Part 16

_The Development of Islam._--The battle of Siffin (657) between `Ali and Moawiya was the occasion of the first breach in the unity of Islam, and the results remain to this day. The occasion was in the first case political, but politics were at that time too intimately connected with religion to be considered apart from it. After the battle (see CALIPHATE) `Ali was practically compelled to submit his claims to arbitration, whereupon a number of his supporters broke away from him, saying that there should have been no appeal save to the Book of God. These men were for the most part country Arabs, and, inspired by the free spirit of the desert, were democratic, claiming that the caliph should be elected by the whole community from any family (and not from the Koreish alone), and that the caliph might be deposed for sin. A few extremists were republicans and would do without a caliph altogether. The whole party was known as the Kharijites (Kharijiyya or Khawarij). The Moslems who disagreed with them were regarded by them as renegades and were to be put to death. They were soon divided into extremists and moderates. The former put to death the children of unbelievers and refused to hold intercourse in daily life with unbelievers. The moderates, who came to be known as Ibadites (from their leader `Abdallah ibn `Ibad), would allow the children of unbelievers to grow up, and would then deal with them according to their choice. In ordinary life they would mix with all men, but marriage with other Moslems outside their own ranks was forbidden. These still remain in Oman, parts of Algeria and East Africa.

Another party, consisting mainly of city Arabs infected with Persian ideas as to the divinity of the ruler, clung to `Ali with inconvenient affection. They regarded `Ali and his descendants as the only legitimate caliphs, and came to be known as Shi`ites (q.v.). They remain to-day the largest part of Islam outside orthodoxy. During the Omayyad caliphate (661-750) there were three centres of religious thought and influence; students and teachers often passed from one to the other, thus making universal the teachings which in their origin were due to local circumstances. These centres were Damascus (the seat of the caliphate), Medina and the East (Irak, &c.). In Damascus the court was worldly and indifferent to the interests of Islam. The early Omayyads were distinguished for their striving after dominion (_mulk_). Instead of attempting to propagate Islam, they tolerated other religions and favoured Christians who were distinguished as poets (e.g. Akhtal) or officials (John of Damascus), or men likely to be of use to them in any way. The doctrines of Christianity began to influence even serious Moslems and to affect their way of stating Moslem belief. John of Damascus (d. before 767), the Greek theologian, and his pupil, Theodorus Abucara (d. 826), have written controversial works on Islam, from which it seems probable that disputations on subjects pertaining to religion were held between Christians and Moslems. Two schools of heretical Moslem sects arose under these influences--that of the Murjiites and that of the Qadarites. The Murjiites ("postponers") were so called because they postponed the judgment of human actions until the Day of Judgment. In politics they accepted the Omayyads as _de facto_ rulers, since they were Moslems, and left the judgment of their actions to God. As theologians they taught that religion consists in belief (_iman_) in the unity of God and in his apostle, and in that alone, consequently no one who held this faith would perish eternally, though he had been a sinner. This was opposed to the Kharijite doctrine that the unrepentant sinner would perish eternally, even though he had professed Islam.

The Qadarites were concerned with the doctrine of predestination and free-will. So long as Moslems were fighting the battles of Islam they naturally paid most attention to those revelations which laid stress on the absolute determination of a man's destiny by God. They fought with great bravery because they believed that God had foreordained their death or life and they could not escape His will. In the quieter realm of town and court life and in their disputations with Christians they were called upon to reconcile this belief with the appeals made in the Koran to man's own self-determination to good, to courage, &c. Mahomet was not a systematic theologian and had done nothing to help them. The Qadarites declared that man had power over his own actions. But the teaching of predestination had gained too great a hold on Moslems to be thus displaced. The teaching of the Qadarites was held to be heresy, and one of its first professors, Ma`bad ul-Juhani, was put to death in 699.[3] During this period Medina was the home of tradition. Those who had been in closest relation with the Prophet dwelt there. The very people of the city derived a certain splendour and authority from the fact that Mahomet had lived and was buried there. Free thought in religion had little chance of arising, less of expressing itself, in the holy city. But the Koran was diligently studied, traditions were collected (and invented) though not yet written in books, and innovation (_bid`a_) was resolutely avoided. At the same time it really did contribute a new element to religious practice, for the custom (_ijma`_, see above) of Medina gained a certain authority even in Syria and the East.

