Jahm ibn Safwān

Jahm ibn Safwān ( Arabic جهم بن صفوان, DMG Ǧahm b. Ṣafwān ; Full name: Jahm ibn Safwan Abu Muhriz ar-Rasibi as-Samarqandi  /جهم بن صفوان أبو محرز الراسبي السمرقندي / Ǧahm b. Ṣafwān Abū Muḥriz ar-Rāsibī as-Samarqandī ; also Jahm ; * after 622 in what is now Iraq ; † around 746 in Marw ) was a controversial Islamic theologian who joined Harith ibn Suraij, a rebel in Khorasan towards the end of the Umayyad period. Because of his ideas, his political opinion and the unrest he caused with them, he was killed by the governor of Marw, Salm ibn Ahwaz, in the year 128 AH. The theological teaching established by Jahm ibn Safwān is called Jahmīya .

biography

There is very little information about the early life of Jahm ibn Safwan. He was probably born in Iraq and served as a Mawālī ("client") of the Arab tribe of Banu Rasib . But he was probably not a Persian , because at least his name and that of his father suggest that he grew up in an Arabic-speaking environment. His year of birth is unknown, but he was probably born in the first century (the hijra ). According to Ahmad ibn Hanbal , he had connections to the Mesopotamian city ​​of Harran and is said to have learned there from the sect member al-Jaa'd ibn Dirham , who was also a teacher of the last Umayyad caliph, Marwan II , and as a Dahrī and Zindīq was considered (→ Zandiks and Dahris ).

Jahm bin Safwan later settled in Khorasan, where in Termiz he was in charge of collecting the bridge tolls that traders had to pay when crossing the Oxus . There he came - shortly before the Abbasid Revolution - in conflict with the Umayyad governor, Nasr ibn Sayyar , and (around 744) joined the rebel Harith ibn Suraij, of which he became the scribe. This, although an Arab himself, stood up for the rights of the Mawali, the Iranian and other non-Arab converts to Islam, and was so powerful at this time (or the Umayyads so weak) that he was at least in Khorasan as that Caliphs was considered equal. When Harith ibn Suraij (in addition to the dispute with the caliph) also got into tribal conflicts with Judaiʿ al-Kirmani and was finally killed by him on the battlefield, Jahm ibn Safwan suddenly lost his protector. A short time later he fell into the hands of Salm ibn Ahwaz al-Mazini at-Tamimi, who was himself a representative of Nasr ibn Sayyar and a fanatical supporter of the Umayyad caliphate, and was then executed.

Teaching

Jahm ibn Safwan's teaching was strongly influenced by his teacher al-Jaa'd ibn Dirham . As an opponent of the Qadarīya , he claimed, among other things, that man had no free will ( Qadar ) and that God was in fact neither friends with the prophet Abraham nor actually spoke to Moses . God, the “absolute other”, would guide everything, including the forces of nature and the human will. And because God stands above everything and everyone, one can neither recognize him nor describe him in any way. In doing so, he effectively denied God all attributes. Like the Mutazilites (called Jahmites by their opponents ) later , Jahm also considered the Koran to be created .

Above all, his denial of providence and the statement that paradise and hell are not eternal aroused Islamic orthodoxy. In the opinion of the scholars of the time and their followers, Jahm left the borders of Islam with his teachings.

His teachings can be understood as Neoplatonic , which could be explained with his experiences in Harran and the Sabians living there . But an Indian influence, for example from Hinduism or Buddhism , seems possible. At least one report suggests discussions with Buddhist monks.

As a Murjiite , Jahm ibn Safwan also advocated the thesis that someone should be considered a "Muslim" if he has accepted the faith in his heart, even without being able to express it properly in the Arabic language. Whether this particular doctrine was possibly politically motivated (Harith ibn Suraij collaborated with peoples, including Sogdians and Turks , who could not pray in the language of the Koran) cannot be ruled out.

literature

• Richard MacDonough Frank: The neoplatonism of Gahm b. Safwan. In: Museon. Volume 78, 1965, pp. 395-424
• Frank Griffel : Apostasy and Tolerance in Islam: The Development of Al-Ġazālīs Judgment against Philosophy and the Reactions of Philosophers. Brill, Leiden 2000 (= Islamic Philosophy, Theology and Science, Volume 40), ISBN 90-04-11566-8 , pp. 137ff. (Chapter 3: The condemnation of the philosophers as "gahmites" and apostates by the traditionalist movement. )
• William Montgomery Watt: The formative period of Islamic thought. University Press, Edinburgh 1973, reprint Oneworld, Oxford 1998, ISBN 1-85168-152-3 , pp. 143ff. (Chap. 6: The alleged sect of the Jahmiyya. )
• William Montgomery Watt: Article DJ ahm b. Ṣafwān and article DJ ahmiyya. In: The Encyclopaedia of Islam. new edition, Volume II, Brill, Leiden 1991, p. 388
• Josef van Ess: JAHM B. ṢAFWĀN. In Encyclopædia Iranica . Columbia University , Online Edition, 2008.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Ibn Kathīr al-Bidāyah wa an-Nihāyah 9/364
2. ↑ ^{a b c d e} J. van Ess, 2008
3. ^ Abdus Subhan: al-Jahm bin Safwan and his philosophy. In: Islamic Culture. 11: 221-227, 221 (1937); W. Montgomery Watt: Early Discussions about the Qur'ān. In: The Muslim World. Volume 40, 1950, p. 28; al-Dahabi, Mizan al-I'tidal 1: 185
4. ↑ See al-Bucharis Chalq Af'aal al-Ibaad