EarlySunnīHistoriography Islamic History and Civilization Studies and Texts EditorialBoard HinrichBiesterfeldt SebastianGünther HonoraryEditor WadadKadi volume 157 Thetitlespublishedinthisseriesarelistedatbrill.com/ihc Early Sunnī Historiography AStudyof theTārīkhof Khalīfab.Khayyāṭ By TobiasAndersson LEIDEN | BOSTON Coverillustration:AcopyofapagefromthemanuscriptoftheTārīkhofKhalīfab.Khayyāṭ,National LibraryofMorocco(Rabat),no.199,p.53.PhotobyTobiasAndersson. LibraryofCongressCataloging-in-PublicationData Names:Andersson,T.S.(TobiasSahl),author. Title:EarlySunnihistoriography:astudyoftheTarikhofKhalifab.Khayyat/by TobiasAndersson. Description:Leiden;Boston:Brill,2018.|Series:Islamichistoryandcivilization; Volume157|Includesbibliographicalreferencesandindex. Identifiers:LCCN2018035513(print)|LCCN2018040103(ebook)| ISBN9789004383173(ebook)|ISBN9789004383166(hardback:alk.paper) Subjects:LCSH:ʿUṣfūrī,KhalīfahibnKhayyāṭ,-854.TārīkhKhalīfahibnKhayyāṭ.| Umayyaddynasty–History–Earlyworksto1800.|Islamic Empire–History–661-750–Earlyworksto1800. Classification:LCC DS38.5.U743(ebook)|LCC DS38.5.U743A532018(print)| DDC956/.013–dc23 LCrecordavailableathttps://lccn.loc.gov/2018035513 TypefacefortheLatin,Greek,andCyrillicscripts:“Brill”.Seeanddownload:brill.com/brill‑typeface. ISSN0929-2403 ISBN978-90-04-38316-6(hardback) ISBN978-90-04-38317-3(e-book) Copyright2019byKoninklijkeBrillNV,Leiden,TheNetherlands. KoninklijkeBrillNVincorporatestheimprintsBrill,BrillHes&DeGraaf,BrillNijhoff,BrillRodopi, BrillSense,HoteiPublishing,mentisVerlag,VerlagFerdinandSchöninghandWilhelmFinkVerlag. 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Contents Acknowledgements vii NoteonConventions viii Introduction 1 1 SubjectandScope 1 2 PreviousStudiesonKhalīfa’sTārīkh 10 3 ManuscriptsandPublishedEditions 13 1 TheTransmissionofKhalīfa’sTārīkh 15 1 Introduction 15 2 TheTransmitters:Baqīb.MakhladandMūsāb.Zakariyyā al-Tustarī 16 3 DifferencesbetweentheRecensionsandtheQuestionof Authorship 21 4 MissingMaterialinBaqī’sRecension 28 5 Conclusion 44 2 Khalīfa’sLifeandWorks 45 1 Introduction 45 2 Biography 45 3 Works 52 4 ScholarlyReputation 55 5 Khalīfa’sTārīkhinLaterScholarship 59 6 Conclusion 65 3 SocialandIntellectualContext 67 1 Introduction 67 2 SocialandPoliticalContext 68 3 IntellectualContext 78 4 HistoriographicalContext 90 5 Conclusion 103 4 Khalīfa’sSources 105 1 Introduction 105 2 MainDirectTransmitters(20–110Citations) 106 3 LessFrequentlyCitedDirectTransmitters(5–19Citations) 112 4 MinorDirectTransmitters(1–4Citations) 120 vi contents 5 MajorIndirectSources 125 6 AnalysisofMaterial 131 7 Conclusion 137 5 Khalīfa’sMethods 139 1 Introduction 139 2 EpistemologyofHistoricalKnowledge 140 3 SystemofReference 151 4 SelectionandEvaluationofTransmitters 158 5 Conclusion 164 6 StructureandArrangementoftheTārīkh 166 1 Introduction 166 2 ConceptofChronography 166 3 GeneralStructure:AnnalisticandCaliphalChronology 172 4 StructureofIndividualYearsandLists 178 5 Conclusion 193 7 ThemesI:Prophethood,CommunityandHegemony 195 1 Introduction 195 2 Prophethood 196 3 Community 203 4 Hegemony 209 5 Conclusion 223 8 ThemesII:LeadershipandCivilWar 225 1 Introduction 225 2 TheRāshidūnPeriod 226 3 TheUmayyadPeriod 250 4 TheʿAbbāsidPeriod 275 5 Conclusion 279 Conclusion 