In the East, on the other hand, there was more mental activity, and the religious teachers who came from Medina had to be prepared to meet with many questions. The wits of the Moslems were sharpened by daily contact with Christians, Buddhists, Manichaeans and Zoroastrians. Hasan ul-Basri (q.v.), who has been claimed as one of the first mystics, also as one of the first systematic theologians of Islam, was remarkable alike for his personal piety and his orthodoxy. Yet it was among his pupils that the great rationalist movement originated. Its founder was Wasil ibn `Ata, who separated himself (whence his followers were called Motazilites, strictly Mu`tazilites, "Separatists") from his teacher and founded a school which became numerous and influential. The Mu`tazilites objected to the attributes of God being considered in any way as entities beside God; they explained away the anthropomorphisms used in speaking of the deity; they regarded the Koran as created and as a product of Mahomet writing under the divine influence. Briefly, they asserted the supremacy of reason (_`aql_) as distinct from faith received by tradition (_naql_). They also called themselves "the people of justice and unity" (_Ahl ul-`adl wat-tauhid_). Such a faith as this naturally found favour rather with the thinking classes than with the uneducated multitude, and so went through many vicissitudes. At the time of its appearance and until the reign of Ma`mun its adherents were persecuted as heretics. After discussions among the theologians Ma`mun took the decided step of proclaiming that the Koran was created, and that a belief in this dogma was necessary. Other Mu`tazilite doctrines were proclaimed later. Mu`tazilites were appointed to official posts, and an inquisition (_mihna_) was appointed to enforce belief in their doctrines. This movement was strongly opposed by the orthodox and especially by Ahmad ibn Hanbal (q.v.). By him the founding of theology on reason was rejected, and he suffered persecution for his faith (see W. N. Patton, _Ahmed ibn Hanbal and the Mihna_, Leiden, 1897). Mu`tazilism retained its sway until 849, when the caliph Motawakkil again declared the Koran uncreate and restored orthodoxy. It was during the early years of the Abbasid rule that the four legal schools of Abu Hanifa (d. 767), Malik ibn Anas (d. 795), ash-Shafi'i (d. 819) and Ibn Hanbal (d. 855) came into existence (see MAHOMMEDAN LAW). As the bases of religion and law were the same, so the methods applied in the treatment of the one affected the other. Abu Hanifa depended little on tradition, but referred back to the Koran, making use of individual opinion (_ra`y_) as controlled by analogy (_qiyas_) with a written ordinance. Malik Ibn Anas supplemented the Koran and Sunna by customary law founded largely on the custom (_ijma`_) of Medina, and by what he conceived to be for the public good (_istislah_). Shafi`i recognized tradition as equal to the Koran, and even as being able to supersede its ordinances, while he also recognized the universal custom (_ijma`_) of the Moslem world as divine and binding. His four bases of religion--Koran, sunna, qiyas and ijma`--have been generally accepted in Islam (see above). Ibn Hanbal's position has been already mentioned. All these four schools are reckoned orthodox, and all orthodox Moslems belong to one or another of them. Another teacher of this time, who founded a school which did not succeed in being recognized as orthodox, was Da`ud uz-Zahiri. Trained as a Shafi`ite, he became too strict for this school, rejected analogy, restricted _ijma`_ to the agreement or custom of the companions of Mahomet, and accepted the whole of the Koran and tradition in the most literal and external sense. His followers were called Zahirites (i.e. externalists). After Ash`ari's time these principles were applied to theology by Ibn Hazm (q.v.) see I. Goldziher, _Die Zahiriten, ihr Lehrsystem und ihre Geschichte_ (Leipzig, 1884).

