Well‑known
prophetic traditions have it that there would exist 73 (72+1) Islamic and
other factions or sects. Out of this "fertile suggestion" grew the
"flourishing literature of Islamic heresiography dedicated to describing and
cataloguing these prophetically forseen dissidents" (Peters, 1968:244).
Several of the major Islamic heresiological works expound this tradition and
list scores of aberrant sects in order to attain the requisite number. Some
of these factions hardly existed historically such as the Ḥulūliyya
(proponents of ḥulūl )
ghulāt sect and are simply named after a doctrinal aberration
Early Shī`īte texts of Firāq (Factionalism) formed the basis of the
later heresological tradition. The first three Shī`ī heresiographers were,
Hisham b. Al‑Ḥakam (d.199/814), Yunūs b. `Abd al‑Raḥmān
(d.202/823) and Abū`¡sā al‑Warrāq (d.247/861). Later Shī`īte works expanded
and consolidated this tradition. Thu s al‑Ḥasan b. Mūsā al‑Nawbakhtī [al‑Qummī](d.c.
300/912) wrote his Firāq al‑Shī`ah (Divisions of the Shī`ites)
and Sa`d b. `Abd‑Allāh al‑Qummī (d. 301/913).
The Khurasānī Ismā’īlī Dā`ī Abū Tammām (fl. 4th/10th c.) wrote his Kitāb
al‑Shajara (Book of the Tree) which identified more than eighty sects in
treating the expected seventy and two "erring sects" whose future
appearence Muhammad predicted. Another Ismā’īlī Dā`ī named Ḥamīd al‑Dīn
Kirmānī ( ) incorporated at the beginning of the 5th/11th century a
detailed Islamic heresiography in his Tanbih al‑hādī wa’l‑mustahdī.
One of the distinguishing features of heresy in this latter work is that
undue importance is given to the ¥āhir ( external) sense of sacred
writ without due recognition of its corresponding bāṭin (interior)
dimension (Walker, 1996:163).
Abū al‑Ḥasan al‑Ashari’s (d. 324/925‑6),
The early Sunnī heresiographical tradition is expressive of Mu`tazilite and
Ash'arite perspectives. Important is Abū al‑Ḥasan al‑Ashari’s (d.
324/925‑6), Maqalāt al‑Islāmiyyīn (XXXXXXX), and the of al‑Malaṭi
(d. /987). The Asharite theologian and mathematician `Abd al‑Qadīr al‑Baghdādī
(d.429/1038) wrote a heresiography entitled K. al‑farq bayn al‑firāq
(The Difference among Differences).6 The
various sects or factions are here differentiated on a doctrinal basis.
Generally known as the Milal wa niḥal
later Sunnī heresiological works are often closely related to kalam, fiqh...
and other modes of Islamic scholarship. They contain detailed critical
surveys of mainstream and heterodox‑heretical Abrahamic and other
religious‑and philosophicl traditions. Within the Islamic heresiographical
traditions Biblical texts and references are occasionally cited. Details
regarding pre‑Islamic religious doctrines are likewise often given.
Drawn on by
both al‑Shahrastānī and al‑Bīrūnī
see Abū `Isā al‑Warrāq, in his
Kitāb al‑Maqālāt (Book of the ) al‑Isfarā’ini (d. /1078) Tabsīr
fī’l‑Dīn (Clarification in Religion)
Abu Tammam
-
Abu Tammam and His Kitab
al-Shajara: A New Ismaili Treatise from Tenth-Century Khurasan,
Paul E. Walker Journal of the American Oriental Society, Vol. 114, No. 3
(Jul. - Sep., 1994), pp. 343-352.
Abū
Fatḥ
al‑Shahrastānī
(d. 548/1153)
Abū
Fatḥ
al‑Shahrastānī (d.548/1153) is perhaps the best known
Muslim heresiographer, historian of religions and theologian. Best known for
his K. Al‑milāl wa’l‑niḥal
(“The Book of Religious and Philosophical Creeds”) this work has led to his
having been reckoned the first writer of a history of religion in world
literature (Sharpe, 1975:11) and as "the motherlode of the History of
Religions" ( Wasserstom, IOS XVII:128). al‑Shahrastānī not only deals with
Muslim sects but details the actual and supposed ahl al‑kitāb
religons and their sectarian factions. Among many other sub groups he
discusses Judaism, Christianity, Zoroastrianism, Manicheanism, Hinduism
and the ancient Sabean religion which is considered, like Hellenistic
philosophy, the Indian religions and polytheism, a "natural religion".
Shahrastānī gives significant coverage to matters Jewish including the
important sect of the īsāwiyyā,
to Jesus’ teaching to the NT as well as to three major oriental
Chritian sects, the Nestorians, Monophysites and Jacobites ? Melkites (see
Sharastānī, al‑Milal; M. Watt IC XX: 198?; Wasserstrom, ibid). The
richness of this work cannot be befittingly registered here; it must suffice
to note a few the detaileds given.
An Arabic version of Deut 33:2 is cited as prophetic testimony to the
missions of Moses (Allāh ja`a min ṭūr ṣīnā = Sinai) , Jesus (
Allāh.. zahara bi‑Sā`īr = Seir) and Muhammad (Allāh... `alana bi‑fārān)
(Milal,1:221) and there is mention of the period of Jesus’ summoning (da`wa)
as being the precise "three years, three months and three days" (ibid 1:
220). .
al-Shahrastanī = Muhammad ibn `Abd
al-Karīm (b. c. 469 [479]-542 [548] = c. 1086-1153).
