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The Nakhwila, a Shite Community in Medina Past and Present Author(s): Werner Ende Reviewed work(s): Source: Die

Welt des Islams, New Series, Vol. 37, Issue 3, Shiites and Sufis in Saudi Arabia (Nov., 1997), pp. 263-348 Published by: BRILL Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/1570656 . Accessed: 21/02/2012 14:26
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A THE NAKHAWILA, SHIllrE COMMUNITYIN MEDINA PAST AND PRESENT


BY

WERNER ENDE
Freiburgi.Br.

Contents Acknowledgements Introduction The Shiite Emirate of the Banfu Husayn The Husaynid ashrdf in modern times The Harb and their Shiite subtribes The nakhdwila: a name and its variants More questions than answers: the origin of the nakhdwila Ownership and cultivation of land Other occupations Another uncertainty: the numerical size Burial and cemeteries Isolation, discrimination and survival 1. The mahalla 2. Public education 3. Representation in domestic politics 4. A lonely minority: the religious aspect 5. Religious guidance Bibliography Maps Acknowledgements My research for this study on the Shiites of Medina began in the 1980s, but for a number of reasons I have repeatedly had to interrupt my work for longer periods of time. Over the years, a great and students (both past and present), many persons-colleagues Muslim religious scholars, librarians, booksellers and others-have helped me in one way or another by procuring books, periodicals and photocopies, providing bibliographical data, guiding me to
? KoninklijkeBrill, Leiden, 1997 Die WeltdesIslams37, 3

263 264 272 279 287 293 298 312 314 316 318 320 320 325 327 328 331 337 347

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hidden source material and solving numerous philological and other problems which I encountered while working on the various sources. They are too many to be mentioned here by name. I would like to thank them all. for Sincere thanks are due to the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft a grant in 1995 enabled me to spend the its generous support: summer semester of that year conducting research on the Imami Shia in modern times. Introduction The present study is an attempt to describe the situation of the Twelver Shiite community of Medina and the adjacent area to the south of the town primarily in modern times (i.e. from the early 19th Century onwards), but with due reference also to its earlier history. The narrative is based on a wide range of very heterogeneous primary and secondary sources, ranging from medieval Arabic and modern European travel books to writings of the contemporary Saudi opposition, from old as well as recent Arabic chronicles to reports written by Iranian, Lebanese Shiite and other pilgrims on their visits to Medina. The picture that emerges is, of course, rather vague on many points, especially since the author of the present study has not been able-and most probably never will be-to do research on the spot. To begin with, a few remarks concerning the general importance of Medina in the history of the Shia as well as in Shiite religious thought are certainly appropriate. We should bear in mind that Medina is distinguished from the other shrine towns of (Twelver-) Shiite Islam' by a number of factors: Its history and religious importance are closely related to those of Mecca. Though not part of the hajj, a visit (ziyara) to Medina before or after the performance of the hajj ceremonies is considered highly commendable by all Muslims, and indeed for Shiites it is almost a sacred duty.2 While some of the Shiite shrine townse.g. Kerbela and Najaf -sprung up around the tomb of an Imam,
1 See article "'Atabat" in Encyclopaedia Iranica, vol. 2, 902-4, and The Encyclopaedia of Islam (El), Supplement, fasc. 1-2, 94-96; Khalili: Mawsfi'at al-'atabdt, Madkhal and 12 vols. 2 Najafi: Hidayat al-nasikin, passim.

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others, such as Medina, existed long before becoming places of Shiite veneration.3 If we could "measure" the religious significance of a Shiite shrine town by the number of Imams buried there, we would necessarily come to the conclusion that, for Shiites, Medina was the most important as well as the most popular of all these placesmuch more so than Najaf and Kerbela, for instance, where in each case "only" one Imam is buried. Medina (a city dear to the heart of every Muslim believer as the burial place of the Prophet Muhammad) contains the tombs of four Shiite Imams, i.e. more than can be found anywhere else. They are al-Hasan ibn 'All, 'Ali Zayn al-'Abidin, Muhammad al-Baqir and Ja'far al-Sadiq. It also contains the tomb of Muhammad's daughter Fatima, the mother of two Imams (Hasan and Husayn) and one of the most popular female saints of Islam, as well as the tombs of a number of other members of the "People of the House" (ahl al-bayt).4 Of course, it does not make much sense to evaluate the significance of a Shiite shrine town in this way. However-given the attached by Shiite believers in general to a visit special importance to the shrines- it is clear why a ziydra5 to Medina is even more popular with Shiite pilgrims than with their Sunnite co-religionists. As most Twelver-Shiites tend to believe that all their Imams (with the exception of the 12th, who is living in occultation) died as martyrs, standing at the tombs of the four buried in Medina is an act likely to excite their deepest religious emotions. In modern times, i.e. ever since the mid-1920s, the grief felt by Shiite visitors to the old cemetery of Medina, Baqi' al-Gharqad (usually called al-Baqi')6 has been exacerbated by the knowledge that
3 For a rather fragmentary survey of the history of Medina see art. "AlMadina" in EI, vol. 5, 994-1007. The best comprehensive treatment in Arabic al-shamil. published so far is Badr:Al-t&rikh 4 A detailed survey is to be found in Najafi: Madinah-shinasi, esp. kitab4, 318435. For the more or less interchangeable terms Ahl al-bayt Al al-bayt, used in or as the present study, see El, vol. 1, 257f. and 345. 5 For the For rules, ceremonies and special prayerssee Nakash: The Visitation. Medina in particular Najafi:Hiddyatal-nasikin. 6 See art. in El, vol. 1, 957; Najafi: Madinah-shinasi, 319ff. and illustrations nos. 54 and 82-87. For illustrations see further Rif<at: Mir'dt,vol. 1, 426; Batanfni: Rihla,facing p. 256; Kazem Zadeh: Relation, facing p. 16; Moritz:Bilder,nos. 71-72; for the present situation Hajiri: Al-Baqi',142, 150, 186, 194, 222, 224-27; Mirath-i Jdwiddn (journal, Tehran), vol. 1, no.1 (Bahar 1372/1993), inside back cover;

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the shrines of their Imams in Iraq and Iran and even those of are many imamzadahs7 covered by cupolas and richly decorated with gold, silver, mirrors etc. The extreme simplicity of the tombs of the Imams at Medina therefore comes as a shock to them. This holds true even for those visitors who are well informed about the destruction of cupolas etc. carried out at the Baqi' by the Saudi Wahhabis after their conquest of Medina in December 1925. Even before that event, Medina was different from the Shiite shrine towns in the East: unlike Najaf, Kerbela, Kazimayn and Meshhed (Samarra,to some extent, is an exception), Medina has centre of Shiite religious learning. In spite never been a prominent of the fact that there have been Shiites (including scholars, preachers and students) in and around Medina from early Islamic times up to the present day, no madrasacomparable to the great Shiite institutes in Iraq and Iran was ever established there.8 The same holds true for Mecca. This is, of course, mainly the result of political circumstances: with a few exceptions, Medina has always been under the suzerainity of Sunnite powers. Local rulers such as many of the Hashimite Sharifs of Mecca, however, are known to have had Shiite leanings. For many Shiite authors, the Sharifs of Mecca were actually Shiites who, for obvious reasons, posed as Sunnites- an attitude considered lawful, as taqiya,under Shiite law. This explanation is, of course, debatable, but there can be no doubt that there has been a pro-Shiite tendency among several branches of the Hashimite family and particularly of the Husaynid ashraf in Medina.9 This fact may help explain why Shiites, wishing to live (and die) there as "pious neighbours" or "sojourners" (mujdwirCtn),l? have almost always suc-

ceeded in settling in Medina or in its vicinity. Mulla Muhammad Amin Astarabadi (d. between 1623 and 1626), the man who revived the Akhbdri school of Shiite Islam, is a case in point.11
Samarra'i:Al Sa'ud, 118-20. For the destructions in 1925/26 and the present situation, see further below, p. 318. 7 See art. in EI, vol. 3, 1169f. 8 Nevertheless, some Shiite authors, by quoting Sunni (polemical) works, count Medina among the historic centers of Shiite scholarship. See, e.g., Kazimi: Ahsan al-wadi'a,vol. 2, 286f. 9 See below, p. 272ff. 10 See art. "Mudjawir" El, vol. 7, 293f. in 11 About this person see Encyclopaedia Iranica,vol. 2, 845f.

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The origin and early development of the Shia date back, one could argue, to the lifetime of the Prophet, when his close kin, the Banfi Hashim, enjoyed an elevated religious status of purity attested by the Koran. After Muhammad's death, the disinheritance of his family-the ahl al-bayt-was the ultimate motive for the rise of the Shia, i.e. the "party" of 'Ali b. Abi Talib, Muhammad's cousin and son-in-law and, later on, the leader of the Hashimites. While the first popular movements in favour of the Shi'at 'Ali emerged in Iraq, some (more or less) open Alid resistance to the rule of the Umayyads (and afterwards of the Abbasids) continued in the Hijaz too.12 Notwithstanding the fact that the subsequent development of the Shia, including the emergence of its different branches and sects etc., took place in Iraq, Iran and elsewhere, one should not forget that the Hijaz, and notably Mecca and Medina, are the cradle of Shiism. Likewise, the continuity of a Shiite (Imami or Zaydi) presence in the Hijaz from early Islam up to the 20th Century should not be overlooked. This continuity is the leitmotiv of the present study. In western scholarship, the important role of the Shi'at 'Ali in the history of the Hijaz-not only in the early centuries of Islamhas been recognized to some extent by a number of authors, but has not been given due consideration until recently. In the 19th Century, it was C. Snouck Hurgronje, especially in his pioneering history of Mecca, who was first able to show both the range and partial success of Alid ambitions in the Hijaz well into the Abbasid period. As he was mainly interested in the origin and later development of the Hashimite Sherifate of Mecca, however, Snouck Hurgronje's description of the role in Hijazi history of the Shiite ashrdf of Medina, including their Emirate over a whole region of the Hijaz, is restricted to a number of short, though pertinent, remarks.13 The Swiss traveller J.L. Burckhardt is the first western author to mention in any detail the existence in modern times of a cryptoShiite group of Husaynid origin in Medina, as well as a community to be distinguished from the former, i.e. the nakhawila-many of whom, he says, "publicly profess the creed of Aly when in their
12

See art. "Shi'a"(by W. Madelung) in El, vol. 9, 420-24, and the same au-

thor's The succession to Muhammad; further Musnad: Al-'alawiyun. 13 Mekka, vol. 1, 32-36, 40-74.

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date groves, but are Sunnys whenever they come to town" (see below). As Burckhardt'sremarks on the Shiites of Medina have had considerable influence on a number of western and even a few Muslim authors, the relevant passage deserves to be quoted in full. It is to be found in his chapter on the inhabitants of Medina. Mentioning the Sherifian families living there, Burckhardt writes:
"Among them is a small tribe of Beni Hosseyn, descended from Hosseyn, the brother of Hassan. They are said to have been formerly very powerful at Medina, and had appropriated to themselves the chief part of the income of the mosque: in the thirteenth century, (according to Samhoudy), they were the privileged guardians of the Prophet's tomb; but at present they are reduced to about a dozen familes, who still rank among the grandees of the town and its most wealthy inhabitants. They occupy a quarter by themselves, and obtain very large profits, particularly from the Persian pilgrims who pass here. They are universally stated to be heretics, of the Persian sect of Aly, and to perform secretly the rites of that creed, although they publicly profess the doctrines of the Sunnys. This report is too general, and confirmed by too many people of respectability, to be doubted: but the Beni Hosseyn have powerful influence in the town, in appearance strictlycomply with the orthodox principles, and are therefore not molested. It is publicly said that the remnants of the Ansars, and great numbers of the peasant Arabswho cultivate the gardens and fields in the neighbourhood of the town, are addicted to the same heresy. The latter, called Nowakhele, (a name implying that they live among date-trees), are numerous, and very warlike. They had offered determined resistance to the Wahabys, and in civil contests have proved alwayssuperior to the townspeople. They are said to be descendants of the partisans of Yezid, the son of Mawya,who took and sacked the town sixty years after the Hedjra. They marry only among themselves; and exhibit on all occasions a great esprit de corps.Many of them publicly profess the creed of Aly when in their date-groves, but are Sunnys whenever they come to town. Some of them are established in the suburbs, and they have monopolised the occupation of butchers. In quarrels I have heard individuals among them publicly called sectaries and rowafedh, without their ever denying it. In the Eastern Desert, at three or four days' journey from Medina, lives a whole Beduin tribe, called Beni Aly, who are all of this Persian creed; and it is matter of astonishment to find the two most holy spots of the orthodox Muselman religion surrounded, one by the sectaries of Zeyd, and the other by those of Aly, without an attempt having been made to dislodge them."14

Richard Burton, who visited Medina in 1852, in his Personal Narrative also refers to both the nakhawilaand the BanfuHusayn. As his observations, like Burckhardt's, have influenced later writings about Medina, they too are quoted here in full (but without the rather fanciful footnotes):
14 Travels, vol. 2, 238-40.

