Abu al-thana al-alusi: An alim, ottoman mufti, and exegete of the qur'an

International Journal of Middle East Studies

Volumn 34, Issue 3, 2002, Pages 465-494

  Nafi, Basheer M ^a  

^a NONE

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EID: 84968640221     PISSN: 00207438     EISSN: 14716380     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1017/S0020743802003033     Document Type: Article

References (102)

1. 'Muhammad Rashid Rida, al-Wahhabiyyun wal-Hijaz (Cairo: Matbaat al-Manar, 1925-26); idem, al-Manar wal-Azhar (Cairo: Matbaat al-Manar, a.h. 1353); Numan Khayr al-Din al-Alusi, Jala al-Aynayin fi-Muhakamat al-Ahmadayn (Cairo: Matbaat al-Madani, 1981); Husayn ibn Ghannam, Tarikh Najd, ed. Nasir al-Din al-Asad (Beirut: Dar al-Shuruq, 1985), esp. 363–82.
2. David D. Commins, Islamic Reform: Politics and Social Change in Late Ottoman Syria (New York: Oxford University Press, 1990), 25. See also H. A. R. Gibb, Modern Trends in Islam (Chicago: Chicago University Press, 1947), 34-35; Albert Hourani, Arabic Thought in the Liberal Age: 1798–1939 (London: Oxford University Press, 1962), 37, 92, 148, 222, 225–26, 231, 233, 344. Cf. John L. Esposito, ed., The Oxford Encyclopedia of the Modern Islamic World (New York: Oxford University Press, 1995), s. v. “Salafi-yah” (Emad Eldin Shahin), 3:463-69.
3. For elaborate discussion of the life and works of Ibn Taymiyya, see Henri Laoust, Essai sur le doctrines sociales et politiques de Taki-d-Din ibn Taimiya (Cairo: Institut Francais d’Archeologie, 1939); Muhammad Abu Zahra, Ibn Taymiyya: Haiyatuh wa Asruh, Arauh wa Fiqhuh (Cairo: Dar al-Fikr al-cArabi, 1991).
4. Abu Zahra, Ibn Taymiyya, 184–85.
5. On Ibn Taymiyya’s students’ perceptions of him and his vision of Islam, see Muhammad ibn Abd al-Hadi, al-cUqud al-Durriyya min Manaqib Shaykh al-Islam Ahmad ibn Taymiyya, ed. M. A. al-Fiqi (Cairo: Matbaat Hijazi, 1938), 71–72, 87–88, 117; Marci ibn Yusuf al-Karmi, al-Kawakib al-Durriyya fi Manaqib al-Mujtahid Ibn Taymiyya, ed. N. Khalaf (Beirut: Dar al-Gharb al-Islami, 1986), 63, 102–103, 117–20, 125; Abu al-Fida ibn Kathir, al-Bidaya wal-Nihaya (Beirut: Maktabat al-Maarif, 1967), 13:225, 241, 303, 333, 341, 344, 14:135-40; Muhaomad ibn Ahmad al-Dhahabi, Tadhkirat al-Huffaz (Beirut: Dar Ihiya al-Turath, n. d.), 4:1469; Muhammad ibn Qayim al-Jawziyya, Aclam al-Mwaqiin can Rab al-Alamin (Cairo: Dar al-Hadith, n. d.), 1:3-28; Ahmad ibn Hajar al-cAsqalani, al-Durar al-Kamina fi Afan al-Ma’a al-Thamina, ed. M. Jad al-Haq (Cairo: Umm al-Qura lil-Tibaa, n. d.), 1:154-70; Muhammad ibn Nasir al-Din al-Dimashqi, al-Rad al-Wafir cala man Zacam bi-An man Samma Ibn Taymiyya Shaykh al-Islam Kafir, ed. Zuhayr al-Shawish (Beirut: al-Maktab al-Islami, 1991).
