by A R Azzam
when al-Kliabushani complained to Saladin about Taqi ul-Din, saying that
he owned several places where beer was sold and that he should stop at once.
Saladin must have sighed when he received the letter, saying as he passed it
on to his nephew, 'We have no power over this shayldi, so satisfy him'.
What is noteworthy about al-Khabushani is that, despite his confronta-
tional manner, he advocated a strict adherence to Islamic law; after all, the
incident with Saladin occurred because Saladin was unwilling to repeal taxes
that were illegal. Whereas al-Khatuni had chosen to leave his madrasa
quietly and travel to Spain - where he grew dates which he gave to the poor
- until Saladin corrected his error and induced him to return, al-Khabushani
chose a more confrontational stance. By all accounts Saladin was a mild-
mannered man and one imagines that had al-Khabushani acted thus with
Shirkuh then that would have been the last we would have heard of this
pugnacious character. But the issue is a deeper one; Saladin never interfered
in the religious affairs of the ulama since he believed that the scholars of the
religious sciences, especially jurisprudence and the Prophetic traditions,
were guardians of an organic body of knowledge, the transmission of which
in itself defined the legitimacy of Idngs.^ Al-Khabushani's actions were not
dissimilar to those of the Hanbalis who, in a previous generation, had so
irked Nizam ul-Mulk. In a sense al-Khabushani represented the raw forces
of ideological purity of the Sunni Revival, which meant that not only did
heresy have to be rooted out, but that non-Muslims had to be kept in their
place. We are told that Christians and Jews feared al-Khabushani and
avoided him as much as they could, since nothing angered him more than
a non-Muslim on horseback.
The relationship between Saladin and the ulama
Generally the rulers or founders of madrasas were extremely careful not
to meddle in religious matters. They knew very litde about theological
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SALADIN
intricacies and legal controversies, and steered well clear of any interference
in the dogma. Theological squabbling was largely left to the ulama, and the
rulers only interfered if they felt that things were getting out of control and
there was a threat to public order. There was no question of Saladin seek-
ing to change the law or to alter the doctrine. In any case the ulama would
never have accepted such a trespass. But what the ruler could do was to
ensure - through the founding of madrasas - that his vision for the madrasa
was imposed. As long as he did not contravene the tenets of Islam, the
founder had a free will to dictate his terms, since the property he dedicated
was his own.^ Madrasas were charitable institutions, established through
endowments (waqfs), and the founder could use the waqf to dictate who
could teach and what could be taught.® Qutb al-Din Muhammad, a descen-
dant of Zengi, for example was such an ardent Hanafi with a dislike for
Shafiis that when he constructed a madrasa in Sinjar he stipulated that not
only was Hanafi law to be taught there for Hanafi students, but that every-
one who worked there, including the doorman and the janitor, had to be a
Hanafi.^ Perhaps not the ecumenical policy of which Nizam ul-Mulk or Nur
al-Din would have approved, but nevertheless a legitimate enough demand.
Saladin's great respect for the ulama was because they upheld the Sacred
Law, which was the Sharia. For Saladin this was the law that held together
the Muslim community and which needed to be preserved above all. Saladin
understood that he could not interpret the law - that was the task of the
Cilama - but, as a ruler, he could implement it, and this was a task which he
took very seriously. Each Monday and Thursday Saladin would sit to dis-
pense justice in public session. Attended by the jurists, who offered advice,
he would order the doors to be open to any litigant so that anyone could
have access to petition him. On one occasion - some time after 1188,
since that is when he entered his service - Ibn Shaddad was approached by
a man holding a court document in his hand. When Ibn Shaddad asked him,
'Who is your opponent?', he replied, 'My opponent is Saladin'. The man
then proceeded to explain that he owned a slave who held a large sum of
money and when he died Saladin had seized this money, which the man
claimed legally belonged to him. Ibn Shaddad was astonished by this claim
and asked to inspect the document, which had been issued in Damascus.
The man produced it and it certainly appeared genuine. 'I will speak to
the sultan', Ibn Shaddad told the man. When he mentioned the subject
to Saladin, he too appeared bemused by the claim, and declared that it
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8: T H E M E D D L E S O M E P R I E S T : SALADIN A N D A L - K H A B U S H A N I sounded highly unlikely. Ibn Shaddad then, not without embarrassment,
informed Saladin that the man was insisting that he have his day in court.
'Very well', Saladin replied, 'we shall summon the man and go to law with
him, doing in the case whatever the Holy Law requires.' When the day
arrived and the man arrived at the court, Saladin came down from the chair
he was seated on and sat next to him, so that they were equal. 'If you have
a claim, then speak out', he ordered him. And the man related the events as
he had done previously to Ibn Shaddad, who was also present. But when the
man mentioned the date on which Saladin had seized the slave's money,
Saladin interjected and stated that on such a date he was in Egypt, and then
produced witnesses to testify to that. Ibn Shaddad understood what was
happening and whispered to Saladin that the man had done all this in
the hope that he would receive some money from him, and that it was prob-
ably best that he did not leave disappointed. 'That is a different matter',
Saladin replied. The case dismissed, the man departed with a robe of hon-
our. One is as struck by how respectful Saladin was to the procedure of the
law, as by his lack of anger when it emerged that the case was fraudulent.
