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A Search for the Anthropology of Islam: Abdul Hamid El-Zein

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 January 2009

Dale F. Eickelman
Dale F. Eickelman
Affiliation:
New York UniversityNew York, N.Y.
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Extract

“Zein,” as friends and colleagues knew him, practiced an interpretive anthropology that, like the writing of history, is a craft in which the best work is realized only after long years of field experience, study, and the development of concepts and themes through teaching and writing. Zein's sudden death on 13 August 1979 at the age of 44 cut short his work just as it began to achieve its fullest form.

Zein's professional career was divided between two remarkably distinct periods. The first of these lasted for roughly the decade prior to 1966, during which he mastered the conventions of what might be called a standard, functionalist anthropology and applied them to ethnographic research in Egypt. The second period began in 1966 with his participation in the formative period of symbolic anthropology at the University of Chicago.

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Articles
Information
International Journal of Middle East Studies , Volume 13 , Issue 3 , August 1981 , pp. 361 - 365
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1981

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References

Notes

1 Used by Ibn Khaldūn of a state which is no more than the personal will or autocracy of the sovereign; a state in which the sovereign is “claiming exclusive authority on the strength of the preeminence acquired by personal effort or achievement,” infarād bi-I-majd (Rosenthal, E. I. J., Political Thought in Medieval Islam [Cambridge, 1968], p. 87).Google ScholarIbn, Khaldūn's power state, siyāsa 'aqlīya, may be likened to Max Weber's “patrimonialism” (Economy and Society, ed. Roth, G. and Wittich, C. [New York, 1968], pp. 231–232)Google Scholar and Brown's, L. Carl “bureaucratic polity” (The Tunisia of Ahmad Bey, 1837–1885 [Princeton, 1974], pp. 313–334; 353–366.)Google Scholar

2 See Doutté's, E. classic, “Notes sur l'Islam Maghribin: Les Marabouts,” Revue de I'Histoire des Religions, 40 (1899), 343–369; 41 (1890), 22–66; 289–336.Google Scholar

3 Part of the instructions to the ikhwan of the Darqawīya tarīqa reads as follows: The ikhwan “shall inform their shaikh about their most serious as well as their most trivial thoughts; they shall inform him about their important as well as their most insignificant deeds; they shall have passive obedience for. their shaikh and at all times they shall be in the hands of the shaikh as cadavre is in the hands of one washing a corpse” (Rinn, L., Marabours et Khouan [Algiers, 1844], p. 233)Google Scholar. Cf. also the following wasiya to the ikhwan of Sī Shādhilī, founder of the Shādhilīya tariqa: “Obey your shaikh before obeying the temporal sovereign” (Ibid. p. 277).

4 Muhammad al-Saghir al-Wufrānī, Nozhet el-Hadi: Histoire de la dynastie saadienne au Maroc, 1511–1670, trans. Houdas, O. (Paris, 1889), p. 12, Ar. text; pp. 24–25, Fr. trans.Google Scholar

5 Ibid., p. 41, Ar. text; pp. 76–77, Fr. trans; also Ibn, 'Askar, Dawhar al-Nāshir, trans. Archives Marocaines, 19. (1913), 90.Google Scholar

6 See the important work of Lévi-Provencal, E., Les hisroriens des Chorfa: essai sur la litrerature hisrorique et 7biographique au Maroc du XVLe au XXe siecle (Paris, 1922).Google Scholar

7 The interregnum in Morocco began with the death of al-Manṣūr in 1603 and ended with the definitive establishment of the apos;Alawī dynasty in 1670.

8 Al-Wufrani, , pp. 190 ff., Ar. text; pp. 305Google Scholar ff., Fr. trans; cf, also Sources inédites de l'histoire du Maroc lere série Pay-Bas, Vol. 1 (Paris, 1906), pp. 82–463 passim.Google Scholar

9 Ibid., p. 283; cf, . also p. 292.Google Scholar

10 Ibid., Vol. II (Paris, 1907), p. 339.

11 Al-Wufrānī, , pp. 200–209, Ar. text; pp. 325–340Google Scholar, Fr. trans; cf, . also Sources inédites lère série Pay-Bas, II, 117–125, 440–443.Google Scholar

12 “Relation de la révolte d'Abou, Mahalli,” Sources inédires lère série Anglererre, Vol. II (Paris, 1925), p. 466 and n. 2.Google Scholar

13 Al-Wufrānī, , p. 206, Ar. text; pp. 33 ff., Fr. trans.Google Scholar

14 “Relation de la révolte d'Abou Mahalli,” p. 466 and n. 1. See also “Memoire de John Harrison sur Maroc,” Sources inédires 1ére série Angleterre. Vol. III (Paris, 1935), p. 142.Google Scholar

15 Al-Wufrānī, , pp. 209 ff., Ar. text; pp. 342 ff., Fr. trans.Google Scholar

16 This zawiya is mistakenly called the zawiya of Beradā'a by al-Wufrānī, p. 210, Ar. text; p. 343, Fr. trans. Pierre de Cenival points out this error in his article, “La zaouia dité de 'Berada'a,” Hespéris, 15 (1932), 137–139.Google Scholar

