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From Acolyte to Ṣaḥābī?: Christian Monks as Symbols of Early Confessional Fluidity in the Conversion Story of Salmān al-Fārisī
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 19 February 2019
Abstract
This paper will examine the narrative of Salmān al-Fārisī/”the Persian” and his conversion to Islam, as recounted in the eighth-century Sīra of Ibn Isḥāq, as a lens into the laudatory interpretation of Christian monasticism by early Muslims. This account of Salmān al-Fārisī (d. 656 CE), an original Companion (ṣaḥābī) of the Prophet Muḥammad, vividly describes his rejection of his Zoroastrian heritage, his initial embrace of Christianity, and his departure from his homeland of Isfahan in search of a deeper understanding of the Christian faith. This quest leads the young Persian on a great arc across the Near East into Iraq, Asia Minor, and Syria, during which he studies under various Christian monks and serves as their acolyte. Upon each master’s death, Salmān is directed toward another mystical authority, on a passage that parallels the “monastic sojourns” of late antique Christian literature. At the conclusion of the narrative a monk sends Salmān to seek out a “new Prophet who has arisen among the Arabs.” The monks, therefore, appear to be interpreted as “proto-Muslims,” as links in a chain leading to enlightenment, regardless of their confessional distinction. This narrative could then suggest that pietistic concerns, shared between these communities, superseded specific doctrinal boundaries in the highly fluid and malleable religious culture of the late antique and early Islamic Near East.
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References
1 In part, these types of travels between late antique monastic communities were undertaken with the intention of collecting the wisdom of various sages and composing biographies of regional religious authorities. Such was the case with the fifth-century Lausiac History of Palladius and the Historia Religiosa of Theodoret, among others. See the discussion of “Desert Ascetics and Distant Marvels” in Georgia Frank, The Memory of the Eyes: Pilgrims to Living Saints in Christian Late Antiquity (Berkeley and Los Angeles, California: University of California Press, 2000) 35–78. For Christian ascetics of the period this “wandering” was perhaps also a method of imitatio Christi, taking scenes of travel in the life of Christ and the apostles as the highest form of religious devotion. See Caner, Daniel, Wandering, Begging Monks: Spiritual Authority and the Promotion of Monasticism in Late Antiquity (Berkeley, California: University of California Press, 2002) 14Google Scholar. For the connection between knowledge and travel in the pre-Christian era, see Scott, Ian W., “The Divine Wanderer: Travel and Divination in Late Antiquity,” in Travel and Religion in Late Antiquity (ed. Harland, Philip; Waterloo, ON: Wilford Laurier University Press, 2011) 101–22.Google Scholar
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21 The Melkites and Jacobites are also specifically targeted by the ninth-century theologian Abū cĪsā al-Warrāq. See Early Muslim Polemic against Christianity: Abū cĪsā al-Warrāq’s “Against the Incarnation,” (ed. David Thomas; Cambridge and New York: Cambridge University Press, 2002).
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30 Ibn Hisham, al-Sīra al-Nabawiyya (ed. Mustafa al-Saqqa et al.; 4 vols.; Beirut: Dar al-Khayr, 1997) 1:186.
31 Rubin, The Eye of the Beholder, 21–22.
32 See Barbara Roggema, The Legend of Sergius/Baḥīrā.
33 Sacd, Ibn, Kitāb al-Ṭabaqāt al-Kabīr, al-Ṭabaqat al-‘Ūla, (11 vols; Cairo: Maktabat al-Khānjī, 2001) 4:69–79Google Scholar. The similarity in narrative is not altogether surprising given that both al-Ṭabarī and Ibn Sacd owed much of their maghāzī material, or “exploits of the Prophet,” as well as the mubtada’, or “beginnings,” to Ibn Isḥāq via his student Salamah. See Gregor Schoeler, The Biography of Muḥammad: Nature and Authenticity, 32. Abū Nucaym al-Iṣfahānī, Ḥilyat al-Awlīyā, (11 vols.; Beirut: Dār al-Fikr, 1967–68) 1:190–95.
34 Ibn Hisham, Sīra, 1:173.
35 Ibid., 1:174. The precise question uttered by Salmān is: “man afḍal ahl hādhā al-dīn cilmān?”
36 Ibid.
37 Qur’ān, Sūrat al-Tawbah, v. 34 (9:34).
38 Gordon D. Newby, The Making of the Last Prophet: A Reconstruction of the Earliest Biography of Muhammad, 2–4. Newby suggests that the exegetical nature of the Sīra is particularly concerned with the middle portion of the text. This section known as the Kitāb al-Mubtada’, or the “Book of Sending Forth,” is “a commentary on the Bible as well as a commentary on the Quran.”