Before turning to the reform of Ash`ari and the introduction into orthodox theology of scholastic philosophy it is necessary to notice another phase of religious life which became the common property of orthodox and heretics. This was the introduction of asceticism in religions practice and of mysticism in religious thought. Sufi`ism (q.v.), which combined these two, is rightly not counted among the sects of Islam. Asceticism seems to have won a certain amount of approval from Mahomet himself, who much respected the Christian monks. The attention paid in early Islam to the joys and punishments of the future life led to self-denial and simple living in this world. An Arabian writer, speaking of the simplicity of manners of the first four caliphs, says that their affairs were conducted with more consideration of the future life than of this world. Many Moslems went even farther than these caliphs, and gave up all concern as far as possible with the affairs of this world and lived in poverty, in wanderings or in retirement (see DERVISH). For the historical development of this movement, with its accompanying mysticism, see SUFI`ISM. Ash`ari (d. before 942) was for forty years a Mu`tazilite, then became orthodox (see ASH`ARI), and at once applied rational methods for the support and interpretation of the orthodox faith. Before him, reason had not been allowed any scope in orthodox theology. He was not the first to use it; some teachers (as al-Junaid) had employed it in teaching, but only in secret and for the few. The methods of scholastic philosophy were now introduced into Moslem theology. The chief characteristic of his religious teaching was the adoption of the _via media_ between materialistic grossness and the ideas of pure speculative philosophy. Thus he taught, as to the attributes of God, that they exist, but are not to be compared with human attributes; as to His visibility, that He can be seen but without the limitations of human sight. As to the great question of free will, he denied man's power but asserted his responsibility. So he passed in review the doctrines of God, faith, the Koran, sin, intercession, &c., and for the first time in the history of Islam produced a systematic theology. The teaching of Ash`ari was taken up and propagated by the Buyids soon after his death, and was developed and perfected by Abu Bekr ul-Baqilani, the Cadi (d. 1012), but up to the middle of the 5th century of Islam (c. A.D. 1058) was suspected elsewhere and confounded with Mu`tazilism. The Ash`arite al-Juwaini (known as Imam ul-Haramain) was persecuted under Toghrul Beg (c. 1053) and exiled, but was restored under Alp Arslan by the vizier Nizam ul-Mulk, who founded an Ash`arite college (the Nizamiyya). In the West, Ibn Hazm (q.v.) fiercely opposed the system, but Ghazali established its orthodoxy in the East, and it spread from Persia to Syria and Egypt under the Ayyubites and Mamelukes and thence to the Almohades in Africa under Ibn Tumart (1130). It remains the predominating influence to the present day, its only serious rival being the theological system of al-Mataridi, a Hanifite (d. 945), whose creed as represented in that of an-Nasafi is still used largely by the Turks. Since the 12th century no great theological movement has been made in Islam. The quiet of religious life has twice been broken, once by Wahhabism (q.v.) in Arabia, once by Babism (q.v.) in Persia.

