode=aos

http://www.jstor.org/stable/606670?origin=JSTOR-pdf

http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp

http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp

http://www.jstor.org/stable/606670?origin=JSTOR-pdf

http://www.jstor.org/action/showPublisher?publisherCode=aos



THE KITABAL-KASBATTRIBUTED TO AL-SHAYBANI:

POVERTY, SURPLUS, AND THE CIRCULATIONOF WEALTH

MICHAEL BONNER

UNIVERSITYOF MICHIGAN

Modern discussions of asceticism and accumulation of capital in the early Islamic world cite a

Kitdb al-kasb attributed to al-Shaybani. This book is actually something of a collective Hanafi pro-

duction, with much of its content traceable to al-Sarakhsi. However, it does contain a core of say-

ings or doctrines that can be attributedto Shaybani himself. Unlike the later Hanafis, Shaybani in

the Kasb does not express hostility to radical ascetics. In fact he seems to say more about poverty

and charity than about acquisition and gain. The "economy of poverty" which emerges from Shay-bani's doctrines contrasts sharply with early Islamic thinking in the tradition of Cilmtadbir al-

manzil or "economics"-even though both of these ("economy of poverty" and tadbir) appear in

the Kasb. The article concludes with discussion of the Karramiyya,the only named adversaries in

the Kasb, and their "declaring it forbidden to earn a living" (tahrim al-makdsib).

1. INTRODUCTION

OVERFORTYYEARSAGO,S. D. Goitein wrote an essayon "The Rise of the Middle-Eastern Bourgeoisie in

Early Islamic Times," which provided the classic ex-

pression for an argument that had been growing in the

literature at least since the time of Goldziher.1 This es-

say, which sketches some of the terrain of Goitein's A

MediterraneanSociety,2 has been quoted and discussed

ever since it first appeared.3 According to Goitein, an

I Cahiers d'histoire mondiale 3 (1957): 583-604; revised

versions in Studies in Islam and Islamic Institutions (Leiden,

1966, 1968), 217-41. The 1968 version is cited here. See also

I. Goldziher,Introduction to Islamic Theologyand Law, trans.

A. and R. Hamori (Princeton, 1981), 115f.; G. Levi della Vida,

"Dominant Ideas in the Formation of Islamic Culture,"The

Crozier Quarterly21 (1944), 215. I wish to express thanks to

Patricia Crone for comments on an earlier version and for

several valuable references; also to Paul Walker and Daniela

Gobetti for help at differentstages.2 Berkeley and Los Angeles, 1967-88, 5 vols.; now also A

MediterraneanSociety: An Abridgement in One Volume,rev.

and ed. by J. Lassner (Berkeley and Los Angeles, 1999).3 In Cahiers d'histoire mondiale 4 (1958): 233, A. Belaev

faulted Goitein for not distinguishing "between materialsecu-

rity and wealth" and "the luxury and corruptionthat accom-

pany it." He stressed that the early ascetics and Sufis were

"ideal of renouncing the world," which in the third cen-

tury of Islam came to be expressed in Sufism, alwaysremained "a strong undercurrent in Islam." Nonetheless,

the "representative opinion" of Islam in the early periodmaintained "a favorable attitude towards earning and

amassing capital and, with some qualifications even to-

wards certain aspects of luxury. During that time the

merchant class attained a social position and corre-

spondingly, self-esteem,which it secured far later

inEurope."4

In this essay, Goitein relied upon a then little-known

work attributed to the great Iraqi jurist Muhammad b. al-

Hasan al-Shaybani (d. 189/805), known as the Kitab

al-kasb or Kitab al-iktisab, both of which mean "Book

artisans whose religious ideology reflected their lower-class

status.Goitein repliedin the same issue of Cahiers (p. 234) and

at Studies, 220, without much elaboration. M. Rodinson, Islam

et capitalisme (Paris, 1966), 71-72 = Islam and Capitalism,tr.

B. Pearce (New York, 1973), 55, mentions the Goitein argu-

ment while stating that the capitalist sector thatemerged in theearly Islamic Near East was "apparently he most extensive and

highly developed in history before the establishment of the

world market created by the Western European bourgeoisie."See also Rodinson's "Conditions religieuses islamiques," in

Wirtschaftsgeschichtedes vorderen Orients in islamischerZeit,

ed. B. Spuler (Leiden and Cologne, 1977), 18-30.4 Goitein, "Middle-EasternBourgeoisie," 220.

410



BONNER: The Kitab al-Kasb Attributed to al-Shaybani

of Acquisition [Earning,Gain]."Goitein'sevidence also

included a treatise on commerce, apparentlydating from

the fifth/eleventh century, by a certain al-Dimashqi, the

Kitab al-ishdra ila mahasin al-tijara.5 Comparing the

Kitab al-kasb to theseventeenth-century

The Trades-

man's Calling by the Englishman Richard Steele, Goi-

tein stated that Shaybani, like Steele,

. . had toprove hat hevigorous triving f thenew Mus-

lim tradingpeoplefor a decentliving was not only not

opposed by Islam, but was actually regarded by it as a reli-

gious duty. [Shaybani] ... had to overcome deep-seated re-

ligious prejudicesagainst making money, convictions made

popular by mendicant ascetics who might be compared to

the begging friars and monks, againstwhom Steele wroteso

eloquently. As is well-known from other quarters,Muslim

asceticism of that time was tinged by Christianinfluence.6

Leah Kinberg built upon Goitein's essay to conclude

that the Shaybani and Dimashqi treatises together con-

stitute manifestos of the new "Islamic bourgeoisie"

against the old, originally Arabian, austerity surviving

among ascetics who had steadfastly rejectedthe acquisi-tion and accumulation of wealth ever since the begin-

ning of Islam.7 But here lurktwo traps.First there is the

dangerof contrastinga group defined in partthrough ts

role in economic production, thus a class, with another

5

Dimashqi'sIshara has been edited

byF.

SaCd,Beirut 1403/

1983. See also H. Ritter, "Ein arabisches Handbuchder Han-

delswissenschaft," Der Islam 7 (1917): 1-91; C. Cahen, "A

propos et autour d' 'Ein arabisches Handbuch der Handels-

wissenschaft',"Oriens 15 (1962): 160-71, rpt. in Les peuplesmusulmansdans l'histoire mddievale(Damascus, 1977).

6 Goitein, 221.7 In "What is Meant by Zuhd" Studia Islamica 61 (1985):

27-44, Kinbergstates that the traditionsboth for and againstcommerce and merchants,and favoring both poverty and prop-

erty,express a similarreligious outlook, the only difference be-

ing that one of the two trends is better suited to everyday

reality;this contradiction is built into the very concept of zuhd.

In "Compromise of Commerce,"Der Islam 66 (1989): 193-212, Kinberg maintains that the materials (especially hadith)used in defense of commerce and accumulation came into

existence "only as a concession to the rising economic powerof the bourgeoisie,"and that (p. 195) the renunciation of com-

merce and of worldly goods may be regardedas the authentic

current,because it was groundedin the historicalexperience of

the earliest Muslim community;or else thatboth trendsmay be

seen as equally authentic.

group defined by its religious and ethical views.8 And

second, there is the use of "Islam" as a historical subjector cause, which incurs the risk of a circular argument.While Goitein himself did not fall into either of these

traps,others have come close to

doing so, in partwhilefollowing his lead. All in all, the relationship between

asceticism and the accumulation of capital in the earlyIslamic worldneeds to be reconsidered-and has indeed

been reconsidered in recent work that has begun from

differentpremises.9The purpose of the present article is to examine in

detail a central piece of evidence in the debate, Shay-bani's Kitab al-kasb. While this work praises commerce

and inveighs against persons who advocate not earninga living, it takes a mainly negative stance toward the

accumulation of wealth beyond one's immediate needs.

It devotes at least as much attention to poverty as to the

acquisition and accumulation of wealth-which seemsa strange way to praise the activity of merchants. The

work thus differs not only from later Western writers

such as Steele and Franklin,but also from al-Dimashqi,author of the Ishara, who approves (though not unam-

biguously) of the accumulation of wealth. This studywill ask why Shaybani (or whoever wrote this treatise)had so much to say about poverty, leading to broader

questions of acquisition and accumulation of wealth,

surplus,circulation of goods, in short what we may call

early Islamic economic thought.Some of these questions have been addressed by

Johannes ChristianWichard, who views the Kitab al-kasb as a compromise, as a call for a just mean between

ascetic denial and over-accumulation.10Wichard's ex-

cellent discussion and his summary of the Kasb should

be read together with what follows. However, Wichard

8 For hereligious ndethical ide,see B. Reinert,Die Lehre

vom tawakkul in der klassischen Sufik (Berlin, 1968), and

recently, C. Melchert, "The Transition from Asceticism to

Mysticism at the Middle of the Ninth Century C.E.," Studia

Islamica83 (1996):51-70.9 M. Ibrahim,Merchant Capital and Islam (Austin, 1990);

J. C. Wichard, Zwischen Markt und Moschee: Wirtschaftliche

Bediirfnisse und religiose Anforderungen im friihen islam-

ischen Vertragsrecht(Paderborn, 1995); M. A. Bamyeh, The

Social Origins of Islam: Mind, Economy, Discourse (Minneap-olis, 1999).

10Zwischen Markt und Moschee, esp. 37-44. Wichard

recognizes thatthe matter s less clear thanGoitein hadthought

(p. 38), and emphasizes the importanceof poverty for the earlyHanafis.

411



BONNER: The Kitab al-Kasb Attributed to al-Shaybani

yacnt ("that means") and then by commentary and ex-

position. But it is difficult to say where Shaybani'swords end and where Ibn Samaca'sbegin; the share of

the total that can be attributed o Shaybani with any cer-

taintyis far less than half.

