This paper investigates Ibadi accounts of the debate (munazara) with the khawarij at Harura` that are preserved in al-Qalhati’s al-Kashf wa al-Bayan, al-Izkawi’s Kashf al-Ghumma, al-Barradi's Kitab al-Jawahir and al-Shammakhi's Kitab al-Siyar (among other places). Although these versions share many core similarities with non-Ibadi munazara accounts, they provide a counter-perspective to those that can be found in the standard Sunn? histories. In them, 'Ali and/or ‘Ali b. Abi Talib’s representative, ‘Abdullah b. al-‘Abbas, leave the debate convinced by the soundness of the Kharijites’ arguments. The Ibadi versions of the munazara thus provide a rationale for accepting Ibn al-‘Abbas as an intellectual founding figure of the Kharijite- Ibadi school of thought. Indeed, Ibn al-‘Abbas is known among the Ibadiyya as bahr al-‘ilm (“the sea of knowledge”). By appropriating Ibn al-‘Abbas’ reputation for piety and learning – a reputation that existed within Sunni circles as well – the Ibadiyya bolstered their own claims to exclusive Islamic validity. This paper will compare Ibadi versions of the munazara with those found in al-Tabari and al-Baladhuri, as well as with the fragmentary reports in Sunni heresiographical texts. It will highlight the use of history as the creation and maintenance of legitimating narratives that defend doctrinal positions and authenticate connections to an Islamic past by exploring the genre of munazara as the mechanism by which sect-specific versions of the story were created.

The tenth century is often known as the ‘Shi'i Century’ due to the rise to power of the Isma’ili Fatimids (909-1171) and the Itha’ashari Buyids (945-1055): two powerful rival Shi'i empires in Cairo and Baghdad. Accordingly, the victory of the Sunni Seljuk and Ayyubid forces over these states in the eleventh and twelfth centuries is often depicted as the ‘Sunni Revival.’ While modern scholars have attempted to complicate this binary struggle between Sunni and Shi'i powers, the fundamental struggle of this century is often ignored: the consolidation of competing forms of Shi'i identity. Qadi al-Nu’man (d. 974) was an early convert to the Isma’ili movement, served several Fatimid Caliphs, and is credited with creating a distinct Isma’ili form of jurisprudence. His work "Iftitah al-Da’wa" is a historical narrative of the advent of the Fatimid Caliphate. Completed in 957, it details the struggle of the Isma’ili da’wa to conquer North Africa, establish the Fatimid Caliphate, and the reign of the first Fatimid Caliph-Imam al-Mahdi (d. 934). While scholars have plumbed this source for historical details, there has been no attention paid to it as an example of an ideological document that makes the case for the dominance of the Fatimid Isma’ili da’wa in the face the competing Islamic movements. This paper attempts to correct this oversight and examine al-Nu’man’s history as the deliberate crafting of a triumphal master narrative of the foundation of the Fatimid Caliphate. This paper will examine how, in an era of conflict between Muslim movements, al-Nu’man silences early dissent within the Isma’ili movement and presents an image of the supremacy of the Fatimid Isma’ili da’wa in order to win adherents from both Sunni and Shi’i Muslims. Examining how al-Nu’man crafted a master narrative for the Fatimid Caliphate explores the use of historical narrative in legitimizing state power and exposes the process by which competing forms of Islamic identity were consolidated.

The field of classical Arabic literature emerged in an 18th and 19th century climate of colonialism, under the aegis of French, English and German orientalists preoccupied with philology to the exclusion of their humanities. Thus, Johann Herder's (d. 1803) humanistic mandate for observation and ethnography spurred the fields of anthropology and folklore, but seemed to fall on deaf orientalists, who tragically went on to interpret Arabic cultural memory as fake history. This paper places Arabic studies in dialogue with the humanities to interpret cultural memory as an artistic subjective enterprise. As such, it focuses on the rise of a particular phenomenon in 9th and 10th century Arabo-Islamic society that witnessed an unprecedented number of canonical poets empowering middling men (a'y?n, a?s?b or a?r?f) to form alliances, pursue private interests and exert pressure on the organs of state and society. In particular, I employ Habermas's theory of the public sphere to explain transformations that might seem like random events. Among them, poets developed what Habermas calls “a private interiority of self that is audience oriented.” In short, poets began voicing vulnerabilities and private interests that could attract the empathic engagement of others with kindred fears and vulnerabilities. This paper focuses on a group of poems by al-Buturi (d. 897) surrounding his highly interested yet public transfer of allegiance in 890 from the Abbasid court in Baghdad to the Tulunid court in Cairo. These poems, performed in perpetuity in face-to-face interactions at literary salons, created a cultural memory of privateness, noble self-interest, and individuality. Conventionally, scholars have viewed this allegiance switch as banal politics, yet this paper argues that his new loyalty for the Tulunids coincides with their tax control of Syria, where al-Buhturi owned property and served in local governance. He publicly sings of these personal stakes, claiming for himself and his admirers a sphere of influence, sometimes lyrically in love-ghazal, sometimes heroically in praise hymns (madih) for Ahmad b. Tulun and his vassals. We have in this group of odes a high profile, stylized and early display of private interests, for which the poet elicits and receives public sanction in perpetuity. Contrary to appearances, it is not Ibn Tulun who is the chief addressee, but rather a 9th century public, who also feared for their property interests and identified with him. It is this audience that validates al-Buhturi’s vision, perpetuating a cultural memory of heroic-lyric self-interest in the face of state power.

The writings of the fifteenth century Ismaili author ?Im?d al-D?n Idr?s (d. 872/1468) offer an instructive illustration of the crafting of an Ismaili master narrative. In his monumental, multi-volume work titled ‘Uy?n al-Akhb?r wa Fun?n al-Ath?r, Idr?s records the key developments in Ismaili history and doctrines from the time of Prophet Muhammad in the six centuries up until his own era. As the Chief D?‘? of the ?ayyib? Ismailis in Yemen and India, Idr?s had a vested interest in privileging the Ismaili imams as the only legitimate inheritors of the prophetic mantle, and therefore the exclusive successors to his spiritual and temporal authority. His primary purpose in composing the Uy?n was to relate for the Ismaili da‘wa and its followers the unfolding of this divine plan. The reign of the fourth Imam-caliph, al-Mu?izz li D?n All?h (341-365/953-975), a remarkable sovereign in whose era Egypt was brought under Fatimid rule, transforming the North African state into a Mediterranean empire, was thus comprehensively recorded by Idr?s in his Uy?n al-Akhb?r. Idris’ principal purpose in crafting the narrative on the life and times of al-Mu’izz was to present him as one of a continuing series of imams in the cycles of the imamate, a role whose primordial purpose was the salvation of the believers and whose spiritual pedigree was traced to the Abrahamic prophets. This teleological approach to history provides an instructive perspective on the construction of a medieval Ismaili meta-narrative. This paper will examine Idr?s’ purpose and methodology in creating the master narrative in the Uy?n. It will compare this perspective with other approaches to historical writing in this period, and will review the weaving of doctrine and cosmology in his narrative of history, which was reflective of the ?ayyib? Ismaili weltenschaung.