Overview

In Shurāt Legends, Ibādī Identities, Adam Gaiser explores the origins and early development of Islamic notions of martyrdom and of martyrdom literature. He examines the catalogs or lists of martyrs (martyrologies) of the early shurāt (Khārijites) in the context of late antiquity, showing that shurāt literature, as it can be reconstructed, shares continuity with the martyrologies of earlier Christians and other religious groups, especially in Iraq, and that this powerful literature was transmitted by seventh– century shurāt through their successors, the Ibādiyya. Gaiser examines the sources of poems and narratives as quasi-historical accounts and their application in literary creations designed to meet particular communal needs, in particular, the need to establish and shape identity. Gaiser shows how these accounts accumulated traits—such as all-night prayer vigils, stoic acceptance of death, and miracles-—of a wider ascetic and apocalyptic literature in the eighth century, including martyrdom narratives of Eastern Christianity. By establishing focal points of piety around which a communal identity could be fashioned, such accounts proved suitable for use in missionary activity in North Africa and the Arabian Peninsula. Gaiser also documents the reshaping of these narratives for more quietist purposes: emphasizing moderated rather than violent action, diplomacy, and respect for other Islamic sects as also being monotheistic, rather than condemning them as sinful. Along with refashioning narratives, Gaiser details the Ibādī efforts to compile collections into genealogies, both biographical dictionaries and lineages of the true faith linking individuals and communities to local saints and martyrs. He also shows how this more nuanced history led to the formation of rules and authorities governing the shurāt. Employing rarely examined manuscript materials to shed light on such processes as identity formation and communal boundary maintenance, Gaiser traces the course by which this martyrdom literature and its potentially dangerous implications came to be institutionalized, contained, and controlled.

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9781611176766

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In a nuanced and sophisticated exposition Gaiser shows how Ib s, the first distinct Muslim sectarian group, engaged in identity construction and boundary maintenance by using narratives of asceticism and martyrdom harking back to the earlier shur t, who exchanged this world for Paradise, that resonate with similar late antique themes. Michael Morony, University of California, Los Angeles

The author of this meticulous study examines the shurat and Ibadi hagiographical narratives in the context of late antiquity and early Islam. He offers a useful corrective to certain strains of scholarship regarding the Kharijites, namely that the Kharijites and their subgroups possessed coherent, distinctive theologies. He discusses the classification and subsequent treatment of non-Ibadis in order to distinguish the emerging Ibadiyya from the militant Azraqites and Najdites. Following the early Ibadi authors, the author also clarifies Ibadi taxonomies of unfaithfulness to sort non-Ibadis into recognizable categories. In addition, he accentuates the importance of viewing Ibadi hagiographical depictions of martyrs and saints and their opponents. -- Abdulrahman al-Salimi, Sultanate of Oman In a nuanced and sophisticated exposition Gaiser shows how Ibadis, the first distinct Muslim sectarian group, engaged in identity construction and boundary maintenance by using narratives of asceticism and martyrdom harking back to the earlier shurat, who exchanged this world for Paradise, that resonate with similar late antique themes. -- Michael Morony, University of California, Los Angeles

Author Information

Adam Gaiser is an associate professor of religion at Florida State University, where he teaches classes on Islamic studies. His research interests include early Islamic sectarianism, the Khārijites, Ibādiyya, and early Shīa. Gaiser is the author of Muslims, Scholars, Soldiers: The Origin and Elaboration of the Ibādī Imāmate Traditions.

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