283 1 Overview 283 2 Methods,ConcernsandContextsoftheEarlyHistorians 283 3 ChronographyamongtheEarlyḤadīthScholars 285 4 ArticulationsofSunnīViewsintheEarlyHistoricalTradition 286 Appendix:CitationsofKhalīfainal-Bukhārī’sal-Jāmiʿal-ṣaḥīḥ 289 Bibliography 299 Index 317 Acknowledgements Iwouldliketothankmyteachers,colleaguesandfriendsfortheirsupportdur- ingtheyearsspentwritingthisbook.IamparticularlygratefultoAbdassamad ClarkeandAbdussalaamNordenhökforalwaysprovidingexcellentadvicein allmattersandfortheirwonderfulcompany.IwouldalsoliketothankmyPhD supervisor,AndrewMarsham,forhisconstanthelpandbeneficialdiscussions of thethesisuponwhichthisworkisbased.Lastly,Imustthankmywifeand family,whohaveofferedtheircontinualsupportthroughoutthecomposition ofthisbook. Note on Conventions The dates in this book follow the Hijrī/Common Era format.Translations of Khalīfa’sTārīkh are my own, although I have based some parts onWurtzel’s translationofthesectioninKhalīfa’sTārīkhontheUmayyadperiod:Khalifaibn Khayyat’sHistoryontheUmayyadDynasty(Liverpool2015).Thephrase“may thepeaceandblessingsofGodbeuponhim(ṣallāAllāhuʿalayhiwa-sallam),” whichusuallyfollowstheProphetMuḥammad’snameintheMuslimsources, isabbreviatedas(ṣ). Introduction 1 SubjectandScope ThisisastudyoftheoldestIslamicchronologicalhistorystillextant:theTārīkh (‘Chronicle’)of Khalīfab.Khayyāṭ(d.240/854).1AbūʿAmrKhalīfab.Khayyāṭ al-ʿUṣfurī—also known as Shabāb—was a ḥadīth scholar and historian who livedandworkedinthelargesouthernIraqicityofBasra,whichwasoneofthe maincentresof learningintheMuslimworldatthetime.Theextantrecen- sionof theTārīkhwastransmittedfromKhalīfabytheleadingḥadīthscholar of al-Andalus, Baqī b. Makhlad al-Qurṭubī (d. 276/889), during his travels in the East.2 After an introductory section on calendar systems and chronogra- phy,Khalīfa’sTārīkhisarrangedannalisticallybyyearsofthelunarHijrīcalen- dar(1–232/622–847inBaqīb.Makhlad’srecension).Itcoversthepoliticaland administrativehistoryof theMuslimpolityfromitsoriginsinMedinaatthe timeoftheProphetMuḥammadandthefirstcaliphsthatsucceededhimupto theUmayyadandʿAbbāsidcaliphates. Despiteitsearlydate,Khalīfa’sTārīkhhasreceivedlittleattentioninmod- ern scholarship.3 Previous works on Khalīfa’s Tārīkh are only partial studies or general introductions, without any in-depth analysis of its sources, struc- tures,contentandunderlyingaimsandmethods.4Thesesurveyandtextbook accountstendtoremarkonitsbeingtheearliestsurvivingannalistichistory inArabic,incontrasttoearliersingle-subjecttextsandPropheticbiographies. Somemodernhistorianshavedismisseditastellinguslittleornothingthatis notknownfromthelaterhistoricaltradition,5althoughothershavepointedout 1 Anotherchronologicalhistorycompiledaroundthesametimethatmightbemoreorless completeinitsextantrecensionistheTārīkhofʿAbdal-Malikb.Ḥabīb(d.238/853).Onthe discussionsaboutthestateofthesurvivingversion,seeAguadé’sintroductiontoIbnḤabīb, Tārīkh77–108. 2 AnotherrecensionwastransmittedfromKhalīfabyMūsāb.Zakariyyāal-Tustarī(d.before 300/912),butitsurvivesonlypartiallyasscatteredcitationsinlatersources.Onthesetwo recensions,seeChapter1. 