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"There is also a race called Al-Nakhawilah, who, according to some, are descendants of the Ansar, whilst others derive them from Yazid, the son of Mu'awiyah:the latter opinion is improbable, as the Caliph in question was a mortal foe to Ali's family, which is inordinately venerated by these people. As far as I could ascertain, they abuse the Shaykhayn (Abu Bakr and Omar): all my informants agreed upon this point, but none could tell me why they neglected to bedevil Osman, the third object of hatred to the Shi'ah persuasion. They are numerous and warlike, yet they are despised by the townspeople, because they openly profess heresy, and are moreover of humble degree. They have their own priests and instructors, although subject to the orthodox Kazi;marry in their own sect, are confined to low offices, such as slaughtering animals, sweeping, and gardening, and are not allowed to enter the Harim during life, or to be carried to it after death. Their corpses are taken down an outer street called the Darb al-Janazah-Road of Biersto their own cemetery near Al-Bakia.They dress and speak Arabic, like the townspeople; but the Arabs pretend to distinguish them by a peculiar look denoting their degradation: it is doubtless the mistake of effect for cause, about all such 'Tribes of the wandering foot and wearybreast.' A number of reports are current about the horrid customs of these people, and their community of women with the Persian pilgrims who pass through the town. It need scarcely be said that such tales coming from the mouths of fanatic foes are not to be credited. I regret not having had an opportunity to become intimate with any of the Nakhawilah, from whom curious information might be elicited. Orthodox Moslems do not like to be questioned about such hateful subjects; when I attempted to learn something from one of my acquaintance, Shaykh Ula al-Din, of a Kurd family, settled at Al-Madinah, a man who had travelled over the East, and who spoke five languages to perfection, he coldly replied that he had never consorted with these heretics."15

Like Burckhardt, Burton distinguishes clearly between the nakhawila and the Sayyids of Banfi Husayn. According to him, the latter numbered ninety-three or ninety-four families in Medina alone. About them, Burton has the following to say:
"Ancientlythey were much more numerous, and such was their power, that for centuries they retained charge of the Prophet's tomb. They subsist principally upon their Amlak, property in land, for which they have title-deeds extending back to Mohammed's day, and Aukaf, religious bequests; popular rumour accuses them of frequent murders for the sake of succession. At AlMadinah they live chiefly at the Hosh Ibn Sa'ad, a settlement outside the town and south of the Darb al-Janazah.There is, however, no objection to their dwelling within the walls; and they are taken to the Harim after death, if there be no evil report against the individual. Their burial-place is the Bakia cemetery. The reason of this toleration is, that some are supposed to be Sunni, or orthodox, and even the most heretical keep their "Rafz"(heresy) a profound secret. Most learned Arabs believe that they belong, like the Persians, to the sect of Ali: the truth, however, is so vaguely known, that
15 Personal

Narrative, vol. 2, 1-3.

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WERNERENDE I could find out none of the peculiarities of their faith, till I met a Shirazi friend at Bombay. The Benu Hosayn are spare dark men of Badawiappearance, and they dress in the old Arab style still affected by the Sharifs,- a Kufiyah (kerchief) on the head, and a Banish, a long and wide-sleeved garment resembling our magicians' gown, thrown over the white cotton Kamis (shirt): in public they always carry swords, even when others leave weapons at home".16

Until recently, there had been no attempt in western scholarship to describe in any detail the history of the Shiite (Husaynid) Emirate of Medina from its origin-although Werner Caskel planned to do so. For reasons unknown to me, however, his project, which is mentioned in Max von Oppenheim's Die Beduinen, has not materialized.17 It is only with two articles by Richard T. Mortel published in 1991 and 1994, respectively, as well as with Shawn Marmon's book Eunuchs and Sacred Boundaries in Islamic Society, which appeared in 1995, that western historical research on Medina, and particularly on its Shiite community, has made any substantial progress.18 At the same time, the publication of both Arabic chronicles, biographical works etc. (in more or less critical editions) and of studies by Arab authors concerning various aspects of Medinese history from early Islam to the recent past has immensely enriched our potential source material. The most recent examples are two works published in 1996. Both came to the attention of the present writer too late to be used for this study. They are 1) Muhammad Kibrit al-Husayni al-Madani: Kitab al-jawdhir althaminafi mahdsin al-Madina, ed. Muhammad Hasan (...) Isma'il al-Shafi'l, Beirut 1996 (Dar al-Kutub al-'Ilmiya),19 and 2) 'Arif 'Abd al-Ghani: Tarikh umara' al-Madina al-Munawwara, Damascus 1996 (Dar al-Kinan).20
16 Ibid., 3f. 17 Vol. 2, 434, fn. 4. 18 See bibliography. 19 For manuscripts see Sa'idi: Mu'jam ma ullifa, 343, no. 93, further ed. Shafi'i, 4. Concerning the author, Muhammad Kibrit, see ibid., 3; Hamdan: The Literature, 77-80, and our footnote no. 89 below. 20 The book consists of short biographical entries, in chronological order, of persons who, in one way or another (i.e. as independent Emirs, as deputies of Mamluk Sultans or of the ashrafof Mecca, as Ottoman walis or in other capacities) have "ruled"Medina from the time of early Islam up to the year 1417/1996. The first person mentioned is Mus'ab b. 'Umayr (see EI, vol. 7, 649), the last one is Prince 'Abd al-Majid b. 'Abd al-'Aziz Al Sa'fid (since 1406/1986 amir of

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Another useful addition to the Arabic source material is a recently published bibliography of Shiite writings on the Arabian Peninsula, i.e. Habib Al ami': Mu'jam al-mu'allafat al-shi'iyafi l-Jaziraal-'Arabiya, vol. 1, Beirut, 1st ed. 1417/1997 (Mu'assasat al-Baqi').21 As this work came to my attention only at the moment when the preparation of this study was in its final stage, I have to confine myself to the above bibliographical reference. To the best of my knowledge, no source originating from members of the Shiite community of Medina has so far been published: it must therefore be regarded as a silent minority, especially since circumstances do not yet allow field research on its present economic conditions, cultural life etc. As a prerequisite for any further research concerning the Husaynid ashraf of the Hijaz in general and of those in Medina in particular, a critical edition of Ibn Shadqam's Zahr al-riyad wa-zulal alhiyad would be highly welcome. The author, Sayyid Abfi 1-Makarim al-Hasan b. 'Ali b. Shadqam al-Madani, was born in Medina in 942 (1535-36) and died in Hyderabad/Deccan in the month of Safar 999 (December 1590). His dead body was transported to Medina and buried at the cemetery of al-Baqi'.22 Before leaving his native city for India, Ibn Shadqam-like his father before him-is said to have been naqib al-ashrdf for some time, as well as mutawalli of the Prophet's grave site. In his (hitherto unpublished) Zahr al-riydd, consisting of four volumes, Ibn Shadqam's Imami Shi'i tendency is displayed quite openly. Basically, this is a work on the biographies of persons who have played some role in the history of Medina, with special emphasis on the Shiite Imams as well as on local Shiite rulers, notables, 'ulama', poets etc. A study of the author's own biography and of his political activity both in Medina and Hyderabad may yield new insights into the role and self-view of the Medinese Husaynid ashrdf in the 16th Century and beyond.
Medina). On pp. 492-520 is a list (also in chronographical order) of all these persons, with those of the era of the Ja'fariyun on pp. 502-04, and those during Fatimid rule on 504ff. There is no special list of the (Shiite) Husaynid umard'. 21 According to an introductory note by the compiler, a second volume is in preparation. 22 With regard to this work and its author see Sa'idi, ibid., 352-56, and Amin: A'yan,ed. Hasan al-Amin (1986), vol. 5, 175-79.

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In addition, there are both published and unpublished sources in Persian and other eastern and western languages which may provide abundant information with regard to many details. The present author does not claim to know them all. He acknowledges that, for one reason or another, he has not always been able to fully exploit the information which the available material may contain.

TheShiiteEmirate theBaniuHusayn of
The Twelver-Shiite denomination of the Husaynid Emirs of Medina up to the Mamluk period was well known to medieval Sunni Arab authors such as Ibn Khaldfn (d. 1406) and Qalqashandi (d. 1418).23 Mortel's recent studies are based on the remarks of these two authors as well as on information found in the works of several others. The emergence of a semi-independent Emirate in Medina and its vicinity under the rule of local ashraf 24 from the Banfu Husayn dates back to the years immediately following the establishment of Fatimid rule in Egypt (969 A.D.).25 Two factors should be seen as prerequisites for this development in Medina: First, there is evidence that the Banfi Husayn, i.e. the descendants of Husayn b. 'Ali and his only surviving son, 'Ali Zayn alcAbidin (the Fourth Imam of the Shia), had over many generations been able to establish themselves as one of the important families of Medina. Some information to this effect contained in sources that were written much later may be apocryphal, but there is no reason to doubt that the Banfu Husayn had acquired considerable influence in Medinese society long before their Emirate emerged. Secondly, members of the Medinese Banfu Husayn had migrated to Egypt in the first quarter of the 10th Century. A number of them were able to establish close relations with the Ikhshidid and, later, the Fatimid court. Of special importance in this connection
23 Ibn Khaldfn: 'Ibar, vol. 4, 108-11; Qalqashandi: Subh, vol. 4, 302, and 12, 243-46. 24 For this term and the development of its various meanings see art. "Sharif' in EI, vol. 9, 329-37. 25 Mortel: The Origins, passim; also Muhammad: Al-'aldqat, 72-76; Badr: Altarikh al-shamil, vol. 2, 135ff.

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is one Muslim b. 'Ubaydallah, who died in Cairo in 976 or 977. When his son returned to the Hijaz shortly afterwards, the local Banu Husayn recognized him as their leader. This event marks the inauguration of the Husaynid Emirate (or Sherifate) of Medina. The most important outward sign of the establishment of some degree of local rule over Medina under Shiite Fatimid (no longer Sunnite Abbasid) suzerainty was to be observed in the recitation of the khutba: possibly as early as 969, but with some certainty a few years later, the name of the Fatimid Caliph was mentioned in the khutba. Later on, several Husaynid Emirs are known to have been officially designated by the Fatimid Caliphs and, after the downfall of this dynasty, by the Abbasids to govern Medina. One of them, Qasim b. Muhanna, was a close acquaintance of Salah al-Din (Saladin) and even accompanied the latter on some of his campaigns. Under him and his successor, the Husaynid Emirate of Medina cooperated with the Ayyubids on many occasions, and in particular backed several Ayyubid attempts to regain control over Mecca. On the other hand, the Ayyubids supported the Husaynids against all political and military actions undertaken by the Sherifs of Mecca to subdue the Emirate of Medina. Below the level of political co-operation, there may have been some sort of migration of Shiites, in both directions, between Medina and Egypt for a considerable time after the fall of the Fatimids, i.e. well into the Mamluk era. As recent research has shown,26 there is significant evidence that Isma'ili and non-Isma'ili (probably Twelver-) Shiism played some role in medieval Cairo, and even more so in Upper Egypt until at least well into the 14th Century. A few pockets of Shiism may have existed even longer. Thus, 'Abd al-Rahman al-Ansari's remark, quoted below,27 that some of the nakhdwila are said to be related to people from Egypt might not be totally unfounded. After the deposition of the last Fatimid caliph in 1171, the local rulers of the haramayn had recognized Sultan Salah al-Din as their overlord. As an outward sign of the restoration of Sunnite rule, the Shi'i preachers in the haram of Medina were obliged to acknowledge the authority of the Sunni caliphate in their khutba,
26 Stewart: Popular Shiism, esp. 35, 52, 56f., 61.

27 See p. 303.

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WERNER ENDE "but neither Salah al-Din nor his descendants appear to have made any attempt to "sunnify" the City of the Prophet. The Shi'i elite of Medina continued to control most religious offices in the sanctuary, and Shi'i judges exercised jurisdiction over Sunni and Shi'i alike".28

A number of Sunnite authors, known for their anti-Shiite stance, criticized this state of affairs, which they considered to pose a threat to the supremacy of orthodox (Sunnite) Islam in the Hijaz: in his Kitab al-dhayl wa-l-takmila, in the chapter on Ibn Jubayr (d. 1217), Abfi 'Abdallah Muhammad al-Marrakushi quotes a poem which the famous Andalusian traveller had dedicated to Salah alDin al-Ayyibi (d. 1192). In it,29 Ibn Jubayr appeals directly to the Sultan to look into the situation in Medina and to abolish the bida' which were rife in the Prophet's town: among other things, he especially mentions the open cursing of the sahdba and, as one of the most disgraceful innovations, the fact that a Shiite should be allowed to lead the ritual prayer for Sunnites.30 The accusation that Shiites had attempted to break into the tomb of the Prophet (or the tombs of Abfi Bakr and 'Umar, respectively) and carry off the bodies is a frequent topos in Sunni literature on the history of Medina.31 The ndr al-Hijdz, i.e. the eruption of a volcano near Medina in the year 654/1256, and the fire at the haram several months later in the same year were interpreted by Sunni authors as God's punishment for the corruption into which the community had fallen-with the ascendancy of the Shia in Medina as a very significant case in point. Some authors even held local Shiites directly responsible for setting fire to the mosque of the Prophet.32 Ibn Taimiya (d. 1328), in his treatise on the precedence and
28 Marmon: Eunuchs, 58. 29 Marrakushi: vol.