6. On Ibrahim al-Kurani’s defense of Ibn Taymiyya, see al-Alusi (Nu man), Jalaal-Aynayin, 29, 55. On Muhammad Murtada al-Zabidi’s view of Taymiyya, see his Ithaf al-Sada al-Muttaqin bi-Sharh Asrar IhiyacUlum al-Din, ed. R. Abd al-Hadi (Beirut: Dar Ihiya al-Turath al-cArabi, 1995), 1:28, 40, 170, 176, 180, 183, 400, 449, 455; ibin., 2:106, 177; ibin., 3:90, 99, 131, 481-82; ibin., 4:416, 531, 537-39; ibin., 5:322, 379, 369, 420. On Shah Wali-Allah al-Dihlawi’s views, see J. M. S. Baljon, Religion and Thought of Shah Wall Allah Dehlawi (Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1986), 148, 200–201. On Muhammad ibn Ali al-Shawkani’s view, see his al-Badr al-Tali c bi-Mahasin man Bad al-Qarn al-Sabi c (Cairo: Matbaat al-Saada, a.h. 1348), 1: 63–72.
7. I am indebted to John O. Voll for suggesting the overlapping of Sufi and Salafi attitudes within Islamic reformist circles of the 18th century. See, for example, John O. Voll, “Hadith Scholars and Tariqas: An Ulama Group in the 18th Century Haramayn and Their Impact in the Islamic World,” Journal of Asian and African Studies 15: 264-73; idem, “Muhammad Hayya al-Sindi and Muhammad ibn Abd al-Wahhab: An Analysis of an Intellectual Group in Eighteenth Century Madina,”
8. Makdisi, “Hanbalite Islam,” 216–74. The quote is on p. 264, and Makdisi’s elaborate discussion of “Muslim Orthodoxy” is on pp. 251–64 and on 224–28. For I. Goldziher’s discussion of the Hanbali theol-ogy, see his “Zur Geschichte der haubalitschen Bewegungen,” Zeitschrift der Deutschen morgenlandischen Gesellschaft 62: 1–28.
9. The most elaborate discussion of tradition from the perspective of social sciences is still Edward Shils, Tradition (London: Faber and Faber, 1981). For a similar use in the specific context of Islamic cultural history, see Seyyed Hossein Nasr, Traditional Islam in the Modern World (London: KPI, 1987); William A. Graham, “Traditionalism in Islam: An Essay in Interpretation,” Journal of Interdisciplinary History 23: 495–522.
10. Quentin Skinner, The Foundations of Modern Political Thought (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1978), l:x-xii. For a detailed and critical discussion of Skinner’s methodology, see James Tully, ed., Meaning and Context: Quentin Skinner and His Critics (Cambridge: Polity Press, 1988).
11. “Sources of his biography include AM al-Hayi ibn Abd al-Kabir al-Kittani, Fihris al-Faharis wa Md-jam al-Macajim wal-Mashiyakhat wal-Musalsalat, ed. Ihsan Abbas (Beirut: Dar al-Gharb al-Islami, 1982), 1:139-41; Abbas al-Azzawi, Dhikra Abu al-Thana al-Alusi (Baghdad: Sharikat Tijara wal-Tibaa, 1958); al-Alusi (Numan), Jalaal-Aynayin, 57-59; Muhammad Bahjat al-Athari, Aclam al-Traq (Cairo: al-Matbaca al-Salafiyya, 1926–27), 21–43. Brief biographical accounts are included in Khayr al-Din al-Zirikli, al-Aclam (Beirut: Dar al-cIlm lil-Malayin, 1989), 8:53; Umar Rida Kahhala, Mu jam al-Mualifin (Beirut: Dar Ihiya al-Turath, 1957), 12:175; Commins, Islamic Reform, 24.
12. Al-Athari, A jam ad Iraq, 7–8.
13. Another family of ulama that appears to have lost rights to their land possessions during the same period was the Haydaris. On this issue, see Ibrahim Fasih al-Haydari, cUnwan al-Majd fi Bayan Ahwal Baghdad wal-Basra wa Najd (London: Dar al-Hikma, 1998), 148–49.
14. A similar case was that of Shaykh Ismacil al-Nabulsi, father of the prominent Damascene Sufi reformist Shaykh Abd al-Ghani al-Nabulsi. See Abd al-Ghani al-Nabulsi, al-Haqiqa wal-Majaz fi Rihlat Bilad al-Sham wa Misr wal-Hijaz ed. Riyad Abd al-Hamid Murad (Damascus: Dar al-Marifa, 1989), 49–50.
15. Abu al-Thana Mahmud al-Alusi, “Gharaib al-Ightirab wa Nuzhat al-Albab fi al-Dhihab wal-Iqama wal-Iyab,” ms. Institute of Arab Manuscripts, Arab League, Cairo (n.d.), pi. 11.