39 Wansbrough, John, The Sectarian Milieu: Content and Composition of Islamic Salvation History (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1978) 2Google Scholar.
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41 Ibid.
42 Ibid. While the details here clearly serve as an allusion to the eventual Hijra of Muḥammad, it could also be a foreshadowing of the description of the “holy man moving between two thickets” that is to come at the end of the narrative.
43 For the rise of Christianity in Muslim polemics, see Mann, Jacob, “An Early Theologico-Polemical Work,” Hebrew Union College Annual 12–13 (1937–1938) 417–43Google Scholar. Additionally, there is a systematic assessment of medieval Muslim arguments to counter Christianity in Lazarus-Yafeh, Hava, “Some Neglected Aspects of Medieval Muslim Polemics against Christianity,” The Harvard Theological Review 89.1 (1996) 61–84CrossRefGoogle Scholar.
44 Hämeen-Anttila, 118.
45 Ibid., 124.
46 See discussion of “Desert Ascetics and Distant Marvels” in Frank, Georgia, The Memory of the Eyes (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2000) 35–78CrossRefGoogle Scholar. This journey also recalls the conversion story of Kacb al-Aḥbār, which involves travelling and studying under various Jewish scholars to finally reach Islam. See Ibn Sacd, Ṭabaqāt, 8:2, 156 on biographical form. For an analysis of Kacb’s conversion, see both Perlmann’s, Moshe “The Legendary Story of Kcab al-Aḥbār’s Conversion to Islam,” in The Joshua Starr Memorial Volume (New York: The Conference on Jewish Relations, 1953) 85-99Google Scholar, and “Another Kcab al-Aḥbār Story” in The Jewish Quarterly Review 45.1 (1954) 48-58.
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48 Ibid., 127–29. Mun’im Sirry has discussed a rather analogous phenomenon in medieval Muslim hagiography, where the pious seeker reaches a pinnacle of asceticism through direct contact with an imminent teacher. See Sirry, Mun’im, “Pious Muslims in the Making: A Closer Look at the Narratives of Ascetic Conversion,” Arabica, T. 57, Fasc. 4 (2010) 437–54CrossRefGoogle Scholar. The “conversion” here is not, however, between confessional traditions, but rather a movement within traditional Islam toward a more ascetic or “Sufi” lifestyle.
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50 See Suleiman Mourad, “Christian Monks in Islamic Literature,” 81–98.
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52 The word in the Sīra here is ghaiḍatayn, with the dual ending. Identical terminology is preserved in the Ibn Sacd, Ṭabaqāt, 4:74.
53 The dual is utilized in both cases, with the terms ḥarratayn (“two lava fields”) and ghaiḍatayn (“two thickets”) respectively, accompanied by terms indicating motion between these areas. Ibn Hisham, Sīra, 1:178.
54 Ibn Hisham, Sīra, 1:179.
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57 De Blois, François, “Naṣrānī (Ναζωραῖnos) and ḥanīf (ἐθνικόσ): Studies on the Religious Vocabulary of Christianity and Islam,” Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies 65.1 (2002) 1–30Google Scholar, at 18. Waardenburg provides a similar assessment in the use of the term ḥanīfīyya, as one of the original names for the movement, which was not only a reaction against the paganism of Mecca, but also a “reform movement’ with regard to the local Christian and Jewish communities. See Waardenburg, Jacques, “Towards a Periodization of Earliest Islam According to Its Relations with Other Religions,” The Qur’an: Style and Contents (ed. Rippin, Andrew; The Formation of the Classical Islamic World 24; Aldershot: Ashgate Variorum, 2001) 93–116Google Scholar, at 102.
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59 Christopher Melchert has discussed the multifaceted religious terminology of the early Islamic period with an interest toward groups maintaining a piety-driven worldview. Working on the basis of G.S. Hodgson’s Venture of Islam, Melchert attempts to draw parallels and contrasts between group identities across the broad spectrum of juridical-theological movements in the ninth century. See Melchert, Christopher, “The Piety of the Hadith Folk,” International Journal of Middle East Studies 34.3 (2002) 425–39CrossRefGoogle Scholar.
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61 For a discussion on the nuance of these terms, see Rahman, Fazlur, Major Themes of the Qur’an (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2009) 29Google Scholar, 61, 110, and 137.
