The construction of salafiyya: Reconsidering Salafism from the perspective of conceptual history

International Journal of Middle East Studies

Volumn 42, Issue 3, 2010, Pages 369-389

  Lauzière, Henri ^a  

^a NORTHWESTERN UNIVERSITY   (United States)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK; HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVE; IDENTITY CONSTRUCTION; ISLAMISM;

EID: 77956115108     PISSN: 00207438     EISSN: 14716380     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1017/S0020743810000401     Document Type: Review

References (139)

1. Bernard Rougier, ed., Qu'est-ce que le salafisme? (Paris: Presses Universitaires de France, 2008);
2. Roel Meijer, ed., Global Salafism: Islam's New Religious Movement (New York: Columbia University Press, 2009). The latter volume includes a noteworthy chapter by Bernard Haykel.
3. Emad Eldin Shahin, "Salafiyah," in The Oxford Encyclopedia of the Islamic World, ed. John L. Esposito (New York: Oxford University Press, 2009), 5:28-35;
4. ́ Edouard Ḿet́enier, "Que sont ces chemins devenus? Ŕeflexion sur les ́evolutions de la salafiyya irakienne de la fin du XVIIIe au milieu du XXe sìecle," in Le courant ŕeformiste musulman et sa ŕeception dans les socíet́ es arabes, ed. Maher al-Charif and Salam Kawakibi (Damascus: Institut Français du Proche-Orient, 2003), 85-113;
5. Uwaidah M. Al Juhany, Najd Before the Salafi Reform Movement: Social, Political, and Religious Conditions During the Three Centuries Preceding the Rise of the Saudi State (Reading, U.K.: Ithaca Press, 2002);
6. Ibrahim M. Abu-Rabi-, Contemporary Arab Thought: Studies in Post-1967 Arab Intellectual History (London: Pluto Press, 2004), 65-72. Abu-Rabi-based his analysis on the works of Arab intellectuals who use Salafism very loosely.
7. For a typical example with respect to Moroccan history, see-Abd al-Jalil Baddu, al-Salafiyya wa-l-Islah (Tangier, Morocco: Siliki Ikhwan, 2007).
8. For a review of this problem in European intellectual history, see Tore Frängsmyr, ̀A la recherche des Lumìeres: une perspective súedoise, trans. Jean-François Battail and Marianne Battail (Bordeaux, France: Presses Universitaires de Bordeaux, 1999), 13:16-22.
9. The expression "Renaissance Enlightenment" comes from Ira O.Wade, The Intellectual Origins of the French Enlightenment (Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1971).
10. P. Shinar and W. Ende, "Salafiyya," in Encyclopaedia of Islam, 2nd ed. (hereafter EI2) (Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1960-2005). This subnarrative continues to inform contemporary studies.
11. See Mahmoud Haddad, "The Manarists and Modernism: An Attempt to Fuse Society and Religion," in Intellectuals in the Modern Islamic World: Transmission, Transformation, Communication, ed. St́ephane A. Dudoignon, Komatsu Hisao, and Kosugi Yasushi (London: Routledge, 2006), 55-73.
12. Outside of Western scholarship, see Muhammad-Imara, al-Imam Muhammad-Abduh: Mujaddid al-Dunya bi-Tajdid al-Din (Beirut: Dar al-Wahda li-l-Tiba-a wa-l-Nashr, 1985), 87-88;
13. and-Allal al-Fasi, "al-Haraka al-Salafiyya fi al-Maghrib," in Durus fi al-Haraka al-Salafiyya: al-Mashriq wa-l-Maghrib al-Arabi, ed. Muhammad Fa"iq et al. (Casablanca, Morocco:Manshurat-Uyun, 1986), 129.
14. Madawi Al-Rasheed, Contesting the Saudi State: Islamic Voices from a New Generation (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2007), 3;
15. Bernard Haykel, "On the Nature of Salafi Thought and Action," in Global Salafism, ed. Meijer, 34, 45-47;
16. Arnaud Lenfant, "L'́evolution du salafisme en Syrie au XXe sìecle," in Qu'est-ce que le salafisme?, ed. Rougier, 161-178.
