Transmission of Knowledge and Mobility of Scholars in the Ṭabaqāt ʽulamāʼ Ifrīqiya of Abū l-ʽArab al-Tamīmī
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.30827/meaharabe.v74.30941Keywords:
Ifrīqiya, Biographical dictionaries, Maghreb, Abū l-ʽArab al-TamīmīAbstract
The present contribution studies the circulation of ulema in the Ifrīqiya region before the 4th-century H./10th-century a. C., taking into account the places to which they went to train and, at the same time, to what extent Ifrīqiya was a focus of attraction for foreign scholars. To do this, the teacher-disciple relationship of the ulema is analyzed as stated in the Ṭabaqāt ʽulamāʼ Ifrīqiya of Abū l-ʽArab al-Tamīmī (d. 945/333), the oldest work about the wise men of the region before the 10th-century, together with the Kitāb ṭabaqāt ʽulamāʼ Ifrīqiya of Ibn Hārith al-Jushanī (d. 971/361). Data are provided on the most relevant destinations in terms of mobility to the outside, as well as the transmission of knowledge that depends on internal dynamism, within the region itself, Qayrawān being in any case the unifying center of intellectual activity. The present analysis cannot fail to consider the fact that some of these wise men carried out certain comercial or economic activities, which often appear linked in the work itself to their religious tasks. Likewise, the data indicate that trade may have been a gateway to the intelectual sphere in the region.
Downloads
References
ABŪ L-ʽARAB, Muḥammad b. Aḥmad b. Tamīm al-Tamīmī l-Qayrawānī. Ṭabaqāt ʿulamāʾ Ifrīqiyya. En Mohamed BEN CHENEB (ed. y trad). Classes des Savants de l’Ifrīqiya. Argel: Faculté des Lettres d´Alger, 1920, pp. 1-125.
—. Ṭabaqāt ʽulamāʼ Ifrīqiya wa-Tūnis. Ed. ʽAlī l-Šaʽbī y Naim Ḥasan al-Yāfī. Túnez: Maison Tunisienne de l´Édition, 1968.
AL-ḎAHABĪ. Taḏkirat al-ḥuffāẓ. Beirut: Dār al-Kutub al-ʽIlmiyya, 1998.
IBN FARḤŪN. Al-Dībāŷ al-muḏhab. Ed. Muḥammad al-Aḥmadī Abū l-Nūr. El Cairo: Dār al-Turāṯ, s. d.
IBN JAYR. Fahrasa. Ed. Bašār ʽAwwād Maʽrūf. Túnez: Dār al-Garb al-Islāmī, 2009.
IBN NĀŶĪ. Maʽālim al-imān fī maʽrifat ahl al-Qayrawān. Ed. Ibrāhīn Šabbūḥ. Túnez-Cairo: Maktabat al-Janŷī, 1978.
ʽIYĀḌ B. MŪSÀ. Tartīb al-madārik. Ed. Muḥammad b. Šarīfa. Rabat: Wizārat al-Awqāf wa-l-Šuʼūn al-Islāmiyya, 1982.
AL-JUŠANĪ. Kitāb ṭabaqāt ‘ulamāʼ Ifrīqiyya. En Mohamed BEN CHENEB (ed. y trad.). Classes de Savants de l´Ifriqiya. Argel: Faculté des Lettres d´Alger, 1920, pp. 127-241.
AL-MĀLIKĪ. Riyāḍ al-nufūs. Ḥusayn Muʾnis (ed.). El Cairo: Maktabat al-Nahḍa al-Miṣriyya, 1951.
—. Riyāḍ al-nufūs. Ed. Bašīr al-Bakūš. Beirut: Dār al-Garb al-Islāmī, 1994.
AL-SUYŪṬĪ. Ṭabaqāt al-ḥuffāẓ. Beirut: Dār al-Kutub al-ʽIlmiyya, 1982.
