SOURCE: Aasi, Ghulam Haider. “Ibn Hazm: His Life and Environment,” “Study of Other Religions,” and “Principles and Methodology of the Study of Religions.” In Muslim Understanding of Other Religions: A Study of Ibn Hazm's Kitab al-Fasl fi al-Milal wa al-Ahwa' wa al-Nihal. pp. 43-58; 59-64; 65-80. Islamabad, Pakistan: International Institute of Islamic Thought and Islamic Research Institute, 1999.

[In the following essays, Aasi remarks on Ibn Hazm's life and historical background, then discusses his religious thought.]

IBN HAZM: HIS LIFE AND ENVIRONMENT

A. FAMILY NAMES AND ORIGIN

Ibn Hazm's full name is Abū Muḥammad ‘Alī ibn Aḥmad ibn Sa‘īd ibn Hazm ibn Ghālib ibn Sāliḥ ibn Khalaf ibn Ma‘dān ibn Sufyān ibn Yazīd al-Fārisī, a mawlā (client) of Yazīd ibn abī Sufyān ibn Harb ibn Umayyah ibn ’Abd Shams. His kunyah (surname) is Abū Muḥammad, but he is generally known as Ibn Hazm. One of the biographers, al-Dhahabī, devotes a full section of his Siyar al-Nubalā' to Ibn Hazm.

Most Muslim biographers, except for Ibn Hayyān, maintain and Ibn Hazm himself claims that his family was Persian in origin. Yazīd al-Fārisī, his great-great-grandfather, accepted Islam during the reign of ‘Umar, becoming a mawlā (client) of Yazīd ibn Abī Sufyān, the brother of Mu‘āwiyah, the latter being the founder of the Umayyad dynasty. His grandfather, Khalaf, came to al-Andalus during the reign of ‘Abd al-Raḥmān al-Dākhil, the first Umayyad ruler of Muslim Spain.¹

Ibn Hayyān, Ibn Hazm's contemporary and the son of a rival family, considers his origin to be Spanish. The Orientalists, following Ibn Hayyān's report, except for Asian Palacios assert that Ibn Hazm belonged to a humble Spanish Christian family, that his grandfather, Sa‘īd, was the first to accept Islam, and that his father, Aḥmad, was the first to become well-known, having become a minister. Ibn Hayyān further claimed that Aḥmad was the first to claim for himself and his family the title of Umawī walā' (clientele of the Umayyads). However, since these claims do not stand up to critical historical tests, they have been rejected by almost all Muslim biographers.²

First, Sa‘īd ibn Aḥmad al-Jayyānī and al-Humaydī have affirmed their Persian origin. Second, according to other Andalusian historians, Ibn Hazm's family was well-known because of its respected genealogy and the exalted position it acquired. Third, western Cordoba, which housed his family estate, was occupied by the Arabs, rather than by the Spaniards. Finally, Ibn Hazm, who was himself a genealogist of no mean stature, believed his family to be of Persian origin.

B. DATES OF BIRTH AND DEATH

Ibn Hazm was born on Wednesday, the last day of Ramaḍān, before sunrise, in 384 a.h./November 7, 994 c.e. according to Sa‘īd al-Jayyānī, Ibn Hazm's disciple to whom he wrote in his own hand. Yāqūt al-Hamawī, however, places his birth in 383 a.h. leading Brockelmann to place it in 993 c.e. Since Yāqūt himself ascribed his statement to Sa‘īd, the mistake probably occurred either because of the scribe's or of Yāqūt's error in writing it down.³ On the authority of Abū Rāfi‘, Ibn Hazm's son, Sa‘īd, places his death date on 28th Sha‘bān 456 a.h./August 15, 1064 c.e.⁴

C. CHILDHOOD AND EARLY EDUCATION

At the time of Ibn Hazm's birth, his father, Abū ’Amr Aḥmad ibn Sa‘īd, was minister to Hishām al-Mu'ayyad in the powerful cabinet of al-Manṣūr Muḥammad ibn Abī ‘Āmir, known a to the Christian West as Almanzor. Thus, Ibn Hazm came to be brought up in the midst of an easy and pampered harem household, characteristised by the medieval Islamic etiquette. His father's house was situated in the east of Cordoba, in the neighbourhood of al-Madīnat al-Zāhirah, the administrative capital built by al-Manṣūr in order to enable him to appropriate all caliphal powers, while keeping the Caliph isolated. Paradoxically, this was both the peak, and the beginning of the fall, of the Muslim rule in Spain.

In his Tawq al-Hamāmah (The Ring of the Dove), a masterpiece on the nature and psychology of love and lovers, we get glimpses of his childhood, early education, and early life experiences.

I never sat with men until I was already a youth and my beard had begun to sprout. Women taught me the Holy Qur’ān. They recited to me the poetry, trained me in calligraphy.⁵

On reaching adolescence, Ibn Hazm's education and training were entrusted to pious men and women. He studied the Qur’ān, Hadīth, Arabic language and grammar, and the Kalām (al-Kalām wa al-Jadal), under ‘Abd al-Raḥmān ibn Abī Yazīd al-Azdī al-Miṣrī, in the care and company of Abū ‘Alī al-Husayn al-Fāsī, in Ruṣāfah (Cordoba).⁶ His other teachers included Aḥmad ibn al-Jassūr and Abū Bakr Muḥammad Ibn Isḥāq al-Hamadhānī in Hadīth; ’Abd Allāh ibn Daḥḥūn, Ibn al-Faradī (the Qāḍī of Valencia), and Abū al-Khiyār Mas‘ūd Ibn Muflit in Fiqh, and Muḥammad Ibn al-Hasan al-Madhḥajī and Ibn al-Kattānī in logic and philosophy. He acknowledges his indebtedness to Baqī ibn Makhlad ibn Umayyah al-Hijāzī al-Shāfi‘ī, and Mundhir ibn Sa‘īd al-Dāwūdī al-Zāhirī, upon whose works he drew heavily⁷

D. POLITICAL STRUGGLES

Ibn Hazm was barely fifteen when Cordovan life was thrown into internal political turmoil. His father continued as minister under al-Manṣūr's son, al-Muzaffar, and remained faithful to the Umayyad dynasty because of his belief in the dynasty's legitimacy. With the fall of the ‘Āmirids, al-Madīnat al-Zāhirah was pillaged and plundered, and Ibn Hazm's family was forced to move to their old house in Balāt Mughīrah in western Cordoba, three days after Muḥammad al-Mahdī succeeded to the caliphate in Jumādā al-Ākhirah 399 a.h./February 1009 c.e.⁸. The turmoil and the repercussions of the struggle among the claimants to the Caliphate further aggravated the strife among the various ethnic groups and social classes, leading to the fall of the Umayyad caliphate for whose restoration Ibn Hazm struggled throughout his life. He drew a vivid picture in his writing of the civil strife and disorder in Cordoba:

When Hishām al-Mu'ayyad succeeded to the throne, we were sufficiently preoccupied with the misfortunes which came upon us, thanks to the hostility of his ministers: we were sorely tried by imprisonment, surveillance, and crushing fines, and were finally obliged to go into hiding. Civil war raged far and wide: all classes suffered from its dire effects and ourselves in particular. At last my father the Vizier died (God have mercy on him), on the afternoon of Saturday 28th Dhū al-Qa‘dah, 402 a.h./22nd June 1012 c.e. our situation still being as I have described.⁹

