HERESIOGRAPHY

Heresiography is, literally, the writing of and about heresies. It is, however, an extremely relative term as one group's heresy is ultimately another's religion. Those who write about heresies, known as heresiographers, are for the most part engaged in the documentation of the errors and incorrect beliefs of other groups, which are often pejoratively referred to as "sects." However, as Jonathan Z. Smith argues, "a 'theory of the other' is but another way of phrasing a 'theory of the self'" (p. 47). Heresiography, then, functions in two primary ways. First, it lists the perceived heretical doctrines or ideas of others, showing how they have either gone or been led astray; secondly, and most importantly, it allows the group doing the writing to present what it is not, thereby providing the contours of social, ideological, religious and political self-definition.

Definition and Origin

The closest Arabic term for heresiography in Islam is al-milal wa al-nihal, literally meaning "religions and sects." The origin of this phrase is unclear and both words, despite occurring separately in the Qur˒an, do not seem to appear together as a technical term before the tenth century. Shahrastani (d. 1153), one of the most famous medieval heresiographers, argues that milal (sing., milla) refer primarily to the parameters of a shared social or communal set of beliefs, whereas its synonym din more closely approximates what we would today call "religion." Other sources, however, do not make such a sharp differentiation between these two terms. In one of its earliest usages, that by Abu Bakr al-Khwarizmi (d. c. 977), it is employed to denote religions other than those of ahl al-kitab (i.e., "the people of the Book," meaning followers of Islam, Judaism, and Christianity). The first time the phrase is employed in a title is in the Kitab almilal wa al-nihal of al-Baghdadi (d. 1037). Other Arabic terms used in Islamic heresiographical literature to designate heretics include zandaqa ("free-thought," or "atheism") and ilhad ("heresy," or "heterodoxy").

The Muslims were extremely interested in documenting the religious beliefs and doctrines of other groups. They did so, however, not as dispassionate scientists or academics, but often as legal scholars, whose main job was to delineate and establish the beliefs, and thus legal status, of other religious groups in order to determine both their taxation rates and rights under Islamic law (shari˓a). The basis for all their categories of comparison, then, was not necessarily meant to be scholarly or anthropological in its own right, but rather it was grounded in the traditional sources of Islam (e.g., Qur˒an, hadith). Yet, both the breadth and depth of the taxonomies that the Muslim heresiographers created were impressive. According to Gustave von Grunebaum, "in their books on sects, or comparative religion, the research acumen of the Muslims shows at its best." Precisely because so much of the milal wa al-nihal literature deals with the collection and subsequent listing of the beliefs of others, many modern scholars frequently refer to this genre as a genealogical precursor to the modern history of religions.

Steven Wasserstrom locates the origins of this technical genre of literature in the eighth and ninth centuries, when Muslims increasingly encountered other, rival, monotheisms in a highly "disputational, polemic, apologetic, and sectarian milieu." Despite the ambiguity surrounding the origins of milal wa al-nihal as a technical term, the literature associated with it seems to be predicated on the following hadith, in which the Prophet proclaims: "The Jews are divided into seventy-one sects, the Christians into seventy-two; my community will be divided into seventy-three sects." This tradition seems to be the proof text for all subsequent attempts to document and delineate the various heretical groups.

Judaism and Heresy

In the background of much Islamic heresiographical writings is the monolithic category of "the Jews." Wasserstrom claims, for instance, that Muslim heresies can often be traced back to a Jewish origin. According to Islamic history, the Jews are the archetypal community that has gone astray. As such they are constantly held up as an example of what must not happen to the Muslim community. Yet because Islam and Judaism had been in contact with one another since the advent of Islam in the seventh century, they were phenomenologically very similar. As a result, much time is spent differentiating Islam and Muslim teaching and dogma from that of the Jews. Moreover, when the Muslim heresiographers look for internal divisions within Islam they tend to blame it on a Jew or a Jewish convert to Islam. In many ways all heresies within Islam begin with the fact that Muhammad produced no male heirs, something that was generally blamed on Jewish magicians. Moreover, it was Jews that were said to be responsible for the following "heresies": the Christian decision to worship Jesus, the ghulat (Shi˓ite extremists), the Shi˓ites, the Isma˓ilis, the Fatimid dynasty, and one of the most divisive theological issues in early Islam, that of the created Qur˒an.

A common feature used in the literature associated with heresiography is the list of sects and where they have gone wrong. Such lists are, according to John Wansbrough, "schematic and based on a variety of propositions: (1) numerical (to make up the celebrated total of 'seventy-three sects'); (2) ad hominem ('schools' generated from the names of individuals by means of the nisba suffix [denoting origin or descent]); and (3) doctrinal (divergent attitudes to specific problems)." Furthermore, despite the fact that Islam is generally considered to be an orthoprax ("correct practice") religion as opposed to an orthodox ("correct belief") one, heresiography is primarily concerned with documenting the incorrect or heretical beliefs, as opposed to actions, of others. The goal is to show how such beliefs are to be differentiated from what is considered to be "normative," which of course differs according to those doing the writing. Every Muslim group, then, is interested in showing how its belief system is "normative" and how that of its rivals is heretical. A common feature is that heretical belief is always something that deviates from, and is thus subsequent to, an original or pure teaching. For this reason heresy in Islam is often synonymous with the charge of innovations (bid˓a).

