IBN al-Salah al-Shahrazuri and the isnad.

• Author: Dickinson, Eerik

1. INTRODUCTION

   AFTER THE COMPOSITION of the main authoritative collections in the third/ninth century, the prime activity in the field of Sunni liadith is particularly well illustrated in the Muqaddima of the Ayyubid-era muhaddith Ibn al-Salah. A major example of hadith scholarship of the era in which it was written, his Muqaddirna was thereafter, moreover, one of the most detailed and influential works on the subject.

   Ibn al-Salah al-Shahrazuri (577/1181-643-1245) composed the Muqaddima at a time of unprecedented interest. The Ayyubid and other contemporary rulers not only financially underwrote the recitation of hadith texts, but also supported such recitations by attending them personally. The Dar al-Hadith al-Ashrafiya, where Ibn al-Salah composed the Muqaddima during his tenure as its director, was only one of several institutions founded in the era devoted to the propagation of hadith.

   But by the time of Ibn al-Salah, the classical Muslim view of mankind in general and hadith transmitters in particular considered them both locked in irreversible decline. Hadith transmitters no longer played any role as guarantors of the authenticity of the texts as they once had in the past. Yet the hadith classes remained full of students! What were these students looking for? They were looking for "elevation" ([uluw.sup.[subset]]), which, simply put, means the isnads with the fewest intermediaries. From the Muqaddima and other texts, the various recognized forms of elevation and the theory behind them can be seen fairly clearly, and other evidence proves the profound extent of royal patronage for its spread and cultivation.

   Ibn al-Salah claimed basically that elevation was significant because fewer intermediaries meant that there were fewer places where errors could enter the text. This assertion is repeated by classical, and even some modem Western, authors. What will be seen, though, is that elevation made a mockery of textual transmission, a fact often bewailed by the classical scholars who were appalled by the ruin they saw enveloping themselves and the validity of hadith transmission.

   But the significance of elevation lay in the realm of spirituality rather than of the transmission of knowledge. The background of the composition of the Muqaddima suggests certain affinities between the circulation of hadith and the circulation of Prophetic relics. Elevation turned hadith into a special kind of relic. It allowed the believer to come into closer contact with the spiritual power of the Prophet. Whereas the believer was stuck at his own historically (inferior) station in terms of years ([ta.sup.[contains]]rikh), by a different view of time, shorter isnads allowed him to be closer to the Prophet in terms of generations (tabaqat).

2. HADITH AND RELICS

   Toward the end of his life, al-Nizam b. Abi 'l-Hadid (570/1175-625/1222) arrived at the fortress of Khilat near Lake Van in eastern Anatolia, carrying one of the sandals of the Prophet Muhammad. (1) This specimen-- from the left foot, according to the best opinions--had originally belonged to one of the Prophet's wives, Maymuna bint al-Harith. We are told that for at least a century it had been in the possession of al-Nizam's family and that they were Damascenes bearing some distinction in the world of learning and textual transmission, although the sources unfortunately offer few particulars. Al-Nizam himself enjoyed a minor reputation as a scholar of hadith and appears to have made his living by traveling from city to city and from court to court, collecting gifts for displaying his relic.

   Throughout history the sandals of the Prophet have had an enduring appeal2 and al-Nizam was not the first to exploit their popularity. A scene similar to the one that would unfold on his arrival in Khilat had been enacted four and a half centuries earlier. We read that one day a man made a gift of what he claimed to be one of the sandals of the Prophet to the [Abbasid.sup.[subset]] caliph al-Mahdi (r. 158/775-169-785). Al-Mahdi kissed it, placed it on his eyes and ordered that the man be given ten thousand dirhams as a reward. However, after the man left, the savvy caliph confided to his companions:

   Do you think that I do not know that the Messenger of God never saw this sandal, let alone wore it? If we had called [this man] a liar, he would have said to the people, "I brought the sandal of the Messenger of God to the Commander of the Faithful and he refused to accept it from me." Those who believed him would outnumber those who rejected his report, because it is one of the characteristics of the common people to incline toward their own kind and support the weak against the strong, even if [the weak person] is the one who is in the wrong. So we bought his tongue, accepted his gift and [pretended to] credit what he said. In our opinion this serves our ends better and is preferable. (3)

   The individual to whom al-Nizam brought his sandal was the Ayyubid prince al-Ashraf Musa. Upon beholding al-Nizam's relic al-Ashraf too "stood up and descended from his iwan. He took the sandal, kissed it, placed it on his eyes and wept." There is nothing, however, to suggest that al-Ashraf's adoration of the relic was anything but sincere. His greatest worry was that the holy sandal would elude his grasp. Regrettably, it turned out that al-Nizam had no intention of parting with his treasure and in fact planned to leave with it very soon. The urge to cut off a small piece of the sandal to keep for himself gnawed at al-Ashraf. He slept on the matter and on awakening concluded that if everyone followed this course of action, there would soon be nothing left of the precious artifact. Instead, he courted al-Nizam's favor with gifts and an appointment at a religious institution. He was soon rewarded for his altruism, for al-Nizam died within a few months, leaving him the sandal.

