124 The American Journal of Islamic Social Sciences 21:2

Islamic Historiography
Chase F. Robinson
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2003. 264 pages.

In this introduction to the large, unwieldy, and complex topic of Islamic his-
toriography, the author has limited himself to historical works written in
Arabic, primarily in the central Islamic lands, before 1500. This choice can
be justified in that the fields formative works written early on in Iraq, Iran,
Egypt, and Syria and all in Arabic, served as models for historians writing
later on in peripheral regions and in other languages. Nevertheless, it is a bow
to convenience and necessity, given the vast amount of material involved. As
a result, the Arabic historiography of North Africa, Sub-Saharan Africa, and
other peripheral regions are largely ignored, as are the Turkish histories of the
Ottoman Empire and the Persian histories of Iran, Central Asia, and India.
Within these admitted and understandable limitations, the book provides an
excellent thematic overview, while, at the same time, introducing the reader
to some of the Islamic worlds most fascinating histories and historians.
This book is divided into three parts, including ten chapters and a
conclusion. A glossary, five plates of manuscript folios, three maps, two
chronologies of prominent historians, and suggestions for further reading
contribute to making this a useful and accessible text.
In part 1, chapters 1-4, Robinson presents a tripartite typology of his-
torical works: chronography, biography, and prosopography. These are ideal
types, which serve as broad categories within which to classify a huge body
of texts. Chronography refers to annals, works organized into year-by-year
sections; biography refers to texts that treat the lives of famous or exemplary
individuals; and prosopography refers primarily to biographical dictionaries,
works in which biographical notices are devoted to large numbers of indi-
viduals who all belonged to a particular scholarly or professional group. All
of these types of historical works, Robinson writes, had emerged by the
ninth century and were consolidated by the early tenth century. The end of
this formative period was characterized by large synthetic works, such as
Abu Ja`far al-Tabaris History of Messengers and Kings. In part because of
such works, many earlier historical monographs, including the works of
such historians as Abu Mikhnaf and al-Madaini, were abandoned by the tra-
dition as unnecessary.
Part 2, chapters 5-8, describes the major affiliations and concepts that
shaped Islamic historiography. According to Robinson, historiography
 Book Reviews 125

was closely related to the science of hadith, and the methods of the tradi-
tionists (experts in Prophetic hadith) were in large part adopted by histori-
ans as well. History was thus one of the Islamic sciences, and its methods
were part of the Islamic worlds international culture. History was a seri-
ous undertaking with religious overtones, presented in a sparse, straight-
forward style, with little attention paid to contemporary history, as
opposed to the sacred past. The paired isnad and khabar (chain of author-
ities and report) characteristic of ahadith formed the fundamental unit of
historical narration. Al-Tabaris famous History of Messengers and Kings,
for example, consists entirely of these units. Later authors would break
away from this model by eliminating the asanid, adding rhetorical flour-
ishes and dialogues in vernacular Arabic, and addressing contemporary
history. However, the connection with the traditionists methods never
gave way completely.
Islamic historians wrote within a theocentric ideological framework.
Islamic history was part of a universal history, beginning with creation
and including Biblical history in a single line. Society and government
were organized hierarchically under Gods aegis, and societal hierarchies
and traditional roles were clear and ordained. Within this framework, the
historians goal was not primarily to explain exactly why certain events
had occurred, but rather to expound on known truths and teach lessons by
describing exemplary events. A theocentric view, however, did not make
for uncritical historians. Most wrote in a rational spirit, weighing the
value of evidence, reconciling contradictions, judging verisimilitude, and
consulting original documents (e.g., treaties, correspondence, diplomas
of investiture, contracts, deeds, and petitions), which they often cited ver-
batim in their works. In their critical appraisal of such sources, the best
medieval historians were equal to any modern practitioners. However, we
find certain elements in their accounts that modern historians would
eschew, such as patterning after literary models and reports of miracles,
dreams, and other forms of divine intervention.
In part 3, Robinson discusses the historians socioeconomic status and
writing methods. In the early Islamic centuries, historians belonged primari-
ly to traditionist circles, which were outside courts and steady patronage. By
the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, however, most historians worked for the
state judiciary, chancery, or other departments or were supported by salaried
posts in institutions endowed primarily by the ruling elite, such as madrasahs
and khaniqahs. Court patronage produced a large body of historical works
outside the traditionists circles, including royal biographies, dynastic histo-
126 The American Journal of Islamic Social Sciences 21:2

