Refuge in the Bosoms of the Mountains: A Ninth-Century Muslim Appraisal of Monastic Piety

ABSTRACT

This article examines a relatively little-known text, the Kitāb al-ruhbān/Book of Monks, from the ninth-century Muslim moralist, Ibn Abī al-Dunyā. The topical range of Ibn Abī al-Dunyā’s own literary corpus was extensive, yet the concern for ascetic practices forms a consistent thread throughout his work. As for this particular text, the esoteric wisdom associated with asceticism is specifically communicated through the teachings of Christian hermits. The Kitāb al-ruhbān, formulated as a collection of short dialogues and edifying statements regarding Christian monastic piety, profoundly demonstrates the continuing appreciation for monastic insight, particularly amongst Muslim ascetics, well into the Islamic period. There are, moreover, no explicit traces of sectarianism or confessional barriers here. Instead, the sagacious maxims for maintaining a righteous life are often passed from Christian hermits to devout Muslim listeners. This text thus further reveals the intricate connections between Christian monastic communities and medieval Islamic mystical culture.

KEYWORDS:

• Monasticism
• asceticism
• Ibn Abī al-Dunyā
• zuhd
• piety

Acknowledgements

I am greatly indebted to the Commonwealth Center for Humanities and Society at the University of Louisville for providing me with a fellowship to examine this manuscript. I would also like to thank Professor Tom Burman, Director of the Medieval Institute at Notre Dame University, for attending our 2019 CCHS conference, for his interest in the project, and for his advice on the present article. Khaldoun Almousily, Professor of Arabic Language and Program Coordinator for Arabic Studies at the University of Louisville, also generously offered a great deal of his time and expertise in assisting my preparation of this text. All of the shortcomings that the edition, translation and interpretation of the manuscript may contain are however, of course, entirely of my own making. Lastly, I would like to acknowledge Abusad Islahi, the archivist at the Raza Library of Rampur, India, for making digital scans of the manuscript available; without which the project would not have been possible. I am profoundly appreciative of his efforts.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1 The author’s full name is ʿAbd Allāh ibn Muḥammad ibn ʿUbayd ibn Sufyān ibn Qays Abū Bakr al-Qurashī. See Brockelmann (1987); Dietrich (1960–2002).

2 The suggestion that Ibn Abī al-Dunyā collected this work from an unknown source comes from the bibliographical entry for the Kitāb al-ruhbān by David Thomas (2009, 830). This claim presumably comes from the fact that the complete title of the work is Al-muntaqā min kitāb al-ruhbān (Selections from the Book of Monks), but otherwise the question of authorship is not mentioned.

3 For a listing of some of the major works by Ibn Abī al-Dunyā, see Ibn al-Nadīm (1871–1872, 1:185). Nearly sixty of his works have survived from Antiquity. Brockelmann (1937, 1: 247–248); (Weipert 2009).

4 Among the relevant titles listed here in the Fihrist are the Kitāb fiqh al-Nabī (The Knowledge of the Prophet), Kitāb dhamm al-malāhī (The Reproach against Music), Kitāb dhamm al-fuḥsh (The Reproach against Indecency), Kitāb ʿafw (Compassion), Kitāb al-hamm wa-al-ḥuzn (Solicitude and Grief), and the Kitāb dhamm al-dunyā (Condemnation of the World).

5 On this collection, see Harmless (2004, 169–190); Ward (1984).

6 This manuscript was partially edited by al-Munajjed (1956).

7 While one of the earlier cursive-style Arabic scripts, naskhī gained wide popularity after the tenth century. This script has since that time been the preferred script for the writing of the Qur’an. Because of its relative legibility, this script was first developed in the eighth century for administrative and commercial documents and later became widely used for transcribing Arabic manuscripts. See Baker (2007, 23–28); Safadi (1979, 62–73); Blair (2008, 165–168).

8 Wahb ibn Munabbih (d. 110/728) was considered an expert on Jewish and Christian stories from Antiquity. For biographical details as well as authorship, see Khoury (1987).

9 This is perhaps a result of the increasing importance attributed to legal and juridical tracts within the Islamic tradition, a trend that can be traced back to his own era, from which Ibn Abī al-Dunyā’s writings stand apart. See Bellamy (1963, 106–119); Brockelmann (1987); Dietrich (1960–2002).

10 The phrase ‘formative period’ is borrowed from Montgomery Watt’s The Formative Period of Islamic Thought (1973). See specifically Chapter 9, ‘The Polarity of Sunnism, and Shīʿism’ (253–278) and the subsection ‘The End of the Formative Period’ in Chapter 10 (316–318). Watt argues here that both Sunni and Shiʿi doctrines had assumed their ‘more or less’ definitive form by the middle of the tenth century, as had the legal traditions. Thus the ‘formation’ of such development has a terminus around the year 950 CE, just before the Būyid interlude in Baghdad.

11 Leah Kinberg (1985, 27) has discussed the varying and nuanced definitions of this term. While the implication of zuhd may be slightly altered, depending on which particular medieval Muslim scholar is utilizing the term, it can ultimately be understood as ‘a web of instructions on how to behave in day-to-day life’. Principally, this has roots in the concept of moderation and the manner in which a pious Muslim should deal with the material world.

