The Bible and Islamo-Biblica in Islamic Futūḥ ("Openings", "Conquests") and related literatures

IN PROGRESS 2009-10

Stephen Lambden (UC-Merced)

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A considerable body of both Futūḥ (“Conquests”; “Openings”) and Faḍā’il (“Excellences”) traditions and literatures exist from the early Islamic centuries. This is evidenced in various sometimes thematically organized hadīth compilations.  Such literatures grew up in the early Islamic centuries in celebration, for example, of the glory and excellence of the Qur’an and related divine revelations. Tracts and compilations came into being relative to the Islamic conquest and the acquisition  and glorification of specific regions and territories in the Middle East.  Literatures also existed in celebration, for example,  of particular holy days, persons and geographical locations.  Biblical texts and expository Islamo-biblical testimonia and traditions are often incorporated into these literatures.

Rudi Paret, 1970 (2008)

• `The Legendry Futūḥ Literature'  rep. in Donner ed. The Expansion of the Early Islamic State (The Formation of the Classical Islamic World Vol. 5). Aldershot, Hants. : Ashgate Publishing Ltd., 2008.  pp.163-175. Though now dated and in part somewhat inaccurate this article contains some useful bibliographical data :

"As early as the beginning of the 18th century Simon Ockley, Professor of Arabic in Cambridge, presented the conquest of Syria based on a manuscript of Wāqidī's Futūḥ al-Shām in the first volume of his history of the Saracens (1708). Incidentally, Ockley's historical work was translated into Dutch in 1741, into German in 1746 and into French in 1748, a sign of its wide popular appeal. In 1825 H. A. Hamaker edited the Arabic text of the conquest of Lower Egypt, with a multitude of learned notes; ⁵ in 1827 Heinrick Ewald published his edition of a fragment of the Conquest of Mesopotamia.' ⁶ in 1847 B. G. Niebuhr translated the Arabic 'History of the Conquest of Mesopotamia and Armenia by Mohammed ben Omar el Wakedi'; it was edited, with explanatory notes and additions, by A. D. Mordtmann and published in Hamburg. In 1854-62 W. Nassau Lees's edition of the Kitāb Futūḥ al-Shām followed in the Bibliotheca Indica.⁷ Criticism of the authenticity of the texts and the reliability of the tradition began early as well. Hamaker's and Lee's editions already indicate in the title that the original is only attributed to Waqidi ; in his 1860 Akademie dissertation D. B. Haneberg from the outset only speaks of 'Pseudo-Wakidi's' History of the Conquest of Syria and states that it is unlikely that the work was composed before the Crusades. ⁸ The most detailed criticism was M. J. de Goeje's, directed at a book also called Futūḥ al-Shām, edited by W. N. Lees in 1854, but attributed not to Waqidi but to a certain Abu Ismail Muhammad b. 'Abdallah al-Azdi al-Basri. ⁹ Finally it must be mentioned that Leone Caetani also voices criticism of the information in the Kitāb Futūḥ al-Shām in several passages of his monumental work Annali dell'Islam.¹⁰ " (Paret,  1970 rep.  trans. 2008, 164-5).

Footnotes

Fn.5. 'Henricus Arentius Hamaker, Incerti auctoria liber de expugnatione Memphidis et Alexandriae, vulgo adscriptus Abou Mohammedi Omar filio, Wakidaeo, Medinensi (Leiden, 1825).

Fn.6 G. H. A Ewald, Libri Wakcedii de Mesopotamiae expugnatae historia pars (Gottingen, 1827).

Fn. 7 The Conquest of Syria, commonly ascribed to Abou 'Abd Allah Mohammad b. `Omar al-Wāqidī, Edited with notes by W. Nassau Lees (three volumes, Calcutta 1854-62). This edition only contains the history of the conquest of Syria. The text ends with volume II p. 22 of the Cairo edition (1343/1925) used by me.

Fn. 8. P.5

Fn. 9. Mémoires sur le Fotouho's-Scham atiribué a Abou Ismail al-Bārri (Leiden 1864 = Mémoires d'Histoire et de Geographie Orientales par M. J. de Goeje, n.2).

Fn. 10 See note 17 below. ..

al-Azdī, Abu Mikhnaf   (d. 157/774)

• Futūh al-shām -- apparently incorporated into the Futuh al-Sham listed below.

al-Azdī,  Abu Ismā‘īl Muhammad ibn `Abd-Allah al Azdī, al-Baṣrī (d. c. 190/805).

"The Futūh al-shām by Abū Ismā`īl al-Azdī is one of the earliest extant Arabic sources dealing with the Islamic conquest of Syria and is one of the few extant historical documents from the second/eighth century.... The two surviving manuscripts of Azdī's Futūh al-shām are now in the Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris, nos. Arabe 1664 and 1665. They comprise 82 and 149 folios, respectively. The first manuscript was copied in Jerusalem on 22 Dhū al-Hijja 613 (21 April 1217) by a Muhammad ibn Ibrahim al-Ghassānī. The second, which is clearer than the first, was copied on 1 Dhū al-Qacda 764 (12 August 1363) Arabe 1664 refers to Azdī's text under the title Kitāb mukhtaşar futūh al-shām li-l-Wāqidl (Synopsis of the Conquests of Syria by Waqidï) by Abū Ismā`īl Muhammad ibn  `Abd Allah al-Azdï al-Başrî. But this title does not appear in the other manuscript, and it seems that it was added later by one of the owners of that manuscript." (Mourad 2000: 577,   )

Lees, William Nassau (ed.,) 1853-4

•  The Fotooh Al-Sham [= Futūḥ al-Shām, "The Conquest of Syria"]. Being An Account of the Muslim Conquests in Syria by Aboo Isma'ail Mohammad Bin `Abd Allah, Al-Azdi Al-Bacri [sic.] who flourished about the middle of the second century of the mohammadan era.  Calcutta: Bibliotheca Indica; Collection of Oriental Works (Fasciculus I-IV), 1853-4.  247pp + 58pp (index) and 43pp of English text.

