The Socio-Political Aspect of Religious Terminologies in Medieval Iran: The Case of “Akhbārī-uṣūlī” in Kitāb al-Naqḍ Written by ʿAbd al-Jalīl Qazwīnī Rāzī (d. 560/1165)

نوع مقاله : مقاله پژوهشی

نویسنده

دانشیار پژوهشگاه علوم انسانی، تهران،

چکیده

The conflict between the Akhbārīs and Uṣūlīs dates from the time of Mawlá Muḥammad Amīn Astarābādī (d. 1033/1624). However, limited usage of the two terms can be traced back to before that period. Kitāb al-Naqḍ, written by ʿAbd al-Jalīl Qazwīnī Rāzī (d. 560/1165), is one of the few Imāmī sources that contains a group of references to a similar conflict between the Shiʿa Uṣūlīyyah and Shiʿa Akhbārīyyah. The former term, in particular, repeatedly appears in the book. The aim of this paper, adopting a conceptual approach to history, would be to demonstrate that the Akhbārī/Uṣūlī terms in medieval Iran do not refer to a legal concept, nor to the dispute between the moderate/extremist Shiʿis in that context. Despite the first impression which the term conveys, it will be suggested that the term “uṣūlīyyah” does not have its roots in uṣūl al-fiqh (Islamic legal methodology), but rather, refers to some specific rational uṣūl (principles) usually applied to uṣūl al-ʿaqāʾid (Islamic theological principles). That is, “uṣūlīyyah,” according to Qazwīnī, refers to those whose religious knowledge has been based on rational principles. However, the Akhbārī-Uṣūlī terminology introduced by Qazwīnī cannot be paired with the historical Shiʿi schools and figures of his period. If we consider the social and political pressures under which Iranian Imāmīs were living, it will appear that employment of such terms has had a strategic purpose. In this case, calling most of his contemporaries “uṣūlīs,” and attributing controversial Shiʿi beliefs to the Akhbārīs, Qazwīnī has attempted to exonerate Imāmīs from their accusations, and to improve their social position.

کلیدواژه‌ها


عنوان مقاله [English]

The Socio-Political Aspect of Religious Terminologies in Medieval Iran: The Case of “Akhbārī-uṣūlī” in Kitāb al-Naqḍ Written by ʿAbd al-Jalīl Qazwīnī Rāzī (d. 560/1165)

نویسنده [English]

  • Seyed Mohammad Hadi Gerami
Assistant Professor, Tehran Institute for Humanities and Cultural Studies
چکیده [English]

The conflict between the Akhbārīs and Uṣūlīs dates from the time of Mawlá Muḥammad Amīn Astarābādī (d. 1033/1624). However, limited usage of the two terms can be traced back to before that period. Kitāb al-Naqḍ, written by ʿAbd al-Jalīl Qazwīnī Rāzī (d. 560/1165), is one of the few Imāmī sources that contains a group of references to a similar conflict between the Shiʿa Uṣūlīyyah and Shiʿa Akhbārīyyah. The former term, in particular, repeatedly appears in the book. The aim of this paper, adopting a conceptual approach to history, would be to demonstrate that the Akhbārī/Uṣūlī terms in medieval Iran do not refer to a legal concept, nor to the dispute between the moderate/extremist Shiʿis in that context. Despite the first impression which the term conveys, it will be suggested that the term “uṣūlīyyah” does not have its roots in uṣūl al-fiqh (Islamic legal methodology), but rather, refers to some specific rational uṣūl (principles) usually applied to uṣūl al-ʿaqāʾid (Islamic theological principles). That is, “uṣūlīyyah,” according to Qazwīnī, refers to those whose religious knowledge has been based on rational principles. However, the Akhbārī-Uṣūlī terminology introduced by Qazwīnī cannot be paired with the historical Shiʿi schools and figures of his period. If we consider the social and political pressures under which Iranian Imāmīs were living, it will appear that employment of such terms has had a strategic purpose. In this case, calling most of his contemporaries “uṣūlīs,” and attributing controversial Shiʿi beliefs to the Akhbārīs, Qazwīnī has attempted to exonerate Imāmīs from their accusations, and to improve their social position.