Al-Dhayl, (sifr) 5, pt. 2, 616-20. 30 For Ibn Jubayr's lamentation of the fact that a "heretic" would deliver the khutba from the minbar of the Prophet and for his other grievances concerning the religious situation in the Hijaz see his Rihla, ed. Wright/de Goeje, 76ff., 201f., and the French translation by Gaudefroy-Demombynes: Voyages, parts 1, 87ff., and 2, 231f. For a commentary see Netton: Basic Structures, esp. 28-30, for the history of the minbar and its religious importance see Meier: Der Prediger. 31 Marmon: Eunuchs, 36; Barzanji: Nuzhat al-ndzirin, 82; this story is repeated even by some modern authors such as 'Ali Hafiz: Fusul, 24f. (The author, however, prefers the alternative version that the culprits were christians). 32 Marmon, ibid., 49f.; Meier: Der Prediger, 227-30; Samhudi: Wafa', vol. 1, 151f., and vol. 2, 598-600 (for the verses quoted on p. 600, see also Miknasi: Jadhwat al-iqtibas, 242); Burckhardt: Travels, 204.

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superiority of Hadith scholarship in Medina during the first three centuries of Islam, explains why the prestige of the Medinese school had subsequently declined: even in the Fourth Century, other towns could justifiably boast of scholars superior to those of Medina, while at the same time Shiite heresy (rafd) manifested itself in the town of the Prophet. However, almost until the beginning of the Sixth Century A.H. (early 12th Century A.D.), the great majority of the inhabitants of Medina had continued to adhere to their traditional madhhab, namely that of Malik. But then religious life in Medina began to feel the impact of the immigration of heretics from the East (rafidat al-mashriq): a great number of Shiites from Kashan and elsewhere, many of them related to the family of the Prophet, had come to Medina. Works by heretical authors, all incompatible with a true understanding of both the Koran and the Sunna, were presented to the Medinese, and much money was spent on them. Thus, heresy (bid'a) increased in Medina from that time onwards.33 It would be interesting to know whether or not the influx of Shiites early in the 12th Century, especially from Qashan (or Kashan), as mentioned by Ibn Taimiya, had anything to do with the kind of messianic movement which is said to have been active in that town and in the surrounding villages. It is described by Yaqut on the authority of an eyewitness, namely Abuf l-'Abbas Ahmad b. 'Ali Ibn Baba al-Qashi, or al-Qashani (d. 1116-17), the author of a (lost) book on the sects of the Shia.34 A discussion of this point would, however, fall outside the scope of the present study. Ibn Taimiya's remarks are quoted with approval by Ibn Farhfin (who was the qddi of the Maliki madhhab in Medina from 1390 until his death in 1397) in his Tabsirat al-hukkim. With regard to the beginning of Shiite dominance in Medina, however, Ibn Farhun prefers an earlier date. Referring to Abfi Bakr Ibn al-'Arabi (d. 1148) and his work al-'Awdsim wa-l-qawdsim,he maintains that Sunnite law had fallen into disuse in Medina by the Fifth Century A.H.: according to Ibn al-'Arabi, a Shiite was khatib (of the haram)

33 Sihhat usul, 20f. 34 Mu'jam al-buldan, vol. 7, 13; concerning al-Qashi see El, vol. 4, 696.

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in 489 (1095-96), when the Andalusian scholar came to Medina.35 Several centuries later, Ibn Farhfin's remarks are quoted by Ja'far b. Isma'il al-Barzanji (d. 1899), who arrived in Medina in 1854 and became Shafiite mufti there, in his history of the mosque of the Prophet.36 The situation described (and deplored) by those authors gradually changed under Mamluk rule, beginning with Sultan Baybars' pilgrimage in 1269. It was this ruler who initiated a policy of sending Sunni scholars to Medina to counter the influence of the Shiite local rulers as well as the still dominant Shiite (mainly Husaynid) 'ulama families there. The Emirs of Medina at the time, the Al Shiha, and their relatives, the Al Sinan, tried to resist this policy by different means, including the mobilization of their followers against the Sunnite immigrants whom they considered to be the agents of forced "sunnification".37 In this connection, an incident in the late Thirteenth Century, involving the Egyptian Sunni faqih Siraj al-Din al-Ansari, acted as a turning point in the conflict between Sunnites and Shiites over the control of the religious offices in Medina: one Friday just after Siraj al-Din-who had come to Medina by order of the Mamluk sultan-had commenced his khutba from the pulpit of the haram, Shiite members of the congregation began throwing handfuls of gravel at him. At this juncture, the eunuchs of the Prophet's mosque-all of them known to be zealous defenders of Sunnismintervened by placing themselves, together with their retainers and slaves, between the pulpit and the crowd. This first appearance of the "row of the eunuchs" (saff al-khudddm), which was to become a practice for centuries, may have been "a carefully planned demonstration of the authority of the distant sultan". In any case it ushered in a new stage of a development which precipitated the end of Shi'i ascendancy in Medina.38 Under Ottoman rule, i.e. from 1517 onwards, the influence of the Husaynid families of Medina gradually waned. However, they
35 Tabsira, in the margin of Fath al-'ali, vol. 1, 417. 36 Nuzhat al-ndzirin, 88. 37 Mortel: The .Husaynid Amirate, lOOff.; Marmon: Eunuchs, 56, 138 fn. 159; 'All: Al-haydt, 221. 38 Marmon, 55f.; Barzanji: Nuzhat al-ndzirin, 89.

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were not totally subjugated and even entered into a dispute with the Ottomans: in her study of the finances of Mecca and Medina under Ottoman rule, Suraiya Faroqhi presents a valuable analysis of the awqdf benefiting the two holy cities as well as of the distribution of subsidies and pensions among their inhabitants.39 In this context, she mentions a long-drawn-out dispute, in the 16th Century, over (Ottoman-) Egyptian subsidies involving the rights of the Banf Husayn in Medina. The latter claimed one third of all subsidies sent to Mecca, producing a rescript to this effect from Sultan Murad III. The Ottoman governor of Egypt opposed these demands, pointing out that other legitimate claimants would then have to be denied their rights. We should keep in mind that in this period, Sunni Ottomans and Shi'i Safawids were frequently at war. Under these circumstances, official Ottoman subsidies for the Shiite Banf Husayn could not be taken for granted. For a while, "the opponents of the Bani Husayn had the upper hand in Istanbul, and the Sultan's Council denied them official support of any kind. But the Banfu Husayn insisted and, in the long run, they seem to have been successful, for in the early Seventeenth Century we find them receiving subsidies out of the Egyptian provincial budget".40 With the material at my disposal, I cannot determine at what time and under which circumstances the payment of these official subsidies from the Ottoman-Egyptian budget eventually came to if so, for how an end. Moreover, it is not clear whether-and, Banfi Husayn received regular subsidies or gifts from long-the other sources within or outside the Ottoman Empire. It is safe to assume, however, that the number of both indigenous and foreign Shiites staying in the two holy cities was relatively large at least in the first half of the 16th Century: the presence there of many "shi'a, rafida and such-like" induced Ibn Hajar al-Haytami (d. 1567) to write (and teach publicly in Mecca) his Sawa'iq muhriqa, one of the most devastating polemics ever written against the Shiite doctrine of the imdma and in defence of the first three caliphs.41
Pilgrims and Sultans, 56, 77, 80. Ibid., 87f. 41 Brockelmann, GAL, II, 388, and S II, 527f. Ibn Hajar mentions the Ramadan of 950/1543 as the time when he was asked to read his work in public: Al-sawa'iq, introduction.
40

39

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Ibn Hajar's work is to be seen in the context of the confrontation between Sunni Ottomans and Shiite Safawids, and in particular of the practice of openly reviling the early Sunni caliphs. This practice led to complaints from a number of Imami Shiites in the Hijaz. Thus, Twelver clerics in Mecca wrote to the 'ulama' of Isfahan: "You revile their imams (the first three caliphs) in Isfahan, and we in al-Haramayn are chastised for this cursing and reviling".42 The conflict between the Ottomans and the Safawids (as well as later Iranian dynasties) resulted in a series of crises over the pilgrimage to Mecca and the ziyara to Medina: when the two Empires were at war, Iranian pilgrims were not permitted to enter Ottoman territory. In peacetime, their movements were monitored and more or less restricted. On their way to the Hijaz and back to Iran as well as during their stay in the Haramayn, they would suffer various forms of discrimination. There are many complaints to this effect by Iranian (and, to some extent, other Shiite) pilgrims even from later periods and right up to the present.43 A description and analysis of this conflict and its repercussions would fall outside the scope of the present study. Suffice it to say here that the present-day Saudi-Iranian confrontation over the prigrimage has many roots in the remote past, and that the indigenous Twelver Shiite community of Medina has always been in danger of becoming directly involved in the resulting quarrels.44 According to Eyyfb Sabri (as quoted by Batanuni), the control (wilaya) over Medina remained in the hands of the Husaynid ashrdf until 1099/1687-88, when it was subordinated to the government of Hijaz, i.e. Mecca, by an Ottoman decree. The last of the semi-independent Emirs mentioned is one Husayn b. Zuhayr.45 Probably as a result of this development, the southern suburb of al-'Awali replaced Medina for several centuries as the stronghold and main residence of the Husaynid umara'. With this move, they had good reason to establish a close relationship with the domi-

Faroqhi: Pilgrims, 127ff.; Faqihi: Wahhabiydn, 231ff. and passim; Amin alDawla: Safar namah, 255, 279; Kazem Zadeh: Relation, 16-18. 44 See below, pp. 335-37, and the literature mentioned there. 45 Al-rihia al-hijaziya, 298-300. See also Amhazun: Al-Madina, 35.

42 Newman: The Myth, 82. 43

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nant tribe there-the Harb-and the Banf 'Ali.46 tions, The Husaynid ashraf in moderntimes

particularly with one of its sec-

In the 19th and 20th Centuries, many Shiite visitors from abroad have been aware of the Shiite background of the ashrdf of Banf Husayn. Muhsin al-Amin has the following to say about them:
"There are Shiites in Medina and Mecca and in some other places (of the Hijaz). For long periods, Husaynid Emirs used to rule Medina. They are Twelver Shiites, who until today have never shown their different madhhab in public. In Medina itself as well as outside, in al-'Awali and elsewhere, there are a great number of them."47

In another passage, Muhsin al-Amin adds the following information:


"In Medina, there is a mahalla whose inhabitants are Shiites. There are of (also) in Medina Hashimites (t&'ifat al-Hawdshim) Husayni-'Alawi lineage and of Shiite origin. I have seen some Shiite books in their possession. Until now they control a waqfwhich is destined for the provision of food on the day of 'Ashfira'."48

Whatever their individual creed may have been, it is clear that in their relations with Shiite visitors, many of the ashraf of Medina, and especially of the Banf Husayn, did in fact exhibit what their guests perceived as Shiite leanings. Thus, the Iranian politician Amin al-Dawla (see below), describing his visit to Medina in 1899, detects in his host, Sharif "All-the head of the Banfi Husayn-an ardent love for the Shi'a (madhaq-i tashayyu'). For Amin al-Dawla, this is the natural consequence of Sharif 'Ali's pedigree and noble origin. In the Sharif's house near al-'Awali, Amin al-Dawla even feels free to offer prayer "without dissimulation" (bi taqiya).49 We cannot, however, rule out that some Sunni Medinese may have been prepared to lie when questioned by Shiite pilgrims about their creed. Doughty refers to such a person whose father had allowed a company of Persian pilgrims to lodge in his palm ground: probably because they had paid an amount of money for
46 See below, p. 287f. 47 A'yan, 1986 ed., vol.1, 200. For the author, SayyidMuhsin al-Amin, see be49

low, fn. 91. 48 Ibid., 208.

Safar namah, 193, 266.