THE SECTS

According to an early tradition Mahomet said that Islam would be divided into seventy-three parties (sects),[4] of which seventy-two would perish and one would be saved. The orthodox Arabian writers on heretical sects of Islam feel compelled by this tradition to make up their number to seventy-two, and, as different writers adopt different divisions or are familiar with different parties, the names of sects amount to some hundreds. Each writer, however, adopts certain main classes under which he attempts to group the others. Abu Muti` Makhul at the beginning of the 10th century in his "Refutation" (MS. in Bodleian Library) has six such chief classes: Harurites (i.e. Kharijites), Rafidites (i.e. Shi`ites), Qadarites, Jabarites, Jahmites and Murjiites. Ibn Hazm (q.v.) adopts four classes: Mu`tazilites (Motazilites), Murjiites, Shi`ites and Kharijites. Shahrastani (q.v.) complains of the want of system in earlier writers, and suggests as bases of classification the position of parties with regard to the doctrines as to (1) the divine attributes, (2) predestination and free-will (3) promises and threats, faith and error, (4) revelation, reason, the imamate. In one part of his preface he gives as the chief parties the Qadarites, Sifatites, Kharijites and Shi`ites, proposing to divide these classes according to leaders who agreed with the main doctrines of their class but differed in some points. In another place he mentions four opposite pairs of sects: (1) the Qadarites with their doctrine of free-will, and the Jabarites, who are necessitarians; (2) the Sifatites, who maintain the eternal nature of the attributes of God, and the Mu`tazilites, who deny it; (3) the Murjiites, who postpone judgment of actions until the Last Day, and the Wa`idites, who condemn in this life; (4) the Kharijites, who consider the caliphate a human institution, and the Shi`ites, who deify their ruler. In his detailed treatment of the sects Shahrastani arranged them under the headings: Mu`tazilites, Jabarites, Sifatites, Kharijites, Murjiites and Shi`ites. About the same time as Shahrastani two other Arabian writers wrote on the sects--Tahir ul-Isfaraini (d. 1078), whose MS. is in the Berlin library, and `Abd ul-Qadir ul-Jilani (1078-1166) in his _Kitab ul-Ghaniyya li-Talibi Tariq il-Haqqi_ (Cairo, 1871). Both adopt as main classes Rafidites (or Shi`ites), Qadarites (or Mu`tazilites), Kharijites, Murjiites, Najjarites, Dirarites, Jahmites, Mushabbiha, to which Tahir adds Bakrites, Karramites, and a class including those sects which are not reckoned as Moslem though they have sprung from Islam. Jilani adds to the eight the Kilabites.

The following list is not a complete list of names of sects but is founded on that of Shahrastani.[5]

_Aftahites._--Shi`ites of the Imamite class, who ascribe the imamate to `Abdallah ul-Aftahi, the son of Sadiq.

_Ajarida._--Kharijites, followers of Ibn `Ajarrad, who agreed for the most part with the Najadat (below), considered grave sins as equivalent to unbelief, but remained friendly with those who professed Islam but did not fight for it. They rejected _sura_ 7 as a fable. Shahrastani enumerates seven divisions of this sect.

_Akhnasites._--A section of the Tha`aliba not so strict in treatment of those who fear to fight for Islam.

_Ash`arites._--Followers of Ash`ari (q.v.) who are counted by Shahrastani among the Sifatites.

_Atrafites._--A division of the `Ajarida who agree with the Hamzites except that they excuse the lower classes for inaction when they are ignorant of the law.

_Azraqites._--Kharijites who followed al-Azraq in the days of Ibn Zubair. They held `Ali to be an unbeliever; those who did not fight were unbelievers; the children of unbelievers were to be put to death and went to hell. Sin is unbelief.

_Bahshamites._--Mu`tazilites akin to the Jubba`ites.

_Baihasites._--Kharijites, followers of Abu Baihas ul-Haitham, who was put to death by the caliph Walid. They asserted the necessity of knowledge for religion.

_Baqirites._--Shi`ites who followed Abu Ja`far ul-Baqir, the fifth imam, and looked for his return.

_Batinites._--Isma`ilites, so called because they believe that every external has an internal (_batin_), and every passage in the Koran has an allegoric meaning.

_Bishrites._--Mu`tazilites, followers of Bishr ibn Mu`tamir, one of the most learned men of his party. His teaching was philosophical and was distinguished by his doctrine of "origination" (_tawallud_).

_Bunanites._--Kaisanites, followers of Bunan ibn Sim`an un-Nahdi, who claimed that the imamate passed from Abu Hashim to himself and that he had also acquired the divine element of `Ali.

_Butrites._--Zaidites, followers of Kathir un-Nawa ul-Abtar, who agreed with the Suleimanites (Sulaimanites) except that he suspended judgment as to whether Othman was a believer or not.