16. Abbas al-Azawi, Tarikh al-Traq bayn Ihtilalayn (Baghdad: Sharikat al-Tijara wal-Tibaa, 1951–55), 6:333.
17. A1-Alusi, “Ghara’ib al-Ightirab,” pi. 4.
18. On al-Musilli, see al-Kittani, Fihris al-Faharis, 2:787-88. Oa the Mizjajis, see Voll, “Linking Groups,” 69–92. On the grand Kuzbari, see al-Kittani, Fihris al-Faharis, 1:484-85. A1-Alusi, “Ghara’ib al-Ightirab,” pi. 5; Khalil Mardam-Bec, A'lam al-Qarn al-Thalith cAsharfi al-Fikr wal-Siyasa wal-Ijtima (Beirut: Lajnat al-Turath al-cArabi, 1971), 170–73.
19. A1-Alusi, “Ghara’ib al-Ightirab,” pi. 9-10; Muhammad Bahjat al-Athari, Mahmud Shukri al-Alusi wa Arawh al-Lughawiyya (Cairo: Machad al-Dirasat al-Arabiyya, 1985)PPEC, 30.
20. 2IA1-Kittani, Fihris al-Faharis, 2:1008-10. On al-Zabidi, al-Sindi, and al-Basri and their position in the 18th-century reformist environment, see Voll, “Muhammad Hayya al-Sindi,” 32–39. For a detailed discus-sion of al-Zabidi’s role in the revival of hadith scholarship in 18th-century Cairo, see Peter Gran, Islamic Roots of Capitalism: Egypt, 1760–1840 (Austin: University of Texas Press, 1979), 49–56.
21. Al-Alusi, “Ghara’ib al-Ightirab,” pi. 8; Mardam-Bec, A'lam al-Qarn al-Thalith Ashar, 165; Ahmad Taymur, A'lam al-Fikr al-Islami fi al-Asr al-Hadith (Cairo: Lajnat Nashr al-Mu allafat al-Taymuriyya, 1967), 322.
22. Al-Alusi, “Ghara’ib al-Ightirab,” pi. 9. Not only shaykh Ali al-Suwaydi but also the wali Suleiman Pasha was accused of harboring Wahhabi attitudes. On Suleiman Pasha the Young and the allegations of his Wahhabi attitudes and following a course of independence, see Satic al-Husri, al-Bilad al-Arabiyya wal-Dawla al-'Uthmaniyya (Beirut: Dar al-cIlm lil-Malayin, 1960), 58–64.
23. 0n the impact of the Wahhabi-Saudi attacks on Iraq, see Meir Litvak, Shii Scholars of Nineteenth-Century Iraq: The cUlama? of Najaf and Karbala (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1998), 121–23.
24. Hala Fattah, The Politics of Regional Trade in Iraq, Arabia and the Gulf, 1745–1900 (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1997), 19–28.
25. 26cUthman ibn Abdullah ibn Bishr, cUnwan al-Majd fi Tarikh Najd, ed. A. al-Shaykh (Riyadh: Wizarat al-Maarif, 1971), 1:20-22; Ibn Ghannam, Tarikh Najd, 82-83; Abdullah ibn Abd al-Rahman al-Bassam, ‘Ulama Najd fi Sitat Qurun (Mecca: Matbaat al-Nahda al-Haditha, 1977–78), 1:28-30.
26. Ibn Ghannam, Tarikh Najd, 320–23. On Shaykh Abd al-Rahman al-Suwaydi, see Mardam-Bec, A'lam al-Qarn al-Thalith Ashar, 165-66; Muhammad Khalil al-Muradi, Silk al-Durar fi A'yan al-Qarn al-Thani Ashar (Baghdad: Maktabat al-Muthanna, n. d.), 4:30.
27. See, for example, another Wahhabi response to the Iraqi ulama written by the grandson of Ibn Abd al-Wahhab, in Sulayman ibn Abdullah ibn Abd al-Wahhab, Tawhid al-Khallaq fi Jawab Ahl al-Traq (Cairo: al-Matbaa al-Sharqiyya, 1804–1805).
