Sabine Schmidtke
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Sabine Schmidtke is Professor of Islamic Intellectual History in the School of Historical Studies at the Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton, NJ
http://orcid.org/0000-0002-6181-5065.
For a full curriculum vitae and list of publication, see here.
For my Collection of Manuscript Surrogates (the list is continuously being expanded), see here.
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Browsing Sabine Schmidtke by Author "Ansari, Hassan"
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- Accusations of Unbelief in Islam: A Diachronic Perspective on takfīr(Brill Publishers, 2016)
;Schmidtke, Sabine ;Adang, Camilla ;Ansari, HassanFierro, MaribelThe present volume—the first of its kind—deals with takfīr: accusing one´s opponents of unbelief (kufr). Originating in the first decades of Islam, this practice has been applied intermittently ever since. The nineteen studies included here deal with cases, covering different periods and parts of the Muslim world, of individuals or groups that used the instrument of takfīr to brand their opponents—either persons, groups or even institutions—as unbelievers who should be condemned, anathematized or even persecuted. Each case presented is placed in its sociopolitical and religious context. Together the contributions show the multifariousness that has always characterized Islam and the various ways in which Muslims either sought to suppress or to come to terms with this diversity. With contributions by: Roswitha Badry, Sonja Brentjes, Brian J. Didier, Michael Ebstein, Simeon Evstatiev, Ersilia Francesca, Robert Gleave, Steven Judd, István T. Kristó-Nagy, Göran Larsson, Amalia Levanoni, Orkhan Mir-Kasimov, Hossein Modarressi, Justyna Nedza, Intisar A. Rabb, Sajjad Rizvi, Daniel de Smet, Zoltan Szombathy, Joas Wagemakers.373 336 - Al-Maḥajja al-bayḍāʾ fī uṣūl al-dīn(Brill, 2019)
;Ḥusām al-Dīn al-ʿAnsī ;Ansari, HassanSchmidtke, SabineFrom the time of its foundation in 284/897, the Zaydī Imamate of Yemen was home to Muʿtazilī ideas. During the first centuries and starting with Imam al-Hādī ila ʼl-Ḥaqq (d. 298/911), Zaydī ideology included elements akin to the opinions of the Baghdad School of the Muʿtazila as founded by Bishr b. al-Muʿtamir (d. 210/825). However, in the 5-6th/11-12th centuries, we see a rise in popularity of Bahshamiyya ideas, a sub-group of the Basran School of the Muʿtazila around Abū Hāshim al-Jubbāʾī (d. 321/933). These ideas were systematized and elaborated upon by the Zaydī theologian al-Raṣṣāṣ (d. 584/1188). Among those who resisted Bahshamī ideas to defend the teachings of the earlier imams was the jurist, theologian and author of more than 100 works, Ḥusām al-Dīn al-ʿAnsī (d. 667/1268). This volume contains a facsimile of the largest copy of al-Maḥajja al-bayḍāʾ fī uṣūl al-dīn, al-ʿAnsī’s major theological handbook, covering the first four parts out of eight.270 99 - Al-Sharīf al-Murtaḍā’s Responses to Theological Questions posed by Abū Yaʿlā Sallār [Sālār] b. ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz al-Daylamī (d. 448/1057): A Critical Edition(2018)
;Schmidtke, SabineAnsari, HassanAmong the responsa collections by al-Sharīf al-Murtaḍā that still remain to be edited are the Jawābāt al-masāʾil al-Sallāriyya, which consist of responsa to eight questions most of which revolve around issues related to the subtleties of kalām. On the basis of the two earliest witnesses of this text, MS Berlin, Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin, Petermann II [Pm.] 169 and MS Mashhad, Āstān-i quds 1448, an edition has been prepared.545 348 - Al-Šarīf al-Murtaḍā's Oeuvre and Thought in Context: An Archaeological Inquiry into Texts and their Transmission(UCOpress, )
;Ansari, HassanSchmidtke, SabineHassan Ansari and Sabine Schmidtke, Al-Šarīf al-Murtaḍā's Oeuvre and Thought in Context: An Archaeological Inquiry into Texts and their Transmission, 2 vols. Cordoba: UCOpress, 20221773 1034 - Asās al-maqālāt fī qamʿ al-jahālāt: A Hitherto Unknown Zaydī Heresiography from Northern Iran(Shii Studies Review (Brill, Leiden), 2021)
