ʿAbdallāh ibn ʿAun

Abū ʿAun ʿAbdallāh ibn ʿAun al-Muzanī ( Arabic أبو عون عبد الله بن عون المزني, often just called Ibn ʿAun , born. 685/686 in Basra , d. 768 ibid) was a traditionalist from Basra who, in contrast to many other Islamic scholars of his time, took a loyalist attitude towards the ruling dynasties of the Umayyads and Abbasids and was a staunch opponent of the Qadarīya . The entries about him in the Arab biographical collections of the Middle Ages include extensive reports on his personal circumstances and are important sources for the everyday history of the city of Basra. Most of these reports go back to his nephew Bakkār ibn Muhammad.

Origin and early years

Ibn ʿAun was a client of the Muzaina tribe . His grandfather Artabān had been a deacon in a Mesene church and had been captured during the Arab conquest of Iraq. It fell to the Arab fighter ʿAbdallāh ibn Durra al-Muzanī and became his client after his release. Ibn ʿAun's father served in the army of Musʿab ibn az-Zubair . He received the news of the birth of his son in the year 66 (= 685/686) in the Mesene, when Musʿab was arming against al-Muchtār ibn Abī ʿUbaid . Ibn ʿAun himself took part in Ghazw activities against the Byzantine Empire as a mounted man in Syria . In a duel, he killed a Byzantine fighter.

Training and activity as a traditionalist

Ibn ʿAun received his first training in his hometown of Basra from his father and from well-known scholars such as al-Hasan al-Basrī (d. 728) and Muhammad Ibn Sīrīn (d. 729). He had seen Anas ibn Mālik on several occasions, but he had not heard from him again. When he was older, he himself believed that he was closest to al-Hasan al-Basrī of all his contemporaries, because he had once taken a siesta on his bed in his absence . Outside of his hometown he studied with asch-Shaʿbī (died after 721) in Kufa , Makhūl ibn Abī Muslim in Damascus , al-Qāsim ibn Muhammad, the grandson of Abū Bakr (died after 723), and Nāfiʿ, the client of ʿAbdallāh ibn ʿUmar in Medina and with Mujāhid ibn Jabr (d. 722) in Mecca . The material he collected in Kufa was first presented to Ibn Sīrīn before he passed it on.

Together with Aiyūb as-Sachtiyānī (d. 748/49), Yūnus ibn ʿUbaid (d. 756) and Sulaimān at-Taimī (d. 761) Ibn ʿAun was considered one of the four most important hadith scholars of Basra in the 8th century. However, he is said to have only really started to pass on hadiths after the death of Aiyūb as-Sachtiyānī. After that he gathered many disciples around him, including Sufyān ath-Thaurī , al-A almasch , ʿAbdallāh ibn al-Mubārak and Yazīd ibn Hārūn . Ibn ʿAun was also an important narrator of historical information, for example about the murder of ʿUthmān , about the camel battle and the homage to Yazīd I.

Ibn ʿAun, however, only passed on in a small circle at home, namely early in the morning after the Dhikr , which he used to attach to the early prayer. The crowd was not allowed in. He was of the opinion that one should not inquire about hadith, but rather wait until the teacher recites it of his own accord. Nor did he allow people to run after him for the sake of the hadiths. He was also known for failing to speak of many second generation Muslims because they gave too much space to their personal opinions . In addition, he did not believe in written records. In his view, they only misled people.

Personal circumstances

A particularly large amount of information is available about Ibn ʿAun's personal circumstances. He was married to a granddaughter of his teacher Muhammad Ibn Sīrīn (d. 728). Between 729 and 735 he also married an Arab woman, from whom he had to separate again because, as a non-Arab, he was not allowed such a marriage.

Ibn ʿAun owned two houses in Basra: one in the district of the spice dealers ( ʿaṭṭārūn ) and another in the camel stable alley ( sikkat al-mirbad ), where he also lived. Other families lived next to him in the house, some of whom were Christians and the others were Muslim. The Christians lived downstairs, he lived on the top floor. Renting out the two houses brought him money, which he had a Christian agent ( wakīl ) collect. In the house where he lived he also had a prayer room ( masǧid ), in which he and everyone who was there, friends, residents and children, held their prayers. A client named Zaid acted as the muezzin . He performed not only the adhān but also the iqāma . The mosque was noticeable because it did not have a mihrāb . The Zakat made Ibn'Aun twice a year: the first time he spread out in their own circle, the other paid referring them to the authorities.