• The Fotooh al-Shám," being an account of the Moslim conquests in Syria, by ا

The  Futūḥ Miṣr or (as Torrey paraphrased) ‘The History of the Conquest of Egypt, North Africa and Spain’

Richard Gottheil Review: The History of the Conquest of Egypt, North Africa and Spain by Ibn 'Abd Al-Ḥakam by Charles C. Torrey

Journal of the American Oriental Society, Vol. 43, (1923), pp. 144-148

al-Balādhurī, Abu al-Abbas Ahmad ibn Yahya (ADD/893)

• Ansab al-ashraf  li-Ahmad bin Yahya bin Jabir al-Baladhuri. Jerusalem : University Press, 1936

• Futûh al-buldân. Liber expugnationis regionum, quem e codice Leidensi et codice Musei Brittanici edidit M. J. de Goeje.

• Editio secunda (photomechanice iterata). Leiden 1968. 4to. (5 lvs, 128 pp. Latin preliminary, 539 pp. Arabic text.).

• See Brockelmann, GAL 1:142.

• Futuh al-buldan. XXXX/1957-58.

• The origins of the Islamic state, being a translation from the Arabic, accompanied with annotations, geographic and historical notes of the Kitab futuh al-buldan of al- Imam Abu-l `Abbas, Ahmad ibn- Jabir al- Baladhuri, by Philip Khuri Hitti.  ed. AMS ed.]. Columbia University studies in the social sciences. 163-163a. New York, AMS Press [1968- 69].

Important papers and details of the publication  history of this extensive and extremely important Arabic work can be read in  James E. Lindsay (ed), Ibn `Asakir And Early Islamic History, Princeton, New Jersey: The Darwin Press, 2001. See especially, Suleiman A. Mourad, `Appendix A. Publication History of the TMD' pp.127-133.

• Tahdhib ta'nkh dimashq al-kabir, 7 vols. Damascus, 1911-32. This is an abridged, incomplete edition

•  

Ibn Manzur (7th/13th cent. lexicographer) 

• Mukhtasar ta'rikh dimashq li-Ibn 'Asakir, 29 vols. Damascus: Dar al-Fikr, 1984 The isnads or `chains of transmitters' are omitted as are many variant hadiths and other reports (see Lindsay 1995:46 fn2).

Mourad, Suleiman.  

• Sirat al-sayyid al-Masih li-Ibn 'Asakir al-dimashqi (The Biography of Jesus by Ibn 'Asākir of Damascus). Amman: Dār al-Shurūq), 1996.
• “Jesus according to Ibn ‘Asākir.” In Ibn ‘Asākir and Early Islamic History. Ed. James E. Lindsay. Princeton: The Darwin Press, 2001. Pp. 24–43.
• “Publication History of Ta’rīkh madīnat Dimashq (The History of Damascus).” In Ibn ‘Asākir and Early Islamic History. Ed. James E. Lindsay. Princeton: The Darwin Press, 2001. Pp. 127–133.
• “On Early Isla mic Historiography: Abū Ismā‘īl al-Azdī and his Futūḥ al-Shām (Conquests of Syria).” Journal of the American Oriental Society 120.4 (2000), 577–593.
• “Poetry, History, and the Early Arab-Islamic Conquests of al-Shām (greater Syria).” In Poetry and History: The Value of Poetry in Reconstructing Arab History. Ed. Ramzi Baalbaki & Tarif Khalidi. Beirut: American University of Beirut Press, 2009 (Forthcoming).
• Jerusalem: Idea and Reality. Ed. Tamar Mayer and Suleiman A. Mourad. London and New York: Routledge, 2008.  
•  “The Symbolism of Jerusalem in Early Islam.” Jerusalem: Idea and Reality. Ed. Tamar Mayer and Suleiman A. Mourad. London and New York: Routledge, 2008. Pp. 86–102.
• “Christians and Christianity in the Sīra of Muhammad.” In Christian-Muslim Relations: A Bibliographical History, Vol. 1. Ed. David Thomas. Leiden: Brill Academic Publishers, 2009 (Forthcoming).
• “A Muslim Response to the Second Crusade: Ibn ‘Asākir of Damascus as Propagandist of Jihad.” The Second Crusade in Perspective. Ed. Jason T. Roche and Janus Møller Jensen. Turnhout: Brepols, 2009 (In Press).

Antrim, Zayde. 

• Ibn Asakir's Representations of Syria and Damascus in the Introduction to the Ta`rikh Madinat Dimashq' in International Journal of Middle East Studies, Vol. 38/1 (2005), pp.109-129.

Lindsay, James E. 

• “ʿAlī Ibn ʿAsākir as a Preserver of Qiṣaṣ al-Anbiyāʾ: Th e Case of David b. Jesse,” Studia Islamica, 82 (1995): 47-50.
• `Sarah and Hagar in Ibn 'Asākir's History of Damascus'. in  Medieval Encounters, 2008, Vol. 14/1, pp.1-14,

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Holy Land Studies: A Multidisciplinary Journal,=  Volume 5, Number 2, November 2006 = E-ISSN: 1750-0125 Print ISSN: 1474-9475 2007.

Anabseh, Ghaleb.

• The Sanctity of the City of 'Asqalan in the 'Merits Literature' of Palestine: An Examination of Mamluk and Ottoman Sources Holy Land Studies: A Multidisciplinary Journal - Volume 5, Number 2, November 2006, pp. 187-197

al-Waqidi (d.207/823)