In 1967 the Syrian scholar Suhayl Zakkar found an

Arabic manuscript n Istanbul, writtenin a fine Persian-

ate hand and bearing the title al-Kasb.'5 When he pub-lished an edition of this text in Damascus in 1400/1980

(henceforth "D"), Zakkar described it as a work by

Shaybani. However, the work purports o be a commen-

tary (sharh) by al-Sarakhsi (d. ca. 483/1090) on the

Kitdb al-kasb of Shaybani. It begins with an openingstatement and some preliminary analysis by Sarakhsi,but then its text converges with that of C, and after the

first page and a half the two versions (C and D) be-

come identical, apart rom theirconcluding lines,'6 some

minor differences in wording, and errors in both man-uscripts and both printededitions.

There is, finally, a thirdprintededition, the Kitab al-

kasb which comes toward the end of Sarakhsi's mon-

umental al-Mabsit (henceforth "M").17Again, apartfrom minor differences in wording, M is identical to D,a fact that has escaped the notice of nearly all.'8 Thus,aside from differences in title, attribution, and in the

opening and the conclusion of the text, C, D, and M are

one and the same work, which we shall now simply call

the Kasb.

Three authors-Shaybani, Ibn Samaca, and Sarakh-

si-have a hand in thecomposition

of the Kasb, and it

is difficult to say which of them is responsible for what.

15Ahmet IILibrary, o number iven by Zakkar.O.Spies,"Die Bibliotheken es Hidschas," DMG 0 (1936): 115,de-

scribed manuscriptn theSultanMahmud ibrarynMedina,Sharh kitab al-kasb li-Muhammadal-Shaybanl, similar to the

manuscript n which D is based.The two may have once

belonged o the samecollection,sinceduring he FirstWorld

Warmanuscriptsrom the MahmudLibrary f Medinawere

sent to theTopkapi arayi n IstanbulSpies,92 n. 1,97).16 The concluding sentence of D (p. 123) is longer than its

counterpartn C (p. 82), but IbnSamaca ppearsn both ver-sions, qala Muhammadb. SamdCa ahimahu lah qala Muham-

mad rahimahu llah wa-hddhd llddhi thabbattu [C: bayyantu]

fi hadha l-kitab qawl CUmar wa-'Uthmdn wa-CAli wa-bn

CAbbas.... Neither conclusion mentions Sarakhsi.17Ed.M. al-TunisiCairo 1906]),30:244-87.

18With heexception f Wichard. runschvigwasawareofthis text("M6tiers ils,"147 n. 1),but not of its near-identitytoC.

Repetitions occur, especially in the last third or so of

the work. For a while toward the end, kasb (acquisition)in the theological sense predominates over kasb in the

economic sense,19 eading us to suspect that more con-

tributors are at work than the three wealready

know.

Not surprisingly,the work has been called a forgery.20However, there is reason to believe that Shaybani

really was the author of the statements that the Kasb, in

all threeversions, expressly attributesto him. Unlike the

rest of the work, these contain no anachronisms.At least

one of these statements by Shaybani is refuted later in

the text,2' which indicates that Ibn Samaia, or Sarakhsi,or whomever we suppose to be the author at this point,did not distort Shaybani's original sense even when he

(the laterauthor)had reason to do so. And finally, manyof the hadiths cited in the Kasb are difficult or impossi-ble to find in other sources. This might merit a study of

its own; for now, we may note this hadith material mustbelong to the oldest layer within this composite work.

Note also in this regard the contrast between the Kasb

and the other major work from third/ninth-century raqon this topic, the Makiasibof al-Muhasibi (d. 243/857),22which cites hadiths that are easy to trace in standard

collections such as the Six Books and the Musnadof Ibn

Hanbal.

The Kasb thus contains sayings or doctrines attributed

to Shaybani, but is not simply an abridgementof a work

by him. Is Ibn Samacathe author of whatever does not

go back to Shaybani, as C (and Wichard) would have

it? Theonly adversary

named in the work is the Kar-

ramiyya, a group that did not yet exist at the time of

Shaybani's death in 189/805.23 Ibn Karram,the move-

ment's founder, did adopt a distinctive style of povertyand asceticism during his lifetime (ca. 190/806-255/

869), but it was not until the 240s that he createda greatstir with his preaching in the eastern Iranian world. Ref-

erences to the Karramiyyaas a distinct group are from

19C. 68f., D 106f.,M 279f. See thejuxtaposed rticleson

"Kasb"n El2,4: 690-94 (C1.Cahen,L. Gardet).20J.VanEss,"Ibnar-Rewandi,rtheMaking f anImage,"

al-Abhath27 (1978): 24 n. 4.21 Ontheanalogy f theobligation f kasbwith hatof seek-

ing knowledge,C 38-43, D 67-74, M 260-64; below,n. 53.22 Ed. CA. A. 'Ata (Beirut, 1987/1407); see section 4 and

n. 72 below.

23 In a review of Wichard'sZwischen Markt und Moschee

(JRAS 3:6:3 [1996]: 425), W. Madelung corrects Wichard on

this point, stating that Sarakhsi was the source of this material

on the Karramiyya.

413



Journal of the American Oriental Society 121.3 (2001)

later times.24 It is therefore possible that Ibn Samaca,

who died in 233/847, knew of Ibn Karram, but hardly of

a movement called the Karramiyya, and certainly not a

major adversary of that name. This excludes Ibn Sama'a

as the author of the text in its current form, and leaves us

with Sarakhsi. The Karramiyya attained their greatest

expansion and influence in Khurasan and Transoxania in

the fourth/tenth and fifth/eleventh centuries, which is

Sarakhsi's milieu. Sarakhsi may have taken up a com-

mentary on this older work in order to condemn what he

considered a dangerous heretical group. However, he

does not say this when he relates how he came to write

this commentary.

[al-Sarakhsi said:] I have carried out your requestthatI dic-

tate a commentary... on the works of Muhammadb. al-

Hasan [al-Shaybani].... I thought it best to include with it

the dictated text of a commentary on the Kitab al-kasb,which is related by Muhammadb. Samaca from Muham-

mad b. al-Hasan, God have mercy on him. It is one of

[Shaybani's] compositions; however, it is not widely known

because it was transmitted neither to Abu Hafs nor to

AbuiSulayman,25and al-Hakim did not include it in the

Mukhtasar,26even though it contains teachings of which

one should not remainignorant,and which one ought not to

refrainfrom putting into practice. And even if it contained

nothing but [those parts of it which] urge the destitute to

take part, together with those who earn, in earning for

themselves and in feeding themselves from the exertion of

theirown hand, it would be incumbenton everyone to make

this branch of learning27better known. [Shaybani] ex-

plained some of this throughthe use of traditions(athar);

we shall mention what he mentioned ... to which we shall

add what the scholars of jurisprudence(ahl al-usuil) have

discussed and such explanations and counsels as merit

consideration.28

Toward the end of the Kasb, a passage occurs that

casts some doubt on all this:

24 See below, n. 100. This argues against Wichard, 39 n. 19;

also see previous note.25 Ahmad b. Hafs al-Bukhariand Abu Sulayman al-Juzjani,

disciples of Shaybaniand transmittersof his works. Khatib,2:

172-82; Ibn Abi l-Wafa', 1: 105-6, 2: 331; D 31, editor's n. 2.

26 al-Hakimal-Shahid, the Hanafijurist whose al-Kafi forms

the immediate basis for Sarakhsi's Mabsut. See El2, 3: 163,

"Hanafiyya."27 M has hadha al-nawc min al-'ulama', "this type of schol-

ars," nstead of min al-'ilm, "this branch of learning."28 D 31-32, M 244.

[al-Shaybani] wrote this book on renunciation (al-zuhd),

according to what has been related, namely that when he

had done with the composition of [his other] books, some-

one asked him: "Won'tyou write something29on piety and

renunciation(al-warac wal-zuhd)?" He replied: "I have al-

ready written the Book of Sale." Thereuponhe undertook

the composition of this book. But illness impeded him, his

brain became light,30and he did not accomplish his desire.

And it is relatedthatpeople said to him: "Give us an outline

(fahris land) of what you intend to write,"and so he out-

lined for them a thousandchaptersthat he intendedto write

on renunciation and piety. For that reason, some of those

who came afterward said: "The death of Muhammad[al-

Shaybani], and Abu Yusuf's preoccupationwith his duties

as judge, are a mercy for the followers of Abu Hanifa, for

otherwise [the two of them] would have written[so muchas

to] wear out the seekers [of knowledge]." This book [on

kasb] is the first that he [Shaybani] composed on renuncia-tion and piety.31

Here the book was primarily not on kasb or acquisi-tion at all, but rather the beginning of an intended

series on zuhd, or renunciation, and piety.32 Shaybani'sstatement here that a work on the law of sale alreadycontains an element of asceticism within itself is ger-mane to the Kitab al-kasb as we have it.33 At any rate,

this and the previous quote from Sarakhsi show that the

work did originate with Shaybani, even if the master

never completed it.

To sumup,

we have threelayers

within the Kasb:

(1) a core of sayings or doctrines on kasb attributed

directly to Shaybani, thus to Iraq around the turn of the

third/ninth century; also the hadiths or athdr which, on

the basis of what Sarakhsi tells us, and because of their

29 C and D: a-la tusannifu.M: a-la sannafta.30 C and M: khaffa dimdghuhu. D: jaffa dimdghuhu, "his

brain went dry."31 C 74-75, D 114, M 282-83; translated by Wichard at

ZwischenMarkt und Moschee, 42-43.

32 See the discussion by Wichard, loc. cit. Note also the

Kitdb al-zuhd wal-raqd'iq by Shaybani's contemporaryCAb-dallah b. al-Mubarak(d. 181/797): see the Beirut, 1974 edi-

tion; Sezgin, GAS 1: 95; M. Bonner, Aristocratic Violence and

Holy War:Studies in the Jihad and the Arab-ByzantineFron-

tier (New Haven, 1996), 122-25.

33 Wichard, Zwischen Markt und Moschee, 42 n. 22, relates

this statement to Sarakhsi'sexplanation (Mabsiit, 12: 110) that

Shaybani meant by this that "zuhd means nothing other than

avoiding that which is forbidden and striving for that which is

permitted."

