Rebecca Williams and Abdur-Rahman AbouAlmajd Muhammad and the Supernatural: Medieval Arab Views

We have a fresh opportunity to reflect about Muhammad and the Supernatural, more particularly Medieval Arab Views in the public square. At this point Professor Rebecca Williamsisn't going to speak about her views on miracle stories only but prophetic biography (sīra) and Qur'ān exegesis (tafsīr) too .

I thank her Despite a Tropical Storm/Hurricane, she managed to complete the dialog.Luckily, it looks like our storm may not be as bad as originally feared.

Rebecca Williams

 Rebecca R. Williams is Associate Professor in the Department of History at the University of South Alabama. Her research interests include: Islamic historiography, the biography of the Prophet Muhammad, and Qur'ān exegesis.

Dialog

Q: First of all I wonder what made you focus on Islamic studies?

RW:While I was an undergraduate at the Ohio State University, I read a novel by an author named Louis L’Amour titled The Walking Drum.  In this fictionalized story, a young man travels across Medieval Europe, the Byzantine Empire, and the Islamic Near East.  L’Amour did an amazing job of contrasting the ignorance and closed-mindedness of Medieval Europe against the far more advanced Islamic civilization.  It was the first time that I had read anything about Islam, and I became quite fascinated by it.  Later, after I had transferred to Northern Michigan University, I took a course in Middle East History and that began my more formal study of Islamic Civilization, which ultimately led to my earning my doctorate from McGill University’s Institute of Islamic Studies .

Q: It is known that the field of your research interests include : Islamic historiography, the biography of the Prophet Muhammad, and Qur'ān exegesis.; what made you take up prophetic biography (sīra) and Qur'ān exegesis?

RW:When I first began to study Islamic Civilization, I thought that the best way to approach that would be to go back to the beginning, and so it only made sense to examine the life of the Prophet Muammad and the exegesis of the Qurān.  Over time, my focus shifted from the story itself to the ways in which later generations of Muslims, especially during the medieval period, understood and presented the Prophet’s life and how they interpreted the Qurān .

Q: Could you elaborate on Prophet Muhammad especially some of his miracle stories?

RW:Although Muslims understand the Qurān itself as being Muammad’s ultimate miracle, medieval Muslim scholars included literally hundreds of miracle stories in their works of sīra and tafsīr.  Al-abarī even states his intention to write a work specifically on these miracles, part of the genre dalāil al-nubuwwa, although this work was ultimately lost.  IbnKathīr goes further to indicate in the introduction to his Al-Bidāyawa’l-Nihāya that the story of Muammad’s life itself has the miraculous ability to “heal the sick.”  So, for medieval Muslim scholars, there was no conflict between the Qurʾān’s insistence that Muammad performed no miracles and their inclusion of such stories in their works . 

Q: Can you give us some examples of your findings in Muammad and the Supernatural:  Medieval Arab Views?

RW:My research indicates that medieval Muslim scholars walked a fine line between presenting the story of Muammad’s life in the sīra and tafsīr in a way that was acceptable to their audiences, but also that followed a methodology that was becoming increasingly rigid over time.  Al-abarī was able to present a variety of reports that often conflicted with one another and that varied in their authoritativeness (and did so without comment regarding which he preferred) in part because of his reputation as a scholar, but also in part because Islamic Civilization in his lifetime still enjoyed the confidence of its primacy in the civilized world.  By the time we get to IbnKathīr, the situation has changed drastically – the Crusaders had only recently been fully defeated; the Mongols had destroyed Baghdad and the Abbāsid caliphate; and, relations between Sunnī and Shīa Muslims were more strained than had been the case in previous centuries.  IbnKathīr’s tone in his works is fairly defensive, and I think this reflects the uncertainties of his time and place.  Islamic Civilization in the fourteenth century CE is struggling to define what it means to be Muslim in a world very different from the one that produced al-abarī.  In fact, my next book project is a biography of IbnKathīr and an examination of his influence on Islamic intellectual history .

Q: I want to know why you focus on al-Tabari and IbnKathir?

