Steven Judd - Religious Scholars and the Umayyads: Piety-Minded Supporters of the Marwanid Caliphate

Religious Scholars and the Umayyads

Religious Scholars and the Umayyads analyzes legal and theological developments during the Marwnid period (64/684132/750), focusing on religious scholars who supported the Umayyads. Their scholarly network extended across several generations and significantly influenced the development of the Islamic faith. Umayyad qs, who represented the intersection of religious authority and imperial power, were particularly important.

This book challenges the long-standing paradigm that the emerging Muslim faith was shaped by religious dissenters who were hostile to the Umayyads. A prosopographical analysis of Umayyad-era scholars demonstrates that piety and opposition were not necessarily synonymous. Reputable scholars served as qs, tutors and advisors to Umayyad caliphs and governors. Their religious credentials were untarnished by their association with the Umayyads and they appear prominently in later adth collections and fiqh works.

This historiographical study demonstrates that excessive reliance on al-abars chronicle has distorted the image of the Umayyads. Alternatively, biographical sources produced by later adth scholars reveal a rich tradition of Umayyad-era religious scholarship that undermines al-abars assumptions. Offering a better understanding of early Islamic religious development, this book is a valuable resource for students and researchers in the fields of Islamic history, Islamic legal studies, and Arabic historiography.

Steven C. Judd is Professor of Middle East History at Southern Connecticut State University, USA. He has written extensively on the Umayyad period, focusing on history, historiography, theology, and legal studies.

Culture and civilization in the Middle East

General Editor: Ian Richard Netton

Professor of Islamic Studies, University of Exeter

This series studies the Middle East through the twin foci of its diverse cultures and civilisations. Comprising original monographs as well as scholarly surveys, it covers topics in the fields of Middle Eastern literature, archaeology, law, history, philosophy, science, folklore, art, architecture, and language. While there is a plurality of views, the series presents serious scholarship in a lucid and stimulating fashion.

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Religious Scholars and the Umayyads

Piety-minded supporters of the Marwnid caliphate

Steven C. Judd

Dedicated to the memory of my mother

First published 2014
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2014 Steven C. Judd

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