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

ZOLTÁN SZOMBATI IY stickers is quite obvious in a story that al-Mas

cüdi tells of a man in Baghdad who reported to the governor on his neighbour's being a heretic, or zindiq, and, being asked to specify the latter's heresies, identified him as a Murji'ite Qadarite proOmayyad Shi

cite (murjf qadari näsibi räfldT), mutually exclusive terms that add up to little more than a torrent of abuse.

8 3. In accounting for his alleged hostility to the Arabs and their heritage, many authors will mention Abü 'Ubayda's non-Arab - probably Jewish - ancestry. This kind of denigratory references to a disliked opponent's ethnic origins, however common they might be, need not detain us at any length. While these observations are generally true in themselves, it must be made absolutely clear that most of the known enemies of the shu'iibiyya camp, including the celebrated al-Jähiz and Ibn Qutayba, were themselves of foreign origin. It is reasonable to say that, in most cases, an author's actual descent did not have a formative role in his ideas, and really ought not to be factored in.

9 4. The fact that authors regarded as shu iibi made mention of a lot of unfavourable details and rumours about some figures of the Arabian past, and compiled whole works on the disgraces of particular Arab tribes is not much help to us either, for many, if not most, "pro-Arab" authors did not by any means refrain from writing on the disgraces of Arabic tribes, this genre (known as mathälib) being part and parcel of the Arabic cultural tradition.

1" Whereas shuübi authors did emphasize uncertain in the high Abbasid period is exemplified by a story in which the caliph Härün al-Rashld called the celebrated poet Abu Nuwäs (incidentally, yet another person accused of being a shu

cübi) a zindiq solely because of the occurrence of the phrase "the fragility of my religion" (riqqatu dini) in one of the latter's poems. The grand vizier, however, defended the poet by pointing out that one frivolous locution, uttered in jest, did not justify a charge of heresy. See al-Bayhaql, Mahäsin 268. On charges of zandaqa against many outstanding poets in early Abbasid times, see Vajda (1938), 198-221. 8 al-Mas

cüdt, Murüj II, 30. The words näsibi and räfidi are, in fact, outright opposites theologically and politically; cf. the hadith attributed to CA1I b. Abt Tälib in al-Bayhaql, Mahäsin 62. 9 E. g., the celebrated prose writer al-Jähiz, a noted opponent of the shu'iibiyya

, did compose works on the equality of Arabs and non-Arabs (al-taswiya bayn al-arab wa-lcajam), the glories of the Turks and the Africans, etc. For all his obviously black African origins, he is well known to have been firmly on the 'pro-Arab' side. See Pellat (1953), 53-541

0 In a source, it is said that Abü TJbayda, 'harbouring a deep rancour towards the Arabs, wrote several books about their disgraces.' Ibn Qutayba depicts him as the most maleficent scholar of the shu'iibiyya side (

wa-käna yubghidu lcarab wa-qad allafa fi mathälibihä kutuban

); see Abü 1-fayyib, Marätib 78; Ibn Qutayba, Fadl 37-38. In the list of Abü cUbayda's works, however, there is only one titled Kitäb al-mathälib. See Ibn Khallikän, Wafayät V, 238. On the other hand, a lot of authors not usually accused of shu'übi tendencies like Hishäm al-K.albI, Abü 1-Faraj al-Isbahäni, Abü 1-Yaqzän, etc., did have an active interest in, and compile works on, the mathälib of Arab tribes. In fact, 258