The Rebel and the Imãm in Early Islam

Drawing on case studies from Islamic history, Haider challenges assumptions about the nature of the sources shaping understandings of the early Muslim world.

Najam Haider (Author)

9781107026056, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 19 September 2019

316 pages
23.5 x 15.6 x 2 cm, 0.64 kg

'… this uncompromising analysis will appeal to scholars of early Islam as well as to students of politics and rhetoric - especially those concerned with the interplay among truth, fact, fiction, and influence in scholarly and aesthetic writing … Highly recommended.' R. A. Miller, Choice

Engaging with contemporary debates about the sources that shape our understanding of the early Muslim world, Najam Haider proposes a new model for Muslim historical writing that draws on Late Antique historiography to challenge the imposition of modern notions of history on a pre-modern society. Haider discusses three key case studies - the revolt of Mukhtar b. Abi 'Ubayd (d. 67/687), the life of the Twelver Shi'i Imam Musa al-Kazim (d. 183/799) and the rebellion and subsequent death of the Zaydi Shi'i Imam Yahya b. 'Abd Allah (d. 187/803) - in calling for a new line of inquiry which focuses on larger historiographical questions. What were the rules that governed historical writing in the early Muslim world? What were the intended audiences for these works? In the process, he rejects artificial divisions between Sunni and Shi'i historical writing.

1. Modeling Islamic historical writing
2. The rise and fall of Mukhtâr b. Abî 'Ubayd (d. 67/687)
3. The life of Mûsâ b. Ja'far al-Kâ?im (d. 183/799)
4. The last years of Ya?yâ b. 'Abd Allâh (d. 187/803)
5. Reconsideration
Appendix. The narrative elements of Mukhtâr's revolt.

Subject Areas: Islamic theology [HRHT], Islamic life & practice [HRHP], Islam [HRH], Middle Eastern history [HBJF1]