17. Muhammad Sa-id Ramadan al-Buti, al-Salafiyya: Marhala Zamaniyya Mubaraka la Madhhab Islami, 2nd ed. (Damascus: Dar al-Fikr, 1998), 234-35.
18. Muhammad-Imara, al-Salafiyya (Sousse, Tunisia: Dar al-Ma-arif li-l-Tiba-a wa-l-Nashr, n.d.), 12-16;
19. Rougier, ed., "Introduction," in Qu'est-ce que le salafisme?, 7-12.
20. Haykel, On the Nature of Salafi Thought, 38.
21. Meijer, ed., "Introduction," in Global Salafism, 4.
22. Ibn Taymiyya, Majmu-Fatawa Shaykh al-Islam Ibn Taymiyya (Beirut: Matabi-Mu"assasat al-Risala, 1997), 33:177. In this passage, Ibn Taymiyya first discusses how the Jahmis (al-jahmiyya) misinterpreted the attributes of God and then examines how another group, the Salafis (al-salafiyya), had a correct understanding.
23. For similar examples, see Ibn Taymiyya, Majmu-Fatawa, 6:379;
24. idem, Dar" Ta-arud al-Aql wa-l-Naql, ed. Muhammad Rashad Salim (Riyadh: Jami-at al-Imam ibn Sa-ud al-Islamiyya, 1980), 2:8;
25. and Ibn Taymiyya, idem, Bayan Talbis al-Jahmiyya fi Ta"sis Bida-ihim al-Kalamiyya (n.p.: Mu"assasat Qurtuba, 1980), 1:122.
26. Ibn Taymiyyah, Ibn Taymiyyah Expounds on Islam, trans. and ed. Muhammad-Abdul-Haqq Ansari (Riyadh: Muhammad Ibn Sa-ud University, 2000), 30.
27. See how al-Buti, who is a Sufi, approaches the question. Al-Buti, al-Salafiyya, 189.
28. The word is also used in the plural. On the Internet, see the exhaustive compilation by the Saudi-based Salafi scholar Milfi al-Sa-idi: http://fatwa1.com/anti-erhab/Salafiyah/tabseer.html (accessed 12 January 2010).
29. In addition to the passages previously mentioned, see Ibn Taymiyya, Majmu-, 4:149, 16:471;
30. al-Dhahabi, Tadhkirat al-Huffaz, 4th ed. (Beirut: Dar Ihya" al-Turath, 1969), 4:1431. In another biographical dictionary, al-Dhahabi (d. 1374) writes that the famous hadith scholar al-Daraqutni (d. 995) was a Salafi who did not get involved in theological speculation and arguments.
31. al-Dhahabi, Idem, Siyar A-lam al-Nubala", ed. Shu-ayb al-Arna"ut (Beirut: Mu"assasat al-Risala, 1985), 16:457.
32. Ibn Kathir, al-Bidaya wa-l-Nihaya (Beirut: Maktabat al-Ma-arif, 1966), 13: 333;
33. Ibn-Abd al-Hadi, al-Uqud al-Durriyya minManaqib Shaykh al-Islam Ahmad ibn Taymiyya, ed. Muhammad Hamid al-Fiqi (Cairo: Matba-at Hijazi, 1938), 87, 217;
34. George Makdisi, Ibn Qudama's Censure of Speculative Theology (London: E. J. W. Gibb Memorial, 1962), 7.
35. For more details on the methodological underpinnings of Salafi theology, see Haykel, On the Nature of Salafi Thought, 38-42.
36. Asma Asfaruddin cautions against falling into this pitfall when interpreting the word shi-?. See Asma Asfaruddin, Excellence and Precedence: Medieval Islamic Discourse on Legitimate Leadership (Leiden: E. J. Brill, 2002), 284.
37. See Basheer M. Nafi, "Abu al-Thana" al-Alusi: An Alim, Ottoman Mufti, and Exegete of the Qur"an," International Journal of Middle East Studies 34 (2002): 466. Nafi nonetheless acknowledges that the word salaf had a primarily theological connotation.