ries, universal histories, and biographies of the Prophet. Historians most often
belonged to wealthy, conservative scholarly families and usually wrote their
histories on the side, while being paid to do something else. Their approach
was also conservative, although not without innovation. Many histories were
based on earlier works, including epitome (ikhtisar, mukhtasar), continuation
(dhayl, silah), and recasting (tahdhib).
The medieval Muslim historians methods are in some ways familiar
even in the present day (or were until the advent of computers). They
worked from notebooks, slips or cards, and in some cases diaries, and com-
pleted rough drafts that then would be polished into a fair copy. They used
sigla and abbreviations in citing sources. The accuracy and regularity of
source citation varied. Some historians copied freely from earlier works
without acknowledging their sources, others cited early works through
unacknowledged intermediary sources, others cited works more carefully,
and a number of authors (e.g., al-Ya`qubi and Ibn Hajar al-`Asqalani) pro-
vided relatively complete bibliographies at the beginning of their works.
Some medieval works even sported the equivalent of the modern jacket-
blurb, a laudatory appraisal (taqriz) requested from a well-disposed col-
league and written on the works cover or opening pages.
At once an entertaining introduction, a handy reference, and a thought-
ful essay, Islamic Historiography is well worth acquiring.
Devin Stewart, Chair
Department of Middle Eastern and South Asian Studies
Emory University, Atlanta, Georgia

Excellence and Precedence: Medieval Islamic

Discourse on Legitimate Leadership
Asma Afsaruddin
Leiden, The Netherlands: E. J. Brill, 2002. 322 pages.

The question of the imamate or the caliphate, the designation of the Muslim
communitys legitimate leader, is undoubtedly one of the most important in
Islamic history. The first civil war (656-61), which broke out with the mur-
der of Caliph `Uthman, had a profound effect not only on subsequent
Islamic political and religious institutions, but also on later Muslims views,
accounts, and discussions of the communitys early history. This bitter con-
flict, which necessarily involved extensive controversy concerning the
identity and required qualifications of the communitys legitimate leader,
 Book Reviews 141

The important issue of combating anti-Muslim prejudice is also cov-

ered, and attention is drawn to media stereotyping, in particular. The
comment, the American Muslim community is deeply concerned that anti-
Islamic feelings on the part of the general public are growing rather than
abating, exacerbated by international incidents of violence carried out in the
name of Islam and abetted by the unfortunate portrayal of Muslims and
Islam in the media. This is even more resonant, of course, following the
tragic events of September 11, 2001.
The final chapter, Looking to the Future, (Chapter 8), presents issues
of immediate concern which the Muslim community has to come to terms
with and work out, such as authority, unity, leadership, women and politics.
The book ends on a positive note, stating that Islam is here to stay and can
no longer be regarded as foreign or eastern. Islam has become part of
America and Muslims are a growing and vital segment of its population.
The appendices to the book include brief biographical sketches of
notable figures on the American Muslim scene, a glossary of Arabic and
Islamic terms used in the book, and an exhaustive list of resources for fur-
ther study, including addresses of organizations throughout the US and a
large selection of Islamic websites.
This book is a useful introduction both for students of religion and social
studies, and also for the educated general reader. It may be recommended for
teachers, social workers, politicians and other professionals who need to
develop an understanding of what Islam is and what it means to its follow-
ers. Muslims who want to know more about the history of their community
in America will also find it of interest. On the whole, it is an upbeat and pos-
itive book; the author appears sympathetic towards Muslims and frequently
allows Muslims to speak for themselves by quoting them directly.
Huda Khattab
Author and Translator
Toronto, Canada

Muslims, Their Beliefs and Practices

A. Rippin.
New York: Routledge, 2001. 346 pages.

Muslims, Their Beliefs and Practices is the revised 2nd edition of a previous
work with the same title divided in two volumes: Vol. I, The Formative
142 The American Journal of Islamic Social Sciences 19:1