One further anecdote about al-Khabushani concerns Saladin's nephew
Taqi ul-Din. To clear the air with him over the matter of whether he sold
beer in his shops, Saladin's nephew rode out to the madrasa, where he was
greeted by the doorman who told him to wait outside while he went in
to inform al-Khabushani. 'Taqi ul-Din sends his greetings' the doorman
announced, to which al-Khabushani replied with a pun 'Not Taqi ul Din
but Shaqi al-Din' (not he who obeys religion but he who burdens it). The
doorman then told him that Taqi ul-Din insisted that he had no places
which sold beer, to which al-Khabushani replied that he was lying. Aware
that al-Khabushani was keeping his illustrious guest waiting, the doorman
then hastily rejoined, 'If he is lying, then show us where the beer is being
sold'. Al-Khabushani asked him to come close since he claimed he had not
heard him, but when the doorman approached him he seized him by the
hair and started slapping him, 'Do I look like beer-seller to you? How would
I know where beer is sol
d?' He then Icicked him out and a ruffled doorman
emerged to Taqi ul-Din. 'By God', he told him, 'I nearly sacrificed myself
for you in there.'
Al-Khabushani dominated the al-Salihiyya madrasa not through the bril-
liance and depth of his teachings but through a forceful personality, which
made him few friends and even fewer admirers. Even al-Qadi al-Fadil was at
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SALADIN
the end of his sharp tongue. We are told that al-Qadi al-Fadil went to visit
the madrasa, where he found al-Khabushani teaching a lesson, seated on a
small chair on one side of imam al-Shafii's tomb. Al-Qadi al-Fadil decided
to sit down beside him, but no sooner had he done this than al-Khabushani
shouted at him, 'Get up! Get up! Your back is to the imam.' Al-Qadi al-
Fadil replied that if his back was to the imam, his heart was not, but this
response drew an even shriller response, until al-Qadi al-Fadil, puzzled
by this eccentric behaviour, got up and left. However no act was more
provocative than al-Khabushani's exhumation of al-Kizani's body. Al-Kizani
was the Hanbali sufi and poet who, with Ibn Marzuq, was instrumental in
helping Shirkuh during his first campaign to Egypt. He had met Saladin and
had impressed him with his poetry. We Icnow that he died around 1165 and
was buried next to al-Shafii. A few years later al-Khabushani appeared in
Egypt. When the work on the madrasa began, al-Khabushani ordered that
al-Kizani's bones be dug up and scattered, claiming that his teachings had
introduced innovations and that he did not deserve to be buried near
the imam. In al Khabushani's words, a siddiq (a righteous man, referring to
al-Shafii) should not be buried with a zindiq (an unbeliever, referring to
al-Kizani). Al-Khabushani was of course referring to the dispute between
the Hanbalis and the Shafii Asharis, which had predominated in the east,
and it seems that he was bringing the theological argument to Egypt. This
was a shocking act by any standards and there are signs that by then Saladin
was tiring of the tirades of this obstinate shayldi. According to Imad al-Din
al-lsfahani, Saladin met with Zahir al-Din al-Farisi, who was a renowned
scholar from Isfahan and who had studied with the well-known theologian
and philosopher Fakhr al-Din al-Razi. The scholar clearly impressed Saladin,
and to persuade him to remain in Egypt Saladin offered him the position
of the head of al-Salihiyya. Al-Farisi however turned the offer down and
returned to Syria. Saladin, it seemed, was stuck with al-Khabushani. Perhaps
significantly when al-Khabushani died in 1191 Saladin appointed in his
place Sadr al-Din al-Juwaini, a man who was married to Qutb al-Din al-
Nishapuri's daughter. Qutb al-Din was of course Saladin's shayldi when he
was young, and Sadr al-Din's mild manner would have been a source of
relief after the tempest that was al-Khabushani.
Saladin built many other madrasas but there are very few historical
records about them and we have to assume that they were less important
than the ones mentioned above. There is certainly evidence of a madrasa in
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8: T H E M E D D L E S O M E P R I E S T : SALADIN A N D A L - K H A B U S H A N I Alexandria built at the tomb of his brother Turan Shah, and Ibn Khallikan
writes that Saladin built two madrasas in Damascus, although again it is
not certain. Saladin also it seems built a madrasa in Medina, opposite the
tomb of the Prophet, where the remains of his father and Shirkuh were
transferred and interred. At the same time as the building of madrasas,
Saladin appointed professors to a number of places in Cairo, such as the
tomb of al-Husayn, the mosque of Amr and the al-Aqmar mosque. This was
a quick and inexpensive way of speeding up the Sunnification of Egypt. The
al-Aqmar mosque, for example, was located in the heardand of what was the
Fatimid centre of power, between the Western and Eastern palaces. By
appointing a permanent Shafii muddarris (professor) to it, he transformed
it from a Shiite mosque into a Sunni one. Saladin's support for sufism was
best exemplified by his construction of the Said al-Suada hospice for sufis
in Cairo. Although these hospices were not madrasas - they included no
organised or endowed classes - distinctions between the two institutions
were quick to break down, and locations existed where sufi and student not
only functioned side by side, but were in fact one and the same.® The term
shayldi, of course, referred to both teacher and sufi teacher.