Soon after the death of Ibn Hazm's father, their houses in Balāt Mughīrah were plundered and destroyed when the Berbers sacked Cordoba in 404 a.h./1013 c.e.¹⁰. Ibn Hazm was forced to leave Cordoba on Ist Muharram 404 a.h./1013 c.e. and take refuge in Almeria for about three years. Then in 407 a.h./1016 c.e. when ‘Alī ibn Hammūd al-Hasanī al-Nāṣir replaced Sulaymān al-Zafīr, as Caliph, Almeira's Hammūdid governor, Khayrān suspected and imprisoned Ibn Hazm for his sympathies with the Umayyads and later banished him. Accompanied by Muḥammad ibn Isḥāq, Ibn Hazm found shelter for several months with Ibn al-Muzaffar, the governor of Hiṣn al-Qaṣr. When Ibn Hazm learned that ‘Abd al-Raḥmān IV al-Murtaḍā, having proclaimed himself caliph, had gathered forces to fight against the Berbers in Granada, they left for Valencia to join him there. Ibn Hazm fought against Granada and reportedly served al-Murtaḍā as vizier. Eventually Ibn Hazm was defeated, captured, and imprisoned.¹¹

Ibn Hazm was, however, back in Cordoba¹² in Shawwāl 409 a.h./February 1019 c.e. during the reign of al-Qāsim ibn Hammūd. In 414 a.h./1023 c.e. al-Qāsim was overthrown and replaced by ‘Abd al-Raḥmān V al-Mustazhir, when Ibn Hazm served him as vizier. Seven weeks after Mustazhir's assassination Ibn Hazm again found himself in prison, where he began writing his Tawq al-Hamāmah.¹³ According to Roger Arnaldez, Ibn Hazm started writing his Tawq in 413 a.h./1022 c.e.¹⁴ while Nykl puts it in before 414 a.h./December 1023 c.e. since there is no mention of ‘Abd al-Raḥmān V al-Mustazhir in the Tawq. Palacios holds the same view.¹⁵

Nykl, however, does not take into consideration other historical events which support the later date. First, Nykl's opinion that Ibn Hazm's hope for the restoration of the Umayyads was shattered after al-Mustazhir's assassination ignores the fact that Ibn Hazm again became vizier to Hishām who was proclaimed caliph in 418 a.h./April 1027 c.e. by the Cordoban Council. Second, Tawq mentions the political struggle between Khayrān, the governor of Almeria, and Mujāhid, the governor of Dfenia, in 417 a.h./1026 c.e.¹⁶ This lends credence to the opposite view.¹⁷

At the abolition of the Caliphate by the Cordoban council in Dhūal-Hijjah 422 a.h./1031 c.e. Hishām al-Mu‘tadd, the last Caliph, was deported. This marked the end of the Umayyad caliphate and of a united al-Andalus; in fact it paved the way for the disintegration of the Muslim rule. The demolition of the caliphate led to political turmoil known as Reyes de Taifa in Spanish (Mulūk al-Tawāi'f in Arabic), resulting in the division of al-Andalus into small kingdoms. Ibn Hazm, who called this period a time of fiṭnah (anarchy), worked, wrote, and challenged the legitimacy of these kingdoms throughout his life.

As a sensitive Muslim scholar and experienced politician, Ibn Hazm believed that the root of the disintegration of the Muslim rule lay not merely in political opportunism, economic deterrioration, and socio-racial divisions, but also in the erosion of the religious bases and ethical norms of the society.

With the collapse of the Umayyad caliphate Ibn Hazm's participation in politics came to an end. Isolated from his political goals, he acquired great intellectual vigour and unprecedented creativity. He incisively discussed and analysed the ideologies of rulers, politicians, philosophers, religious scholars, and even the masses of his time and without fear or favour. As a critic, he was too rational and too radical in his thought and speech, teaching and writing, to be widely accepted or easily tolerated anywhere.

E. INTELLECTUAL CAREER

The troubles and travails of his time finally convinced Ibn Hazm that the re-establishment of a strong Muslim caliphate by resorting to political revolution was impossible. Since the masses were confused about, or ignorant of, the normative Islamic principles for political life—principles derived from the Qur’ān and the Sunnah—Ibn Hazm set out to draw the attention of the Muslim society to their duty to re-establish the caliphate. Since there could be no social justice, peace, or prosperity without caliphate, Ibn Hazm made it his academic mission to prove the indispensabality of the Muslim caliphate. He also took upon himself to see that all branches of learning conformed to a normative Islamic basis. To this end, he wrote on almost every Islamic science thus analyzing and systematizing all extant knowledge according to an Islamic pattern.

Besides being a teacher and an ideologue, Ibn Hazm was a prolific writer. He wrote some four hundred volumes, comprising about 80,000 pages, in his own hand. None in Muslim history, except for Muḥammad Ibn Jarīr al-Tabarī, is credited with such prolificity. However, the number of his works, which were rewritten or recovered after they were burnt by Ibn ‘Abbād in Seville, is not known.¹⁸

Not all of Ibn Hazm's works are extant. Thanks, however, to both Muslim and non-Muslim scholars of the last two centuries, some of his important works on belles-lettres, ethics, genealogy, history, jurisprudence, logic, and religion have been recovered. Some have been edited and published. Those on Fiqh and on the codification of the Zāhirī school of Islamic law are recognized as masterpieces and he is unanimously acknowledged as the Imām of Zāhirī Fiqh.

His contribution to Fiqh and ethics in particular, and to the socio-cultural history of Muslim Spain in general, has overshadowed that in other fields of knowledge. For instance, there has been littel acknowledgment of his original masterpiece on the history of religions. Muslim scholars have engaged themselves in retrieving, editing, publishing, and introducing his works on Islamic jurisprudence, ethics, genealogy, and history, while the Orientalists have concerned themselves primarily with his Tawq al-Hamāmah and his studies of the socio-political history of al-Andalus. To confine Ibn Hazm's contribution merely to these works, however, tantamounts to losing sight of one of his most significant contributions to yet another field of study, Comparative Religion, which represents an academic milestone.

Neglecting Ibn Hazm's other major and significant works has led the Hazmian scholars to a compartmentalization of his contributions and the identification of each of his works with a specific branch of knowledge. However, Ibn Hazm would not have thought nor approved of this approach since he produced his writings under a comprehensive scheme, relying on his encyclopaedic range of knowledge. As noted earlier, he attempted to analyze the malaise of the society and to re-orient it towards the interdependence between the Sharī‘ah, Sharī‘ah and the Khilāfah.

As the Andalusian society was a pluralistic one—ethnically, socially, and religiously—he devoted himself to an analytical and historical-critical study of the principles of common sense and of rationalism and logic, in order to bring out the essential role of religion and religious law in the society. His concern to identify which of the religious traditions presented the most reasonable, rational, coherent, and consistent system of beliefs and practices so that it could serve as a guiding and binding law for human society, led him to a study and analysis of different religious traditions. This is also corroborated by the fact that he produced his works on logic, philosophy, history of religions, Fiqh, and ethics in sequence. His treatise on logic and philosophy (al-Taqrīb li Hadd al-Manṭiq wa al-Madkhal ilayhi), was written sometime between 415 a.h./1023 c.e. and 425 a.h./1034 c.e. probably before he started writing Kitāb al-Faṣl fī al-Milal wa al-Ahwā' wa al-Niḥal.¹⁹ All his other works on Fiqh and Zāhirī law were written later, and he refers to these works in al-Iḥkām fī Uṣūl al-Aḥkām and in al-Muḥallā.²⁰

Since Ibn Hazm did not believe that juristic, theological, and philosophical differences in society were merely heresy, schism, or religious deviation, he took upon himself to analyze the diversity of human faiths on a scientific basis, one based on rational, historical, socio-political, and psychological grounds.