414



BONNER: he Kitab al-Kasb Attributed to al-Shaybini

rarity, we may attribute to Shaybani's original work.

(2) Ibn Samgaa's mukhtasar of Shaybani's Kasb, as

stated in C, or else Ibn Sama'a's transmission of that

same work, as stated in D and M-either way, pro-duced in

Iraqin the

early-to-midthird/ninth

century.(3) A commentary on the latter, written by Sarakhsi

around two and a half centuries later in Transoxania,a polemical work with the Karramiyyaas its only named

adversary.The following section presents a summary of the

Kasb in threeparts.Section 4 assembles Shaybani'sdoc-

trine of kasb and relates it to early Islamic thinkingon poverty more generally. Section 5 discusses the work

in relation to the philosophical tradition of economica

(Cilm tadbir al-manzil) and sets out the differences be-

tween the two, especially regarding the circulation of

wealth. Section 6 discusses the great adversary of the

Kasb, the Karramiyya.

3(A). THE OBLIGATION OF KASB

The treatise begins with Shaybani's assertion that

"seeking to earn is an obligation for every Muslim, justas seeking knowledge is an obligation" (talab al-kasb

farida Caldkull muslim kamd talab al-'ilm farida). Pas-

sages from the Quranand hadiths are cited, including a

saying of CUmarb. al-Khattab,"I prefer to die between

the two upright wooden pieces of my saddle (bayna

shucbatay rahli) as I travel through the land seeking

God'sbounty (faCdl),34 ather han be killed as a fighterinthe jihad for the sake of God." The prophets, includ-

ing Jesus and Muhammad, practiced trades, as did the

Rashidun and other great figures of the Islamic past.35Thus far we probablyhave some of the substanceof the

Shaybani treatise.

The treatise-here most likely Sarakhsi-then sets out

the position of its adversaries. These are never named

individually, but are called at first a "group of ignorantself-mortifiers and foolish Sufis" (qawn minjuhhal ahl

al-taqashshuf wa-hamdqa ahl al-tasawwuf). These ad-

versaries claim that gain is forbidden and allowed onlyin case of necessity, on the analogy of the consumptionof forbidden foods (mayta). Their main objection tokasb is that it destroys or diminishes trust in God (ta-

wakkul). The passages in the Quran about buying and

selling do not, according to them, refer to actual com-mercial exchange, but rather to the obligation of ex-

pending oneself in obedience to God and in religious

34 Quran 73: 20.

35 C 16-18, D 34-36, M 245-46.

observance (Cibdda). To prove this, they point to the nu-

merous commercial metaphors in the Quran, such as

"selling the signs of God for a paltry price."36Againstthis position, the Kasb (again, probably Sarakhsi) states

that theQuran

usesreal,

humanlanguage;

and so the

commerce to which it refers (except in a few cases of

obvious metaphor) s palpably real. But the strongestar-

gument against the adversaries is the example of the

prophets and the Rashidun, all of whom worked and

earned at various times in their lives.37

A major Quranic prooftext for the adversaries is:

"your sustenance and what you have been promisedis in the heavens" (51:22, wa-fi l-samd'i rizqukumwa-md tucaduna).This, however, refers to actual, non-

metaphorical rain. "We have been commanded to ac-

quire the means whereby this sustenance may come to

us, throughearning"(wa-lakinnand umirnd bi-ktisab al-

sabab li-ya'tiyand dhalika l-rizq Cinda l-iktisab.) And

just as we have been commanded to cure diseases, even

though we know that God is the Healer, so our activityin acquiring a means of sustenance does not erase our

certainty that God is the Provider (al-razzdq). The ad-

versaries have no qualms about taking food from other

people who have earned it by the effort (kasb) of their

hands or the profit (ribh) of their commerce. Therefore,kasb cannot be forbidden.38At this point comes a pas-

sage on the Karramiyya,which will be discussed in sec-

tion 6 below.

The Kasb-again, no doubt Sarakhsi-goes on to

state that kasb is not areligious obligation fundamen-

tally or in and of itself. If it were, then doing as much

of it as possible (al-istikthdr fihi) would be recom-

mended, whereas this is condemned; or else kasb would

be considered supererogatory, on the analogy of reli-

gious observances (Cibdddt),which clearly it is not.

This is the main point of difference between kasb and

seeking knowledge (talab al-'ilm). For Sarakhsi, the

Quranicprooftext for kasb is 2:267, anfiqumin tayyibdtima kasabtum, "Spend [give in charity] out of the good

things you have earned."The obligation of spending on

alms and on one's family can only be fulfilled throughkasb. Being indispensable for the performance of obli-

gations, it is itself an obligation. The order of the worlddepends on it; if it is neglected, the result is ruin. Those

who consider it analogous to sexual procreationamonganimals are wrong, because in that case the divine planis realized throughthe working of animal nature.Kasb,

36 3: 190, 5: 44, 9: 9.

37C 18-20, D 37-41, M 247-49.38 C 20-24, D 41-44, M 249-50.

415




on the other hand, consists of labor and fatigue, and un-

less it were anobligation no one would performit, since

nothing in human nature compels people to do it. It is

the divine law (sharc) that has made it an obligation

(fard).39

3(B). ACCUMULATION, SURPLUS, POVERTY

Once you have acquired enough to satisfy your needs,should you devote yourself to acquiring more, or to re-

ligious observances (Cibaddt)?Some say that earningmore is better."Whatever s moregenerally beneficial is

more meritorious" (md kana acamma nafcan fa-huwa

afdalu); in particular,everyone benefits from what the

cultivator produces. (Therefore, we may suppose, more

kasb is betterthanless.) Religious observance, however,benefits only the one who performsit. But the opposingview is sounder.Though the prophetsworked, they pre-ferred to seek the "highest of degrees" for themselves

through religious observance. In a crisis, people will optfor religious observance over kasb. And Muslims and

non-Muslims have kasb in common, whereas valid re-

ligious observance is possible only for Muslims. More-

over, the highest merit is attainedby denying one's own

desire; and kasb, though it involves strenuous effort,results in the satisfaction of some desires. Marriage,however, must not be rejected.40

Is, then, the attributeof poverty (sifat al-faqr) higherthan that of wealth? The commentatorsays yes, basing

his argumenton two statementswhich, he says, occur inthe Kitabal-kasb of Shaybani. (1) "If only people would

be content with what suffices for them, and direct their

attention to [their] surplus wealth, and direct [this sur-

plus wealth] toward the matter of their eternal life, it

would be better for them" (wa-law anna l-ndsa qanicu

bi-md yakfihim wa-camadu ild l-fuduli fa-wajjahuha li-

amri akhiratihim kana khayran lahum). (2) "A man is

ever called to account for what goes beyond unavoid-

able necessity" (wa-ma zada Cald ma la budda minhu

yuhasabu l-mar'u Calayhi). On the basis of these two

statements (says Sarakhsi), "no one is called to account

for poverty."Those who favor wealth say it is a benefac-

tion from God, and thereforebetter thanpoverty, which

is affliction and trial. In the Quran,after all, God called

propertyfadl, and enjoined us to seek it.41The Kasb

39 C 25-27, several lines missing at top of 27; D 44-48, M

250-51.40 C 27 (with lacuna), D 48-50, M 251-52.41 In the Quran, adl "[divine] grace,"often retains its older

sense of "surplusof wealth." See M. Bravmann,"The Surplusof Property:An Early Arab Social Concept," Der Islam 38

quotes hadiths in favor of both positions,42 but con-

cludes that poverty is sounder, since no poor man was

ever guilty of the arrogance of the rich. The poor will

precede the rich in heaven by half a day, which equals

five hundred years.43What of being thankful for wealth? Is it more merito-

rious than patience in enduring poverty, or vice versa?

On this the authors are divided, but the Kasb favors

patience. There is no reward for wealth in itself, but one

must only be thankful for it. A rich man argues with a

poor man, saying that God borrows from the rich,44but

the poor man counters that when God borrows from the

rich, it is for the sake of the poor: "And one may seek

loans from a person one loves or from a person one does

not love, but loans are only sought for the sake of a per-son whom one loves." The rich need the poor, whereas

the poor, appearances to the contrary, do not need the

rich. This is because the right/claim (haqq) of the prop-

erty is incumbent upon the rich man.45 The poor could

all agree not to receive, and if they did so they would

only be praised; but the rich, who must acquit them-

selves of the duty of almsgiving, would then be in a

sorry plight.46

In order to perform one's duties, one must maintain

one's minimal strength (sulb). Hadiths are quoted in

favor of bare sufficiency (bulgha). But kasb is also nec-

essary in orderto meet obligations such as paying debts

and supporting one's family. Acquisition beyond such

bare sufficiency, or stockpiling,47 s therefore permissi-

(1962): 28-50, rpt. in The Spiritual Background of Early Islam

(Leiden, 1972), 229-53; M. Bonner, "Definitions of Poverty

and the Rise of the Muslim UrbanPoor,"JRAS6: 3: 3 (1996),

337. Here the Kasb cites Quran62: 10, "seek of God'sbounty/

surplus"(wa-btaghu minfadli lldhi).

42 Hadiths in favor of wealth include the well-known "Pov-

erty is almost like unbelief,"as well as traditions on the "upperhand" Bonner, "Definitions of Poverty,"340). Goitein saw this

as favoring his own argument, but note that the Kasb finallytakes the opposing position.

43 C 27-28, D 50-52, M 252-53.

44 Quran 2: 246, man dhd lladhi yuqridu lldha, where the

believers are urged to contribute towardthe war waged for the

sake of God.

45 li-anna l-ghaniyya yalzamuhu add'u haqqi l-mdli. On the

right or claim (haqq) upon the owner of surplus propertyin-

hering in thatsurplusproperty tself, see Bonner, "Definitions,"

337-41.

