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SUNNITES
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SUNNITES , literally, "those of the path," sunna, i.e. followers of the See also:Prophet's directions, the name of one of the two See also:main divisions of See also:Islam, the other being the See also:Shiites (q.v.). The Sunnites, who accept the orthodox tradition (Sunna) as well as the See also:Koran as a source of theologico-juristic doctrines, pre-dominate in See also:Arabia, the See also:Turkish See also:Empire, the See also:north of See also:Africa, See also:Turkestan, See also:Afghanistan and the See also:Mahommedan parts of See also:India and the See also:east of See also:Asia; the Shiites have their main seat in See also:Persia, where their See also:confession is the See also:state See also:religion, but are also scattered over the whole See also:sphere of Islam, especially in India and the regions bordering on Persia, except among the See also:nomad See also:Tatars, who are all nominally Sunnite. Even in See also:Turkey there are many native Shiites, generally men of the upper classes, and often men in high See also:office (see generally MAHOMMEDAN RELIGION). Orthodox Islam preserves unchanged the See also:form of See also:doctrine established in the loth See also:century by See also:Abu '1-Ijasan al-Ash'See also:ari (see ASH'ARI). The attacks of See also:rationalism, aided by See also:Greek See also:philosophy, were repelled and vanquished by the weapons of scholastic See also:dialectic borrowed from the enemy; on most points of dispute discussion was forbidden altogether, and faith in what is written in Koran and tradition was enjoined without question as to how these things were true (bidet kaifa). Freer allegorical views, however, were admitted on some specially perplexing points, such as the doctrine of the eternity of the Koran, the crude anthropomorphisms of the sacred See also:text, &c.; and, since Mo'tazilite (Mu'tazilite) views had never taken deep See also:root among the masses, while the caliphs required the help of the See also:clergy, and from the See also:time of Motawakkil (A.D. 847) became ever more closely See also:bound to orthodox views, the freethinking tendency was thoroughly put down, and to the See also:present See also:day no rationalizing See also:movement has failed to be crushed in the bud. Philosophy still means no more than scholastic dialectic, and is the humble servant of orthodoxy, no See also:man venturing on devious paths except in See also:secret. In the years 1872-1878 the Afghan Jamal ud-Din, a See also:professor in the Azhar See also:mosque at See also:Cairo, at-tempted to read See also:Avicenna with his scholars, and to exercise them in things that went beyond See also:theology, bringing, for example, a globe into the mosque to explain the form of the See also:earth. But the other professors See also:rose in arms, forbade him to enter the mosque, and in 1899 procured his See also:exile on the pretext that he entertained democratic and revolutionary ideas. Thus the later movements of thought in Islam never See also:touch on the See also:great questions that exercised Mahommedanism in its first centuries, e.g. the being and attributes of See also:God,' the freedom of the will, See also:sin, See also:heaven and See also:hell, &c. Religious earnestness, ceasing to touch the higher problems of speculative thought, has expressed itself in later times exclusively in protest against the extravar gances of the dervishes, of the See also:worship of See also:saints, and so forth, and has thus given rise to movements analogous to See also:Puritanism. That even in See also:early times the masses were never shaken in their See also:attachment to the traditional faith, with all its crude and See also:grotesque conceptions, is due to the zeal of the Utem&: See also:ulema (clergy). Mahommedanism has no See also:priest- See also:hood See also:standing between God and the See also:congregation, but Koran and Sunna are full of See also:minute rules for the details of private and See also:civil See also:life, the knowledge of which is necessarily in the hands of a class of professed theologians. These are the 'ulema (q.v.), " knowers," theology being briefly named " the knowledge " See also:Cam). Their See also:influence is enormous and hardly has a parallel in the See also:history of religions. For it is not supported by temporal agencies like the spiritual authority of the See also:Christian priesthood in the See also:middle ages, but is a pure See also:power of knowledge over the ignorant masses, who do nothing without 'consulting their spiritual advisers. When the vigorous See also:Spanish See also:sultan Mansur b. Abi `See also:Amir proposed to confiscate a religious See also:foundation and the assembled ulema refused to approve the See also:act, and were threatened by his See also:vizier, one of them replied, " All the evil you say of us applies to yourself; you seek unjust gains and support your