38. Ibn Kathir, Tabaqat al-Fuqaha" al-Shafi-iyyin, ed. Anwar al-Baz (al-Mansura, Egypt: Dar al-Wafa", 2004), 1:17, 185, 311. Many other jurists are listed as Ash-aris.
39. Muhammad ibn Ahmad al-Saffarini, Kitab Lawa"ih al-Anwar al-Bahiyya wa-Sawati-al-Asrar al-Athariyya (Cairo: Matba-at Majallat al-Manar al-Islamiyya, 1905-1906), 1:18-19;
40. Nu-man Khayr al-Din al-Alusi, Jala" al-Aynayn fi Muhakamat al-Ahmadayn (n.p.: n.p., 1881), 25-26, 83;
41. Abu al-Thana" al-Alusi, Ruh al-Ma-ani fi Tafsir al-Qur"an al-Azim wa-l-Sab-al-Mathani, 2nd ed. (Beirut: Dar Ihya" al-Turath al-Islami, 1970), 1:60, 87;
42. Abd al-Rahman al-Kawakibi, Umm al-Qura (Cairo: al-Sayyid al-Furati, 1899), 10, 70;
43. Rashid Rida, Tafsir al-Qur"an al-Hakim al-Shahir bi-Tafsir al-Manar (Beirut: Dar al-Ma-rifa, 1970), 1:251-55.
44. Quoted in Ibn-Abd al-Hadi, al-Uqud al-Durriyya, 117.
45. Nafi, "Abu al-Thana" al-Alusi," 466, 488. In the endnotes, Nafi cites the statement twice from two different medieval authors (al-Karmi and Ibn-Abd al-Hadi).
46. Al-Dhahabi, Siyar A-lam al-Nubala" 16:433;
47. Ibn Rajab, al-Dhayl-ala Tabaqat al-Hanabila, ed.-Abd al-Rahman ibn Sulayman al-Uthaymin (Riyadh: Maktabat al-Abikan, 2005), 1:147. The first expression refers to the exegete Ibn Shahin (d. 995), who reportedly used it to describe his personal legal stance. The second expression was used by Ibn Taymiyya in his praise of the Hanbali Sufi scholar-Abdallah al-Ansari (d. 1088).
48. Abu Sa-d al-Tamimi al-Sam-ani, al-Ansab, ed.-Abd al-Rahman ibn Yahya al-Mu-allimi al-Yamani (Hayderabad, India: Matba-at Majlis Da"irat al-Ma-arif al-Uthmaniyya, 1976), 7:167.
49. Abu Sa-d al-Tamimi al-Sam-ani, al-Ansab, 1976, Ibid., 1:114.
50. Henri Laoust, Le califat dans la doctrine de Rashid Rida (Paris: Maisonneuve, 1986), 255.
51. The notion of quasi-character (quasi-personnage) is from Paul Ricoeur, Temps et ŕecit (Paris: Seuil, 1983), 1:275, 278-80.
52. Henri Laoust, "Le ŕeformisme orthodoxe des 'Salafiya' et les caract̀eres ǵeńeraux de son orientation actuelle," Revue des ́etudes islamiques 2 (1932): 175.
53. The Encyclopaedia of Islam arbitrarily connects the emergence of the salafiyya (Salafism) in various parts of the Muslim world with the influence of-Abduh and his ideas. See P. Shinar andW. Ende, "Salafiyya," EI2. The ideas and principles of Salafism are further discussed in the article on reform (is. lah. ), where the history of the salafiyya (the Salafis) is virtually interchangeable with that of Islamic reformism since 1884, the year in which al-Urwa al-Wuthqa was published.
54. See A. Merad, "Islah," EI2.
55. For other examples, see Malcolm H. Kerr, Islamic Reform: The Political and Legal Theories of Muhammad-Abduh and Rashid Rida (Berkeley, Calif.: University of California Press, 1966), 2-3;
56. M. A. Zaki Badawi, The Reformers of Egypt (London: Croom Helm, 1978);
57. and Daniel Brown, Rethinking Tradition in Modern Islamic Thought (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1996), 30, 149.