YĀQŪT. Muʽŷam al-buldān. Beirut: Dār Ṣādir, 1977.
ARIÉ, Rachel. “Traduction annotée et commentée des traités de ḥisba de Ibn ʽAbd al-Raʽūf”. Hespéris-Tamuda, 1 (1960), pp. 199-214.
ATALLAH, Habib. “Las cadenas de transmisión del saber en Qayrawán, siglos X-XI: (estudio analítico)”. Oussour al-Jadida, 19-20 (2015), pp. 35-46.
BAHRI, Fathi y LAMINE, Bouaziz. “Arabes, Berbères et ʽağam: échanges et emprunts à travers les vêtements durant les premieres siècles de l´Islam (IIeIIIe/VIIIe-IXe s.)”. En Mobilité des hommes et des idées en Méditerranée. Acte de colloque (Sousse 9-11 mars 1999). Sousse-Sfax: Édition Faculté de Lettres, 2003, pp. 215-258.
BEN CHENEB, Mohamed (ed. y trad.). Classes de Savants de l´Ifriqiya. Argel: Faculté des Lettres d´Alger, 1920.
BROCKOPP, Jonathan, “Saḥnūn b. Saʽīd”. En David POWERS, Susan SPECTORSKY, Oussama ARABI (eds.). Islamic Legal Thought. A compendium of Muslim Jurists. Serie Studies in Islamic Law and Society, vol. 36. Leiden: Brill, 2013, pp. 66-84.
FELIPE, Helena de. “Bereberes en diccionarios biográficos norteafricanos y andalusíes”. En Concepción VÁZQUEZ y Miguel Ángel MANZANO (eds.). Actas del XVI Congreso UEAI. Madrid: AECI, 1995, pp. 185-189.
—. “The Butr and North African Ibāḍism: Praise and Criticism of the Berbers”. En Cyrille AILLET (ed.). L´ibadisme dans les sociétés de l´Islam médiéval: Modèles et interactions, Studies in the History and Cultures of the Middle East. Berlin: De Gruyter, 2018, pp. 88-112.
FIERRO, Maribel. “El alfaquí beréber Yaḥyà b. Yaḥyà al-Layṯī (m. 234/848), “el inteligente de al-Andalus”. En Mª Luisa ÁVILA y Manuela MARÍN (eds.). Estudios onomástico-biográficos de al-Andalus: VIII. Madrid: CSIC, 1997, pp. 269-344.
HENTATI, Nejmeddine. “Les juristes malikites en Occident musulmán entre soumission et révolte (IIe-IXe/VIIIe-XVe siècle)”. Islamic Law and Society, 21, 4 (2014), pp. 366-387.
—. “ʽAlāqat al-ʽulamāʼ bi-l-sulṭa bi-madīnat Tūnis fī l-qarnayn 2h/8m wa 3h/9m”. En Nejmeddine HENTATI (ed.). Conférences sur l´histoire de l´Occident musulman et sa civilisation. Túnez: Latrach Édition, 2023, pp. 163-169.
LEWICKI, Tadeusz. “The Ibádites in Arabia and Africa: Part II. The Ibádites in North Africa and the Sudan”. Cahiers d'Histoire Mondiale. Journal of World History, 1 (1971), pp. 83-130.
—. “Mānū”. EI2. Leiden: Brill, 1989, vol. VI, p. 438.
MAHFOUDH, Faouzi et al. L´histoire de l´eau et des installations hydrauliques dans le bassin de Kairouan. Túnez: s.e., 2004.
MAJLŪF, Muḥammad. Šaŷarat al-nūr. Beirut: Dār al-Kutub al-ʽIlmiyya, 2003.
MANSOURI, Mohamed Tahar. “Les ‘Ulamā’ en rupture avec le pouvoir en Ifrīqiya d’après le Kitāb al-Miḥan”. Mélanges de l'École française de Rome. Moyen-Age, 115, 1 (2003), pp. 565-580.
