Contents

Translator’s Acknowledgements

Preface

List of the Most Frequent Abbreviations (Excluding Journals)

Part A Prelude: Characteristics of Islamic Religiosity in the 1st Century

Chapter 1 Setting the Seal on Prophecy

Chapter 2 The Awareness of Being Chosen and IdentityFormation

2.1 Symbols of Islamic Identity in the Caliphate of ʿAbd al-Malik

2.2 Early Evidence in the Literary Tradition

Chapter 3 Community and Individual

3.1 Faith and the Promise of Paradise

3.2 Consciousness of Sin and Individual Responsibility

3.3 Divine Grace and Predestination

Chapter 4 Specific Religious Developments around the Turn of the 2nd Century

4.1 The Image of the Prophet

4.2 The Koran

Chapter 5 The Spread of the Faith

5.1 The Literary Instruments for Conveying the Faith

5.1.1 The Creation of Dialectical Theology

5.1.2 The Prospect

Part B The Islamic Provinces in the 2nd Century

Introductory Remark on Methodology

Chapter 1 Syria

1.0 General Basic Features

1.1 The Relationship with the Shīʿa

1.2 The Qadariyya

1.2.1 The Question of Origin

1.2.2 Ghaylān al-Dimashqī and His Environment

1.2.3 Ghaylān’s Aftereffect

1.2.4 Yazīd III’s Putsch

1.2.4.1 Yazīd III’s Accession Sermon

1.2.4.2 Further Developments up to the Time of Marwān II

1.2.5 The Qadarites under Yazīd III

1.2.5.1 Damascus

1.2.5.2 Qadarites from Palestine

1.2.5.3 Qadarites from Ḥimṣ

1.2.6 Later Qadarites

1.2.7 General Conclusions

1.2.8 The Further Iraqi Development of Ghaylān’s Doctrine

1.2.8.1 The Epistles of Ghaylān and the Ghaylān Legend

1.2.9 ʿUmar II and the Qadariyya

1.3 A Case of Heresy

1.4 Syrian Murjiʾites

1.4.1 “Jahmites”

