Muhammad ibn al-Hanafiyya
Muhammad ibn al-Hanafiyya | |
|---|---|
 Muhammad ibn al-Hanafiyya's name in Arabic calligraphy | |
| Leader of the Alids | |
| In office 681–700 | |
| Preceded by | Husayn ibn Ali |
| Succeeded by | Abu Hashim |
| Title | Najib al-Murtada |
| Personal | |
| Born | c. 637 (15 AH) |
| Died | c. February 700 (aged 62–63) |
| Resting place | Medina, Saudi Arabia |
| Religion | Islam |
| Children | Abd Allah Hasan Ali Husayn Ibrahim Awn Qasim Ja'far |
| Parents |
|
| Lineage | Hashemite |
Muhammad ibn al-Hanafiyya (Arabic: محمد بن الحنفية, romanized: Muḥammad ibn al-Ḥanafīyya; c. 637–February 700), was an Alid political and religious leader. He was a son of the fourth Rashidun caliph Ali (r. 656–661). Following his half-brother Husayn's death in 680, Ibn al-Hanafiyya was subsequently recognized as the head of the nascent Alid community.
Origins and early life
Muhammad was born in Medina in c. 637 during the caliphate of Umar (r. 634–644). He was named Ibn al-Hanafiyya after his mother Khawla, who belonged to the Banu Hanifa tribe, her nisba being al-Hanafiyya. Following Muhammad's death, most members of the Banu Hanifa tribe became apostates, believing in the divinity of their chief Musaylima, a claimant of prophethood.[1] The Banu Hanifa also refused to pay the zakat (religious tax), and their forces were defeated in the Ridda Wars during the caliphate of Abu Bakr (r. 632–634).[2] Many women of the Banu Hanifa were subsequently taken enslaved, Khawla among them. When her tribesmen found out, they approached Ali ibn Abi Talib and requested him to save her from slavery. Consequently, Ali purchased her, set her free, and ensuing Fatimah's death, married her.[3] She only bore one child, that being Ibn al-Hanafiyya.
During his father's lifetime, Ibn al-Hanafiyya distinguished himself for piety, rectitude, and courage and effectiveness in war. During Ali's caliphate at Kufa, Ibn al-Hanafiyya was one of the caliph's four chief lieutenants. He particularly distinguished himself at the battles of Jamal and Siffin.[4] During the Battle of Siffin, Ibn al-Hanafiyya carried the banner of Ali's army against the forces of Mu'awiya I (r. 661–680).[5] Ali described ibn al-Hanafiyyah as his hand due to his bravery and strength while fighting.[6]
Second Fitna
Ibn al-Hanafiyya's half-brother Husayn protested against Yazid I's succession (r. 680–683) and was considering an expedition to Kufa. Ibn al-Hanafiyya advised him not to go,[7] pointing out that the Kufans betrayed and turned against their father Ali and their brother Hasan ibn Ali.[8][9] Instead, Ibn al-Hanafiyya suggested Husayn to seek refuge in either Mecca or Yemen, fearing that the Kufans would betray the latter as well.[10] This advise wasn't accepted by Husayn, who instead asserted that if he stayed in Mecca, he would be killed by the Umayyads and it would violate the sanctity of the holy city. The next day Husayn replied that his grandfather Muhammad had appeared to him in a dream and required him to undertake this sacrificial expedition.[11]
After Husayn and his partisans were killed in the Battle of Karbala, his young son Ali al-Sajjad adopted a life of retirement and prayer, leaving Muhammad ibn al-Hanafiyya as the visible head of the Alids. Iraqi supporters reportedly bestowed the title Najib al-Murtada on the latter.[12] In 685 (66 AH), the pro-Alid revolutionary Mukhtar ibn Abi Ubayd al-Thaqafi (c. 622–687) declared Ibn al-Hanafiyya to the Mahdi and revolted against the Umayyads in behalf of the former. This was likely the first reference to the Mahdi in the messianic sense of an eschatological savior.[13] In 685, the Mecca-based caliph Abd Allah ibn al-Zubayr imprisoned Ibn al-Hanafiyya along with his clan at the Arim prison near the Zamzam.[14] According to al-Tabari (d. 923), Ibn al-Zubayr feared the popularity of Ibn al-Hanafiyya and pressured the latter to pledge allegiance to him.[15] After Ibn al-Zubayr threatened to burn Ibn al-Hanafiyya, the latter contacted al-Mukhtar through a letter. Mukhtar dispatched an army led by Amir ibn Wathila al-Kinani to liberate Ibn al-Hanafiyya from his imprisonment.[16]