   Although al-Ashraf disagreed with al-Mahdi over the authenticity of the Prophetic relics in circulation, he too respected their power as points around which popular feeling could coalesce. When he took over Damascus in 626/1229, the sandal figured in his program to alter the ideological orientation of the city. The Damascus al-Ashraf found was still under the influence of his dynamic predecessor al-[Mu.sup.[contains]]azzam, who had controlled the city since 594/1198. After al-[Mu.sup.[contains]]azzam's death in 624/1227, his son Dawud succeeded him as the prince of Damascus. Although al-Ashraf and al-[Mu.sup.[contains]]azzam were both sons of the Ayyubid prince al-[Ad.sup.[contains]]il (d. 615/1218) and in fact were born only a day apart, rarely have two brothers differed more. It is a testament to al-[Mu.sup.[contains]]azzam's independence of mind that while most of the Ayyubids may be characterized as adherents of a kind of moderate [Ash.sup.[contains]]arite [Shafi.sup.[contains]]ism, he was a Hanafite. He supported Hanafism in Damascus to the full extent that his pur se allowed and played an active role in shaping the scholarly life of the city. His missionary zeal even led him to found a Hanafite madrasa in the Hanbalite suburb of al-Salihiya. His liberalism meant that his rule in Damascus was a time of relative freedom for the religious minorities and a period of efflorescence for philosophy and the other "sciences of the Ancients." Those who suffered were the Hanbalites and the [Shafi.sup.[contains]]ites who shared the literalist theological views of the Hanbalites.

   While al-[Mu.sup.[contains]]azzam was ruling in Damascus, his brother al-Ashraf was campaigning in the northern and eastern reaches of the Ayyubid domains. He was a [Shafi.sup.[contains]]ite, but he opposed the [Ash.sup.[contains]]arite theology sponsored by the majority of his family (4) and instead endorsed the Hanbalite viewpoint. When al-Ashraf succeeded in ousting Dawud in 626/1229, who had continued to pursue his father's policies, although with less vigor, the new ruler intended to reshape the city according to his own design. Non-Muslims were ousted from their official positions and the additions which they had been allowed to make to their houses of worship under al-[Mu.sup.[contains]azzam were torn down. The study of the sciences of the ancients was stamped out. (5)

   One pillar of al-Ashraf's rehabilitation of Damascus seems to have been to encourage the study of hadith. A number of schools of hadith already existed there before he took over the city. The Dar al-Hadith al-Nuriya, the institution Nur al-Din al-Zanji (controlled Damascus from 541/1146 until his death in 569/1174) founded in 566/1170, is said to have been the first school of hadith in the Islamic world. (6) In addition, around 593/1197 Saladin's confidant Qadi al-Fadil (529/1135-596/1200) built a structure of uncertain description known as the Dur al-Hadith al-Fadiliya in the district of al-Kallasa, near the Umayyad Mosque. (7) But the rule of al-[Mu.sup.[contains]]azzam was a bad time for the study of hadith. In 611/1214, the widening of a canal destroyed the revenue producing properties of the Nuriya and, because no attempt was made to compensate the school, it went bankrupt. (8) The only new foundation for the propagation of hadith in this period appears to have been a modest affair. In 617/1220 a wealthy refugee from Jerusalem Sharaf al-Din b. [U.sup.[contains]]rwa (d. 620/1223) was given permission to convert a storage area in the Great Mosque into a center for hadith. (9)

   Not only did al-Ashraf re-endow the Nuriya, he erected two new schools, one within the walls of the city and the other in the Damascene suburb of al-Salihiya. The inner Ashrafiya was where the prince decided to store the sandal. As R. Stephen Humphreys has pointed out, al-Ashraf's decision was motivated by a connection he perceived between the sandal and the hadith school. (10) The school was easily accessible to the public and near the prince's personal residence in the citadel. Hadith schools seem to...