Thread by @ammaar_muslim

Al-Shaʿbī and the Umayyad Connection 🧵

It is important when evaluating hadith narrators to study their links to rulers and question whether this affected what they chose to report or censor.
In the case of al-Shaʿbī, who is universally acclaimed by Sunnis as an impeachable narrator and scholar, he was first spotted by the infamous Umayyad governor for Iraq, al-Ḥajjāj (d. 95), who interviewed him:

Ḥajjāj: “Have you memorized the Qur’an?”
Shaʿbī: “Yes.”
Ḥajjāj: “Have you mastered calculating inheritance shares?”
Shaʿbī: “Yes.”
Ḥajjāj: “What is your position concerning [...] and […]?”
Shaʿbī: […]
Ḥajjāj: “You have hit the mark.”
Ḥajjāj: “Have you looked into the Arabic language?”
Shaʿbī: “Yes.”
Ḥajjāj: “Do you transmit poems?”
Shaʿbī: “I have looked into their meanings.”
Ḥajjāj: “Have you looked into arithmetic?”
Shaʿbī: “Yes.”
Ḥajjāj: “Do you transmit the maghāzī (campaigns) of the Messenger of Allah?”
Shaʿbī: “Yes.”
Ḥajjāj: “Narrate to me the story of Badr.”
Shaʿbī begins with the dream of ʿĀtika (i.e. the aunt of the Prophet) until the muʾadhdhin calls for ẓuhr.

An impressed Ḥajjāj appoints al-Shaʿbī to be an ʿarīf (overseer) over the Shaʿbīyīn, the mankib (superintendent) over the whole (tribe) of Hamdān, and sets his stipend with the nobility.

Notice how a part of the interview is censored. Shaʿbī states that al-Ḥajjāj questioned him concerning the creed of Abū Turāb, a pejorative name for ʿAlī. We don’t know what exactly al-Ḥajjāj asked and how exactly al-Shaʿbī responded but what we do know is that al-Ḥajjāj approved of the answer.

It was Umayyad policy to abuse ʿAlī and al-Ḥajjāj, in particular, was adamant in implementing this. There is no way that Shaʿbī would have been recruited if he did anything but look the other way when it came to this policy.

Thus began al-Shaʿbī’s long career serving the Umayyads.
It is true that al-Shaʿbī later joined a rebellion against al-Ḥajjāj but the defeat of the rebels meant that he had to make a groveling apology to al-Ḥajjāj and was forgiven.
When the Umayyad Caliph Abd al-Malik b. Marwan (r. 65-86) wanted a tutor for his son, al-Ḥajjāj recommended al-Shaʿbī and he became part of the royal entourage.
Al-Shaʿbī would end his career as the official qāḍī (judge) of Kufa during the short-lived reign of ʿUmar b. ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz (r. 99-101), dying in office around the year 105.

Now al-Shaʿbī is known to have made numerous controversial anti-Alid remarks such as:

1. Only 4 companions participated in the battle of Jamal with all the rest sitting it out.

2. Fāṭima agreed to forgive Abū Bakr after their infamous quarrel (even though this is contradicted by canonical reports!)

3. ʿAlī had not memorized the Qur’an.

Can al-Shaʿbī’s close links to the Umayyads help explain these claims?

The Sunni critic al-Ḥākim al-Naysābūrī (d. 405) certainly thought so.
He is known to have exclaimed about no. 3 in particular: “Al-Shaʿbī did not hear (hadith) from him (i.e. ʿAlī), he only saw him a single time, then his inclination towards his (i.e. ʿAlī’s) enemies became manifest out of greed for the world!”