É. Apor , I. Ormos (ed.): Goldziher Memorial Conference, June 21–22, 2000, Budapest.
LARSSON, Göran: Ignaz Goldziher on the Shuübiyya Movement
IGNAZ GOLDZIHER ON THE SHlfÜBlYYA MOVEMENT' Göran Larsson Göteborg In 1889-1890, the distinguished Hungarian professor Ignaz Goldziher (1850-1921) published two pioneering studies on the shit übiyya movement and the tensions between Arabs and non-Arabs ( cajam ) in the early Muslim period. The first study was part of Goldzihers monumental work, Muhammedanische Studien (Halle 18891890, 2 vols.), while the second was an article published in the Zeitschrift der Deutschen Morgenländischen Gesellschaft (1899) on the shuübiyya movement in al-Andalus, and especially the figure of Ibn Garcia. 2 There is no doubt that Goldziher was one of the first western scholars to pay attention to the shu'übiyya movement and the tensions in the early Muslim community — an issue of great importance even today. Although his analysis of these phenomena has been criticised, for example by H.A.R. Gibb' and Roy P. Mottahedeh 4, in my view it is impossible to overlook the importance of Goldziher on this subject. The aim of this paper is to present the ideas of this Hungarian scholar on the shu'übiyya movement and the criticism it has received during the twentieth century. Finally I shall discuss and present some of my own ideas on this movement. It is no exaggeration to say that Ignaz Goldziher was one of the most important and prominent western scholars of Islam, Judaism and Semitic languages. By studying Arabic and Hebrew manuscripts thoroughly from both the philological and historical points of view, he was able to establish a scientific foundation for the study of the Qur an, hadith and tafsir literature, as well as the affinity between Islam, Christianity and Judaism. Jacques Waardcnburg writes: "Goldziher may be said to have laid the foundation of Islamic studies as a scholarly discipline based on the literary and historical study of texts, most of which were at the time available only as manuscripts. It required great erudition and immense knowledge acquired through the reading of the original sources, and a 1 The author also published this article in ZDMG 155 (2005), 365-372. 2 Ignaz Goldziher, 'Die Shuubijja unter den Muhammedanern in Spanien', ZDMG 53 (1889), 601-620. Hamilton A. R. Gibb. 'The Social Significance of the Shuubiya', in: Id., Studies on the Civilization of Islam, Boston 1962, 62-73. 4 Roy Mottahedeh, 'The shu'üblya controversy and the social history of early Islamic Iran', International Journal of Middle Eastern Studies 7 (1976), 161-182. 151
