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 SHI/" OBIYYA often a rather indiscriminately distributed pejorative label, such as words like zindiq

, qarmati, khäriji tended to be, which were all ideally suited to discredit a person disliked for just any reason - especially someone reputed to be a "freethinker", regardless of his actual beliefs or activities. Like the case is with zindiq and various sorts of heresies, there may well have existed a loosely defined politico-intellectual movement known as the shu'übiyya

, some proponents of which actively advocated the idea of the equality of non-Arabs, primarily the Persians, with Arabs, no doubt sometimes even the superiority of the former to the latter

6; but it is equally likely that the label of shu'übi very soon came to be applied quite liberally to just any politically "suspect", or simply disliked, person. The vague usage of such pejorative 6 Cf. the examples in Goldziher (1967) I, 149-52. Hostility to, or at any rate lack of esteem for, the Arabs is also quite apparent in such titles as the 'Treatise on the Superiority of Non-Arabs to Arabs' (Risäla fi tafdil alcajam calä l- arab) of Abu cÄmir al-Subkl, which instantly provoked a barrage of refutations by various authors. Sec HäjjT Khalifa, Kashf III, 382. A rare, hence particularly valuable source of genuine shuübiyya views and arguments is Ibn Garcia, Risäla. Another very characteristic manifestation of 'real' shu übiyya thinking is the genealogical claim, widespread among Persian nationalists of the Abbasid era, that the Persians and the Jews were descended from the son of Sarah, legitimate wife of Abraham (Isaac), whilst Arabs must make do with Ishmael, son of an Egyptian bondmaid, I lagar, for an ancestor. The political implications of this claim were certainly not lost on any contemporary. See al-MasTidi, Tanbih 108-10; al-Mas'mdi, Murüj I, 206-9; Ibn Garcia, Risäla 247-48; Ibn Qutayba. Fadl 46-50 [a refutation of the Isaac hypothesis of the shu übiyya]. It is a telltale sign in this respect that Abu TJbayda was also labelled a khäriji by some of his contemporaries, an allegation to which I am inclined to attach even less importance than Goldziher did. Furthermore, the pro-Arab scholar Khälid b. Kulthüm is quoted in the Kitäb al-aghäni calling an unnamed scholar a "

shu'übi heretic" (

rajul min zanädiqat alshii

übivya), which is certainly nothing more than a wrathful and venomous reference to an opponent. Equally significant is the fact that the theologian Muhammad b. al-Layth was called a zindiq exclusively on account of his support of shuübiyya views, despite his having written a treatise against the genuine zindiq heretics! Yet another example of this broad and utterly imprecise usage is the case of a leading Mu

ctazilite aristocrat whom one of his rivals impeached for being a "heretic shu'übi

' (shu' übizindiq). a charge that landed him in prison for a considerable length of time under the caliph al-Mu'tasim. See Goldziher (1967) I, 181, 179, 149.; also Abu 1-Tayyib, Marätib 77. ["

wa-käna Abü 'Ubayda yamilu ilä madhhab al-ibädiyya min al-khawärij

"]; al-Suyütl, Bughya 295. ["wa-käna Abü '

Ubayda shiiübiyyan wa-käna yarä rady al-khawärij al-ibädiyya"

']; alIsfahänT, Agliäni XVIII, 159. We also encounter the predictable accusation that the par excellence shu'übi expert of Arabic genealogical science, Ghaylän (or cAllän) al-Sluf übT. was a zindiq too, a fact that later Arabic authors claim only became known after his death. See al-Isfahänl, Aghäni XX, 88. It is likewise worth noting that the odious Qarmati religious movement was also occasionally claimed to have drawn its inspiration from persons accused of anti-Arab shu'übiyya tendencies like Ibn al-Muqaffa

L. See al-Sanf änT, Ansäb IV, 478-79. Just how liberally the term zindiq might be applied in popular parlance 257