Mukhtar sought permission from Ibn al-Hanafiyya to avenge Husayn's death and secure power for the latter, to which Ibn al-Hanafiyya responded that he neither approved nor disapproved of such an action, but bloodshed should be avoided.[17] Doubting the authenticity of Mukhtar's claims, a group of Alid partisans from Kufa went to Mecca seeking verification from Ibn al-Hanafiyya. He replied in an ambiguous manner that he was satisfied with anyone whom God uses to take revenge on enemies of the family of the prophet. They interpreted this as confirmation of Mukhtar's claims and returned to join him.[18] According to the modern historian Wilferd Madelung, Mukhtar sent the heads of Shimr and Umar ibn Sa'd (commanders of Karbala) to Ibn al-Hanafiyya, rather than Ali al-Sajjad.[19]
In 688, four men led their respective followers in the rites of pilgrimage (ḥajj), claiming the leadership of Islam. Ibn al-Hanafiyya represented the Alids, Ibn al-Zubayr led the Zubayrids, Abd al-Malik ibn Marwan on the behalf of the Umayyads, and Najda ibn Amir, leader of the Kharijites.[20] In 692, he traveled to Damascus and swore allegiance to Abd al-Malik (r. 685–705).[21]
Death and succession
In 700, Ibn al-Hanafiyya probably died in Medina. However, the reports of his death were rejected by the Kaysanites, who asserted that he rather went into occultation, living in seclusion on Mount Radwa near Medina, protected and fed by wild animals, and that he would, in God's good time, return to establish justice and true religion in the world.[22] Thus arose the legend of the Mahdi as savior.[23] Following his death, the Kaysanites chose his son Abu Hashim as the Imam. The latter, before dying, transferred the Imamate to his cousin Muhammad ibn Ali ibn Abd Allah, an ancestor of the Abbasid dynasty.[24]
Assessments and legacy
The Shia Muslims who believed in Ibn al-Hanafiyya as the Imam galvanized the development of the earliest known Shia sect known as the Kaysanites. This was the first split between the Shia community, which diverted considerable support towards Ibn al-Hanafiyya, and away from Ali al-Sajjad.[25][26] The Kaysanites were probably the earliest Shia group to introduce the doctrines of the Occultation (ghayba) and the Return (raj'a) of the Mahdi.[27]
After Muhammad ibn al-Hanafiyya died, his son Abu Hashim claimed the imamate. After his death the Abbasids claimed that on his deathbed Abu Hashim nominated his distant cousin Muhammad ibn Ali ibn Abdullah ibn Abbas ibn Abdu'l-Muttalib ibn Hashim as the imam. This man's son Abu'l-Abbas Abdullah as-Saffah became the first Abbasid caliph, repudiating Shi'ism, which effectively extinguished the sect that had recognized Muhammad ibn al-Hanafiyyah as an imam.[28] Ibn al-Hanafiyya regarded the first caliph Abu Bakr (r. 632–634) as the 'best of us'.[29]
References
- ^ Watt 1960, p. 110.
- ^ Kister 2002, p. 48.
- ^ "Nahj al-Balaghah, Sermon 11 (note)". Archived from the original on 25 September 2012. Retrieved 18 December 2009.
- ^ "IMAM ABUL QASIM MUHAMMAD IBN 'ALI". Archived from the original on 5 August 2004. Retrieved 18 December 2009.
- ^ Bewley 1997, p. 60.
- ^ Shahin, Badr (2001). Al Abbas. Qum, Iran: Ansariyan Publications. ISBN 978-1519308115.
- ^ "Chapter 36 "The Journey to Iraq" in Martyrdom Epic of Imam al-Husain". Archived from the original on 28 July 2012. Retrieved 10 December 2009.
- ^ Hazleton, Lesley (2009). After the Prophet: The Epic Story of the Shia-Sunni Split in Islam. New York: Doubleday. pp. 160–163.
- ^ Hazleton, Lesley (2009). After the Prophet: The Epic Story of the Shia-Sunni Split in Islam. New York: Doubleday. pp. 138–143.
- ^ Ayoub 2011, p. 98.
- ^ "Chapter 36 "The Journey to Iraq" in Martyrdom Epic of Imam al-Husain". Archived from the original on 28 July 2012. Retrieved 10 December 2009.
- ^ Bashir 2004, p. 242.
- ^ Madelung 1986, p. 1231.
- ^ Pomerantz & Shahin 2015, p. 15.
