Iraq after the Muslim Conquest - Michael G. Morony

RELIGIOUS COMMUNITIES

under the early 'Abbasis, both the form of the title and the concept
of the office were patterned after the Sas ani an mobadh mobadhan.^40
The nature of religious leadership in early Islamic Iraq was impor-
tant for the development of the Islamic community. The position of
the Companions and Followers was based on their possession and
development of the religious traditions of the community and was
expressed in the vocations of qari', qa~~, and qar;lt. Because these forms
of leadership combined pre-Islamic Arab with local Iraqi traditions,
the communal institutions of Muslims came to resemble older Iraqi
patterns. Muslims used liturgy, education, and law to strengthen a
communal identity in ways similar to those of Magians, Jews, and
Christians. The activity of these leaders was crucial for the early for-
mation of a local variety of Islamic sunna in Iraq. Because their status
came from their knowledge of the Qur'an and of proper behavior,
they had a vested interest in communicating the principles upon which
their status depended to other Muslims. Their own ability to set pre-
cedent disguised the continuation of local customs and attitudes among
Muslims, and the set of usages which developed in early Islamic Iraq
was ultimately enshrined in the J::Ianafi system of religious law.
Because Muslims were rulers, the leadership of the community had
a political dimension. Companions and Followers were the collective
conscience of the community and the leaders of popular opinion who
could provide a religious justification for supporting or opposing ca-
liphs and governors. Although some of them were employed as qag.ts
and gave either active or tacit support to Islamic rulers, beginning in
the time of 'Uthman they were increasingly opposed to the political
leaders of the state. Especially after the second (itna, they denied the
claim of Marwani caliphs to religious legitimacy as the heads of the
community, emphasized the secular aspects of Marwani rule, and
created the division between religious and secular leadership in the
Islamic community.

COMMUNAL BOUNDARIES

Apostasy as Treason

Membership in the Islamic community was equally political. Polit-

ical submission and the profession of Islam were expressed in a single

40 Ibn Sa'd, Tabaqiit, VII(l), 135; Tyan, Organisation judiciaire, pp. 84-85,95,118,

128-29.