Partisan Dreams and Prophetic Visions: Shi'i Critique in al-Mas'd's History of the Abbasids Author(s): A.

Azfar Moin Source: Journal of the American Oriental Society, Vol. 127, No. 4 (Oct. - Dec., 2007), pp. 415427 Published by: American Oriental Society Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/20297308 . Accessed: 02/03/2014 01:10
Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at . http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp

.
JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org.

American Oriental Society is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to Journal of the American Oriental Society.

http://www.jstor.org

This content downloaded from 121.52.147.22 on Sun, 2 Mar 2014 01:10:09 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

Partisan Dreams and Prophetic Visions: Shici Critique in al-Mascud?'s History of theAbbasids
A. Azfar Moin
University of Michigan

Abu al-Husayn cAli ibn al-Husayn al-Masc?d? (d. 956), whom Ibn Khald?n called the Imam of thehistorians, is a well-studied figure.1 These studies suggest that a close analysis of al Masc?d?'s work reveals, at times, a Shici bias. The historian's skill at concealing his views

we pay closer attention to the reports I propose, quite simply, that containing dreams in al-Masc?d?'s history of the Abbasids. While modern studies of al Masc?d?'s work enhance our understanding of his critical standpoint, they generally ignore dreams in their analyses.3 This represents a hermeneutical lapse in our approach to early In termsof methodology Islamic historiography: that is, a general tendency to prefer fact over "fiction" and material over "immaterial" reality. In contrast, I argue that the dream belongs to the lost "intellectual

deciphering this code, and presents new and direct evidence of al-Masc?d?'s partisan critique of theAbbasids?a dynasty notorious for itsbetrayal of cAH's family, inwhose name ithad made a successful bid for power.

can be credited, in some measure, by explaining how such claims rest on circuitous inter pretations of his texts.2Al-Masc?d?'s critical historiography is difficult to appreciate, more over, because of our ignorance of the literary code he used. This paper takes a step towards

scaffoldings" with thehelp of which earlyMuslim historians constructed narrative.4 Knowl edge of this literarydevice is not lost to us; enough clues exist for a feasible attempt at its reconstruction. Accordingly, the firsthalf of this studymakes a case for a literary-critical

Histories

are two book-length studies in English on al-Masc?d?: Tarif Khalidi, Islamic Historiography: The and His ofMasc?dl (Albany: State Univ. of New York Press, 1975); Ahmad M. H. Shboul, Al-Mas(?dl World: A Muslim Humanist and His Interest inNon-Muslims (London: Ithaca Press, 1979). 2. Khalidi's arguments that al-Masc?d? had Twelver Shica sympathies are based on the historian's comparative treatment of CAHversus the first three caliphs; when Khalidi asserts that al-Masc?d?'s perspective on theAbbasids 1. There

and His World, 41). We should be careful, however, in attributing a Twelver or Ithn? (ashar? view to al-Masc?d?, because, as Etan Kohlberg has shown, this sectarian designation had not stabilized by this time (Kohlberg, "Early Attestations of the Term Tthn?' cashariyya'," Jerusalem Studies inArabic and Islam 24 [2000], esp. 345-47). 3. Neither Khalidi nor Shboul analyzes a single dream in al-Masc?d?'s work. For recent exceptions, see Tayeb El-Hibri,

is subtly negative and "colored with sectarianism," he bases his case on a number of indirect political observations sectarian leanings on similar (Histories ofMas(ud?, 120-45). Shboul, who also bases his opinion about al-Masc?d?'s factors, states: "In all probability al-Masc?di was among those Shicites who, although influenced by Muctazilite thinking, differed from them by adopting the opinion of the Twelvers on the question of the Imamate" (Al-Mas(?di

Reinterpreting Islamic Historiography: H?r?n al-Rashld and theNarrative of the cAbbasid Caliphate "Masc?di and the Reign of al-Am?n: Narrative and (Cambridge: Cambridge Univ. Press, 1999), Julie S. Meisami, inMedieval Muslim Historiography," in On Fiction and Adah in Medieval Arabic Literature, ed. Philip Meaning F. Kennedy (Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, 4. El-Hibri argues that historians, 2005), 149-76. in dismissing parts of historical texts that seem fictional, in fact fail to un scaffoldings that permitted literary constructions" in these works (Reinterpret

of self-narration that dreams expressed." Chase precisely the private, reflective?at times, even confessional?mode F Robinson, Islamic Historiography (Cambridge: Cambridge Univ. Press, 2003), 152.

cover many of the lost "intellectual 21). More ing Islamic Historiography, specifically, in this regard, Chase Robinson notes that "dreams were an extremely useful literary device for historians, particularly those working within a tradition that otherwise eschewed

Journal of theAmerican Oriental Society 121A (2007) 415

This content downloaded from 121.52.147.22 on Sun, 2 Mar 2014 01:10:09 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

416

Journal of theAmerican Oriental Society 127.4 (2007)

approach for interpretingoneiric anecdotes in early Islamic historiography. The second half will apply thismethodology to al-Masc?d?'s treatment of theAbbasids. THE DREAM AS A LITERARY DEVICE Today it is well accepted that the historians and chroniclers of al-Masc?d?'s time were more thanmere compilers of available reports (khabar, pi. akhb?r), and that theyhad some thing of their own to say.5 There is little agreement, however, as to a useful methodology for extracting and analyzing these authors' implicit commentary from either the "facts" or the "style" of theirhistorical reports.The most suggestive, and indeed pioneering, work to appear in this regard recently is Tayeb El-Hibri's Reinterpreting Islamic Historiography (1999). El-Hibri attempts a literary-critical analysis of major works of early Arabic historiography

importantly, he is interested in showing how historians of the period produced a shared moral narrative of theAbbasids, designed to resonate with the (assumed) dominant cultural is today recognized as the Sunni outlook and religious norms of their readership?what an a for general themes and common while it search Such encourages majority. approach, across to tends the different texts, patterns neglect specific and oppositional politics em in the bedded them.The historiography of period, according toEl-Hibri's framework, appears as a subtle but uniformly conservative art combining aesthetic creativitywith cautious moral

