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The Miḥna of 218 A. H./833 A. D. Revisited: An Empirical StudyAuthor(s): John A. NawasSource: Journal of the American Oriental Society, Vol. 116, No. 4 (Oct. - Dec., 1996), pp. 698-708
Published by: American Oriental SocietyStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/605440Accessed: 22-08-2015 14:57 UTC
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8/20/2019 Nawas (John a.)_The Miḥna of 218 AH:833 AD Revisited. an Empirical Study (Journal of the American Oriental Soc.…
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THE
MIHNA
OF 218 A.H./833 A.D. REVISITED: AN
EMPIRICAL
STUDY
JOHN
A.
NAWAS
UNIVERSITY
OF
UTRECHT
Exhaustive
biographical
nformation
from
numerous chronicles has been found for
twenty-eight
of
the
forty-four
men,
known
by
name,
who were
interrogated
on order
of
al-Ma'min in the mihna.
Comparable
information was
obtained for
fifty-six
randomly
selected
men
used
as
a control
group.
The
findings
indicate
that al-Ma'min chose
to
focus
on
the
interrogees,
first,
on account of their
greater
ntellectual eminence and
social
influence
and,
second,
to make of them an
example
to all tra-
ditionists,
with the
aim
of
censoring
the hadith
enterprise.
This
interpretation upports
the
hypothesis
which
explains
the
mihna
as a
design
on
the
part
of
al-Ma'mun
to
secure for the
caliphal
institution
full control over
religious
matters. An alternative
hypothesis
which
explains
the mihna as an
attempt
by
the
caliph
to
quell
opposition
is
cast into further
doubt,
in that
there was
no
predominance
of
(Arab-)
Khurasanians
within the
ranks of
the
opposition,
as this
hypothesis
states.
As
ONE
OF
A
SEEMINGLYnterminable
series of
pa-
pers
written
in
the
last
hundred
years
in search
of ex-
plaining
the
mihna,
it
is
fitting
to
introduce this article'
by recalling
Thomas
Kuhn's thesis
about the manner
in
which
ideas
change
and
evolve.2
No matter how
defec-
tive,
tattered,
and
vehement
the attack
on
it
is,
Kuhn
wrote,
an
explanation,
a
theory,
a
supposition,
an idea
will retain a
permanence
that
will
outlive
the
eloquence
and
logic
of
its
critics;
it
will
die
away
only
when an
alternative
comes
along,
one that
explains
better,
pre-
dicts more
accurately,
and
encompasses
a
wider
range
of
diverse facts in total harmony. We can scarcely aspire
to
such an
ultimate
stage,
but
in the
1970s,
explanations
of
the
mihna have
undergone
what
Kuhn
calls a
para-
digm
shift, an intermediate
and
decisive
phase
in
the
natural
evolution of
ideas.
This
shift,
and the
sig-
nificance
to it
of
the
results
of the
investigation
being
reported
in this
article
will
be
described
shortly.
First,
however,
a few
words
about
the
mihna
itself,
a
phe-
nomenon
that-though
now
over
a millennium
old,
and
a
single
event in
the
twenty-years-long
reign
of
the
man
who ordered
it-continues
to
puzzle
researchers
and en-
gage
their
attention.3
1
This
research
was
supported
by
the
Netherlands
Organiza-
tion for Scientific Research
(NWO).
I am
grateful
to Prof.
Richard
W. Bulliet for the
valuable
suggestions
he made
on an
earlier
draft.
The
responsibility
for the content
of the
paper
is,
of
course,
fully
my
own.
2
T. S.
Kuhn,
The Structure
of Scientific
Revolutions
(Chi-
cago:
Univ. of
Chicago
Press,
1962).
3
For
a
general
overview
see,
Encyclopaedia
of
Islam,
new
ed.
(EI2),
s.v.
(Martin Hinds).
A
monographic
treatment
of
the
The
name of
the seventh Abbasid
caliph
al-Mamunn
(r. 198-218/813-833)
has become
synonymous
with the
mihna,
inquisition,
which in
218/833,
just
four months
before
his
sudden
death,
the
caliph
ordered
his
gover-
nor of
Baghdad,
Ishaq
b.
Ibrahim,
to
initiate. Of
the vari-
ous reasons for this
lasting
link between al-Ma'muin
and
the
mihna,
the
following
are of
signal
importance.
1)
An
order which
essentially
aimed at
forcing compliance
with
a
particular
doctrinal issue runs
counter to
all that
is
known
about al-Ma'muin-his
breadth of intellectual
ho-
rizon,
commitment
to the
path
of
reason,
patronage
of
wide-ranging
and
open debates,
dedication
to
infusing
Islamic
scholarship
and
modes
of
thought
with alien
ideas
and novel outlooks
on the world.
2)
The mihna
had
no
precedent
in
Islam,
al-Ma'mun
barred
no means
for
implementing
it,
and
the number of
men
subjected
to
it
ran into
the
hundreds.
3)
The mihna
stood
in violation
of
the letter and
spirit
of the
Qur'an.4
4)
As
though
this
infringement
on
the
Qur'an
were not
enough,
the
caliph
saw fit to
make its status
the touchstone
of
the
inquisi-
tion,
requiring
the
interrogees
to
acquiesce
in the doctrine
that the
Book was a created
object
(the
khalq
al-qur'an).
For some seven decades
beginning
with the
first
extensive
and serious
study
of
the mihna
by
Patton
in
1897,5 explanations-more accurately, explanatory hy-
potheses-have
focused
on
some
variation
or
other
of a
subject
is Fahmi
Jad'an,
Al-Mihna:
Bahth
fi
jadaliyyat
al-dini
wa
al-siyasifi
al-islam
(CAmman:
Dar
al-shuriq
li-al-nashr
wa
al-tawzic,
1989).
4
See,
for
instance,
Qur'an
2:256:
la
ikraha
fi
al-din
...
,
meaning
no
compulsion
in
religion.
5
Walter
M.
Patton,
Ahmed
ibn
Hanbal and
the Mihna
(Lei-
den:
E. J.
Brill,
1897).
698
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NAWAS: The Mihna
of
218
A.H./833
A.D.
Revisited
Muctazilite/Shicite
theme.
Proponents
of this
perspec-
tive would have us believe that what drove
al-Mamunn
o
write this
extraordinarychapter
in the
history
of
Islam
was his
need to
gain
the
approbation
of
Muctazilites
and
Shicites, by expressing supportfor their views. This out-
look,
extensively
discussed
by
Gabrieli
and
Sourdel,6
leaves the
impression
that
al-Ma'mun
was a naive senti-
mentalist,
a
view
that runs counter to the
overwhelming
consensus
that
he
was,
rather,
a
very
shrewd,
realistic,
foresighted politician,
if not an
outright
Machiavellian,
as
al-Duri
thinks he was.7 It
is
true that
al-Ma'mun
ap-
preciated
the Mu'tazilites'
openness
to unfamiliar
per-
spectives
and
ideas,
but some of
their tenets did not
sit
well with
him, and
al-Ma'mun's
circle of intimate intel-
lectual
companions
included both
Muctazilite
thinkers
and
strong
anti-MuCtazilites
s
well.8
It is also truethat the
caliph
did
have a soft
spot
for
CAli
b. Abi
Talib,
son-in-
law of the Prophet,and was partial o the CAlids nd their
followers,
the
shilat
CAll
( partisans
of
CAli,
hence
Shicism),
but
this does not
justify
the inferential
ump
that
the
mihnawas a
consequence.
Only
when
proponents
of
the
Muctazilism/Shicism
explanation
are able to meet two
essential
requirements
an their views be taken
seriously.
