The Public Sphere in Muslim Societies

2. RELIGIOUS LEADERSHIP AND ASSOCIATIONS IN THE PUBLIC SPHERE OF SELJUK BAGHDAD

CHAPTER TWO RELIGIOUS LEADERSHIP AND ASSOCIATIONS IN THE PUBLIC SPHERE OF SELJUK BAGHDAD DAPHNA EPHRAT During the eleventh century emerging social associations and institutions developed in Islamic societies to disseminate religious knowledge (`ilm), apply the Islamic religious law (the shari`a), and harness mysticism. During this century, a period often called the “Sunni revival,” the four Sunni schools of law (the madhahib, sing. madhhab) were consolidated, the nuclei of the Sufi brotherhoods were formed, and the religious sciences colleges (madaris, sing. madrasa) and Sufi centers for devotion and learning (khawaniq, sing. khanqah, or rubut, sing. ribat), were founded. These developments took place against the background of the `Abbasid caliphate’s disintegration—a process that began as early as the late ninth century—and the subsequent rise to power in the early eleventh century of a new Turkish sultanate, the Great Seljuks.1 This chapter, in seeking to evaluate the significance of religious leadership and associations in the public sphere, addresses several questions: to what extent did the religious leadership and the groupings that grew up around it enjoy autonomy vis-à-vis the central authorities, that is, develop and restructure according to their own dynamics, independent of the official sphere? Did the political rulers intervene in religious matters at all? Were the madhahib the nuclei of public sphere arenas and the focus of solidarity for local communities ? What were the bases of solidarity that bound members of the legal schools together? Did the character and operation of religious association as an arena of public sphere undergo changes over time? These questions will be dealt with in the particular context of Seljuk Baghdad (from the Seljuk conquest of the city in 1055 to the dissolution of the Great Seljuks’ empire in the mid-twelfth century). Significantly, the city of Baghdad, which more than any other Islamic city suffered from the upheavals and instability of this century, featured prominently in the madhahib’s process of consolidation and the development of the madrasa into its “mature” form. Indeed, the madaris founded in Baghdad in the late eleventh century represented a new form of 31 organization. For the first time schools were founded on the large Islamic endowments (waqfs) that had been given in perpetuity for the teaching of the law according to one of the four Sunni madhahib (the Shafi`i, Hanafi, Hanbali , and Maliki). The substantial waqfs endowed by the founders, often the Seljuk viziers and sultans, paid the salaries of the teachers and stipends for students, thereby increasing the new schools’ attraction.2 Eleventh-century Baghdad, it is also important to note, was a city in which all four Sunni law schools were represented, and which retained its position as a major religious and intellectual center, a magnet for aspiring students , even as its central political and economic role was eroded. As the seat of the `Abbasid caliphs and representatives of the Seljuk sultans, the caliphal city remained a major center of government as well. THE `ULAMA' AND THE OFFICIAL SPHERE Historians of medieval Islamic societies have largely agreed that with the emergence of the Seljuks as the new ruling elite in the central lands of Islam, patronage and sponsorship of Sunni religious institutions and the religious scholars, the `ulama', reached unprecedented heights. This policy was nowhere more clearly revealed than in the foundation of madaris on substantial endowments , and the employment of their graduates as religious and civil officials. Given their traditional status in Islamic societies and the nature of the ruling elite during this period, the choice of the `ulama' as benefactors of state patronage should not seem surprising. Deriving their moral authority and their standing from the shari`a, they were the sole civilian elite that could bridge the gap between the alien Turkish military elite and the indigenous population. Moreover, the `ulama' could legitimize the Seljuk regime by enjoining obedience on the local population, as well as by performing a host of tangible and intangible services for the government. The heterogeneous character of their socioeconomic background and networks, and their close ties with the urban populace, further strengthened the position of the `ulama' as a “glue,” intermediaries between the rulers and their subjects. For thèulama' came from, or had representatives in, all segments of the society, including the ruling elite.3 The `ulama' of Seljuk Baghdad appear in our sources as administrators of mosques, schools, and orphanages—functions that put them in control of great corporate wealth. Occasionally, they also acted as patrons of local groups and...