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their accommodation, but also out of contempt for them, the young man cynically "played the ShiT'i in their presence.50 A story like this alerts us to the possibility that in some cases, where Medinese hosts or other acquaintances are described by foreign pilgrims as Shiites, this information may not be true. Such an error might be the result of deception, but also, on the part of the Shiite visitor, of wishful thinking-or both. In addition to some ashraf, even tribal chiefs of the Medina region could establish close contacts with distinguished Shiite visitors from abroad. An interesting example is Shaykh Sa'dJaza' (or Jaza), who in the late 19th and early 20th Century was the head of the Ahamida, a section of the Harb.51 When, in 1899, the former Iranian prime minister (sadr-i a'zam) Mirza 'Ali Khan Amin alDawla visited Medina after his hajj,52Shaykh Sa'd met him and his entourage several times.53 He accompanied the Persian guests on their visits to the ashraf and to other persons and occasionally even served them as interpreter. Amin al-Dawla, who mentions his name as "Shaykh Jaza' (of the) Nakhawila", seems to have had earlier contacts with Shaykh Sa'd and even hints at a visit the latter had allegedly paid to Tehran. Shaykh Sa'd owned a house in Medina to which he had already invited Amin al-Dawla when the two men first met in the same year in Mecca during the pilgrimage season. He maintained close relations with the ashrdf of the Banfu Husayn. It seems that he had somehow been involved in a plan, fostered by Amin al-Dawla, to secure financial support from the Iranian government for the Shiites of Medina. With the money thus provided, some men of the nakhdwila whould have been paid to serve as door-keepers at the gates of al-Baqi': they would have been able to ensure that Shiite visitors who were frequently obstructed by Sunnite door-keepers enjoyed unrestricted access to the cemetery. According to Amin al-Dawla, the intrigues of his enemies as well as his own resignation as prime minister in July 1898 made it impossible to realise this project.54
50 Travels, vol. 2, 224. 51 Rif'at: Mir'at, vol. 2, 91; Stratk6tter: Von Kairo, 203. For the Ahamida see

ibid., 354 (index), further Oppenheim: Die Beduinen,vol. 2, 377, 379, and Biladi:
Mu'jam qaba'il, 13; for the family of IbnJaza idem: Nasab Harb, 179. 52 Fragner: Persische Memoirenliteratur,22f., 77ff., 11 1ff.

53 Safarnamah,243f., 250, 254, 257, 259f., 265, 280. 54 Ibid., 254f., 279. For Amin al-Dawla's political career see Fragner, Memoi-

renliteratur, 88-111.

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Even at the beginning of the 20th Century, we find that a number of Husaynid ashraf residing in al-'Awali (and in Medina itself) were able to play a role in local (and even regional) politics. name is also Among them one Sharif Shah.hat (b. 'Ali)-whose written Shah (h)ad or Shah (h)adh by several Arab authors55-rose to some prominence: In his description of Medina written in 1910, Batanfni mentions Sharif Shahhat as the representative (wakil) of the Sharif of Mekka, who had appointed him "to look into the affairs of the Bedouins" (al-'urb&n).56Residing in al-'Awali, Shahhat was able to function as intermediary in tribal affairs as well as in the many cases of tension between the tribes and the Medinese (including the Ottoman garrison). In addition to his official function, Shahhat and his younger brother Nasir made a point of receiving Shiite visitors to Medina, and especially to the mosques south of the holy city-such as those of Quba and al-'Awali. The hospitality and protection offered by the two Emirs attracted praise from 'Abd al-Husayn Sharaf al-Din in his autobiography. Sharaf al-Din, a Lebanese Shiite scholar (d. 1957), travelled to Medina by a train of the Hijaz Railway in the company of his mother and a number of notables from southern Lebanon. He arrived in the holy town in Ramadan 1328 / September 1910, i.e. about half a year after Batanfni's stay there. He states that the group found accommodation in a house of "our faithful brothers, the nakhawila", and adds the following passage:
"The two Emirs, Sharif Shah [h] adh and Sharif Nasir, together with a group of believers (i.e. Shiites) from al-'Awali, came to visit us. Both of them spared no effort to care for our comfort and (ensure that we were) respected. At that time, the two Emirs had influence and a leading position (...). We had been determined to seclude ourselves in the Prophet's mosque for continuous prayer (i'tikaf), but the two Emirs distracted us from that by their constant (protecting) care for us."57

A somewhat similar account is to be found in Sayyid Muhsin alAmin's autobiography, where, describing one of his three visits to Medina, he mentions a young man by the name of Sharif 'Ali b.
55 Ibn al-Zubayr:Mu'jam, vol. 2, 904. His nisba is given by 'Abd al-Ghani:
Tarikh, 428. 56 Al-rihia al-hijaziya, 253. 57 Bughyat al-raghibin, vol. 2, 197f.; see also Qubaysi: Hayat, 106. For Sharaf alDin see further below, p. 331.

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Budayri al-Husayni. This person served Sayyid Muhsin and his company (i.e. Shiites from Syria) as a guide to Quba and al-'Awali. The young Sharif, who also knew Persian, had visited Damascus as a guest of Sayyid Muhsin.58 It is clear from this account that even for Shiites a visit to the region of Quba and al-'Awali at that time was safe only in the company of an intermediary such as a Husaynid Sharif. (This situation was due to the general tension between Medina and the Harb to be mentioned below).59 Let us return to the story of Sharif Shahhat and his brother: even played although both the Husaynid Emirs participated-and an important role-in the so-called Arab Revolt of 1916-18, this has apparently eluded the attention of many historians. Where the two are mentioned at all, their Shiite background is usually ignored.60 This is somewhat surprising, since one of the most important sources, T.E. Lawrence's Seven Pillars of Wisdom, clearly highlights this background and its significance. Lawrence speaks in particularly glowing terms of Sharif Nasir (at the time, as the author remarks, about twenty-seven years old):
"Nasirmade a splendid impression, much as we had heard, and much as we were expecting of him. He was the opener of roads, the forerunner of Feisal's movement, the man who had fired his first shot in Medina, and who was to fire our last shot at Muslimieh beyond Aleppo on the day that Turkey asked for an armistice, and from beginning to end all that could be told of him was good. He was a brother of Shehad, the Emir of Medina. Their family was descended from Hussein, the younger of (Imam) 'All's children, and they were the only descendants of (Imam) Hussein considered Ashraf, not Saada. They were Shias, and had been since the days of Kerbela, and in Hejaz were respected only second to the Emirs of Mecca."61

In a report of March 1917, Lieut.-Col. Newcombe describes one of the military operations against the Hijaz Railway in which Sharif Nasir ("a Shiah from Medina") participated.62 Lawrence, who would on occasion flatter Nasir's pride in being a Sharif and "an
58

A'yan,vol. 10, 364.

60 It is shortly mentioned in Oppenheim: Die Beduinen,vol. 2, 435, and by Sharaf al-Din: Bughyatal-raghibin, vol. 2, 197. Tauber: TheArabMovements, notes Sharif Nasir's participation in the war, but has nothing to say about his background (106, 133, 234, 237f.).
61 Seven Pillars, 165. 62 Bidwell (ed.): TheArabBulletin,vol. 2, 143.

59 See pp. 287ff.

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authentic Shia descendant of Ali and the martyred Hussein", considered him "our best guerrilla general". Later on, however, Nasir proved to be "too little a political philosopher" to understand Faysal's policy in establishing an Arab government in Damascus.63 In spite of his military prowess, Nasir was, as Lawrence put it, "a man of gardens, whose lot had been unwilling war since boyhood." Even during the campaign against the Turks, he was dreaming of what Lawrence calls his "garden-palace" near Medina.64 The garden area surrounding Sharif Nasir's residence as well as his family's other palm groves probably suffered considerably at the hands of the Ottoman defenders of Medina. According to Hogarth,
"the large palm plantations outside the city (of Medina) on the east and north-east (sic), in which the garden suburb of Awali is situated, were much ravaged by the Turkish soldiery early in the Revolt, and the Beni Ali, a Shiite section of the Harb tribe, who cultivated them, were massacred."65

The background of these events is elucidated in a British source: according to two British intelligence reports66 printed in the Arab Bulletin, the Banf 'All of 'Awali had first indicated their readiness to join the Sherifian revolt, but then, unlike most of the Harb including the 'Awf, had more or less openly defected to the Turkish side. However, they gained nothing by this but gross maltreatment at the hands of the Turks when, in August 1916, the Ottoman garrison, on its first sortie after the outbreak of the Arab Revolt, invaded the 'Awali region. It is not surprising, then, that the Banu 'Ali made common cause with the Sherifian forces after the latter had conquered some Turkish military posts near Medina in the following year. It seems that soon after the armistice, Nasir went back to the "the bibulous Hijaz. But it was his elder brother Shahhat-called Emir" by Lawrence67-who became Hashimite qa'im-maqam of Medina soon after the Ottoman surrender of the city on 10 January, 1919.68 Over the years, however, Shahhat had increased his

Seven Pillars, 280, 544, 671. Ibid., 165, 237. 65 War and Discovery, 436. 66 Reprinted in Bidwell (ed.): The Arab Bulletin, vol. 2, 56f., 291. 67 Seven Pillars, 159. 68 Kedourie: The Surrender,Badr: Al-tarikh al-shamil, vol. 3, 83, 114ff., 118.
64

63

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influence in the area, and now resisted all attempts by King Husayn and his sons to reassert direct control over Medina. There are several critical reports (or short remarks) by both Arab and Western observers69concerning this policy as well as Shahhat's behaviour and rule (including his rivalry with other ashraf). It seems very likely that the misrule of the qa'im-maqam somehow contributed to the failure of the Hashimites in defending Medina against Ibn Sa'ud's forces. It is in this connection that we hear again from Sharif Nasir: When the Saudis and their Hijazi allies had encircled Medina almost completely, the Iranian consul general in Damascus, Habibullah Khan 'Ayn al-Mulk Huwayda, together with an aide came to visit the city in November 1925.70At this juncture, Sharif Nasir b. 'All sent the following telegram from Jeddah to his brother Shahhat in Medina (8 Jumada I, 1344/24 November, 1925):
"Rallyeverybody of the nakhawilaand the (other) suppressed inhabitants. Take them to the Iranian consul so that they may tell him about all the atrocities they have suffered!"

On the following day, Sharif Shahhat replied:


"I presented to them all the suppressed inhabitants and the nakhawila,but they (i.e. the Iranian consul and his company) have not acted upon my
advice."71

On 19Jumada I, 1344 (December 5, 1925) Medina surrendered.72 With this, the long rule of the Hashimites over the holy city came to an end. The same event also marked the failure of the attempt of Sharif Shahhat and his brother Nasir to revive-at least partially-the Husaynid Emirate of Medina. It seems that the Husaynids of Medina, and particularlyShahhat
69

70 Badr, ibid., 153; Clayton: An ArabianDiary, 110 fn. 12, 111, 120; Rush: Records, vol. 4, 286; Badeeb: Saudi-Iranian Relations, 80f.; Wizarat-i Umur-i

Kedourie, ibid., 137; Badr, ibid., 148.

Kharijah:Rawabit,63-67. 71 First published in the Saudi "official gazette", Ummal-Qura,vol. 2, no. 51 (18 December 1925), in an article (pp. 1-2) entitled "Kayfatamma taslim AlMadina al-Munawwara; wathd'iq hdmma li-l-tarikh" (documents 72 Umm al-Qura (see preceding captured by the

Saudis), on page 2, reprinted in Al-Manar,vol. 26 (1925-26), 676, and again in Rashid Rida:Maqaldt,vol. 4, 1760f.
footnote); Badr: Al-tarikh al-shamil, vol. 3,

158f.; Rayhani:Tdrikh Najd, 381f.

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and Nasir, never had a hand in machinations which finally led to the establishment of the Hashimite Kingdom of Iraq: Lawrence and a number of other British officers favoured the installation of King Husayn's son 'Abdallah as ruler there. In order to justify this move, i.e. to support his assertion that 'Abdallah would be acceptable in the eyes of the Shiite majority in Iraq, Lawrence repeatedly characterized him as a "crypto-Shiah", even though he was nominally a Shafi'i Sunni. There is some evidence that 'Abdallah, his brother Faysal and his father Husayn had all presented themselves to Lawrence and some other British officers and diplomats as very liberal Sunnites with long-standing Shiite leanings-in the case of 'Abdallah even to the extent that he was "nearly a Shia of the Jaaferi wing".73 As Shahhat and Nasir-real never had political Shiites-probably ambitions on the same scale, and possibly for other reasons too, they were no match for the Meccan Hashimites in this game. As testified by Bulayhishi's list of the ashraf in modern Medina (see below), more or less all of the :Husaynid families are still present there. It seems, however, that their role in society is somehow restricted, and is certainly devoid of directpolitical influence. Thus, 'All Hafiz mentions one Sharif Zayd b. Shahhat (most probably a descendant of the above-mentioned qd'im-maqdm) as the administrator of land around Bi'r Bida' 74 once donated as waqfby Sharif Shahhat and Sharif Nasir b. al-Sharif 'Ali Al Hiyar.75 He has a few words more to say about "the noble young man, Sharif Nasir b. 'Ali b. Shahhat" who, in November 1964, founded the first nursery school in Medina. In July 1962, he had already established an institute called al-Ma'had al-Tijdri, which offered typewriting courses in Arabic as well as in English.76 The Husaynid ashraf no longer receive and entertain Shiite visitors in the manner they used to before the Saudi takeover, and in so far as this custom persists at all it is practised cautiously and selectively. However, one Sharif Shahin is said to have invited a number of Shiite pilgrims to his house in Medina in 1942. He even arranged a meeting of some of those visitors with a relative of King
73 74

Rudd:Abdullah, 171, 178, 184-191. Najafi: Madinah-shindsi, 293-97; Hafiz: Fusiul, 167f. 75 Hafiz, ibid., 168. 76 Ibid., 231f.

