The intellectual Foundations of the Anti-Populist Movement of the First Islamic Centuries in View of Ibn e- Qutaiba

Abstract

After the establishment of the Abbasid caliphate, two schools of thought, "populist" and "anti-populist" in the Islamic world, came into conflict with each other. The Iranian populist movement relied on Iran's ancient historical and civilizational background and sought to improve its political and social position in the new political order. The anti-populist movement, which was considered an extension of the Umayyad political thought, sought to instill and perpetuate the idea of Arab superiority over non-Arabs due to the loss of their previous political and social status. This research seeks to reconstruct the intellectual foundations of the anti-populist trend in the first centuries of Islam, relying on the opinions of Ibn e- Qutaiba, one of the serious supporters of the mentioned thought. The reason for choosing Ibn e- Qutaiba, as a representative of the anti-populist movement, is the survival of his book Fazl al-Arab, which contains a complete formulation of the anti-populist principles. The findings of the research clarify that the intellectual foundations of the anti-populist trend based on Ibn e- Qutaiba's opinions have two focal axes of proving the superiority of the Arab people over other nations and proving the inferiority of the social, political and historical position of Iranians and populist-Muslims, each of which is based on several principles. The present article is a type of historical research written through the descriptive-analytical method, relying on library sources especially the book of Fazl al-Arab.

Keywords

• populist
• anti-populist movement
• ibn e- qutaiba
• fazl al-arab book
• umayyads