The aim of this paper is to elucidate some of the phrases and slogans which occur in the Muslim traditions about the Fitna, the first ‘civil war’ in Islam, which, according to tradition, begins with the murder of the caliph ‘Uthmān in 36/656 and ends with the recognition of Mu'āwiya as caliph in 41/661. These phrases and slogans are discussed in the light of ideas and terminology found in Judaism, and it is suggested that a better understanding of them can be gained by the comparison with Judaism than by the attempts to interpret them in more traditionally Muslim terms. It is argued that both the lā ḥukma slogan and the ḥudūd references indicate a dispute within the early Muslim community about the authority to be accorded to Scripture, and that the terminology used is so reminiscent of that used in Judaism that it is likely that the dispute was the same as that which we know was the mam one between Jewish sects in the early Islamic period—the relative status of Scripture and Oral Law. This would be an issue which has not previously been mentioned in discussions of the issues involved in the Fitna and, if the suggestions made here prove to be acceptable, it would provide more material for discussion of the sectarian circles which contributed to the development of Islam.
SHOEX NOTICES instructive discussion of his two manuscript sources, and the principles by which his own text has been established. The accompanying notes and indexes conform to the high standard of this volume. R. c. OSTLE 'ABD AL-'Aziz AL-DUEI: Tarikh al-'Irdq al-iqtisadi fi 'l-qarn al-rdbi' al-Hijri. Tab'a thaniya munaqqaha. 291 pp. Beirut: Dar al-Mashriq, [ C 1974].
Works offiqhoften have chapters or sections concerned with various questions related to the topic of entering the Ka'ba, usually signalled by headings such asFī dukhūl al-Ka'baorAl-ṣalāt fī(jawfi)'l-Ka'ba. In them a number ofḥadīthsare referred to, many of which are to be found in the classical collections and some of which occur as well in ‘historical’ literature such assīraandta'rīkh. This paper discusses the way in which this material is presented and developed, both infiqhand inḥadīthand ‘historical’ literature, what sort of questions it is concerned with, and what reasons there may be for its existence. This last question is taken up at the end of the paper but here it may be said that I think that thefiqhandḥadīthmaterial is relevant to an understanding of the development of the Muslim sanctuary and that it illustrates a tension, which is also observable in other traditional material, between two concepts of the sanctuary: is it ‘open’, comparable to a temple or church, or is it ‘closed’, like an ark or sacred stone? Both concepts exist within Muslim tradition, and it seems to me likely that the material discussed in the following two sections has been generated, originally, by the tension between them.
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