17 Sources inédites lére série Pays-Bas, 11, 443.Google Scholar

18 Al-Wufrānī, , p. 212, Ar. text; p. 346, Fr. trans.Google Scholar

19 See the document cited by Brignon, J. et al. , Histoire du Maroc (Paris, 1967), pp. 232–233.Google Scholar

20 Abū'l-Qāsim al-Ziyāni, Ai-Tarjurmān al-Mu'arib Duwal al-Mashriq wa'l-Maghrib, trans. Houdas, O. under the title Le Maroc de 1631 à 1812 (Paris, 1886), p. 2, Ar. text; p. 3, Fr. trans.Google Scholar

21 Al-Wufrānī, , p. 301, Ar. text; p. 498, Fr. trans.Google Scholar

22 Ibid., pp. 274–286, Ar. text; pp. 455–475, Fr. trans.

23 Ibid., p. 275, Ar. text; p. 458, Fr. trans.

24 Ibid., p. 277, Ar. text; p. 460, Fr. trans.

25 Ibid., p. 248, Ar. text; p. 411, Fr. trans.

26 Ibid. p. 249, Ar. text; p. 413, Fr. trans.

27 Cf. the date, 1640, given by al-Wufrānī, (p. 254, Ar. text; p. 423, Fr. trans.)Google ScholarRobert, Blake, an eyewitness of the battle gives the date 1638. (“Journal de Robert Blake [1639],” Sources inédites 1eáer série Anglererre, III, 509–510; “Lettre de Gaspard de Rastin à Richelieu,” Sources Inédites leéer série France, Vol. III [Paris, 1911], p. 586 and n.1).Google Scholar

28 Al-wufrānīni, , p. 254, Ar. text; p. 281, Fr. trans.Google Scholar

29 Al-Wufrānī, , pp. 260–274, Ar. text; pp. 431–455Google Scholar, Fr. trans. See also Henri, de Castries, “Les Moriscos à Salé et Sidi el-Ayachi,” Sources inédires léer série France, III, 187–198. Al-'Ayashī was a remarkable man, distinguished by his exemplary qualities which earned him the characterization of “the quṭb of his time.”Google Scholar

30 de Castries, H., “Les trois republiques du Bou Regreg,” Sources inédites léer série Pays-Bas. Vol. V 1920), pp. i–xxviii.Google Scholar

31 The Monscos were Muslim refugees who had settled in Rabat or New Sale after their expulsion from Spain in the first decade of the seventeenth century for failure to convert to Christianity. There is a study of the Moriscos by Coindreau, R., Les Corsaires de Sale (Paris, 1948).Google Scholar

32 Bngnon, J. et al. , Hisroire du Maroc (Paris, 1967), p. 230.Google Scholar

33 Fes is divided into two cities: Old Fes (Fes al-Bāli) and New Fes (Fes al-Jadīd).

34 On the chequered history of the city-state of Tetuan, see Sources inédites leéer série Angleterre, III, 54–554Google Scholar passim; Sources inédites léer serie France. III, 583Google Scholar and n.1. See also Latham, J. D., “The Reconstruction and Expansion of Tetuan: The Period of Andalusian Immigration,” in Makdisi, G. ed. Arabic and Islamic Studies in Honour of Hamilton A. R. Gibb (Leiden, 1965), pp. 387 ff.Google Scholar

35 Al-Wufrānī, , p. 281, Ar. text; p. 467Google Scholar, Fr. trans.; Abūl'l-Abbās, Ahmad ibn Khālid al-Nāsirī, Kitūb al-Istiqsā li-A khbār Duwal al-Maghrib al-Aqsa, Part VII (Casablanca, 1956)Google Scholar, Fr. trans. Fumey, E., Archives Marocaines, IX (1906), 16 ff., Ar. text; 21 ff., Fr. trans.Google Scholar

36 The authoritative study of Ghailān is “Les Rais El-Khaḍir Ghailān,” by Péretié, M. A.; in an exclusive edition of Archives Marocaines, 18 (1912).Google Scholar

37 Al-Nāṣirīri, , p. 27, Ar. text; p. 36Google Scholar, Fr. trans. Cf. de Castries' date of 1650 for Ghailān's revolt, Sources inédites 2é série France, Vol. 1 (Paris, 1922), p. 14 n. 2.Google Scholar

38 H. de Castries, “Les trois republiques.”

39 Al-Wufrānī, , p. 301, Ar. text; p. 499, Fr. trans.Google Scholar

40 See my own reconstruction of the rise of the Alawī, dynasty, “Myth and Legend as Functional Instruments in Politics: The Establishment of the 'Alawī Dynasty in Morocco,” Journal of African History, 16 (1975), 17 ff.Google Scholar

41 Muhammad was killed in 1664 in his encounter with al-Rashīd (al-Wufrānī, , p. 302, Ar. text; p. 499Google Scholar, Fr. trans.; al-Nāṣirī, , pp. 29–31, Ar. text; pp. 39–42, Fr. trans.).Google Scholar

