Ideas, Images, and Methods of Portrayal: Insights into
Classical Arabic Literature and Islam

Sebastian Günther, ed.
Leiden, Boston: Brill, 2005. 468 pages.

This ambitious collection of sixteen essays (plus an introduction by the edi-
tor) ranges widely across Islamic history and scholarly disciplines. The uni-
fying theme is reflected in the title: Muslim texts are examined for their con-
ceptual frameworks as conveyers of a cultural ethos. While some essays are
more successful than others in enunciating this theme’s more theoretical
aspects, the range of topics covered means that most readers will find some-
thing of interest and relevance and will likely be stimulated to apply the
methods of analysis to their own area of study.

Sebastian Günther’s introduction does an admirable job of highlighting
each essay’s contribution to creating an overall picture of Muslim intellec-
tual history and the “cultural specificity of Islam that facilitated the
advancement of intellectual life and the formation of ‘modern’ societies”
(p. xiv) by paying attention to the ideas, forms, content, and impact of tex-
tual artefacts from the eighth through the fourteenth centuries.

Stephan Dähne begins the volume by focusing on the Qur’an and its
use in political speeches attributed to Abu Hamza al-Shari (d. 747),
Abdullah ibn al-Zubayr (d. 692), Uthman ibn Hayyan al-Murri (d. after
713), and Abdallah ibn Tahir (d. 844). Ute Pietruschka then deals with the
Christian community’s literary activity under the Umayyads as it devel-
oped in Syriac (and emerged in Arabic), maintained the Byzantine tradition,
and was impacted by Islam. Keeping with the Christian theme, Sandra
Toenies Keating discusses the work of the Christian apologist Abu Ra’ita
(d. ca 835) and his attempt to defend Biblical scripture from the Muslim
charge of falsification (tahrif).

Next, Beatrice Gruendler treats the “modern” (mudath) poetry of the
early Abbasid period and draws attention to how, in the stories of these
poets’ lives (especially as reported in the works of Ibn al-Mu’tazz [d. 908]
and al-Suli [d. 946]), we witness medieval attitudes toward intellectual

118 The American Journal of Islamic Social Sciences 24:4



authority in society being actively altered. Sebastian Günther examines al-
Jahiz (d. 869) and Ibn Sahnun (d. 870), as well as their views on pedagogy,
in a chapter that includes the Arabic text plus a translation of the advice that
both writers gave to teachers, paying attention to the ethical and philosoph-
ical perspective on teaching.

Monika Bernards subjects the much debated Basra/Kufa dichotomy
among Arabic grammarians to a statistical analysis of social networks to see
if the division has any geographical reality. The results show an intermin-
gling of the supposed groups. John Nawas’ essay focuses on non-Arab con-
verts (mawali) and their contribution to hadith transmission via a statistical
analysis. Both Bernards and Nawas are engaged in the “Ulama Project,” a
database of material culled from ninety biographical dictionaries classified
in up to one hundred categories relating to the life and career of individual
scholars from the first four Islamic centuries. 

Aisha Geissinger’s provocative analysis of al-Bukhari’s hadith collec-
tion focuses on gender and its role in the intellectual image of medieval
Islamic scholars. She analyzes female authority in exegesis as well as the
limits on women’s role in establishing the sunnah in matters of ritual and,
eventually, their complete autonomy in aspects of religion, especially the
hajj. Verena Klemm pursues similar interests in her essay on Fatima, Muham-
mad’s daughter, and the creation of her image as a hagiographical subject
especially in Shi`i texts.

Stephen C. Judd concentrates on the narrative treatment of late Umay-
yad history by al-Tabari (d. 923) and al-Baladhuri (d. ca 892). The histori-
ans’ view of why the Umayyads fell is disclosed by the way in which the
narratives are constructed on the basis of earlier sources, as is seen by exam-
ining the two chroniclers’ parallel accounts. Alexei A. Khismatulin looks at
al-Ghazzali (d. 1111) and his Persian work The Alchemy of Happiness. He
argues that this book is not an abridgement of the author’s more famous
Revivification of the Islamic Sciences, but an independent book that both
reflects and developed Iranian mystical ideas of the time. Frank Griffel
examines al-Ghazzali’s Incoherence of the Philosophers, specifically paying
attention to its introductory chapters, in which al-Ghazzali presents his over-
all argument for the philosophers’ epistemological failings. Biographical
dictionaries reappear in Camilla Adang’s essay on the spread of Zahirism in
Islamic Spain during the eleventh and twelfth centuries. She documents,
through extensive data on sixteen scholars, that although small, the Zahiri
school was perceived as an intellectual threat and its members were well
connected socially.

Book Reviews 119



Andrew J. Lane assesses al-Zamakhshari’s (d. 1144) tafsir and shows
that, in form and method, there is nothing distinctively Mu’tazilite about the
work, despite what has often been suggested. He has elaborated upon this
point in his A Traditional Mu’tazilite Qur’an Commentary: The Kashshaf of
Jar Allah al-Zamakhshari (d. 538/1144) (Leiden and Boston: Brill, 2006).
Heather Keaney examines the 250-page biography of Caliph Uthman written
by Ibn Bakr (d. 1340), a Mamluk-era historian. She points out that later writ-
ers did not usually undertake the type of analysis used by earlier historians
(e.g., Judd’s essay in this volume). Here, she compares Ibn Bakr’s work to the
treatment of Uthman in al-Dhahabi (d. 1348) and Ibn Kathir (d. 1373).
Mamluk writers clearly found the period of Uthman ideal for conveying their
own contemporary ideas about leadership and obedience. 

The volume concludes with Adrian Gully’s discussion of the image of
the “sword and the pen” in three fourteenth-century texts. Gully argues that
the texts reflect more of their contemporary setting than was previously sug-
gested, and that they are vehicles for displaying the author’s skills.

All of these stimulating contributions are complemented by very com-
plete indexes of proper names, geographical names and toponyms, titles of
books, Qur’anic references, and topics and keywords that serve to enhance
the value of the work significantly.

Andrew Rippin
Dean, Faculty of Humanities

University of Victoria, Canada

120 The American Journal of Islamic Social Sciences 24:4