Tafsir
- Mafatīḥ al-Asrār wa Maṣābīḥ
al-Abrār [Persian Facsimile editon in 2 vols. covering Surat al-Fatiha
and Baqara Q. Surahs 1-2]. Tehran: Markaz-i Intishār-i Nushakh-i
Khaṭṭī ( = Centre for the Publication of Manuscripts). Facsimile
edition of the Unique Manuscript at the Library of the Islamic
Consultative Assembly or Bunyād-i Farhang-i Irān. Introduction by
`Abd al-Husayn Ha'iri and Indices by Parviz Akhka'i, 1989 CE/1409
AH/1368Sh. (Vol. 1 = 26pp +pp. 1-240 + vol.2 = pp. 241-434 + Index
pp.869-913).
*
-
- Tafsīr al-Shahrastānī, Mafatīḥ al-Asrār wa Maṣābīḥ
al-Abrār, [Keys to the Mysteries and Lamps for the Pious] ed. Muhammad `Alī
Ādharshab. Tehran: Iḥyā-i Kitāb, Daftar-i Nashr-i Miras-i Maktub, 1997.*
Kitāb al-Milal wa'l-niḥal ("The Book of Religious and
Philosophical Communities"), written 1127 CE.
- Kitāb al-Milal wa'l-niḥal ed. `Abd al-Aziz
Muhammad al-Wakil. Cairo: Mu`assasat al-Halabi wa Sharkāh
li-l-Nashr wa al-Tuzi` 1387/1968. (202+222+115pp.= 3 vols.
in 1). *
- Kitāb al-Milal wa'l-niḥal ed. Ahmad Fahmi
Muhammad, 3 vols in 1 Beirut: Dar al-Kutub al-`Ilmiyya, n.d.
[199?] (734pp.).
*
- Kitāb al-Milal wa'l-niḥal trans. A.K.Kazi and
J.G. Flynn, `Muslim Sects and Divisions, The Section of Muslim Sects in Kitāb al-Milal wa'l-niḥal
by `Abd al-Karim Shahrastani (d. 1153)'. London, Boston, Melbourne and
Henley: Kegan Paul International, 1954 Rep. 1984. (195pp.).*
- Nihayat al-`iqdam ("The Culmination of Demonstration
in Scholastic Philosophy").
Kitab
al-Musara‘a
-
Al-Shahrastani,
Muhammad. Struggling with the Philosopher: A Refutation of Ibn Sina’s
Metaphysics. A new Arabic edition and English translation of Kitab
al-Musara‘a by Willferd Madelung and Toby Mayer. Ismaili Texts and
Translations Series, 2. London: I. B. Tauris in association with The
Institute of Ismaili Studies, 2001.
Bruce B. Lawrence [Muhammad ibn
Abd al-Karim Shahrastani]
- Shahrastani on the Indian
Religions, 1976 ISBN. 9027976813 (297 pp.)
*
6 His
work exists in several Cairo editions and have been translated into
English (in 2 vols. Chambers Seeyle+ Halkin) (see Van Ess, EIr.
III: 409‑10).
7
A list of early heresiographers can be found
in Ritter 1929 ("Philologika III: Muhammedanische Haresiographen
", Der Islam, xviii [1929], 34ff).
Fakr al‑Dīn Razī (d. /1209),
Fakr al‑Dīn
Razī (d. /1209), I`tiq adāt al‑muslimūn wa’l‑mushrik īn
(Doctrines? of the Muslims and the [non‑Muslim] Unbelievers). The second
half of this book discusses Jews, Christians, Zoroastrians, Manichaeans and
Sabeans.
Numerous other works dealing with the religions of the ahl al‑kitāb
their sects and beliefs cannot be detailed here.7
[Qaḍī ]`Abd al-Jabbār,`Abu'l-Ḥasan
Asadābādī (ca. XXX-415 = c. 935 = 1025).
Major late Mu`tazilite theologian
See Sezgin 1:624-626. .
- al-Mughnī fi abwab al-tawhid wa'l-`adl. 14 vols. ed.
Taha Husayn, Cairo: Dar al-Misriyya li'l-Ta'lif wa'l-Tarjama. 1958-1965.
- al-Mughnī fi abwab al-tawhid wa'l-`adl. XX vols.
*
- al-Mughnī fi abwab al-tawhid wa'l-`adl. XX vols.*
- Sharh al-Usul al-Khamsa. ed.
Dar al-Ihya' a;-Turath al-`Arabi, 1422/2001 (567pp.).*
Pines, Shlomo
- Studies in the History of Jewish Thought Shlomo
Pines, Moshe Idel, Warren Harvey. 1997 (821pp.) ISBN=
9652239100
- Collected Works S. Pines Brill Academic Pub.,
1997 ISBN= 9652236268
- Studies in Abul-Barakat Al-Baghdadi: Physics and
Metaphysics Shlomo Pines. 1979 ISBN = 9652233323
(339pp.)
Reynolds, Gabriel Said,
- A Muslim Theologian in the Sectarian milieu, `Abd al-Jabbār
and the Critique of Christian Origins. Leiden: E.J. Brill, 2004.
- Jesus, the Qa'im and the End of the World.
- Saint Thomas' Islamic Challenges...