62 Qur’ān, Sūrat al-Mā’idah, v. 82 (5:82); Sūrat al-Tawbah, v. 31 and 34 (9:31, 9:34).
63 Qur’ān, Sūrat al-Ḥadīd, v. 27 (57:27).
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65 Sahner, “Islamic Legends about the Birth of Monasticism,” 294–395.
66 See Sarah Sviri, “Wa-Rahbāniyatan Ibtadcūhā,” 195–201 as well as El-Badawi, Emran, “From ‘Clergy’ to ‘Celibacy’: The Development of Rahbānīyyah Between the Qur’ān, Ḥadīth and Church Canon,” Al-Bayān 11.1 (2013) 1–14Google Scholar.
67 One of the earliest incarnations of this statement comes from the Kitāb al-ṭabaqāt al-kabīr of Ibn Sacd.
68 Ibn Sacd, Ṭabaqāt, 5:70. For a comprehensive explanation of this nuanced term jihād, see Firestone, Reuven, “Jihād,” The Blackwell Companion to the Qur’ān (ed. Rippin, Andrew and Mojaddedi, Jawid; Oxford: Blackwell Publishing, 2006) 376–388Google Scholar. In essence, Firestone argues that Jihād can take on a range of meanings and can be applied to different kinds of action. It easily becomes a religiously laden term because it represents the most basic ethical message of religion, that one must strive to do the good by overcoming the bad. The term jihād is frequently used as part of this idiomatic expression “in the path of God” to convey a sense of deep religious commitment to certain defined acts of devotion. Though in particular usage this term can be applied to the concept of war in defense of Islam and the community, it can also be employed in a more general sense, referring to “religious piety.” Early variations of this ḥadīth are reported by cAbdallāh ibn al-Mubarāk (d. 797) in the Kitāb al-Jihād in the following two formats: “Every community has its monasticism (li-kull umma rahbānīya), and the monasticism of this community is jihād in the path of God (fī sabīl Allāh)” and “A person mentioned itinerant asceticism (al-sīyāḥa) in front of the Prophet, to which the Prophet replied: “God has given to us instead jihād in the path of God, and the extolment of God (takbīr) throughout every lofty place.” See cAbdallāh ibn al-Mubarāk, Kitāb al-Jihād (ed. Nazīh Ḥammād; Mecca, 1978) 37–38.
69 See section on the “Vocation of Monasticism” in Massignon, Essay on the Origins of the Technical Language of Islamic Mysticism, 98–104.
70 Ibid. cf. Goldziher, Ignaz, Introduction to Islamic Theology and Law (trans. Andras, and Hamori, Ruth; Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1981) 134–36Google Scholar.
71 Massignon, Essay on the Origins of the Technical Language of Islamic Mysticism, 99.
72 Ibid., 99–100.
73 The traditional rendering of the full v. 27 of Sūrat al-Ḥadīd follows: “As for monasticism, they instituted themselves (ibtadacūha), We did not prescribe it for them except that they were seeking to please God; but they did not observe it faithfully (fa-mā racawhā ḥaqq ricāyatihā). So We rewarded those among them who are true believers; but many of them are disobedient (wa kathīr minhum fāsiqūn).”
74 al-Zamakhsharī, , Kitāb al-Kashshāf can ḥaqā’iq ghawāmiḍ al-tanzīl wa cuyūn al-aqāwīl fī wujūh al-ta’wīl (6 vols.; Riyadh: Maktabat al-cUbaykān 1998) 6:52–53Google Scholar.
75 al-Zamakhsharī, Kitāb al-Kashshāf, 53. The commentary then goes on to explain that on a grammatical level, the phrase in question should be read as “We placed in their hearts compassion and mercy and monasticism…. We did not prescribe it for them except that they should seek, through it, the approval of God.” Edmund Beck further interprets the passage to reflect that Muḥammad, particularly during the early Medinan period, revered the ascetic ideal and monasticism due to the extreme versions of piety exhibited by their devotees. The meaning of the passage is, however, that such radical devotion was ultimately incompatible with human frailty and was therefore not explicitly enjoined to the pious by divine decree. Beck is essentially arguing that while the merits of monasticism were lauded, practical concerns compelled the Prophet to advocate for a more moderate set of parameters for worship. See “Das Christliche Mönchtum Im Koran,” 17–18.
76 Ibid.
77 Ibid.
78 Muqātil ibn Sulaymān, Tafsīr Muqātil ibn Sulīmān (ed. Shiḥātah; 5 vols.; Cairo: al-Hay’ah al-Miṣrīyah al-cAmmah lil-Kitāb 1979) 1:498–99.