کلیدواژه‌ها [English]

  • Kitāb al-Naqḍ
  • Shiʿa Uṣūlīyyah
  • Shiʿa Akhbārīyyah
  • ʿAbd al-Jalīl Qazwīnī Rāzī
  • uṣūl al-fiqh
-   Abisaab, R. J. (2015). “Shiʿi Jurisprudence, Sunnism, and the Traditionist Thought (Akhbārī) of Muhammad Amin Astarabadi (d.1626–27).” International Journal of Middle East Studies47(1), 5-23.
-   Abu Ḥayyān (1397 AH). al-Baḥr-u al-Muḥīṭ. Vol. 6. Beirut.
-   ʿAḍud al-Dīn Ījī (1374 AH). al-Mawāqif. Vol. 3. Beirut.
-   Afandī (1401 AH). Rīyāḍ al-ʿUlamāʾ. Vol. 3. Qum.
-   Al -ʿIjlī (1405 AH).  Maʿrifat al-Thiqāt. Vol. 1. Medina.
-   Algar, H; Haider, Najam (1995)." Akhbārīyah," in Encyclopedia of the Modern Islamic World. Oxford.
-   ʿAllāmah Ḥillī (n.d.).  Khulaṣat-u al-Aghwāl. Qum.
-   Al-Muzanī (n.d.).  Mukhtaṣar al-Muzanī. Beirut.
-   Āqā Buzurg-e Tehrānī (1403 AH).  al-Dharīʿah. Vol. 24. Beirut.
-   Astarābādī (1381 AH). al-Fawāʼid al-Madanīyyah. Qum.
-   Baghdādī (1413 AH). Hadīyyat al-ʿĀrifīn. Vol. 5. Beirut.
-   Bayhom-Daou, T. (1996). The Imāmi Shiʿi Conception of the Knowledge of the Imām and the Sources. Ph.D. thesis. SOAS. London.
-   Cole, Juan R. I. (1985). "Shiʿi Clerics in Iraq and Iran, 1722-1780: The Akhbari-Usuli Conflict Reconsidered," in Iranian Studies. Vol. 18, No. 1.
-   Dādāshnezhād, M. & ʿAlījānī, M. K. (1394 SH). "do negāh wa do rūykard: bāzkhānī raweshī do ketāb," Tārīkh-e Eslām dar Ayeneh Pazhūhesh, No. 39. Pp. 111-125.
-   Dah Pahlawān, T.; Montazerqāʾem, A.; Pīrmorādīan, M. (1398 SH). "barrasī andīshehay-e ʿabd-o l-jalīl qazwīnī dar tabyīn mafhūm Vahdat wa hamgerāyī ʿasr-e saljūqī," Pazhūheshhay-e Tārīkhī Irān wa Islām, No. 24, pp. 41-60.
-   Dhahabī (1407 AH). Tārīkh al-Islām. Vol. 20. Beirut.
-   Fakhr-e Rāzī (1369 AH). al-Maḥṣul. Vol. 4. Beirut.
-   Gerami, S. M. Hadi (1391 SH). Nukhustīn Munāsibāt Fikrī Tashayyuʿ. Tehran.
-   Gleave, R. (2000). Inevitable doubt: Two theories of Shīʾī jurisprudence. Studies in Islamic Law and Society. vol. 12. Brill.
-   Gleave, R. (2007). Scripturalist Islam: The History and Doctrines of the Akhbari School of Imāmī Shiʿism. Leiden.
-   Gleave, R. (2009). “Akhbāriyya and Uṣūliyya”. EI3.  par. 2. Brill Online.
-   Ḥafiḍ Bursī (1376 AH). Mashāriq Anwār al-Yaqīn. Beirut.
-   Ḥafiḍ Mazzī (1363 AH). Tahdhīb al-Kamāl. Vol. 31. Beirut.
-   Ḥurr al-ʿĀmilī (1362 SH). Amal al-Āmil, Vol. 2. Qum.
-   Ibn ʿAbd al-Barr (1369 AH). al-Istiʿāb. Vol. 4. Beirut.
-   Ibn ʿArabī (n.d.). al-Futūḥāt al-Makkīyah. Vol. 2. Beirut.
-   Ibn Kathīr Damishqī (1365 AH). al-Bidāyah wa al-Nihāyah. Vol. 7 .Beirut.
-   Ibn Shahīd Thānī (n.d.). Maʿālim al-Dīn wa Malādh al Mujtahidīn. Qum.
-   Ibn-e Bābūya (n.d.). al-Tawḥīd. Qum.
-   Ibn-e Nadīm (n.d.) al-Fihrist. Tehran.
-   Islāmīyyih (1384 SH). “Jāygāh-e Ahl-e Bait wa Ṣaḥabih dar Tafsīr Abu al-Futūḥ Rāzī,”in Proceeding of the congress of Abu al-Futūḥ Rāzī commemoration. Vol. 13. Qum.
-   Jafarian, Rasul (1371 SH). "ʿabd-o l-jalīl qazwīnī rāzī wa andīsheh tafāhom-e madhhabī," Nūr-e ʿElm, No. 47, pp. 101-133.