First,
they
have
to
spell
out those elements which
trans-
cend or cut
across the
heterogeneity
of the
vague,
clash-
ing,
directionless strandsof
ideas-in-the-making
which is
all that
ShiCism/MuCtazilism
f the
time
had.
Second,
they
must
identify
the causal bond between this
rhapsody
and
al-Mamuin'sissuance of the
mihna order.
The
Mu'tazilite/Shi'ite
genre
of
hypotheses
has lost
ground
in
the last
twenty years
in two
ways.
Central to
the
first is
the idea
that,
in
carrying
out the
mihna,
al-
Ma'mun was
basically
setting
his
sights
on the
future,
aiming
to
secure for the
caliphal
institution
a universal
and
unquestioned
authority
on all
matters,
secular
and sa-
cred,
a status that
was
in
force
during
the
Umayyad pe-
riod and
was
especially
characteristicof the
founders
of
Islam
but had
since
vanished.
Allowing
for
variations in
6
Francesco
Gabrieli,
Al-Ma'man e
gli
'Alidi
(Leipzig:
Verlag
Eduard
Pfeiffer,
1929).
Dominique
ourdel,
La
politique
e-
ligieuse
du calife
Cabbaside
l-Ma'mun,
Revue des
etudesislam-
iques
30
(1962):
27-48.
7
CAbd
l-'Aziz
al-Duri,
al-CAsr
l-CAbbasi l-awwal
(Beirut:
Dar
al-talica
li-al-tibaa
wa
al-nashr,
19882),
173.
8
Josef
van
Ess,
Dirar bn 'Amr
und
die
'Cahmiya':
Biogra-
phie
einer
vergessenen
Schule,
Der Islam
43
(1967):
241-79;
44
(1968): 1-70,
318-20,
in
particular,
p.
30ff.
JohnA.
Na-
was,
A
Reexamination
of
Three
Current
Explanations
for al-
Ma'mun's
Introductionof
the
Mihna,
International
Journal
of
Middle East
Studies
26
(1994):
615-29,
especially
pp.
616-17.
details and
accents,
this
hypothesis
was
championed by
Tilman
Nagel
and
by
Crone
and
Hinds,
and it
continues
to
gain support.9
The second
explanatory perspective,
adopted
by
Ira
Lapidus
and
Wilferd
Madelung,
albeit in
somewhatdifferingversions, regards he mihna as a mea-
sure al-Ma'mun had
taken to
quell festering
resentments
and
ongoing opposition
to his
regime by
several
group-
ings
and factions in
which a
Khurasanian
background
s
quite prominent.'0
The work
of
Lapidus signals
two breaks with
past
tradition,
one
in
content,
the other in the direction
of
researching
the mihna. His alternative
explanatory hy-
pothesis, just
sketched
and to which we shall
return
ater,
has
already opened up
a new avenue of
inquiry
and de-
bate.No less
important
s the coursehe has
taken,
eading
us
away
from the well-trodden
path
of
probing
the
mo-
tives and external nfluences which
may
have induced
the
caliph to order the inquisition. Instead, Lapidus turned
the
focus to characteristics
of the men whom
al-Ma'mun
happened
to
single
out
for
inquisition.
In his recent
call
for
a
systematic,
in-depth, scrutiny
of
biographical
en-
tries
on the
interrogees,
van
Ess, too,
is of the
opinion
that clues
to whatever
al-Ma'mun
sought
to
accomplish
may
well
be found
in
the men whom
al-Ma'mun
surely
did
not
pick
at
random.1
The
study
reported
in this article derives from
the
outlook
of
Lapidus
and van
Ess,
but the method
and
procedures
of its execution
owe
their
logic
to a
direc-
tion in
historical research
that is
firmly
embedded
in
an
empirical,
social-scientific
approach,
which
gives
fac-
tual data
priority
over
impressionistic
constructions.
The
results of
our
investigation
will
have
direct
bearing
on
our
postulated
paradigm
shift,
and on
the Khurasa-
nian
connection and
caliphal
authority
hypotheses,
9
Tilman
Nagel, Rechtleitung
und
Kalifat:
Versuch iber eine
Grundfrage
der
islamischen
Geschichte,
Studien
zum Minder-
heitenproblem
m
Islam,
2
(Bonn:
Selbstverlag
es Orientali-
schen
Seminars er
Universitat,
974).
Patricia
rone nd
Martin
Hinds,
God's
Caliph:
Religious
Authority
n
the First Centuries
of
Islam
(Cambridge:
ambridge
Univ.
Press,
1986).Nawas,
Reexamination.
10IraM.
Lapidus,
The
Separation
f State
and
Religion
n
the
Development
f
Early
slamic
Society,
nternational
our-
nal
of
Middle
East Studies
6
(1975):
363-85. Wilferd
Made-
lung,
The
Vigilante
Movement of
Sahl b.
Salama
al-Khurasani
and the
Origins
of
Hanbalism
Reconsidered,
Journal
of
Turk-
ish
Studies
(Fahir
Iz
Festschrift,
I)
14
(1990):
331-37.
11
Josef van
Ess,
Theologie
und
Gesellschaft
im
2. und 3.
Jahrhundert idschra
Berlin:
Walter e
Gruyter,
992),
3:448,
n.
28.
699
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8/20/2019 Nawas (John a.)_The Miḥna of 218 AH:833 AD Revisited. an Empirical Study (Journal of the American Oriental Soc.…
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Journal
of
the American
Oriental
Society
116.4
(1996)
allowing
us to
evaluate
which of the two has the
greater
cogency
and
explanatory
power.
METHOD
AND
PROCEDURE
Rationale
for
the Method
Used
This
study
and
the method chosen for its
implemen-
tation are
anchored
in
one fundamental
assumption
or
hypothesis
and two
requirements
that are essential for
testing
it. The
assumption
is
simply
that the
interrogees,
as a
group,
did have
in
common some characteristics
which rendered
them a suitable locus for the realization
by
al-Ma'muin
of whatever he had
hoped
to achieve
through
the mihna.
Required
for a fair test of this
hy-
pothesis
is a
set of
characteristics
or variables that are
comprehensive in scope and objectively definable. The
other
requirement-and
one which has
been
largely
met
by Lapidus-pertains
to the sources selected
for check-
ing
the
presence
or absence of
these
characteristics;
he
sources
will
have
to be
sufficiently
wide-ranging
and
detailed to
permit
the
optimal
unveiling
of
relevant data
and
cross-checking
them.
If,
on the
condition that
the
two
requirements
are
met,
the search fails
to uncover
denominators
common to the
interrogees,
the
hypothesis
would
have to be
rejected
as unsubstantiated.
The
opposite
is not
necessarily
true,
however.
The
presence
of shared
characteristics
among
the
interrogees
lends
validity
to
the
hypothesis
only
if
it is shown that a comparable peer group, a control
group,
did
not
possess
these same
characteristics.
The
criteria
for
defining
the
comparable
peers,
or control
group,
will be
set forth
in the
body
of
the next
paragraph.
Composition
of
the
Two
Groups,
the
Interrogees
and Controls
The
most
comprehensive
list
of names
of the men
who
were
interrogated
by
al-Ma'mun
himself
or on
his order
by
Ishaq
b.
Ibrahim,
his
governor
in
Baghdad,
is found
in al-Tabari's
Ta'rikh
al-rusul
wa
al-muluk,
where
forty-
four
names
are
given.12
The
listing
of
names
is,
how-
ever,
one
thing;
a
straightforward
verification
of
who,
for
instance,
Ibn
al-Hirsh
or al-Sindi
are
is
altogether
another
matter.
