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ABSTRACT
This article aims to correct a common inaccuracy in the study of Musa al-Sadr’s politico-religious activity vis-a-vis the Syrian ʿAlawi regime. The thesis presented by the author is that Shīʿi authorities in Lebanon provided a religious statement that the ʿAlawis are Jaʿfari Muslims, but that this statement did not come from al-Sadr himself as many historians claim. Tracing the source of this inaccuracy leads to western research from 1986. In order to prove the thesis, the article reviews the Arabic literature on the topic, including writings of the ʿAlawi community in Syria and Lebanon, which systematically do not cite any fatwa by al-Sadr on this matter. This enquiry leads to new conclusions as to the background of the discussed fatwa, as well as concerning the relation between political interests and religious judicial decisions. Appendices appearing at the end of the article include a useful translation, presented for the first time in this work, of the most important Shīʿi declarations concerning the ʿAlawi religious identity, and the correspondence between al-Sadr and the ʿAlawi Youth Movement in Tripoli, Lebanon.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).
Notes
1 Yahosein.com forum, 25 June 2006: https://www.yahosein.com/vb/node/42610
2 The Arab literature concerning al-Sadr ignores the issue of his attitude towards the ʿAlawis, and none of the sources even addresses the historical events in Tripoli in 1973 that are described below. See for example, some of the most famous biographies: ʿAdnan Fakhs, al-Imām Musa al-Ṣadr—al-Sīra al-Dhātiyya1969–1975 (Beirut: Dār al-Fikr al-ʿArabī, 1996); Hādī Faḍlallāh, Fikr al-Imām Musa al-Ṣadr—al-Siyyāsī wa-l-Iṣlāḥī (Beirut: Dār al-Hādī, 1999); Ibrahim Khazim al-ʿAmili, Gharīb al-ʿAṣr Āyatullāh al-Mughīb ak-Sayyid Musa al-Ṣadr (Beirut: Dār alBayḍāʾ, 2000); Sadiq ʿAfīf al-Nābulsī, Qiyām Ṭāʾifa—Ummat Musa al-Ṣadr (Beirut: Sarikat al-Maṭbūʿāt wa-l-Tawzīʿ wa-l-Nashr, 2014).
3 Munir al-Sharif, al-Muslimūn al-ʿAlawiyyūn—man humm wa-Ayna hum (Beirut: Muʾassasat al-Balāgh, 1994). See the declaration of the ʿAlawi sheikhs with the introduction of Shirazi in: Ibid., 7–30.
4 ʿAli ʿAziz Ibrahim, al-ʿAlawiyyūn fī Dāʾirat al-ḍawʾ (Beirut: al-Ghadīr, 1999), 77–120.
5 Ibid, al-ʿAlawiyyūn bayna ‘l-ghuluww wa-l-Falsafa wa-l-Taṣawwuf wa-l-Tashayyuʿ (Beirut: Muʾassasat al-Aʿlami lil-Maṭbūʿāt, 1995), 67–83.
6 Ibid., see introduction, iii and the original handwriting in vi.
7 Ibid., introduction, ii.
8 Ibid., introduction, v–ix. Although these documents are not dated, we assume that al-Tabatabāʾī and Shams al-Din’s introductions were written two decades after the letter of al-Sadr, since they refer to Ibrahim’s book.
9 Hashim ʿUthman, Hal al-ʿAlawiyyūn Shīʿa? (Beirut: Muʾassasat al-Aʿlami lil-Maṭbūʿāt, 1994), 92–93; ibid, al-ʿAlawiyyūn bayna ‘l-Usṭūra wa-l-Ḥaqīqa (Beirut: Muʾassasat al-Aʿlami lil-Maṭbūʿāt, 1994), 216–70.
10 Fouad Ajami, The Vanished Imam: Musa al Sadr and the Shia of Lebanon (Ithaca and London: Cornell University Press, 1986).
11 Ibid., 174.
12 Ajami’s note refers to Martin Kramer, ‘Syria’s Alawis and Shīʿism’, unpublished paper, Conference on Shiism, Resistance, and Revolution, Tel Aviv University, 18 December 1984. This article was published three years later, as: Martin Kramer, ‘Syria’s Alawis and Shīʿism’, in Martin Kramer (editor), Shīʿism, Resistance, and Revolution (London: Manswell, 1987), 237–54.
