É. Apor , I. Ormos (ed.): Goldziher Memorial Conference, June 21–22, 2000, Budapest.
SZOMBATHY, Zoltán: Some Notes on the Impact of the Shu übiyya on Arabic Genealogy
SOME NOTES ON THE IMPACT OF THE SHlfÜBIYYA ON ARABIC GENEALOGY Zoltán Szombathy Budapest One of the branches of mediaeval Muslim scholarship which Goldziher's Muhammedanische Studien dwells upon at considerable length is the longestablished discipline of genealogy ('ilm al-nasab ), a domain which was regarded as an indispensable part of the study of pre-lslamic Arabian culture, hence an area in which the controversies going on between the proponents and the opponents of the 'anti-Arab' cultural movement of the Middle Ages known as the shu'übiyya were exceptionally heated. Along with philology, genealogy was selected by Goldziher as a field of scholarship in which to demonstrate the assumptions and attitudes of the shu'übiyya movement. In treating the subject, Goldziher singled out a well-known representative of the shu'itbi scholars, equally knowledgeable in both philological and genealogical studies, Abü cUbayda Ma cmar b. al-Muthannä, as an epitome of the new breed of scholars with markedly anti-Arab biases.' Whereas it would be both superfluous and pretentious to try and analyse further those aspects of the issue that have been so vividly described by Goldziher, 1 find it worthwhile to make some additional remarks on the possible implications of the term shu'itbi when applied to intellectuals of the Abbasid era. My additions will focus on the problematic issue of defining what meanings and connotations that term might have in this context. In doing so, I hope to be able to show the very real difficulty of finding hard-and-fast criteria for classifying one scholar as a shu'itbi , and another as a "supporter of the Arab side". 2 It must, however, be made clear that Abü cUbayda and his ilk were neither "genealogists" nor "philologists" in any strict and specialized sense of either term, but rather a species of all-in "Bedouin experts", collecting and restoring as they did whatever kind of data was available to them on various departments of pre-lslamic Arabian nomadic life and culture - which, of course, includes both genealogical and philological matters. In fact, the name "supporters of equality" (ahl ai-taswiya), often used in reference to the shu' übiyya , would indicate that the primary aim of this "movement" was the emancipation of non-Arabs rather than opposition to the Arabs, but mediaeval sources almost invariably refer, in no uncertain terms, to the alleged "hatred" of shu' itbi scholars towards the Arabs and their glories. See Ibn Qutayba, Fadl 35. 255