RW:Both of these men wrote monumental works of universal history and important tafāsīr.  Al-abarī is very well known as a scholar who is equally talented in the fields of history, tafsīr, and law, and IbnKathīr, although not as famous as his teacher, IbnTaymiyya, also excels in these same fields.  To some modern scholars in the West, these men represent opposite ends of a spectrum, with al-abarī being viewed as more rationalistic while IbnKathīr is seen as being more strictly traditionalist.  And yet, both men actually represent a blend of rationality and tradition, but, because of their particular circumstances (their time and place), they choose to describe their works – in their introductions – in ways that do not fully represent the methodologies that they actually use.  For example, al-abarī at times espouses views that are quite traditional regarding the use of authoritative sources, while IbnKathīr at times uses sources that are less than authoritative to put forward his own interpretation of events.  This difference, to me, was important enough to warrant further study of each of these scholars as individuals, but also as representatives of particular trends in medieval Islamic scholarship .

Q: I wonder how you like IbnIshaq?

RW:IbnIsāq’s work is fascinating to me because it is the earliest written biography of the Prophet Muammad still in existence.  It also helps us see what works in this genre (sīra) looked like before the isnād-matn format became more formalized.  Also, nearly all later medieval biographies of Muammad make use of this work, whether their authors approved of his methods or not, simply because IbnIsāq’ssīra was so well known and so popular that scholars simply could not ignore it in their own works of Prophetic biography .

Q:I wonder why you think IbnKathir at times uses sources that are less than authoritative to put forward his own interpretation of events?

RW:IbnKathīr lived during a time of struggle in Islamic Civilization.  Relations between Sunnī and Shīa Muslims were strained and popular religious practices were perceived as a threat to IbnKathīr’s view of proper Muslim belief and behavior.  However, the authoritative sources at his disposal – the Six Books of authoritative adīth and Amad b. anbal’sMusnad – did not always support his interpretation of events.  In these cases, IbnKathīr includes reports from other sources, including IbnIsāq.  Although he is careful to point out the weakness of these reports (especially of their asānīd), the very fact that he includes them and allows his readers to see them as part of his presentation of events shows that he needed them to portray a particular image of Muammad.  For example, in the story of Muammad’s conception, IbnKathīr includes only those reports that include a miracle connected to this event even if they are from sources other than the Six Books or the Musnad.  Thus, in this case, it is more important to IbnKathīr that Muammad’s conception be connected to a miracle than it is to relate only authoritative adīth .

Q: “To some modern scholars in the West, these men represent opposite ends of a spectrum, with al-Ṭabarī being viewed as more rationalistic while IbnKathīr is seen as being more strictly traditionalist.” Could you tell us some of them?

RW:The best two examples are two articles – the first by the late Norman Calder, “Tafsīr from al-abarī to IbnKathīr:  Problems in the Description of a Genre, Illustrated with Reference to the Story of Abraham,” in Approaches to the Qurān, edited by Hawting and Shareef (London:  Routledge, 1993), pp. 101-140; the second is by Jane Dammen McAuliffe, “Quranic Hermeneutics:  The Views of al-abarī and IbnKathīr,” in Approaches to the History of the Interpretation of the Qurʾān, edited by Rippin (Oxford:  Clarendon Press, 1988), pp. 46-62 .

Q: In your opinion, why did IbnKathīr attempt to equate Amad b. anbal’sMusnad with the Six Books of authoritative adīth?

RW:Although IbnKathīr was technically a member of the Shāfiīmadhhab, he was a loyal student of IbnTaymiyya, who was a member of the anbalīmadhhab.  They were part of a group of scholars led by IbnTaymiyya who argued in favor of a strict reliance upon the Qurān and authoritative adīth for tafsīr and for the interpretation of Islamic law.  In my opinion, IbnKathīr attempted to equate IbnḤanbal’sMusnad to the Six Books for two reasons – he respected him as a traditionalist and trusted that he would only relate those reports that were authoritative, but also IbnKathīr may have simply been following in the footsteps of his teacher, IbnTaymiyya.  This is one element of my research that I plan to expand in my next book project .

Abdur-RahmanAbouAlmajd: Thank you very much,Rebecca .

Rebecca Williams:Thank you again for this opportunity!  I'm very excited by my research into how medieval Muslim scholars understood the miracle stories in the life of the Prophet Muhammad and in the exegesis of the Qur'an, and, of course, enjoy sharing it with others !