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'Abd al-'Aziz Ibn Sa'ufid,during which controversial issues relating to the Shi'ite mourning practices in Muharram as well as their suppression by the Saudi authorities were discussed.77 Sayyids of Husaynid or Hasanid extraction (and of a more or less publicly known Shiite background) may still be engaged in an official or semi-official capacity as muzawwirun, especially for Shiite pilgrims. Thus, referring to the situation in 1950, Sultanhusayn Tabandah Gunabadi78 mentions a local Shiite of Hasanid descent, one Sayyid Mustaf.a 'Attr, as the person responsible for the reception of Shiite visitors to Medina. Gunabadi adds that some of Mustafa 'At.tr's ancestors had held the same position before him, and that Sayyid Mustafa (until his resignation from that office) had been mayor of Medina for some time. The last mentioned information is corroborated by two Saudi authors.79 In his book about modern Medina (first published in 1402/ 1981-82) Bulayhishi refers to one Sharif Majid b. Jaddfiu'b. Mansur b. Fahd b. Radi, a resident of al-'Awali, as his informant about the different branches of the ashraf of Banfu Husayn. According to him, the present-day ashraf of the Banfi Husayn residing in Medina (including al-'Awali) are divided into the following twelve subdivisions (furf') :80

Dhawi Radi and Al-Mubarak. They hold the mashyakha of (all) the ashraf of the Banf Husayn. Further: Al-'Assaf; Al-Mawasa; AlZarafa; Al-Birka; Al-'Umayra; Al-Shamisan; Al-'Ali; Al-Zuhayr; AlShahil; Al-Shaqqarin; Al-Shayahin. As in the case of the subdivisions and clans of the nakhawila (see below, p. 292), it is difficult to ascertain the exact vocalization of some of the names presented by the author. In addition to the ashraf and the "real" nakhdwila, there are in present-day Medina families of Shiite Arab (mainly Iraqi) origin such as al-Mashhadi (plural Mashahida) or 'Imran who appear as Sunnites and are quite well integrated in the Sunni upper class.

77 Shir&I: Al-ihtijajat, 27f.; Mun.zarat, Mu'allifin, vol. 3, 971f.

51-53. About Shirazi see Mushar:

78 About this author see Mushar:ibid., 345f.

79 Khatirat, 75f.; Hafiz: Fusuil, 40, Badr: Al-tarikh al-shamil, vol. 3, 222. A picture

of SayyidMustafaal-Najjaris to be found in Najafi:Madinah-shinasi, 102. no. 80 Al-Madina al-yawm, 311. About Bulayhishi see Ibn Salam: Mawst'at aludaba',vol. 1, 97-100.

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These include intellectuals, such as the writer Mahmfud 'Isa alMashhadi.81 The Harb and their Shiite subtribes At least up to the beginning of Saudi-Wahhabi rule (1924/25), some tribes or subtribes of the Hijaz, mainly of the Harb and however, Juhayna, openly defined themselves as Shiites-without, over many centuries having been strictly affiliated to a particular madhhab such as the Imamiya or the Zaidiya.82 The unruliness and fighting spirit of some of those tribes, comhave had repercussions on the situmonly known as al-Hurfub,83 ation of the Shiites and crypto-Shiites of Medina and, more particularly, on a Shiite community living on the outskirts of that town, the so-called nakhawila. In the Eighteenth Century, there was permanent tension bethe majority of the tween the Sunni inhabitants of Medina-i.e. the Harb. The latter's attack on the holy city in population-and 1148/1735, during which they are said to have plundered the haram and many private houses, was compared by a local Sunni poet, al-Sayyid al-Bayti, to the ibdhat al-Madina following the "battle of the harra".84In the eyes of the Sunni Medinese, the Shiite Banfu 'Ali in particular appeared to be the arch-enemy. In addition, certain families in Medina known for their Shiite leanings (rafd) became the object of suspicion and hatred. In a way, they were seen by the Sunnite majority as a kind of fifth column inside the city who openly boasted and displayed their malice before the Sunni population of Medina.85
81 Hamza al-Hasan: Al-shi'a,vol. 1, 66f. (about Mahmfd 'Isa al-Mashhadisee Ibn Salam:Mawst'at al-udaba',vol. 3, 201f.); Winder: Al-Madina,999. See further Bulayhishi:Al-Madina,308f. The 'Imran are related to the Habbubi (ibid., 280), one of the prominent families of Najaf (Amini: Mu'jam,vol. 1, 387-92); Muhsin al-Amin mentions one Sayyid 'Imran al-Habbfibiwho invited him to his house in Medina (A'yan,vol. 10, 365). 82 Snouck Hurgronje: Orientalism, 306 (in a letter to Theodor N6oldeke, dated March 25, 1923). 83 Hasan: Al-shi'a, vol. 1, 66. 84 Hamdan: The Literature, 29-33. (For the battle of the harra, see below p. 304f.) For a similarfitna in 1111/1699-1700 see Biladi: Nasab, 155 f., and Badr: Al-

vol. 2, 376-78. tarikh, 85 Hamdan, ibid., 26-28.

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At the same time, the Ottomans were not able to control the countryside even in the immediate neighbourhood of Medina: places such as the mosque of Quba proved to be unsafe for them. This meant that restoration work on that mosque could not be completed for some time because, as the Ottoman sadr-i a'zam wrote in a report to the Sultan in about 1195/1780-81, Bedouin criminals (ashqiya' al-badw) had time and again disrupted security around this place.86 Under the circumstances described above, it is hardly surprising that most of the Sunnite Medinese tried to avoid contact with the nakhdwila. Exceptions were noted with astonishment or suspicion: of a contemporary Sunni Medinese, one 'Umar al-Hudayrami, 'Abd al-Rahman al-Ansari87 remarks with obvious disapproval that this (according to him, generally ill-natured) person "used to deal with the peasants of the nakhawila".88 He seems to be less censorious, however, in a somewhat similar case involving a Sunni notable and learned man by the name of Sayyid Muhammad of the family of Kibrit: as this Sayyid had no offspring, he decided to bequeath two gardens he owned in the vicinity of al-'Awali and Quba as waqf first to his (manumitted) slaves (probably eunuchs) and, after their death, to the elderly among the nakhdwila.89 The effect, even in modern times, of the long-standing special relationship between the Shiite tribesmen of the Hijaz and their settled co-religionists in and around Medina can perhaps best be illustrated by an episode reported by Muhammad al-Husayn alMuzaffari (d. 1961), an Iraqi Shiite scholar,90 and by a rather similar one transmitted by Sayyid Muhsin al-Amin (d. 1952), one of the most famous Shiite authors of the 20th Century.91 Both describe incidents occurring in the late Ottoman period, with only Muzaffari giving a precise date, i.e. 1911. The relevant
86

Huraydi: Shu'un, 95-97. For the background see Oppenheim: Die Beduinen,

vol. 2, 368ff. 87 About this author see below, fn. 148.


88

89 Ibid., 412f. About Muhammad Kibrit,see also above, fn. 19. 90 Or: Al-Muzaffar, 'Awwad: see Mu'jam,vol. 3, 154; Amini: Mu'jamnijdl,vol. 3, 1216. According to p. 1212, his family is of Hijazi origin (Al Masriuh the Harb). of 91 See art. "A'yanal-Shi'a"in Encyclopaedia Iranica, vol. 3 (1989), 130f., and the literature mentioned there. (In the 1986 Beirut edition of A'yan al-shi'a, SayyidMuhsin's autobiography is to be found in vol. 10, 333-446.)

Tuhfat al-muhibbin, 172f.

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passage in his chapter on the Shia of the Hijaz reads as follows:


"Today (the time of writing is 1352/1933-34), there are more Shiites among the tribes than in the towns (of the Hijaz). The Shiite tribes (to be mentioned here) include the Banu Jaham, the Banfi 'All and part of the Banu 'Awf.As far as the towns are concerned, many (Shiites) are to be found in Medina, such as the nakhawila,and in the farmland (of its neighbouring regions) such as al-'Awali.In Medina (itself), there are a small number of others (i.e. Shiites not to be counted as nakhawila),and the same holds true for Mecca. Once there was an incident between the Shiites and the Ottoman (local) government of Medina-(an event) which is both famous and memorable. What happened is the following: In al-'Awali, (a village and region) inhabited by the Banu 'All, (a section) of the Harb, there are many Shiites. The Turks accused them of giving shelter to criminals as well as of brigandage and intended therefore to erect fortresses and (other) strongholds in al-'Awali.The people (of that district), however, resisted this plan, as they considered it a manoeuvre (with the final aim) to exterminate them. So the Turkish government (of Medina) equipped a well-armed and numerous military force (and dispatched it) to battle against them. (On the other hand), the Harb tribes came to the aid of the Banf 'All, because the latter belong to them. When the (Turkish) force advanced, (the allied tribesmen) confronted it with courage and intrepidity. (As a result), the (Turkish) troops were defeated and fled back to Medina. Bands of Harb (warriors) closed in from all sides and laid siege to Medina for two months. Therefore this incident is called "the two-monthsbattle". A great number of (Turkish) soldiers were killed during this time, while the people of al-'Awalidid not suffer any losses. It is said that in (the whole of) al-'Awalionly a dog and a goat had been killed. This incident began on the 3rd Shawwal 1329 (September 27, 1911). A number of poets composed verses referring to this event, (and especially) to the victory it had brought for the Shiites and to the defeat of the Turks. As a result of this triumph, the situation of the oppressed Shiites (al-shi'aalmustad'afun)living in Medina itself improved".92

The general setting of Muzaffari's account, and even some of its details, can also be found in a number of other sources by both Sunnite and Shiite as well as some western authors.93 In the present context, Muhsin al-Amin's reminiscences of his three visits to Medina are of special interest. Describing his impressions and experiences on the occasion of two visits at the time when Sharif
Husayn ibn 'Ali was Amir of Mecca (i.e. between 1908 and 1916), he mentions one Shaykh Muhammad 'Ali al-Hajuj, a Shiite 'dlim

from al-'Awali who had been in Najaf for some time.94 It is to his
Especially Wavell: A ModernPilgrim, 58-63, 77-89 (describing events in 1908); further 'Ayyashi:Al-Madina,538, 572f. For the background (in particular for Widerstand, the concerning the Hijaz Railway) see Philipp: Der beduinische wider context Buzpinar: TheHijaz, and Ochsenwald: Religion.
94 A'yan, vol. 10, 364. 93
92 Muzaffari: Tarikh al-shi'a, 116f.

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father, an old man mentioned as al-Hajuj by Sayyid Muhsin, that the latter owes the following story: Several years ago, a number of native Sunnites of Medina together with some mujawiran from Central Asia and the Maghreb, had succeeded in convincing the Ottoman hakim of the town, one Sa'id Pasha, to dispatch an expeditionary force against the people of al-'Awali. The instigators of the ensuing military campaign received arms and were allowed to accompany the regular Turkish troops as mujahidun. When the expeditionary force approached al'Awali, the soldiers started cutting down the palm trees and installed a cannon on top of a hill. The people of the village, who had been taken by surprise, finally rallied, fought back and were even able to silence the cannon: The enemies were put to flight, with some of them throwing away their arms, while the men of al'Awali followed close behind them, killing a number of them. They did not stop pursuing the attackers until the latter had entered Medina and had the gates of the town closed. The Medinese did not dare to come out again in order to bury their dead lying outside on the battlefield. So they offered to the nakhdwila five Ottoman Pounds in gold coins for each corpse they brought into Medina, so that the dead could be buried properly.95 In the following sentences, Muhsin al-Amin reveals how the nakhawila-whose quarter (mahalla) was situated outside the walls of Medina, i.e. south of Darb al-Jand'iz96-were able to perform the task they had been asked to, i.e. to go out onto the battlefield and of recover the bodies of the dead mujdhidfn and soldiers-all to be sure, Sunnites who had tried to wage war against (real them, or alleged) Shiite rebels:
"The nakhdwilahave (formed) an alliance (hilf) with the Harb, (a tribe) spreading between Mecca and Medina. Every twenty years they exchange a written document with each other concerning this alliance. One copy of it remains with the nakhdwila,and the other with the Harb. The document in question contains (the provision) that the Harb are obliged to help the
nakhawila whenever (the latter) are being attacked, while the nakhawila are

not bound to fight together with the Harb".97

96 See maps in Burton: Personal Narrative, vol. 1, 392f.; Najafi: Madinah-shindsi,

95 Ibid., 365.

nos. 35 ff.; Bindaqji:Maps (map of Medina); El, vol. 5, 1001. 97 A'ydn, vol. 10, 365.

