RELIGIO'U S COMMUN ITIESjecting to asceticism among Muslims lay in their recognition of the
Manichaean implications of celibacy, indigence, and vegetarianism.
The Qur'an does, however, prescribe fasting for Muslims, and the
form of ritual fasting brought by Muslims to Iraq shared many features
with local attitudes and practices. The Qur'an specifies that the month-
long fast of Rama<,ian involved abstinence from food, drink, and sex
during daylight, that its purpose was to ward off evil, and that it was
not intended to be a hardship.124 Muslims began to celebrate the end
of Rama<,ian with a feast (Ar. 7d al-{i.tr) very eariy.12s They shared
abstinence in the daytime with Jews and Christian monks, and they
shared the pattern of a month-long fast broken at night and ending
with a festival with Manichaeans and the pagans of Harran. The
Qur'anic device of comparing black and white threads to tell when it
is officially night or day resembles the Talmudic instruction to read
the morning prayer of the Shema' when a blue thread can be distin-
guished from a white one. The Qur'anic provision that a Muslim who
is ill or on a journey at the time of the fast may later make up the
amount of time he missed resembles similar provisions regarding Pass-
over in the Bible.^126
Asceticism emerged as an issue among Muslims during the caliph ate
of 'Uthman (644-56). One of the first Muslim ascetics (Ar. zuhhiid)
was 'Amir ibn 'Abdullah ibn 'Abd al-Qays al-'Anbari, who lived at
Basra. He was of local Iraqi origin and was famous for his pious
dejection, for his justice towards non-Muslims who had been treated
unjustly, and for doing everything privately. He also rejected the au-
thority of 'Uthman and was recognized as subversive by 'Uthman's
agent and mawlii at Basra, l:Iumran ibn Aban, who was of Iraqi Jewish
background. In 653 l:Iumran denounced 'Amir to 'Uthman for not
being married, not eating meat, and not attending public worship on
Fridays. He was interrogated by the governor of Basra, 'Abdullah ibn
'Amir (650-56), and deported to Syria where Mu'awiya questioned
him. 'Amir is reported to have explained the first charge by saying,
"I know that when I have a wife I may have a son and when I have
124 Qur'an, 2:183-87.
J2S Tha'alibi, Lat'i'if, p. 18.
- Epstein, The Babylonian Talmud, Seder Zera'im (London, 1948), I, 48 (= B.
Ber. 9bl; Num. 9:9-11; C. Torrey, The Jewish Foundation of Islam (New York, 1933),
pp. 138-39. For comparisons between Ramagan and Christian Lent, Manichaean fast-
ing, pagan Arab holy months, and Yom Kippur, see von Grunebaum, MulJammadan
Festivals, pp. 51-56.