injustice by threats; you take bribes and practise ungodliness in the See also:world. But we are guides on the path of righteousness, See also:lights in the darkness, and bulwarks of Islam; we decide what is just or unjust and declare the right; through us the precepts of religion are maintained. We know that the sultan will soon think better of the See also:matter; but, if he persists, every act of his See also:government will be null, for every treaty of See also:peace and See also:war, every act of See also:sale and See also:purchase, is valid only through our testimony." With this See also:answer they See also:left the See also:assembly, and the sultan's See also:apology overtook them before they had passed the See also:palace See also:gate.' The same consciousness of See also:independent authority and strength still survives among the ulema. Thus the See also:sheikh ul-Islam 'Abbasi (who was deposed by the professors of the Azhar in 1882) had in the first See also:period of his See also:presidency a See also:sharp conflict with `Abbas See also:Pasha, See also:viceroy of See also:Egypt, who asked of him an unjust legal See also:opinion in matters of See also:inheritance. When bribes and threats failed, the sheikh was thrown into chains and treated with great severity, but it was the pasha who finally yielded, and 'Abbasi was recalled to honours and See also:rich rewards. The way in which the ulema are recruited and formed into a See also:hierarchy with a vigorous esprit de See also:corps throws an instructive See also:light on the whole subject before us. The brilliant days are past when the See also:universities of See also:Damascus, See also:Bagdad, See also:Nishapur, Cairo, See also:Kairawan, See also:Seville, See also:Cordova, were thronged by thousands of students of theology, when a professor had often hundreds or even, like Bukhari, thousands of hearers, and when vast estates in the hands of the clergy fed both masters and scholars. Of the great universities but one survives—the Azhar mosque at Cairo—where thousands of students still gather to follow a course of study which gives an accurate picture of the Mahom- medan ideal of theological See also:education. The students of theology generally begin their course in early youth, but not seldom in riper years. Almost all come from the T6eologlcallowest orders, a few from the middle classes, and none Students. from the highest ranks of society—a fact which in itself excludes all elements of freer and more refined education. These sons of poor peasants, artisans or tradesmen are already disposed to narrow fanaticism, and generally take up study as a means of livelihood rather than from genuine religious See also:interest. The See also:scholar appears before the See also:president's secretary with his poor belongings tied up in a red handkerchief, and after a brief interrogatory is entered on the See also:list of one of the four orthodox See also:rites—Shafi'ite, Hanifite, Malikite and Hanbalite (see MAHOMMEDAN See also:LAW). If he is lucky he gets a sleeping-See also:place within the mosque, a See also:chest to hold his things, and a daily ration of See also:bread. The less fortunate make shift to live outside as best they can, but are all day in the mosque, and are seldom deserted by Moslem charity. Having kissed the hands of the sheikh and teachers of his school, the See also:pupil awaits the beginning of the lectures. For books a few compendiums suffice him. Professors and students gather every See also:morning for the daily See also:prayer; then the professors take their seats at the See also:foot of the pillars of the great See also:court and the students crouch on mats at their feet. The beginner takes first a course in the See also:grammar of classical Arabic, for he has hitherto learned only to read, write and See also:count. The rules of grammar are read out in the memorial verses of the Ajrumiya, and the teacher adds an exposition, generally read from a printed commentary. The student's See also:chief task is to know the rules by See also:heart; this accomplished, he is dismissed at the end of the See also:year with a certificate (ijaza), entered in his textbook, which permits him to See also:teach it to others. The second year is devoted to dogmatic *lam and lawhid), taught in the same See also:mechanical way. The See also:dog- mas of Islam are not copious, and the attributes of God are the chief ' Von Kremer, Gesch. d. herrschenden Ideen d. Islams, p. 464 (See also:Leipzig, 1868).subject taken up. They are demonstrated by scholastic dialectic, and at the end of his second year the student, receiving his certificate, See also:deems himself a See also:pillar of the faith. The study of law (fiqh), which rests on Koran and tradition, is more difficult and complex, and begins, but is often not completed, in the third year. The student had learned the Koran by heart at school and has often repeated it since, but only now is the sense of its words explained to him. Of the traditions of