13 Kramer, ‘Syria’s Alawis and Shīʿism’, 246–9.
14 Ibid., 249.
15 Seale, Patrick, Asad of Syria: The Struggle for the Middle East (Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1988), 173, 352.
16 Alasdair Drysdale, Raymond A. Hinnebusch, Syria and the Middle East Peace Process (New York: Council on Foreign Relations Press, 1991), 30 (referring to Kramer).
17 Eyal Ziser, Asad’s Legacy: Syria in Transition (London: Hurst & Company, 2001), 198.
18 Peter Sluglett, Stefan Weber, Syria and Bilad al-Sham under Ottoman Rule (Leiden: Brill, 2010), 36 note 53 (referring to Ajami).
19 Fouad Ajami, The Syrian Rebellion (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2012), 37.
20 Daniel Pipes, Greater Syria: The History of an Ambition (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1990), 187.
21 Yvette Talhamy, ‘The Fatwas and the Nusayri/Alawis of Syria’, Middle Eastern Studies 46, no. 2 (March 2010): 90.
22 See the translation of al-Shirazi’s attestation in appendix 1.
23 Concerning the definition of the modern fatwas, see: Gräf, Bettina, ‘Fatwā, modern media’, in: Encyclopaedia of Islam, Three (2017), online: http://dx.doi.org/10.1163/1573-3912_ei3_COM_27050
Concerning fatwas in Shīʿism, see: Hamid Algar, ‘Fatwā’, Encyclopaedia Iranica Vol. IX (1999), Fasc. 4, 428–36.
24 See the complete translation of these articles in appendix 3 a, b, c, d.
25 The ʿAlawi Youth Movement was founded in 1972 by ʿAlī ʿīd (1940–2015), the political leader of the ʿAlawi community in Lebanon. It was founded to represent the politics of the community in Lebanon and advance its position after a long period of marginalization. Most of the ʿAlawis in Lebanon live in the Jabal Muḥsin neighbourhood in Tripoli. In 1980 ʿAlī ʿīd founded the Arab Democratic Party. The party backed the al-Asad regime during the civil war in Syria (see: Craig Larkin and Olivia Midha, ‘The Alawis of Tripoli: Identity, Violence and Urban Geopolitics’, In: Michael Kerr, and Craig Larkin (eds.), The Alawis of Syria: War, Faith and Politics in the Levant (London: Hurst, 2015), pp. 181–206).
26 Generally, in Lebanon the ʿAlawi community maintain an autonomous cultural life. Hence, the nature of ʿAlawi apologetic literature in Tripoli is different from that published in Syria, in the sense that it does not deny the connection with the mystic originator of the community, namely Ibn Nuṣayr, the eponymous founder of the sect, and does not deny the sect’s mystical tendencies, but rather presents them as belonging to the Sufi tradition, a legitimate trend in Islam. This difference may originate in the fact that the ʿAlawis of Tripoli were less dependent on religious and political relations with the Shīʿi community in Lebanon and later with Iran, than their Syrian co-religionists.
For a different apologetic ʿAlawi literature in Lebanon, see, for example: Hāshim ʿUthmān, al-ʿAlawiyyūna bayna al-ḥaqīqa wa-l-usṭūra (Beirut: Muʾassasat al-Aʿlā, 1985); ibid, Hal al-ʿAlawiyyūna Shīʿa? (Beirut: Muʾassasat al-Aʿlamī lil-Maṭbūʿāt, 1994); Aḥmad ʿAlī Ḥasan and Ḥāmid Ḥasan, al-Muslimūna al-ʿAlawiyyūna fī Lubnān (Tripoli: Muʾassasat Adīb lil-Ṭibāʿa, 1989).
27 an-Nahār, 7 July 1973, 3. For the full text, see appendix 3 d.
28 The documents are available in: Khadr Muhammad Nabhā, Jabal al-ʿAlawiyyīn wa-JabalʿĀmil—Wathāʾq wa-Taʿlīq (Beirut: Dār al-Amān/Difaf Publishing, 2013), 359–67.