cuting a free-form literary analysis than on expounding a reusable theoretical framework. He freely admits as much, observing that many of the literarydevices of the period are lost to us. His attempts at their recovery, even though illuminating, remain unstructured.More

regarding theAbbasids in order to distill moral and political critique from these texts. El-Hibri's work is based on a broad and deep reading of the early Arab historical tradition, and is ground-breaking inmore respects than one. Nevertheless, his focus ismore on exe

treatmentof some of al-MascOdi's dream anecdotes about theAbbasids, El-Hibri overlooks what is plausibly this historian's most important pattern of critique regarding this dynasty. In order to develop a more structured framework for understanding the function of the dream in Islam's early historiographical tradition, it isworth examining scholarly work on this topos in other Islamic literary spheres. There are useful studies of dreams in theQuran, in had?th traditions, as well as in genres of Islamic writings variously categorized as biog

meshes well with, for example, critique. In this view, al-Masc?d?'s text yields a thesis that thatof al-Tabari (d. 923), his older contemporary. Such an image is not altogether incorrect, but it is incomplete. This lacuna, as I argue below, is the reason why, despite a detailed

raphies, ethical treatises and works of literature (adab).6 The research methodology applied in these studies is varied and includes psychological, anthropological, religious, literary, and historical approaches. A complete review of this scholarship is beyond the scope of this paper. For our purposes, however, it is worth mentioning the semiotic method espoused by Fedwa Malti-Douglas, who suggests conceptualizing medieval Arabic texts as systems of

6. For a good discussion of basic Islamic concepts on dreams, see "Ru'y?," EI2 (T. Fand). For a useful bibliog of the Qury?n (Leiden: Brill, 2001), 553. See also raphy, see Leah Kinberg, "Dreams and Sleep," inEncyclopaedia Marcia K. Hermansen, "Introduction to the Study of Dreams and Visions in Islam," Religion 27 (1997): 1-5.

5. See R. Stephen Humphreys, Islamic History: A Framework for Inquiry, rev. ed. (Princeton: Princeton Univ. see also the discussion on "the significance of ninth-century change" in Robinson, Islamic 1991), 74-75; Historiography, 40-43. Press,

This content downloaded from 121.52.147.22 on Sun, 2 Mar 2014 01:10:09 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

Moin:

Partisan Dreams and Prophetic Visions

All

signs inwhich many semiotic codes co-exist together.7 Such a system implies a historically structuredhierarchy of meaning both among differentcodes and among signs within a code. Simply put, some signs become culturallymore privileged than others over time. In applying this approach to the study of the earlyArabic biographical tradition, Malti-Douglas acknowl

regarding the structure and function of dreams as signs in a text.For example: how did the dream achieve a privileged position in the Islamic context?What specific cultural and literary functions did the dream come to serve? Did there develop a hierarchy of meaning within the semiotic code consisting of dreams in a text? In order to answer these questions, it is necessary to sketch out the genealogy of the "Islamic dream" (so to speak); for it is important to understand why, and inwhat manner, earlyMuslim historians like al-Masc?d? shared with their readership a deep-seated faith in a higher reality accessible via dreams.

edges the privileged position and "great semiotic potential" of dreams in Islamic literary traditions.8 Admittedly, this theoretical perspective is neither necessary nor sufficientfor understand ing early Islamic historiography. It does, nonetheless, allow us to raise concrete questions

Popular conceptions about dreams in pre-Islamic Arabic formed an important basis for Islamic oneirology. The most significant aspect of this pre-Islamic legacy was how it con ceived of prophecy, poetry and oneiromancy as phenomena related by the use of rhymed prose (saj(). We are told that thepre-Islamic Arabian soothsayer (k?hin, pi. kuhh?ri),who was

to his tribe of Quraysh, ahl?m) of a poet.10 Later inMuhammad's Muslim

also a diviner of dreams and omens, spoke only in saj(. Moreover, poets were commonly thought to receive their inspiration from otherworldly sources, often from demons or spirits.9 It is for this reason thatwhen theProphet Muhammad brought rhymed verses of theQuran they rejected his revelation as the "confused dreams" (adgh?th

mimicked theQuran.11 His by fabricating rhymed verse that torians have used such incidents to explain why Muhammad forbade the soothsayers once he came to power. Nonetheless, the pre-Islamic notion thatdiscourses of divination, poetry and prophecy were linked through rhyme was absorbed into Islam.12 The survival of this nexus is noteworthy, for it enabled thedream and thepoem to serve as literarydevices whose

life, when he had become the established leader of a growing community, rhymed verse was employed against him, but this time in an imitation of theProphet. Al-Tabari relates an incident from theProphet's last years, inwhich Musay lima, who had apostatized and "posed as a prophet, and played the liar," sought to attain the same stature as Muhammad

7. Fedwa Malti-Douglas, (1980): 137-62. 8. Ibid., 142. 9. Fritz Meier, Gustave 10. Ibid. E. Von Grunebaum

"Dreams,

theBlind, and the Semiotics of theBiographical

Notice," Studia Isl?mica

51

in Islam," in The Dream and Human Societies, ed. "Some Aspects of Inspiration by Demons and Roger Caillois (Berkeley and Los Angeles: Univ. of California Press, 1966), 423.

11. "Then he [Musaylima] began to speak in rhyming speech and in imitation of theQuran: 'God has bestowed moves from between the bowels favors upon the pregnant woman; He has brought forth from her a living being that and peritoneum'." Al-Tabari, The History ofal-Tabari, vol. 9: The Last Years of theProphet, tr. Ismail K. Poonawala (Albany: State Univ. of New York Press, 1990), 96. 12. As Lecerf put it, "[Muhammad] integrated in Islam dreams and their interpretation without integrating the in Popular Culture: Arab and Islamic," in The Dream and Human kahin profession." Jean Lecerf, "The Dream Societies, 371. Also, the Quran uses thewords ruyy?,man?m, bushr?, and hulm at various places to refer to good dreams, visions, good tidings, and bad (or confused) dreams, respectively. See Kinberg, "Dreams and Sleep."