12 As Watt (1968, 309) states, ‘Perhaps the ṣūfīs were seeking to escape from the frustration of living in a society that claimed to be religious, yet was controlled by men who only paid lip-service to the established religion.’

13 On the problematic word furqān here, see Donner (2007).

14 MS Rampur 565 Al-muntaqā min Kitāb al-ruhbān, Fol. 191a, Section 11, lines 22–23.

15 For information on the history of Christianity in the region, see Shahȋd (1989, 405–419); on church and monastery construction in these areas, see Shahȋd (1979).

16 Stroumsa (2005, 189) provides the examples of Lucilius and Seneca to make this point.

17 Annemarie Schimmel (1975, 34–35) also comments on this contact between Christian hermits and the early Islamic mystical traditions, but tends to downplay the possibility of any direct Christian influence.

18 Claudia Rapp (1999) has written on the power of the holy man as intercessor between human society and the sacred.

19 For a nuanced view of the holy man in this period that challenges Brown’s characterization, see Rosseau (1999).

20 Rosenthal does not see any evidence that this work is a translation from another language such as would potentially indicate a Greek or Syriac hagiographical origin for the parables. Rather, the figure of Anthony in this text quotes from the Qur’an and exhibits a distinctively Muslim tone when addressing Jewish and Christian scripture. This would perhaps reflect the natural inclination of a religious Muslim author, who may have adapted an existing set of stories for his own objective.

21 David Brakke (2006, 132–134) has also discussed the early monastic principle that temptation, and specifically demonic temptation, was connected to living near villages.

22 Differentiation in the transliteration of the titles here simply reflects the manner in which Vööbus lists the Canons in his edition.

23 See Aphraatis demonstrationes (Patrologia Syriaca 1: col. 241) and Demonstratio de monachis (1, col. 248). The typical designations of μοναχός, from the Byzantine and Coptic tradition, and iḥidayē, most commonly utilized in Syriac, both having the core meaning of ‘single’ or ‘solitary’, serve as a testament to this fundamental emphasis on the individuality of the eremetic existence. In both of these cases, the central element from which the designations arise concerns a retreat from the material world into spiritual seclusion. See Fauchon (2010). The Syriac term also carries the sense of celibacy, as the īḥīdāyē is isolated from both worldly affairs and the bonds of married life.

24 For the text of Epistula XXII, see Jerome (1910). For a full translation of the Epistle of Jerome to Eustochium, see Wright (1933, 67–69).

25 A similar story appears in the Ḥilya (al-Iṣfahānī 1967–1968, 4: 44).

26 On the intimate connection between prayer and contending with demons, see Bitton-Ashkelony (2003).

27 Little is definitively known about the author, aside from his composition of The Ladder of Divine Ascent. See Duffy (1999).

28 John Climacus, Scala Paradisi, Gradus VII, ed. Migne, Patrologia Cursus Completus, Series Graeca, 88.805 A in the Greek text.

29 The name ‘Iblīs’ comes from the Arabic verbal root b–l–s, according to Ibn Manẓūr (1418/1997, 1: 482). The meaning of the root is comparable to the terms quṭiʿa (‘to be cut-off’), sakata (‘to be silenced’), yaʾisa (‘to despair’) and nadima (‘to regret’). The entry also claims that the original name of this figure was ʿAzāzīl, but having been cursed by God for his disobedience, the name was changed to Iblīs. Reflecting the verbal root, the figure was therefore effectively severed or ‘cut-off’ from God. Western scholars have claimed, however, that the name/term is a foreign (ʿajamī) import to the Qur’an. Its rendering may have been derived through the New Testament and Greek patristic term διάβολοσ, to which iblīs bears phonological similarity. See Reynolds (2004).

30 For more on this narrative, see Butler (2011).

31 For the story of the monk Nathaniel being unsuccessfully tempted by Satan in disguise, see ʿAnān-Īshō (1907, 1: 163 [English translation]; 2: 136–137 [Syriac text]). A little later in the text, a similar example is given, where the monk Eucarpus is visited by Satan. When the tempter proclaims to the monk, ‘I am Christ’, Eucarpus actually believes the falsehood and is misled into giving up his life of humility and solitude (1: 404–405).

32 Jerome/Sancti Hieronymi, Vita S. Pauli Primi Eremitae, ed. Migne, Patrologia Latina 23, cols 17–28. This passage appears in section 16.A, “Christiana traditio”, lines 7–15.

33 Ibid.

34 Allison Goddard Elliott (1987, 152) cites a biblical precedent for man’s dominion over lions in the story of Daniel (Book of Daniel, chs 6 and 14), in connection to the prophet’s ‘innocence and purity’.

35 ʿUmar ibn ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz reportedly died and was buried at Dayr Simʿān. See al-Ṭabarī (1987, 4: 67).

36 Edmund Beck (1946) has interpreted this passage to reflect that Muḥammad, particularly during the early Medinan period, revered the ascetic ideal and monasticism having seen 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 essentially argues that, while the merits of monasticism were lauded, practical concerns compelled the Prophet to advocate for a more moderate set of parameters for worship.