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Christian Sahner

11 Jan, 10 tweets, 3 min read

@shahanSean

1/ Who were the earliest women converts to Islam and what was their experience of conversion?

In our new sourcebook, Sean Anthony (@shahanSean) and Keren Abbou Hershkovitz profile several women who were alive at the Prophet's time #ConversionToIslam

ucpress.edu/book/978052029…

@shahanSean

2/ In the first entry, @shahanSean translates and comments on the conversion of the Prophet's first wife Khadīja as portrayed in one of the earliest and most famous biographies, the Kitāb al-Maghāzī of Ibn Isḥāq (d. 767)

3/ According to tradition, Khadīja was a widow and wealthy merchant of Mecca, who married Muḥammad after initially hiring him as her agent. She was reportedly the first person to believe in his prophethood, underlining the centrality of women in the Prophet's life

4/ Ibn Isḥāq tells us that when Muḥammad first received the revelation from Gabriel, he came to Khadīja frightened and confused. She reassured him, "God would never allow anything but good to befall you, for I know you are a man who only speaks the truth...

5/ "Rejoice and remain steadfast! By Him whose hand Khadīja's soul resides, I hope that you will be the prophet of his people (umma)!"

Khadīja then consulted with her cousin Waraqa, a Christian, who verified that Muḥammad's experience was true.

6/ He said to her, "Holy! Holy! By Him in whose hand my soul resides, if you have told me the truth, Khadīja, then he is a prophet! Let him be steadfast!"

7/ Abbou Hershovitz then profiles women converts in the great biographical dictionary of Ibn Saʿd (d. 845), the Ṭabaqāt. One is the Prophet's paternal aunt Arwā. Interestingly, only one of his paternal uncles became Muslim (Ḥamza), whereas several of his aunts did

8/ Arwā's brother was the Prophet's uncle and fierce opponent Abū Lahab. She tried to convince him to convert as well, saying, "Take the side [of Muḥammad]... If he is victorious, you will have the choice of either joining him or keeping your religion...

9/ "If he fails, you will have an excuse as he [is a relative]."

In other words, for Arwā, conversion was about building strategic social ties; family loyalty was everything.

@culXl8fYioHzt8O

10/ Stay tuned for more highlights from our sourcebook in the coming days and weeks!

The Editors (Nimrod Hurvitz, Christian Sahner, Uriel Simonsohn @culXl8fYioHzt8O, and Luke Yarbrough) @ucpress

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More from @ccsahner

Christian Sahner

@ccsahner

3 Jul 20

1/ This week I'm posting about early converts to Islam and what happened to their descendants once inside Muslim society

ʿAbdallāh ibn ʿAwn (d. 768) was a famous early Sunnī scholar from Basra whose grandfather had been a Christian deacon enslaved during the conquest of Iraq

2/ The grandfather was called Arṭabān, and judging from the name, he seems to have been a Persian. He was a deacon (shammās) and was captured and enslaved in southern Iraq (Maysān) by one of the Prophet’s Companions, ʿAbdallāh ibn Durra al-Muzanī

3/ This Arṭabān was eventually manumitted, became financially independent, and married another prisoner of war, a woman from Khurasan. Although he began life as a deacon, he seems to have been at home in his new religion, transmitting ḥadīth from ʿUmar, the second caliph

Read 11 tweets

Christian Sahner

@ccsahner

29 Jun 20

1/ What happened to the descendants of the Sasanian cavalry (known as the Asāwira) who went over to the Arabs during the conquest of Iraq?

A thread on how Sasanian soldiers transformed into Muslim theologians over the course of several generations

2/ The Asāwira are a famous example of pre-Islamic elites who switched sides during the conquest and were richly rewarded for their loyalty.

They settled mainly in the city of Basra in southern Iraq, where they lived under the patronage of the powerful Arab tribe of Tamīm

3/ The sources report that they had their own quarter in Basra, including their own mosque. They also received the very highest military pension (the ʿaṭāʾ): 2,000 dirhams per year

Read 13 tweets

Christian Sahner

@ccsahner

22 Jun 20

@HenryLouisGates

1/ A thread on the most famous slave revolt in Islamic history: the Zanj of #Iraq (869-83), who brought the Abbasid caliphate to its knees, followed a messianic preacher and even held slaves of their own

@HenryLouisGates has compared them to Spartacus & Toussaint Louverture

2/ The Arabic term "Zanj" refers to the inhabitants of East Africa, especially along the coast. Many were taken captive in the early Islamic period and brought as slaves to southern Iraq

3/ Slavery was ubiquitous in the early Islamic empire (as it was in many pre-industrial societies around the world). This included black slaves from Sub-Saharan Africa, Berbers from North Africa, Slavs from Eastern Europe, and Turks from Central Asia

Read 13 tweets

Christian Sahner

@ccsahner

6 Feb 20

1/ Is it possible to convert to Islam without fully intending to?

Today's martyr is ʿAbd al-Masīḥ al-Ghassānī, an abbot of the famous Monastery of Mt. Sinai in #Egypt, who was executed for converting to #Islam and then returning to #Christianity in the middle of the 8th c.

2/ The life of ʿAbd al-Masīḥ was written in #Arabic and is one of the earliest Christian texts composed in the language

3/ He was born Qays ibn Rabīʿ ibn Yazīd. He hailed from the famous Christian city of Najrān in southwestern Arabia, or was descended from Najrānī Christians who had settled in Syria or Iraq. This made him a purebred Arab

(Here, the famous Martyrs of Najrān, d. 523)

Read 13 tweets

Christian Sahner

@ccsahner

20 Jan 20

1/ #Iran dominates #Iraq today, but it wasn't always this way. Thoughts on the relationship between two neighbors in Late Antiquity and the Early Islamic period:

The Sasanians were the last great Persian empire (224-661). They originated in Iran, but ruled from Iraq

2/ Control of Iran and Iraq gave the Sasanians (and other Persian dynasties going back to the Achaemenids) distinct advantages. With the Tigris and Euphrates, Iraq was an agricultural powerhouse. This also made it a tax collector's paradise

3/ By contrast, the Iranian plateau was a great reservoir of manpower, with which an empire could fill an army.

Put simply, Iraq supplied the financial muscle of the state, while Iran supplied the military muscle

Read 12 tweets

Christian Sahner

@ccsahner

13 Jan 20

1/ Medieval Muslims were fascinated by Christian monasteries, which they celebrated as places of refreshment, beauty, and entertainment

These little-known images come from the Book of Wonders (Kitāb al-Bulhān) of ʿAbd al-Ḥasan al-Iṣfahānī, now at the Bodleian Library, Oxford

2/ The manuscript comes from mid-13th c. Baghdad. The image on the right portrays the "Monastery of the Maidens" (Dayr al-Banāt) and the one on the left portrays the "Monastery of the Raven" (Dayr al-Ghurāb)

3/ The Monastery of the Raven was apparently located in al-Andalus and was renowned for its talking raven (portrayed on the dome) which would identify visitors as they arrived

Read 8 tweets

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