-   Jafarian, Rasul (1386 SH). Tarīkh-e Tashayyuʿ dar Iran az Aghāz ta Ṭulūʿ Dulat-e Ṣafawī. Tehran.
-   Kāshif al-Ghiṭāʾ (1425 AH).  al-ʿAqāʾid al-Jaʿfarīyyah. Qum.
-   Khaṭīb-i Baghdādī (1417 AH). Tarīkh-i Baghdad, Vol. 8. Beirut.
-   Khurāsānī Karbāsī (1382 SH). Iklīl al-Manhaj fī Taḥqīq al-Maṭlab. Qum.
-   Kohlberg, E. (1972). “Some Notes on the Imāmīte Attitude to the Quran," in Islamic Philosophy and the Classical Tradition. Oxford.
-   Kohlberg, E. (1987). “Aspects of Akhabri Thought in the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries," in Eighteenth Centuries Renewal and Reform in Islam.
-   Kohlberg, E. (2011). "Akhbariya," in EIr. Par. 1. (available online at HTTP: //www.iranicaonline.org/articles/akbariya, accessed on 25 April 2014).
-   Kohlberg, E; Amir-Moezzi, M. A. (2009). Revelation and Falsification: The Kitāb al-qirāʾāt of Ahmad b. Muḥammad al-Sayyārī, introduction. Leiden.
-   Kuntūrī. (1409 AH). Kashf al-Ḥujub w-al-Astār. Qum.
-   Maʿmūrī, ʿAlī (1382 SH). "vahdat-gerāyī islāmī dar andīsheh shīʿey-e osūlīyeh," Shīʿe-shenāsī, No. 1, pp. 69-88.
-   Madelung, W. (1985). “Imamism and Muʾtazilite Theology" in Religious Schools and sects and Medieval Islam. VII. London.
-   Madelung, W. (2011). "Akhbāriyya," in: EI2. Brill Online. par. 1.
-   Modarresi, H. (1368 SH). Muqaddami-yi bar Fiqh Shiʿa. Mashhad.
-   Mufīd (1377 AH). al-Jamal. Qum.
-   Mufīd (1414 AH). Taṣḥīḥ Iʿtiqādāt al-Imāmīyyah. Beirut.
-   Muntajab al-Dīn Rāzī (1366 SH).  al-Fihrist. Qum.
-   Najāshī (1373 SH). Rijāl al-Najāshī. Qum.
-   Newman, A. J. (1986). The development and political significance of the rationalist (Usuli) and traditionalist (Akhbari) schools in Imāmī Shīʾī history from the third/tenth to the ninth/sixteenth century AD Ph.D. dissertation. UCLA.
-   Newman, A. J. (1992). “The Nature of Akhbari/Usuli Dispute in Late Safawid Iran." part 1, Part 2. in Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies, Vol. 55
-   Pākatchī A. (1379 SH). “Uṣūl-e Fiqh”. Dāʾirat al-Maʿārif Buzurg-e Islāmī. Vol. 9. Tehran.
-   Pākatchī A. (1385 SH).  Makātib-e Fiqh-e Imāmī. Tehran.
-   Qāḍī ʿAyāḍ (1366 AH). al-Shifāʼ bi Taʿrīf-i Ḥuqūq al-Muṣṭafà. Vol. 2. Beirut.
-   Qazwīnī, A. (1358 SH). Naqḍ. Tehran.
-   Rāfīʿī Qazwīnī (1987).  al-Tadwīn fī Akhbār-i Qazwīn Vol. 3. Beirut.
-   Sayyid Mortaḍà (1410 AH). al-Shāfī. Qum.
-   Shāfiʿī (1403 AH). al-ʼUmm, Vol. 1. Vol. 6. Beirut.
-   Shāfiʿī (n.d.). al-Risālah. Beirut.
-   Shahristānī (n.d.).  al-Milal wa al-Niḥal. Vol. 1. Beirut.
-   Shahrzūrī (1374 AH).  Muqadamat-u Ibn Ṣalaḥ. Beirut.
-   Stewart, D. (1998). Islamic Legal Orthodoxy: Twelver Shiite Responses to the Sunni legal system. Salt Lake City.
-   Thaqafī (n.d.). al-Ghārāt. Vol. 2. Tehran.
-   The group of authors. (1415 AH). Sharḥ al-Muṣṭalaḥāt al-Kalāmīyyah. Mashhad.
-   Urmawī J. (1358 SH).  Muqaddamih Naqḍ. Tehran.