46 C 28-32, D 52-56, M 253-56.47 On "hoarding," ee Dimashqi, Ishdra, 101-5; Ritter,"Ein

arabischesHandbuch,"66-69; Cahen, "A propos d' 'Ein arabi-

sches Handbuch'" 166.

416



BONNER: he Kitab al-Kasb Attributedto al-Shaybani

ble if performedfor oneself and one's childrenand par-ents. Thereis no obligation in the case of otherrelatives,

though generosity towards them is recommended.4

Storing up property s permissible if done with modestyand restraint

(Cald ariq al-tacaffuf),but

refrainingfromthis is also permitted and on the whole preferred.Ha-

diths are quoted against money in general and against

hoarding.49

3(C). ALMSGIVING ND THE CIRCULATION F GOODS

Another statement comes directly from Shaybani: the

concept of kasb includes the sense of mutualassistance

for the purpose of approachingand obeying God (innal-kasb fihi macnd l-mucawana Cald l-qurb wal-tacat).50

The Kasb develops this concept in terms of voluntary

almsgiving, or sadaqa.

All ways of making a living (makdsib) are equally

permissible. These include humble trades5' such as

weaving, the productsof which (clothing) areindispens-able for the performance of religious duties (coveringone's nakednessduring prayer).Some of the adversaries,the mutaqashshifa, say that the practice of humble

trades is permissible only under duress, but there is

proof against this position in hadiths which do not

differentiateamong the various types of kasb. Begging,however, is not considered one of these. There are four

basic ways of making a living: hired labor, commerce,

agriculture, and crafts (ijara, tijara, ziraca, sindca), all

equally permissible. Some assert that agricultureis de-meaning, but this is refuted by the example of the

Prophetand of Companionswho held andworkedlands.

Some say that if everyone practiced agriculture,the ji-had would be neglected, but in fact the two supportand

reinforce one another. There is also a dispute over the

relative merits of agricultureand commerce, but most

authorities find agriculturethe more meritoriousof the

two, because its benefit is more general and because its

sadaqa is more apparent(azhar). "People, beasts, andbirds receive some of what the cultivator earns, and allof that is sadaqa for him (counted in his favor, sadaqalahu)." A hadith is cited: if someone plants a tree, and

then someone else (human, quadruped, or bird) eatsfrom it, it is a sadaqa for him [i.e., the planter]. Kasb

48 Kasbperformedfor the purposeof silat al-rahimis recom-

mended, but may be refused; some of the virtuous predeces-sors, salaf, did this, others did not.

49 C 32-35, D 56-61, M 256-58.

50 C 35, D 61, M 259. Sarakhsi immediately qualifies it as

"metaphoricalkasb."51

Brunschvig, "M6tiersvils," above, n. 11.

which lacks this element of sadaqa is less meritorious,

even when performed through useful trades such as

weaving.2After a refutation of Shaybani's original statement

that kasb is anobligation on the analogy of seeking

knowledge,53comes a discussion of what we now call

the division of labor. Our bodies require four things,food, drink,clothing, and shelter.Quranicprooftexts are

adducedfor each of these. Createdbeings are weak, and

no one knows how to acquire all that he needs. There-

fore-and here Shaybani is quoted-God "has allotted

people their livelihood through means regarding which

there is confirmed knowledge" (wa-qaddara lahum al-

macdsh bi-asbdb fihd hikma bdligha). Everyone must

learn a type or kind of means (nawc, presumablyof sa-

bab), so that he may get what he needs, and so that

others may do the same through him. The lesson of the

prooftexts from Tradition and Quran is that "the poorman needs the rich man'smoney, and the rich man needs

the poor man's work."A similar argument s made in the

case of the planterand the weaver, who requireone an-

other's products in order to survive and do their work.

Underlying all this is the principle, already stated, that

when one person benefits from the work of another,it is

a form of alms (sadaqa), insofar as it is performedwith

the intention of approaching and obeying God. This

holds true whether or not the work has been performedin return for a specified compensation (Ciwad).What

matters is not the compensation, but rather the inten-

tion(of cooperation).

It is like sexualrelations,

re-

wardedwhen performedwith the intentionof producing

offspring.54This importantpassage is discussed in sec-

tion 5 below.

Shaybani states that everyone is forbidden to wastefood. A number of hadiths support and develop this

position; then a just mean is recommendedbetween the

extremes of extravagance and miserliness.55Waste of

food, Shaybani says, consists of consuming beyond themeasure of one's own need. Wherever one goes be-

yond that limit, there exists a right or claim (haqq) forsomeoneelse. The Kasbcondemns"wastefulness,extrav-

agance, haughtiness,boastfulness, and competitive accu-

mulation" (al-israf wal-saraf wal-makhila wal-tafakhur

wal-takathur).Waste of food is reprehensiblebecause itcontains a principle of extravagance, or as we might say,of social as well as material waste. We might also say,in modern terms, that the Kasb insists that all surplus

52 C 35-38, D 61-65, M 259-60.53C 38-43, D 67-74, M 260-64.54C 43-44, D 74-76, M 264-65.55 C 46, D 78-79, M 266.

417




must circulate, though this is not quite the way it pre-sents the matter.Again, it is important o emphasize that

this circulation, or return, or sadaqa may take placeeither with or without compensation. (On the "returnof

wealth" see section 4below.) Stockpiling

food isper-missible in some cases, as is consuming beyond one's

immediate need.56But unless this is done intentionallyfor some acceptable purpose, such as fasting, "exceed-

ing the measure of one's need becomes [or encroaches

upon] the right/claim of someone else" (al-ziyada Cald

miqddr hajatihi kdnat haqq ghayrihi). The search for

refineddishes and new types of cuisine is condemned. It

is wasteful to eat only the moist partof the breadand to

throw away the crust, or not to retrieve crumbs as theyfall, though this is all right if someone else gets the

rejected parts.57With clothing it is as with food. One should wear old,

worn garments, except on Fridays and holidays. Butself-denial has limits; indeed, one's self (nafs) has a

claim over one, as do one's family and creditors.58 ome

of the adversariessay that starvingoneself is praisewor-

thy, because the nafs is prone to evil and is an enemy to

man (Quran 12:53). But suicide is not permitted,and a

just mean must be established between abstinence and

gratification. In some cases, abstaining from food may

prevent the nafs from committing acts of disobedience:

so a young man who fears falling into lewdness maystarve himself.59

Shaybani says that whenever the needy are unable to

seek their ownlivelihood, people

areobliged

to feed

them. Several hadiths support this position. The Kasb

(probablySarakhsi) then discusses several possibilities,

according to the degree of capacity of both parties(donor and recipient). Physical proximity enhances the

haqq of the needy: if it is your neighbor, you have the

obligation before someone else does. In all instances,

56 C 46-47, D 80-81, M 266-67.57C 47-49, D 81-82, M 267-68.58 A joke at C 49, D 82-83, M 268 playson theequivocal

meaningof nafs (soul, self, appetitive elf) andhaqq(right,

claim).AbuiHanifa ound hejesterBuhlil eating n thestreetand askedhim,"Do you permityourself(a-tastajizminnaf-sika) oeat in thestreet?" uhlul eplied,"AbuHanifa,youaskmethiswhenmynafshasa claimoverme(wa-nafsi harimi,

literally,is mycreditor'),ndwhenI havethebread ightherein my lap.TheProphet as said: Itis oppressionor therichman to putoff payingwhathe owes' (matalal-ghanizulm).How thencould I deny [my nafs] her claim until I arrivedathome?"

59C 49-53, D 83-88, M 268-71.

however, the needy person has a haqq. A hadith is

quoted against those who ask when they do not need

what they are asking for (wa-huwa ghani mimma

yas'alu). But if the needy person cannot earn,yet is able

togo

out andbeg,

thenbegging

is anobligation for him.It is best to avoid the humiliationof begging, but in time

of need it is no disgrace, "because that with which he

fortifies his own life is a claim he is entitled to make on

people's property" (wa-li-anna ma yasuddu bihi ra-

maqahu haqqun mustahaqqun ahufi amwali l-nds).60

Shaybani says that the giver is better than the recipi-ent, even though both fulfill obligations. A detailed

analysis of this statement follows, including polemics

against the HIanbali chool. (1) The recipient may be in

need, but capable of earning: here the recipient per-forms a supererogatoryact, whereas the donor performsa prescribed duty (fard), which is higher. The recipient

acquires no benefit except by consuming the gift; thedonor thus acquires more. Again, if all the poor stopped

taking they would be praised, unlike the rich who would

be blamed if they stopped giving.61(2) Both donor and

recipient may be seen to act as voluntary benefactors

towardone another-as the recipient helps the donor to

accomplish his religious duty. In this case the donor is

better, because by casting off his wealth he inclines to-

ward poverty, which is a higher station.62Poverty is an

affliction or test; all of us have a greaterdesire to receive

than to give; hence there is more merit in giving thanin

receiving. (3) When the recipient is incapable of earn-

ing,he carries out an

obligation when he receives fromthe donor (who is under no strict obligation to give).Here the Kasb enters into an argumentwith Ibn Hanbal,Ibn Rahawayh, and the ahl al-hadith who say: In thiscase the recipient is better, because he responds to an

obligation (fard), whereas the donor only performs a

supererogatory act. Therefore (say the Hanbalis), the

recipient must receive, while if the donor refrains from

giving, he has done nothing wrong, since someone else,for whom it is an obligation, will give to the poor man.The Hanbalis also argue that creating saldm, what we

might call social peace, is better thanrestoringit after it

has been disrupted. The recipient strives to revive his

nafs, while the giver strives only to protecthis. Againstthis view, the Kasb cites the well-known hadith aboutthe upper hand being better than the lower hand.63The

giver of alms first makes his money over to God, by

60 C 53-57, D 88-93, M 271-73.

61 Above, n. 46.62

Above, n. 43.63

Above, n. 44.