Although his understanding of feminine psychology has been acknowledged by the translators and analysts of Tawq, his grasp of the religious psychology of mankind has either been under-estimated or ignored. However, he has been acknowledged as the Imām of the Zāhirī school of Islamic law, as the greatest scholar of his time in Muslim Spain, one of the greatest thinkers in the history of Islamic thought, and as the first truly distinguished Muslim historian of the religious ideas of mankind. Despite persecution, harassment, hostility, denigration of his ideas and charges of heresy, and despite confinement to his home village, Manta-Lisham, during the last years of his life, he indefatigably continued his scholarly pursuits, eliciting the attention and interest of young students.²¹ He was also known for his expertise as a munāzir who engaged himself in dialogues and disputations with the leaders of different schools of Islamic law, with philosophers, with Sufi leaders, and with the Jewish and Christian scholars. His sharp and incisive criticism supported by irrefutable reasoning and argumentation, directed against religious and political opportunists, the pretenders of Khilāfah, and the usurpers of power, earned him the enmity of both political and religious ruling groups, who denounced him for his radical and uncompromising stance, and tried to suppress him by subjecting him to social and intellectual boycott. This resulted in indifference towards, if not non-recognition of, Ibn Hazm's ingenious intellectual contributions. Even after his death, those individuals who drew upon his thought and knowledge kept his works to themselves and did not have the courage to publicise them openly.²²

F. SOCIO-RELIGIOUS MILIEU

E. Garcia Gomez aptly describes Ibn Hazm's life, except for the first fourteen years, as corresponding to “the most tragic moments of Muslim Spain” and to the “decisive crisis of Islam in al-Andalus”.²³

Ibn Hazm was hardly fifteen when he lived through the most crucial, tragic, and destructive events of Andalusian history. He witnessed the overthrow of the ‘Āmirid power, followed by the destruction of everything related to them. Once the institution of the Khilāfah was robbed of its function, role, honour and trust, dissension and disintegration took hold in every aspect of life. This, in turn, led to the end of the Umayyad caliphate and, finally, to that of Muslim presence in Spain.

Muslims had first entered the Iberian peninsula in 711 c.e. but it was with the Umayyad leadership, beginning with ‘Abd al-Raḥmān I, that really changed the course of Spanish history. ‘Abd al-Raḥmān not only transplanted the Arabian date palm onto the Iberian soil, sowed the seeds of Islamic culture and civilization, facilitated the growth and development of the Islamic tradition, reaching its climax during the reign of his great-great-grandson, ‘Abd al-Raḥmān III, known as the Falcon of Spain. ‘Abd al-Raḥmān established the Umayyad caliphate in 929 c.e. and brought all of al-Andalus under his Khilāfah, ensuring its political and cultural unity, and making it the greatest power in the West. His capital city, Cordoba, was second only to Baghdad as a centre of learning and culture and in trade and commerce.

The unprecedented peace and prosperity of Cordoba attracted people from far and near, friends and foes alike, and it became a melting pot for the arts and crafts, for diverse languages, cultures, philosophies and religious traditions. The khilāfah of ‘Abd al-Raḥmān III welded the different Muslim ethnic groups and diverse social classes together and encouraged the religious communities to live together in an atmosphere mutual respect and tolerance. Although he was not given to bookish habits or to scholarly pursuits (as was his successor and son, al-Hakam II), he patronized poets, scholars, and learned men at his court. To this period also belong the architectural monuments in Cordoba.

After his death in 961 c.e. the power and glory of the Khilāfah continued unabated for some five decades. His son and successor, al-Hakam II, already in his forties, and no less proficient than his father, carried his father's mission further. Known to historians as a bibliophile, he patronised the academic lore and the sciences of his day and devoted himself to the establishment of a great library in Cordoba. A scholar of great stature, he made the collection and reading of books the fashion of his time, and inculcated a love of literature among the people. A great number of the works bolstering the prestige of al-Andalus as an international power was reportedly burned by al-Manṣūr in order to appease the fanatic Mālikī jurists, who were against the presence and circulation of materials on Greek philosophy and of anti-Mālikī juristic studies. Upon death al-Hakam's death in October 976 c.e. his eleven-year old son, Hishām II, was named caliph due to palace intrigues, in which his tutor, Muḥammad ibn Abī ‘Āmir, played a major role.

Known as al-Manṣūr, because of his victories against the adversaries of neighbouring Christian states at that time, ‘Āmir was endowed with exceptional political intelligence and insight; he was also ambitious, charming, and extremely ruthless. His detailed planning, prudent policies, statesmanship, and intrigues enabled him to overcome his adversaries, both within and without. In this connection he utilised sheer force, favour, or diplomacy, as the occasion demanded. While he raised al-Andalus to its political and cultural zenith by establishing peace and prosperity within the realm, Al-Manṣūr also made himself extremely powerful, arrogating to himself caliphal prestige and influence by usurpation. This enabled him to eliminate one power group after another and to make the Berber mercenaries predominate in governmental affairs. In setting the negative precedent of palace conspiracies, however, he undermined the trust and respect of the Khilāfah among the masses in general, and the administrative and religious circles in particular. Of these the latter were offended to the point of becoming vengeful.

Al-Manṣūr was succeeded by his capable and equally strong son, ’Abd al-Malik al-Muzaffar (1002-1008 c.e.), who, in turn, was succeeded by al-Manṣūr's younger son, ‘Abd al-Raḥmān called Sanchol. His arrogance and high ambition exceeded all previous limits, leading to an upsurge of resentment among the Umayyad princes and the general public which manifested itself in revolutionary and counter-revolutionary insurrections among various groups—Berbers, Spanish, Slavs, and Arabs. All of them set about exchanging nominal caliphs who were mere tools, and in the melee that accompanied it, the ‘Āmirid power was finally washed out.

Cordoban peace and prosperity were displaced by successive internecine warfare, pillaging and plundering. Despite the strenous efforts of Ibn Hazm and others to restore the Umayyad caliphate their surviving members had neither the capacity nor the good fortune to regain power. Ambitious and opportunistic courtiers played havoc with the institution of Khilāfah through nominal and weak caliphs, and gave vent to dormant ethnic, racial, cultural, and class differences that gained prevalence in the society, dividing the community into several groups. In consequence, the socio-political and religio-cultural unity that was based upon the Islamic principles of the unity of the ummah and a respect for pluralism, and which had been established through the central role of the Khilāfah, were dismantled. Twenty-two years of turbulence finally led the Cordoban public to bring down the Umayyad caliphate in 1031 c.e. once and for all.

With the abolition of the Umayyad caliphate, al-Andalus was divided, primarily along tribal and ethnic lines, into embattled Arab, Berber, and Slavic kingdoms, eventuating finally in the success of the Christian Reconquesta. But even during the period of turmoil and anarchy, Arabic language, poetry and belles-lettres, and different sciences, and culture in general, continued to develop and flourish almost unabated. Each of these kingdoms had the Cordoban splendour, that had now ended for ever, was the model. The Arabization in these kingdoms was, however, severed from the basic core of Islam. Shu‘ūbiyyah (ethnic conflict) was the first result of this split.

After Toledo fell to Alfonso in 1085 c.e. a reversal process was ushered in, one which brought about the Christianization and eventually Hispanization of the region. This period of Mulūk al-Tawā'if called fitnah by Ibn Hazm,²⁴ was an unfortunate period for al-Andalus, not since it became politically fragmentated, but also because some of its great characteristics such as socio-economic justice, religio-cultural integrity and such as tolerance were impaired. Each ruler, in order to perpetuate his rule, carved out a separate region on grounds of ethnic and tribal affiliation, and gathered mercenaries around him. During this period, irreligious elements became ascendant and Islam, its principles and injunctions, came to be publicaly ridiculed. Ibn Hazm's portrayal of the fitnah period is extremely revealing:

As for your query about the fitnah with which the people are afflicted due to their indifference to the worsening political situation, we are now its victims and subject to its test. We seek Allah's security from it. This is an evil fitnah in which religious norms are being destroyed, save for those who are protected by Allah. Its description needs a lengthy exposition. However, in the main it is that rulers of every city and fortress throughout al-Andalus of these days, from the beginning to the end, are enemies of Allah and His Messenger and are perpetuators of corruption (fasād) in the land. All that you see openly is that Muslims' properties are being robbed and taken away. It is due to such rulers' oppression. They permit their soldiers to commit highway robberies in the areas under their control. They have levied jizyah and excise tax even upon Muslims. They have appointed Jews as their tax-lords to collect jizyah and other taxes from the Muslims. They make excuses for the necessity of such un-Islamic taxes and to make legitimate what has been prohibited by Allah. Their sole end is to perpetuate their rule and impose their laws by replacing the laws of Allah. Also do not be deceived by the behaviour of the evil-doing self-claimed religious leaders who are wolves disguised in sheeps' clothing they adorn the evils of these evil-doers [rulers] with their own wickedness and support the rulers in their transgressions. By God, had these rulers seen that their rule would continue by worshipping the cross, they would have done so without hesitation. We see them that now they seek help from the Christians, make the Christians masters over Muslim men, women and children. They send Muslims as captives to their Christian masters, hand the Muslims' lands over to the Christians willingly where the symbols of Islam are being replaced by the symbols of Christianity.²⁵