28. 29cUthman ibn Sanad, MatalT al-Suud bi-Tayb Akhbar al-Wali Dawud, ed. Amin ibn Hasan al-Halwani (Cairo: al-Matbaa al-Salafiyya, 1951–52), 72; al-cAzzawi, Tarikh al-Traq Bayn Ihtilalayn, 6:155-57. In the same period, Mulla Muhammad al-Musilli (known as Ibn al-Kula), a qadi of Diyar Bakr and then of Bagdad, was apparently open about his Wahhabi beliefs. As a result, Ibn al-Kula lost his position and was exiled from Baghdad by its wali Suleiman Pasha the Elder in 1794: Yasin al-cUmari, Gharaib al-Atharfi Hawadith al-Qarn al-Thalith Ashar (Mosul: Matbaat Umm al-Rabiayn, 1940), 35–36.
29. Al-cAzzawi, Tarikh al-Traq Bayn Ihtilalayn, 6:158-59.
30. ’The complex relations that connected the Mamluk walis with the local forces of Baghdad are explained in Tom Niewenhuis, Politics and Society in Early Modern Iraq: Mamluk Pashas, Tribal Shaykhs and Local Rule Between 1802–1831 (The Hague: Martinus Nijhoff, 1982).
31. Abd al-Razzaq al-Bitar, Hiliyat al-Bashar fi Tarikh al-Qarn al-Thalith Ashar, ed. Muhammad Bahjat al-Bitar (Damascus: al-Majmac al-llmi al-Axabi, 1963), 2:1095. See also al-Alusi (Numan), JaT al-Aynayin, 29, 56–57.
32. Still the most detailed study of the life and impact of Mawlana Khalid is perhaps Albert Hourani’s classic “Sufism and Modern Islam: Mawlana Khalid and the Naqshbandi Order” (1972), repr. in Albert Hourani, The Emergence of the Modern Middle East (London: Macmillan, 1981), 75–89.
33. 0n the life and works of Sirhindi, see Yohanan Friedmann, Shaykh Ahmad Sirhindi: An Outline of His Thought and a Study of His Image in the Eyes of Posterity (Montreal: MacGill-Queen’s University Press, 1971); Abul Hasan al-Nadawi, Saviours of Islamic Spirit: Shaikh Ahmad Mujadid Alf Thani (Lucknow: Academy of Islamic Research and Publications, 1983). Arthur F. Buchler, “The Naqshbandiyya-Mujaddidiy-yah and Its Rise to Prominence in India,” Bulletin of the Henry Martyn Institute of Islamic Studies 13, 3–4: 44–61, brings the research on the Naqshbandiyya-Mujaddidiyya up to date.
34. 0n Shah Wali-Allah, see G. N. Jalbani, Teachings of Shah Waliyullah of Delhi (Lahore: S. H. Muham-mad Ashraf, 1967); Ishtiaq Husain Qureshi, The Muslim Community of the Indo-Pakistan Subcontinent, 610–1947 (The Hague: Mouton and Company, 1962), 176–92. On possible common intellectual roots for Wali-Allah and Ibn Abd al-Wahhab, see Voll, “Muhammad Hayya al-Sindi,” 32–39.
35. Aziz Ahmad, An Intellectual History of Islam in India (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 1969), 9. Abd al-Majid ibn Muhammad al-Khani, al-Kawakib al-Durriyya ‘Ala al-Hadaiq al-Wardiyya ti Ajjilla al-Sada al-Naqshbandiyya, ed. Muhammad Khalid al-Kharsa (Damascus: Dar al-Bayruti, 1997), 709–10. Cf. Butrus Abu Manneh, “Khalwa and Rabita in the Khalidi Suborder,” in Naqshbandis, ed. M. Gaborieau, A. Popovic, and T. Zarcone (Istanbul: Institut Francais d’Etudes Anatoliennes d’Istanbul, 1990), 289–302.
36. Ibin., 693, 712. On Mawlana Khalid’s defense of the Ashari notion of the partial responsibility of man, elaborated in his treatise al-Tqd al-Jawhari fi al-Farq Bayn Kasbai al-Maturidi wal-AsKari, see Ismail Al-Baghdadi, Idah al-Maknun fi al-Dhayil Ala Kashf al-Zunun, 2 (Istanbul: n.p., 1945–47), col. 107; al-Zirikli, al-Aclam, 2:294; Kahhala, Mu jam al-Mualifin, 4:95.
37. 0n the life and works of Ahmad ibn Hajar al-Haytami (1504–67), Muhammad ibn Ahmad al-Shirbini (d. 1570), and Muhammad ibn Ahmad al-Ramli (1513–96), see al-Zirikli, al-Ajam, 1:234, 6:6-8.