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It would be interesting to know more about this treaty, its history, social background and other details. Its existence, which I see no reason to doubt, should be seen in the larger context of tribal law in Arabia, and especially of the treaties concluded between nomads, half-nomads and peasants.98 Unfortunately, I have no further information on this. As has occured with almost all nomadic tribes in the Arabian Peninsula and elsewhere, the military strength of the Harb has dwindled rapidly in the modern age. As a result, the nakhawilaboth rural and urban-have lost the effective support of an ally who had guaranteed their relative safety for a long time up to the end of the Hashimite period. In this connection, it is worth mentioning that some chiefs of the Harb, including the Banf 'All, had already allied themselves with the Saudis by the time of the siege of Medina in 1925.99 The history of the Harb and their subtribes is still-or has become once more-a topic of debate in present-day Saudi Arabia. The political role of this tribe up to the 20th Century is not, however, a central issue in this debate, and the Shiite madhhabof some of its subtribes is rarely dealt with.100 As regards Medina, Bulayhishi remarks that as a result of waves of immigration from the desert and from villages the majority of the Harb are now (i.e. in the early 1980s) living in the city itself or on its outskirts.101 The same author provides his readers with a number of tables in which the names of tribes, subdivisions and families dwelling in and around Medina are mentioned in considerable detail.102 Of special relevance to our topic is a table concerning the nakhdwila of Medina. The names given in this table are based, the author says, on (oral) information furnished by al-ustddh 'Abd al-Rahim
98 For general information concerning the hilf see Juda: Aspekte, 2-8; Graf: Das Rechtswesen, 15f. 99 Badn Al-tdrikh, vol. 3, 152; Biladi: Nasab, 55, 166-68, 185; Winder: AlMadina, 998. 100 See, e.g., Al-'Arab (journal), 31 (1996), 781f. and 788-90, 32 (1997), 246-49. Biladi's Nasab Harb and several of his other works are obviously written in defence of the Harb and their role in history. 101 Al-Madina al-yawm, 312; see also Biladi: Nasab, 197. 102 Bulayhishi, ibid., 312-21.

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Hasan al-Hirbi (bi-kasral-ha'). Al-Hirbi is one of the subdivisions of the al-Dawawid who belong to the nakhdwila. Except in the case of his informant's nisba, al-Bulayhishi does not give any particulars with regard to the vocalization of the names presented in his table. Thus most of the names in the following list, based on this table, represent my own tentative readings. (It should be mentioned here that even indigenous specialists such as al-Biladi very often refrain from determining the "correct" vocalization of Arab tribal names, let alone those of subdivisions and clans). Nevertheless, Bulayhishi's table is quite valuable. In fact it contains, to the best of my knowledge, the only printed information concerning the clans of the nakhawila in modern least of those settled in Medina. Bulayhishi's inventimes-at tory103 contains the following information:
"Among those (related to the Harb) living in Medina are the Nakhawila. Their branches (or subdivisions,furu') are: 1) Al-Sharimi. The (following clans) belong to them (wa-minhum):AlKhawalida; al-Malabin; al-Karafa;al-Tabalan (or Tubalan); Bayt Wa'il; alJada'in; al-Qarina; Bayt Mahashi; al-'Ulayyan; al-Tarayif; al-Hakfriya; alal-Dawakhin;Bayt Hassfn; Baqaqir; al-Jawayida; Bayt al-Nafiri;al-Nuwayqat; Bayt al-'Isari;al-Kawabis. Their clans are: Al-'Ababish;Dhawi Khalifa;BudayrHaram; 2) Al-Darawisha. al-Badihan. 3) Al-Dawawid. Their clans are: Al-Filsa; Bayt Mannash; al-Hirabiya; alHammarin; al-Jawa'ida; al-Sawayan;al-Fihlan; BaytJabin; al-Nawaji;Bayt alRumi. Their clans are: Al-Mahasina; 4) Al-Mahariba. al-Hawajij. Their clans are: Al-Hamza;al-Barahim; al-Salmi;al-Shalalid. 5) Al-Zawabi'a. 6) Al-Asabi'a.Their clans are: Bayt Hurayqa;Bayt Mala'ika;Baytal-'Isa'i;Bayt Sabirin;al-Shawam; Lulu; al-Karadiya; al-Shariqi;al-Jayd; al-Banajiya. 7) Al-Watsha.Their clans are: Bayt al-Isba';Baytal-Sawi. 8) Al-Zira.Their clans are: Al-Sutahan;al-Jawa'ida. Their clans are: Dhawi Salim; Dhawi 'Abdallah;Dhawi Ahmad; 9) Al-Jarafiya. Dhawi Husayn;al-Kasasir. Dhawi 'Abdallah (sic! See under no. 10) Al-Ma'arif.Their clans are: Al-Awaq; DhawiAhmad Rajab. 9); al-Malayiha; 11) Al-Far.Their clans are: Al-Mazini;Bayt Nashi; al-Madarisa; al-Marawiha; al-Sa'di;al-Qusran;al-Tflan; Bayt Mas'ad;BaytAba 'Amir;al-Bughayl."

As for al-'Awali, al-Biladi remarks that its inhabitants are "a mixture of Harb and nakhdwila",104 with one (or more) of the latter's subdivisions (batn), such as the Fayaran, "claiming" descent from the Banu 'All.105 In another work of his, he provides a short survey of
103

Ibid., 321.

104 Mu'jam ma'alim, vol. 6, 185. 105 Mu'jam qaba'il, 408.

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the factions of the Banf 'Ali, both in the Najd and in Medina and its neighbourhood without, however, saying which of them are (still) to be considered Shiites.106 It may indeed be difficult to give a clear judgement concerning this point, especially since many of the factions which were rightly considered Shiites in the past may now in fact define themselves as Sunnis. (According to oral information I received in 1995, many Wahhabis tend to believe that sooner or later all the indigenous Shiites of the Hijaz, including the nakhawila, will be "brought back" to the fold of Wahhabi Sunnite Islam). The nakhawila: a name and its variants While, as we have seen, the existence of a (Twelver) Shiite community in Medina and its neighbourhood is well attested in a number of medieval sources, the designation of that community as "Nakhawila" appears to have been a rather late development. According to al-Khoei, this term "is said to have been first used by the Ottoman rulers of the Hejaz".107 The first mention in the relevant Arabic sources of the rawafid of Medina being called nakhawila by the (Sunnite) Medinese seems to have occurred rather late, namely in the 17th Century A.D. (11 Century A.H.) The author of the work in question-a lth rihla called Ma' al-mawz'id-was Abu Salim 'Abdallah b. Muhammad b. Abi Bakr al-'Ayyashi (d. 1679), a Moroccan scholar and sufi of Berber origin, who visited Medina in 1662-63. He arrived in early Muharram 1073 (August 1662) and stayed there until Sha'ban (March 1663). A part of his rihla, i.e. his description of Medina, has been edited by Muhammad Amhazfin.108 Unlike many other Sunnite visitors to the holy city, al-'Ayyashi, who stayed more than seven months, became aware of the existence of a Shiite group in the vicinity of Medina and even noticed that they had been given a special name by the Medinese. This was probably due to the fact that he had found accommodation in a house adjacent to the Mashhad (shrine) of Sayyid Isma'il, a son of
106 Nasab Harb, 55f. 107 The Shi'a, 4. 108 Al-Madina al-Munawwara fi rihlat al-'Ayyashi. Concerning the author and his work Ma' al-mawd'id see Amhazfiun, 19-66; also see EI, vol. 1, 795.

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Imam Ja'far al-Sadiq (who had died about ten years before the death of his father).109 The roof of the Mashhad afforded a good view of the whole of al-Baqi' and of the palm groves streching as far as the Jabal Uhud. There was one thing, however, which disturbed al-'Ayyashi's stay there, and this he described as
"the frequent visits of the nakhdwilato that place. They are rawafiddwelling outside Medina in al-'Awaliand other parts of that area. In fact the majority of those living there, working as gardeners and peasants, are rawafid.The I Medinese call them al-nakhdwila. do not know the meaning of that name. They have a custom according to which they come to the shrine (of Isma'il b. Ja'far) almost every thursday, namely, early in the morning. There they cook a copious meal and sit together-men, women and children. In most cases they come also for the circumcision of their boys. If any (of the nakhawila)has a son and wants him to be circumcised, it will be done only on that day and at this place. Sometimes, however, they come there not for this reason, but merely for a ziyara (to the tomb of Sayyid Isma'il) and to have a meal together. No outsiders (i.e. persons not being nakhdwila)would

10 participate (in such a gathering)."

There is nothing in al-'Ayyashi's description to suggest that the designation nakhdwila had been in use in Medina a long time before his visit. Only the discovery of new manuscript sources, such as the book by Khayr al-Din Ilyas al-Madani (d. 1717) mentioned in alAnsari's Tuhfat al-muhibbin"llmight enable us to ascertain, more or less exactly, when-and under which circumstances-this name came into existence. Almost all authors who mention the Twelver-Shiite minority living on the outskirts of Medina agree that the plural form of their name is nakhawila, and that this name is derived from nakhl/nakhla or nakhil, "date palm". The variant makhdwila which is to be found in the Safwat al-i'tibar of Muhammad Bayram (al-Khamis) al-Tfnisi (d. 1889) is most probably a typographical error or slip of the
pen.112

While makhawila appears to make no sense, another variant mentioned by some authors certainly does: both nukhala or nakh109 See art. "Dja'faral-Sadik"in EI, vol. 2, 374f. and ibid., vol. 4, "Isma'iliyya"

198; for the mashhad,see Samhfidi: Wafa',920. Under Saudi rule, the building was neglected, and finally destroyed in 1975, see Najafi: Madinah-shinasi,389;
Maghribi: Al-muhaddam, 10f.; Samarra'i: Al Sa'ud, 35. 110 Amhazun: Al-Madina, 175f.

112

See below, p. 303. Vol. 5, 19. About the author see EI, vol. 7, 433-35.

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khala could designate persons: nukhala, "residue left in a sieve, bran, waste, refuse" (Wehr), could very well be used by hostile neighbours as a pejorative label for a despised group. Nakhkhdl(a) would again be related to nakhl/nakhla or nakhil and denote a person dealing with date palms in one way or another. It is, however, a singular. Dozy, incidentally, has "chiffonier" (ragpicker) for
nakhkhal.113

A rather strange variant is nawcakhila(h),a word to be found even in a modern work published in Arabic.114 The relevant passage in that book, however, is partly based on J.L. Burckhardt's Travels in Arabia, and it is obvious that the misspelling- a metathesis resultfrom ing from a typographical error or slip of the pen-derives this source. In fact Burckhardt (d. 1817) is the first European author to mention the Shiites working and living in the palm groves around Medina.115 However, he did not live to see his Travels appear in print (London 1829, German ed. 1830, French translation 1835, in the latter: Nouakheles). From Burckhardt's work, the misspelling nawakhila was copied by R. Dozy in his Supplementaux dictionnaires arabes and translated as "ceux qui cultivent des palmiers", but only as a plural form and not linked to the singular nakhwali. Referring to Burtons's Personal Narrative, Dozy describes the nakhwali as "le cultivateur qui secoue le regime des fleurs males des dattiers sur les fleurs femelles, afin de les feconder."116 Possibly as a result of his reliance on Dozy's dictionary, even C. Snouck Hurgronje seems to have been uncertain, for some time at least, whether the word in question should be nakhdwila or nawakhila, but in his work about Mecca, he gives the correct spelling nakhdwila ("Nachaw'lah").117 According to a modern Saudi author, the official name of the nakhdwila is now al-nakhliyun (sing. nakhli). On another occasion, the same author mentions the plural al-nakhliya.118
113 Na'ib al-Sadr Shirazi: Tuhfat al-haramayn, 235f; Sayf al-Dawla: Safar namah, 141, fn. 1; Dozy: Supplement, vol. 2, 658. 114 Khalili: Mawsiu'a, vol. 3, pt. 1, 257. 115 See the passages quoted above, p. 268, and below, p. 313. 116 Dozy: Suppliment, vol. 2, 658. 117 Scholarship, 340; Mekka, vol. 2, 252, fn. 2. 118 Biladi in Siba'i: Trzikh Makka, 4th ed., vol. 1, 95 (for the context see below, p. 308); idem: Mu'jam ma'alim, vol. 6, 186.