42 Abū, 'Abdallāh Muhammad al-Qādirī, Nashr al-MathānīGoogle Scholar, trans. Michaux-Bellaire, E.Archives Marocaines, XXIV (1917), 177; al-Nāsirī, p. 34, Ar. text; p. 44 Fr. trans.Google Scholar

43 “Relation de Roland, Fréjus,” Sources Inédites 2é Série france, I, 124 ff.Google Scholar

44 See p. 7.

45 Al-Qādirī, , p. 177.Google Scholar

46 Routh, E. M. G., Tangier: England's Lost Atlantic Outpost, 1661–1684 (London, 1912).Google Scholar

47 Ibid. pp. 5–6.

48 Ibid., p. 90 n.l.

49 Ibid., p. 92. Alliance apart, the support of Ghailān by the English was based on a policy of providing a counterpoise to the rising power of al-Rashīd, the usual practice of “divide and rule.”“Colonel Norwood [governor of Tangier] acting on the instructions of Arlington, took up the policy of attempting to maintain a balance of power in Morocco by supporting Gayland, still the leader of resistance to the rising dynasty. He did indeed point out the advisability of negotiating for ‘free traffic’ with Tafiletta's [i.e., al-Rashīd's] dominions. but at the same time he promised Arlington that in no case would he ‘break oif unhandsomely with Gayland.’ In accordance with the treaty, he sent supplies by sea to Arzile, now closely besieged on condition that Gayland on his part “under the favour of our Artillery would trouble the enemy with frequent sallyes and surprizals.”

50 Ibid., pp. 94 ff; Cf, . Sources inédites 2è série France, I, 190 and n.1.Google Scholar

51 But not the end of Ghailān's resistance to the ‘Alawī dynasty. Ghailān was later to reappear in Morocco in 1673, determined to regain his lost power. Armed by the English, he fought courageously but was defeated and killed in a decisive battle near al-Qasr al-Kabir by Mawlay Ismā'īl, brother and successor of al-Rashīd.

52 Al-Qādirī, , p. 200;Google Scholaral-Ziyānī, , p. 9, Ar. text; p. 19Google Scholar, Fr. trans.; al-Nāsirī, , p. 36, Ar. text; p. 49Google Scholar, Fr. trans.; al-Wufrānī, , p. 284, Ar. text; p. 472, Fr. trans.Google Scholar

53 Al-Wufrānī, , pp. 259–258. Ar. text: p. 428, Fr. trans.Google Scholar

54 Ibid., p. 287, Ar. text; pp. 476–77, Fr. trans.

55 Moutte, G., “Histoire des Conquêtes de Mouley Archy… Sources inédites 2é séries France, Vol. II (Paris, 1924), p. 35.Google Scholar

56 Sources inédites lèer série France, Vol. III (Paris, 1911), p. 583.Google Scholar

57 Al-Wufrānī, , p. 304, Ar. text; p. 503, Fr. trans. Al-Rashīd was riding a horse in a garden when he accidentally hit his head against the branch of an orange tree; he died immediately.Google Scholar

58 Al-Nāsirī, , pp. 19–20, Ar. text; pp. 25–26, Fr. trans.Google Scholar

59 See p. 4.

60 “Journal of Carteret, G.,” Sources inédites lère série Angleterre, Vol. III (Paris, 1935), p. 455, n. 2.Google Scholar

61 Nor was Muhammad al-Hājj alone in this; al-'Ayāshī also exercised power in Fes from his base in Salé, prior to his death, through confrontation with Dilā, in 1641, but he, too, never assumed the sovereign title of sultan.

62 Elbaki, Hermassi, Leadership and National Development in North Africa (California, 1972), p. 44.Google Scholar

63 “In the case of charismatic authority, it is the charismatically qualified leader as such who is obeyed by virtue of personal trust in his revelation, his heroism or his exemplary qualities, so far as they fall within the scope of the individual's belief in his charisma” (Weber, , p. 216).Google Scholar

64 Cf. Louis XIV of France: “L'etat c'est moi.”

65 Like the zawiya of Dilā' in the 17th century, the political factions struggling for power after the death of Mawlay Ismā'il in the 18th century did not aspire to sovereignty. Lacking, like the zawiya of Dilā', the legitimacy to rule, these factions did no more than support the candidacy of the sons of Mawlay Ismā'il (Brignon, et al. , pp. 257 ff.).Google Scholar

66 See Abun-Nasr, J. M., A History of the Maghrib (Cambridge, 1971), pp.202 ff.Google Scholar

67 Cf., Brahim Boutalib's, review of Muhammad Hiji's, La Zaouia de Dila: son role religieux, scientifique et politique (Rabat, 1964)Google Scholar in Hespéris-Tamuda, 4 (1968), 417.Google Scholar

68 Yaลyā, had in fact become styled Mawlay al-Shaikh ibn 'Abdallāh in the course of his bid for power. Sources Inédites1ére sérieFrance, Vol.III (Paris, 1911), pp. 44ff.Google Scholar

69 See n.65.