29 The statement of Qabalan is not dated, but according to its contents, it could be assumed that it was published in the period of al-Sadr’s ceremony in Tripoli. Husayn Muhammad al-Mazlum, al-ʿAlawiyyūn Bayna Muftarayāt al-Aqlām wa-Jawr al-Ḥukām (Lebanon: [n.p.], 1999), vol. 1, 129–31. Although al-Mazlum sounds like a pseudonym, he is said to be a member of the ʿAlawi Islamic Council in Lebanon, see: https://alawiyoun.net/ar/node/3160
30 Nabha, Jabal al-ʿAlawiyyīn wa-JabalʿĀmil—Wathāʾq wa-Taʿlīq, 375–6 and see the original document, signed by the sheikh in 377. See a translation of the complete text in appendix 2. The publishing of Nabha’s book in this year (2013) was not coincidental. The ʿAlawis were attacked by the opposition and blamed as enemies of Islam. Such books published during the civil war served to refute these accusations and to be a reminder that the ruling sect in Syria belongs to Islam, since it is a Shīʿi faction.
31 This is supported by the documents of the French Mandate. See: ‘Decreto-Legge Del 4 Maggio 1936 Sull’ordinamento Dei Tribunali Dello Statuto Personale Degli Egiziani Non Musulmani.’ Oriente Moderno 16, no. 6 (1936): 305.
32 The decree appears with a photo of the original document, at the introduction of the anonymous editor in: al-Husayn b. Ḥamdān al-Khaṣībī, al-Hidāya al-Kubrā (Beirut, Muʾassasat al-Balāgh, 1999), 23–5. See also: ʿAli ʿAziz Ibrahim, al-ʿAlawiyyūn fī Dāʾirat al-ḍawʾ, 97–9.
33 Concerning this fatwa, see: Y. Friedman, ‘Ibn Taymiyya’s fatāwā against the Nusayrī-ʿAlawī sect’, Der Islam
82:2 (2005): 349–63. For a complete translation of the document, see: Yaron Friedman, The Nuṣayrī-ʿAlawīs: An Introduction to the Religion, History and Identity of the Leading Minority in Syria (Leiden: E. J. Brill, 2010), 299–310.
34 P. Boneschi, ‘Une fatwa du grand mufti de Jérusalem Muḥammad Amin al-Ḥusaynī sur les ʿAlawites’, Revue de l’histoire des religions 122 (1960): 42–54, 134–52; Talhamy, ‘The Fatwas and the Nusayri/Alawis of Syria’, 185–6.
35 H. Halm, ‘Das Buch der Schatten: Die Mufaḍḍal-Tradition der Ġulāt und die Ursprünge des Nusairiertums’, Der Islam 55 (1977): 219–66 (Part 1); 58 (1981): 15–86; Friedman, The Nuṣayrī-ʿAlawīs, 5–50.
36 Friedman, The Nuṣayrī-ʿAlawī, 202. As to the ʿAlawis’ claim that they belong to Islam, see: ibid., 202–6, 235–8.
37 Concerning the silence of scholars from Najaf in this matter, see: Kramer, ‘Syria’s Alawis and Shīʿism’, 249–52. Baydawi admits that he sent his istiftā to both Qom and Najaf, but his answer came only from the former. See: Muhammad Hasan Baydawi, al-ʿAlawiyyūn Hum Atbāʿ Ahl al-Bayt (Beirut: Muʾassasat al-Balāgh, 2010), vol. 1, 64–90; vol. 3, 31–9. Baydawi’s books contain only one citation of a letter by al-Sadr, which does not address the ʿAlawis and is not a fatwa. In this letter, which is not dated, al-Sadr addressed the Shīʿi Council, emphasizing the importance of the council in keeping the community united. See: Ibid., vol.1, 117–20.
38 For the history of this process, see: S. Mervin, Un réformiste chiite: Ulema et lettres du Gabal Âmil (actuel Liban-Sud) de la fin de l’Empire ottoman à l’indépendence du Liban (Paris: Karthala, 2000), 321–30; Kramer, ‘Syria’s Alawis and Shīʿism’, 237–54.
39 Concerning the Shīʿi attitude to the Nuṣayri doctrine and to Muhammad b. Nusayr in particular, see: Friedman, The Nuṣayrī-ʿAlawīs, 8–15, 176–86.
40 Ajami, The Vanished Imam, 34–5.
41 See a list of al-Sadr’s publications, in: Khāzim al-ʿAmili, Gharīb al-ʿAṣr Āyatullāh al-Mughīb ak-Sayyid Musa al-Ṣadr, 195–8.