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In the local dialect of Medina, there may still be several different pronounciations of the word nakhawila and its singular form, including one linking it, in a pejorative way, to the word nukhala (bran, sludge, or, in a social context, lowest stratum). The vocalization is not clear in some of these cases, such as in the passage of Muhammad Bey $Sdiq's work mentioned below: should we read the name of the tribe (qabila) he met "at an hour's distance from Medina" as al-nakhwaliya or al-nukhfliya? We have to remember that almost all the authors of the available sources are outsiders who write the name of this group either according to oral information or with reference to other sources which in turn are based on oral information.119 "No one", Burton wrote, "could tell me whether these heretics had not a peculiar name for themselves"120. According to Carlo Alfonso Nallino, who tried to gather information about them when he was in Jeddah, the preferred name of the nakhawila for their own community was ashab al-nakhl, i.e. something like "the people of the date palm". This scholar also presumes that the singular of nakhdwila should be nakhili or nakhwali.121 The latter form is in fact mentioned by Dozy, who, however, has this as a separate entry. As for the designation ashdb al-nakhl mentioned by Nallino, it is likely that some of the Twelver Shiites of Medina prefer it to that of nakhawila because of the pejorative meaning the latter term has assumed (especially when used by Sunnites).122 While ashib alnakhl still alludes to their work in the palm groves, it may also carry religious connotations. In the imagination of the Shia, the date palm is symbolically linked to Medina: In Shiite (-inspired) art, pictorial representations of the holy city very often show date palms in or around the haram. These palms are said to represent Fatima (whose so-called "garden" inside the haram is famous) as well as the Imams of the Ahl al-Bayt. In Persian (Shiite) folklore, the date palm is of considerable importance.123
Kawkab al-hajj, 53; see Oppenheim: Die Beduinen, vol. 2, 378. Personal Narrative, vol. 2, 1, fn. 2. 121 L'Arabia Saudiana, 92. 122 Sa'id: Tarikh, 491f. 123 Fontana: Una rappresentazione; art. "Date Palm" in Encyclopaedia Iranica, vol. 7, 123.
119 120

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Several of the early Imams are reported to have owned large palm groves near the holy city. Their sayings about the special qualities of the dates grown there are repeated in a number of sources. In other words, both the palm tree as such and its fruit have a special significance in Shiite religious tradition. There is an anecdote concerning the Eighth Imam, 'All al-Rida (d. 818): when he was asked why he devoured some dates (of the notably excellent barni type) with such obvious delight, he is said to have answered:
"Yes,I really love (eating) dates (..), because the Messenger of God was a
tamari (kana tamariyan, meaning he was very fond of dates, tamar, i.e. espe-

cially dried ones). Likewise, Amir al-Mu'minin ('All) was a tamari,and also (the Imams) al-Hasan, Abf 'Abdallah al-Husayn, Sayyid ('All Zayn) al-'Abidin, Abfi Ja'far (Muhammad al-Baqir) as well as Abfi 'Abdallah (Ja'far alal-Ki.zim).So I myself am also a tamari.(In genSadiq) and my father (Muisa eral the followers of) our shi'a love the fruit of the palm tree because they are created from our stuff (clay, min tinatina), while our enemies love intoxicating beverages (muskir)because they are created from (smokeless?) fire
(or: from a flame of fire, see Koran 55:14-15)."124

There is a considerable number of sayings of the Prophet Muhammad and of his companions suggesting that the unsurpassed quality of the palm trees of Medina and their fruit are an important element of the fada'il of Medina.125 (Incidentally, one of the epithets of the town ist Dhat al-Nakhl.)126 Up to modern times, Medinese traders selling dates in the market would commend their merchandise by quoting these (and other, rather fanciful) sayings. Moreover, there are legends-mentioned by Samhiud and othto which some palm trees spoke to Muhammad ers-according and 'All, proclaiming that he was the Prophet and 'Ali his wasiy.127 A number of very old palm trees which allegedly had been planted by Salman al-Farisi (following an order of Muhammad to do so) survived until recently. Probably as a result of Wahhabi protests against the veneration which Iranian and other visitors (as well as local Shiites) used to show for those trees, they were cut down some time ago.128
124 Majlisi: Bihar, vol. 49, 102f. 25 Husari: Al-nakhil, 241-45; Casewit: Fada'il, 13f.

126 127

Samhfdi: Wafa', vol. 1, 15; Wfustenfeld: Geschichte,10, has Dhat al-nakhil. Batanini: Rihla, 254; al-Yfsuf:Al-masajid, 72f. 128 Ibid., 87-89; Khoei: The Shi'a, 5; Maghribi: Al-muhaddam, 42 (text of a let-

ter, signed by 'Abd al-'Azizb. 'Abdallahb. Hasan Al al-Shaykh-at that time presi-

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Broadly speaking, the term "Nakhawila" has become the modern designation for all the indigenous Twelver Shiites in the Hijaz in the same way as "Bahrani" (plural "Baharina") is loosely applied to those of the Arab Gulf coast and "Mutawali" (plural "Matawila") to Lebanese Shiites in general.129 With regard to the inhabitants of Wadi 1-Fur', however, the name 'Jahami" is still in use.130 More questions than answers:the origin of the nakhawila In many sources, the nakhawila are called a "tribe" (qabila in Arabic, kabile [Turk.], tayifeh [Pers.]). One modern Arab author treats them as one of several "pseudo"- or "quasi"-tribes.131Batanfini, in his list of Arab tribes in the Hijaz, singles out the nakhawila as a special case by inserting a short commentary. It runs as follows:
"A despised tribe (qabilahaqira) living on the outskirts (dawahi) of Medina. The inhabitants (of the town) employ them as servants (ft khidmatihim) as well as for the cultivation of their gardens and fields. They are rafidawho do not give the names of Abfi Bakr, 'Umar, 'Uthman and 'A'isha (sic) to their sons. They call their children al-murun and permit temporary marriage (nikahal-mut'a).The Medinese do not intermarrywith them."132

Batanfini's notice is obviously based on Eyyib Sabri's chapter on the nakhdwila (see below). For instance he accepts, without further discussion, Sabri's assumption that their total number was 12,000 persons (nufus; in this sense, masc.). In many sources, it is said that the men of the nakhawila never marry outside their community, but at the same time allow-or even encourage-their womenfolk to conclude temporary marriages (mut'a) with Shiite foreigners coming to Medina as pilgrims or muj&wirun.I shall return to this point later.133 Concerning their origin, the nakhawila trace the history of their community back to early Islam: they see themselves as the offdent of the Hay'at al-amrbi-l-ma'rfuf-tothe Minister of Urban and Village Affairs. The letter was written in 1976 or somewhat later). 129 See arts. in ibid., vol. 7, "Al-Bahrayn" El, vol. 1, 941ff., and "Mutawali", 780f. 130 Private information; see also Biladi: Mu'jamqaba'il,95; for Wadi 1-Fur'(or Furu') see idem, Mu'jamma'alim.vol. 9, 41ff. 132Rihla, p. 52 of the tamhid(separate pagination). Al-murunis a printing error, see below, p. 303. 133 Below, p. 315f.
131 Sa'id: Tarikh, 487-89.

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spring of the ansar, many of whom (or their descendants), so the nakhawila claim, worked in the palm groves owned by Prophet Muhammad's grandson, al-Hasan ibn 'All, the Second Imam of the Shia.134 In the old quarter (mahalla) of the nakhawila, there are (or were until recently) two gardens called .Safaand Marijn which, according to Shiite tradition, had been turned into waqfby Imam Hasan and/or 'All Zayn al-'Abidin, the Fourth Imam.135 (For the present condition of the two gardens, as well as their function, see below). In Persian sources, the nakhawila are sometimes called sddah.136 This would imply a blood relationship with the family of Prophet Muhammad.137 It is very unlikely that all nakhawila themselves seriously claim such kinship. It is possible, however, that even some nakhawila villagers present themselves as sddah in order to produce a favourable impression on their foreign visitors. Moreover, it can be assumed that the term sddah is used by many Iranian Shiite authors mainly as a polite, honorific designation for their courban, estabreligionists in the Medina region in general-the lished sharif families as well as the rural, "real" nakhawila.138 With regard to the sharif families of Medina, a modern Shiite author from Iraq, referring to "some historical texts", offers the following version: at the time of his residence in Medina, Imam Musa b. Ja'far al-Sadiq (Musa al-Kazim, the Seventh Imam, d. 799) supported 500 families consisting of widows, children and orphans of the BanCuHasan. When Harun al-Rashid sent him off to Baghdad, he instructed his son 'All al-Rida (who was to become the Eighth Imam) to provide for the Tzlibiyiun of Medina, "and thus their roots and branches have remained there until today" in spite of the crimes committed against them by the "ruling gangs" (al'asadbt al-hzkima) from the time of the Abbasids onwards.139 The author, Muhammad Hadi al-Amini, does not specify the "historical sources" he is referring to. Instead, he quotes one of his own works called Batal Fakhkh, a book devoted to Al-Husayn b. 'All,
134 135 136
137

138 139

Khalili: Mawsu'a, vol. 3, pt. 1, 257. Shihabi: Awqaf, 1268. (Sabd is a printing error or slip of the pen). See, e.g., Bayglari: Ahkam, 292; Bastani Parizi: Az Pariz, 53, fn. 2. See arts. "Sayyid" and "Sharif" in EI, vol. 9, 115f. and 329-37, respectively. See above p. 267 and 269. Amini: Makka, 304.

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known as "SahibFakhkh",the leader of an Alid revolt in Medina. This man was killed in battle near Mecca in June 786, together with about a hundred other Alids.140 his book, Amini again does In not name his sources concerning the alleged support given by two Imams to the widows and orphans of the martyrs of Fakhkh. He just quotes a (possibly unpublished) book by one Sayyid Hasan Shubbar-most probably a modern author. This story too may be apocryphal, but once again it is interesting in itself: for the crypto-Shiite ashr&f-families Medina (both Huof saynid and Hasanid), this account seems to give proof of their deep roots there as well of their special relationship to two Imams of the Twelver Shia. On the other hand, the same story may have influenced Shiite scholars as well as pious "lay"persons in Iraq, Iran and elsewhere: for them, the action of the two Imams could provide an incentive, even in modern times, to support the (mainly poor) Shiites and crypto-Shiitesof Medina-financially and otherwise. Thus, we find that Sayyid Muhammad Baqir Shafti, one of the most prominent scholars of 19th-CenturyIsfahan, is said to have sent money every He year for the poor (fuqara')of Medina.141 is even credited with having successfully intervened in favour of the (Shiite) sayyidsof Medina: he went to Mecca at the time when Muhammad 'All, the Pasha of Egypt, was there (i.e. in 1813), and allegedly established friendly relations with him. He "received the garden (-oasis) of Fadak from him and returned it to the sayyidsof Medina."142 Given the hagiographic character of the biography where this short account is to be found, it is doubtful whether Muhammad
'Ali ever allowed the oasis of Fadak to be "returned" to the sayyids of Medina, i.e. the descendants of 'Ali and Fatima. To the best of

my knowledge, there is no account or document to this effect in the Arabic, Ottoman or other sources concerning Muhammad 'Ali's policy in the Hijaz. It is, however, true that years later, in the 1830s, Muhammad 'Ali ordered the governor of Medina to enforce

Hurgronje: Mekka, vol. 1, 41; see articles "Fakhkh" in El, vol. 2, 744f., and "Al-Husayn b. 'All, Sahib Fakhkh" ibid., vol. 3, 615-17. More recently MahirJarrar (ed.): AkhbarFakhkh. 141 Tunikabuni: Qisas, 149. 142 Ibid., 145; see also Dabashi: Lives, 315f.