418



BONNER: he Kitab al-Kasb Attributed to al-Shaybani

separatingit from his own possessions, and then hands

it over to the poor man. Thus the recipient receives a

blemish, but the donor receives none. The Prophetgavealms directly, but was forbidden to receive them. A

debate follows over whether the other prophets wereforbiddento receive alms.64

The remainder of the treatise is devoted to themes

which have already been discussed. Hadiths are quotedin favor of restraint.Consumption is permittedonly to

the point of satiety, and even within that limit there can

be a haqq for the hungry.Kasb from an illicit source is

forbidden, no matter how it is spent. More hadiths are

cited against the ascetics. Near the end comes a section,

noticeably different in style, on "acquisition" in the

theological sense, which may have been added on.65A

concluding section on the use of silks and other fine

materials has already been thoroughly discussed by

Goitein, Kinberg, Wichard, and others.

4. SHAYBANI ON ACQUISITION AND POVERTY

We have seen that Sarakhsi apparentlywrote a com-

mentary on a work on kasb by Shaybani in order to

polemicize against the Karramiyyaand other adversar-

ies. Now we look to the Iraqienvironmentin which the

work first arose. If we assemble the statements attrib-

uted expressly to Shaybani throughout the Kasb, we

come up with the following "bare bones." Shaybanimaintains that kasb is a religious obligation, analogousto the obligation of seeking knowledge. Once a Muslim

has acquiredenough to take care of his basic needs, he

should "direct the remaining surplus (al-fudul) toward

the concern of his eternal life"; similarly, "a man is

always called to account for what goes beyond unavoid-

able necessity." Regarding circulation of goods, kasb

has to do with "mutual assistance for the purpose of

approachingand obeying God." Shaybani develops this

idea in terms of voluntaryalms, sadaqa.66He states that

God "has allotted people their livelihood throughmeans

(asbab), regarding which there is confirmed knowl-

edge." Wasting food is an act of arrogance, as is con-

suming beyond the measureof one's own need. If some-one is both needy and incapacitated, people have an

obligation to help him. Indeed, the giver is better thanthe recipient, even though the latter is also fulfilling an

64 C 57-60, D 93-97, M 273-75.65C 68f.,D 106f.,M 279f.; above,n. 19.66Thehadith nsadaqawhichexpresses hisideawasprob-

ablypartof theoriginal reatise: ee above,section2.

obligation. The needy can have a right or claim (haqq)to one's property,even within the limit of satiety (thatis,

not only to one's surplus property).Kasb from an illicit

source is forbidden, no matterhow it is spent.

I have argued elsewhere that around the turn of thethird/ninthcentury, when Shaybani first wrote or dic-

tated the Kasb, definitions of poverty in and around

Baghdadtended to fall into two main groupings.67These

emphasize different concerns and proceed from different

premises. They do not oppose one another in any logi-

cally consistent way. Moreover, it was often possible to

combine elements of the two according to the changing

requirementsand exigencies of life. Nonetheless, these

two types of definitions of poverty did occur from quite

early on and are often clearly recognizable in the hadith

literature and elsewhere.

The first of these emphasized the notion of haqq

(right, claim). In this view, the true poor are deservingoutsiders who desire integration into the community,above all throughparticipationin the jihad. There is no

limit on the amount one may or should give to them;

indeed, self-impoverishment is a constant and desir-

able option, since the circulation of goods is envisaged

as taking place, ideally, through a never-ending flow

of alms. In hadith and other sources falling into this cat-

egory, one often encounters phrases such as "returningthe wealth of the rich to the poor" (radd amwdl al-

aghniya' Caldl-fuqard') and other language stressingthe idea of "return." t is difficult to say if this "return"

can be envisaged as forming a circle. At any rate, thisview stands, as we shall see, in a recognizable relation

to the Hanafi school, of which the Kitab al-kasb gives a

composite expression.68The second set of definitions of poverty emphasized

not rights, but surplus, in the sense of whatever one has

left over after satisfying one's own fundamentalneeds.

(Again, this is not the logical counterpart to the first

type, but a different emphasis or starting-point.)In this

view, one must only give alms out of one's surplus, andone must give no alms at all out of the rest, since one'sfirstobligation is to care for oneself and one's family. In

definitions of this second type, there is concern with

maintaining peace within an urban world already char-acterized by inequality and social conflict. This second

view, or something like it, became characteristicof theHanbalischool and the ahl al-hadith, as we see from theend of section 3c above.

67 "Definitions of Poverty,"see above, n. 41.68

Wichard, Zwischen Markt und Moschee, 37, on the Kasb

as a collectiveHanafiproduction.

419




These early definitions of poverty, mostly taken from

hadith relating to almsgiving, rarely account for the

problem of work: whether the poor person works, or

tries to work, or has a trade at all. This problemarose in

the literary genre of kasb, of which Shaybani's is thefirst known example. Shaybani insists on the irrefutable

claim of the needy person, which can apply even to

property that is not surplus. His "mutual assistance"

(mucawana)bears resemblanceto the elefnosinarychain

or "returnof wealth" typical of the first type of defini-

tions of poverty.69But Shaybani also insists on the

necessity of having some surplusand on the superiorityof the giver over the recipient. He seems to contradict

himself, by saying first that the attribute of poverty is

higher than that of wealth, and next that the "upperhand" is better than the lower, and so that it is better to

give than to receive.

Otherwise, these "bare bones" give few indications of

Shaybani's opponents or of currentsof thought at this

time. The "mendicant ascetics" mentioned by Goitein

(above, introduction)do not appear at this stage. But a

debate over kasb emerged in the following generations,with ascetic practices increasingly at issue. Ahmad b.

Harbal-Naysaburi (d. 234/848), an influential ascetic in

Khurasanwith connections in Baghdad,had many disci-

ples including Ibn Karram. Ibn Harb held a negative

position regardingthe acquisition of wealth, though less

radical than that of the Karramiyya who came after-

wards. A controversial figure who was mainly damned

by Sunni tradition,70bn Harbalso wrote a Kitab al-kasbof which nothing has survived.71 The more flamboyantIbn Karram d. 255/869), mentioned briefly in section 2

above and in section 6 below, was active mainly in the

Islamic East until his exile to Jerusalem at the end of

his life.

The best-known work of third/ninth-century raq on

this topic is the al-Makdsib of al-Harith b. Asad al-

69 Cf. D. D6cobert, Le mendiant et le combattant: L'insti-

tution de l'islam (Paris, 1991), 238f., on l'economie aum6niere,

"theeconomyof alms";Bonner,"Definitions,"39-41.70

Khatib,4: 118-19 rawd

ashydakathira la usul

laha, "[IbnHarb] elatedmany hingswithout nybasis."See alsoChabbi,

"Remarques,"0, 33, 48-49; below,n. 101.71 Hajji Khalifa, Kashf al-zunun (Istanbul, 1362/1943), 2:

1452; Goitein, "Rise of the Bourgeoisie," 221-22. Another

work on kasb is attributed o Ahmad b. Yahya al-Hulwani, but

this is probablythe same, since Hulwani transmitted bn Harb's

works. Neither Ibn Harb nor Hulwani had Hanafi affiliations,

and Ahmad Ibn Hanbal seems to have considered Ibn Harb

highly suspect.

Muhasibi (d. 243/857).72 Muhasibi seems serenely un-

aware of the Shaybani teachings on kasb. In his account,

God has createdbodies that are fragile and requirenour-

ishment. But sustenance, rizq, does not come througha

virtuous circle of occupations, or even of alms (see fol-lowing section). Man must depend for rizq directly on

God.73Love of accumulation is caused by doubt,74and

preoccupation with "means," asbab, is evil. But un-

der the right conditions, haraka, "movement,"what we

might call economic activity, is permissible, as is kasb

itself.75 Muhasibi polemicizes against individuals and

groups who hold otherwise, including Shaqiq al-Balkhi,and (perhaps) the followers of Ibn Harb and Ibn Kar-

ram.76But God has set limits on haraka.77Muhasibi

does not define these limits "economically"-in par-ticular,he has no concern with surplus-but rather heo-

logically, concentrating on "means." Caring for one's

charges is a form of obedience, unlike striving to ac-cumulate (al-kathra).78 Muhasibi sets out a kind of

commercial ethics, including a diatribe against "the

merchants of this age" who exceed the correct limits

on haraka.79He exhorts his reader to follow this ethi-

cal system "in your market or elsewhere."80

In his essay, Goitein outlined the views of the later

Sufi writers Abu Tflib al-Makki and al-Sulami which,as he saw it, contributed to his "survey of representative

opinions"to the effect that "Islam as a whole took a pos-itive, or at least lenient, view of economic activities,

luxury and the amassing of capital and saw in the pro-

fession of a trade a service to one's fellow men not de-void of religious value."81Goitein might have done

better to take Muhasibi's Makasib as his prooftext for

the existence of an "Islamic bourgeoisie," rather than

the so-called Shaybani Kasb. At any rate, we can see

that texts of this kind, which have mainly been consid-

72Above, n. 22. See also J. Van Ess, Die Gedankenwelt des

.Hdrital-Muhdsibi(Bonn, 1961); El2, 7: 466-67 (R. Arnaldez),

and bibliographycited there.

73 Muhasibi,Makdsib,42.

74

Ibid.,45.

75 Ibid., 47-48.76

Ibid., 48-49, 61-64. The unnamedopponents here speakof rukhsa, "permission"to perform kasb; this correspondsto

the Karramiposition, see below, n. 96.77

Ibid., 51f.78

Ibid., 55.

79 Ibid., 67-71.80

Ibid., 72.81

Goitein, "Rise of the Bourgeoisie," 226-28.

420



BONNER:The Kitab al-Kasb Attributed to al-Shaybani

ered in the context of mysticism and theology, are also

valuable for their economic content.