The end of the central Cordoban Khilāfah did not, however, represent a transition from Arabism to Islamism, as some secular Hispano-Arabists believe. Rather, it was a movement from Islam to tribal Arabism, from centralism to regionalism. The exponents of Andalusian unity and glory such as Ibn Hazm, were not Spanish nationalists. They did not belong to any anti-Islamic faction nor were they anti-Arab. They were rather loyal Khilafatists and centrists. Ibn Hazm stood for uncompromising Islamicity, for a strong central government, and Umayyad caliphate for al-Andalus. This has baffled many Orientalists and has led them to explain it in terms of Ibn Hazm's Christian Spanish origin.

Ibn Hazm and other like-minded Andalusian scholars, whether of Arab or Spanish origin, who spoke and stood for al-Andalus' grandeur, were neither Shu‘ūbīs (ethinicists) nor nationalists, but patriotic Andalusians who decried and denounced the nationalistic, ethnic, linguistic, and class tendencies and conflicts of their times. It was not “the decline of Arabism as a meaningful political force, and the rise in its place of Islamism”, but the weakening of Islam as a cementing socio-political force and the simultaneous rise of tribalism and regionalism that produced Andalusian Shu‘ūbiyyah which, in turn, led to class conflicts and struggles.²⁶

Andalusian society consisted of diverse ethnic groups—Arabs, Berbers, Slavs, and indigenous Hispanics, i.e., Mozarebs or Arabized Christians, Muwalladūn (children of Arab fathers by Hispanic, Slavic or other non-Arab mothers), and Mawālī (Hispanic and Visigothic Muslims). In terms of religious traditions, there were Muslims, Christians, and Jews. Al-Andalus in general, and the cosmopolitan mother city of Cordoba in particular, comprised a truly pluralistic society, where these different groups co-existed with respect for each other. There was both tolerance and religious autonomy under Pax Islamica, from ‘Abd al-Raḥmān III to ’Abd al-Malik al-Muzaffar.

Surprisingly though, the most devastating role in the disfigurement of the Umayyad caliphate was played by the religious leadership—i.e., the judges, jurists and jurisconsults of the Mālikī school of Islamic law. While some, anxious to end the anarchy, acquiesced to almost every usurper; the ambitious ones if only to protect their vested interests, provided religious legitimacy for the usurpers. The laxity and corruption invited Ibn Hazm's severe criticism. To Ibn Hazm, the opportunism of the fuqahā' led the people to distrust the institution of Khilāfah, to lose respect for religious traditions and laws and religious leaders, to become apathetic even in differents towards religion and, finally, to indulgence in sensual pleasure and lack of faith in reason.²⁷

Besides the philosophies of skepticism, naturalism, and materialism, several esoteric and mystical cults emerged, which rejected the Greek sciences of logic and philosophy, and questioned the role of reason in religion. Relativistic tendencies to the extent of denying any positive value in religion, became prevalent.

In this anarchic situation traditional religious traditions were even ridiculed and attacked. The Mālikī school was dominant in al-Andalus, and their thinkers were extremely rigid. They condemned and declared other schools of Islamic law as heretic. Mālikī judges and jurists used their political influence to suppress all those who differed with them, including brilliant and critical scholars like Ibn Hazm. The climate of internal dissension within Islam emboldened the non-Muslims and anti-religious groups to mount their assaults, thereby undermining the position Islam and religion in general. In this climate even intellectuals became opportunists, sectarian, parochial and intolerant when it came to differing points of view.

Ibn Hazm was a sensitive and original thinker, a centralist, a Muslim politician concerned with the implementation of the ideals and teachings of Islam, and a great historian of religious ideas. He could clearly foresee the far-reaching consequences of the crisis that had begun in his time. He had drunk deep at the fount of the Qur’ānic philosophy of history, and had himself witnessed the fall of civilizations as a sequel to moral and religious subversion. He, therefore, addressed himself to the situation and wrote a religious history of mankind. He based his analysis of world-views, ideologies, and religious traditions from rational, historical, and critical perspectives. He also took upon himself the task of a religious and political reformer. Being intensely convinced of the truth of Islam, he set out to make a comparative study of religious traditions, their scriptures and historical role, so as to reassure the Andalusian society that its success and felicity lay only in acting on the principles of Islam. He also critically reviewed all streams of Muslim thought and challenged the rigidity and factionalism of the Muslim schools of law and theology. He called upon the Muslim ummah in general and the Muslim community of al-Andalus in particular to turn to the Qur’ān and the Sunnah and to re-establish the Khilāfah, since without it neither peace and prosperity in this world nor success in the Hereafter could be attained.

Ibn Hazm's belief that the Qur’ān is the only extant Word of God, and the socio-political context in which religion in general and Islam in particular were being ridiculed, prompted him to present the truth of Islam with a rational, historical and comparative approach. Such an approach required him to engage in comparative religious studies and led him to make a critical historical study of religious scriptures. As we shall see later, he made the following Qur’ānic challenge as his basic criterion for testing the divine origin of any Scripture and its historical preservation and authenticity:

Will they not, then, try to understand this Qur’ān? Had it issued from any but God, they would surely have found in it many an inner contradiction.

(4:82)

STUDY OF OTHER RELIGIONS

Of Ibn Hazm's extant works that have been documented, edited, and published, Kitāb al-Faṣl fī al-Milal wa al-Aḥwā' wa al-Niḥal, is the most monumental; it is the most systematic of his works on the history of religions and religious doctrines. His other studies on the subject are either primarily polemical, or limited in focus, and seem to be aimed primarily at presenting Islam. One of his works dealing with Biblical criticism has, however, not yet come to light.²⁸ According to Hitti:

The most valuable of his [Ibn Hazm's] surviving works, however, is al-Faṣl fī al-Milal wa al-Ahwā' wa al-Nihal (the decisive word on sects, heterodoxies and denominations), which entitles him to the honor of being the first scholar in the field of comparative religion. In this work he pointed out difficulties in the Biblical narratives which disturbed no other minds until the rise of higher criticism in the sixteenth century.²⁹

Since Ibn Hazm himself refers to Kitāb al-Faṣl as being the most comprehensive, we have focused presently on this work although we also refer to his other works for details, or corroboration. It is, however, important to note that Ibn Hazm produced his scholarly works with an objective and in a logical sequence, dividing them subjectwise and classifying the contents into chapters and sub-chapters. Except for indices and notes, which are an exclusive feature of modern scholarship, his works are as scholarly in presentation as modern scholarly works.