Muslim Heresiographers

One of the most famous of Muslim heresiographers is the Andalusian Ibn Hazm (994–1064), an important though idiosyncratic legalist, philosopher, exegete, and polemicist. His al-Fisal fi al-milal wa al-ahwa wa al-nihal (The book of opinions on religions, heresies, and sects) offers an elaborate account of all the religious groups that had ever come into contact with Islam from the seventh century to his own day. In addition to his extremely thorough historiographical method, Ibn Hazm was also a zealous theologian who employed a literalist (zahiri) reading of the Qur˒an and Islamic doctrine. His Fisal examines both the histories of various groups, their offshoots, and their present status, thereby showing how they have changed or stayed the same over time. For example, his treatment of the Jews is severe, accusing the rabbis who produced the Talmud of heresy and of intellectual skepticism. Interestingly, he accuses the rabbis of the same heretical doctrine as the materialists of early Islamic theology. This reveals a common theme in Islamic heresiography: Often one loosely labels a number of one's opponents with the same heretical doctrine.

Ibn Hazm's goal, then, was not necessarily historical or theological accuracy. He did not simply study religions for their own sake; on the contrary, he attempts to demolish the errors of others and, in the process, set Islam up as the most perfect of all religions. As such, he is less interested in understanding other religions than in reducing them to certain dogmas or problems that allow him to compare them with, often artificially, Islam. In short, Ibn Hazm knew what his conclusions were before he ever set out to establish the premises of comparison.

Another famous heresiographer was the aforementioned Shahrastani, who wrote the Kitab al-milal wa al-nihal, which, in his own words, proposed to present "the doctrinal opinions of all the world's people." Like the work of Ibn Hazm, Shahrastani is interested not only in documenting the various religious groups both in his day and before, but also in examining the various doctrines of the philosophers. Shahrastani divides his book into two parts, with the first dealing with revealed religions that base their obedience on a book (e.g., Jews, Christians, Zoroastrians), and the second examining the doctrines that are of purely human origins (e.g., the Sabians, philosophers, and the pre-Islamic Arabians).

Function of Heresiography

Heresiography was, and still continues to be, used as a means of legitimating the ideology—whether political, religious, legal, or other—of the group defining what constitutes the "real Islam." In recent years this has coincided with the increased use of the fatwa, a legal ruling that is given by a legal expert. Such legal experts need not occupy official positions, but they are generally recognized for their legal learning and acumen. More recently, fatwas have become a convenient vehicle employed by various groups, many of whom are marginal, as a way of condemning the beliefs and practices of groups, Islamic or not, with differing opinions. For example, certain Islamist groups have issued blanket fatwas condemning all Jews and Christians as enemies of Islam; yet other groups have employed fatwas to condemn the rulers of Arab countries as infidels. It should be noted, however, that many who issue such controversial fatwas are often accused by those in the mainstream of having insufficient credentials to do so.

In recent times, heresiography has taken on even greater political and ideological dimensions, as it is used now as a means of silencing one's perceived enemies. In many Islamic countries this is as easy as employing the concept of takfir, or accusing someone, often one's political opponent, of kufr ("unbelief"). A famous example of this in the 1990s was the case of a University of Cairo professor by the name of Nasr Hamid Abu Zayd. An Islamic moderate, he called for an understanding of the Qur˒an and other early Islamic literature according to literary, contextual, and historical principles. In particular, he asked the question: What does the Qur˒an as a document, and not necessarily as the sacred scripture of Muslims, say about a given subject (e.g., human rights)? When Egyptian Islamists got wind of his academic work they accused him of heresy and began legal proceedings against him. An Egyptian high court, to the great surprise of many, agreed and declared him an apostate. As a result Abu Zayd was ordered to divorce his wife and was effectively forced out of Egypt. To this day he is a professor in the Netherlands. This case is so interesting and problematic because it raises the nature of the tenuous relationship between what is considered heretical, the religious establishment, and, at least in theory, the autonomous nature of the court system in Egypt.

Heresiography is, thus, instrumental in defining not only the parameters of what is considered to be normative for a religion, but is also employed by the various groups that constitute that religion. Heresiography has been used, in one way or another, since the advent of Islam in seventh-century Arabia. At that time, it helped to differentiate Islam from rival monotheisms in the area of the Hijaz. Gradually, however, it was employed as a genre to help establish "normative Islam" by showing how various "sects" had gone astray in terms of their beliefs. So although one uses heresiography as a way of showing who is "inside" and who is "outside" one's group, as a genre it often tells us more about the "in" group than it does about anyone else.

See alsoBid˓a ; Hadith ; Hallaj, al- ; Historical Writing ; Islam and Other Religions ; Kalam ; Qur˒an ; Shari˓a .

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Brann, Ross. Power in the Portrayal: Representations of Jews and Muslims in Eleventh- and Twelfth-Century Islamic Spain. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 2002.

Grunebaum, Gustave E., von. Medieval Islam. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1969.

Laoust, Henri. "L'hérésiographie musulmane sous les Abbassides." Cahiers de civilisation medievale 10 (1967): 157–178.

Shahrastani, Muhammad b. Abd al-Karim, al. Muslim Sects and Divisions. Translated by A. K. Kazi and J. G. Flynn. London: Kegan Paul, 1984.

Smith, Jonathan Z. "What a Difference a Difference Makes." In "To See Ourselves as Others See Us": Christians, Jews, and "Others" in Late Antiquity. Edited by Jacob Neusner and Ernest S. Frerichs. Chico, Calif.: Scholars Press, 1985.

Wansbrough, John. The Sectarian Milieu: Content and Composition of Islamic Salvation History. Oxford, U.K.: Oxford University Press, 1978.

Wasserstrom, Steven M. Between Muslim and Jew: The Problem of Symbiosis under Early Islam. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1995.

Aaron Hughes