;Schmidtke, Sabine ;Ansari, HassanForoughi, RouhallahThis paper revolves around a hitherto unknown heresiography from northern Iran, Asās al-maqālāt fī qamʿ al-jahālāt, which is preserved in a unique manuscript contained in a majmūʿa (Ms. Tehran, Majlis 10727). In the introduction, we describe the multitext codex, one of the few extant codices testifying to the continuous presence of Zaydism in northern Iran beyond the sixth/twelfth century. Additionally, we discuss two alternative tentative identifications of the author of Asās al-maqālāt, Abū Muḍar Shurayḥ b. al-Muʾayyad al-Muʾayyadī al-Shurayḥī and Muḥammad b. al-Ḥasan al-Shurayḥī al-Muʾayyadī. While the latter is entirely unknown, Abū Muḍar is renowned for his Asrār al-Ziyādāt, and we attempt to situate him more precisely in the chronology of Zaydī scholarship. Finally, we provide an editio princeps of Asās al-maqālāt fī qamʿ al-jahālāt.326 162 - Imāmī Theology in 12th-Century Syria: ʿAbd al-Raḥmān b. ʿAlī b. Muḥammad al-Ḥusaynī and his Commentary on al-Shaykh al-Ṭūsī’s Muqaddama. A Critical Edition(Gorgias Press, )
;Ahmadi, Mostafa ;Ansari, HassanSchmidtke, SabineThe book consists of a critical edition of ʿAbd al-Raḥmān b. ʿAlī b. Muḥammad al-Ḥusaynī's Commentary on the Muqaddama by al-Shaykh al-Ṭūsī, a text that is preserved in a unique manuscript (MS Atıf Efendi 1338/1), with introduction.358 - Khulāṣat al-naẓar. An Anonymous Imāmī-Muʿtazilī Treatise (late 6th/12th or early 7th/13th century)(Iranian Institute of Philosophy, 2006)
;Schmidtke, SabineAnsari, Hassan922 340 - Philosophical Theology among Sixth/Twelfth-Century Twelver Shīʿites: From Naṣīr al-Dīn al-Ṭūsī (d. after 599/1201-2 or 600/1202-3) to Naṣīr al-Dīn al-Ṭūsī (d. 672/1274): A Critical Edition of Two Theological Tracts, Preserved in MS Landberg 510 (Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Yale University)(Shii Studies Review, 2017)
;Schmidtke, SabineAnsari, HassanMS Yale, Landberg 510, a multitext volume, contains unique copies of two doctrinal works composed as it seems by an Imāmī scholar of the sixth/twelfth century, ʿAbd Allāh b. Ḥamza b. ʿAbd Allah b. Ḥamza al-Ṭūsī al-Mashhadī al-Shāriḥī al-maʿrūf bi-Naṣīr al-Dīn al-Ṭūsī, al-Wāfī bi-kalām al-muthbit wa-l-nāfī and al-Masʾala fī tanzīh dhāt al-khāliq ʿan al-talawwuth bi-waṣmat al-fanāʾ wa-l-ʿadam. Both tracts show the author’s close familiarity with the doctrinal systems of the followers of Abū Hāshim al-Jubbāʾī (d. 321/933) on the one hand and Abū l-Ḥusayn al-Baṣrī (d. 436/1044) on the other. The discussions revolve around the contested Bahshamite notion that the “non-existent” (maʿdūm) is a “thing” (shayʾ), as well as the related doctrine that essences (dhawāt, sg. dhāt) are “real” or “actual” (thābit) in the state of non-existence (ʿadam). The paper introduces the author and the two tracts and provides critical editions.513 391 - Sharḥ al-Muqaddama fi ʼl-kalām maʿa ʼl-Muqaddama fi ʼl-kalām, nuskha muṣawwara min majmūʿat ʿĀṭif Efendī raqm 1338/1(Brill, 2019)
;Ansari, HassanSchmidtke, SabineThe Imāmī scholar Abū Jaʿfar Ṭūsī (d. 459-60/1066-7) was born in Ṭūs in Khurāsān. Having completed his basic education there, he left for Baghdad, which at the time was ruled by the Shīʿī Buwayhid dynasty. In Baghdad he attended the classes of various prominent scholars, notably the leading Imāmī rationalist of his time, al-Shaykh al-Mufīd (d. 413/1022) and his successor al-Sharīf al-Murtaḍā (d. 436/1044). After the death of al-Murtaḍā, Ṭūsī, who had already made a name for himself as a thinker and a writer, became the undisputed leader of the Imāmī community. About ten years later Baghdad was invaded by the Saljuqs and Ṭūsī’s house and libraries were laid to waste. Tūsī fled to Najaf where he remained until his death. Al-Muqaddima fi ʼl-kalām on concepts in theology figures among Ṭūsī’s most important works. The commentary by Najīb al-Dīn al-Ḥusaynī (d. 582/1186) printed in facsimile here are lecture notes, made by one of his students.204 121 - Shii Studies Review (volume 1)(Brill, 2017)