MARÍN, Manuela. “Ifriqiya et Al-Andalus, à propos de la transmission des sciences islamiques aux premiers siècles de l'Islam”. Revue de l'Occident Musulman et de la Méditerranée, 40 (1985), pp. 45-53.
—. “Inqibāḍ ʽan al-sulṭān: ʽulamāʼ and Political Power in Al-Andalus”. En Saber religioso y poder político en el islam. Madrid: AECI, 1994, pp. 127-139.
—. “El oficio de la ciencia y otros oficios: en torno a la onomástica de los ulemas andalusíes”. En Manuel MARÍN y Helena de FELIPE (eds.). Estudios onomástico-biográficos de al-Andalus: VII. Madrid: CSIC, 1995, pp. 377-435.
—. “Etnia y religión: acerca de los santos negros en el Marruecos medieval”. En Rachid EL HOUR (ed.). Hagiografías, sufismo, santos y santidad en el norte de África y la península ibérica. Helsinki: Academia Scientiarum Fennica, 2020, pp. 25-50.
MARTOS, Juan. Historiografía andalusí. Manual de fuentes árabes para la historia de Al-Andalus. Madrid: Universidad de Extremadura, Sociedad Española de Estudios Medievales, 2022.
MAUNY, Raymond. Tableau géogragraphique de l´ouest africain au Moyen Age. Ifan-Dakar: Mémoire de l´Institut Français d´Afrique Noir, 1961.
NOVO, Marta G. “The Aqīt Household: Professional Mobility of a Berber Learned Elite in Premodern West Africa”. En Mehdi BERRIAH y Mohamad ELMERHEB, (eds.). Professional Mobility in Islamic Societies (700-1750): New Concepts and Approaches. Leiden: Brill, Handbook of Oriental StudiesSection 1 Middle East Series, 2021, pp. 52-76.
PELLAT, Charles. “Abū l-ʽArab”. EI2. Leiden: Brill, 1977-2007, vol. I, p. 109.
PREVOST, Virginie. L’aventure ibāḍite dans le Sud tunisien. Effervescence d’une région méconnue. Helsinki: Academia Scientiarum Fennica, 2008.
—. “La deuxième scission au sein des ibâḍites. Les descendants de l’imam Abû l-Ḫaṭṭâb al-Ma‘âfirî et le schisme khalafite”. En Mohamed MEOUAK (éd.).
EOBA: XVII. Biografías magrebíes. Identidades y grupos religiosos, sociales y políticos en el Magreb medieval Madrid: CSIC – Universidad de Cádiz, 2012, pp. 29-63.
—. “Les enjeux de la bataille de Mânû (283/896)”. Revue des Mondes Musulmans et de la Méditerranée, 132 (2012), pp. 75-90. DOI: https://doi.org/10.4000/remmm.7825.
TALBI, Mohamed. L´Émirat Aghlabide 184-296 800/909 Histoire politique. Túnez: Faculté de Lettres, 1966.
Downloads
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2025 Miscelánea de Estudios Árabes y Hebraicos. Sección Árabe-Islam
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
The authors publishing their work in this journal agree to the following terms and conditions:
1. The authors retain the copyright and give the journal the right to be the first publication of the work and also to be licensee under a Creative Commons Attribution License which allows others to share the work, provided the author of the work and the initial publication in this journal are acknowledged.
2. Authors may make additional agreements separately for the non-exclusive distribution of the version of the work published in the journal (for example, putting it in an institutional repository or publishing it in a book), with acknowledgement of its initial publication in this journal.
3. Authors are allowed and encouraged to electronically disseminate (for example, in institutional repositories or on their own web page) the published version of their works (publisher's post-print version) or, if not possible, the author's reviewed and accepted post-print version. This is to facilitate productive exchanges, and allow for earlier and greater citation by third parties of the published works (See The Effect of Open Access).
4. The journal accepts no responsibility for the opinions expressed by the authors.