5. BRYSON AND THE VIRTUOUS CIRCLE;

SURPLUS AND ALMS

Economics as an independent discipline did not exist

in the Islamic world, at least not until such great writers

as Ibn Taymiyya, Ibn KhaldFn, and al-Maqrizi turned

their attention to this area in the later Middle Ages.82

But Muslim thinkers did have available a philosophical

genre known as Cilm tadbir al-manzil, "the science of

managing one's household" (rendering the Greek oiko-

nomika). This branch of learning had Aristotelian roots

and was considered by the Peripatetics as one of the

three divisions of "practical philosophy," the other two

being ethics and politics. The principal ancient source

available to the medieval Muslims in this field was a

treatise by an obscure Greek author known as Bryson,

who may have lived in Alexandria in the first or second

century A.D.83 Bryson was quoted, paraphrased, and

otherwise absorbed into Arabic and Persian treatises on

ethics and tadbir, including works by Miskawayh, Ibn

Sina, and Nasir al-Din Tusi. The earliest Arabic author

known to have quoted Bryson was Qudama b. Jacfar in

his Kitab al-kharaj.84 Qudama died between 320/932

and 337/948, and it is likely that the Bryson text was

translated not long before then. This means that Shay-

bani and Ibn Samfca did not know Bryson. Sarakhsi,

however, could have, which may explain the connec-tions that arise from a comparison of the Kasb with Bry-

son on the circulation of goods and the division of labor.

Bryson begins his discussion of property (mdl) with

the original condition of humanity. The Creator made

man "impaired, mutable, and fractious" (muntaqisan

mustahilan mutaqa.ddiban). This impairment or lack has

a physiological basis.

[Man]cannot exist in one single state,but is rather n a con-

stant,continuousprocess of dissolution. Therefore he needs

to seek to replace what he loses throughdissolution-and

82 A. Allouche, MamlukEconomics: A Studyand Translation

of al-Maqrizl's Ighathah (Salt Lake City, 1994).83 We do not know who translatedBryson into Arabic and

when; the Arabic version is not a complete translation of the

Greek original, most of which is lost. See M. Plessner, Der

Oikonomikos des Neupythagoreers 'Bryson' und sein Einfluss

auf die islamische Wissenschaft(Heidelberg, 1928).84

Cahen, "A propos d' 'Ein arabischesHandbuch',"169.

that is the nourishmentthat feeds him. And with all that, if

the body were of one type (jins), then he would requireone

kind (nawc) of nourishment. However, since his parts are

different [from one another], he requires differentkinds of

nourishment and foods. And all of these are either from

plants or animals, since the nourishment of every thing is

one of the closest things to it, and there is nothing closer to

the nature of man'sbody than the animals and plants. Now

the plants and animals need [various] kinds (anwdc) of

crafts (sindcdt) in order for them to come into existence and

in order for them then to reachperfection. As for the plants,

they need to be planted or fixed, then watered and culti-

vated and whatever else is involved in the attainment of

perfection.As for animals, they need to be fed and guarded

and given shelter and other such things as affect their well-

being. And many other crafts are needed for collecting and

preparingfood and for providing that by which men and

animals exist.

The crafts have an organic basis, corresponding to the

deficiencies for which they compensate. This brings

Bryson to one of his best-known statements.

Although the power to invent or to learn every craft has

been made in man, no single individual can invent or learn

[all] that, because of the brevity of his life: in order to

invent or learn one single craft he must neglect the invent-

ing or learningof the others. And even if he were capable

of learning many of them, still he could not learn them

all.... And the crafts are also comprised in one another

(mudammanbaCduhabi-baCd).Thus the builder needs the

carpenterand the carpenterneeds the craft of the smiths,

and the craft of the smiths needs the miners, and that craft

needs the builder. And even if every one of the crafts were

perfect in itself, it would still need the others, just as the

links of a chain need one another; f one craft falls away,the

rest are rendered useless. Thus, since every individual, for

the carrying out of his affairs, requires various kinds [of

crafts] through which he is fed and clothed, he thereby

requires all the crafts. And since no individual can master

all the crafts, all the people came to need one another for

providing their livelihood. For this reason, people need tofound cities and to gather in them, so that they can assist

one another with the crafts.85

Thus we have a mutual, organic dependence among

humans, stemming directly from their original condition

85 Plessner, Der Oikonomikos, 144-48, 214-17.

421




of deficiency and want: a mutual dependence that as-

sumes the form of a virtuous circle of the crafts or oc-

cupations. It is important to emphasize that for Bryson

and his tradition, the virtuous circle of crafts or occupa-tions is in

motion,but tends nonetheless towards overall

stability, a "zero-sum" outcome. This is because posi-tions of individual persons are ideally fixed: each prac-titioner of a craft does best to stay where he is, and

above all one must avoid the shame involved in taking

up a craft inferior in status to that of one's ancestors.86

The Arabic version of Bryson was absorbed, incorpo-

rated, and otherwise used (often without attribution) in

philosophical treatises on tadbir al-manzil, just men-

tioned, as well as in non-philosophical works, notably

Dimashqi's Ishara. Often we cannot tell if a writer is

citing Bryson or one of his Arabic epigones. Thus in the

Kitab al-kasb, Sarakhsi uses language and ideas that

derive from this Bryson tradition, if not directly from

Bryson himself.

[Shaybani] said: "And [God] has decreed people's liveli-

hood through means [asbdb] regarding which there is

confirmedknowledge." This means that each individual is

unable to learn all that he needs in his life, and if he occu-

pied himself with that, his life would vanish before he

[could] learn[it all]; and he is unable to producefor himself

whatever he has not learned. The conditions in which peo-

ple make their livelihood were connected to this (wa-qad

tacallaqa bi-hddhd masalih al-macisha lahum). And God

has made it easy for everyone to learn a type of that (nawcmin dhalika, i.e., a type of crafts?), so that he may attain

what he needs of thattype throughhis knowledge,87and so

that others may also attain what they need of that throughhis knowledge. The Prophetalluded to this in his saying:"The believers are like a building, each part of which

fortifies the rest." And the proof of this is in [God's]saying

[Quran43:32]: "And we raised some of them over the oth-

ers by degrees,"etc. This means thatthe poor manneeds the

rich man'swealth, while the rich man needs the poor man's

labor. And here too, the cultivator needs the weaver's labor,

so that he may get clothing for himself; and the weaver

needs the cultivator's labor in orderto obtain food, and the

cotton from which he gets clothing for himself. Each of

them establishes [proximity to God] from labor which88

86Plessner, 154, 221.

87 Here and soon afterwards,C and M have bi-'ilmihi; D has

bi-'amalihi, "throughhis labor."88 The sense requires alladhi, missing in D and M. C has

this, but it is missing an entire line here.

is intended for others [than himself], by virtue of its [be-

ing performed for the sake of] proximity and obedience

[to God].89 The ability to establish proximity to God is

achieved through this.... And it is the same whether or

not this labor isperformed

inexchange

forcompensation

specified for it (bi-'iwad shurita Calayhi).If [the person's]

intention is as we have explained, then his labor contains

within itself the sense of obedience.... 90

Phrases and ideas from Bryson are echoed here, such

as the brevity of life preventing one from learning all the

crafts. The phrase naw' min dhalika, "type of that,"

makes little sense unless we look to the Arabic Bryson,where it stands for naw' min al-sina'at, "a type of the

crafts." However, we must remember that Shaybani in

the Kasb did not speak of "crafts" at all, but rather of

"means," which are more abstract and impersonal. Else-

where he also spoke of mutual assistance and alms-

giving. Those places in the Kasb that speak of mutual

need between rich and poor (a notion alien to Brysonand his tradition) may well go back to Shaybani him-

self.91 In any case, for Shaybani, as for much earlyMuslim thought in this area, if there is any circle-and

again, it may be more accurate to speak of a "a return

of wealth"-it is a circle of goods moving through"mutual assistance," thus through poverty and almsgiv-

ing, and not a circle of trades and occupations. And un-

like the Brysonian virtuous circle, which tended, as we

have seen, toward a "zero-sum" result, for Shaybani the

circle orreturn of wealth through "mutual assistance"and almsgiving is dynamic and open to expansion.

All this must not be taken too literally. Shaybani

obviously understood in some way the importance of the

occupations and crafts. However, when he set about de-

scribing the circulation of goods and the interdepen-dence of humans, he used the language of poverty and

almsgiving. Later on, when Muslims (including Ha-

nafis) became aware of the Aristotelian Bryson tradi-

tion, they took over the idea of a circle of crafts, which

became fairly commonplace. But these portions of the

Kitab al-kasb show these two conceptions of the cir-

culation of wealth side by side. Of the two, it is the one

89 C hasqawl wa-tdCa, pparently mistakeforqurbawa-tada.90 C 43-44, D 75, M 264-65.

91 Jghiz, Hayawan (ed. CA.M. Harun,Cairo, 1966), 1:44, in

a discussion of interdependence,says that God has made no

one self-sufficient and so kings have need of subjects and sub-

jects of kings; likewise the rich and the poor need one another,as do masters and slaves. Jahiz does not discuss either alms-

giving or crafts.

422



BONNER: The Kitab al-Kasb Attributed to al-Shaybdni

we find in Shaybani that we may consider the more orig-

inal and the more "Muslim." This is a more dynamic

conception of the flow of wealth, well suited to the early

Islamic world, where commerce and markets expanded,

where merchantcapital

often went intotraveling

ven-

tures, and where any individual might find himself rich

and poor, recipient and donor, at different times in his

life-a favorite theme of Arabic belles-lettres.

One particularly difficult sentence in the long passage

just quoted from the Kasb requires some elucidation.

After describing the mutual dependence of the cultivator

and the weaver, the Kasb (here presumably Sarakhsi)

says that each of these two "establishes [proximity to

God]92 from labor that is intended for others [than him-

self], by virtue of its being [performed for the sake of]

proximity and obedience [to God]; the ability to estab-

lish proximity to God is achieved through this" (thum-

ma kull wahid minhumd yuqimu min al-'amal yakunu

mu'ayyannan li-ghayrihi fimd huwa qurba wa-taa fa-

inna l-tamakkun min iqdmat al-qurba bi-hddhd yuh-

salu).93 Here we might say that surplus is abstracted

from the production of individuals; it might be more

accurate to call this an element of production directed

toward others. The Kasb identifies this altruistic element

as that through which God is approached: which is

closely related in turn to sadaqa, voluntary almsgiving,and to the haqq, the claim of the poor upon the surplusof the rich.