;Schmidtke, SabineAnsari, HassanFrom the Executive Editors: Unlike other, “mainstream” fields of Islamic studies, the scholarly exploration of Shiism began late and evolved slowly, an observation that applies, with some variations, to all three major subdivisions of Shiism—Zaydism, Ismailism and Twelver Shiism.1 One reason for the late and reluctant evolvement of Shii Studies was that the pioneers of Islamic studies in Europe were confined to a limited—and biased—range of sources when it came to the study of Shiism. Most of the works they were able to access came from places such as Istanbul and Cairo—important intellectual centers of Sunnism, where Shii texts were the exception—while the rich holdings of the libraries of Persia, the main repository for the religious-intellectual traditions of Twelver Shiism and Ismailism, were for a long time out of reach for Western scholarship, as was the case with the libraries of Yemen with their collections of Zaydi works. Unable to consult works by Shii authors first hand, Western scholars were exposed to the biased image of Shiism as presented in Sunni sources which they took at face value. The resulting overall negative image of Shiism prompted scholars to exclude this important branch of Islam from their scholarly endeavours, even when a lack of sources was no longer an issue. Moreover, although an ever growing number of scholars are nowadays engaged in the study of Shiism, there is up until now next to no institutional support for Shii Studies within the academic landscape of North America or Europe—be it in the form of a chair or university position or a research institution specifically devoted to Shii Studies. It is in an attempt to remedy this imbalance and to make a distinctive contribution to current scholarship on Shiism and its integration into the broader field of Islamic studies that Shii Studies Review was established, an international scholarly forum for research on Shiism with the goal of contributing to the discovery and examination of different intellectual traditions throughout the history of Shiism.2 Shiism as a field of academic inquiry is to be understood in the broadest sense here—the journal is dedicated to the study of Imami, Ismaili, Zaydi, and other trends related to Shii thought throughout history, up until the contemporary period. Taking an expansive view of the richly variegated Shii traditions in both thought and practice and their cultural and social contexts, it aims to serve as outlet for original studies, critical editions of classical and pre-modern texts, and book reviews on Shii law, ḥadīth, Qurʾānic exegesis, philosophy, kalām, ritual and practices, classical and contemporary literature, and other aspects of the history of Shiism. Moreover, Shii Studies Review will also serve as a forum to inform about ongoing initiatives to advance the scholarly inquiry of Shiism, and the rubric “Shii Treasures in North American and European Libraries” will showcase relevant manuscripts and manuscript collections. This first volume is dedicated to Professor Hossein Modarressi in recognition of his seminal contributions to the study of Shiism.3 1 Cf. the surveys by Etan Kohlberg, “Western Studies of Shiʿa Islam,” Shīʿism, Resistance, and Revolution, ed. Martin Kramer, Boulder, Colorado: Westview Press, 1987, pp. 31-46; Stefanie Brinkmann, “Ein Mangel an Quellen und fehlendes Interesse? Zum späten Einstieg der deutschen Schia-Forschung,” Orient: Deutsche Zeitschrift für Politik, Wirtschaft und Kultur des Orients 4 (2009), pp. 25-43; Sabine Schmidtke, “The History of Zaydī Studies: An Introduction,” The neglected Šīʿites: Studies in the legal and intellectual history of the Zaydīs = Arabica. Journal of Arabic and Islamic Studies 59 iii-iv (2012), pp. 185-199; Khalil Andani, “A Survey of Ismaili Studies Part 1: Early Ismailism and Fatimid Ismailism,” Religion Compass 10 viii (August 2016), pp. 191-206 ; idem, “A Survey of Ismaili Studies Part 2: Post-Fatimid and Modern Ismailism,” Religion Compass 10 xi (2016), pp. 269-282 . 