Sainthood and Authority in Early Islam: Al-Ḥakīm Al-Tirmidhī's Theory of Wilāya and the Reenvisioning of the Sunnī Caliphate

Erscheinungsjahr 2019
ISBN: 978-90-04-40830-2
Verlag: Brill

Buch, Englisch, Band 5, 220 Seiten, Format (B × H): 150 mm x 236 mm, Gewicht: 476 g

Reihe: Studies on Sufism

In Sainthood and Authority in Early Islam Aiyub Palmer recasts wilaya in terms of Islamic authority and traces its development in both political and religious spheres up through the 3rd and 4th Islamic centuries. This book pivots around the ideas of al-Hakim al-Tirmidhi, the first Muslim theologian and mystic to write on the topic of wilaya.



By looking at its structural roots in Arab and Islamic social organization, Aiyub Palmer has reframed the discussion about sainthood in early Islam to show how it relates more broadly to other forms of authority in Islam. This book not only looks anew at the influential ideas of al-Tirmidhi but also challenges current modes of thought around the nature of authority in Islamicate societies.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Palmer, Aiyub

Fachgebiete

• Geisteswissenschaften Islam & Islamische Studien Islam: Spiritualität & Mystik
• Geisteswissenschaften Islam & Islamische Studien Islam & Islamische Studien

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Contents

Acknowledgments

List of Abbreviations

System of Transliteration for Arabic Letters

Introduction

0.1 The Study of Islamic Sainthood

0.2 Wilaya/Walaya in the Qur'an and Hadith Literature

0.3 The Cult of Saints

0.4 Sainthood and Authority in the Age of Sanctification

0.5 Methodology

0.6 Sources

0.7 Thematic Classification of al-Tirmidhi’s Works

0.7.1 Wilaya

0.7.2 Disciplining the Lower Self

0.7.3 Esoteric Vocabulary

0.7.4 Esoteric Interpretation

0.7.5 Polemical and Theological Works

0.7.6 Knowledge and Men of Learning

0.7.7 Moral and Ethical Teachings

0.7.8 Correspondence

0.7.9 Autobiography

0.8 Secondary Sources

1 Wilaya/Walayaand the Basis of Authority in Early Islam

1.1 Introduction

1.2 The Language of Authority

1.3 Wilaya/walaya as a Socio-political Construct in Early Islam

1.4 Wala' as a Pattern of Social Relations in the Umayyad Period

1.5 The 'Abbasid Revolution: Wilaya and Walaya in Action

1.6 Legal Authority and the Development of the Schools of Law

1.7 The Hanabila as a Solidarity Group

1.8 Wilaya/Walayaand the Rise of the Sufiyya

1.9 The Appearance of the Awliya'

1.10 Al-Hakim al-Tirmidhi and the Early Awliya'

2 The Historical and Social Context of Al-Tirmidhi’s Life and Times

2.1 Introduction

2.2 Al-Tirmidhi’s Clash with the Local 'Ulama'

2.3 The Scholarly Class or the 'Ulama'

2.4 The Shi'is and the Sufi Alternative

2.5 Al-Tirmidhi and the Shi'i Challenge

2.6 Clientage (wala') as a Social basis for Understanding Sunni Authority

2.7 The Wilaya-authority Paradigm

3 Wisdom Mediates the Terrestrial and Celestial

3.1 The Importance of Hikma

3.2 Hikma and the Hakim in the Near East

3.3 Hikma and the Hakim in Jewish and Christian Thought (7th- and 10th-centuries ce)

3.4 Hikma and the Hakim in 9th- and 10th-Century ce Khurasan and Transoxania

3.5 Hikma and the Hakim among the Sufis

3.6 Hikma and the Hakim among the Early Isma'ili Shi'is

3.7 Hikma and the Hakim in the Theosophy of al-Hakim al-Tirmidhi

3.8 The Usuli Roots of Hikma

4 The Theological Significance of Wilaya

4.1 Al-Tirmidhi’s Scholarly Background

4.2 Major Texts of the Hanafi Theological Tradition

4.3 The Development of Hanafi Theology

4.4 Al-Tirmidhi’s Hanafi Credentials

4.5 Al-Tirmidhi’s Hanafi Theology

4.6 Al-Tirmidhi’s Relationship to Abu Mansur al-Maturidi

4.7 Al-Tirmidhi and the Later Hanafi Tradition

4.8 Mysticism in the Hanafi Tradition

4.9 The Effect of Hanafism on al-Tirmidhi’s Doctrine of Wilaya

4.10 The Awliya' in early Creedal Texts

5 Al-Tirmidhi’s Gnoseology of Sainthood

5.1 Introduction

5.2 Sainthood in the Homilies of Isaac of Nineveh

5.3 Sainthood in the 9th-Century ce

5.4 The Light-basis of al-Tirmidhi’s Doctrine of Wilaya

5.5 Restricting Sainthood

5.6 The Optimism of al-Tirmidhi’s Doctrine of Wilaya

5.7 Wilaya Creates a Third Space

5.8 The Political Ramifications of Hikma

5.9 The Khatim al-Awliya'

5.10 The “Hierarchy of Saints”

6 A Sufi by Any Other Name: Al-Tirmidhi’s Relationship to Islamic Mysticism

6.1 Introduction

6.2 Was al-Tirmidhi a ‘Sufi’?

6.3 Sufism and Hellenism

6.4 Early Sufism

6.5 Al-Junayd and al-Tirmidhi Build on the Work of al-Muhasibi

6.6 Nishapur and the Development of Sufism as a Meta-Identity

6.7 Al-Sarraj and al-Kalabadhi

6.8 Al-Sulami and al-Qushayri

Conclusion

Bibliography

Index

Über Autor(innen)

Aiyub Palmer, Ph.D. (2015), University of Michigan, is Assistant Professor of Arabic and Islam at the University of Kentucky. He has written on the topic of wilaya in Sufism and has published an article on the influence of al-Hakim al-Tirmidhi’s ideas on the development of Ibn al-'Arabi’s notion of wilaya (Journal of Sufi Studies, 2018).