This content downloaded from 121.52.147.22 on Sun, 2 Mar 2014 01:10:09 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

418

Journal of theAmerican Oriental Society 127A (2007)

Muslim

discovery of Greek knowledge.13 Nonetheless, Greek influence on Islamic intel lectual traditions was significant, not just for the flowering of philosophy, science, and medicine in general, but also for the development of oneirocriticism.14 The Abbasid caliph al-Ma^m?n (d. 833) is famous for bringing about this early Islamic renaissance with his

very form could at times signifyprophecy, foreknowledge, or a highermoral authority origi nating from another world. In short,dreams were already part of Islamic religious and cultural discourses before the

large-scale patronage of scholars who translated Greek works intoArabic. It is less well known, however, that al-Ma^m?n's intellectual interestswere justified in spiritual terms? we are told thata "dream conversation with Aristotle was one of the reasons that induced the caliph al-MaDm?n to promote translations intoArabic of Greek philosophical texts."15And so, itwas during his reign thatArtemidorus' influential work on dreams, Oneirocritica, was translated intoArabic.16 least for the learned followers of Plato, Galen, and Dreaming could open up a world?at Artemidorus?that was in a sense more real than the ordinary material reality experienced in thewaking

state. It has indeed been argued in the context of Greek late antiquity that while modern dichotomies such as dream/reality "may be epistemologically useful, they are ontologically suspect."17 In order tomake a similar case for the Islamic milieu, it is worth examining samples of popular as well as intellectual discourses on dreams. did early Muslim society grant dreams the power of legitimation in Islamic In order to quantify the level of popular interest in a particular topic in early Islamic society, it is constructive to examine the formal had?th literature on it.As Richard Bulliet has argued, bodies of had?th tradition grew out of the questions that themasses of How discourses?

newly convertedMuslims had about their religion.18 The canonical had?th traditions, accord ing to this view, are more than just the extant repositories of the Prophet's sayings; these

had interpreted dreams before the Abbasid period; among themore famous oneirocritics of the 13. Muslims (late seventh century) and Ibn S?r?n (d. 728). However, no works of Umayyad period are Sac?d b. al-Musayyab dream compilations or oneirocriticism are available from this period. Toufic Fahd, "The Dream in Medieval Islamic Society," in The Dream and Human 14. There were other cultural oneirology, but these are beyond Sleep," 553. Societies, 357. and Jewish, on the development of Islamic influences, such as Babylonian the scope of this essay; see the sources in Kinberg's bibliography, "Dreams and

15. Gustave E. Von Grunebaum, "Introduction: The Cultural Function of theDream as Illustrated by Classical 12. Islam," in The Dream and Human Societies, a second century a.d. contemporary of Galen and Ptolemy, had traveled far and wide in 16. Artemidorus, search of people's dreams. It is on the basis of this data that the "empiricist of fantasy" created a complex theory

He was also influential among Greek thinkers in resolving a historical debate about themeaning of dreams. Patricia in Late Antiquity: Studies in the Imagination of a Culture (Princeton: Princeton Univ. Press, Cox Miller, Dreams 1994), 42-51. 17. Ibid., 4.

ones. Dreams in of dreams. In simple terms, he divided dreams intomeaningful and meaningless and literal (or theorematic). Symbolic dreams, the first category were subdivided into symbolic (or allegorical) which could be of eighty different varieties, required interpretation, while literal dreams were self-explanatory. It was to interpret the symbols of meaningful dreams thatArtemidorus constructed his theory of dream-interpretation. and classification

to Bulliet, itwas the queries of the newly converted Muslim 18. According laity, driven by a quest for cultural identity, rather than of a central ecclesiastical body, thatwere instrumental in shaping Islam. The eventual institu tionalization of the "answers" as formal religion may have come from the learned elite, but the "questions" were driven by the Muslim masses. See Richard W Bulliet, Islam: The View from the Edge (New York: Columbia Univ. Press, 1993), 81-99.

This content downloaded from 121.52.147.22 on Sun, 2 Mar 2014 01:10:09 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

Moin:

Partisan Dreams and Prophetic Visions

419

position?ideological, religious, cultural?similar to that of a had?th tradition,22because if Muhammad appeared to a Muslim in a dream, itwas the Prophet himself and not Satan trying to inspire a "confused dream." Moreover, according to these traditions severe penal ties awaited people who related false dreams?a warning thatwas obviously intended as a check on the abuse of the slice of prophetic power enjoyed by the laity. In thisqualified way, early Muslim society seems to have granted dreams the power of legitimation in Islamic

In light of early had?th literature,dreams must have been a particularly popular topic in early Muslim society, since each of the six canonical collections of had?th has a chapter dedicated to dreams. For example, a century or so before al-Masc?d?'s time, al-Bukh?r? (d. 870) had compiled his prominent had?th collection, the Sahih, which includes a "book" with sixty two prophetic traditions on the interpretation of dreams.20 A majority of these had?th traditions served to legitimize the prophetic nature of dreams.21 Thus dreams, espe cially those in which the Prophet appeared, took on a power to legitimate a particular

were impor texts represent the "sedimentation in social time"19 of answers to questions that tant for earlyMuslim converts.

discourses.