Like Sufyān ath-Thaurī , Ibn ʿAun hated shaking hands . He wore a burnoos made of fine wool, which had already belonged to ʿAbdallāh ibn ʿUmar and which he acquired from the inheritance of Anas ibn Sīrīn, a brother of his teacher Muhammad ibn Sīrīn. He didn't shorten his mustache , but kept it mid-length. His hair came down to the middle of his ears. He wore a silver signet ring with the Star of David engraved on it. Some of his teeth had inlays of gold . If he knew there was garlic in a dish that was served, he didn't touch it. Before dinner, a servant would come to him and wash his hands and give him a towel to dry with.

Ibn ʿAun kept an intermittent fast until his death : one day he fasted, the other not. He justified this with a hadith , which he traced back to the prophet Mohammed via Ibn Sīrīn and Abū Huraira . Accordingly, the prophet is said to have said that the best fast is the fast of David , who fasted one day and broken the fast the next day.

Ibn ʿAun avoided showing anger . If someone upset him, he would only say, "God bless you" ( bāraka Llāhu fī-k ). He spoke these words to a slave who had knocked out an eye of his favorite camel while watering and then released him. He also gave freedom to a slave who dropped a bowl and was frightened and afraid of him. A contemporary quotes him as saying: "Talking about people is a disease, talking about God is a cure."

Political positioning

In contrast to many other scholars of his time, Ibn ʿAun showed great loyalty to the Umayyads. In his environment, he caused a sensation because he was ready to ask for forgiveness for al-Hajjaj ibn Yusuf , who was generally viewed as a tyrant. Although Bilāl ibn Abī Burda, the Qādī of Basra, had him flogged for marrying an Arab woman, Ibn ʿAun did not say a bad word about him, but even admonished others when they spoke ill of Bilāl or cursed him.

Ibn ʿAun was an Uthmānite. The ʿUthmānīya was the religious-political party that, in contrast to the Kharijites and the Shiites , affirmed the legitimacy of the rule of the third caliph ʿUthmān ibn ʿAffān and was loyal to the Umayyad dynasty. He also denounced the behavior of Muhammad, son of Abū Bakr , who had played a prominent role in the opposition to Uthmān, and noted with satisfaction that his teacher, Qāsim, who was a son of Muhammad, for what his father ʿUthmān did had done asking for forgiveness.

Ibn ʿAun was a staunch opponent of the Qadarites . He is said to have seen how Ghailān ad-Dimashqī, one of the heads of the Qadarites, hung on the cross after his execution at the gate of Damascus. When he passed Qadarites, he did not greet them. From an acquaintance whom he saw at the Sūq in the company of ʿAmr ibn ʿUbaid , he turned away without a word. A man who asked him whether he should listen to those who talk about Qadar , he referred to the Koran word: "When you see those who talk lightly about our signs, turn away from them until they are over talk differently. And if Satan does let you forget it, then after the warning no longer sit with the wicked people! " (Sura 6: 68). He also called the Qadarites "the wicked who talk carelessly about predestination" ( aẓ-ẓālimūn allaḏīna yaḫūḍūna fī l-qadar ). He emphasized to younger contemporaries that in his youth no one spoke about Qadar except Maʿbad al-Dschuhanī (d. 703) and Sanhūya, the husband of Umm Mūsā.

During the Alidian revolt of Ibrāhīm ibn ʿAbdallāh (762) he was clearly on the Abbasid side. The Muʿtazilites denounced him to Ibrāhīm because of this and reported that he was preventing people from supporting him. Ibrāhīm had Ibn ʿAun warned that he no longer felt obliged to him. Ibn ʿAun therefore left the city and settled in the place al-Quraizīya. Ibrāhīm had the door of his house barricaded so that no one could enter it. However, since the uprising of Ibrāhīm ibn ʿAbdallāh collapsed a few weeks later, Ibn ʿAun was soon able to return to Basra.

The End

Shortly before his death, Ibn ʿAun had a dream in which he saw the prophet Mohammed . He was extremely delighted with this dream. However, when he went down to the mosque, he fell and broke his foot. He did not have the injury treated, so that he died from it. He died in Rajab 151 (July – August 768). The funeral prayer was said by the police chief Jamīl ibn Mahfūz al-Azdī. At his death Ibn ʿAun was indebted to tens of thousands of dirhams . However, he also left his two houses. He bequeathed a large part of his fortune, which remained after deducting the debts, to the relatives of his wife.

literature

Arabic sources

• Abū Nuʿaim al-Iṣfahānī : Ḥilyat al-Auliyāʾ wa-ṭabaqāt al-aṣfiyāʾ . 10 vols. Dār al-Kutub al-ʿilmīya, Beirut, undated vol. III, pp. 37-44 digitized
• Shams ad-Dīn aḏ-Ḏahabī : Siyar aʿlām an-nubalāʾ. Ed. Shuʿaib al-Arnāʾūṭ. 2nd edition. Muʾassasat ar-Risāla, Beirut, 1982. Vol. VI, pp. 364-75. Digitized
• Abū Yūsuf Yaʿqūb Ibn Sufyān al-Fasawī: Kitāb al-Maʿrifa wa-t-tārīḫ. Ed. Akram Ḍiyāʾ al-ʿUmarī. 3 Vols. Baghdad: Maṭbaʿat Aršād 1975. Vol. II, pp. 248-252. Digitized
• Ibn ʿAsākir : Taʾrīḫ madīnat Dimašq . Ed. ʿUmar ibn Ġarāma al-ʿUmarī. Dār al-Fikr, Beirut, 1996. Vol. XXXI, pp. 326-374. Digitized
• Ibn Qutaiba : Kitāb al-Maʿārif . Ed. Ṯarwat ʿUkāša. Cairo 1960. pp. 487f.
• Muhammad ibn Saʿd : Kitāb aṭ-Ṭabaqāt al-kabīr . Ed. E. Sachau. 9 vols. Leiden 1904–1940. Vol. VII / 2, pp. 24-30. Digitized
• Al-Mizzī : Tahḏīb al-kamāl fī asmāʾ ar-riǧāl . Ed. Baššār ʿAuwād Maʿrūf. Muʾassasat ar-Risāla, Beirut, 1988. Vol. XV, pp. 394-402. Digitized

Secondary literature

• Josef van Ess: Theology and society in the 2nd and 3rd centuries of the Hijra. A History of Religious Thought in Early Islam . De Gruyter, Berlin, 1992. Vol. II, pp. 355-67.
• Steven C. Judd: Religious Scholars and the Umayyads. Piety-minded supporters of the Marwānid caliphate . Routledge, Abingdon 2014. pp. 62-70.
• Suleiman A. Mourad: Art. "ʿAbdallāh b. ʿAwn" in Encyclopaedia of Islam, THREE Edited by: Kate Fleet, Gudrun Krämer, Denis Matringe, John Nawas, Everett Rowson. First published in 2008. Brill online
• Ahmet Yücel: Art. "İbn Avn, Abdullah" in Türkiye Diyanet Vakfı İslâm ansiklopedisi Vol. XIX, pp. 340c-341a Digitized

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Cf. van Ess: Theology and Society . Vol. II, p. 357.
2. ↑ Cf. Ibn Saʿd: Kitāb aṭ-Ṭabaqāt al-kabīr . Vol. VII / 2, p. 25.
3. ↑ Cf. Al-Mizzī: Tahḏīb al-kamāl . 1988, Vol. XV, p. 395.
4. ↑ Cf. Ibn Qutaiba: Kitāb al-Maʿārif . 1960, p. 487.
5. ↑ Cf. Ibn Saʿd: Kitāb aṭ-Ṭabaqāt al-kabīr . Vol. VII / 2, p. 28.
6. ↑ Cf. aḏ-Ḏahabī: Siyar aʿlām an-nubalāʾ. 1982, Vol. VI, pp. 364f.
7. ↑ Cf. Al-Mizzī: Tahḏīb al-kamāl . 1988, Vol. XV, p. 399.
8. ↑ Cf. Al-Mizzī: Tahḏīb al-kamāl . 1988, Vol. XV, pp. 395f.
9. ↑ Cf. van Ess: Theology and Society . Vol. II, p. 360.
10. ↑ Cf. aḏ-Ḏahabī: Siyar aʿlām an-nubalāʾ. 1982, Vol. VI, pp. 365f.
11. ↑ Cf. Al-Mizzī: Tahḏīb al-kamāl . 1988, Vol. XV, pp. 397f.
12. ↑ Cf. Al-Mizzī: Tahḏīb al-kamāl . 1988, Vol. XV, pp. 396f.
13. ↑ Cf. van Ess: Theology and Society . Vol. II, p. 362.
14. ↑ Cf. van Ess: Theology and Society . Vol. II, p. 360.
15. ↑ Cf. van Ess: Theology and Society . Vol. II, p. 361.
16. ↑ Cf. Ibn Saʿd: Kitāb aṭ-Ṭabaqāt al-kabīr . Vol. VII / 2, p. 29.
17. ↑ Cf. van Ess: Theology and Society . Vol. II, p. 364.
18. ↑ Cf. Ibn Saʿd: Kitāb aṭ-Ṭabaqāt al-kabīr . Vol. VII / 2, p. 30.
19. ↑ Cf. aḏ-Ḏahabī: Siyar aʿlām an-nubalāʾ. 1982, Vol. VI, p. 369.
20. ↑ Cf. Ibn Saʿd: Kitāb aṭ-Ṭabaqāt al-kabīr . Vol. VII / 2, pp. 26-28.
21. ↑ Cf. van Ess: Theology and Society . Vol. II, p. 359.
22. ↑ Cf. Ibn Saʿd: Kitāb aṭ-Ṭabaqāt al-kabīr . Vol. VII / 2, p. 28.
23. ↑ Cf. van Ess: Theology and Society . Vol. II, p. 362.
24. ↑ Cf. van Ess: Theology and Society . Vol. II, p. 363.
25. ↑ Cf. Ibn Saʿd: Kitāb aṭ-Ṭabaqāt al-kabīr . Vol. VII / 2, p. 26.
26. ↑ Cf. Ibn Saʿd: Kitāb aṭ-Ṭabaqāt al-kabīr . Vol. VII / 2, p. 26.
27. ^ Cf. Abū Nuʿaim al-Iṣfahānī: Ḥilyat al-Auliyāʾ . Vol. III, p. 42.
28. ^ Cf. Abū Nuʿaim al-Iṣfahānī: Ḥilyat al-Auliyāʾ . Vol. III, p. 39.
29. ↑ Cf. aḏ-Ḏahabī: Siyar aʿlām an-nubalāʾ. 1982, Vol. VI, pp. 370f.
30. ↑ Cf. Ibn ʿAsākir: Taʾrīḫ madīnat Dimašq . 1996, Vol. XXI, p. 360.
31. ↑ Cf. aḏ-Ḏahabī: Siyar aʿlām an-nubalāʾ. 1982, Vol. VI, p. 369.
32. ^ Cf. Abū Nuʿaim al-Iṣfahānī: Ḥilyat al-Auliyāʾ . Vol. III, p. 41.
33. ↑ See Judd: Religious Scholars and the Umayyads. 2014, p. 66f.
34. ↑ Cf. Ibn Saʿd: Kitāb aṭ-Ṭabaqāt al-kabīr . Vol. VII / 2, p. 24.
35. ↑ See Judd: Religious Scholars and the Umayyads. 2014, p. 65.
36. ↑ Cf. van Ess: Theology and Society . Vol. II, pp. 364f.
37. ↑ Cf. aḏ-Ḏahabī: Siyar aʿlām an-nubalāʾ. 1982, Vol. VI, p. 365.
38. ↑ Cf. Ibn Saʿd: Kitāb aṭ-Ṭabaqāt al-kabīr . Vol. VII / 2, p. 25.
39. ^ Cf. Abū Nuʿaim al-Iṣfahānī: Ḥilyat al-Auliyāʾ . Vol. III, p. 40.
40. ^ Cf. Abū Nuʿaim al-Iṣfahānī: Ḥilyat al-Auliyāʾ . Vol. III, p. 41.
41. ↑ Cf. Ibn Saʿd: Kitāb aṭ-Ṭabaqāt al-kabīr . Vol. VII / 2, p. 27.
42. ↑ Cf. Ibn Saʿd: Kitāb aṭ-Ṭabaqāt al-kabīr . Vol. VII / 2, p. 27.
43. ↑ Cf. Ibn Saʿd: Kitāb aṭ-Ṭabaqāt al-kabīr . Vol. VII / 2, p. 29.
44. ↑ Cf. Ibn Saʿd: Kitāb aṭ-Ṭabaqāt al-kabīr . Vol. VII / 2, p. 30.
45. ↑ Cf. van Ess: Theology and Society . Vol. II, pp. 357, 363.