A. KITāB AL-FAṣL Fī AL-MILAL WA AL-AḥWā' WA AL-NIḥAL

There is a difference of opinion over the word, al-Faṣl which is read as al-Fiṣal by most scholars of Ibn Hazm. Abū Zahrah argues that because Kitāb al-Faṣl is a voluminous study, it is basically a compilation and combination of several small treatises which Ibn Hazm had first written separately and put them together later; hence the word should read as al-Fiṣal, the plural form of al-faṣlah. It means a “piece, part or a branch,” like the word nakhlah, a date palm that can be moved or transplanted from one spot to another. In support of his claim Abū Zahrah mentions the separate and independent existence of Ibn Hazm's Risālah fī al-Mufāḍalah bayn al-Saḥābah (Treatise on the Excellences of the Companions of the Prophet), and later its inclusion in Kitāb al-Faṣl. However, the section entitled “Wujūh al-Faḍl wa al-Mufāḍalah bayn al-Saḥābah” (“Reasons of Excellence and Comparison in the Excellence of the Companions”) follows the chapter “Al-Imāmah wa al-Mufāḍalah” (“The Leadership and Comparison of Excellences”), and continues the main subject in part four of Kitāb al-Faṣl. Second, there is no evidence to prove its having been first written as a separate treatise and then included in Kitāb al-Faṣl. Hence, it seems more probable that this chapter was used later, either by copyists or by Ibn Hazm's students, as a separate treatise. However, despite this, it was never excluded from Kitāb al-Faṣl. Third, the comparison of Faṣlah and Fiṣal with qaṣ‘ah and qiṣā‘ (as in the case of “qaṣ‘at al-nakhlah”) does not conform to the grammatical rules of standard Arabic lexicons. This claim was first made by a copyist when Kitāb al-Faṣl was first published without any proper editing. Almost all standard Arab lexicons give the plural form of faṣlah (the moveable palm tree) as faṣalāt, rather than fiṣal, as claimed by Abū Zahrah and others.³⁰

A similar claim is made by Jacques Waardenburg, who expresses the view that Ibn Hazm's treatise known as Kitāb Izhār Tabdīl al-Yahūd wa al-Naṣārā had been inserted into Kitāb al-Faṣl and made a section entitled “Faṣl fī Munāqaḍāt Zāhirah. …” (Part 1, p. 116, Part 2, p. 91).³¹

Although this treatise deals with the same subject (viz. Biblical criticism), as dealt with in the above-mentioned section of Kitāb al-Faṣl, they are two different treatises. First, they bear different titles. Second, till such time as Ibn Hazm's Kitāb Izhār Tabdīl al-Yahūd wa al-Naṣārā is discovered, the claim that it comprise the above mentioned section of Kitab al-Faṣl cannot be proved or disproved. Third, Iḥsān ‘Abbās, the editor of several of Ibn Hazm's works, also confirms that Kitāb Izhār … had not been discovered and that it was not a section of Kitāb al-Faṣl.

Ibn Hazm wrote separate small treatises on subjects that he had dealt with comprehensively in his more voluminous works. The treatises are nearly the same, making small additions or deletions, to meet the cognitive needs of his audience. Indeed, prolific writers usually write more than one treatise on the same subject with minor changes or with some revisions. All of Ibn Hazm's biographers also list these small treatises separately from his Kitāb al-Faṣl. There are also some other small treatises which deal with the same subject, but have not been included in Kitāb al-Faṣl. Even if these small treatises have been incorporated into it, it still does not sustain the claim to call it Kitāb al-fiṣal, since the plural form of faṣl is fuṣūl rather than fiṣal, and the plural form of faṣlah is faṣalāt rather than fiṣal. The rules governing rhymed prose (saj‘) are also not controverted by reading the word as al-faṣl.

Kitāb al-Faṣl has not been edited properly. Despite its various printings, many mistakes have been left uncorrected, and its title has also not been properly checked. In the first print, the title was left without diacritical marks. In a separate line, however, it was suggested that it should read Kitāb al-Faṣl … because al-Fiṣal is the plural form of faṣlah on the pattern of qaṣ‘at al-nakhlah. In the second print, the title was again left without diacritical marks and instruction regarding the reading of al-Fiṣal was left out. On the back of the title page, ‘Abd al-Raḥmān al-Khalīfah (who had perhaps supervised its printing) notes that his reviews of the major Arabic lexicons failed to yield the plural form of faṣlah as fiṣal. He, therefore, suggested that the word be read as al-Faṣl, not al-Fiṣal. The third print was a photographic copy of the first print, and came out simultaneously from Cairo and Baghdad in 1964.³²) The Cairo print had diacritical marks, allowing the word to be read both as al-Faṣl, and as al-Fiṣal, while the Baghdad one provided only the diacritical marks for the word to be read as al-Faṣl. Among the Orientalists, only Brockelmann and Hitti have cited this work as al-Faṣl rather than al-Fiṣal.³³ On etymological, grammatical, and lexical grounds as well as the requisites of a systematic and logical treatment of the material presented therein call for reading its title as al-Faṣl. Moreover, since Ibn Hazm is always guided by the principles of logic, reason, and common sense,³⁴ which he emphasises over and over again in his works, and since he is very particular about correct linguistic usage, it seems quite appropriate that he should have used the word al-Faṣl as a term of logic and not in its ordinary sense.

The use of the word al-faṣl as a term of logic signifies ‘difference,’ even ‘specific difference’. It is the third of five predicates of Porphyry—jins (genus), naw‘ (species), faṣl (difference), khāṣṣah (property), and ‘arḍ (accident).³⁵ Ibn Hazm catalogues all known religious traditions, their sects and historical developments, philosophical ideas, various world-views and ideologies, in terms of their individual, universal, and transpositional differences. No wonder, then, that Ibn Hazm uses the word al-Faṣl in this sense.

B. WHEN WAS KITāB AL-FAṣL WRITTEN?

To document the exact date of the writing of Kitāb al-Faṣl seems impossible. Ibn Hazm neither states when he began its writing nor records the date of its completion. Usually Ibn Hazm refers his readers to his previous works when the need arises for reference, consultation, or additional detail. In his al-Iḥkām fī Uṣūl al-Aḥkām, for instance, he refers to his al-Taqrīb and Kitāb al-Faṣl for the basic principles of reasoning and their employment in the study of the religious traditions of the world.³⁶

According to a passage in al-Iḥkām, Ibn Hazm wrote his al-Taqrīb before, and his al-Iḥkām after, his Kitāb al-Faṣl. However, in the third and following parts of Kitāb al-Faṣl, Ibn Hazm refers to his al-Iḥkām, which means that Ibn Hazm either wrote the first two parts of Kitāb al-Faṣl (which deal primarily with religious traditions of the world) before he started writing al-Iḥkām, or that he wrote the third and the following parts of Kitāb al-Faṣl along with his al-Iḥkām, or had by that time planned an outline of al-Iḥkām, which seems less probable.³⁷

There is also other internal evidence which provides an indirect clue to the period of the books writing. At one place, Ibn Hazm states that the challenge of the Qur’ān—that its like can never be produced—had remained uncontested for the past 420 years (mundh arba‘ mi'ah wa ishrīna ‘āman).³⁸ At another place, he refers to Imām Muḥammad al-Mahdī's occultation (ghaybah) having taken place some 171 years ago. These statements place the time of writing in 430 a.h./1038 c.e..³⁹ At a third place, he writes:

And in the experience and witness of sense perception (fī shahādat al-ḥiss) all the years up till this time, that is, the period of the khilāfah of Hishām al-Mu‘tamid bi-Allāh, make more in their number than their number up till the year of Hijrah of the Prophet Muḥammad.⁴⁰

Caliph Hishām III al-‘Mu‘tamid ruled during 418-422 a.h./1027-1031 c.e. but till late December 1029 in absentia. It seems more likely that Ibn Hazm's reference is to the period when Hishām III was physically present in Cordoba. According to Brockelmann, Ibn Hazm wrote the Kitāb al-Faṣl during the period 418 to 422 a.h./1027 to 1031 c.e.. And since he wrote al-Taqrīb before Kitāb al-Faṣl and after Tawq al-Hamāmah (418 a.h./1027 c.e.), he most probably started writing Kitāb al-Faṣl in 421 a.h./1031 c.e.

PRINCIPLES AND METHODOLOGY OF THE STUDY OF RELIGIONS

A. PRINCIPLES

1. THE STATEMENT OF PRINCIPLES IN KITāB AL-FAṣL

At the outset, Ibn Hazm states the rationale for writing Kitāb al-Faṣl. He expresses intense dissatisfaction with the works on world religions and the religious history of mankind by the Muslim scholars who preceded him. Ibn Hazm feels that their works were marred either because of the inclusion of too many, even unnecessary details, or because at places they gave a bit too sketchy account. They also lack requisite objectivity, fairness and comprehensiveness. This provides Ibn Hazm the justification for writing Kitāb al-Faṣl.