Thanks
to the
contributions
of Edmund
12
Al-Tabari,
Ta'rikh
al-rusul
wa
al-muluk,
ed.
M. J. de
Goeje
et
al.
(Leiden:
E. J.
Brill, 1879-1901),
3:1116-32.
It
is certain
that,
as
al-Tabari
tates,
more
than
forty-four
men were
involved
in
this
interrogation,
a
matter to
be
discussed
at
length
later.
Bosworth,
van
Ess,
and
especially
Hans
Uhrig,'3
it
was
possible
to
establish,
with a
high degree
of
confidence,
the
identity
of
twenty-eight
of the
forty-four
men
men-
tioned
by
al-Tabari.The
empirical part
of this
study
is
restricted to these twenty-eight men.'4
Decisions had to be made about
the size of the con-
trol
group;
the criteria
defining
their
comparability
o
the
interrogees;
and
how,
according
to
the
accepted
norms
statisticians
use,
they ought
to be selected.
Strictly speak-
ing,
a
control
group
of
twenty-eight
individuals
would
suffice,
since it would match
numerically
the
group
of
the men
interrogated.
A
larger
size is not
only
permissi-
ble
but
would
also
increase the
pool
of information.
It
was
therefore
decided to double
the number
by
selecting
fifty-six
control
group
individuals.
13
C. Edmund
Bosworth,
The
History of
al-Tabari,
vol.
32:
The
Reunification of
the CAbbasid
Caliphate (Albany:
State
Univ.
of New York
Press,
1987),
204-19;
Josef
van
Ess,
The-
ologie
und
Gesellschaft,
3:455-56;
Hans
F
Uhrig,
Das
Kalifat
von al-Ma'mun
(Frankfurt:
Verlag
Peter
Lang,
1988),
256-85.
14
The
twenty-eight
interrogees
with,
in
parenthesis,
their
Is-
lamic
years
of
death
when
known are:
CAbdalaCla'.
Mushir
(d.
218);
CAbdalmalik
b. CAbdalCaziz
d.
228);
'AbdalmunCim
b.
Idris
(d. 218);
CAbdalrahman
.
Ishaq
(d. 232);
CAbdalrahman
.
Yunus
(d.
224);
Ahmad
b. Ibrahim
(d.
246);
Ahmad
b. Hanbal
(d.
241);
Ahmad b.
Yazid;
CAli
b. al-Ja'd
(d.
230);
CAsimb.
CAli
(d.
221);
Bishr
b. al-Walid
(d. 238);
al-Fadl
b.
Ghanim
(d.
236);
al-Hasan b. Hammad(d. 241); al-Hasanb. CUthman d. 242);
Ibrahim
b. Muhammad
al-Mahdi
(d.
224);
Ishaq
b. Ibrahim
(d.
246);
Isma'il
b. Ibrahim
(d.
236);
Ismacil
b.
Abi
Mascid;
Jacfar
b.
'Isa
(d.
219);
Muhammad
b.
Sacd
(d.
230);
Muhammad
b.
Hatim
(d. 236);
Muhammad
b. Nuh al-Madrub
(d. 218);
al-
Muzaffar
b.
Murajja;
Qutayba
b.
Sacid
(d.
240);
Sacid
b.
Sulay-
min
(d.
225);
'Ubaydallah
b. 'Umar
(d.
235);
Yahya
b.
Macin
(d.
233);
Zuhayr
b.
Harb
(d.
234).
The
names of
the sixteen
men
excluded
because
of
lack of
further
dentification
are: Ismacil
b.
Dawud;
CAli
b. Abi
Muqatil;
al-Dhayyal
b.
al-Haytham;
Ibn
al-Hirsh;
Ibn
CUlayya
al-Akbar;
Yahya
b. CAbd
al-Rahman
al-'Umari;
another
descendant
of
CUmar
. al-Khattab
who
was
judge
of
al-Raqqa ;
al-Fadl
b.
al-
Farrukhan;
l-Nadr
b.
Shumayl;
Ibn
Shujac;
Ubaydallah
b. Mu-
hammad
b.
al-Hasan;
Ibn
al-Bakka';
a blind
man
who
was not
a
faqih ;
Ibn
al-Ahmar;
al-Sindi;
CAbbas.
Though
suggestions
have been
made
as to
the
identity
of
some
of these
sixteen
names
(like
IsmaCil
b. DawOd
or
Ibn
CUlayya
al-Akbar),
it was
nevertheless
considered
better
to
leave
them
out
if
any
doubt
remained.
All sources
report,
for
example,
that
al-Nadr
b. Shu-
mayl
had
died
more than
a
decade
before
the
inception
of the
mihna;
he
was,
consequently,
not
included
in
the final
list of
interrogees.
700
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8/20/2019 Nawas (John a.)_The Miḥna of 218 AH:833 AD Revisited. an Empirical Study (Journal of the American Oriental Soc.…
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NAWAS:
The
Mihna
of
218
A.H./833 A.D.
Revisited
To
assure
comparability,
our criteria
were used.
First,
names of
the
fifty-six
men
had to be
drawn from
that
one
single
source which
happens
to
provide
information
about
more of
the
twenty-eight
interrogees
than
any
other. In a pilot study, I scrutinized several promising
sources and found
al-Khatib
al-Baghdadi's
Ta'rikh
Bagh-
dad
to
have entries
on all of
the
twenty-eight
men
inter-
rogated.
Consequently,
this
source was
used as basis
for
selection
(first
criterion).
Statisticians counsel
the use
of
a table of randomnumbers
or the
purpose
of
eliminat-
ing
selection bias-and
such a table
was
used,
and
quite
easily,
since the entries
in Ta'rikh
Baghdad
are
num-
bered.
However,
not
everyone
who
happened
to
turn
up
via this
randomization
procedure
was
selected as
part
of
the
pool
of
fifty-six
men.
Of
these,
only
the
individuals
who
met the other
three
criteria of
comparability
to
the
interrogees
were
taken
up
in
the final
list:
they
had
to
be
membersof the samesex, all men;who had not been sub-
jected
to the
mihna;
and,
who
were
contemporaries
of
the
twenty-eight
men,
in
that
they
died between
218/833
and
246/861-respectively,
the
earliest and
latest
years
of death of
the
interrogees.
The
Variables
Used
for
Comparing
the
Two
Groups
I
startedoff
with
a
list of
ninety-four
distinct
pieces
of
data
covering
as
many
aspects
and
phases
of
human
life
as I
could
think
of.
After
scrutinizing
the
sources
used
in
this
study,
it
became clear
that this list
of
variables
was too
ambitious,
as the
vast
majority
of the
variables
fell beyondthe
scope
of whatmedievalchroniclers ended
to
present
n their
biographical
dictionaries.
Of the
orig-
inal
list of
ninety-four
variables,
nineteen
emerged
as
usable
due
to
availability
of
information
and
practical
relevance
for
this
investigation.
These
variables
and the
three
main
categories
under which
they
are
classifiable
are
the
following.
a)
Vital
statistics and
means of
livelihood:
year
of
birth;
places
of
birth,
upbringing,
residence,
death
and
burial;
occupational
pursuits
of the
men
and
their
ancestors.
b)
Geographic
origin
and
ethnic
background:
geo-
graphic
origin;
Arab
versus
mawla
(a
non-Arab
client).
c)
Intellectual
standing
and
ideology:
course of
study;
where
they
studied;
specialization
(e.g.,
legal
expert,
genealogist);
places
of
transmission;
where
they taught;
ascription
as
transmitter of
hadith
(e.g.,
trustworthy,
weak);
names
and
number of
teachers;
names and
num-
ber
of
pupils;
ideological
position.