the Prophet he has learned something incidentally in other lectures; he is now regularly introduced to their vast artificial See also:system. From these two See also:sources are derived all religious and civil See also:laws, for Islam is a See also:political as well as a religious institution. The five main points of religious law, " the pillars of Islam," have been enumerated in the See also:article MAHOMMEDAN RELIGION; the civil law, on the development of which See also:Roman law had some influence, is treated under heads similar to those of Western See also:jurisprudence. It is here that the See also:differences between the four See also:schools come most into See also:notice: the Hanifite praxis is the least rigorous, then the Shafi'ite; the Hanbalites, whose system is the strictest, have practically disappeared in the Malikites. The Hanifite rite is See also:official in the Turkish Empire, and is followed in alf government offices whenever a decision still depends on the sacred law, as well as by all Mahommedans of Turkish See also:race. In this as in the previous studies a compendium is learned by heart, and explanations are given from commentaries and noted down by the students word for word. The professors are expressly forbidden to add anything of their own. The recognized books of jurisprudence, some of which run to over twenty See also:folio volumes, are vastly learned, and occasionally show See also:sound sense, but excel mainly in useless See also:hair-splitting and feats of scholastic gymnastics, for which the Arabian race has a natural See also:gift. Besides the three main disciplines the student takes up according to his tastes other subjects, such as See also:rhetoric (ma'am wabayan), See also:logic (mantig), See also:prosody ('arud), and the doctrine of the correct See also:pronunciation of the Koran (gira'a watajwid). After three or four years, fortified with the certificates of his various professors, he seeks a place in a law-court or as a teacher, preacher, See also:cadi, or See also:mufti of a See also:village or See also:minor See also:town, or else one of the innumerable posts of confidence for which the complicated ceremonial of Mahommedanism demands a theologian, and which are generally paid out of pious See also:foundations. A place is not hard to find, for the powerful See also:corporation of the ulema seeks to put its own members into all posts, and, though the remuneration is at first small, the See also:young 'alim gradually accumulates the revenues of several offices. Gifts, too, fall in, and with his native avarice and See also:economy he rises in See also:wealth, position and reputation for piety. The commonalty See also:revere him and See also:kiss his See also:hand; the rich show him at least outward respect; and even the government treats him as a See also:person to whom See also:consideration is due for his influence with the masses. This See also:sketch of his education is enough to explain the narrow-mindedness of the 'Vim. He deems all non-theological See also:science to be vain or hurtful, has no notion of progress, and regards true science—i.e. theology—as having reached finality, so that a new supercoinmentary or a new students' See also:manual is the only thing that is perhaps still See also:worth See also:writing. How the See also:mental faculties are blunted by See also:scholasticism and See also:mere memory See also:work must be seen to be believed; such an education is enough to spoil the best See also:head. All originality is crushed out and a See also:blind and ludicrous dependence on written tradition—even in things profane—takes its place. Acuteness degenerates into hair-splitting and See also:clever plays on words after the manner of the rabbins. The Azhar students not seldom enter government offices and even hold important administrative posts, but they never lose the See also:stamp of their education—the narrow, unteachable spirit, incapable of progress, always lost in See also:external details, and never able to grasp principles and get behind forms to the substance of a matter. Yet it is but a small fraction of the ulema of the Moslem world that enjoy even such an education as the Azhar affords. It draws few students from See also:foreign parts,' where the See also:local schools schools. are of the poorest See also:kind, except in India (thanks to a See also:British government) and perhaps in See also:Constantinople.3 See also:Bokhara was once a chief seat of learning, but is now so sunk in narrow fanaticism that its eighty madrasas (medresses) with their 5000 students only turn out a bigoted and foolish clergy (See also:Vambery).' But for this very See also:reason Bokhara is famed as a luminary of pure theology and spreads its influence over Turkestan, See also:Siberia, See also:China, See also:Kashmir, Afghanistan, and even over India. Minor schools attached to mosques are found in other places, but teach still less than the great schools already mentioned. Except 'in India, where it is