58. Reinhard Schulze, A Modern History of the Islamic World, trans. Azizeh Azodi (London: I. B. Tauris, 2000), 176.
59. Revue du monde musulman, 36 (1918-19): 325; 59 (1925): 281, 312-13.
60. This is particularly striking in the eighth volume of al-Manar dating from 1905. In one obituary, al-Afghani is merely presented as a philosopher. See al-Hilal 5 (1897): 562.
61. Al-Manar 5 (1902): 405.
62. Itzchak Weismann, "Between Sufi Reformism and Modernist Rationalism: A Reappraisal of the Origins of the Salafiyya From the Damascene Angle," Die Welt des Islams 41 (2001): 231.
63. A few relatively more ambiguous passages do exist, such as al-Kawakibi's lone statement that religious reform should derive from the moderate Salafi wellspring" (-ala al-mashrab al-salaf al-mu-tadil). However, such statements are too rare and never sufficiently explicit to explain the entire conceptual edifice of Salafism qua Islamic modernism. See al-Kawakibi, Umm al-Qura, 140. Elsewhere in the book, Salafi epithets are clearly used as theological markers.
64. Muhammad ibn Nasir al-Ajmi al-Rasa"il al-Mutabadala bayna Jamal al-Din al-Qasimi wa-Mahmud Shukri al-Alusi (Beirut: Dar al-Basha"ir al-Islamiyya, 2001), 47: 60, 70-71, 163.
65. Muhammad ibn Nasir al-Ajmi al-Rasa"il al-Mutabadala bayna Jamal al-Din al-Qasimi wa-Mahmud Shukri al-Alusi, 2001, Ibid., 115, 190.
66. Rashid Rida, al-Wahda al-Islamiyya wa-l-Ukhuwwa al-Diniyya wa-Tawhid al-Madhahib (Cairo: al-Maktab al-Islami, n.d.), 10.
67. Rashid Rida, Yusr al-Islam wa-Usul al-Tashri-al-Amm (Cairo: Matba-at al-Manar, 1928), 77.
68. Al-Manar 11 (1908): 95.
69. Al-Manar 7 (1904): 51-52; 11 (1908): 205, 740-42; 29 (1928): 66-67.
70. Al-Manar 8 (1905): 5.
71. Al-Manar 16 (1913): 749.
72. Although his collaborators regarded him as a Salafi during his lifetime, the theological stance of Tahir al-Jaza"iri is open to question. His take on the Mu-tazilis is particularly intriguing. See Joseph H. Escovitz, "'He was the Muhammad-Abduh of Syria:' A Study of Tahir al-Jaza"iri and His Influence," International Journal of Middle East Studies 18 (1986): 297-301.
73. On the rationalist and modernist outlook of Jamal al-Din al-Qasimi, see David Commins, Islamic Reform: Politics and Social Change in Late Ottoman Syria (New York: Oxford University Press, 1990), 65-88.
74. Muhibb al-Din al-Khatib, "Mudhakkirat Muhibb al-Din al-Khatib," in Min Siyar al-Khalidin bi-Aqlamihim: Ahmad Shawqi,Muhammad al-Bashir al-Ibrahimi,Muhibb al-Din al-Khatib, ed. Hasan al-Samahi Suwaydan (Damascus: Dar al-Qadiri, 1998), 90-92.
75. Muhibb al-Din al-Khatib, "Mudhakkirat Muhibb al-Din al-Khatib," in Min Siyar al-Khalidin bi-Aqlamihim: Ahmad Shawqi,Muhammad al-Bashir al-Ibrahimi,Muhibb al-Din al-Khatib, (1998), Ibid., 91.