The
Sources
Used
Inasmuch as
Lapidus
paid
close
attention
to
the
inter-
rogees
as a
group,
I
used
the
same
biographical
sources
he had
employed,
but
added
others for a
more
complete
picture
and a
broader
base for
comparing
the two
groups
of
interrogees
and
controls.
The sources
used
by
Lapidus
are
al-Dhahabi,
Tadhkirat
al-huffaz;
Ibn
Hajar,
Tahdhib
al-tahdhib;al-Khatibal-Baghdadi,Ta'rikhbaghdad;Ibn
al-CImad,
hadharadt
l-dhahab;
Ibn
Sacd,
Kitab
al-tabaqat
al-kabir;
Ibn
al-Taghribirdi,
l-Nujum
al-zdhira
fi
muluk
misr wa
al-qdhira;
al-Subki,
Tabaqdtal-shdficiyya
al-ku-
bra;
al-SamCani,
al-Ansdb;
Wakic,
Akhbdr
al-qudat
wa
tawdrikhihim.'5
n the
initial
phase
of
this
study,
I
added
to this list
Ibn
Hajar,
Lisdn
al-mizdn,
and two
major
bio-
graphical
dictionaries that
had not
been
published
when
Lapidus
wrote his
article,
al-Dhahabi,
Siyar
acldm
al-
nubalad,
and
al-Mizzi,
Tahdhib
al-kamal
fi
asma' al-
rijal.'6
Additional
sources,
to be
cited
later in this
article,
were
used for
answering questions
which arose
as re-
search
progressed.
In collecting the information,all but the safest infer-
ences
were
avoided,
and I
have
remained
very
close
to
the
explicit
statements
made in the
texts.
Determination
of
whether a
person
was a
mawld
or not
illustrates
my
approach.
Even
though
the
adjective
of
relation
nisba)
in a
name can
help
determine
ethnicity,
it was
deemed
prudent
to
designate
a
person
as Arab or
mawld
only
if
the
chronicler
himself
unequivocally
tells us
thathe
was
one or the
other.
The same
stringency
was
applied
in
re-
cording
information on all
the
variables.
RESULTS
As the results
are
being
presented,
the reader will
en-
counter
percentages
and
absolute
numbers.Both
have to
15
Lapidus,
Separation,
81,
n. 1.
The
editions used
or his
study
are:
al-Dhahabi,
Tadhkirat
l-huffaz,
5 vols.
(Hyderabad:
Da'irat
al-mac'rif
al-'uthmaniyya,
1968);
Ibn
Hajar,
Tahdhib l-
tahdhib,
14 vols.
(Beirut:
Dar al-fikr
al-'arabi,
1984);
al-Khatib
al-Baghdadi,
Ta'rikh
Baghdad,
15 vols.
(Beirut:
Dar
al-kutub
al-Cilmiyya);
Ibn
al-'Imad,
Shadharat
al-dhahab,
8
vols.
(Bei-
rut:Dar
al-afaq
al-jadida);
Ibn
Sacd,
Kitab
al-tabaqat
al-kabir,
ed.
Ihsan
CAbbas,
vols.
(Beirut:
Dar
sadir);
Ibn
al-Taghribirdi,
al-Nujum
l-zdhira
i
mulukmisrwa
al-qdhira,
6
vols.
(Cairo:
Wizarat
al-thaqafa
wa
al-irshad
al-qawmi,
1929-72);
al-Subki,
Tabaqdt
al-shdfiCiyya
al-kubrd,
ed.
Mahmud
al-Tanahi
and
cAbdalfattah
al-Hilw,
10
vols.
(Cairo:
Dar
ihya'
al-kutub al-
Carabiyya,
964);
al-SamCani, l-Ansab,
ed.
CAbdallah
l-Baridi,
5
vols.
(Beirut:
Dar
al-janan,
1988);
Wakic,
Akhbdr
al-qudat
wa
tawarikhihim,
3
vols.
(Beirut:
cAlam
al-kutub).
16
Ibn
Hajar,
Lisdn
al-mizan,
7 vols.
(Beirut:
Mu'assasat al-
aClami
i-l-matbuicat,
986); al-Dhahabi,
Siyar
acldm
al-nubald',
ed.
Shucayb
al-Arna>it
and
others,
25 vols.
(Beirut:
Mu'assasat
701
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6/12
Journal
of
the
American Oriental
Society
116.4
(1996)
be
kept
in mind
at the same
time,
for
otherwise a dis-
torted
picture
s
likely
to
emerge.
As will
be
recalled,
the
two
groups
varied in
size-the controls
counting
twice
as
many
as
the
interrogees-and
the
amount
of
data
found for each group on most of the variables differed
even
more
radically.
These
divergences
dictate the need
for
presenting
the results in
terms
of
percentages.
How-
ever,
percentages
alone can be
misleading.
(A
difference
between
25% and 50% is
impressively
large
but such a
difference
can
arise from a
single
case-a ratio of 1:4 is
25%
while
for
2:4,
the
percentage
jumps
to
50.)
It is
therefore
essential
to
keep
both
absolute
numbers
as
well
as
percentages
in the
background
as the one or the other
is
being
pondered.
Turning
to
contents,
a bird's
eye
view
of
the
totality
of
the
data
which
the sources
generated
on the interro-
gees
and
the
control
group separately
discloses a strik-
ing
dissimilarity
from two
perspectives.
First,
on fifteen
of
the
nineteen
variables
studied,
the
sources contained
more
information
on
the
men
interrogated
than on their
counterparts,
the
control
group.17
Second,
the sources
yielded
225
pieces
of
data
on the
twenty-eight
inter-
rogees
but
only
299
on
the
fifty-six
members of
the
con-
trol
group, averaging
8 and
5.3,
respectively.
These
findings
have
two
implications.
They
tell us that ancient
chroniclers
have accorded
the
men
interrogated
a rela-
tively
high
degree
of attention.
This can
be taken as an
index of
eminence,
but
it
is
just
as
likely
to be
a
reac-
tion on
the
part
of
the
chroniclers
to
a
unique
event,
the
mihna.The second implicationof the findings is that the
amount
of
information
available
in the
sources is far
more
restricted than
one
hopes
for;
this is
not
surpris-
ing
to
modern
scholars
who
know
that
their ancient
counterparts
had no
use for the
variables
contemporaries
deem
important,
nor
do these restricted
data
form an
im-
pediment
to
historians
who
are
used
to
working
with
precious
few and
fragmented
data.
The
presentation
to
follow
immediately
will
report
the
findings
pertaining
to each
of
the
three
categories
under
which
the nineteen
variables
were
grouped,
one at a
time,
and
discusses
them
as
we
go
along.'8
al-risala,
1993)
and
al-Mizzi,
Tahdhib
al-kamalfi
asmad
al-rijal,
ed. Bashshar
Macrif,
35
vols.
(Beirut:
Mu'assasat
al-risfla,
1992).
17
The
four variables
regarding
which more information
was
found
for the
control
group
than for the
interrogees
are:
num-
ber
of men whose
teachers
are
listed;
number
of men
whose
pupils
are
listed;
towns
where the men
lived;
and
place(s)
of
transmission.