Islamic oneirocritical techniques and beliefs had taken a firm, legitimate shape by al Mascud?'s time, for he provides a detailed discussion of "the dream and its causes" (alrru'ya

oneiric vision as part of a biographical report served, in effect,as a stamp of approval on the character of thatparticular transmitter. By contrast, dreams were not accepted as an episte in of tool works Islamic mological jurisprudence.24 Nevertheless, it is the acceptance of the of in both dreams prophetic power popular and formal belief systems of medieval Islam that made the dream such a versatile and potent literarydevice.

dreams appear unevenly in the various literary genres of Islam. For example, biographical dictionaries are considered the richest sources of dreams.23 These dictionaries were mainly used to record the reliability of the transmittersof had?th traditions.A divine or prophetic

If so many had?th traditions legitimate the prophetic nature of dreams, thenwhat were Was there a debate about the application of the knowledge the limits, if any, to theirutility? that Muslims could gain via dreams? Evidence of this debate can be found in the fact that

use of it in developing his theory of reading social action as to this sedimentation in social time, human deeds become 'institutions,' in the sense that their meaning no longer coincides with the logical intentions of the actors." Paul Ricoeur, "The Model of the Text: Meaningful Action Considered as a Text," in Interpretive Social Science: A Reader, ed. Paul Rabinow andWilliam M. Sullivan text: "Thanks (Berkeley and Los Angeles: Univ. of California Press, 1979), 85. 20. This is probably only a small sample of the number of traditions about dreams that circulated in the first three centuries of Islam, as al-Bukh?ri reportedly culled the six hundred thousand or so had?th traditions he had

19. I use the term in the sense of Paul Ricoeur's

prophetic statements which legitimize the usage of dreams. One of themost common traditions asserts that dreams are part of prophecy.... This saying ... regards dreams as an extension of prophecy, and as such indispensable to an in the Guise of Dreams: Ibn Abi al-Duny?; A Critical Islamic world that remained with no Prophet." See Morality Edition ofKit?b al-Man?m, ed. Leah Kinberg (Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1994), 35.

ibn Ism?c?l al-Bukh?r?, collected down to roughly seven thousand that he believed to be authentic. See Muhammad Sahih al-Bukh?ri, 9 vols. (Cairo: Lajnat Ihy?5 Kutub al-Sunna, 1966), 9: 37-57. 21. Kinberg states: "The main contribution of [had?th] literature to the subject of dreams is its presentation of

22. "Practically, this means that in order to justify a certain idea, an anecdote telling about a vision of the Prophet could have been made up and words of approval could have [been] ascribed to him in the same way it could have been done by using themedium of [had?th]." Leah Kinberg, "Literal Dreams and Prophetic Had?ts in Islam?A Comparison of Two Ways of Legitimation," in theGuise ofDreams, 39. 23. Kinberg, Morality 24. See ibid., 36-37. Der Islam 70 (1993): 286.

Classical

This content downloaded from 121.52.147.22 on Sun, 2 Mar 2014 01:10:09 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

420

Journal of theAmerican Oriental Society MIA

(2007)

another work of his for a detailed analysis of these and other claims arising fromChristian, Jewish, Magian, Sabean and Sufi beliefs regarding dreams.26 Since we do not have al Masc?d?'s own perspective on dreaming, it isworth exploring other Islamic intellectual dis course where dreaming was explicitly deployed to one's advantage. The writings of the renowned Sunni theologian al-Ghazz?li (d. 1111) provide an intrigu

in the wa-asb?buh?) Mur?j al-dhahab.25 Though he situates his discussions on dreams in a chapter on Arab divination and soothsaying, he also presents a broad comparison of the various Greek theories for the causes of dreams. In keeping with his often repeated state ment that this is a work of reportage (khabar) and not of analysis (nazar), he does not assume a critical stance on any of the oneiric theories he describes. Instead, he refers the reader to

and polemically to uniteMuslims in the face of divergent religious, intellectual and cultural forces. One of the intellectual trends he fought against was Greek-inspired rationalist the ology which, in a word, preferred reason over revelation in the pursuit of absolute truth.27 Al-Ghazz?li, however, was not against using the rational techniques of the Greek philo and deployed these with considerable skill to furtherhis own theological tradition, sophical arguments. Ironically, Greek-inspired oneirology played a pivotal role in al-Ghazz?li's

ing example of how dreaming could be used in an argument. In his autobiographical work (al-Munqidh min al-dal?l), written about a century and a half after al-Masc?df s death, he focuses on dreams while discussing thenature of prophecy. Al-Ghazz?li was writing urgently

who had not reached the stage of intellectwould reject the existence of phenomena percep tible only via the intellect, those who have not reached the stage of prophecy also have dif ficulty believing in its reality:
Now if a man born blind did not know told about of His about colors and and were within phetic to be them abruptly, he would shapes from constant report and hearsay, neither understand them nor acknowledge

rational proof of prophecy. Prophecy, for al-Ghazz?li, was a stage beyond the intellect: "In this another eye is opened, man sees the hidden, and what will take place in the future... ,"28Just as someone which by

theirexistence. But God Most High has brought thematter [of the possibility of prophecy]
the purview creatures power: [al-nawm]. by giving them a sample of the special character of the pro For the sleeper perceives the unknown that will take place either plainly, or in the guise of an image the meaning of which is

sleeping [m? sayak?nu min al-ghayb], disclosed by interpretation.29 al-Ghazz?li

For

the existence

There was no debate about their existence or theirpotential to deliver a higher truth.Indeed, dreams provided an empirical proof of prophecy. Just as a man born blind would know about the reality of colors and shapes from "constant report and hearsay," aMuslim would

of prophecy?not

dreams?was

at issue.

Dreams

were

real.

25. Al-Mascud?,

Muruj

al-dhahab

wa-ma(adin

al-jawhar,

ed. Yusuf

Ascad Daghir

(Beirut: Dar

al-Andalus,

2: 155-60. 1965-1966), 26. Al-Masc?d? refers to a work entitled Sirr al-hay?t (Secret of Life), which is no longer extant. 27. Al-Ghazz?li classified the Greeks (Aristotle, Plato, Socrates, and the earlier "Theists"), as well Muslim followers (Ibn Sin?, al-F?r?bi, and their adherents) as men who and Fulfillment: An Annotated Translation of al-Ghaz?lVs

as their

"must be taxed with unbelief." Al-Ghaz

z?li, Freedom al-Munqidh min al-dal?l and other Rele vant Works of al-Ghaz?li, tr.Richard Joseph McCarthy (Boston: Twayne Publishers, 1980), 72. states that the "intellect" is a stage in the natural development of man which allows him to per 28. Al-Ghazz?li ceive things that cannot be perceived with the five human senses (ibid., 97). 29. Ibid. For theArabic text, see al-Ghazz?li, al-Munqidh min al-dal?l, ed. cAbd al-Halim Mahmud Maktaba al-Anjl? al-Misriyya, 1964), 62. (Cairo: al

This content downloaded from 121.52.147.22 on Sun, 2 Mar 2014 01:10:09 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

Moin:

Partisan Dreams and Prophetic Visions

421

know about the reality of prophecy from an established social discourse centered on the dream as a widely experienced mode of divination. Al-Ghazz?l?'s argument indicates thatby the eleventh century themeaningful dream was already a "social fact":Muslims were born into a society with a well-formed and legitimized cultural apparatus for decoding oneiric
visions.