38. Al-Khani, al-Kawakib al-Durriyya, 668-69; al-Bitar, Hiliyat al-Bashar, 1:580-81.
39. 4lFor a detailed examination of the circumstances that surrounded his leaving Sulaymaniyya, see Hou-rani, “Sufism and Modern Islam,” 84–85.
40. He, for example, was critical of his Iraqi follower, Shaykh cUbayd-Allah al-Haydari, when he accepted the muftiship of Baghdad. For further details, see al-Khani, al-Kawakib al-Durriyya, 725.
41. A1-Alusi, “Gharaib al-Ightirab”, pi. 9.
42. Ibin., pi. 130-39; Abu al-Thana Mahmud al-Alusi, Nashwat al-Shumul fi al-Safar ila Islambul (Bagh-dad: Matbaat al-Wilaya, 1874–75), 18–21.
43. Al-cAzzawi, Tarikh al-Traq Bayn Ihtilalayn, 7:15. A detailed account of the fall of Mamluk rule is presented in Sulayman Faiq, Tarikh Baghdad, trans. Kazim Nawras (Baghdad: Matbaat al-Maarif, 1962), 10–105.
44. The biography of Abd al-Ghani al-Jamil was written by Abdullah, the elder son of Abu al-Thana al-Alusi. See Abdullah al-Alusi, “al-Rawd al-Khamil fi MadaJi al-Jamil Ibn al-Jamil,” ms. 12496, Iraqi Mu-seum, Baghdad. See also al-Zirikli, al-Ajam, 4:33.
45. A1-Athari, Mahmud Shukri, 32; al-cAzzawi, Tarikh al-Traq Bayn Ihtilalayn, 7:15-16.
46. Abd al-Aziz Nawwar, “Thawrat 1832 fi al-cIraq,” al-Hilal (February 1961), 21–23.
47. Mahmud Shukri al-Alusi, al-Misk al-Adhfarfi Tarajim cUlamaal-Qarnayn al-Thani Ashar wal-Thalith Ashar (Baghdad: Matbaat al-Adab, 1930), 128.
48. Ibrahim al-Waili, al-Shir al-Siyasi fi al-Traq fi al-Qarn al-Tasi Ashar (Baghdad: Matbaat al-Macarif, 1978), 168–70.
49. 5IA1-Azzawi, Dhikra Abi al-Thanaal-Alusi, 51-52; al-Athari, Ajam al-Traq, 23; al-Bitar, Hiliyat al-Bashar, 3:1450. Al-Azzawi (Tarikh al-Traq Bayn Ihtilalayn, 7:26) wrote that al-Alusi became the mufti of Baghdad in 1249 a.h. or early in 1250 a.h. (1833/34). This cannot be right, for al-Alusi himself indicates (“Gharaib al-Ightirab,” pi. 12) that the sermon of al-Gaylani mosque, which marked the beginning of his comeback, was delivered in Ramadan 1250 (January 1835). It is generally accepted that al-Alusi became a mufti shortly after that—that is, sometime in early 1835.
50. Abd al-Wahhab Yasini Zadah (1758/59-1833/34) was a mufti of Istanbul and Shaykh al-Islam. On him, see Ismacil Al-Baghdadi, Hadiyat al-Arifin: Asma al-Mualifin wa Athar al-Musannifin 1 (Istanbul: n.p., 1951–55), col. 643. Al-Alusi’s commentary on Zadah’s book is titled Sharh al-Burhan fi Itaat al-Sulatan.
51. Al-Athari, Ajam al-Iraq, 30; Abd al-Aziz Nawwar, “Mawaqif Siyasiyya li-Abi al-Thana al-Alusi,” al-Majalla al-Tarikhiyya al-Misriyya 14 (1968): 152-53; Ali al-Wardi, Lamahat Ijtimajyya min Tarikh al-Iraq al-Hadith (Baghdad: Matbaat al-Irshad, 1971), 2:104-105. It is al-Alusi (“Gharaib al-Ightirab,” pi. 12) who confirmed that the writing of the commentary preceded his appointment to the muftiship.
52. 54cAbd al-Fattah al-Shawwaf and Numan Khayr al-Din al-Alusi, “Hadiqat al-Wurud fi Madaih Abi al-Thana Shihab al-Din Mahmud,” ms. 8527, Iraqi Museum, Baghdad. The first volume of this collection of praises was collected by al-Shawwaf. But for the early death of al-Shawwaf in 1836, the collection was completed by Numan, the son of Abu al-Thana al-Alusi.