18
In the interestof
brevity
and to
spare
the
reader nonessen-
tial
details,
only highlights
of the results are
presented
in the
Vital
Statistics and
Means
of
Livelihood
In
the
year
of
the mihna the
average age
of the
two
groups
was
close;
the
interrogees
had an
average age
of
66 while the control group'saverage was 62. Consider-
ing,
however,
that the
age
of
only
12.5
percent
of
the
controls was
given
in
the
sources
(versus
64%
of
the
interrogees),
the
age
difference
is
probably simply
a
re-
flection
of
this
variation in
raw data.
There is much
similarity
as to where
members
of
both
groups
were
born,
brought
up,
lived,
died
and were in-
terred. That
Baghdad
was central to the
two
groups
is
not
unexpected.
There was little
information
on
where
the
men were born or where
they
were
raised
(nasha'a).
Of
the
interrogees,
two
were born and raised in
Bagh-
dad and one
in
Wasit;
one member of
the
control
was
born in Marw
and another
in
Basra.
While
the
majority
of both the
interrogees
and members of the control
group
spent
and ended their lives in
Baghdad,
this
was
somewhat more so for
the
former.19
The
sources had
precious
little to
say
about the oc-
cupational pursuits
of members
of
the two
groups
and
even less about the
occupations
of
their ancestors.
In
all,
four
different
occupations
were
mentioned,
and
of these
the
legal profession
claimed more than
the
others-five
of the
twelve
interrogees
on whom information was
available
(42%)
versus four
of the
eight
controls
(50%).20
Geographic Origin
and Ethnic
Background
In
investigating
the
geographic
origin
of
the two
groups,
I have
paid
close
attention to whether
or not
Khurasan
was a
prominent
place
of
origin,2'
he aim
being
to shed
light
on the formulation
of
Lapidus, Madelung,
article.Detailed
esults
as
well
as information bout
any
other
aspect
of
this
study
complete
ist of
variables,
he names f all
the teachersand/or
pupils
of the two
groups,
etc.)
will be
gladlysupplied pon
request.
19
Of the
interrogees
bout
whom nformation as
available
on theseparticularariables, ll lived
in
Baghdad11:11),
75
percent
15:20)
died
n
Baghdad
ndall
(6:6)
wereburied here
versus,
espectively,
7
percent
20:26),
54
percent
15:28)
and
67
percent
2:3)
for the controls.
20
The other hree
occupational ursuits
weremerchants:
n-
terrogees
our,
controls
wo;
mustamli/katib
clerks ):
nterro-
gees
three,
controls
one;
khadim
servant):
nterrogees
ero,
controls ne.
21
My
thanks
go
to Professor
Lapidus
who,
in a
personal
communication
ated
July
18th,
1994,
helped
me
to
decide
how
to
define
of Khurasani
rigin.
702
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8/20/2019 Nawas (John a.)_The Miḥna of 218 AH:833 AD Revisited. an Empirical Study (Journal of the American Oriental Soc.…
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NAWAS: The Mihna
of
218 A.H./833
A.D. Revisited
and
van
Ess,
who all had
something
to
say
about the
mat-
ter.22
To determine
which
places belonged
to
Khurasan,
I
relied
largely
on
Yaqut's
Mucjam
al-bulddn.23
Accord-
ing
to
this
source,
the
following
towns were located in
Khurasan:
Balkh, Hara,Marw, Nasa, TUs.
The
village of
Zamm
(not
in
Yaqut)
was also included because the bio-
graphical
works stated that
it
lay
in
Khurasan.Our data
indicate that of
the
interrogees
46
percent
(6:13)
came
from
Khurasan,
while 54
percent
(7:13)
did
not. For
the
controls,
43
percent
(6:14)
had
Khurasanian
roots,
and
57
percent
(8:14)
originated
elsewhere. Informationon
ethnicity,
defined
as
being
Arab or
mawla,
was
found
on sixteen
interrogees
and twelve controls. There were
four
Arab
interrogees
(25%)
and four Arab control
group
members
(33%).
The
mawlas
among
the first-mentioned
totaled
twelve
(75%),
versus
eight
controls
(67%).
In
a
word,
the
mawlds
greatly
outnumbered he
Arabs in
both
groups.The issue of geographicand ethnic origins of the
interrogees
will be
discussed later.
Intellectual
Standing
and
Ideology
The
informationon course
of
study,place
of
study, spe-
cialization,
places
of
transmission
or
teaching
was much
too
scant to
warrantconsideration.
There
was, however,
sufficient nformation
about the
ascription
of
quality
of
the men
as
transmittersof
hadith.
Data
were uncovered
for
twenty-three
of the
twenty-eight interrogees
(82%)
and
thirty-nine
of
the
fifty-six
control
group
members
(70%).24
The
general
patternsuggests
that the chroniclers
accord the
interrogees
a
higher rating
as transmitters.
Of the
interrogees,
87
percent
were rated
thiqa
(reliable)
or
saduq
(veracious),
while
13
percent
were
rated
as Id
ba's
bihi
(not
bad,
neutral)
or
daCif
weak,
objectionable).
Comparable figures
for the control
group
are
72
percent
positive
and 28
percentweak/objectionable.
If this
picture
reflects
intellectual
stature,
is it con-
firmed
elsewhere? In
answering
this
question,
I
sought
specific
information
about the
presence
or absence of the
men
in the
six canonical
Sunnite
hadith
collections. The
rationale for this
exploration
is that
if
the
interrogees,
as
compared
to the
controls,
had
any
special
claim to
intellectual
eminence,
this
should be
reflected
in
the so-
22
Lapidus,
Separation ;
Madelung, Vigilante
Movement ;
van
Ess,
Gesellschaft,
3:448-9.
23
5 vols.
(Beirut,
Dar
sadir).
24
In
general,
the
sources
relied
heavily
on
al-Khatib al-
Baghdadi's ascription
of
reliability
for
the
individual
con-
cerned.
The
variations
offered
are
restricted to the
degree
in
which someone was
rated as
either
positive
or
negative.
called isnads
( chains
of
transmission )
ound in the
six
standard
collections of hadith.25Al-Mizzi's Tahdhibal-
kamdlfi
asmda
al-rijdl
lists where
all transmittersare to
be found in the six canonical
books.26
A
search in this
source revealed that seventeen
(61%)
of the
interrogees
are mentioned in the
canonical
works,
versus
twenty-
seven
(48%)
of
the
controls.
An
inspection
of
details
provides
an even more
impressive
differencebetween
the
two
groups.
Of the seventeen
interrogees
who
appear
n
the canonical
collections,
five
(29%)
are found
in all six
of
them,
versus
only
two of the
twenty-seven
controls
(7%).
Greater confidence
can be lent to this trend if
it
were to be corroborated
by
other data-which turns
out
to be the case as one
inspects
the numberof teachers
and
pupils
of the two
groups.27
Al-Khatib
al-Baghdfdi usually
starts off his
entries
by listing
teachers
of the
individual
in the
form
of
had-
datha Can he reportedfrom ) or rawd Can he trans-
mitted
from )
or samiCamin
( he
heard
from )
and
so
forth.
Counting
the names of such
teachers listed
in
al-
Khatib
al-Baghdadi
for
each of
the
twenty-five
(of
the
twenty-eight) interrogees
and
fifty-three
(of
the
fifty-six)
controls,
I found
that
the
former had a total of
150 teach-
ers
(averaging
six
per person)
while
the controls had
a
total of
221,
thus
averaging
a little over four-which
is
distinctly
less than what
the
interrogees
averaged.28
The
25
A
chain
of
transmission
lists
the
names of
the
people
who
reportedly transmitted the text of the hadith which is pre-
sented
after the
isndd.
The
six
canonical collections are
those
by
al-Bukhari, Muslim,
al-Tirmidhi,
Abu
Da'ud,
Ibn
Maja,
and
al-Nasa'i.