76. Ibid., 97-98.
77. Ibid., 91-92.
78. Ibid., 94;
79. Filip di Tarazzi, Tarikh al-Sihafa al-Arabiyya (Beirut: al-Matba-a al-Adabiyya, 1913), 2:52-56.
80. Al-Khatib, Mudhakkirat, 96:126.
81. Al-Khatib, Mudhakkirat, 96, Ibid., 119.
82. Ibid., 141-42.
83. See the advertisement at the end of Ibn Sina, Mantiq al-Mashriqiyyin wa-l-Qasida al-Muzdawija fi al-Mantiq (Cairo: al-Maktaba al-Salafiyya, 1910), unpaginated.
84. Muhibb al-Din al-Khatib and-Abd al-Fattah Qatlan, Taqwim al-Majalla al-Salafiyya li-Sanat 1336/1918 (Cairo: Matba-at al-Nahda, 1918), unpaginated.
85. Al-Zahra" 2 (1926): 87;
86. Sayyid Muhammad Rizvi, "Muhibb al-Din al-Khatib: A Portrait of a Salafist-Arabist (1886-1969)" (M.A. thesis, Simon Fraser University, 1991), 51.
87. Al-Ajmi al-Rasa"il al-Mutabadala 190. The actual terms that al-Alusi uses are salaf and khalaf?. He links the latter to the Jahmis and Mu-tazilis.
88. Abu Nasr al-Farabi, Mabadi" al-Falsafa al-Qadima (Cairo: al-Maktaba al-Salafiyya, 1910);
89. Ibn Sina, Asbab Huduth al-Huruf (Cairo: al-Maktaba al-Salafiyya, 1913);
90. Ibn Sina, idem, Mantiq.
91. See the advertisement at the end of Ibn Sina, Mantiq, unpaginated.
92. Al-Farabi, Mabadi", vi.
93. See Richard Wood, al-Islam wa-l-Islah (Cairo: al-Maktaba al-Salafiyya, 1912), 6-11.
94. Al-Manar 13 (1910): 470-72;
95. al-Hilal 18 (1910): 607. Reviews from al-Muqtataf and al-Muqtabas are quoted at the end of Ibn Sina, Mantiq, unpaginated.
96. Abd al-Fattah Qatlan, Fihris Maktabat al-Manar (Cairo: Matba-at al-Manar, 1914), 5;
97. al-Fath 14 (1939): 6.
98. Al-Khatib, Mudhakkirat, 156-57.
99. Al-Khatib and Qatlan, Taqwim al-Majalla al-Salafiyya, 2. Since 1910, al-Khatib and Qatlan had been in the habit of translating the back covers of their publications into English with the line "Published by the Salafyah [sic] Library." In January 1918, Qatlan slightly changed the English title of al-Majalla al-Salafiyya to "Salafiyah Review" (with an "i").
100. Al-Majalla al-Salafiyya 1 (1917): 93.
101. Al-Majalla al-Salafiyya 2 (1918): 63-64.
102. Al-Khatib and Qatlan, Taqwim al-Majalla al-Salafiyya, 81-93.
103. See his March 1909 letter to Anastase-Marie de Saint ́ Elie reprinted in Daniel Massignon, ed., Autour d'une conversion: Lettres de Louis Massignon et de ses parents au p̀ere Anastase de Baghdad (Paris: Cerf, 2004), 57.
104. Revue du monde musulman 34 (1916-18): 329-31.
105. Revue du monde musulman 36 (1918-19): 325.
106. Pierre Rocalve, Louis Massignon et l'islam (Damascus: Institut Français de Damas, 1993), 157;
107. Revue du monde musulman 36 (1918-19): 272; 59 (1925): 312.
108. For example, see Samuel G.Wilson, Modern Movements among Moslems (New York: Fleming H. Revell Company, 1916), 158, 160.
109. Massignon cites the Salafiyya Bookstore in Revue du monde musulman 4 (1910): 295, 687.
110. Daniel Massignon, Le voyage en Ḿesopotamie et la conversion de Louis Massignon en 1908 (Paris: Cerf, 2001), 17;
111. al-Ajmi, al-Rasa"il al-Mutabadala, 169-70, 200;
112. Revue du monde musulman 57 (1924): 245;
113. Louis Massignon, "My Meetings with Maulana Azad," in Maulana Abul Kalam Azad: A Memorial Volume, ed. Humayun Kabir (New York: Asia Publishing House, 1959), 27-28.
