Zaid ibn īAlī

Zaid ibn ʿAlī ibn al-Husain ( Arabic زيد بن علي بن الحسين, DMG Zaid ibn ʿAlī b. al-Ḥusain ; † 740 ) was a great-grandson of ʿAlī ibn Abī Tālib and Fatima bint Mohammed , who led an uprising against the Umayyads in Kufa in 739/40 . The Zaidi orientation of the Shia is attributed to him. The Zaidis consider him one of their imams .

Life

Zaid was the son of ʿAlī ibn Husain Zain al-ʿĀbidīn (died around 712/3) and a slave from Sindh named Jaidā and grew up in Medina . His brother Muhammad ibn ʿAlī al-Bāqir , who was 18 years older than him and who took over the leadership of the Hussainids after his father's death, entrusted him with the management of a legal dispute with the Hasanids over the foundations ( ṣadaqāt ) of ʿAlī ibn Abī Tālib. As his opponent here came ʿAbdallāh, the grandson of Hasan ibn ʿAlī , who had these foundations in his hand. When it became clear that the Umayyad governor Chālid ibn ʿAbd al-Malik was taking advantage of the legal battle to discredit the Aliden, Zaid gave up his involvement in the matter.

In 739, Zaid went to Kufa and called on the Shiites to rebel against the Umayyads. Although he was able to gather several thousand Shiites behind him at first, most of them fell away again when they saw that he only wanted to fight the Umayyads, but was not prepared to leave the two first caliphs Abū Bakr and ʿUmar ibn al- To release chattab . The derision of Rāfida or Rāfidites for the Imamite Shiites is also attributed to Zaid's conflict with the Shiites of Kufa . When he asked them for support in the fight against the Umayyads, they are said to have replied: "If you renounce both of them (namely Abū Bakr and ʿUmar ibn al-Chattāb), otherwise we will refuse you." Because of this, Zaid called this group ar-Rāfiḍa ("the rejecters" of Arabic rafaḍa "reject"), a mocking name that later stuck with the Imamites.

Zaid's uprising against the caliph Hisham in 740 failed because of the poor support from the Kufic Shiites; Zaid fell in a street fight against the governor's troops in Kufa. His young son Yahyā fled to Khorasan and tried to rise again in the Herat area , but fell in 743 fighting the Umayyad government forces.

Zaid worship

Zaidite authors like the Imam al-Murschid bi-Llāh Yahyā ibn al-Husain (d. 1105) emphasized the excellent qualities of Zaid ibn ʿAlī. For this purpose they counted his knowledge of Kalam , the Arabic grammar and Koranic studies , his eloquence ( faṣāḥa ) and abstinence ( zuhd ) and his courage ( šaǧā'a ) and fighting spirit ( raġba fī-ǧihād ). They said of the Imamat Zaids that it was recognized by all groups of the Ummah at that time, in addition to the Zaidites also by the Muʿtazila , the Murji'a and the Kharijites . Only the Rāfidites would have rejected him.

Zaid as an alleged law teacher

Zaid is also regarded as the founder of his own law school ( madhhab ). Ibrāhīm ibn az-Zibriqān (d. 799) put together a compendium of religious law in his name, which has become known as Musnad Zaid ibn ʿAlī . Under the title Corpus Iuris di Zayd b. 'Alī was published there by E. Griffini 1919 in Milano for the first time. However, since this work reflects the Kufic and not the Medinian legal tradition, it is unlikely that Zaid had a major role in its creation. Ibrāhīm ibn az-Zibriqān gave the Kufenser Abū Chālid ʿAmr ibn Chālid al-Wāsiṭī as an informant for his work. He had claimed to have received this work from Zaid on five visits to Medina. Today it is generally assumed that the teachings compiled in the Musnad reflect Abū Chālid's own views.

literature

Heinz Halm: The Schia . Scientific Book Society, Darmstadt, 1988. pp. 26f.
Abū Saʿīd Našwān al-Ḥimyarī: al-Ḥūr al-ʿīn ʿan kutub al-ʿilm aš-šarāʾif dūna n-nisāʾ al-ʿafāʾif. Dār Āzāl, Beirut, 1985. pp. 238-242.
R. Strothmann: "The problem of the literary personality Zaid ibn ʿAlī" in Der Islam 13 (1923) 1-52.
Wilferd Madelung: Art. "Zayd b. ʿAlī b. Al-Ḥusayn" in The Encyclopaedia of Islam. New Edition Vol. XI, 473b-474b.

Individual evidence

↑ See Madelung 473b.
↑ Cf. al-Ḥimyarī: al-Ḥūr al-ʿīn . 1985, pp. 238-239.
↑ Cf. al-Ḥimyarī: al-Ḥūr al-ʿīn . 1985, pp. 239-240.
↑ See Josef van Ess: Theology and Society in the 2nd and 3rd Century Hijra. A History of Religious Thought in Early Islam. Volume I. Berlin-New York 1992. pp. 262-265.

personal data
SURNAME	Zaid ibn īAlī
ALTERNATIVE NAMES	Zaid ibn Ali ibn al-Husain ibn Ali ibn Abi Talib ibn Abd al-Muttalib ibn Hashim
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	last imam recognized by all Zaidi
DATE OF BIRTH	7th century or 8th century
DATE OF DEATH	740

[1] See Madelung 473b.

[2] Cf. al-Ḥimyarī: al-Ḥūr al-ʿīn . 1985, pp. 238-239.

[3] Cf. al-Ḥimyarī: al-Ḥūr al-ʿīn . 1985, pp. 239-240.

[4] See Josef van Ess: Theology and Society in the 2nd and 3rd Century Hijra. A History of Religious Thought in Early Islam. Volume I. Berlin-New York 1992. pp. 262-265.