26 On al-Mizzi and his
Tahdhib
al-kamal see
El2,
s.v.
(G.
H. A.
Juynboll).
27
The sources
included
many
overlaps
in
the names of
teachers and
pupils.
In order
to
overcome the
difficulty
of
man-
aging
the
hundredsof names listed of
both
groups,
I
relied,
as
did
most of the
sources
used,
on
al-Khatib
al-Baghdadi.
How-
ever,
as the
findings
on the
numbers of
teachers and
pupils
ap-
peared
compelling,
I
consulted,
as a
check,
al-Mizzi's
Tahdhib
al-kamal and
al-Dhahabi's
Siyar
aclam al-nubald3
who,
just
like al-Khatib
al-Baghdadi,
have elaborate
listings
of teachers
and
pupils.
28 The two
groups
had
five teachers
in
common. The vast
ma-
jority
of the
teachers mentioned were
prominent
hadith
scholars
of
their
day. Sufyan
b.
CUyayna
a
famous hadith
scholar who
died in Mecca in
198/814)
heads the
lists for both
groups.
The
others
who are
unique
to each
group
do not show
that the
inter-
rogees
can be
associated
with
any particular
group
of
hadith
scholars or with
any particularregion
since their
teachers
were
spread
over the
main centers of the
Islamic
empire.
703
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8/12
Journal
of
the American
Oriental
Society
116.4
(1996)
results obtained
from other
sources
point
in the same
direction.29
The size of the student
body
for each of the
two
groups
was
almost
an exact
parallel
for the
body
of
teachers.Morespecifically,twenty-three nterrogeeshad,
according
to al-Khatib
al-Baghdadi,
104
pupils
(averag-
ing
between
four and
five)
compared
to 150 individuals
who came under
the
tutelage
of
the
fifty-three
controls,
an
average
of less than
three.30Once
again,
these results
are confirmed elsewhere.31
These
findings
clearly
mean
that the
interrogees
were more
sought
after
as teachers
than were
their
peers
of the control
group.
And,
inas-
much
as
the
pupils
of both
groups
were
geographically
very widely
spread,
it can be concluded
that,
throughout
the
Islamic
empire,
the
overall
influence
of the interro-
gees
was
greater
than that
of the
controls.
The
information
available
on
the
ideological
positions
(e.g., Shicite, Muctazilite,Hanbalite,etc.) of membersof
either
group
was
much
too limited
to have
any signif-
icance.
Data on
only
five of the
interrogees
(17.6%)
and
on four
(7.1%)
of
the control
group
was found
and these
show no trend
whatsoever.
The matter was
pursued
fur-
ther,
however,
by
consulting pertinent
sources
to
see if
posterity
saw
fit to
link
any
of the
men
to a
particular
ideology.
I decided
to
use for
this
purpose
representative
works
from
each
of the four
Sunnite
schools
of law
(Mal-
ikites,
Hanafites,
Shaficites,
Hanbalites),
together
with
a
compendium
of ShiCite
hadith
collectors.32
Disregarding
29
Al-Mizzi
ists 802
teachers
or
17
interrogees
nd771
for
31
controls,
veraging
7 teachers
er
nterrogee
ersus25
per
control
roup
member.
Al-Dhahabi's
iyar
mentions 45
teach-
ers for
the 18
interrogees
e includes
average
er
nterrogee
s
19)
and215
for
24 controls
averaging
ine). The
difference
n
number
f controls
ound
n al-Mizzi
with the
number
men-
tioned
previously
n the
article
i.e.,
27],
has
to do
with he
fact
that
our
of the 31
controls
ound
n
al-Mizzi's
workdo
not
ap-
pear
n
the
canonical
ollections,
which was
the
point
being
made
earlier.)
30
Just
as
was the
case
with
the
teachers
f the
two
groups,
there
was
overlap
n the
namesof
their
pupils
but
no
specific
pattern
f
scholastic
ffiliation
merged.
31
Al-Mizzi
gives
the
names
of 574
pupils
for
17
interro-
gees-on
the
average
4
per
nterrogee.
or31
controls,
e
lists
773
pupils,
which
is about
25
per
control
group
member.
n
al-Dhahabi's
iyar,
18
interrogees
ad 304
pupils
average:
7
per person)
while
24 controls
had
218
pupils-which
is nine
per
member
f this
group.
32
Al-Qadi
CIyad,
Tartib
al-madirik
wa
taqrib
al-masilik
li-
macrifat
aclam
madhhab
malik,
ed.
Ahmad
Mahmud,
3 vols.
(Beirut:
Dar
maktabat
l-hayat,
n.d.);
Ibn
Abi
al-WafSa,
l-
overlap
(i.e.,
mention
of a
person
in,
say,
the
Hanbalite
source and the Shaficite
one),
thirteen
of the
twenty-eight
(46.4%)
compared
with
a
mere
seven of the
fifty-six
con-
trol
(12.5%)
had earned mention
in
these works.33
DISCUSSION
AND CONCLUSIONS
Our
closing
remarkswill address
two basic
issues.
The
first
explores
the reason
for al-Ma'min's
singling
out
for
inquisition
this one
particular
group
of
forty-four
men-
and whose
characteristics
we
have
sought
to
identify
in
the
present
nvestigation.
Next to
be discussed
is whether
our
findings
shed further
light
on
the
paradigm
shift
which has occurred
when the
mihna is
explained
by
re-
lating
the results
to the two
hypotheses
which underlie
the
shift-the
caliphal
authorityhypothesis,
and its
alternate
which links the
mihna to
oppositional
forces,
in which the
Khurasanianswere key players.
Why
These
Forty-four
Men in
Particular?
Judging
by
the subset
of
the
twenty-eight
on whom
information
was available
and
who are assumed
to be
no different
from the
total
group,
our
findings
indicate
that there
was
something
exceptional
about
the
forty-
four men
as
a whole.
They
were selected
by
the
caliph
as a
target
because
of
who
they
were
and,
as
such,
they
served as
a most
convenient
vehicle
for
getting
a
par-
ticular
message
across
to
others.
Not before
our
comparisons
included
the
category
of
intellectual
standing
did
it become
clear
why
al-Ma'min
had
singled
out this
particular
group.
The
interrogees
stood
out
on
virtually
every
one
of
the
five
indices
used
in
this
study
for
gauging
intellectual
quality
and
social
influence;
herein lies
their
uniqueness
and
why
al-
Ma'mun
selected
them as
a
target.
The
high-profile
attributes
of
the
interrogees
are indi-
cated
by
the
following
specific
findings.
1)
They
were
mentioned
in
far more
biographical
dictionaries
and at
Jawahir
al-mud4ia
fi
tabaqat
al-hanafiyya,
ed.
CAbdalfattah
al-Hilw, vols.
(Riyad:
Daral-'ulum,19932); l-Subki,Tabaqat
al-shafitiyya;
Ibn
Abi
YaCla,
Tabaqat
al-hanabila,
ed.
Muham-
mad
al-Fiqi,
2 vols.
(Cairo:
Matbacat
al-sunna
al-muhammad-
iyya);
al-Irdabili,
Jami'
al-Ruwdt,
2
vols.
(Beirut:
Dar
al-adwa',
1983).
33
Distribution
of the
entries
is as
follows.
For
the
interro-
gees:
two
in
the
Malikite,
six
in
the
Hanafite,
one
in
the
Shafi'ite,
four
in
the
Hanbalite,
and
none
in
the
Shicite
source.