controlled by the government, 2 In 1878 seventeen lecture-rooms of the Azhar had 3707 students, of whom only 64 came from Constantinople and the See also:northern parts of the See also:Ottoman Empire, 8 from North Arabia, i from the government of Bagdad, 12 from See also:Kurdistan, and 7 from India with its See also:thirty million Sunnites. In Kazan also the See also:standard of learning seems to have been raised by See also:Russian and Western scholars. ' The madrasa is here a See also:college, generally attached to a mosque, with lands whose revenues provide the means of instruction and in See also:part also See also:food and See also:residence for scholars and teachers. the organization of the priestly and judicial persons trained in the schools is a See also:compromise between what theological prin-CaNphate ciples dictate and what the state demands. Neither and Koran nor Sunna distinguishes between temporal Temporal and spiritual See also:powers, and no such distinction was Sove- known as See also:long as the caliphs acted in all things as relgafy. successors of the prophets and heads of the community of the faithful. But, as the power of the `See also:Abbasids declined (see article See also:CALIPHATE, ad fin.) and external authority See also:fell in the provinces into the hands of the See also:governors and in the See also:capital into those of the amir al-omard, the distinction became more and more palpable, especially when the Buyids, who were disposed to Shiite views, proclaimed themselves sultans, i.e. possessors of all real authority. The theologians tried to uphold the orthodox theory by declaring the sultanate to be subordinate to the imamate or See also:sovereignty of the caliphs, and dependent on the latter especially in all religious matters; but -their artificial theories have never modified facts. The various dynasties of sultans (Buyids, Ghaznevids, SelAs, and finally the See also:Mongols) never paid heed to the caliphs, and at length abolished them; but the fall of the See also:theocracy only increased the influence of the clergy, the expounders and See also:practical administrators of that legislation of Koran and Sunna which had become part of the life of the Mahommedan world. The Mamelukes in Egypt tried to make their own government appear more legitimate by nominally recognizing a continuation of the spiritual dignity of the caliphate in a surviving See also:branch of the `Abbasid See also:line which they protected, and in 923 All. (1517) the Ottoman See also:Selim, who destroyed the See also:Mameluke power, constrained the `Abbasid Motawakkil III., who lived in Cairo, to make over to him his nominal caliphate. The Ottoman sultans still See also:bear the See also:title of " successors of the Prophet," and still find it useful in foreign relations, since there is or may be some See also:advantage in the right of the See also:caliph to nominate the chief cadi (k fdi) of Egypt and in the fact that the spiritual head of See also:Khiva calls himself only the nakib (vicegerent) of the sultan' In India too the sultan owes something perhaps to his spiritual title. But among his own subjects he is compelled to defer to the ulema and has no considerable influence on the See also:composition of that See also:body. He nominates the Sheikh al-Islam or mufti (q.v.) of Constantinople (See also:grand mufti), who is his representative in the imamate and issues judgments in points of faith and law from which there is no See also:appeal; but the notrination must fall on one of the mollahs,2 who form the upper s.tatum of the hierarchy of ulema. And, though the various places of religious dignity are conferred by the sultan, no one can hold office who has not been examined and certified by older ulema, so that the corporation is self-propagating, and palace intrigues, though not without influence, can never break through its See also:iron bonds. The deposition of `Abd ul-Aziz is an example of the tremendous power that can be wielded by the ulema at the head of their thousands of pupils,3 when they choose to stir up the masses; nor would Mabsnacl II. in 1826 have ventured to enter on his struggle with the See also:janissaries unless he had had the hierarchy with him. The student who has passed his See also:examinations at Constantinople or Cairo may take up the purely religious office of imdm (president in worship) or khaltb (preacher) at a Judicial mosque. These offices, however, are purely minis- Offices. terial, are not necessarily limited to students, and give no place in the hierarchy and no particular consideration or social status. On the other hand, he may become a See also:judge or cadi. Every place of any importance has at least one cadi, who is nominated by the government,' but has no further dependence 3 Till the Russians gained preponderating influence the See also:khan of Khiva also acknowledged the sultan as his suzerain. 2 Mollah is the Perso-Turkish pronunciation of the Arabic maid g, literally " See also:patron," a See also:term applied to heads of orders and other "eligious dignitaries of various grades. 