Contents

Acknowledgements

Abbreviations

Introduction

Chapter 1 Qaṣaṣ: Textual Evidence

Religious Qaṣaṣ

Divine Will and Human Responsibility (qadar)

Death, the Final Judgment and the After-life

Exemplars—Pre-Islamic Prophets

The Sunna of the Prophet Muḥammad

Legal Rulings

Religious Knowledge (ʿilm)

Martial Qaṣaṣ

The Conquest of Syria

Yazīd b. Shajara al-Rahāwī (d. 58/677)

Sulaymān b. Ṣurad and the Rebellion of the Tawwābūn (65/685)

Khārijī Quṣṣāṣ

Religio-political Qaṣaṣ: Abū Dharr al-Ghifārī

Chapter 2 Quṣṣāṣ Associations: With Whom Are the Quṣṣāṣ Associated?

Qurʾān Reciters (qurrāʾ)

Qurʾān Commentators (al-mufassirūn)

Percentages and Reputations

Quṣṣāṣ Representation in Tafsīr

The Tafsīr of ʿAbd al-Razzāq al-Ṣanʿānī

The Tafsīr of Ṭabarī

Isrāʾīliyyāt

The Quṣṣāṣ and Isrāʾīliyyāt

The Quṣṣāṣ on Moses

The Quṣṣāṣ on Abraham

The Tafsīr of Muqātil b. Sulaymān: The Merging of Tafsīr with Qaṣaṣ and Isrāʾīliyyāt

The Quṣṣāṣ as Qurʾān Commentators

Ḥadīth Transmitters (muḥaddithūn)

The Critical Image of the Quṣṣāṣ in Ḥadīth Transmission

Statistical Analysis of the Reputations of Quṣṣāṣ in Ḥadīth

Conflicting Sentiments on the Reliability of the Quṣṣāṣ in Ḥadīth

Unidentified Quṣṣāṣ

The Quṣṣāṣ as Ḥadīth Transmitters

Jurists (Fuqahāʾ)

Judges (Quḍāt)

Orators (Khuṭabāʾ)

Admonishers (Wuʿʿāẓ)

Mudhakkirūn

The Prophet as Qāṣṣ and Mudhakkir

Statistical Analysis and Textual Evidence

Ascetics

The Qāṣṣ as Scholar

Chapter 3 Qaṣaṣ Sessions: The Skills and Conduct of the Quṣṣāṣ

Skills

ʿIlm

Lisān

Bayān

Conduct

Decorum

Posture

Location

Time

Malpractices

Pride: “Know me (iʿrifūnī)!”

Loudness

Raising Hands

Mixed-gender Meetings

Swooning

Qaṣaṣ Sessions

Chapter 4 The Quṣṣāṣ: Conformists or Innovators?

Qaṣaṣ at the Time of the Prophet

The Prophet as a Qāṣṣ

The Prophet with a Qāṣṣ

Qaṣaṣ under the Rāshidūn Caliphs

Abū Bakr “al-Ṣiddīq”

ʿUmar b. al-Khaṭṭāb

Uthmān b. ʿAffān

ʿAlī b. Abī Ṭālib

Qaṣaṣ and Religio-political Movements

Qaṣaṣ as an Innovation

Quṣṣāṣ and the Apocalypse

The Quṣṣāṣ as a Beneficial Innovation

The Quṣṣāṣ as Conformists or Innovators

Chapter 5 The Quṣṣāṣ during the Umayyad Period

Muʿāwiya b. Abī Sufyān (r. 41–60/661–80)

The Counter-caliphate of ʿAbd Allāh b. al-Zubayr (c. 63–72/682–91)

Marwān b. al-Ḥakam (r. 64–5/684–5)

ʿAbd al-Malik b. Marwān (r. 65–86/685–705)

Sulaymān b. ʿAbd al-Malik (r. 96–9/715–7)

ʿUmar b. ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz (r. 99–101/717–20)

Yazīd b. ʿAbd al-Malik (r. 101–5/720–4)

Hishām b. ʿAbd al-Malik (r. 105–25/724–43)

Marwān b. Muḥammad (r. 127–32/744–50) and the Fall of the Umayyads

The Quṣṣāṣ under the Umayyads

Chapter 6 Conclusion

Appendix Biographical Sketches of the Quṣṣāṣ of Early Islam

Bibliography

Index of Modern Authors

Index of Sources

Index of Subjects