A similar intellectual perspective on dreams can be found in Ibn Khald?n's well-known treatise on the philosophy of history and culture, al-Muqaddimah. Written half a millennium after the fall of theAbbasids, thiswork shows the continued vitality of an Islamic science of dreams inwhich Greek, Arabian and Islamic ideas had fused together. Ibn Khald?n says that the soul can receive three kinds of meaningful dreams, that is, clear, allegorical and confused dream visions which come fromGod, angels, and Satan respectively. The impli cation is that literal or clear dreams are of the highest order, coming directly fromGod and requiring no interpretation.Symbolic dreams are ranked next because their source is an angel.

seem to form a unique It is the third and lowest type of dreams?confused dreams?that are These Islamic oneiric category. symbolic dreams, inspired by Satan, which cannot be interpretedbecause their truthhas been mixed with falsity.This new category conforms to the notion of "confused dreams" mentioned in theQuran; and it also serves to accommodate

minding us of the nexus of divination, poetry and prophecy prevalent in pre-Islamic Arabia. However, he emphasizes the distinction between prophets and soothsayers (kuhh?n) and explains iton the basis of an evolutionary theory of creation.30 According to him, prophets

the pre-Islamic Arabian conception of the demon-inspired visions of the soothsayers. Ibn Khald?n outlines a detailed theoryof dreams in his chapter on thenature of prophecy. He begins with an explication of the interrelated meaning of prophecy and soothsaying, re

possibility of foreknowledge is a universal characteristic of humanity; it is only natural (God given) ability which separates prophets from soothsayers, and soothsayers from the common
dreamer.

are those human beings whom God has placed at the final stage of earthly evolution?they are ready to evolve to a higher spiritual realm. Furthermore, in order to legitimate the notion that which meaningful dreams are a weaker form of prophecy, he quotes the had?th tradition "defined dream vision as being the forty-sixth . . .part of prophecy."31 For Ibn Khald?n the

To summarize, the Islamic science of dreams separatedmeaningful dreams from meaning less ones. The meaningful variety was furthercategorized into literal and symbolic dreams. Literal dreams did not require interpretation, and were sent directly by God. Symbolic dreams required interpretation and were brought down by angels (or Satan, in the case of "confused" dreams). A sign in a symbolic dream could carry multiple significations.Muslims

authored entire "dictionaries" of dreams, in the tradition of theGreek Artemidorus, which described possible meanings of objects seen in symbolic dreams. Despite the wealth of oneirocritical literature dealing with symbolic dreams, it is important to note that itwas the literal variety of dreams that held greater moral and truth content.32 Even within literal
to Ibn Khald?n, worldly creation began with minerals that evolved into plants; plants, in time, 30. According into animals; animal species multiplied in number until monkeys appeared; finally, frommonkeys evolved human beings. Ibn Khald?n then appends a spiritual stage to this earthly process of evolution in which highly An Intro evolved humans, i.e., prophets, can attain access to the angelic realm. Ibn Khald?n, The Muqaddimah: evolved duction toHistory, tr.Franz Rosenthal, abridged and edited by N. J.Dawood (Princeton: Princeton Univ. Press, 1969), 74-78. These notions are not original with Ibn Khald?n, but represent a summary of concepts which evolved during the ninth and tenth centuries, with which al-Masc?di was certainly familiar. 31. Ibid., 81. 32. For discussion, see Kinberg, "Literal Dreams and Prophetic Had?ts," 281.

This content downloaded from 121.52.147.22 on Sun, 2 Mar 2014 01:10:09 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

422

Journal of theAmerican Oriental Society HI A (2007)

dreams therewas a value hierarchy. Dreams inwhich the dead delivered a message, for example, were considered privileged, for itwas believed that the dead could tell no lies. Most importantly, at the apex of the Islamic oneiric hierarchy were the literal dreams in which theProphet appeared, reminding us of the connection between dreams and prophecy that existed since the early days of Islam. In some cases, these prophetic dreams were con sidered to be equivalent in cultural terms to had?th traditions.33 PROPHETIC DREAMS IN AL-MAS'?DFS HISTORIES OF THE ABBASIDS

Writing in the fourth/tenthcentury, al-Masc?di produced his work of history less than a century after the framework of Islamic oneirology had solidified. Therefore his work provides a valuable example of how dreams were employed as literarydevices in the his toriography of the period. Also, al-Masc?di was only a generation younger than the famous historian and exegete al-Tabari whom he had read, praised, and perhaps even met.34 It is imaginable that he was writing his universal history not only under the influence of al-Tabari's encyclopedic work, but also in dialogue with it. This assumption makes for a potentially fertile comparison of the use of the oneiric trope in al-Masc?di's and al-Tabari's
work.