3 Called in Constantinople softa, See also:Persian sokhta, burned up, scil., with zeal or love to God. + In Egypt before the time of Said Pasha (1854–1863) the local See also:judges were appointed by the chief cadi of Cairo, who is sent from Constantinople. Since then they have been nominated by the See also:Egyptian governmenton it, and is answerable only to a member of the third class of the ulema, viz. the mufti or pronouncer of fatwas. A fatwa is a decision according to Koran and Sunna, but without reasons, on an abstract See also:case of law which is brought before the mufti by appeal from the cadi's See also:judgment or by reference from the cadi himself. For example, a dispute between See also:master and slave may be found by the cadi to turn on the See also:general question, " Has Zaid, the master of `Amr,s the See also:absolute right to dispose of his slave's earnings?" When this is put to the mufti, the answer will be simply " Yes," and from this decision there is no appeal, so that the mufti is supreme judge in his own See also:district. The grand mufti of Constantinople is, as we have seen, nominated by the sultan, but his hold on the See also:people makes him quite an independent power in the state; in Cairo he is not even nominated by the government, but each school of law chooses its own sheikh, who is also mufti, and the Iianifite is head mufti because his school is official in the Turkish Empire. All this gives the judges great private and political influence. But the former is tainted by venality, which, aggravated by the scantiness of judicial salaries or in some cases by the judge having no See also:salary at all, is almost universal among the administrators of See also:justice. Their political influence, again, which arises from the See also:fusion of private and political law in Koran and Sunna, is highly inconvenient to the state, and often becomes intolerable now that relations with Western states are multiplied. And even in such distant parts as Central Asia the law founded on the conditions of the Prophet's lifetime proves so unsuited to See also:modern life that cases are often referred to civil authorities rather than to canonical jurists. Thus a customary law ('orf) has there sprung up See also:side by side with the official sacred law (See also:shari'a), much to the displeasure of the mollahs. In Turkey, and above all in Egypt, it has been found necessary greatly to limit the sphere and influence of the canonical jurists and to introduce institutions nearer to Western legal usage. 'We do not here speak of the See also:paper constitutions (khatt-i-sherif) and the like, created to impose upon Western diplomatists, but of such things as consular and commercial courts, criminal codes, and so forth.
The official hierarchy, strong as it is, divides its power with the dervishes. A religion which subdues to itself a race with strongly marked individuality is always influenced in cultus and See also:dogma by the previous views and tendencies of that race, to which it must in some measure accommodate itself. See also:Mahomet himself made a concession to See also:heathen traditions when he recognized the Ka'ba and the See also:black See also: (767), we find it transferred without question to the mystical brotherhood which appears in See also:Khorasan under Abu Said about 200 A.H. (815/816). Yet these two schools of Sufis were never quite similar; on Sunnite soil Sufiism could not openly impugn orthodox views, while in Persia it was saturated with Shiite See also:heresy and the See also:pantheism of the extreme devotees of `All. Thus there have always been tw6 kinds of Sufis, and, though the course of history and the wandering habits which various orders borrowed from See also:Buddhism Zaid and `Amr are the See also:Caius and Sempronius of Arabian law. 6 Op. cit. p. 52 seq. Mode,n Changes. have tended to bring them closer to one another, we still find that of the thirty-six chief orders three claim an origin from the caliph Abubekr, whom the Sunnites See also:honour, and the See also:rest from 'See also:Ali, the idol of the Shiites.' Mystic absorption in the being of God, with an increasing tendency to pantheism and ascetic practices, are the main See also:scope of all Sufiism, which is not necessarily confined to members of orders; indeed the secret practice of contemplation of the love of God and contempt of the world is sometimes viewed as specially meritorious. And so ultimately the word sufi has come to denote all who have this religious direction, while those who follow the See also:special rules of an See also:order are known as dervishes (beggars, in Arabic fugard, sing. faqir —names originally designating only the niendicant orders). In Persia at the present day a Sufi is much the same as a See also:free-thinker? Additional information and CommentsThere are no comments yet for this article.
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