For
the control
group:
Shaficite,
two;
Hanbalite,
four;
Shicite,
one;
no Malikite
or
Hanafite entries.
704
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8/20/2019 Nawas (John a.)_The Miḥna of 218 AH:833 AD Revisited. an Empirical Study (Journal of the American Oriental Soc.…
9/12
NAWAS:The Mihna
of
218
A.H./833 A.D. Revisited
greater
ength
than
their
counterparts.
2)
The
interrogees
were ascribed
a
quality
as transmittersof hadith
superior
to that
of their
counterparts.
3)
Proportionately,
more
of
the
interrogees
were
part
of one or
more
of
the isndds
in
the canonical
Sunnite
hadith
collections.
4)
The
inter-
rogees
averaged
more
teachers
than did members of the
control
group.
5)
An even more
impressive
difference
emerged
in the
comparison
of the numberof
pupils
to
whom the
interrogees
were
tutors;
they averaged
more
than one-and-a-half
times
as
many
pupils
as did
the
controls.
Unambiguously,
then,
the
findings
tell us that the
in-
terrogees
were muhaddithin of
distinction,
men
highly
esteemed for their
intellect,
as well
as their social
status
and
influence34-indeed,
the
creme
de la creme
of
Baghdadi
hadith-scholarship,
as
van Ess
aptly
put it.35
The
caliph's inquisition
aimed
at more
than
simply
humiliating and muzzling the traditionists. This group
of
luminaries was
itself a
target,
to be
sure;
but
it
was
also
the
proxy
through
which
al-Ma'mun
sent
a
loud
and
clear
message
that
henceforwardthe business of
hadith
was under
his
censorship,
and those who transmit or
teach
it
accountable o
him.
By making
an
example
of the
leadership,
as
the
caliph
characterized the men to be
put
to
the
test,36
he
was
serving
notice
to
all
traditionists,
the
muhaddithun,
whose number and tomes were bur-
geoning
and
followers
spreading
far and
wide,
that it is
now the
Commander
of
the Faithful
who
has
the author-
ity
on
religious
matters.
As
though
to
give
immediacy
and
concreteness to the aim
of
exercizing
this
authority,
al-Ma'mun
issued an interdict to two reluctant
interro-
gees
that
further hesitation
would
result
in
their
being
banned
from
transmitting
or
teaching
hadith in
private
or
in
public. 37
t
is evident
from
the
very
decree of
the
mihna
itself,
as
well
as
from the
tactics used in
imple-
menting
it,
that the
caliph
was
determined to leave no
stone
unturned
n order to
convey
that
message
to the
34
This
may
well have been what
al-Tabariwas
trying
to
say
without
committing
himself. I base
such an
inference
on
the
general
drift
of
his narrative and an
intriguing slip
of
the
pen
he
made.
Al-Tabari included
al-Nadr b.
Shumayl
among
the
forty-four
interrogees
although
he
had died a
decade earlier. It
is
understandable
or
al-Tabari
to
have made such
a
slip;
al-
Nadr b.
Shumayl
was
known to have
been a
foremost
figure
(imam)
in...
hadith and
the
first to have
expounded
the
sunna
(awwalu
man
azhara
al-sunna)
in
Marw and
all
of
Khurasan
(al-Mizzi,
Tahdhib
al-kamal,
29:383).
35
Van
Ess,
Theologie
und
Gesellschaft,
3:455.
36
Al-Tabari,
Ta'rikh,
3:1114.
37
Al-Tabari,
Ta'rikh,
3:1125;
3:1129.
traditionistsas
effectively, energetically,
and
swiftly
as
his and the talents of
his
governor
allowed.38
And al-
Mamuiinhad
good
reasons.
Why
the Traditionists as Mihna
Target?
The traditionists were a
threat. Al-Ma'miin saw
them
as
sowing
seeds
of
destruction,
menacing
for who
they
were,
for
what
they
had come to
be
within the social
fab-
ric,
and for the kinds of activities
they
were
carrying
out.
The
sheer number and influence of these
self-appointed
spokesmen
for
Islam,
involved
in an
enterprise
to
which
they
had not been
commissioned and without
any
con-
trol from
above,
made them a force no ruler could
afford
to
ignore.
The traditionists were no
ordinary
men
harm-
lessly busying
themselves within the confines
of
ivory
38
In
all,
the literal
texts
of four letters on the mihna
issued
by
al-Ma'mun
are
found in al-Tabari'sTa'rikh:the first
letter,
3:1112-16;
second
letter, 3:1117-21;
third
letter, 3:1125-31;
fourth
letter,
3:1131-32.
Much that is of relevance
to this
point
can
be
gleaned
directly
from
the text
of these
mihna letters
and
the
circumstances
urrounding
heir
dispatch.
1)
Practicallyevery
interrogee
was threatened with loss of function and means
of
livelihood
if
compliance
was not obtained
(in
particular,
:1115);
some men were
tortured;
thers threatenedwith
death;
and
about
a dozen were blackmailed
into
acquiescence
by
accusations
that
they
were
usurers,
thieves, liars, bribe-takers,
or
polytheists,
etc. (see, especially, first and thirdletters). 2) Indicatorsof the
sense of
urgency
are the fact that
the first
mihna
letter was
writ-
ten
by
al-Ma'mun
while he was
away
from
Baghdad
on the
Byz-
antine battlefrontand that
the third letter was
dispatched
by
a
special
courier
(3:1130-31). 3)
The
governor
was
instructedto
remain alert
by keeping
a watchful
eye
on
even those
who
ac-
knowledged
the doctrine
(3:1116
and
3:1120-21).
4)
On several
occasions the
governor
was
instructed
o
make
public
the names
of
the men
who
had
acquiesced
in
the doctrine
(3:1116;
3:1117;
3:1126-27, twice;
3:1130). 5)
Intriguing,
too,
is an
episode
whose
components
stand out for
their oddities but
which fall
into
place
once
viewed within the
context underdiscussion. The
episode
is
embodied in another
mihna
letter whose literal text
was
not
preserved
by
al-Tabari.In
it,
the
caliph
asked the
gov-
ernor to
dispatch
to him
at
al-Raqqa
seven
specific
men he
wanted
to
interrogate
in
person
(3:1116-17).
Though
all did
profess
to
the
caliph
their
acceptance
of
the
doctrine,
and
appar-
ently
without
pressure
or
duress,
al-Ma'mun
chose
to send them
back to
Ishaq
b. Ibrlhim
with
a
dual
instruction. The
governor
was, first,
to
put
the
men to the test
once
again,
but this time be-
fore
a
gathering
of
experts
in
religious
law and senior
tradi-
tionists
(3:1117) and,
second,
to
lose no time in
making
their
confession
before this
group public.
705
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8/20/2019 Nawas (John a.)_The Miḥna of 218 AH:833 AD Revisited. an Empirical Study (Journal of the American Oriental Soc.…
10/12
Journal
of
the
American
Oriental
Society
116.4
(1996)
towers,
but deluded...
depraved...
untrustworthy...
heretics...
the
tongue
of
Iblis
(the
devil)...
making
a
pretense
of
piety
and
knowledge
in
order
to lead the
masses
astray -expressions
continuously
used
by
the
caliph in the mihna letters to describe the interrogees;
and,
as he tells it in the
preambles
o both
the first and
sec-
ond
mihna
letters,
al-Ma'mun saw it was his
solemn
duty
to
call to order
anyone
he saw as a
renegade.
The
mihna
was
an
expression
of this
duty.
The ascent
of
the
muhaddithun
o
prominence
is
but
one
part
of the mihna
equation.