In al-MascOdi's history of theAbbasids there are seven dream reports.35 Three of these mention the appearance of theProphet in a dream. This paper focuses primarily on the reports dreams that had the highest truthvalue?the prophetic dreams. These three dreams appear (d. 809), al independently and are related to three differentAbbasid caliphs?al-Rashid Muctasim (d. 842), and al-Mutawakkil (d. 861). On the surface these reports seem to have no narrative connection with each other; but a closer analysis reveals a pattern of critique directed towards theAbbasids. Interestingly, these three dreams are not present in themore detailed chronicle of al-Tabari. This difference in the two historians' use of dream sequences in theirdescription of Abbasid

rule, I argue, reveals theirdivergent literary approaches and, their probably, differing ideological positions.36 The anecdote containing caliph H?r?n al-Rashid's dream37 is narrated by his head of police (shurta), al-Khuz?ci, who is awakened and summoned by the caliph late one night. M?s? ibn Jacfarfrom prison immediately, give him thirtythousand H?r?n orders him to free to him and allow Medina, as he chooses. M?s? ibn Jacfar is no other dinars, stay or to go to than M?s? al-K?zim (d. 799), the seventh Imam of what would eventually come to be recog nized as Twelver or Imami Shicism. The Abbasids had succeeded in their struggle against the Umayyads in part because of Shici support.However, upon gaining power theyhad neglected to share power with the Shica. As a result, Shici groups had continued theirpolitical activism

33. See

ibid.

and His World, 34. that involve waking visions 35. For the purposes of this study, I ignore two incidents mentioned by al-Masc?di and the witnessing of apparitions that could possibly be included in a wider definition of "dreaming." 36. JulieMeisami has also commented on the differences in the two historians' literary approaches, specifically al-Tabari's

34. Shboul, Al-Mas'?dl

style makes use of intertextuality with themore and the Reign of al-Amin," 168-69. Abbasids,

in the context of analyzing a long dream anecdote in al-MascOdi's history of theAbbasids. She notes that in general account is dryer,more factual, and more balanced than that of al-Masc?di who, in comparison, creates an immediacy and poignancy in his historical writing. For her insightful discussion of how al-Masc?di's "biographical" "historical" writings of al-Tabari to create meaning, see "Mascudi

37. Al-Masc?di, Mur?j al-dhahab, 3: 346-47; English translation in al-MascOdi, The Meadows tr.Paul Lunde and Caroline Stone (London: Kegan Paul International, 1989), 74-75.

of Gold:

The

This content downloaded from 121.52.147.22 on Sun, 2 Mar 2014 01:10:09 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

Moin: against Abbasid

Partisan Dreams and Prophetic Visions

423

thatnight. InM?s?'s dream, the Prophet Muhammad appears and tells him thathe was im prisoned unjustly (mazl?man) and that he has only to recite certain words (kalim?t) to obtain freedom that same night. M?s? apparently follows these instructions successfully and is thus freed from prison. This report presents a hagiographical account of M?s? and a critique of theAbbasid caliph. Both men experience a literal dream the same night, but only the pious of the two, M?s?, receives a blessing from the Prophet in the form of a dream appearance. H?r?n, on the other hand, receives a threat from an Abyssinian armed with a spear. But why does H?r?n take the dream appearance of an Abyssinian so seriously? After all, theman did not say whose message he was delivering. The answer lies, perhaps, in the fact that theking of

he had just seen in his dream (fi man?mi) that an Abyssinian (habashl) appeared with a I will pierce you lance in his hand and said "Give M?s? ibn Jacfarhis freedom at once?or with this spear (al harba)\" Al-Khuzac? hurries to the prison, freesM?s?, and informs him of the reason behind this sudden reprieve. M?s? in turn tells him that he also saw a dream

authority in various forms.M?s? had been imprisoned by H?r?n due to political agitation by the Shica during his reign.38 The order to freeM?s? is so unexpected that the police chief asks the caliph for recon M?s? must be freed immediately, because firmation three times. The caliph tells him that

Abyssinia had given a spear as a gift to the Prophet Muhammad, which later had been passed down from one caliph to the next as a symbol of authority.The Abbasids used this spear in official ceremonies and parades.39 This might be the reason why H?r?n took the oneiric instructions of the armed Abyssinian so seriously; for he did not require an inter preter to realize that theAbyssinian in his dream came carrying theProphet's weapon as well as his threat.

ticular historical report is favorable to M?s?, and hence unfavorable to the Ismacili position, because M?s? apparently receives an oneiric endorsement from theProphet. For when M?s? tells him to asks the Prophet what words to recite in order to gain freedom, Muhammad to thus Allah: pray
O Thou, Who with You flesh and hearest all voices the dead, resurrect all things, Thou Who and anticipates I implore You, calling upon Your wilt clothe names, our dry bones I implore .

This historical report also reveals something of al-Masc?di's Shici leanings. After the sixth Shici Imam Jacfaral-S?diq, the Shici community experienced several fractious disputes over the identity of the text Imam. The most important split, historically speaking, was that of the Sevener or Ismacili Shica. Originally, Jacfaral-S?diq had designated his son Ismac?l as the next Imam; but Ism?cil did not survive his father and, eventually, themajority of the Shica as the seventh Imam. However, the Ismacilis continued to believe that accepted M?s? son Ismac?l's M?s?, was in fact the next Imam. In context, this par Muhammad, rather than

glorious

name and mysterious sublime titles, by that hidden [wa-bi greatest and most by Your no man knows! Merciful which God.. ismika al-a(zam al-akbar al-makhz?n al-makn?n] to my aid!

come

M?s?'s messianic claims to authority 38. Reportedly, H?r?n had M?s? imprisoned twice during his reign due to M?s? and because of the political activism of various Shica factions in general. Moreover, Shica sources assert that was poisoned and murdered in a Baghdad prison. See Muhammad Husayn Tab?tab?5!, Shi'a, tr. Seyyed Hossein Nasr 1981), 208. (Qum, Iran: Ansariyan Publications, 39. Al-Tabari, The History of al-Tabari, vol. 35: The Crisis of the (Abb?sid Caliphate, State Univ. of New York Press, 1985), 3. tr. George Saliba (Albany:

This content downloaded from 121.52.147.22 on Sun, 2 Mar 2014 01:10:09 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

424
As

Journal of theAmerican Oriental Society HI A (2007)

have knowledge of theName and the ability to exercise its power to bring about powerful M?s? knew how to invoke miracles.40 Since in this report theProphet seems to assume that the Supreme Name, it appears to indicate thathe considered M?s?, and no one else, to be the rightly guided Imam. In general, al-Masc?di's Shici bias is even more apparent when seen in the light of al-Tabari's historical treatmentof M?s?. This report is not to be found in al ' Tabar? s chronicles of the reign of H?r?n al-Rashid. Indeed, al-Tabari mentions M?s? ibn
Jacfar

seen in this quote, the Prophet instructs M?s? to invoke the Supreme Name {ism to obtain his freedom. According to Shici tradition, the Supreme Name has very powerful thaumaturgie properties. Only the Prophet and the Imams are supposed to aczam) of God