42 A decade before, the Sheikh of al-Azhar, the most elevated institute in the Sunni world, issued his famous fatwa acknowledging Shīʿism as the fifth school of Islam. In this atmosphere of taqrīb (advancement of the relationship between Muslim groups) Mustafā Shakʿa wrote his book Islam bilā madhāhib (Islam without schools) in which he calls upon all Muslims—Sunnīs and Shīʿis, including the ʿAlawis—to overlook the differences between them and unite in order reinforce Islam. See: Mustafā Shakʿa, Islam bilā madhāhib (Cairo: Dār al-Qalam, 1961).
43 This process of denial of the old identity became evident in the writings of significant Syrian ʿAlawī sheikh, such as ʿAbd al-Rahman al-Khayyir (d. 1986). He denied any connection of his sect with the name Nusayriyya, which according to him was a pejorative name used by the enemies of the sect, equivalent to the use of rāfiḍa for Shīʿīs and nāsiba for Sunnīs. Al-Khayyir was followed in Syria by several sheikhs, who were pursuing Shīʿī religious studies to the complete neglect of their original Nusayrī identity. Sheikh Mahmud al-Salih (d. 1998) is one example. He published his book al-Nabaʾ al-yaqīn, where he claims that the terms ʿAlawī, Shīʿī, Jaʿfarī and Imāmī are synonymous. See: ʿAbd al-Rahman al-Khayyir, Naqd wa-taqriz kitāb taʾrīkh al-ʿAlawiyyīn (Damascus: Matbaʿat al-Inshāʾ, 1992); ibid, Yaqẓat al-Muslimīna ’l-ʿAlawiyyīna fī matlạʿal-qarn al-ʿashrīn (Damascus: Matbạ ʿat al-Kātib al-ʿArabī, 1996), 11–24; Maḥmūd al-Sālih ̣, al-Nabaʾ al-yaqīnʿan al-ʿAlawiyyīn (Lādhiqiyya: Dār al-Mirsāt, 1997), 47–9.
44 The application of the ʿAlawi Youth Movement led by ʿAli Yusuf ʿId to found an autonomous and separated religious council was sent to the Lebanese government in 1973 and the ʿAlawi doctrine was acknowledged by Lebanese law in 1995 as a separate Muslim faction that does not belong to Jaʿfari Shīʿism. The ʿAlawi Islamic Council was eventually established, after several delays, in 1999. See the description of this process as well as the Lebanese law, in: Husayn Muhammad al-Mazlum, ‘al-Majlis al-ʿAlawī fī Lubnān: Waẓīfatuhu, Qānūnuhu, Fāʾidatuhu, Ahdāfuhu, Mādha Yumaththilu? Kayfa wa-Matā tammat al-Muṭālaba bihi wa-limādhā wa-matā Yabdaʿu ʿAmaluhu?’ (The ʿAlawi Council in Lebanon: Its task, its law, its benefits, its goals, what does it represent? How and when was the application to establish it and why, and when does its work begin?), alawiyoun.net (16 May 2011):
45 All the texts in this article were translated by the author, if not mentioned otherwise.
46 Munir al-Sharif, al-Muslimūn al-ʿAlawiyyūn—man humm wa-Ayna hum, pp., 7–8. The document is entitled ‘Introduction’ since it was published as an introduction to the declaration of the Syrian ʿAlawi sheikhs in 1972 that they belong to Islam, and follow the Jaʿfarī school, citing a previous declaration from 1936, repeated in Jumādā al-Ākhira 1357 (6 August 1938). Their declaration contains a citation of a fatwa from the same date concerning the ʿAlawi religion, published by the ʿAlawi sheikh Sulayman al-Ahmad (1866–1942), that the ʿAlawi religion is a faction in Shīʿi Islam. The declaration was signed by 81 ʿAlawi sheikhs and scholars. See: Ibid., 9–30.:
47 Khadr Muhammad Nabhā, Jabal al-ʿAlawiyyīn wa-JabalʿĀmil—Wathāʾq wa-Taʿlīq (Beirut: Dār al-Amān/Difaf Publishing, 2013), 375–6 and the original document, signed by the sheikh on page 377.:
48 an-Nahār, 5 July 1973, 12. The copies of the original articles were provided from microfilms by the Library of the University of Haifa and used with their permission.
49 an-Nahār, 6 July 1973, 3.
50 an-Nahār, 7 July 1973, 3.
51 an-Nahār, 7 July 1973, 3.