1.5 From Asceticism to Mysticism

Chapter 2 Iraq

2.0 Preliminary General Remarks

2.1 Kūfa

2.1.1 The Murjiʾa

2.1.1.1 The Oldest Representatives of the Murjiʾa in Kūfa

2.1.1.2 The Delegation to ʿUmar II

2.1.1.3 Two Murjiʾite Poems

2.1.1.4 The Polemic Against the Murjiʾa in the Sīrat Sālim b. Dhakwān

2.1.1.5 The K. al-Irjāʾ

2.1.1.6 The Spectrum of the Murjiʾa up to 150 Hijrī

2.1.1.7 The Circle of Abū Ḥanīfa

2.1.1.7.1 The Precursors

2.1.1.7.2 On the Life and Aftereffects of Abū Ḥanīfa

2.1.1.7.3 Abū Ḥanīfa’s Theological Views

2.1.1.7.3.1 The Letter to ʿUthmān al-Battī

2.1.1.7.3.1.1 Comparison with Other Early Ḥanafite Writings

2.1.1.7.3.2 A Second Letter to ʿUthmān al-Battī

2.1.1.7.3.3 The So-Called Fiqh akbar (I)

2.1.1.7.3.4 The Image of God. The Political Theory

2.1.1.7.4 Contemporaries of Abū Ḥanīfa

2.1.1.8 The Kūfan Murjiʾa after Abū Ḥanīfa

2.1.1.9 The Reform of Ghassān b. Abān

2.1.2 Anti-Murjiʾite Currents in Kūfa

2.1.2.1 Sufyān al-Thawrī

2.1.2.2 Ṣūfīs

2.1.2.3 Qadarites

2.1.3 The Shīʿa

2.1.3.1 “Shīʿitizing” Traditionists

2.1.3.2 The Zaydiyya

2.1.3.2.1 The Butriyya

2.1.3.2.1.1 The “Weak” Zaydīs

2.1.3.2.2 The Jārūdiyya

2.1.3.2.2.1 The Shaping of Jārūdite Thought

2.1.3.2.2.2 The Later Development

2.1.3.2.3 Early Zaydī Splinter Groups

2.1.3.2.3.1 The Kāmiliyya

2.1.3.3 The Rawāfiḍ

2.1.3.3.1 Quietism and Communal Spirit

2.1.3.3.2 The Imam as Omniscient Leader

2.1.3.3.3 The Return (rajʿa)

2.1.3.3.3.1 The Idea of rajʿa among the Early Zaydīs

2.1.3.3.3.2 Adherents of rajʿa Among the Shīʿite Authorities of the 1st Century

2.1.3.3.3.3 Early Shīʿite Tafsīr as a Possible Purveyor of the Idea of rajʿa

2.1.3.3.3.4 The Decline of the Kaysāniyya

2.1.3.3.3.5 The Change of the Idea of rajʿa in the Imāmiyya

2.1.3.3.4 Rejection of the First Two Caliphs

2.1.3.3.5 Maintaining Secrecy (taqiyya)

2.1.3.3.6 God Changing His Mind (badāʾ)

2.1.3.3.7 Rāfiḍite Theological Schools

2.1.3.3.7.1 The Beginnings

2.1.3.3.7.1.1 Pro-Murjiʾite Groups

2.1.3.3.7.1.2 Zurāra b. Aʿyan and His Circle

2.1.3.3.7.1.3 The Discussion About God’s Image

2.1.3.3.7.2 The Next Generation

2.1.3.3.7.2.1 Shayṭān al-Ṭāq and Hishām al-Jawālīqī

2.1.3.3.7.2.2 Hishām b. al-Ḥakam

2.1.3.3.7.2.2.1 “Ontology”

2.1.3.3.7.2.2.2 The Concept of God

2.1.3.3.7.2.2.3 Natural-Scientific Questions

2.1.3.3.7.2.2.4 The Theory of Perception

2.1.3.3.7.2.2.5 Human Action

2.1.3.3.7.2.2.6 The Divine Attributes

2.1.3.3.7.2.2.7 The Koran and Prophecy

2.1.3.3.7.2.2.8 ʿIṣma and naṣṣ

2.1.3.3.7.2.2.8.1 Excursus. Means of Legitimation within the Shīʿa

2.1.3.3.7.2.2.9 Rajʿa

2.1.3.3.7.2.3 ʿAlī b. Riʾāb (?)

2.1.3.3.7.3 The Succession to the Big Theologians

2.1.3.3.7.3.1 The School of Hishām al-Jawālīqī

2.1.3.3.7.3.2 The School of Hishām b. al-Ḥakam

2.1.3.3.7.3.3 The Prospect

2.1.3.3.8 General Conclusions

2.1.3.3.8.1 Rāfiḍite Theology and Its Milieu. Stoic and Jewish Influences

2.1.4 The Khārijites

2.1.4.1 The Ibāḍite Community in Kūfa

2.1.4.2 ʿĪsā b. ʿUmayr

2.1.5 “The Heretics”

2.1.5.1 The Term zindīq

2.1.5.2 Manicheanism in the Early Islamic Period

2.1.5.3 Zandaqa as a Social and Religious Phenomenon

2.1.5.4 The Dayṣāniyya

2.1.5.5 The Marcionites

2.1.5.6 The Kantaeans

2.1.5.7 Excursus: Mazdakites in the Islamic World

2.1.5.8 Zandaqa in Kūfa

2.1.5.8.1 Cosmology and Natural Philosophy

2.1.5.8.2 Polite Society

2.1.5.8.3 Arguing with the zanādiqa According to Imāmite Sources

2.1.5.8.4 The Role of the zanādiqa in the Later Umayyad Period

Supplementary Remarks