پژوهش های تاریخی (Dec 2022)
Historiographic Components of Muhammad Ibn Ishāq Hamawi in Anis al-Mu'minin
Abstract
AbstractAnīs al-Mu’menīn is the Name of an old, little-known book by Mohammad ibn Ishaq Hamawi (938 AH), who is known as "Fażluddīn Abharī". This book is one of the prominent examples of Imams' biographies in the early Safavid period, in which the author appeared as a competent historian-theologian and wrote the Imams' life history according to his needs of time. Therefore, the present article tried to understand the components of Fażluddīn's historiography by reading the text of Anīs al-Mu’menīn with a descriptive-analytical method. The question was whether there was a connection between the way of his historiography in the book of Anīs al-Mu’menīn with the political and cultural conditions of the time when the text was written. The results of this analysis showed that the text of Anīs al-Mu’menīn focused on the three components of establishing legitimacy of the Imamate of the Imams (AS) by focusing on proving the legitimacy of Imam Ali's (AS) succession, secularization of Sunnis by marginalizing the caliphs, especially the first three caliphs, and alienation of the Sufists based on the marginalization of Abu Muslim and its narrators. These components were strongly influenced by the events of Hamavi's era, such as the religious unification policy of the Safavids, the need for the Iranian society to recognize the virtues and callings of Imams (AS), the disagreement between Shia and Sunni discourse, and the competition between Shia scholars and jurists with Sufis Qezelbash or in other words, the confrontation between Feqahati Shia and popular or Sufi Shia in the first half of the 10th century of Hijri.IntroductionOne of the main activities of Shiites in the field of historiography in different periods has been writing the Imams’ biographies. One of the periods, in which writing of the Imams’ biographies has flourished, is the Safavid period, which has not been researched despite its importance. Therefore, in this research, one of the prominent examples of the Imams’ biographies in the Safavid period, i.e., the book of Anīs al-Mu’menīn written by Mohammad ibn Ishaq Hamavi, was investigated. Hamavi is among the preachers, hadith scholars, and historians of the Shia religion in the 10th century of Hijri. As a Persian-speaking Iranian scholar, he was the link between the religious civil institution and the mass of people. It can be guessed that the government's support for him by allowing him to have a religious platform in mosques (a mass media) and write his works has played an important role in increasing his fame and influence in the public on the one hand and implementing the religious programs of Shah Tahmasb's era on the other hand. Therefore, the study of Anīs al-Mu’menīn helped us to reveal a part of the concerns and methods of the newly established religious institution of Shia in the Safavid era to stabilize and change popular beliefs based on the special beliefs of that institution. Therefore, understanding the reason for writing the book of Anīs al-Mu’menīn by knowing the historiographical features of the work was the subject of the present research.Materials & MethodsTo understand the historiography of Hamavi, the text of Anīs al-Mu’menīn and the main sources of the Safavid era were carefully studied to identify the relationship between the text, the author, and the historical-cultural and political situations of his time. Understanding this relationship could clarify the components of his historiography. In fact, no work was written in a vacuum. The three factors of author, context, and time had an effect on the reason for producing the text.Discussion of Results & Conclusions Hamavi wrote his book entitled Anīs al-Mu’menīn during the time of Shah Tahmasb in 938 AH. With the cooperation of Shia scholars and jurists, he formed a Shia religious structure to manage the Shia attitude in the Iranian society.Mohaqeq Karaki was one of the scholars, who had a significant role in this new structure and integration of the Shia religion in the Iranian society. He considered the cultural approach more efficient than the political and military conflict for stabilizing Shiism in Iran. In this cultural process for religious conversion in Iran, Karaki's students, including Fażluddīn Hamavi, helped him.It was in line with this cultural goal that Hamavi wrote the text of Anīs al-Mu’menīn. The first central component of the text was the proof of the authenticity of the Imamate of the twelve Shia Imams. In fact, this issue proved the authenticity of Shiism. The second component of the text, which Hamavi took help from was alienation of the Sunnis.His focuses in establishing the components of Imamate and proselytizing the Sunnis were on the righteousness of Imam Ali (AS) and rejection and marginalization of the first three caliphs, respectively.The third component of the text was alienation of the Sufis, which was done with the marginalization of Abu Moslem because Hamavi’s other goal was discrediting Shia folk concepts and Sufi rituals. Therefore, in the text of “Anīs al-Mu’menīn”, Abu Moslem as the hero of the Sufis and the name of Abu Moslem as their important tool were rejected and marginalized in various ways. In fact, the main purpose of writing the book of Anīs al-Mu’menīn was to prove the legitimacy of the Shia Imamate based on reading Shia jurisprudence, not Sufi and popular Shia. Therefore, in this text, Hamavi fought against rivals and the competing ideas. In short, these competing ideas showed themselves in two areas: the component of rejecting Sunan with emphasis on the marginalization of the caliphs and the very important component of rejecting Sufism based on the marginalization of Abu Moslem. Therefore, Hamavi took help from these last two components to prove the authenticity of the Shiite Imamate.
Keywords