- ^ Fishbein 1990, p. 59.
- ^ Pomerantz & Shahin 2015, p. 16.
- ^ Dixon 1971, pp. 32–33.
- ^ Wellhausen 1975, pp. 128–130.
- ^ Madelung 1985.
- ^ Balyuzi 2002, p. 200.
- ^ Sharon 1983, p. 116.
- ^ Sachedina 1981, p. 10.
- ^ Küng, Hans (2007). Islam Past, Present and Future. Oxford, U.K.: Oneworld. pp. 199–200.
- ^ Hawting 2000, p. 52.
- ^ Momen 1985, p. 36.
- ^ Donaldson 1933, p. 106.
- ^ Egger 2016, p. 70.
- ^ Momen, Moojan (1985). An Introduction to Shi'i Islam. Oxford, U.K.: George Ronald. pp. 47–48.
- ^ Lucas 2004, p. 262.
Bibliography
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- Bashir, Sulayman (2004). Studies in Early Islamic Tradition. ISBN 9789657258019.
- Balyuzi, H. M. (2002). Muhammad and the Course of Islam. ISBN 9780853984788.
- Bewley, Abdurrahman (1997). The Men of Madina Volume 2. ISBN 9781897940907.
- De Gifis, Adrian (2018). "Muhammad b. al-Hanafiyya". In Nicholson, Oliver (ed.). The Oxford Dictionary of Late Antiquity. Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-866277-8.
- Dixon, Abd al-Ameer A. (1971). The Umayyad Caliphate, 65–86/684–705: (a Political Study). London: Luzac. ISBN 978-0718901493.
- Donaldson, Dwight M. (1933). The Shi'ite Religion (A history of Islam in Persia and Irak). London: Luzac and Company.
- Egger, Vernon O. (2016). A History of the Muslim World to 1405: The Making of a Civilization. New York: Routledge. ISBN 978-1-315-50768-2.
- Fishbein, Michael, ed. (1990). The History of al-Ṭabarī, Volume XXI: The Victory of the Marwānids, A.D. 685–693/A.H. 66–73. SUNY Series in Near Eastern Studies. Albany, New York: State University of New York Press. ISBN 978-0-7914-0221-4.
- Hawting, Gerald R. (2000). The First Dynasty of Islam: The Umayyad Caliphate AD 661–750 (Second ed.). London and New York: Routledge. ISBN 0-415-24072-7.
- Kister, M. J. (2002). "The Struggle against Musaylima and the Conquest of Yamama". Jerusalem Studies in Arabic and Islam. 27: 1–56.
- Lucas, Scott C. (2004). Constructive Critics, Ḥadīth Literature, and the Articulation of Sunnī Islam: The Legacy of the Generation of Ibn Saʻd, Ibn Maʻīn, and Ibn Ḥanbal. Brill. ISBN 9789004133198.
- Madelung, Wilferd (1985). "ʿALĪ B. ḤOSAYN B. ʿALĪ B. ABĪ ṬĀLEB". Encyclopaedia Iranica I/8. pp. 849–850. Archived from the original on 5 August 2017.
- Madelung, Wilferd (1986). "Al–Mahdi". In Bosworth, C. E.; van Donzel, E.; Lewis, B. & Pellat, Ch. (eds.). The Encyclopaedia of Islam, Second Edition. Volume V: Khe–Mahi. Leiden: E. J. Brill. pp. 1230–1238. ISBN 978-90-04-07819-2.
- Momen, Moojan (1985). An Introduction to Shi'i Islam. Yale University Press. ISBN 9780853982005.
- Pomerantz, Maurice A.; Shahin, Aram (2015). The Heritage of Arabo-Islamic Learning: Studies Presented to Wadad Kadi. Brill. ISBN 9789004307469.
- Sachedina, Abdulaziz A. (1981). Islamic Messianism: The Idea of Mahdi in Twelver Shi'ism. Albany, NY: State University of New York Press. ISBN 978-0-87395-442-6.
- Sharon, Moshe (1983). Black Banners from the East: The Establishment of the ʻAbbāsid State : Incubation of a Revolt. Jerusalem: JSAI. ISBN 978-965-223-501-5.
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- Watt, W. Montgomery (1960). "Abū Bakr". In Gibb, H. A. R.; Kramers, J. H.; Lévi-Provençal, E.; Schacht, J.; Lewis, B. & Pellat, Ch. (eds.). The Encyclopaedia of Islam, Second Edition. Volume I: A–B. Leiden: E. J. Brill. pp. 109–111. OCLC 495469456.
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