Poverty and want are basic elements both for Brysonand for

Shaybani. Bryson beginshis account of

propertyby describing a primordial condition of organic, physio-

logical need, which the crafts then satisfy through their

harmonious, mutual efforts. For Shaybani, poverty and

almsgiving are a basic, necessary element in everyone's

continuing effort to make a living. The later authors of

the Kasb have combined Shaybani's views with others

which to some extent derive from Bryson's. Yet Shay-bani's original conception, with its stress on poverty and

sadaqa, still shows through in the Kasb and remains the

basis for the doctrine of the Hanafi school.

6. THE KARRAMIYYA

The Kasb names no individual adversaries, but re-

peatedly uses the abusive terms mutaqashshifa (self-

92 Here yuqimu is understood to have as its object al-qurba,as in iqdmat al-qurba later on in the sentence. Alternatively,

yuqimumight be short for yuqimuawadahu, "to provide some-

one with sustenance."

93 C 43, D 75, M 264.

mortifiers) and taqashshuf (self-mortification).94 Since

in two places it does name the Karramiyya,95 we in-

clude here a brief look at the Karrami doctrine of tah-

rim al-makdsib, "declaring it forbidden to earn a living,"and its relation to the Kasb. We must

keepin mind that

this argument in the Kasb against the Karramiyya must

be attributed to Sarakhsi and thus to the milieu of Sa-

manid and Ghaznavid Khurasan and Transoxania, even

though the argument went back roughly to the mid-

third/ninth century. Sarakhsi's longest statement on this

doctrine is as follows.

Thus it is accepted among all jurisconsults who adhere to

the Sunni position (ahl al-sunna wal-jamdca) that kasb is

a religious obligation to the extent that it is a necessity.But the Karramiyya ay: No, [kasb] is permissible [only] as

an indulgence conceded [by God] (mubdh bi-tariq al-

rukhsa96).This is because [if kasb is indeed an obligation]there are only two possibilities: either it is an obligation [in

effect] at every time, or else at a certain prescribedtime.

Now the first [of these two] is false, because it leads [to a

situation in which] a person could not be done with per-

forming this obligation in such a way as to allow him to

occupy himself with other obligations and duties. And the

second is false, because whatever the religious law has

specified as an obligation for a prescribed time, such as

prayer or fasting, would become supplementary for that

time. And it is not the intention of the religious law to add

kasb on to a prescribed time. Furthermore, here are onlytwo

possibilities:either that

[kasb]is an

obligationbecause

of people's desire for it, or else because of necessity. Now

the first [of these] is false, for [people's] desire for all the

wealth in the world is steady andconstant;and one does not

say that everyone is obliged to acquire all of that. But the

second [possibility] is also false: for whatever is obligatorybecause of necessity only becomes obligatory upon the re-

alization of [such] necessity; but upon the realization of

[such] necessity [in this case, i.e., when one has become

destitute], one is incapableof performingkasb at all. How,

then, can an obligation be postponed until [one is in] a con-

dition of incapacity to performit? And then there are onlytwo possibilities: either that all types (anwdc) [of kasb] are

94 The caliph al-Ma'min referred to the taqashshuf of Ibn

Samaia himself, in a list of the annoying habits (ostentatious

weeping, humility,praying, fasting, etc.) of ten prominentreli-

gious scholars. Khatib,5: 342.95 C 24, D 44, 107, M 250, 279.

96 On rukhsa,see M. Kister,"On'Concessions' andConduct:

A Study in Early Hadith,"in Studies on the First Century ofIslamic Society, ed. G. H. A. Juynboll (Carbondale, 1982), 89-

423




obligatory,or else certainspecified types of it. Now the first

of these is false, because it is not within the capacityof any

human being to have direct involvement in all types [of

kasb], nor can he know [all of] that; his life would vanish

before he could learn it.97 But the second[possibility]

is

false, because no one of the types [of kasb] is more apt to

be specified as an obligation thanany other. And then there

areonly two possibilities: either that [kasb] is obligatoryfor

all of the people, or else only for some of them. Now the

firstof these is false: for the prophets, peace be upon them,

did not occupy themselves with kasb for the greater partof

their time; likewise the noteworthyCompanions, may God

be pleased with them all, and those excellent men who

came afterthem;but no one thinks regardingthem thatthey

agreed in abandoning what was obligatory for them. And

the second [possibility] is false, because no one is more apt

to be singled out for this obligation thananyone else.98

Despite Professor Van Ess's negative verdict,99 there

are reasons for believing that this passage represents

genuine Karrami views. It is difficult to see why Sarakh-

si (or whoever is the source of this) would have set out

his adversaries' arguments in such detail-if only for

the purpose of demolishing them-without reproducing

these arguments with some accuracy. Reductive recast-

ing of doctrines is characteristic of the heresiographical

literature, but the Kasb does not belong to that genre.

The sophistic character of these arguments fits with

what we know of Karrami doctrine in its earlier stages.

The grudging justificationof kasb as divine

indulgenceor permission (rukhsa) seems to be recurrent. The argu-

ments regarding rights and claims (huquq), characteris-

tic of early Islamic discussions of poverty, find no place

in Karrami discussions of makdsib, here or elsewhere.

The Karrami doctrine of tahrim al-makasib seems to

have originated with the founder of the sect, Muham-

mad b. Karram,'00 who may have based it on teachingsof Ahmad b. Harb (see above). Ibn Karram's practice

and doctrine were described generally under the headingof tawakkul: you must trust that you will receive rizq,

107, rpt. in Society and Religion from Jahiliyya to Islam (Lon-

don, 1990); Wichard,Zwischen Markt und Moschee, 42 n. 21.

97 Another recurrenceof the Bryson phrase, see above.

98 C 24-26, D 44-46, M 250-51.99 Ungenitzte Texte,75.

100C. E. Bosworth, "The Rise of the Karamiyyah in

Khurasan,"Muslim World50 (1960): 5-14; idem, The Ghaz-

navids (Beirut, 1973), 185-94; idem, "Karramiyya,El2, 4:

667-69; J. Chabbi, "Remarques sur le developpement his-

toriquedes mouvements asc6tiques et mystiques au Khurasan,

sustenance, but you may not earn it.l01 In the recently

published heresiographical section of the Kitdb al-

shajara of Abui Tammam, apparently a Khurasanian

Ismacili author of the early-to-mid-fourth/tenth cen-

tury,'02we read that:

Muhammadb. Karramwas a mangiven to self-mortification

andasceticism (al-taqashshufwal-zuhd). He claimed that he

was a person who relied solely on God and that he had in-

tendedto go into the desert with manyof those who followed

him without provisions, water, or riding mounts. The ruler

(al-sultan) prevented him from doing that and threw him

into prison, saying, "Thismanwill destroyhimself and these

otherpoorwretches as well. It is incumbenton us to stophim

and to assume control over him."103

Among the heresiographical sources, the "Eastern,"

Hanafi/Maturidi tradition which Keith Lewinstein hasdiscussed104 generally shows more interest in the "eco-

nomic" aspect of Karramism than does the "Western,"

Ashcari/Shafici tradition.'05 In, or related to, this "East-

IIIe/IXesiecle-IVe/Xe siecle," SI 46 (1977): 5-72; J. Van Ess,

Ungeniitzte Texte zur Karrdmiya (Heidelberg, 1980), 19-20,

30-32, 75-76; W. Madelung,Religious Trends n EarlyIslamic

Iran (Albany, 1988), 39-46, esp. 43; A. L. Knysh, Islamic

Mysticism:A Short History (Leiden, 2000), 88-94.

101The Kitab rawnaq al-qulub by CUmar al-Samarqandi

(Bib. Nat., MSAr. 6674, 4929), cited by Van Ess, Ungenitzte

Texte,30-32. An

abridgedversion of another work

byCUmar

al-Samarqandi, he MukhtasarRawnaq al-majalis by cUthman

b. Yahya b. CAbdal-Wahhab al-Miri (Damascus and Beirut,

1985/1405) is a collection of tales about ascetics and sufis; see

83-86 (tawakkul)and 101-4 (warac). The protagonistof many

of the stories is Ahmad b. Harb, whose example is consonant

with the Karramiposition, but less radical. On the differences

between IbnHarb'sfollowers and the Karramiyya n Khurasan,

see Chabbi, "Remarques,"48-49.

102W. Madelung and P. E. Walker,An Ismaili Heresiogra-

phy: The 'Bab al-shaytan'from Abu Tammam'sKitabal-shajara

(Leiden, 1998), 54-56 (Arabic), 58-59 (English). See also

P.Walker, "Abu Tammam and his Kitab al-shajara: A New

Ismaili Treatise from Tenth-Century Khurasan,"JAOS 114

(1994): 343-52.

103After his imprisonment by the Tahirid authorities, Ibn

Karram went to Jerusalem with his followers. On travelingwithout provisions, see Reinert,Die Lehre, 197-206.

104"Notes on Eastern Hanafite Heresiography,"JAOS 114

(1994): 583-98.

105Ashcarl's Maqaldt, Baghdadi's Farq, and Shahrastani's

Milal do not mention the tahrimal-makdsib in theirdiscussions

of Karramism.

424



BONNER: he Kitab al-Kasb Attributed to al-Shaybdni

ern" tradition is the Kitab al-radd Calaahl al-bidac of

Abui Mutic Makhul al-Nasafi (d. 318/930), who mayeven have been a Karramihimself, and who expressed a

view in harmony with what we know of the Karrami

doctrine of tahrimal-makdsib.106 In denouncing a groupcalled the "Qasitiyya" Nasafi says:

. . theymade t incumbentpon veryMuslim o seek[this

world],andthey gave preferenceo thosewho seek [this

world]overthose whoabstain rom t, andto its richover

its poor.Andtheysaid:"Povertys almost ike unbelief."