2. DISTINCTIVE HUMAN FACULTIES FOR COMPREHENDING THE TRUTH: OBSERVATION, SENSE-PERCEPTION, AND REASON

Ibn Hazm devotes some pages in the beginning of his work to explain the nature of reasoning, argumentation and proofs leading to the cognition of the truth. He succinctly summarises the main points on the role of distinct human faculties in comprehension of the truth he had already covered in detail in al-Taqrīb. According to Ibn Hazm:

The first thing that distinguishes a person nāṭiq from other animals (ḥayawān) is comprehension and understanding attained through the five senses.⁴¹ … In addition to these sensory perceptions, human beings are also endowed with a sixth sense, the intuition of given principles of reason (wa al-idrāk al-sādis ‘ilmuhā bi al-badīhāt).⁴²

Although there is no way to find out how and when a person is endowed with this sixth sense, it is inherent in every human being, providing the soul with the intuitive knowledge of the first principles of reason, which Ibn Hazm usually calls the given facts of reason (al-badīhāt or badīhāt al-‘aql), or first principles of reason or intellect (awā'il al-‘aql). These are identified as the principles of thought: identity, contradiction, and reason. The whole is greater than its parts; two things cannot occupy the same space at the same time; singular is less than plural; one cannot stand and sit simultaneously; an event happens at a time; an act implies an actor; no one has the knowledge of the unseen reality beyond human perception; everything has its own inherent nature (li al-ashyā' ṭabā'i‘wa māhiyyah), should etc. be used. The reasoning or discerning faculty (quwwat al-‘aql, or quwwat al-tamyīz) is the distinctive trait that makes one rational and capable of symbolizing experience. This faculty which is natural, necessary, and un-acquired (ḍarūrī and iḍṭirārī), enables one to attain the cognition of the above mentioned axioms. None but those devoid of sense perception and reason may dispute the above-mentioned axioms.⁴³

Ibn Hazm attributes a reasoning and symbolizing power to this faculty called nuṭq.⁴⁴ According to him, nuṭq for us is the power to learn sciences and crafts and to comprehend things as they really are (wa al-nuṭq ‘indanā huwa al-taṣarruf fī al-‘ulūm wa al-ṣinā‘āt wa ma‘rifat al-ashyā' ‘alā mā hiya ‘alayhi).⁴⁵

Ibn Hazm's theory of knowledge is that knowledge is attained first through sensory observation and perception; second, through the first or given principles of reason; and, third, from the premises or proofs derived and attested to closely or remotely from observation, sense perception, and reason.⁴⁶

In al-Iḥkām, Ibn Hazm emphasizes that: “Every matter is evidenced for its certitude either through sense perception or through the given principles of reason or through the premises derived, from and returning to them”.⁴⁷ He identifies the user of this faculty with the science of logic and its practical use. He sees logical reasoning as the only means to reach the truth or to the cognition of the reality. He believes reason to be the sole criterion for any knowledge. Thus, no statement is true or a standpoint valid unless it is supported by sensory observation, perception and primary reason, or is confirmed by proofs derived from such premises, whereas untruth and falsehood can never stand up under observation, sense perception, and primary principles of reason.⁴⁸ Hence:

If there were no observation, sense perception, and reason, it would be impossible for us to have knowledge of God. If there were no reason, no one would have any knowledge of God. And he who denies reason has denied the unicity of God; and whoever denies the evidence of reason and discerning faculty, he has denied all realities of life and consequently has denied the Lordship and the unicity of God, the reality of prophethood and the divine law.⁴⁹

Ibn Hazm is, however, aware that information attained through sense perception and observation is not always correct and that at times it might be mere imagination, illusion, or deception. But, to him, it is not because of any inherent defect in this faculty but due to some defect or incapacity of the observer; otherwise, they will always result in correct knowledge. Moreover, the faculty of intuitive reason (al-‘aql) always affirms and confirms sense perception. Whatever is not established by sensory observation, perception, reason, and premises based on their principles is not true knowledge.⁵⁰

“It is necessary”, Ibn Hazm says, “for every seeker of factual truth or reality (ṭālib al-ḥaqīqah) that he must assent to what reason dictates and to what he observed and to what his sense data provided him with (bi mā shāhada wa aḥassa) and to what their proofs (barāhīn, sing. burḥān) stand for”.⁵¹ Hence, the truth is evident in religious traditions according to reason and the manifest proofs of first principles of sense perception and intuition,”⁵² since “the untrue breaks and falls down before it reaches reason and observation”.⁵³

These faculties make human beings not only rational, but also moral and religious.

Mankind is also provided with the grace of their Creator Who reveals His Will and sends His prophets and messengers. The proper exercise of these faculties aims at the same goal to which the divine guidance leads. Hence Ibn Hazm approves of the Greek sciences of logic and philosophy, and their use and validity in understanding the truth and for the refinement of souls. To him, the basic purpose of philosophy is to equip its students with a proper understanding of virtues, and the ability to distinguish virtues from vices. The science of logic and philosophy, in his view, refines, corrects, and purifies the soul, which “is precisely the purpose of Divine Law”.⁵⁴

Ibn Hazm refutes those who consider the Greek sciences a threat to religious knowledge and certitude of faith, and affirms that Aristotle's works dealing with rules of logic (ḥudūd al-kalām) are useful and beneficial:

All of these books are good and beneficial. They lead to the proofs of the uniqueness of God, the Exalted, and to His Omnipotence and power. These are of great value for the critical study of all sciences and are extremely profitable for clarifying the principles of religious norms. There are books among them that … treat of the principles of logic. … And the jurist (faqīh) who exerts himself in search of the truth for himself or for his religious community cannot help without learning logic.⁵⁵

Philosophy and logic sharpen one's faculty of reasoning and rational understanding; they are also necessary for the study of philology which, in turn, is indispensable for a proper comprehension of the scriptures and their application and practice. The natural sources of knowledge are primary reason, intellect and sense perception, while the providential sources are revelation and tradition. But the necessity of the latter and their authenticity are determined by reason. Again, though the primary means of knowledge, reason and sense perception are created faculties, they are neither the fount of knowledge nor the creator of things and their nature and qualities. The power, function and role of these faculties must need be recognized, but reason by itself is not absolute:

The reality of the reason is that it makes distinction between things that are comprehended by means of senses and intuitive understanding and to have cognition of their qualities that constitute their nature like the necessary cognition of createdness of the universe, that the Creator is One, the Eternal, Uncaused cause of all beings, the authenticity of obedience to Him … and cognition of all other things in the universe except the Divine Law.⁵⁶

And the truth is that the reason is the only faculty that distinguishes between the qualities of existent things. It apprehends the fact and conditions of matter, of the universe, of what is demonstrable of them and what is impossible of them.⁵⁷

However, human faculties cannot create or prescribe value or the norms of right which are taught by Revelation. Once the existence of God, His unicity, His being the sole creator, and His sending of prophets and revelation as Guidance is established by reason as necessary knowledge, then obedience to His commands and prohibitions is a rational imperative. Reason, however, cannot create value nor can it comprehend the nature of its Creator, asserts Ibn Hazm:

Reason does not obligate its Creator, the Exalted One, of its decision but the Creator, the Exalted One is the Creator of reason out of nothing, and He is its organizer … so reason comprehends God's Will and distinguishes and discerns the characteristics of things that constitute nature.⁵⁸

While discussing the various powers, such as justice, desire, wrath, understanding, ignorance, and intelligence, with which God has endowed human souls, he says:

And among them is the power of discernment which Ancients have named logic. The Creator of the soul has made a way through this power for it to understand His address and to apprehend the things in their nature.⁵⁹

Notes

1. Besides the modern biographies of Ibn Hazm, we consulted the following historical and biographical dictionaries of the learned men in Muslim history (in chronogical order):

   (1) Sā‘id ibn Aḥmad al-Jayyānī (d. 463 a.h./1070 c.e.), Tabaqāt al-Umam (Beirut, 1912).

