CSI'S Monday Majlis: Livnat Holtzman

Dear Colleagues,
We’d like to invite you to the next online Monday Majlis of the Centre for the Study of Islam, Exeter:
Monday the 6th of February, 17:00-18:30 (UK time)
Livnat Holtzman, How Sunni was the Qadiri Creed? An Alternative Reading in the Sources

Registration is required. Register please on this link:
https://Universityofexeter.zoom.us/meeting/register/tJ0tf-uorj8iGdF6bzewG1quOEMRDromNwPO

Abstract
The QādirÄ« creed (al-iÊ¿tiqād al-qādirÄ«) is a series of documents and books issued by the Abbasid caliph al-Qādir bi-llāh (r. 381/991-422/1031). In the years 408/1017-8 and 409/1018-9, the caliph issued two documents. In the year 420/1029, the caliph issued three books. None of these documents and books (henceforth “the QādirÄ« creed”) have survived. In the beginning of the 20th century, the Swiss scholar Adam Mez (d. 1917) located a concise text of 770 words in Ibn al-JawzÄ«’s (d. 597/1201) al-Muntaẓam fÄ« taʼrÄ«kh al-rusul wa-l-mulÅ«k and identified it as the QādirÄ« creed (al-iÊ¿tiqād al-qādirÄ«). This text cites the various elements of the Sunni credo, denounces the MuÊ¿tazilÄ« and ShiÊ¿i doctrines, and reflects the caliph’s commitment to Sunnism. Mez’s translation of the text was published posthumously in 1922 and translated into English in 1937. Since the publication of the text, modern scholarship has regarded it as the QādirÄ« creed. Moreover, al-Qādir’s authorship of this text was never questioned.

In the following presentation, I challenge the identification of the text as the QādirÄ« creed and examine al-Qādir’s alleged role as the author of the creed. Al-Qādir was indeed the eponymous author of the QādirÄ« creed, but his role as an author was not as exclusive as the previous studies considered. Moreover, I claim that the text which is available in Ibn al-JawzÄ«’s al-Muntaẓam is not the QādirÄ« creed but the QādirÄ«-QāʾimÄ« creed or the IQQ (initials of al-iÊ¿tiqād al-qādirÄ« wa-l-qāʾimÄ«). This text was authored by an anonymous author at the request of al-Qādir’s son and successor, al-Qāʾim bi-amr Allāh (r. 422/1030-467/1075). The QādirÄ« creed and the IQQ were authored for different reasons. While the QādirÄ« creed led to an escalation in conflict in the relationships between Sunnism and ShiÊ¿ism, the IQQ version was meant to reconcile between different wings within the Sunni community, namely the ḤanbalÄ«s and the AshÊ¿arÄ«s. These two trends of Islamic traditionalism were divided on the question of how to interpret the divine attributes (á¹£ifāt Allāh). The caliph al-Qāʾim summoned the disputing parties to his palace to arbitrate their doctrinal differences and forced them to sign his version of the QādirÄ« creed (the IQQ) as a symbol of their reconciliation.
My findings are included in a forthcoming article which will be published by Brill as part of a volume entitled Rulers as Authors (eds. Maribel Fierro, Sonja Brentjes and Tilman Seidensticker).

Bio
Livnat Holtzman is Associate Professor in the Department of Arabic at Bar-Ilan University. She specializes in Islamic traditionalism and the Ḥadīth. Her publications include Anthropomorphism in Islam: The Challenge of Traditionalism (700-1350) (Edinburgh University Press 2018) and articles and book chapters on the religious thought of traditionalist thinkers like Aḥmad b. Ḥanbal, Abū Yaʿlā, Ibn al-Jawzī, and Ibn Taymiyya and his pupil Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyya. She is currently working on the gestures, physical mannerisms, and the body language of the Prophet Muḥammad as reported in the Ḥadīth and other literary genres.
https://biu.academia.edu/LivnatHoltzman

In the spirit of the label ‘Majlis’ and also to make the talks even more interesting, we are experimenting with a new format presenting the topic discussed by our speaker as embedded in their own research journey. Please come and enjoy the talks and the discussions. If you’d like to be included in the CSI (Centre for the Study of Islam (Institute of Arab and Islamic Studies, University of Exeter) mailing list, please contact the CSI Manager: Sarah Wood (s.a.wood2@exeter.ac.uk).
We’ll be happy to welcome you!