In October 2011, I was looking into a theory about the first Amirs Of The Believers, that they might have called themselves "God's Sultans" rather than caliphs. The theory was to stand as a tripod upon three prongs: the "shultané" term used by Ishoyahb III; ahâdith about "God's sultan on Earth" traceable to the Companions; and Ibn Sa'd (v.3)'s hadith about 'Umar referring to himself.
The thing fell apart because I couldn't back up Ibn Sa'd and I hadn't a handle on Ishoyahb III's full oeuvre. I dropped it 29 October 2011.
Thanks to Bcheiry, I can now sketch out Ishoyahb's developing thought (or rhetoric anyway) about the Arab shultané. It has the side effect of bolstering Bcheiry in outline. Also: although most of the sultanic ahâdith remain distant to me, I think at least one of them can be associated with sectarian debates in 180 / 800ish Basra.
[INTERPOLATION 12/1 - yes, this 150 year gap means I was barking up an extremely wrong tree 2011. I'm just glad I didn't upload that particular bit of wrong at the time. Anyway. Instead of one wrong essay in 2011, now in 2019 you may read two essays, neither of which are wrong!]
So here you go, "God’s Sultanate over the Upper Tigris" and "Abû Bilâl the Heckler".
No comments:
Post a Comment