The other is the
product
of the
traditionists'
abors,
the mountains
of hadith
that
were
transforming
the social
order,
with
promises
of
more to
come,
for the
momentumhad
already
been build-
ing
for some
time. In the course of the first two
centuries
of
Islam,
countless
numbers of
hadiths
had been col-
lected in various
regions
of
the
empire,
all
alleging
to
be authenticrecordsof what the
Prophet
and his Com-
panions
(al-Sahaba)
had
said and how
they
conducted
themselves
(al-sunna).
These hadiths were in
reality
con-
coctions
which
mainly
reflected
regional
and
local
needs,
local
law, customs,
and
tastes,
with
flavorings
from the
men
who
transmitted,
aught
and
copied
them.39
The
changes
in
society attending
the dramatic
expan-
sion
of
the
Islamic
empire
created needs too manifold
and
circumstances too
pressing
to
be
accommodated
by
the
then
existing
set of
laws,
making
it
necessary
to turn
to
hadiths
to
supplement
the
Qur'an
as the basis
for
extending
and
updating
the
sharca,
the Islamic law. But
a sharica whose objective is to define what is just and
right
and
how
Muslims
ought
to conduct
themselves and
deal
with
one
another
cannot be
founded
on
hadiths of
questionable
reliability.
Something
had
to be
done.
In
response,
initiatives
were undertaken
o
purify,
resolve
contradictions,
classify,
collate
and set standards
or
the
authentification
of
hadiths.
This
daunting
ask
was
shoul-
dered
largely
by
the
four
emerging
schools
of
Islamic
jurisprudence,40
nd
instruments
were created
for
execut-
ing
it.
The
most
important
of these
instrumentswas the
ijmad
(consensus),
which
was to become
in
its
own
right
a
pillar
upon
which
the
sharica rests
(holding
a
position
of
priority
next to
the
Qur'an
and
hadith,
in this
order).
Qiyas
(analogy with a rule derived from any of the other
39
G.
H. A.
Juynboll,
Muslim
Tradition: Studies
in
Chro-
nology,
Provenance
and
Authorship
of
Early
Hadith
(Cam-
bridge: Cambridge
Univ.
Press,
1983).
40
These are the
Malikite,
Hanafite, Shaficite,
and
Hanbalite.
They
were named for
Abu
Hanifa
(d.
150/767),
Malik
b. Anas
(d. 179/795),
Muhammad
b. Idris
al-Shafici
(d. 205/820),
and
Ahmad b.
Hanbal
(d. 241/855).
three)
was
then added as
the
fourth foundation for
the
shariCa
and
its
lowest
in
hierarchy).
These
activitieswere in full
swing
during
the
caliphate
of
Harun
al-Rashid
(r.
170-193/786-809)
and the
ten-
ure of his son, al-Ma'miin. They were exhaustive, fo-
cusing
on
hadiths which
were to
be
incorporated
into
the canon
to
regulate
the
totality
of
a
person's
conduct
and to
prepare
him or her
for
likely
encounters
with the
unknown,
perplexing
ethical
issues-and
trivialities,
as
well.
This
corpus
served
as
a
mainspring
on
which defini-
tive
canonical
compilations,
such as those of
al-Bukhari,
Muslim and
others,
drew.
Very
active
in
these
endeavors
were
Ahmadb.
Hanbaland
especially
al-Shafici,
two
con-
temporaries
of
al-Ma'miin
who
did not
have an
easy
time with the
Abbasids;
al-Shafici was
imprisoned
in
Baghdad
for
participation
n
a
Shicite
revolt
in
Yemen,
and
Ibn
Hanbal
was the man
interrogated
on
orders of
al-Ma'mun,and who never
acquiesced
in the doctrine of
the
creatednessof the
Qur'an,
even
when
threatened
with
the sword.
While Ibn
Hanbal
taught
that a
caliph
must be
obeyed,
there was a limit
to this
duty
when it
came to
matters
which
touch faith
deeply.
Al-Shafici
and his
followers
held the view
that the
caliph
was the
state's
executive
head,
but one
whose voice in terms
of
ijmai
counted no
more than
that of
any
other
member of the commun-
ity.4'
Such
thoughts
must
have infuriatedthe
caliph,
who
saw
himself,
long
before the
mihna,
as God's
deputy
on
earth... inheritorof the
prophethood....
direct
recipi-
ent of knowledge from God 42and the man responsi-
ble
for
the
salvation of the
souls
of
Muslims
(letters
1
and
2).
The more
so
since,
by
the nature
of
things,
it was
the
traditionists,
the
living
repository
of
hadith knowl-
edge,
who
were
now in
the
saddle,
leaving
the
caliph
behind.
Al-Ma'mun
knew full well that
principles
codi-
fied
without his authorization offered
enough
room
for
circumventing
and
delegitimizing
his
commands,
indeed
41
On
al-Shafici and
these
developments,
see
Joseph
Schacht,
The
Origins of
Muhammadan
Jurisprudence
(Oxford:
Claren-
don
Press,
1950);
MarshallG. S.
Hodgson,
The
Ventureof
Islam,
vol. 1:
The Classical
Age of
Islam
(Chicago:
Univ. of
Chicago
Press,
1974),
315-50.
42
The same
theme
was
expressed
at the outset
of
al-
Mamuin's
reign,
some
twenty
years
prior
to the
mihna,
in
the
Risalat
al-khamis,
an
epistle
written for the
purpose
of
rallying
the forces behind
him;
for
the text of this
epistle
see
Ahmad
Zaki
Safwat,
Jamharat
rasa'il
al-'arab,
4 vols.
(Cairo:
Mustafa
al-Halabi,
1937),
3:377-97.
For
an
analysis
of
al-Ma'mun's
conception
of the
caliphate hroughout
his
reign,
see
Nawas,
Reexamination,
619-21.
706
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8/20/2019 Nawas (John a.)_The Miḥna of 218 AH:833 AD Revisited. an Empirical Study (Journal of the American Oriental Soc.…
11/12
NAWAS: he Mihna
of
218
A.H./833 A.D.
Revisited
overruling
him-especially
since these were
anchored
n
religion.
Having
thus far
succeeded
in
maneuvering
their
way
into the
legal
establishment,
perhaps
these men could
be
undercut
by taking
on the
entire
legal system.
This is
precisely
what al-Ma'mun
planned
to do. His
instruc-
tions to
Ishaq
b.
Ibrahim
specified
three
groups
as tar-
gets
for
the
inquisition:
1)
the
qu.dat
judges, plural
of
qadi)
and
shuhud
(court officials, witnesses,
plural
of
shdhid);432)
The
muhaddithun,
ncluding
the
forty-four
men
named;
and
3)
thefuqahda
(plural
of
faqih),
experts
in
law and
theology
who had one foot in
each of the two
other
camps.
It
follows from
this, then,
that an
adequate
explanation
of the mihna
must be based on the
totality
of men
subjected
to
it,
not
only,
as has been done in
the
past,
on the
interrogees
whose names are known
and
who are
but a small
fraction of the total-a matter
to be
taken up shortly.
Implications
for
Explanations of
the Mihna
There
are two
viable
explanatory
hypotheses
for the
mihna,
as we have
indicated earlier.
One views the
mihna as an
instrument which
al-Ma'min used to se-
cure for
the
generations
of
caliphs
to come the
total
and
unquestioned
authority-on
all
matters,
religious
and
secular-that was
vested
in
the
founding
fathers of
Islam.
The other
hypothesis
centers on the
caliph's
in-
tent to
do
away
with
opposition
to his
regime by
several
groups
and
factions,
notably
those of
(Arab-)Khurasa-