Period, published in 1990, and vol. II, Contemporary Period, which

appeared in 1993. The present issue, like the preceding one, is a synthesis of
the development of Islam throughout its history, from the 7th to the 20th
century, with an insight into the challenges of the future. The author makes
a review of Muslims perceptions of their religion as well as the scholarly
activity by Muslims and non Muslims dedicated to it. This critical atti-
tude distinguishes the book from other introductions to Islam. According to
its bibliography, the book is addressed to an audience deemed reluctant as
regards to languages other than English. Yet the style and content of the book
make of it a complicated reading for a lay public who tries a first approach
to Islam.
Muslims, Their Beliefs and Practices is organized in six parts, each one
introduced by a list of the most significant dates for the subject matter in
question. Practical examples excerpted from the sources or the authors per-
sonal experience are used to illustrate his arguments. Notes appear at the
end. Subsequently, the reader is provided with a glossary, a bibliography
additional to that mentioned in the notes, a list of websites of use for students
of Islam, a thematic index and finally, an index of Quranic citations.
Part I, Formative Elements of Classical Islam, contains three chapters.
Chapter 1, Prehistory, covers the 6th century, a period in the history of
Arabia on which research about the constituent elements of the new religion
has focused. For his part, Rippin puts forward a gradual process from the 6th
to the 8th centuries in the broader spatial context of the Near East as a more
suitable model to understand the emergence of Islam. In Chapter 2, The
Quran, the author describes its form and content. Going further, he poses
the questions of how, why and when the Quran became a text with the
aspect it has today. Chapter 3, Muhammad, discusses the problems of the
historicity of the Prophets biography as well as its significance.
Part II, The Emergence of Islamic Identity, includes four chapters.
Chapter 4, Political action and theory, turns around three subjects: (a) the
role of religion in the territorial expansion of the Arabs, (b) the role of poli-
tics in the enunciation of the classical form of Islam, and (c) the final sepa-
ration between both the religious and the political spheres with the emer-
gence of the class of the religious scholars (ulama). The latter assumed the
formulation of Islamic faith and law: a process analyzed in chapters 5,
Theological Exposition, and 6, Legal Developments, respectively. His
treatment of these aspects appears rather influenced by the writings of P.
Crone, M. Hinds and N. Calder. Chapter 7 is dedicated to the description and
interpretation of Islams external face: Ritual Practice.
 Book Reviews 143

Part III, Alternative Visions of Islam, contains chapter 8, The Shi>a,

and chapter 9, Sufi devotion. Rippin underlines the symbolic value of the
differences between Shi>is and Sunnis and their political functionality. With
respect to Sufis, the author concludes that they have represented more than
an alternative, a supplement, to the Islamic way of life.
In Part IV, Consolidation of Islamic Identity, the constant re-elabora-
tion of the literary tradition of Islam is presented as an effort to respond to
the reality that has also led to the consolidation of an Islamic identity.
Chapter 10, Intellectual culture, addresses the non-religious sciences in
the classical period. Chapter 11, Medieval Visions of Islam, covers the
process of reinterpretation of Islamic traditional disciplines in the post-clas-
sical period (13th-18th centuries).
Part V, Modern Visions of Islam, is the longest part of the book. It is
distributed in four chapters: chapter 12, Describing Modernity, focuses on
the impact of western colonization of Muslim lands. Rippin also insists on
the need to pay attention to Islams internal dynamics, and situates the defi-
nitions of modernity, post-modernity and tradition in the Islamic context.
How have Muslims responded to the challenges of modernity? By means of
a recreation of the figure of Muhammad, a question analyzed in chapter 13,
Muhammad and Modernity. Also by means of a constant reinterpretation
of the Quran, illustrated in chapter 14, The Quran and Modernity. In
chapter 15, Issues of Identity, the significance of the Islamic identity
nowadays as well as the evolution experienced in its defining elements is
examined. In this area, Rippin sees a tendency towards a personalization of
the faith in which the ritual practices have been given a new meaning.
Part VI, Revisioning Islam, contains chapters 16 Feminisms Islam
and 17, Visions for Islam in the Twenty-first Century and Beyond.
Chapter 16 addresses Islams response to change in the traditional family
structure and the role of women in society. Chapter 17 is an attempt to out-
line the main challenges that Islam will have to face in the 21st century,
challenges which, this time, are posed by dissenting voices from inside the
Muslim community. What the future generations of Muslims will make of
this potential, concludes Rippin, is uncertain. Finally, he points to the con-
venience of seeing Islam, like other religions, on a continuum, attempting
self-conscious definition at times and reaching into the experiential dimen-
sion of religion in order to refresh those definitions at other times.
The preceding sketch can hardly do justice to the content of a work so
rich and suggestive as Rippins. His is a highly commendable book, which
combines the effort to synthesize a complex and vast phenomenon like
144 The American Journal of Islamic Social Sciences 19:1