2 In addition to this, three book series specifically devoted to the study of Shiism have recently been launched by Brill, Leiden, namely “The Classical Shīʿah Library” and “The Modern Shīʿah Library” , both of which feature English translations of key Shii texts, as well as “Shii Islam: Texts and Studies”, which publishes original studies on all aspects of the history of Shiism, critical editions of classical and pre-modern texts, as well as collective volumes on Shii themes. 3 See Law and Tradition in Classical Islamic Thought: Studies in Honor of Professor Hossein Modarressi, ed. Michael Cook, Najam Haider, Intisar Rabb, and Asma Sayeed, New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2013, “Part IV: The Scholarly Output of Professor Hossein Modarressi”. 1 Cf. the surveys by Etan Kohlberg“Western Studies of Shiʿa Islam,” Shīʿism Resistance and Revolutioned. Martin Kramer Boulder Colorado: Westview Press 1987 pp. 31-46; Stefanie Brinkmann “Ein Mangel an Quellen und fehlendes Interesse? Zum späten Einstieg der deutschen Schia-Forschung” Orient: Deutsche Zeitschrift für Politik Wirtschaft und Kultur des Orients 4 (2009) pp. 25-43; Sabine Schmidtke “The History of Zaydī Studies: An Introduction” The neglected Šīʿites: Studies in the legal and intellectual history of the Zaydīs = Arabica. Journal of Arabic and Islamic Studies 59 iii-iv (2012) pp. 185-199; Khalil Andani “A Survey of Ismaili Studies Part 1: Early Ismailism and Fatimid Ismailism” Religion Compass 10 viii (August 2016) pp. 191-206 ; idem “A Survey of Ismaili Studies Part 2: Post-Fatimid and Modern Ismailism” Religion Compass 10 xi (2016) pp. 269-282 .475 138 - Shii Studies Review, Volume Five (2021)(Brill, 2021)
;Schmidtke, SabineAnsari, HassanShii Studies Review, Volume Five (2021) Dedicated to the Memory of Sayyid Ḥasan al-Ṣadr al-Kāẓimī (b. 1272/1856, d. 1354/1935)482 272 - Sixth/Twelfth-Century Zaydī Theologians of Yemen Debating Avicennan Philosophy(Shii Stidies Review (Brill), 2021)
;Ansari, HassanSchmidtke, SabineThis article offers critical editions of three texts by Zaydī theologians of sixth/twelfth-century Yemen refuting philosophical notions. The three texts are Qāḍī Jaʿfar b. Aḥmad b. ʿAbd al-Salām al-Buhlūlī’s (d. 573/1177–78) Kitāb al-Risāla al-munāṣifa li-l-mutakallimīn wa-l-falāsifa (Masʾalat al-nafs) and two tracts by al-Ḥasan al-Raṣṣāṣ (d. 584/1188), Masʾala fī ibṭāl al-qawl bi-talāzum al-hayūlā wa-l-ṣūra wa-anna l-jism murakkab minhumā, a refutation of hylomorphism, and al-Masʾala al-kāshifa ʿan buṭlān shubhat al-falāsifa, a refutation of the philosophers’ doctrine of the eternity of the world. Qāḍī Jaʿfar’s tract, of which only a fragment has come down to us, contains four extensive quotations from an unidentified philosophical work. These are strikingly similar to those cited by Rukn al-Dīn Ibn al-Malāḥimī (d. 536/1141) in his Tuḥfat al-mutakallimīn fī l-radd ʿalā l-falāsifa; likewise, Qāḍī Jaʿfar’s responses to the arguments of the philosophers closely resemble those given by Ibn al-Malāḥimī. However, a comparison of the relevant passages shows that the possibility that Qāḍī Jaʿfar had consulted Ibn al-Malāḥimī’s Tuḥfa as his source can safely be excluded. Both rather seemed to have relied on a common and so far unidentified source, possibly written by a Muʿtazilī author. Qāḍī Jaʿfar’s tract is thus another early Muʿtazilī critique of Avicennan philosophy that can shed some additional light on the reception of Ibn Sīnā’s (d. 428/1037) philosophy among the mutakallimūn before Ibn al-Malāḥimī.320 107 - Studies in Medieval Islamic Intellectual Traditions(Lockwood Press, 2017)
;Ansari, HassanSchmidtke, SabineThe present volume focuses on aspects of Islamic thought in Iran and Yemen, and other regions of the Middle East, ninth through fifteenth century CE, through a close study of manuscript materials. The book's sixteen chapters are arranged under five rubrics: Mu'tazilism, Zaydism in Iran and in Yemen, Twelver Shi'ism, Mysticism, and Bibliographical Traditions. The material included in the book has been published previously in a different version. The appearance of these studies together in a single volume makes this book a significant and welcome contribution to the field of classical Islamic Studies. Full access available through https://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctv2dswqs727 913 - Why Yemen Matters: The Heritage of a Land in Crisis(2020-02-19)