53. Al-Alusi, “Gharaib al-Ightirab,” pi. 12; al-Athari, Ajam al-Traq, 29. Al-Alusi’s response to the Iranian questions was later published as the book al-Ajwiba al-Traqiyya can al-Asjla al-Iraniyya (Istanbul: Matbaat Maktab al-Sanaic, 1899–1900).
54. A1-Azzawi, Tarikh al-Traq Bayn Ihtilalayn, 7:38-39.
55. Al-Alusi, “Gharaib al-Ightirab,” pi. 13; al-Athari, Ajam al-Traq, 24; Nawwar, “Mawaqif Siyasiyya li-Abi al-Thana al-Alusi,” 159–60.
56. A1-Alusi’s account of his stay in Istanbul for more than a year between 1851 and 1852, a period during which he frequently met with Shaykh al-Islam Ahmad cArif Hikmat, covered plates 52–197 of “Gharaib al-Ightirab.” On Najib Pasha’s tense relations with the French consulate and the competition for influence between the British and the French in Baghdad, see al-Wardi, Lamahat Ijtimaiyya, 112–15.
57. Mustafa Nur al-Din al-Waciz, al-Rawd al-Azhar fi Tarajim Al al-Sayyid Jed far (Mosul: Matbaat al-Itihad, 1948), 85–89. On the epidemic of 1846–47 and the massive rise in the cost of living, see al-Alusi, al-Misk al-Adhfar, 136; al-cAzzawi, Tarikh al-Jraq Bayn Ihtilalayn, 7:77, 82. For an analysis of popular revolt in a 19th-century Iraqi urban context, see Juan R. I. Cole and Moojan Momen, “Mafia, Mob and Shicism in Iraq: The Rebellion of Ottoman Karbala, 1824-1843,” Past and Present: 112–43. On Amin al-Waciz (1808–58) and his Salafi convictions, see al-Athari, A“lam al-Jraq, 59; Taymur, Alam al-Fikr al-Islami, 331.
58. In his biography of al-Alusi (.Dhikra Abu al-Thana al-Alusi, 96), al-cAzzawi suggested that it was the Sublime Porte that issued the decision to dismiss al-Alusi. Al-cAzzawi, however, presented no evidence and indicated no source to support his statement. The most likely sequence of events is that the dismissal of the mufti was decided by Najib Pasha, then was approved by the Porte and the shaykh al-Islam.
59. Abu al-Thana Mahmud al-Alusi, Nashwat al-Shumul fi al-Safar ila Islambul; idem, Nashwat al-Mudam fi al-Awd ila Madinat al-Salam (Baghdad: Matbaat al-Wilaya, 1875-76); idem, “Gharaib al-Ightirab.” An analysis of the last travel account constitutes part of Hala Fattah’s recently published, “Representations of Self and the Other in Two Iraqi Travelogues of the Ottoman Period,” International Journal of Middle East Studies 30: 51–76.
60. Before leaving Istanbul, Abu al-Thana al-Alusi wrote a biography of the shaykh al-Islam titled, “Shah-yi al-Nagham fi Tarjamat Walyi al-Nicam,” ms. 9137, Iraqi Museum, Baghdad. The shaykh al-Islam invited al-Alusi to stay in Istanbul, but when al-Alusi expressed his intent to return to Baghdad, the shaykh al-Islam presented him with a watch and 50,000 Ottoman piastres on the day of his departure: see “Gharaib al-Ightirab,” 197; al-Athari, Alam al-Jraq, 26. On Ahmad Arif Hikmat and his claim of Sharifian descent, see al-Zirikli, al-AJam, 1:141.
61. Fattah, “Representations of Self,” 65.
62. Nawwar, “Mawaqif Siyasiyya li-Abi al-Thana al-Alusi”, 157–63.
63. Various aspects of the Tanzimat era and its impact on the Ottoman state and society are studied in Bernard Lewis, The Emergence of Modern Turkey (London: Oxford University Press, 1961), 73-125; Wil-liam R. Polk and Richard L. Chambers, ed., Beginnings of Modernization in the Middle East (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1968); Stanford J. Shaw and Ezel K. Shaw, History of the Ottoman Empire and Modern Turkey. 2: Reform, Revolution and Republic (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1977), 55–133, 154-56; Ira M. Lapidus, A History of the Islamic Societies
64. Lewis, Emergence of Modern Turkey, 92; Carter V. Findley, Bureaucratic Reform in the Ottoman Empire: The Sublime Porte, 1789–1922 (Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1980), 61–63.