   (2) Abū Marwān ibn Hayyān (d. 469 a.h./1095 c.e.), Jadhwat al-Muqtabis fī Anbā' Ahl al-Andalus (Cairo: Lajnah, 1971).

   (3) Muḥammad ibn Fattūḥ al-Humaydī (488H./1095), Jadhwat al-Muqtabis fī Dhikr Wulāt al-Andalus. Turāthunā. The Andalusian Library 3. (Cairo: Dār al-Miṣriyyah, 1966), pp. 308-311.

   (4) Al-Fatḥ ibn Muḥammad ibn Khāqān, Qulā'id al-Iqyān fī Māḥāsin al-A‘yān (Tunis: Al-Maktabah al-‘Anīqah, 1966).

   (5) ‘Alī ibn Bassām al-Shantarīnī, al-Dhakhīrah fī Maḥāsin Ahl-al-Jazīrah, ed. Iḥsān ‘Abbās, 2 vols., 4 parts in each vol. (Beirut: Dār al-Thaqāfah, 1979), Vol. 1, Part 1, pp. 132-180.

   (6) Khalaf ibn ’Abd al-Malik ibn Bashkuwāl, Kitāb al-Silah, 2 vols. Turāthunā. The Andalusian Library 5 (Cairo: Al-Dār al-Miṣriyyah, 1966), Vol. 2, pp. 415-417.

   (7) Aḥmad ibn Yahyā al-Dabbī. Bughyat al-Multamis fī Ta'rīkh Rijāl Ahl al-Andalus, Turāthunā. The Andalusian Library 6 (Cairo: Dār al-Kitāb al-‘Arabī, 1967), pp. 415-418.

   (8) Yāqūt al-Hamawī al-Rūmī. Mu‘jam al-Udabā', ed. Aḥmad Farīd al-Rifa‘ī Bek, 20 vols. Silsilat al-Mawḍū‘āt al-’Arabiyyah (Cairo: Maṭba‘at Dār al-Ma'mūn, 1938), vol. 2, pp. 235-255.

   (9) Aḥmad ibn Muḥammad ibn Khallikhān, Wafayāt al-A‘yān wa Anbā‘Abnā' al-Zamān, 8 vols. Ed. Iḥsān ‘Abbās (Beirut: Dār al-Thaqāfah, 1972), vol. 3 pp. 325-330.

   (10) Shams al-Dīn al-Dhahabī, Siyar al-Nubalā'. Ed. Sa‘īd al-Afghānī (Damascus: Maṭba‘at al-Taraqqī, 1941).

2. Ibn Hayyān's statement has been quoted by both Ibn Bassām al-Shantarīnī and by Yāqūt al-Rūmī.

3. Yāqūt al-Rūmī, Mu‘jam al-Udabā', vol. 12, pp. 236-237. See also Carl Brockelmann, Geschichte der Arabischen Litteratur, Supplement vol. 1 (Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1937), pp. 692ff.

4. Yāqūt al-Rūmī, Mu‘jam al-Udabā', vol. 12, pp. 236-237.

5. Ibn Hazm, The Ring of the Dove: A Treatise on the Art and Practice of Arab Love, trans. A. J. Arberry (London: Luzac 1953). p. 101. For the original Arabic text see ‘Alī ibn Aḥmad ibn Hazm, Tawk al-Hamāmah, ed. D. K. Petrof (Leidee: St. Petersbourg, 1914), p. 47.

6. Ibn Hazm, The Ring of the Dove, p. 236, and Tawk-al-Hamāmah, p. 118.

7. Shams al-Dīn al-Dhahabī, Siyar al-Nubalā'. ed. Sa'īd al-Afghānī, pp. 16-17. See also Muḥammad Abū Zahrah, Ibn Hazm: Hayātuhu wa ‘Aṣruhu, ‘Arā'uhu wa Fiqhuh (Cairo: Dār al-Fikr al-‘Arabī, 1954), pp. 32-34.

8. Ibn Hazm, The Ring of the Dove, p. 212, and Tawk al-Hamāmah, p. 104.

9. Ibn Hazm, The Ring of the Dove, p. 212.

10. Ibid.

11. Ibid., pp. 223-224 and Tauk al-Hamāmah, pp. 110-111. Reinhart Dozy states Hiṣn al-Qasr as “Aznalcazar, not far from Valencia” in his Spanish Islām: A History of the Moslems in Spain, trans. Francis Griffin Stokes (London: Chatto and Windus, 1913). Cf. Garcia Gomez that it “is not the present day Aznalcazar near Sanlucar, but was in the region of Malaqa or Murcia.” See Roger Arnaldez, “Ibn Hazm”, in The Encyclopaedia of Islam, new ed. (Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1960-).

12. Ibn Hazm, Tawk al-Hamāmah, p. 104.

13. Ibn Hazm, The Ring of the Dove, p. 19.

14. Q.v. Arnaldez, “Ibn Hazm”, Encyclopaedia of Islam, new edition.

15. Ibn Hazm, Tawq Hamāmah; tr. A.R. Nkyl under the title A Book containing the Risālah known as the Dove's Neck Ring About Love and Lovers, based D.K. Petrof's edited Tawq Hamāmah (Paris: Librarie Orientaliste Paul Geuthner, 1931), p. lvii.

16. Al-Dhahabī, Sijar al-Nubalā', p. 19. See also Yāqūt al-Rūmī, Mu‘jam al-Udabā', vol. 12, pp. 238-239.

17. Ibn Hazm, Al-Taqrīb li Hadd-al-Manṭiq wa al-Madkhal ilayhi bi al-Alfāz al-‘Āmmiyyah wa al-Amthilah al-Fiqhiyyah, ed. Iḥsān ‘Abbās (Beirut: Dār Maktabat al-Hayāh, 1959), Preface.

18. Ibn Hazm, Al-Iḥkām fī Usūl al-Aḥkām, 2nd ed., 8 parts, 2 vols. (Cairo: Maṭba'at al-Imām, 1968), vol. 1, pp. 9, 16, 64, and passim. (See also Ibn Hazm's Kitāb al-Faṣl fī al-Milal wa al-Ahwā' wa al-Niḥal, pt. 1, p. 4.

19. Yāqūt al-Rūmī, Mu‘jam al-Udabā', vol. 12 pp. 235-255. See also Ibn Khallikān, Wafayāt al-A‘yān, vol. 3, pp. 325-330, and al-Dhahabī's Siyar al-Nubalā'.

20. Ibid., p. 4.

21. Q.v. Arnaldez, “Ibn Hazm”, op.cit.

22. Anwar G. Chejne, “Islamization and Arabization in al-Andalus: A General View” in Islam and Cultural Change in the Middle Ages, ed. Spiros Vronis, vol. 4. of Georgio Levi Della Vida Biennial Conference (Wiesbaden: Otto Harrasowitz, 1975), pp. 59-86.

23. Ibid.

24. Ibn Hazm, al-Radd ‘alā Ibn al-Nagh'rīlah al-Yahūdī wa Rasā'il Ukhrā, pp. 173ff.

25. Ibid.

26. James T. Monroe, Trans. with intro, The Shu‘ūbiyah in al-Andalus, The Risālah of Ibn Garcia and Five Refutations (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1971), p. 1.