_Dirarites._--Jabarites who empty God of his attributes, and assert that man has a sixth sense by which he will see God on the day of resurrection. The actions of man are "created" and acquired by him. A caliph need not be chosen from the Koreish.

_Ghaliites_ (Ghula) are the extreme Shi`ites (q.v.) in ascribing deity to the imams. Their heresies are said to be four in number: (1) Making God resemble man, (2) ascribing change of mind to God, (3) looking for the return of the imam, (4) metempsychosis. They are divided by Shahrastani into ten classes.

_Ghassanites._--Murjiites, followers of Ghassan ibn ul-Kufi, who say that faith consists of knowledge of God, his apostle, and the Koran in general not in detail, and that faith increases but is not diminished.

_Habities_ = Hayitites (below).

_Hadathites_ (Hudabites) are Mu`tazilites, followers of Fadl ibn ul-Hadathi, who agreed with the Hayitites (below).

_Hafsites._--Ibadites, followers of Hafs ibn abi-l-Miqdam, who distinguished between idolatry (_shirk_) and unbelief (_kufr_).

_Hamzites._--`Ajarida, followers of Hamza ibn Adrak in Sijistan. They agree with the Maimunites, but condemn the children of unbelievers to hell.

_Harithites._--Ibadites who differ from others in holding the Mu`tazilite doctrine of free-will.

_Harurites._--A name given to the first Kharijites, who rebelled against `Ali, and met in Harura near Kufa.

_Hashimites._--Shi`ites who supported Abu Hashim, son of Mahommed ibn ul-Hanafiyya, although they held that his father had gone astray.

_Hashwiites._--A party who asserted the eternity even of the letters of the Koran. They are not mentioned as a separate sect by Shahrastani; cf. van Vloten, "_Les Hachwia et Nabita_," in the _Acts of the 11th Oriental Congress_ (Paris, 1899), pt. iii., pp. 99 sqq.

_Hayitites._--Mu`tazilites who agreed with the Nazzamites, but added three heresies of their own: (1) the divinity of the Messiah, (2) metempsychosis, (3) the interpretation of all references to the vision of God as referring to the "first Reason" or "creative Reason."

_Hishamites._--A name given to two sects: (1) Mu`tazilites, strong in their assertion of man's free-will, even opposing the statement of the Koran. (2) Shi`ites of the extreme kind, who attributed to God a body with quantities (measurements) and qualities.

_Hudabites._--See Hadathites.

_Hudhailites_ (Hodhailites).--Mu`tazilites, followers of Abu-l Hudhail Hamdan, who was a leading teacher of his party and developed the philosophical side of its teaching. Ten of his main doctrines are given by Shahrastani.

_Ibadites._--Kharijites of moderate tendencies (see above).

_Ilbaites._--Ghaliites who put `Ali above Mahomet and blamed the latter because he called men to himself instead of to `Ali.

_Imamites._--One of the chief divisions of the Shi`ites (q.v.).

_Ishaqites._--Ghaliites agreeing with the Nusairites except that they incline to speak of the imams' participation in the prophetic office rather than of their divinity.

_Isma`ilites._--This name is applied to all who consider Isma`il ibn Ja`far the last imam, some believing that he did not die but will return, others, that at his death his son Mahommed became imam (see ASSASSINS); it is also used as equivalent to the Batinites.

_Ithna`asharites._--Imamites who accept the twelve imams (see SHI`ITES).

_Jabarites._--Those who deny all actions and power to act to man and ascribe all to God (see above).

_Ja`farites._--Imamites who carry the imamate no farther than Ja`far us-Sadiq.

_Jahizites._--Mu`tazilites, followers of the celebrated writer Jahiz (q.v.), who indulged in philosophical speculations, believed in the eternity of matter, and was regarded as a naturalist (_taba`i_) rather than a theist (_allahi_).