Islam with sharp criticism and a projection into the future. All works of syn-
thesis have shortcomings, however: not all the facts that we judge as rele-
vant are included; and bibliographical references are not always those we
would have expected. This was particularly evident for me as regards
Islamic law: Rippin has not followed the results of recent studies on the
subject; his treatment of the subject, the application of Islamic law in the
Middle ages, is obsolete.
To these natural and somehow unavoidable limitations I would like
to add the following remarks:
In his foreword, Rippin declares his intention to concentrate on the
Arab-Persian Empire to study the classical period of Islam, in the Near
East, the Indian subcontinent, Malaysia, North America and Europe for the
modern period. Yet this focus responds more to the training and interests of
the author than the fact that the most important events might actually have
taken place in those geographical areas. As a consequence of this method,
Islam is portrayed as the receptor of a variety of external influences, while
the influences it exerted over other religions are ignored.
To be precise, I am referring to the process operated through the Muslim
West by means of which the Islamized Greek thought passed to Europe,
affecting not only scientific and philosophical knowledge but also theologi-
cal speculation. In this connection, the name of the physician, philosopher,
theologian and jurist Averroes can in no way be omitted. This omission is all
the more surprising when we see that Rippin has taken into account other
prominent Andalusian figures such as the Zahiri jurist, Ibn Hazm, and the
Sufi, Ibn al-`Arabi. The existence of Purification Movements is traced
back to Ibn Taymiyya (13th century). However we have examples of much
earlier manifestations of this tendency with the Almoravids (last quarter of
the 11th century) and the Almohads (second half of 12th century).
Another negative consequence of Rippins delimitation of his subject
appears in his treatment of Sufism. The movement is presented as if it had
never entered the political scene before the 16th century. However, it is
known that in the first half of the 12th century, the Sufi order known as the
Muridun, led by Ibn Qasi, seized power against the Almoravids in the west-
ern region of al-Andalus. Moreover, Rippin refers to the use that some
Islamists made of the figure of the Hanbalite Damascene Jurist, Ibn Tay-
miyya, while he silences some modernists resource to the Malikite
Granadan jurist al-Shatibi.
The term mufti, legal expert who issues non-binding advisory opinions,
is erroneously rendered as judge. My final comment relates to the discussion
 Book Reviews 145

on the fabrication of prophetic traditions. According to I. Goldziher, J.

Schacht and G.H.A. Juynboll, these reports were a late artificial elaboration
gradually projected back to the Prophets era. These opinions appear to be
still admitted by a majority of scholars. However, I have missed some refer-
ence to W. Hallaq, H. Motzki, D. Powers, and U. Rubin, who have recently
questioned them.
Delfina Serrano Ruano C.S.I.C.
Instituto de Filologia, Departamento de Estudios Arabes
Madrid, Spain

Perspectives on Islamic Law, Justice and Society

R .S. Khare, ed.
Lanham, MD: Roman and Littlefield Publishers, Inc., 1999. 207 pages.

This short, 207 page book is a refreshing overview of Islamic legal princi-
ples and new trends within Islamic societies. Though Islamic law has often
been viewed as a sluggish monolith, it is actually a rather dynamic field.
R.S. Khare has assembled a number of distinguished academics to discuss
Islamic law, not as a homogenous entity, but rather in light of the reality:
that Islamic law is multi-faceted, varied, highly regional and must be
viewed in light of historical changes.
Thus, this collection of essays focuses upon the manner in which
Islamic law, as an organic law, is constantly reconciling historically chang-
ing socio-economic conditions with modernity and technology. The collec-
tion is organized in three parts. The first part outlines the concept of Islamic
law, formal legal institutions and traditional Islamic scholarship. The sec-
ond portion of the book focuses on the regionalism of Islamic law and the
manner in which the colonial period had a provocative impact upon the
evolution and endurance of certain Islamic legal institutions. The final por-
tion of the collection uses two interesting cases in which modernity and
technology are problematizing and calling for a fundamental rethinking of
seemingly basic principles.
The unifying theme of the essays is the manner in which Islamic soci-
eties today are dealing with modernity and the manner in which technolog-
ical advancements and global changes affect Islamic societies and concepts
within Islamic law. Though at times the collection seems fragmented due to
the different disciplines of the authors, this variety allows for a solid and
nuanced understanding of the issues.