It is noteworthy that Saladin chose to neglect Upper Egypt completely,
and no madrasas were built there. This brings us back to an important point;
if the aim of madrasas was to combat Shiism then the absence of madrasas
in the south appears peculiar. After all, many Fatimid supporters had fled
there and one would have expected to have seen a dynamic programme of
madrasa building all the way to Nubia. Even more peculiar was that in the
heartbeat of the Fatimid empire, the city of Cairo, Saladin only chose to
construct one madrasa. Again, if he was so concerned with Shiism, why this
apparent neglect? The fact was that the Ismailis posed a negligible threat for
Saladin and madrasas were more concerned to produce Sunni jurists.
One striking fact about the four main madrasas discussed above was that
at least 17 of the 28 professors came from abroad.' Although there were
very few Hanafis in Egypt, which meant that the professors for this madrasa
had to be imported, that was not the case with the Shafiis; Egypt was M l of
Shafiis, even before Saladin's assumption of power. Despite this, Saladin
chose to call upon those whom he Icnew and trusted from Syria, as he had
little confidence in the Egyptian Sunni population, who had been affected
by the 200 years of Shiite rule. In addition, during this period the majority
of professors held non-academic posts in the government,^" which effectively
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SALADIN
meant that they were closely linked to the ruling elite. We have already seen
signs of this rapprochement in the east and in particular under Nur al-Din
in Syria, where Kamal al-Din al-Shahrazuri combined the positions of mud-
daris, qadi and vizier. In Egypt, however, Saladin was confronted with a
particular problem, which was that there was a shortage of Egyptian Sunnis
who were madrasa-trained and capable of worldng in an administrative
capacity. This meant that in the short term Sunni jurists who could also
administer had to be imported from the East. From the very beginning
there were close ties between the professors in Egypt and the Nizamiyya
madrasas, especially the one in Baghdad, and no more direct a link can be
found between Nizam ul-Mulk and Saladin than the fact that the latter
stamped the intellectual world of Egypt with the Nizamiyya imprint. The
shadow of the Nizamiyya madrasas loomed large over Egypt: a significant
number of the Shafii professors who arrived in Egypt had studied at the
madrasa in Baghdad, and much of their training and world view was accord-
ingly coloured by the Nizamiyya viewpoint. Almost all these men were not
Egyptia
n and the conclusion is that the model for the Egyptian madrasas
- and hence the Sunni Revival - needs to be found not in Cairo but in
Baghdad. The ideological struggle between Sunni Baghdad and Ismaili
Cairo was finally over, and Saladin had folfilled Nizam ul-Mulk's vision.
Saladin was of course not the only person who built madrasas in Egypt.
His nephew, Taqi ul-Din, built the Manazil al-Izz madrasa which had pre-
viously been a luxurious palace where the Fatimid caliph went for relaxation.
But Saladin's nephew was not without his head-strong scholar, and if
Saladin had al-Khabushani to contend with, then Taqi ul-Din had Shihab
al-Din Tusi. Born in Tus in 1128, he had studied in Isfahan and at the
Nizamiyya in Baghdad. On arriving in Egypt he came to the attention of
Taqi ul-Din, who appointed him as head of the new madrasa. A militant
Sunni - and not without conceit - he was clearly a confrontational charac-
ter. He was also virulently anti-Christian, reflecting the militant face of the
emerging Sunni movement. On one occasion he forbade an Armenian
bishop from taking over two churches, despite the fact that the bishop had
obtained permission from none other than Saladin; and on another he chas-
tised publicly a Christian who had spoken out against Islam, even though
that had occurred 28 years earlier. No matter his confrontational nature,
al-Tusi must have remained close to the ruling family, for on his death, in
1200, Saladin's sons carried his bier to the cemeteiy.
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8: T H E M E D D L E S O M E P R I E S T : SALADIN A N D A L - K H A B U S H A N I Several amirs in Saladin's service also build madrasas. Saif al-Din Yazkuj,
originally a military slave of Shirkuh and later one of the amirs of Saladin and
a man who had Saladin's complete confidence," established two colleges,
one in Fustat and one in Cairo. His wife also founded a law college. Masrur,
a former Fatimid eunuch and the commander of Saladin's bodyguard, was
another who built a madrasa, as did Husam al-Din Lu'Lu, the admiral of
Saladin's navy, who was renowned for his piety and generosity. What moti-
vated those amirs, as well as others, was a combination of factors: a mixture
of military career, piety, charity and concern for personal salvation." On