65. 0ne of the most detailed studies of the modernization of Ottoman Iraq is Jamil Musa al-Najjar, al-Idara al-cUthmaniyya fi Wilayat Baghdad: Min Ahd al-Wali Midhat Pasha ila Nihayat al-Hukm al-cUtli-man i, 1869–1917 (Cairo: Maktabat Madbuli, 1991). See also Davison, Reform, 160.
66. The appointment of Najib Pasha to the governorship of Baghdad was in exchange for yearly payment of 50,000 saudrhcks to the Ottoman treasury: see Yaqub Sarkis, Mabahith Jraqiyya fi al-Jughrafiya wal-Tarikh wal-Athar wa Khitat Baghdad (Baghdad: Sharikat al-Tijara wal-Tibaa, 1948–55), 1:73; Fattah, Politics of Regional Trade, 99–100. It was perhaps not until 1851, when the new wali was appointed with a salary, that the iltizam contract was abolished—at least, on the level of governor.
67. Al-cAzzawi, al-Jraq Bayn Ihtilalayn, 7:94-95.
68. Mustafa Jawad and Ahmad Susa, Dalil Kharitat Baghdad al-Mufasal fi Khitat Baghdad Qadiman wa Hadithan (Baghdad: Matbaat al-Majmac al-cIlmi al-Iraqi, 1958), 334. Cf. Davison, Reform, 163, which mentions that the municipality was founded a year later by Midhat Pasha. A1-Najjar, al-Idara al-QUthmaniyya fi Wilayat Baghdad, 333–38, 417–25.
69. Ibin., 391–97.
70. A1-Athari, Aclam al-cIraq, 61.
71. Ahmad Lutfi, Tarih-i Lutfi, ed. Abd al-Rahman Seref (Istanbul: Matbaca-i-cAmira, 1290–1328), 8:177. On Najib Pasha’s reputation as a heavy-handed, authoritarian official, see C. F. Farah, “Necip Pasa and the British in Syria,” Archivum Ottomanicum 2: 115-53; Cole and Momen, “Mafia, Mob and Shicism in Iraq,” 127; Fa’iq, Tarikh Baghdad, 173–74.
72. Al-cAzzawi, al-Traq Bayn lhtilalayn, 7:16, 83; al-Wardi, Lamahat Ijtimaiyya, 2:146. Najib Pasha’s attitude toward the Gaylanis reversed that of Ali Pasha, who had exiled the naqib al-ashraf Mahmud al-Naqib to Sulaymaniyya in 1837 (ibin., 31).
73. The first impetus to nationalism, Edward Shils wrote, “seems to have come from a deepening distance between ruler and ruled.” See Edward Shils, “ The intellectuals in the Political Development of the New States,” World Politics 12: 343. See also Benedict Anderson, Imagined Communities (London: Verso, 1991), 47–65.
74. As is sharply noted by Muhammad Bahjat al-Athari, the faithful student of the Alusi school: see al-Athari, Aclam al-cIraq, 39.
75. See, for example, al-Alusi, Nashwat al-Shumul, 10–12, 27–28, 31–32, 34, 43; idem, “Ghara’ib al-Ightirab,” pi. 70–71, 84–85, 95, 145.
76. This magnum opus of Abu al-Thana al-Alusi has been published in different editions since the late 19th century. The first edition was published in nine volumes in Cairo by Bulaq Press (1884–93), super-vised by his son Nu man al-Alusi. On the first edition, see Yusuf Ilyas Sarkis, Mu jam al-Matbuat al-Arabiyya (Cairo: Maktabat al-Thaqafa al-Diniyya, n.d.), 1, col. 4. Rights of publication were then passed by al-Alusi’s grandson Mahmud Shukri to al-Muniriyya Press (Cairo, 1934–35), who printed the book in thirty volumes, each corresponding to a part of the Quran’s thirty parts. Muhammad Munir al-Dimashqi, owner of al-Muniriyya Press and a Salafi scholar, added short comments and notes at the foot of some pages. It is the fourth reprint of this edition, published by al-Muniriyya Press (Cairo) and Dar Ihiya al-Turath al-Axabi (Beirut, 1985), that is referred to here.