3 Apartfromthisbook,therearesofaronlyafewpartialstudies.SeeRoberts,EarlyIslamic historiography65–77;ʿĀṣī,Khalīfa;Nawas,AnearlyMuslimphilosopherofhistory;Robinson, Islamichistoriography77–79;Ṣaddām,TārīkhKhalīfa;Wurtzel,KhalifaibnKhayyat’sHistory. ThelatterisbasedonWurtzel’sPhDthesisfrom1977,TheUmayyadsinthe“History”ofKhalīfa b.Khayyāṭ,whichwaspreparedforpublicationbyRobertHoyland.SeealsoAnderssonand Marsham,FirstIslamicchronicle. 4 Seethereviewofpreviousstudiesbelow. 5 Robinson,Islamichistoriography77. © koninklijkebrillnv,leiden,2019 | doi:10.1163/9789004383173_002 2 introduction thatitcontainsagoodamountof uniqueanddetailedinformationaswellas somewhatdifferentperspectivesoncertainevents.6Khalīfa’sTārīkhwasalso compiled before the reorganisation and standardisation of historical knowl- edgethattookplacearoundthelatethird/ninthandearlyfourth/tenthcen- turies,whenwhatBorruthasdescribedasthemostsuccessfulandenduring of the“earlyIslamichistoriographicalfilters”wasestablished.7However,itis notonlytheearlydateandsomeoftheinformationthatdistinguishKhalīfa’s Tārīkh;theselectionandframingofthematerial(political-administrativehis- toryfromanearlySunnīperspective)andthecontextof itscompilation(the Basranḥadīthcircles)alsosetitapartfrommanyotherearlyhistories.Inthat sense,Khalīfa’sTārīkhisitselfalargelyoverlookedhistoricalfactthathelpsus better understand the development of Islamic historical writing—especially intheearlyḥadīthcirclestowhichKhalīfabelongedandwhichwerecrucialin thearticulationofSunnismduringtheearlythird/ninthcentury.8 The purpose of the book is, accordingly, to reassess and reappraise Khal- īfa’sTārīkh by means of a detailed analysis of both the text and the context ofitscompilation.ApartfromthelackofdetailedattentiontoKhalīfa’sTārīkh inmodernscholarship,therearethreeprincipalreasonswhythisfull-length study is important for the wider field of Islamic historiography. First, full- lengthstudieson theworksof someearly historianshaveshowntheimpor- tanceof detailedexaminationsof specifichistoriansforunderstandingtheir aims and methods of compilation. They also highlight the great diversity in the early historical tradition.9 Because of Khalīfa’s preoccupation with both ḥadīth transmission and history writing, his Tārīkh lends itself particularly well to an in-depth examination of the interaction between the two fields of ḥadīthandakhbār history,morespecificallychronography(tārīkh),inthe earlythird/ninthcentury.10Understandingthesources,methodsandagendas 6 Wurtzel,KhalifaibnKhayyat’sHistoryviii;Borrut,Entremémoireetpouvoir94–95.Seealso AnderssonandMarsham,FirstIslamicchronicle20–22. 7 Borrut,VanishingSyria44–45,Entremémoireetpouvoir97–108.Seealsohispointregard- ingKhalīfa’sTārīkhasclearlydistinguishablefromtheslightlylater“historiographical vulgate”inEntremémoireetpouvoir94–95. 8 SeeLucas,Constructivecritics21.SeealsoZaman,Religionandpolitics208–213. 9 E.g.Khalidi,Islamichistoriography;Shboul,al-Masʿūdīandhisworld;Sezgin,AbūMikhnaf; Leder,DasKorpusal-Haiṯam;Shoshan,Poetics;Hirschler,MedievalArabichistoriography; Kennedy,al-Ṭabarī;Mårtensson,Tabari;Anthony,Caliphandtheheretic;Lindstedt,Trans- missionofal-Madāʾinī’smaterial;Bonner,Historiographicalstudy. 10 Therearesomestudiesontherelationbetweenmaghāzī-sīraandḥadīth,butfeweronthe post-Propheticakhbārtradition.Forarecentexampleoftheformer,includingasummary ofpreviousstudies,seeGörke,Relationshipbetweenmaghāzīandḥadīth.