;Schmidtke, Sabine ;Ansari, Hassan ;Peutz, Nathalie ;Adra, Najwa ;Varisco, Daniel ;Bowersock, G.W. (Glen Warren)Robin, Christian JulienYemen’s war and humanitarian crisis are in the news, but very little is known about the rich cultural heritage of the southwestern corner of Arabia throughout history. Also largely unknown are Yemen’s geographic and economic diversity or their impact on recent events. Yemen’s diversity owes much to conquest, trade, and migration between Yemen and Christian Ethiopia, Sassanian and Islamic Iran, Fatimid and Ayyubid Egypt, Ottoman Turkey, the African coast and Southeast Asia. In this panel experts on different periods of Yemeni history and its diverse contemporary contexts probe beyond current politics to share their insights and discuss potentials for future scholarly research on Yemen.558 317 - Yemeni Manuscript Cultures in Peril(Gorgias Press (Gorgias Handbooks; 49), 2022)
;Ansari, HassanSchmidtke, SabineZaydism, a branch of Shiʿi Islam dating to the eighth century CE, has historic roots in the Northern Highlands of Yemen and the Caspian regions of Northern Iran, and its literary tradition is among the richest within Islamic civilization. The most significant and by far largest collections of Zaydi manuscripts are housed by the many public and private libraries of Yemen, an endangered cultural heritage tradition, currently at risk due to the conflict and warfare in Yemen. Of great importance are also holdings of Yemeni manuscripts that are kept elsewhere. In view of the poor state of scholarship in the area of Zaydi studies, the challenges that result from the significant dispersal of the material are manifold. Yemeni Manuscript Cultures in Peril contributes to the history of books and libraries and their role in the scholastic culture in Yemen, past and present. The contributions brought together in this volume address a wide spectrum of aspects concerning Yemeni manuscript cultures, with some focusing on their history and present state within Yemen and others discussing the collections of manuscripts of Yemeni provenance in Europe and elsewhere. Contributors are: Hassan Ansari, Stefanie Brinkmann, Gabriele vom Bruck, Bernard Haykel, Brinkley Messick, Christoph Rauch, Anne Regourd, Valentina Sagaria Rossi, Karin Scheper, Sabine Schmidtke, Jan Thiele, Daniel Martin Varisco, Arnoud Vrolijk, and Zayd al-Wazir.905 657 - The Zaydī reception of Bahshamite Muʿtazilism: Facsimile Edition of MS Shiraz, Library of the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Shiraz (ʿAllāma Ṭabāṭabāʾī Library), majmūʿa 102(Gorgias Press, 2019)
;Ansari, HassanSchmidtke, SabineIranian libraries hold only few manuscripts that testify to the extended and intensive Muʿtazilite past in the various centers of Zaydi scholarship in the Caspian region, in Khurāsān, and in Rayy. Among the few Muʿtazilite Zaydi works preserved in the libraries of Iran is a miscellany held by the library of the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Shiraz (ʿAllāma Ṭabāṭabāʾī Library). The majmūʿa, a facsimile of which is included in the present publication, was written between 673/1274-75 and 676/1277 and contains doctrinal works by Imāmi and Zaydi theologians from both Iran and from Yemen. Most of the codex consists of a theological summa, a taʿlīq that had been composed or transcribed by one Abū Ṭāhir b. ʿAlī al-Ṣaffār which was based on the Kitāb al-Uṣūl by Abū ʿAlī Muḥammad b. Khallād al-Baṣrī, the distinguished disciple of the Muʿtazilite theologian and founder of the Bahshamiyya, Abū Hāshim al-Jubbāʾī (d. 321/933), with an unknown number of commentary layers in between.417 363 - Zaydī theology in 7th/13th century Yemen: Facsimile edition of Kitāb al-Maḥaǧǧa al-bayḍā fī uṣūl al-dīn of ʿAbd Allāh b. Zayd al-ʿAnsī (d. 667/1269) (MS Munich, Bayerische Staatsbibliothek, Cod. arab. 1286)(2016)
;ʿAbd Allāh b. Zayd al-ʿAnsī ;Schmidtke, SabineAnsari, Hassan201 299