114. Lothrop Stoddard, The New World of Islam (New York, Charles Scribner's Sons, 1921), 86.
115. The Moslem World 12 (1922): 21.
116. Laoust, Le ŕeformisme orthodoxe, 175, 178, 222. On the first page, Laoust cites Massignon's, 1919 remarks.
117. Hamilton A. R. Gibb, Modern Trends in Islam (Chicago: Chicago University Press, 1947), 29, 35, 133.
118. Contrary to common wisdom, neither Albert Hourani's Arabic Thought in the Liberal Age, 1798-1939, 3rd ed. (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1983)
119. nor Charles Adams' Islam and Modernism in Egypt (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1933) mentions "Salafism" or salafiyya. These concepts are absent from the two books.
120. One reformer who had access to Revue du monde musulman and encountered Massignon's use of Salafi labels is Muhammad Bahjat al-Athari, A-lam al-Iraq (Cairo: al-Matba-a al-Salafiyya, 1926), 199.
121. Lothrop Stoddard, Hadir al-Alam al-Islami, ed. Shakib Arslan, trans.-AjjajNuwayhid (Cairo: al-Matba-a al-Salafiyya, 1925), 1:173-74.
122. Yusuf al-Dijwi, Kalima fi al-Salafiyya al-Hadira (Damascus: Maktabat al-Qudsi wa-l-Budayr, 1930), 2-7.
123. Al-Khatib, Mudhakkirat, 170.
124. Ajjaj Nuwayhid, Sittun-Aman ma-a al-Qafila al-Arabiyya, ed. Bayan Nuwayhid al-Hut (Beirut: Dar al-Istiqlal, 1993), 41.
125. Hammadi ibn-Ali Muhammad, Awa"il al-Matbu-at al-Sa-udiyya: Qa"ima Mukhtara (Riyadh: Maktabat al-Malik Fahd al-Wataniyya, 1999), 41, 46, 48, 53, 58.
126. He must not be confused with his famous relative, Muhammad Husayn Nasif, who died the same year in Ta"if. See Muhammad-Ali Maghribi, A-lam al-Hijaz fi al-Qarn al-Rabi-Ashr li-l-Hijra (Jeddah, Saudi Arabia: Tihama, 1981), 1:215, 268.
127. Abbas ibn Salih Tashkandi, al-Tiba-a fi al-Mamlaka al-Arabiyya al-Sa-udiyya, 1300h-1419h (Riyadh: Maktabat al-Malik Fahd al-Wataniyya, 1999), 182-91.
128. Muhammad, Awa"il al-Matbu-at al-Sa-udiyya, 59, 64.
129. ReńeDescartes, Maqal-an al-Manhaj li-AhkamQiyadat al-Aql wa-li-l-Bahth-an al-Haqiqa fi al-Ulum, trans. and ed. Mahmud Muhammad al-Khudayri (Cairo: al-Matba-a al-Salafiyya, 1929).
130. See the book reviews in al-Zahra" 3 (1926): 77, 536, 602.
131. Al-Fath 3 (1929): 664, 775.
132. Laoust, Le ŕeformisme orthodoxe, 182:190.
133. Laoust, Le ŕeformisme orthodoxe, 182:Ibid., 176, 178.
134. Umar ibn-Abd al-Aziz, Musnad (Multan, Pakistan: Matba-at al-Dukhaniyya, 1921), 1.
135. Muhammad, Awa"il al-Matbu-at al-Sa-udiyya, 39;
136. Adham Al Jundi, A-lam al-Adab wa-l-Fann (Damascus: Al Jundi, 1954), 1:225;
137. Muhammad ibn Nasir al-Ajmi,-Allamat al-Sham-Abd al-Qadir ibn Badran al-Dimashqi: Hayatuhu wa-Atharuhu (Beirut: Dar al-Basha"ir al-Islamiyya, 1996), 49.
138. Al-Fath 12 (1937): 566.
139. Schulze, A Modern History, 95-96.