27. Ibn Hazm's many small teatises like Risālat al-Talkhīṣ were written in response to this need and situation.

28. Kitab Izhār Tabdīl al-Yahūd wa-al-Naṣārā li al-Tawrāh wa al-Injīl, which is commonly believed to be included in Ibn Hazm's Kitāb al-Faṣl, is not extant. So far, the best and most comprehensive study of Ibn Hazm's thought, with a detailed list of his extant and non-extant, published and non-published, works is by ’Abd al-Halīm ‘Uways: Ibn Hazm al-Andalusī wa Juhūduhu fī al-Baḥth al-Ta'rīkhī wa al-Haḍārī (Cairo: Dār al-I‘tiṣām, 1979). It became available only after the completion of the present study, but it was consulted throughly. However, its perusal did not add anything significant to warrant a modification of our analysis. ‘Uways thinks that Kitāb Izhār Tabdīl-al-Yahūd wa al-Naṣārā li al-Tawrāh wa al-Injīl was probably the one that now stands as a section on Biblical criticism in his Kitāb al-Faṣl, an opinion that has not been found sustainable. He also mentions some other brief works such as his Ta'līf fī al-Radd ‘alā Anājīl al-Naṣārā and his Mukhtaṣar al-Milal wa al-Niḥal as non-extant (p. 113). See also Iḥsān ‘Abbās, Rasā'il Ibn Hazm al-Andalusī, vol. 1 (Beirut: al-Mu'assasah al-’Arabiyyah li-al-Dirāsāt wa al-Nashr, 1980), pp. 7ff. For detailed discussion, see n. 31, below.

29. Philip K. Hitti, History of the Arabs, p. 558.

30. See, for instance, Lisān al-‘Arab; al-Qāmūs al-Muḥīṭ,; Tāj al-‘Arūs, and Arabic-English Lexicon (Edward W. Lane and Stanley Lane-Poole), and earlier lexicons. Muḥammad Abū Zahrah, Ibn Hazm: Hayātuhu wa ‘Aṣruhu, Ārā'uhu wa Fiqhuh (Cairo: Dār al-Fikr al-‘Arabī, 1954), p. 253 and the note therein.

31. Jacques Waardenburg, “World Religions as Seen in the Light of Islam” in Islam: Past Influence and Present Challenge, eds., Alford T. Welch and Pierre Cachia (Albany, NY: SUNY Press, 1979), p. 272, n. 26. Waardenburg's reference to the section under discussion is also misquoted. It starts on vol. 1, p. 116 of Kitāb al-Faṣl, and continues till vol. 2, p. 91 and makes about 200 pages. Perhaps his claim is based on Israel Friedlaender and Arthur S. Tritton's remarks about Kitāb al-Faṣl. The section Tritton refers to is the one that Ibn Hazm himself mentions as having written first as a separate work and then included it in Kitāb al-Faṣl, pt.2, p. 116. In regard to the section under discussion, Ibn Hazm does claim it to be first as his Kitāb Izhār Tabdīl al-Yahūd and then included in his Kitāb al-Faṣl. For Tritton, see A. S. Tritton, “A Theological Tract”, BSOAS [Bulletin of the School of Oriental (and African) Studies] 12 (1947), pp. 1-4. For Iḥsān ‘Abbās, see Ibn Hazm's al-Radd ‘alā Ibn al-Naghrīlah al-Yahūdī wa Rasā'il Ukhrā, pp. 1-4.

32. Kitāb al-Faṣl fī al-Milal wa al-Ahwā' wa-al-Niḥal has not been edited. Its edns. are: First edn.: 5 parts in 2 vols. Part 1 was printed from al-Maṭba‘ah al-Adabiyyah in 1317a.h.; Parts 2 and 3 were also printed from there in 1320a.h.; but part 4 was printed from Maṭba‘at al-Mawsū‘āt bearing no date. This is now considered to be the first edition making five parts bound in 2 volumes, but each part is paginated separately. This one has been used for the present study. All later prints are basically its copies. Its publishing data such as the place, publisher and date are shown as: Cairo: al-Maṭba‘ah al-Adabiyyah, 1317-1321a.h./1899-1903 c.e. This edition was published a second time from Maktabat Muḥammad ‘Alī Sabīḥ wa Awlāduh, Cairo. The first 4 parts were printed in 1347a.h. and the last one in 1348a.h., but all the parts were bound in together. ‘Abd al-Raḥmān Khalīfah was its editor. It was published reprinted from Maktabat Muḥammad ‘Alī Sabīḥ wa Awlāduh, Cairo in 1964. It was a photocopy of the first edition and its five parts were bound separate as well as in two volumes, the first volume comprising the first two parts and the second volume the last three parts. Like the first edition parts 1 and 2 made one volume and parts 3, 4 and 5 made the other volume. Simultaneously, a similar photocopy edition, bound in two volumes, was published from Maktaba-al-Muthannā in Baghdād in 1964. Another print came out from Dār al-Ma‘rifah, Beirut, in 1975 bound in 3 volumes. In all these prints al-Shahrastānī's Kitāb al-Milal wa al-Niḥal are on its margin.

33. Carl Brockelmann, Geshichte der Arabischen Literatur Supplement 1 (Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1937), p. 696; Philip K. Hitti, History of the Arabs,, p. 558.

34. Although it is a fact that Ibn Hazm was an original mind in emphasizing and maintaining Logic and Philosophy as an inevitable science for the study of religion as alluded to by the following Orientalists' works, no serious study has been made so far. See Nicholas Rescher, The Development of Arabic Logic (Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh, 1964), pp. 158-159. See also Robert Brunschvig, “Logic and Law in Classical Islam” in Logic in Classical Islamic Culture, ed., by G. E. Von Grunebaum, (Weisbaden: Otto Harrassowitz, 1970), pp. 185-215.

35. Q.v. “Faṣl” in Encyclopaedia of Islam, new ed.

36. Ibn Hazm, Al-Iḥkām, pt. 1, p. 9.

37. Ibn Hazm, Kitāb al-Faṣl, pt. 3, p. 76, pt. 5, pp. 114, 128.

38. Ibid., pt. 1, p. 106.

39. Ibid., pt. 1, p. 16.

40. Ibn Hazm, Al-Iḥkām, vol. 1, pp. 14-16.

41. Ibn Hazm, Kitāb al-Faṣl, pt. 1, p. 5.

42. Ibid.

43. Ibid., pt. 1, p. 4-7; pt. 5, pp. 108-109; al-Iḥkām, pt.1, pp. 17, 27, 59, 69; Ibn Hazm, al-Uṣūl wa al-Furū‘, ed., Muḥammad ‘Āṭif al-‘Irāqī, Suhayrah F. Abū Wāfiyah and Ibrāhīm Hilāl (Cairo: Dār Al-Naḥḍah al-Miṣriyyah, 1978), vol. 1, pp. 247-248; al-Taqrīb li-Hadd al-Manṭiq wa al-Madkhal ilayhi, ed., Ihsān ‘Abbās (Beirut: Dār Maktabat al-Hāyāh, 1959), pp. 157-158.

44. Ibn Hazm, al-Taqrīb, p. 170.

45. Ibn Hazm, Kitāb al-Faṣl, pt. 1, p. 80.

46. Ibn Hazm, al-Taqrīb, p. 158.

47. Ibn Hazm, al-Iḥkām, pt. 1, p. 59.

48. Ibn Hazm, al-Taqrīb, pp. 157-158; Kitāb al-Faṣl, part 5, p. 129.

49. Ibn Hazm, Kitāb al-Faṣl,. pt. 1, p. 82; and al-Taqrīb pp. 157-158.

50. Ibn Hazm, Kitāb al-Faṣl, pt. 1, pp. 4-7; pt. 5, pp. 113, 128, 134-135, and al-Taqrīb, p. 166.

51. Ibid.

52. Ibn Hazm, al-Radd ‘ala Ibn al-Naghrīlah al-Yahūdī, p. 114.

53. Ibn Hazm, Kitāb al-Faṣl, pt. 5, p. 129.

54. Ibid., pt. 1, p. 94.

55. Ibid., pt. 2, p. 95.

56. Ibn Hazm, al-Iḥkām, pt. 1, p. 27.

57. Ibid. and Kitāb al-Faṣl, pt. 5, p. 135.

58. Ibn Hazm, al-Iḥkām, pt. 1, pp. 63-64.

59. Ibid., pt. 1, p. 6; Kitāb al-Faṣl, pt. 5, p. 125.