_Jahmites._--Jabarites, followers of Jahm ibn Safwan, who was put to death at Merv toward the close of the Omayyad period. He was extreme in his denial of the attributes of God.

_Jarudites._--Zaidites who held that Mahomet designated `Ali as imam, not by name but by his attributes, and that the Moslem sinned by not taking sufficient trouble to recognize these attributes.

_Jubba`ites._--Mu`tazilites who followed the philosophical teaching of Abu `Ali Mahommed ul-Jubba`i of Basra.

_Kaisanites._--A main class of the Shi`ites (q.v.).

_Kamilites._--Ghaliites, followers of Abu Kamil, who condemned the companions (_Ansar_) because they did not do allegiance to `Ali, and `Ali because he surrendered his claims.

_Karramites._--Sifatites, followers of Ibn Karram, who went so far as to ascribe a body to God, and assimilated his nature to human nature.

_Kayyalites._--Ghaliites, followers of Ahmad ibn Kayyal, who, after supporting a propaganda for an Aliite, claimed to be the imam himself on the ground of his power over the spheres.

_Khalafites._--`Ajarida of Kerman and Multan, who believed that God wills good and evil, but condemned the children of unbelievers to hell.

_Kharijites._--One of the earliest sects of Islam (see above).

_Kharimites._--`Ajarida, agreeing mostly with the Shu`aibites and teaching that the relation of God to a man depends on what he professes at the end of his life.

_Khattabites._--Ghaliites, followers of Abu-l Khattab, who was put to death by Ibn Musa at Kufa. He was a violent supporter of Ja`far us-Sadiq, who however disowned him.

_Khayyatites._--Mu`tazilites, followers of Abu-l Hosain ul-Khayyat, a teacher in Bagdad, part of whose philosophical teaching was that the non-existent is a thing.

_Ma`badites._--Tha`labites who differed from the Akhnasites on the question of the marriage of believing women and from Tha`lab on the question of taking alms from slaves.

_Maimunites._--`Ajarida, followers of Maimun ibn Khalid, who believed that God wills good only and that man determines his actions.

_Majhulites._--Tha`labites, agreeing generally with the Kharimites, but teaching that he who knows some names and attributes of God and is ignorant of some knows God.

_Ma`lumites._--Tha`labites agreeing generally with the Kharimites but alleging that a believer must know all the names and attributes of God.

_Mansurites._--Ghaliites, followers of Abu Mansur ul-`Ijli, who at first supported al-Baqir, but, rejected by him, claimed the imamate for himself. He was crucified by the caliph Hisham ibn `Abd ul-Malik (Abdalmalik).

_Mu`ammarites._[6]--Mu`tazilites who strongly denied the predestination of God, and affirmed that God created bodies only, and that the accidents spring naturally from them.

_Mufaddalites._[6]--The same as the Musaites (q.v.).

_Mughirites._[6]--Ghaliites, followers of Mughira ibn Sa`id ul-`Ijli, who claimed the imamate and prophetic office and held extremely gross views of God.

_Muhakkima_[6] (the first).--Another name for the Harurites (above).

_Mukarramites._[6]--Tha`labites who taught that sin consists in ignorance of God.

_Mukhtarites._[6]--Kaisanites, followers of al-Mukhtar ibn `Ubaid, who held to Mahommed ibn ul-Hanafiyya but was disowned by him. He allowed the possibility of change of mind on the part of God.

_Murjiites._--Those who postponed judgment of actions until the Day of Judgment. See above.

_Musaites._--Imamites who held to the imamate of Musa ibn Ja`far, who was imprisoned by Harun al-Rashid and poisoned.

_Mushabbiha._[6]--Sifatites who compared God's actions with human actions. They said that the Koran was eternal with all its letters, accents and written signs.

_Mu`tazilites._[6]--The rationalists of Islam. See above, cf. also H. Steiner, _Die Mu`taziliten oder die Freidenker im Islam_ (Leipzig, 1865).