77. Al-Alusi, Duh al-Ma’ani, 1:5-20.
78. A1-Bitar, Hiliyat al-Bashar, 3:1454.
79. Muhammad Husayn al-Dhahabi, al-Tafsir wal-Mufasirun (Beirut: Dar Ihiya al-Turath al-cArabi, 1967), 1:352-62.
80. Al-Athari, Ajam al-Traq, 29; idem, Mahmud Shukri, 33.
81. 0n the major schools of Quranic exegesis, see al-Dhahabi, al-Tafsir wal-Mufasirun, 1:140-287; al-Shahat al-Sayyid Zaghlul, al-Itijahat al-Fikriyya fi al-Tafsir (Alexandria: al-Hai a al-Misriyya al-cAma lil-Kitab, 1975), 161–236. On the early Islamic debate about tafsir, see Harris Birkeland, “Old Muslim Opposi-tion Against Interpretation of the Koran,” in The Quran: Formative Interpretation, ed. Andrew Rippin (Brookfield, Vt.: Variorum, 1999), 40–80.
82. Sarkis {Mujam al-Matbuat, vol. 1, col. 4) reported that al-Alusi took five years to write his tafsir, concluding it in 1257/1841-42. This contradicts dates specified by al-Alusi himself: see al-Alusi, Ruh al-Maani, 1:4, 30:288, where he indicates that he started writing in November 1836 and completed the work in February 1851.
83. “Al-Alusi, Ruh al Maani, 1:6-7, 36–37, 67, 102–103, 133–34, 256.
84. Ibin„ 1:39.
85. Fakhr al-Din Muhammad al-Razi, Mafatih al-Ghayb (Beirut: Dar al-Fikr, 1981), 32 pts. in 16 vols. On al-Razi and his tafsir, see al-Dhahabi, al-Tafsir wal-Mufasirun, 1:288-96.
86. Al-Alusi, Ruh al-Macani, 1:18-19.
87. Ibin„ 1:7.
88. 9lAbu al-Hasan al-Ash’ari, al-Ibana ‘an ’Usui al-Diyana, ed. F. Mahmud, 2 vols. (Cairo: Dar al-Ansar, 1977). This is the most complete edition of al-Ashari’s major work, the first volume of which is the editor’s introductory study. The text of al-Ibana makes up the second volume. For al-Ashari’s announcement of his adherence to Ibn Hanbal’s school of thought, see: 2:20-21.
89. Al-Alusi, Ruh al-Maani, 1:87. See also ibin., 1:60-61.
90. See, for example, ibin., 1:64, 102–103.
91. Ibin„ 3:27-28. Ibin„ 26:178, 27:165-68, 29:4, 30:278.
92. %Ibin., 27:158. See also further positive references to Ibn al-Qayim in ibin., 29:147; to the Hanbali faqih Ibn al-Jawzi in ibin., 26:72, 30:272-73. Another instance of al-Alusi’s adherence to the Salafi view in opposition to al-Ghazali’s is shown in his commentary on the concept of “God as the first and the last of all existence”: (ibin., 27:165-68).
93. Ibin. A few months after he concluded the writing of his tafsir, al-Alusi, who realized that Shaykh al-Islam Ahmad cArif Hikmat was receptive to Salafi ideas, presented an open and powerful defense of Ibn Taymiyya and his theological views: see “Ghara’ib al-Ightirab,” pi. 176–77.
94. See, for example, al-Alusi, Ruh al-Maani, 3:17, 14:213.
95. “Ibin., 30:272-73.
96. I00lbid. See further elaboration of this theme, with specific challenge to al-Razi’s Ashari views, in idem, “Gharaib al-Ightirab,” pi. 174–75.
97. Idem, Ruh al-Maani, 26:89-90.
98. Ibin., 14:148.
99. Abraham Marcus, The Middle East on the Eve of Modernity: Aleppo in the Eighteenth Century (New York: Columbia University Press, 1989).
100. H. A. R. Gibb and Harold Bowen, Islamic Society and the West, vol. 1, pt. 2 (London: Oxford Univer-sity Press, 1957), 135-36; Marcus, The Middle East on the Eve of Modernicy, 60–61.
101. Al-Alusi, Ruh al-Maani, 28:35.
102. Hourani, Arabic Thought, 37.