Muhammad, who orders him to "set themurderer free!" The Prophet does not indicate, however, who is to be freed. Ish?q, upon asking his officials, discovers that a self-confessed murderer is about to be executed. He sends for the condemned man, who tells him thathe is in prison formurdering a fellow outlaw who was intent on raping a girl. This girl had

The second dream appearance by the Prophet involves an important Abbasid official, (d. 850),42 who served as the prefect or chief-of-police Ish?q ibn Ibrahim ibnMuscab (s?hib al-shurta) of Baghdad in the reign of al-Mutawakkil.43 In a dream (man?m) he sees

only

once,

in a necrology.41

Prophet in the dream, sets theman free. The report ends here without mentioning either the name of theman or of the girl he saves. Even though the caliph al-Mutawakkil is not mentioned explicitly in this incident, the fact that it occurs in his reign is significant.Al-Mutawakkil is known for his persecution of Shici as well as non-Muslim groups. He razed the revered shrine of Imam Husayn inKarbala and forbade Shici pilgrimages to that town.45 In this report, the oppression against the Shica seems to be symbolized by the brutal assault on an innocent and helpless girl.46 She remains
anonymous but reveals her Shici allegiance by invoking the name of the second Shici Imam

pleaded for help and proclaimed her cAlid lineage by invoking the names of theProphet, his daughter F?tima and her son Hasan ibn cAli (the second Shici Imam).44 The man decided to fight the outlaws and rescue her and, in the process, killed one of the attackers. The authori ties arrested him and he was sentenced to death. The Abbasid prefect, as instructed by the

and of his mother, F?tima, the daughter of the Prophet. According to this symbolism, the Prophet is shown as rewarding a savior of the Shica who were being persecuted during al-Mutawakkil's rule. This portrayal can be read as a trenchantcritique of the caliph's harsh Muscab frequently anti-Shica policies. Interestingly,al-Tabari refers to Ish?q ibn Ibrahim ibn

40. Even the Prophet and the Imams know only seventy-two of the seventy-three letters of the ism aczam\ the seventy-third letter is known only toAllah. The first Imam, cAli, is reported to have reversed the course of the sun Ali Amir Moezzi, with the invocation of the Supreme Name. See Mohammad The Divine Guide inEarly Shi 'ism: The Sources in Islam, tr. David Streight (Albany: State Univ. of New York Press, 1994), 92-93. of Esotericism in Equilibrium, tr.C. E. Bosworth 41. Al-Tabari, The History of al-Tabari, vol. 30: The ?Abbasid Caliphate (Albany: State Univ. of New York Press, 1989), 172. 42. Ish?q ibn Ibrahim ibnMuscab was a member of the Tahirid family, some of whom held important offices in Iraq under the caliphate; see EI2, s.v. T?hirids. 43. 44. While

See al-Masc?di, Mur?j al-dhahab, 4: 12-14; Meadows of Gold, 243-44. of God ismy grandfather; F?tima ismy mother pleading for help, the girl had said: "The Messenger and Hasan ibn cAlimy father. They have offended them inme!" The last sentence in the translation ismy own, and is a correction of the English translation given in al-Masc0di, Meadows observations and the Reign on al-Masc?di's of al-Amin," of Gold, 243-44. to 45. Tab?tab?'i, Shi'a, 208. 46. In this regard, see Meisami's offermoral commentary ("Masc0di

marked

tendency to use female characters

167).

This content downloaded from 121.52.147.22 on Sun, 2 Mar 2014 01:10:09 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

Moin:

Partisan Dreams

and Prophetic Visions

425

in his reports of the period but does notmention this dream anecdote, encouraging the idea that in this historical reportwe are witnessing al-Masc?di's own perspective.47 The thirddream report involving theProphet relates a dream of theTurk Bugh? al-Kabir, or Bugh? theElder (d. 862), regarding an event during the reign of al-Muctasim (d. 842).48 In this dream Bugh? sees the Prophet Muhammad, his son-in-law, cAli, and some of the Companions. Muhammad praises him for helping an cAlid supporter escape a gruesome punishment ordered by al-Muctasim. The prophet rewards him by praying for a long life (ninety-five years) for Bugh?. At this juncture cAli also steps forward and prays that "he [Bugh?] be preserved from all misfortune!" Bugh? relates thateven though he fought count less battles, he never suffered a single injury, because of cAli's prayer.When asked about

theman he had helped to escape, Bugh? says that thisman had stood accused of heresy (biday) and was condemned by al-Muctasim to be thrown into a pit filled with wild beasts. When Bugh? helps theman escape, he tells Bugh? thathe had killed an agent of the caliph who had "descended

Muhammad

a Shici point of view that is critical of Abbasid policies. Again, the notion that this is al Masc?di's preferred perspective is supported by the fact that such a report cannot be found
in al-Tabar?'s work.50

and cAli, in their dream appearance, as being against theAbbasid-sponsored theology because they reward Bugh? for aiding a man who had killed one of al-Muctasim's agents apparently sent out to enforce the inquisition. When read along with the prophetic dreams discussed earlier, thisdream indicates a continuing tendency in al-Masc?di to present

on our country, committing all sorts of crimes and excesses and error triumph.His behavior threatened to corrupt the purity of the to the truth make stifling to and overthrow the dogma of monotheism." Sharica, Besides the obvious ideological support for the Shica implied in this report, it also presents a criticism of the official religious inquisition (mihna) initiated by the caliph al-Ma'm?n and continued by his immediate successor al-Muctasim.49 This historical report shows both

