Saladin

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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  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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  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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  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