But thecommunityof believers say (wa-qalatal-jamaial07):

Thisworld s wretched, ecause t is cursed,andwhatever

it containss cursed, xcept orwhatcomesfromobedience

to God.A worshipper'sooddistracts im fromworship f

his Lord,andbrings togetherthose who seek [this world] in

the Fire; that means, [food] which is not licit.... 108

The last phraseindicates that some (of the Karramiyya?)did believe that even religiously licit food was a distrac-

tion from God. Such radical views appearedelsewhere,

for instance along the Thughar, the Arab-Byzantine

frontier, where the early ascetic Ibrahimb. Adham, to-

gether with some of his later followers, was known as a

virtuoso of starvation and, on occasion, as an eater of

earth and clay.109But we still need to know more about

the Karramipractice anddoctrine of tahrimal-makasib.

7. CONCLUSION

S. D. Goitein deserves the credit for having identified

the Shaybani Kasb and its importance. However, this

work is not an optimistic statement on commerce and

gain on the part of the rising Near Easternbourgeoisieof the early Islamic period. Before we can say that "Is-

lam" as such encouraged or impeded commercial ac-

tivity, we must look to the detailed circumstances of

various times and places, as much as the evidence will

allow.

106Lewinstein, "Notes," 585-87; B. Bernand,"Le Kitab al-

radd Cala ahl al-bidac d' Abu Mutic Makhul al-Nasafi,"Annales Islamologiques 16 (1980): 39-126; Van Ess, Unge-

niitzte Texte,58.

107 On Nasafi's use of jamaca, see Bernand, 43-44, con-

necting it with the anti-AshCarite,anti-MuCtaziliteviews of

KhurasanianHanafis, soon to be identifiedwith Maturidism.108Bernand,94-95.

109al-Cubbddal-khushn, "the devotees of harsh practice."

Bonner, Aristocratic Violence, 128-30, 152, 158-61, 171-73,

178, 184; Knysh, Islamic Mysticism, 19-20.

J. C. Wichard has argued persuasively that the Kasb

calls for a just mean between the extremes of ascetic

denial and of ostentatious acquisition and consump-tion. He places less emphasis on poverty and almsgiving

thanI have done here, and more on work and on activityin earning (Erwerbstdtigkeit). However, the matter is

even more complex than Wichard makes it to be, in

part because the Kasb is a composite, multi-authored

work, more so even than most medieval Arabic books.

Sarakhsi had before him a work on kasb by Shaybaniand Ibn SamaCawhich we no longer have. Only some of

this work suited his polemics against the radical ascet-

ics. Still, Sarakhsi worked faithfully through the entire

thing, including the passages on poverty, charity and so

on. In this way he added to the work's contradictions. He

also obscured the fact that the form, message, and con-

text of Shaybani'swork were different from that of the

Kitab al-kasb we now have, and different also frommuch of what modern scholarship has attributed o it.

Threeauthors(of whom we know) contributedtoward

the composition of the Kasb (above, section 2). Roughly

corresponding to them were three historical contexts

in which these questions of acquisition, consumption,

charity, surplus and so on took on different meaningsandforms. Now that we have begun to sort these out, we

may review some of their main elements in relation to

the Kitab al-kasb.

(a) Shaybdni and early CAbbasidBaghdad. Though

only a fraction of the Kasb as we have it consists of

Shaybani's own words, we can assemble his views(above, section 4). In his argumentsin favor of acquisi-tion and earning (in modest amounts), Shaybani did not

aim against "mendicant ascetics." Indeed, his discourse

on economic matters is dominated by concepts of pov-

erty and almsgiving. The key to these is a strong notion

of haqq, of the right/claimthat the needy have upon us,or more accurately,upon whatever we acquire that goes

beyond the limit of our own need, and possibly even on

what does not. Whereverwe acquirebeyond the limit of

our own need, there exists a haqq for someone else.

Shaybani'sfollowers take this further,and entirely logi-

cally: "That with which [a needy person] fortifies his

own life is a claim he is entitled to make on people's

property,"110nd similar formulations.

Thus the existence of any economic surplus immedi-

ately creates a haqq for someone. Shaybani expressesthis in termsof religious obligation: once a man has pro-vided for his own and his family's needs, he should "di-rect the remaining surplus toward the concern of his

110Above, n. 60.

425




eternal life." What does this mean? On the one hand the

Kasb favors an increase in religious observance (Ciba-

dat) over an increase in economic acquisition (kasb).But on the other hand, Shaybani attaches strong reli-

giousvalue to economic

activityin the form of

cooper-ation and mutual assistance (tac'wun) "for the purposeof approachingand obeying God."Already in Shaybanithis mutual assistance is conceptually tied to voluntary

alms, or sadaqa. The Hanafi school (representedby Sa-

rakhsi) afterwards spelled out this connection more

clearly.Some could say that the rich and the poor need each

other, whether for economic or spiritual reasons."' But

more meaningfully and precisely, for Shaybani and his

followers, almsgiving is bound up with the very prin-

ciple of circulation and exchange. Whenever anyonebenefits from someone else's work, it is a form of

sadaqa, with merit and benefit extending to "donor"aswell as to "recipient."Here, with the haqq of the poorat its basis, we have the principle of an "economy of

poverty,""2at least so far as Shaybani and the Hanafi

school are concerned. And furthermore, whereas the

Aristotelian/Brysonian conception of exchange and

circulation, which at some point became fairly widelyknown in the Islamic world, constructs a virtuous circle

of occupations andcrafts, in which persons occupy fixed

positions, Shaybani, together with much of early Is-

lamic tradition, describes a virtuous circle of almsgiv-

ing in which persons constantly change their positions

(the poor gainingwealth and the rich

impoverishingthemselves).

Shaybani shows continuity with much of earlier Is-

lamic thinking on these matters, as far as we can tell.

This complicated story will have to be resumed else-

where.13 But in brief, as Shaybani prescribes the atti-

tude we must take in our working and earning, he

confronts us with the figure of the poor man. He cer-

tainly does not want us to beg, unless we have no

choice. But our daily lives should be informed by zuhd,abstinence. More specifically, our activity in earningshould be based on awareness of our interdependence:we would say now in both economic and spiritualterms,

though Shaybani and his followers did not make thisdistinction. Again, this altruistic principle of economic

circulation has at its basis the haqq that the poor have

11Above, n. 90.

112See G. Todeschini, "'Quantum valet?' Alle origini di

un'economia della poverta," Bullettino dell'lstituto italiano

storico per il Medioevo 98 (1992): 173-234.113

Above, nn. 41, 69.

upon the rich, but which also, in the end, we all have

upon each other.

It will still be necessary to work out with betterpreci-sion what this (to us) ratherstrange concept of rightand

claim(haqq)

is all about. In what relation does it stand

to the various concepts of duty (fard,farida) and merit

(fadl) expressed in the Kitdb al-kasb and elsewhere?l"4

And what is its relation (for it must have one) to living

practice?Answers to these questions will give us a bet-

ter understandingof economic activity in the early Is-

lamic world, including the circulation of wealth and

kasb itself.

(b) Ibn Samdca and the Hanbalis. We do not know

precisely what role Ibn Samaia had in the creationof the

Kasb. But in any case he was a loyal Hanafi. Duringthe

later part of his long life and for several generationsafterwards, an important feature of urban social and

intellectual life, in Baghdadand elsewhere, was conflictbetween the Hanafi and Hanbali madhhabs. Such ten-

sions surface in the text of the Kasb, whether or not

throughIbn Samaa's doing (above, section 3c). Here, in

an argumentover the meaning of the "upper hand,""5

we may detect two different representationsof the eco-

nomic world, both emphasizing poverty and almsgiving.The Hanafi view is as we have set it out here. The Han-

ball view would require a different study, but alreadyhere we see the concern with saldm, keeping the peace

throughuse of charity, in a turbulent urbansetting; and

a view of alms as a means to alleviate misery and to

keepthat

peace,without

changing anyone'scondition.

(c) Sarakhsi and the Karrdmiyya. Jacqueline Chabbi

and others have described the milieu of Khurasanand

Transoxania under the Siamnids and Ghaznavids. It is

difficult to use the Kitab al-kasb as a source of infor-

mation about this milieu, because Sarakhsi combined

contemporarypolemics with his conversation with Shay-bani and other masters of the past. But it is here that

"mendicant ascetics" have become a major source of

contention. Sarakhsi polemicizes vehemently againstthe Karramiyyaand otherextrememutawakkilun,"trust-

ers [in God]," whom he refers to contemptuously as

muta'akhkhilan,"spongers."

We should not regardthe Kasb as a forgery,"6nor asan appropriationby later authors of earlier, more "au-

thentic"texts. Even its contradictions and redundancies

114For an introductiono the modernWestern onversation

on these issues, see J. Waldron,ed., Theoriesof Rights (Oxford,

1984); S. Stoljar,An Analysis of Rights (New York, 1984).115

Above, n. 63.116 Above, n. 20.

426



BONNER: The Kitab al-Kasb Attributedto al-Shaybani

are useful to us, since they correspondto the contradic-

tions of everyday life in this economic arena of action

and reflection where inconsistency seems to prevail in

all cultures,not least our own. The literary genre of kasb

itselfcan be studied

further,throughthe more coherent

and elegant work of al-Muhasibi, to the culmination of

the genre in al-Ghazali'sIh.ya'Culam l-din and beyond.

As before, these and similar works will be investigatedfor their theological and mystical teachings. Now we

may also interrogate them for their economic content,for what they can tell us about medieval Islamic atti-

tudes and answers to the eternalquestion

of how wegetour living from our environment and from each other.

427

The Kitab Al Kasb Attributed to Al Shaybani Poverty Surplus and Teh Circulation of Wealth

Documents

Transcript of The Kitab Al Kasb Attributed to Al Shaybani Poverty Surplus and Teh Circulation of Wealth