When analyzed together, the common structure of these three dreams becomes evident. In the entire account of Abbasid history the Prophet appears in a dream only to ensure that justice is done towards the Shica, their leaders, their supporters and well-wishers. Moreover, Muhammad's presence does not bless theAbbasids. Rather it is only their subordinates and rivals who receive theProphet in theirdreams. This is clearly meant to be a criticism of the Abbasids who, despite being Muhammad's relatives through his uncle al-cAbb?s, were not to the in their dreams. Indeed, we see thatH?r?n al-Rashid receive pious enough Prophet a menacing Abyssinian allegedly sent by a in his dream from receives death-threat actually the Prophet. These dreams also indicate the depth of al-Masc?di's ideological support for a Shici position against the politics of theAbbasids. They oppose official Abbasid ideology, whether it is the violently enforced inquisition of al-Muctasim or the anti-Shica religious

in the index to al-Tabari, The History of al-Tabari, vol. 34: 47. See the entry for "Ish?q b. Ibrahim b. Muscab" tr. Joel L. Kraemer (Albany: State Univ. of New York Press, 1989). Incipient Decline, 48. The report is not from the reign of al-Muctasim but from the year when Bugh? al-Kabir died; see al MascOdi, Mumj al-dhahab, 4: 75-76; Meadows of Gold, 288-89.

49. It has been argued that the political goal of themihna was to increase caliphal authority inmatters of re ligion, bring popular belief under control, and thus to root out sedition. For a succinct review of literature on the mihna and the debate surrounding its causes, see Michael Cooperson, Classical Arabic Biography: The Heirs of the Prophets in the Age of al-Ma'm?n (Cambridge: Cambridge Univ. Press, 2000), 34-40. 50. Al-Tabari mentions Bugh? al-Kabir four times under the events of the year 862 but does not mention 176, 78; 210, 12. dream; see al-Tabari, History, 34: Incipient Decline, this

This content downloaded from 121.52.147.22 on Sun, 2 Mar 2014 01:10:09 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

426

Journal of theAmerican Oriental Society 121A (2007)

with a discerning literary-critical sense could appreciate. By casting his commentary using literary devices, al-Mascud? could stillmaintain his explicit claim to ideological neutrality and avoid alienating his broader readership. Moreover, he encoded his critique in terms that sympathetic audiences would have recognized as markers of their beliefs. This is not to suggest that he made up these reports, but in constructing a narrative around theAbbasids he certainly had an active part in selecting and editing them. In thisway he could avoid using an explicit authorial voice to construct his criticisms of theAbbasids and instead do it through the use of tropes. And what symbol could be more potent than the Messenger of

crackdown of al-Mutawakkil. In thisway, al-Mascud? grants religious and moral authority to the Shici resistance against theAbbasids by selecting dream reports inwhich Muhammad and cAli support the Shica and condemn theAbbasids. These "literal" dreams are not quite literal. They are full of symbolism that only readers

that appear in al-Masc?dfs accounts of theAbbasids. One is a literal dream inwhich a dead man delivers a message regarding the caliph al-Muntasir's (d. 862) impending doom.51 It is a dream of moral commentary which is also present, with only slight variations, in al-Tabar?'s work. The remaining three dreams are symbolic ones and concern three differentAbbasid caliphs: al-Mans?r (r. 754-774), al-Rashid (r. 786-809) and al-Am?n (r. 809-813).52 These dreams are placed either at the birth or ascension of a future caliph, and all three include Open to prophecies that the reader knows to have come true.53 multiple interpretations,some of these reports contain praise and others subtle criticism of theAbbasids.54 Without going into a detailed discussion, it is fair to say that these four non-prophetic dreams generally uphold El-Hibri's thesis; al-Masc?di joins the rest of his fellow historians to provide an in tegrated religious and moral perspective of Islamic history for a broader, non-sectarian,
audience.

God actively engaged, through the prophetic medium of dreams, in overturning the "unjust" decisions of theAbbasids? Before concluding, a brief comment is due on the other four, the non-prophetic dreams,

Muslim

CONCLUSION There is a great emphasis in early Arab historical texts on aesthetic style and the encoding of political critique. Much work remains to be done in understanding the detailed workings of this process. The central interpretiveproblem is to determine which parts of the historical text to privilege when decoding the ideological position of the narrator. This study offers a part of the solution, a vertical slice to be precise, by focusing on dreams. Islamic culture

had developed elaborate theories of dream interpretation by al-Masc?dfs time. The belief in dreams as vehicles of foreknowledge was firmly grounded in theQuran and reinforced

51. See al-Masc?di, Mur?j al-dhahab, 4: 49-50; Meadows 52. See al-Masc0d?, Mur?j al-dhahab, 3: 282, 334, 38-89; mentions one of these dreams, regarding al-Rashid; see History, 53. None of these symbolic dreams can, inmy opinion, be Mottahadeh. The

in an Early Loyalty and Leadership terpreted positively or negatively. See Roy R Mottahedeh, rev. ed. (London: I. B. Tauris, 2001), 69-72. 54. For a sophisticated analysis of the dream regarding al-Amin, see El-Hibri, Reinterpreting "Mascudi and the Reign of al-Amin," 154-55. ography, 61-66; also Meisami,

seen as "dreams of sovereignty" as defined by Roy latter are literal dreams that involve a sacred personality and a clear positive message, signifying a pact between God and ruler. Conversely, the symbolic dreams under discussion are ambiguous and rich inmean ing?containing images such as roaring lions, burgeoning branches, and poetry chanted by women that can be in Islamic Society,

of Gold, 271-72. 133. Al-Tabari also Meadows of Gold, 21, 64-65, inEquilibrium, 30, 300. 30: The (Abbasid Caliphate

Islamic Histori

This content downloaded from 121.52.147.22 on Sun, 2 Mar 2014 01:10:09 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

Moin:

Partisan Dreams

and Prophetic Visions

All

by had?th. Dreaming in this sense could be a lower form of prophecy. The potential of a dream to open up a world of higher, even absolute, truth made it a valuable literarydevice for inserting ideological commentary.When praising allies or condemning foes, a narrator could elevate his position by situating the narrative in dream reality rather than in thewaking world. If a moral position staked out in dream reality was superior to an ethical stance in thewaking world, should not one privilege the reading of dreams when searching for ideo logical commentary?

This content downloaded from 121.52.147.22 on Sun, 2 Mar 2014 01:10:09 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions