ʿAbdallāh ibn Saba '

ʿAbdallāh ibn Saba ' ( Arabic عبد الله بن سبأ, DMG ʿAbdallāh ibn Sabaʾ ) was a follower of the caliph ʿAlī ibn Abī Tālib and is considered the founder of the Shiite ghoulāt tradition, according to other views even the Shia as a whole. His following is listed in Islamic doxography as a separate sect with the name Saba'īya . A tradition that goes back to the Kufic historian Saif ibn ʿUmar puts the blame on him for the murder of the third caliph ʿUthmān ibn ʿAffān and the fateful events of the first Fitna .

According to the imamite tradition and the tradition of Saif ibn ʿUmar , ʿAbdallāh ibn Saba 'was a Jew who had converted to Islam . The news about him is contradicting itself, so that no clear picture of his work can be gained. In some cases even its very existence has been questioned. However, since the later Ghulāt groups refer to him themselves and venerate him as the herald of their secret teachings, a mere invention is unlikely.

The Arabic tradition

In the oldest tradition about ʿAbdallāh ibn Saba ', three independent traditions can be distinguished: the Imamite-Shiite , the Sunni and that of Saif ibn ʿUmar , which is preserved in at-Tabarīs history.

The imamite tradition

According to the Imamitic tradition, the oldest form of which is recorded in the book of the sects of the Shia ( Firaq aš-šīʿa ) by al-Hasan ibn Mūsā an-Naubachtī , ʿAbdallāh ibn Saba 'was the first to spread the teaching of ʿAlīs Imamat . At the same time, he had reviled the first three caliphs, Abū Bakr , Umar ibn al-Chattab and ʿUthmān, and renounced them. ʿAbdallāh ibn Sabaʾ referred to ʿAlī himself and claimed that that was what he called him. When ʿAlī found out about this, he sent him into exile in al-Madāʾin . When ʿAbdallāh ibn Sabaʾ received the news of ʿAlī's death there, he is said to have denied its correctness and announced ʿAlī's return as ruler of the world. According to another Imamite author, his followers went to the house of ʿAlīs and said: “We know that he was not killed and that he will not die so that one day he will lead the Arabs with his sword and scourge, so as he has led them (so far) with his argument and his evidence. "

An-Naubachtī also narrates the view that Abdallāh ibn Saba 'was originally a Jew. What he taught about the position of ʿAlī after the death of Muhammad , he is said to have already represented about Joshua after the death of Moses when he still adhered to Judaism . According to this, ʿAbdallāh ibn Sabaʾ's teaching on ʿAlī was the translation of a Jewish teaching into Islam. “Therefore,” writes an-Naubachtī, “the opponents of the Shia asserted that Rafidism originally emerged from Judaism.”

The Sunni tradition

The Sunni tradition, represented by the book "The Teachings of the Followers of Islam and the Dissent of Those Who Pray " ( Maqālāt al-islāmīyīn wa-ḫtilāf al-muṣallīn ) by Abū l-Hasan al-Ashʿarī and the book, The Difference Between Sects "( Al-Farq baina l-firaq ) is represented by ʿAbd al-Qāhir al-Baghdādī (st. 1037), agrees with the imamite tradition that ʿAbdallāh ibn Saba 'denied the death of ʿAlī and his rapture and" return " ( raǧʿa ) taught. In contrast to the Shiite tradition, however, ʿAbdallāh ibn Saba 'was not himself of Jewish origin, but one of his followers named Ibn Saudā', the “son of the blacks”, a Jew from al-Hīra . He transferred his doctrine, based on the Torah , according to which every prophet has an "authorized representative" ( waṣī ), to Islam and the relationship between Mohammed and ʿAlī. A peculiarity of al-Baghdādīs is that after his testimony ʿAbdallāh ibn Saba 'first made the claim that ʿAlī was a prophet, but later claimed that he was a god.

The tradition of Saif ibn ʿUmar

According to the account of Saif ibn ʿUmar, which was included in at-Tabarī's history, Abdallāh ibn Sabaʾ was a Jew from Sanaa who converted to Islam during the reign of ʿUthmān. The figure is here merged with Ibn Saudā,, because it is stated at the same time that ʿAbdallāh's mother was a black woman. Saif reports that ʿAbdallāh ibn Sabaʾ represented the doctrine that Alī was the seal of the authorized, as well as Mohammed was the seal of the prophets. He also taught the Second Coming of Muhammad. During the caliphate of ʿUthmān, Saif reports, ʿAbdallāh ibn Sabaʾ incited various fellow prophets against the caliph, first in Syria Abū Dharr al-Ghifārī , later in Egypt the governor ʿAmmār ibn Yāsir. Then he was among those who moved from Egypt to Medina in 656, besieged Caliph thUthmān in his house, and finally murdered him. In the civil war that followed, it was again ʿAbdallāh ibn Sabaʾ who brought about the camel battle .

Judgment in the modern age

For many Arab scholars of the 20th century, the figure of Abdallāh ibn Saba was an important part of their interpretation of the early history of Islam. ʿAbdallāh ibn Saba ', as a Jewish convert, was blamed for the disastrous division of the Muslims during the first Fitna . For example, the Mufti of Jerusalem, Mohammed Amin al-Husseini , who became known as a collaborator of National Socialism in World War II, liked to refer to the pernicious activities of ʿAbdallāh ibn Sabaʾ in his statements against Zionism . Similar interpretations can also be found among the early Orientalists who relied on the Sunni tradition. Alfred von Kremer, for example, wrote in 1868 that "the first blow that was waged against Islam [...] came from a South Arabian Jew named Abdallah ibn Sabaʾ".

Such judgments, however, also put a strain on the relationship between Sunnis and Shiites, because Shiites were exposed to the accusation that their community was the result of a non-Arab, Jewish conspiracy against Islam and Arabism. In this situation, some Shiite authors wrote books dismissing 'Abdallah ibn Saba' as a mere invention. As the inventor of this figure, they considered either Saif ibn ʿUmar or the Umayyads , against whom the revolution initiated by ʿAbdallāh ibn Saba 'was directed.

literature

• Sean W. Anthony: The caliph and the heretic: Ibn Sabaʾ and the origins of Shīʿism . Suffering a.]: Brill, 2012.
• Sean W. Anthony: The Legend of ʿAbdallāh Ibn Sabaʾ and the Date of Umm Al-Kitāb. in Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society 21 (2001) 1-30.
• Werner Ende: Arab Nation and Islamic History. The Umayyads as Judged by 20th Century Arab Authors . Beirut 1977. pp. 199-210.
• Israel Friedlaender : ʿAbdallāh ibn Sabā, the founder of the Šīʿa, and his Jewish origin. in Zeitschrift für Assyriologie 23 (1909) 296-327. Digitized
• Heinz Halm : The Islamic Gnosis. The extreme Schia and the Alawites. Zurich-Munich 1982. pp. 33-43.
• MGS Hodgson: Art. ʿAbd Allāh b. Sabaʾ. in The Encyclopaedia of Islam. New Edition Vol. I, p. 51.
• Qasim al-Samarrai: Sayf ibn ʿUmar and ibn Sabaʾ: A new approach. in Tudor Parfitt: Israel and Ishmael: studies in Muslim-Jewish relations . Richmond: Curzon 2000. pp. 52-58.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Cf. Muḥammad aš-Šahrastānī : al-Milal wa-n-niḥal. Ed. Aḥmad Fahmī Muḥammad. Dār al-Kutub al-ʿilmīya, Beirut 1992. p. 17, 177. Digitized. - German translator Theodor Haarbrücker. 2 vols. Halle 1850–51. Vol. I, p. 22, 100. Digitized
2. ↑ See Halm: The Islamic Gnosis. 1982, p. 32.
3. ↑ Quotation Halm: The Islamic Gnosis. 1982, p. 35.
4. ↑ See Halm: The Islamic Gnosis . 1982, p. 34f.
5. ↑ Cf. an-Naubaḫtī: Firaq aš-šīʿa . Ed. H. Knight. Istanbul 1931. p. 20.
6. ↑ See Halm: The Islamic Gnosis. 1982, pp. 36-40.
7. ↑ See Halm: The Islamic Gnosis. 1982, pp. 40f.
8. ↑ See end: Arab nation and Islamic history. 1977, pp. 199-201.
9. ^ Alfred von Kremer: History of the ruling ideas of Islam Leipzig 1868. S. 11. Digitized
10. ↑ See end: Arab nation and Islamic history. 1977, pp. 199-201.
11. ↑ See end: Arab nation and Islamic history. 1977, pp. 202-209.