79 Qur’ān, Sūrat al-Mā’idah, v. 87 (5:87).
80 Muqātil ibn Sulaymān, Tafsīr, 499. El-Badawi provides an additional report on “proper conduct” from the Majmūcāt al-fatāwā of Ibn Taymīyyah (d. 1328) that utilizes the core lesson from this same ḥadīth to emphasize the stance against celibacy. See El-Badawi, “From ‘Clergy’ to ‘Celibacy,’ ” 9–10.
81 Sviri, “Wa-Rahbāniyatan Ibtadcūhā,” 195–201.
82 Ibid., 201.
83 Muqātil ibn Sulaymān, Tafsīr, 499.
84 al-Ṭabarī, Jāmi’ah al-bayān, 10:505–506. So important was this theme of humility in the practice of asceticism in late antiquity that it became a sort of game between competing hagiographers as to which of their subjects displayed the highest degree of spiritual perfection. See Wortley, John, “The Spirit of Rivalry in Early Christian Monasticism,” Greek, Roman and Byzantine Studies 33 (1992) 385–404Google Scholar. This characteristic of submission or obedience to the divine is clearly reflected in the Arabic term traditionally employed for “monk,” rāhib, which carries an intrinsic root meaning of “veneration,” “reverence,” “awe,” and perhaps most significantly, “fear.” See Lisªn al-cArab of Ibn Manẓūr’s entry for the root rahiba (vol. V), in which the words khawf (fear) and fajca (fright) are provided as related meanings. al-Ṭabarī likewise provides the definition of rāhib in this section of his commentary as equating to khawf, or “fear of God.” See al-Ṭabarī, Jāmi’ah al-bayān, 10:502. It may even be suggested that this connotation of “fear of the divine” is more heavily pronounced in the Arabic terminology than in other languages from the region, in which the monk can literally be understood as “God-fearer.” Whereas in the typical designations of both µοναχός and the practice of ἀναχωρɛῑν from the Byzantine tradition, and iḥidayē most commonly utilized in Syriac, the emphasis falls on the solitary nature of the monastic existence. In both of these cases the central element, from which the designations arise, concerns a retreat from the material world into spiritual seclusion. Such terminology is discussed in Claire Fauchon, “Les forms de vie ascétique et monastique en milieu syriaque, Ve-VIIe siècles,” Le Monachisme Syriaque, (ed. F. Jullien; Études Syriaques 7; Paris: Geuthner, 2010) 37–63. The Syriac term also carries the sense of celibacy, as the iḥidayē is isolated from both worldly affairs and from the bonds of married life. A virtually analogous term for these consecrated celibates is qaddīshē, or “saints/holy ones.” See Griffith, Sidney, “Asceticism in the Church of Syria: The Hermeneutics of Early Syrian Monasticism,” Asceticism (ed. Wimbush, Vincent J. and Valantasis, Richard; New York: Oxford University Press, 1995) 220–45, at 223Google Scholar.
85 Muqātil ibn Suleimān, Tafsīr, 497.
86 Ibid. The sentiment coincides with certain features within the cycles of Syriac rules for monastic conduct and provides a virtually analogous assessment of the bond between fear, humility, and the pious existence. The regulations imposed on monastic communities by the fourth-century Mār Ephrēm of Edessa, for example, contain the following passage: “It is good for you that you are being educated in the fear (deḥltē) of your masters; and becoming humble (makīk), and chaste (nekhef), and disciplined (maṭkus). Do not become undisciplined.” The sixth-century Rules of Jōḥannan Bar Qūrsos likewise provide guidelines for the initiates that highlight a particular concern over the “fear of God”: “They shall be sent into monasteries to read books and to learn the conduct of the fear of God (deḥlṭ ‘Elohē). For if many send their children to far off countries because of the instruction of this world, how much more fitting it is for those who have set apart and offered their children to God, that they must send them into the holy mountains for spiritual wisdom.” See Vööbus, Arthur, Syriac and Arabic Documents Regarding Legislation Relative to Syrian Asceticism (Papers of the Estonian Theological Society in Exile; Stockholm: ETSE, 1960) 24–50Google Scholar.
87 Fred Donner, Narratives of Islamic Origins, 67.
88 Ibid., 75.
89 al- Jāḥiẓ, Thalāth Risā’il, 14.
90 Donner, “From Believers to Muslims,” 11.