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1/17 Short thread on Sunnism. A common mistake made by non-specialists would have us believe that the events following the death of Muḥammad in 632 AD precipitated the Shiʿi-Sunni divide. This is quite wrong. The demarcation of sectarian identities was brought into sharp
2/17 focus significantly later, around two to three centuries after death of Muḥammad. A fact overlooked by even capable historians is that religious identity markers such as Sunni require diachronic studies sympathetic of the intellectual ambiguity that marked early Islam
3/17 Take for instance the ahistorical claims made today in some quarters - and academic circles - that make retrospectively thinkers who lived before the fall of the Umayyads either Shiʿi or Sunni. The terms do not apply then, at least not in a meaningful way.
4/17 We are tempted to speak of the historian al-Ṭabarī (d. 923) as Sunni (and we're all guilty of using the term generically and imprecisely even). But is this not predicted on the yet to be proven assumption that pre-Seljuk (c. eleventh century) Sunnism is discernible?
5/17 That is not to say there weren't elements of Sunnism ("proto-Sunnism) that predated the Seljuks. Long before the Seljuks the ḥadīth folk had settled on the pivotal doctrine of the Rāshidūn (or, tarbīʿ), that is, the Four Caliphs. But we still don't have Sunnism tout court.
6/17 As we approach the end of the 9th century - and not yet close to the shores of the Seljuks - attempts are made to conceptualise a community markedly different from the earliest factions, namely Shiʿis and Khārijīs, in terms that suggest proto-Sunnism was a "response"
7/17 Patrcia Crone pointed this out a while back in her God's Rule. But long before her it was the towering and pivotal figure of Ibn Saʿd (d. 845) who makes one of the earliest attempts to draw the contours of Sunnism offering as the following key constituents:
8/17 clear conception of the first four caliphs, superiority of Quraysh, religious markers of ahl al-sunnah wa l-jamāʿah, ahl al-ḥadīth, historical memory of history of the Islamic community as that of the Prophet & the select individuals who carried forth his knowledge/practice
9/17 More evidence that the ninth century was a significant watershed moment in the consolidation of Sunnism is the known report of Ibn Sīrīn cited in Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim of Muslim b. al-Ḥajjāj (d. 875) offers a minimalist and passive but revealing definition of Sunnism as
10/17 those skilled in ḥadīth criticism and those who oppose the people of opinion and unprecedented innovation (البدعة).
11/17 From late ninth/early tenth century a clearer conception of Sunni emerges, albeit still passive & defined against the "others". The tenth century authority al-Ājūrī (d. 970) cites a report that says, a Sunni is one that does not align with the known factions/innovations
12/17 Two things can be taken away from the above: one, the genesis of Sunnism as a religious marker postdates the earliest religious, sectarian, and dogmatic factions. Two, a Sunni is known by his non assertive stance towards the factionalism in early Islam.
13/17 The eleventh century Shafiʿi theologian Hibat Allāh b. al-Ḥasan al-Lālakāʾī (d. 1027) offers a similar definition of Sunnism, namely that which is defined extrinsically, that is, against the "others".
14/17 Who are these "others," the folk of innovation, against whom Sunnism defines itself? We find the answer in what is possible the oldest treatise on heresiography, the Kitāb al-Tanbīh wa l-radd ʿalā ahl al-ahwāʾ wa l-bidaʿ by al-Malaṭī (d. 987) [another tenth century figure]
![14/17 Who are these "others," the folk of innovation, against whom Sunnism defines itself? We find the answer in what is possible the oldest treatise on heresiography, the Kitāb al-Tanbīh wa l-radd ʿalā ahl al-ahwāʾ wa l-bidaʿ by al-Malaṭī (d. 987) [another tenth century figure]](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/EZh8CySXQAY_sGf.jpg "14/17 Who are these \"others,\" the folk of innovation, against whom Sunnism defines itself? We find the answer in what is possible the oldest treatise on heresiography, the Kitāb al-Tanbīh wa l-radd ʿalā ahl al-ahwāʾ wa l-bidaʿ by al-Malaṭī (d. 987) [another tenth century figure]")
15/17 According to Al-Malaṭī Sunnism is that which is neither Shiʿism nor Kharijism, and to a lesser extent Jahmī. The criteria is passive and negatively defined: If a person does not identify as Shiʿi, nor Khārijī, nor Jahmī, then he is Sunni.
16/17 In the Seljuk period, the late eleventh and twelfth century Sunnism takes one more positive definitional attributes, such as (1) probativeness of Quran and Sunnah; (2) Muḥammad as intercessor and founding figure; (3) assertive theological and doctrinal commitments (creed);
17/17 (4) a developed moral and legal system (fiqh); (5) elaborated narrative of early communal history; (6) pious traditions such as Sufism; (7) institutions for the production of Sunni legalists; (8) vocal opposition to non-Sunni religiosities. END.