140 Snouck

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with the fact equal treatment for Shi'i pilgrims.'43 This-together that he and his sons successfully fought the arch-enemies of the Shia, the Wahhabis-may have led Shiites in the Hijaz to hope that this ruler would improve their lot. Even if Muhammad 'All had made promises to this effect (including one to issue a decree concerning Fadak), such practical measures as were taken would have been short-lived, since the Egyptians were forced to withdraw from the Hijaz in 1840.144 Most probably the story of Muhammad Baqir Shafti's success is pure fiction. As such it may be seen as the reflexion of a widespread sentiment among (Shiite and crypto-Shiite) Sayyid families, particularly those of the Hijaz, and notably of Medina, that Fadak was-and still is-their inheritance by right.145 It should be noted here that the conflict between Abu Bakr and Fatima over Fadak and the ensuing struggle for its possession is a major theme of Shiite historiography-not only for authors of the remote past, but to some extent also for prominent modern Shiite scholars such as Muhammad Baqir al-Sadr (d. 1980), whose first published work was devoted to the religious and legal interpretation of that famous issue.146 Let us return to the question of the origin of the "real" nakhawila: Unsurprisingly perhaps, non-Shiite sources present the story of the nakhawila and their origins in a rather different light. Although Sunnite authors also trace their origins to the First Century of Islamic history, they make the ancestors of the nakhdwila appear as outcasts from the beginning, namely, as bastards who were born after the Umayyad conquest of Medina in 683 A.D. It may never be possible to say exactly at what time in history this version about the origin of the nakhdwila came into existence. Burckhardt, who visited Medina in January 1815, obviously heard it, or allusions to it, from his Sunnite informants there. In his Travels in Arabia, he writes that the nakhdwila "are said to be descendants of the partisans of Yezid, the son of Mawiya".
143 Ochsenwald: Religion, 63. 144 Batanuni:

Rihla, 87-94; Faqihi: Wahhdbiyan, 176ff.; for a discussion of the Arabic sources see Peskes: Muhammad b. 'Abdalwahh&b, 312ff.; further art. "Muhammad 'All Pasha" in El, vol. 7, 423-31. 145 Art. "Fadak" in El, vol. 2, 725-27; Hrbek: Muhammads Nachlafi. 146 Amini: Mu'jam al-matbfu'dt,261f. (no. 1064).

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This phrase is open to misinterpretation. Even Richard Burton, who himself visited Medina in 1852, fell into this trap. He remarks that the nakhawila, "according to some, are descendants of the Ansar, whilst others derive them from Yazid, the son of Mu'awiyah: the latter opinion is improbable, as the Caliph in question was a mortal foe to Ali's family, which is inordinately venerated by these people." Nallino, in turn, quotes Burton's remark, and accordingly seems to discard as baseless any link between the nakhawila and Yazid, the second Umayyad Caliph.147 It is very probable that the story Burckhardt heard-and partly misunderstood -is pure fiction. But even if this is so, it would be interesting to know the origin of this fictitious report. It is not too difficult to find at least a clue to its background: what Burckhardt's (Sunnite) Medinese informants obviously had in mind when talking about the alleged origin of the nakhawila, was indeed an event related to Yazid ibn Mu'awiya: The content of what we may call the traditional Sunnite Medinese version-possibly based on medieval sources-of the nakhawila's origin can be found in a work on the families of Medina written in the 18th Century by 'Abd al-Rahman al-Ansari, a local notable who died in 1783 or thereabouts.148 In it, he mentions:149 "Baytal-Nakhli,who are called 'al-Nakhwali'by the common people, (the name) under which they are generally known today, referring to their occupation of cultivating date palms: they are many persons, all of them belonging to the abominable Shia. However, they do not proclaim anything of that in public, as they believe that it is incumbent on them to practise taqiya. Most of them are ignorant people, who hardly understand anything of the doctrine of the rdfida.150 Rather, they found their forefathers professing (the creed of that) community and merely followed in their footsteps. No doubt they will be gathered in hellfire together with their ancestors.15The (outward) signs of their dissent (rafd) and hatred (against others) are many. Among these signs are their shuhraas well as the fact that they neither enter the hujra (of the prophet) with their newly-born children nor the For Burckhardtand Burton, see above, p. 268f.; Nallino: L'Arabia, 91f. Zirikli: Al-A'lam,vol. 3, 311; Kahhala: Mu'jam al-mu'allifin,vol. 5, 146; Hamdan: Al-Madina,116-19; al-Tfnji: Tarajim,54. On the work in question, the see Tuhfat al-muhibbin, further Muhammad al-'Arasi al-Matwi'sintroduction to his edition. 41:19; Qalqashandi:Subh,vol. 12, 243.
149 Tuhfat al-muhibbin, 479f. 150 For this term see EI, vol. 8, 386-89. 151 See Koran 43:23 and an 147 148

allusion to 43:23 is already made by

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haram with their deceased (during funeral processions).152 They refrain from all that for the sole reason that the Shaykhdn(Abfi Bakr and 'Umar), may God favour both of them, are (buried) in there. They do not inter their dead among (those of) the Sunnites and do not attend funeral services for the latter. No one from the ahl al-sunnawould wash (the corpse) of one (of the baytal-nakhli),nor would he attend the burial of any of them.153 They (in turn) do not call their children Abf Bakr or 'Umar, or 'A'isha or Hafsa. They do not give (their women) in marriage (to Sunnites) nor do (any of their men) marrywomen of the ahl al-sunna. Most of the above remarks would also apply to the Banu Husayn, (a clan) which is famous in Medina as well in the region of Najd. Between the two there is total harmony and love. There are many other signs of their dissent, for instance the fact that they never associate with Sunnites but only ever with their own people, and also in that they do not perform the prayer of tarawih154 the month of Ramadan etc.; it would take too long to mention all that. Some of the Arab (tribes) which live in the vicinity of Medina, such as the Banuf'All, the Banfl Safar, the Nahhasin and the Ahl al-Birka,imitate them (in their behaviour).155 The occupation of the above-mentioned nakhdwilais the cultivation of date palms. There is almost no other work they are proficient in, and it is mainly by their skill that the cultivation of palms thrives. The majorityof them are the product of miscegenation. They have been in Medina for a long time, but I have not been able to discover the origin of their earliest ancestors. There are many rumours that they descend from the women who became pregnant as a result of zina' following the ill-reputed events of al-harraat the time of the wicked Yazid, may God rebuke him, when he declared Medina to be open (for his troops) to kill, rob, fornicate also and plunder. It is said that the Mudun156 belong to them. (Likewise), people say that some of the nakhdwila are the offspring of (black) slaves, and some others that of Indians; further, that some of them are related to the people of Yaman, of the Maghreb, of Egypt, of the Hijaz and other regions. I heard that the KhatibKhayr al-Din Ilyas al-Madani157 had written a book about their roots and branches, but I do not know it".

In addition to the Bayt al-Nakhli, 'Abd al-Rahman al-Ansari men152 For this custom of the Sunnite Medinese see Batanuni: Rihla, 260; Ibn Salam:Al-Madina, 84f., 221; Bulayhishi:Al-Madina,333. 153See below, p. 318f. 154Batanuni, ibid., 261. 155 For the first two mentioned (both belonging to the Masrfuh the Harb), of see Biladi: Mu'jamqaba'il,488, and idem: Nasab, 31 and 55f.; also Oppenheim: Die Beduinen,vol. 2, 371 (referring to Burckhardt and Burton), and Kahhala: vol. 1, 260, with fn. 2. For the role of the Banf 'All in the 19th and Mu'jamqabd'il, 20th Centuries see above, p. 283, 287ff. and 312-14. The Nahhasin ("the coppersmiths") probably are one of the pariah-type "tribes"described by Henninger: see Pariastdmme, esp. 277-80 and the literature mentioned there. "Ahl al-Birka" is (or "Baraka"?) likely to refer to a toponyrn, see Biladi: Mu'jamma'alim,vol. 1, 210f., see also vol. 10, index, 128. According to Bulayhishi, there is in present-day Medina a clan of the Banu Husayncalled "Birka"(Al-Madina, ), see also p. 286 311 above. 156 See below fn. 160. 157 About this person (d. 1715) see Zirikli: Al-A'ldm,vol. 2, 327; Al-Tfinji: Tardjim, 30f.

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tions two other clans which, he says, very much resemble the
nakhawila. They are

and 1. Bayt al-Kabuis, 2. Bayt al-Madini Concerning the Kabus, al-Ansariremarks that in his day most people in Medina believed they descended from the nakhdwila.This, however, was not correct. Rather, he says, they originated in Egypt, "because they resemble but are erroneously identified as nakhdwila one another and live together in their enclosures (ahwisha)."158 About the Bayt al-Madini, the author has the following to say:
but "The Medinese nowadayscall them Bundt (?) al-Mudun159, disagree with regard to their real nature and descent. In any case, however, they resemble the nakhawilaboth in their origin and madhhab,i.e. all of them, like the nakhawila,belong to the abominable Shia (shi'a shani'a). They are guilty of innumerable intrigues and plots against the Sunnites. The butchers (aljazzdra)are from among them. They live in the outskirts of Medina in (their own) enclosures."160

The gist of the above account is also to be found in a 19th-Century Ottoman Turkish work. The author, EyyfibSabri, served for some years as a senior official in Medina.161In his Mir'atu l-haremeyn, printed in Istanbul in 1888 or 1889, Sabri, like Ansari, links the nakhdwilato the so-called awlad al-harra,i.e. the children born after the conquest of Medina following the "battle of the harra" (63 A.H./683 A.D.). According to EyyiibSabri,162
"the Nakhdvileare a tribe who are considered extremely despicable by the (Sunnite) inhabitants of the two sanctuaries (haremeyn,i.e. Mecca and Medina). It is (well) known that the accursed troops whom the damned (caliph) Yezid had dispatched with the evil intention of conquering and occupying Medina, returned to Syria after having robbed the people of that fortunate town of all their property and destroyed the adamantine dignity and honour of their women!!! Those women who were raped by the Syrian (troops) on this infamous occasion and became pregnant were isolated. The "illegitimatechildren" ('veled-i zind') of these women were segregated and destined to work in the gardens surrounding Medina. The tribe of the Nakhavile originates from the children and grandchildren of those bastards who had been selected for gardening (in the palm groves) at that time, and this is why the members of the aforesaid tribe are called Nakhdvile. Since then the people of Medina refrain from marrying girls (from among this tribe) and giving (their own daughters) in
158 Tuhfat al-muhibbin, 41 If. 159 See above, p. 298. '60 Tuhfat al-muhibbin, 445f. 161 372f. Babinger: Die Geschichtsschreiber, 162 Mir'&t, vol. 3, pp. 275-77. See art. "Al-Harra" El, vol. 3, 226f. in

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marriage to them. They even avoid any social intercourse with them. As a quite impossible to find among their men and women anyone called Ebf Bekir, 'Omer, 'Osman or 'Ayse. The people who, as (living) reminders (of the outrages of) the Syrians, belong to this tribe, alwaysassociate with those pilgrims who are of the same heretical creed. With them they exchange their girls and wives by means of for "mut'a", a fixed period. Today no one is left from the (primordial) family (familya)of the Nakhavile, who at the present time are (also) called Mudun-i.e. no one of the breed of bastards born by the women who had been raped by the Syrian (troops). Nevertheless their number has quite considerably increased because they associate with the heretics (who visit Medina) and exchange their girls and wiveswith each other by means of mut'a.
The number of the Nakhdvileliler (sic) just mentioned, who live in gardens and souterrain rooms (? yer odalannda) called havuz, can today be estimated at 12,000 persons. Whatever pilgrims from among the heretics and rdfizi come to Medina will rule (the Nakhavile) belong to the Shiite creed (rafiziyu l-mezheb). It is thus

As usually find accommodation at the houses of the Nakhavile. for the latter, they dwell in gardens outside Medina and live in quarters called Havis 1Not a single person of their race is to be found inside the holy city Nakhavile. of Medina".

This, then, is the alleged link between the nakhawila and Yazid, further misinterpreted by Burckhardt and Burton. It would go beyond the scope of the present study to re-examine the general reliability of the stories about the battle of the harra and its aftermath, the socalled ibahat al-Madina163.There is only one aspect of the ongoing discussion among historians concerning this problem which may be of some interest here, i.e. a trend in modern Sunnite-Arab historiography which might be described as a systematic attempt to rehabilitate the Umayyads, and to radically improve their image. This implies, inter alia, the refutation, as calumnies, of all accounts concerning crimes perpetrated by the Umayyad troops in Medina. For several reasons, this school of modern Sunnite-Arab historiography is especially influential in Saudi-Arabia. It does not come as a surprise, therefore, that Saudi historians have published a number of books and articles in which they try to reject as fabrications all reports in medieval sources about Umayyad misdeeds committed after the battle of the harra.164
163 Concerning the transgressions against the women of Medina see, e.g., alvol. 2, 298; Yaqft: Mu'jamal-bulddn, Jahiz: Thalathrasa'il, 70f.; al-Ya'qubi:Tdrikh,

vol. 3, 262; Ibn Hajar al-Haytami: Al-sawa'iq, 222; al-Amin: Da'irat al-ma'drif, part 1, 19. 164 See al-'Uraynan: Ibtahat al-Madina, 80-90; al-'Aqili: Yazid, 67-69, and al-

Wakil:Al-Madina, vol. 1, 239-44 and 255-69. For the ideological context see Ende:
Arabische Nation, 91ff.

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As regards the present-day nakhawila, this trend in historiography seems, at first glance, to provide an argument against the old, denigrating story about their descent from the awlad al-harra. On the other hand, the same school of historiography propounds a vehemently anti-Shiite view of history. This means that the general outlook of its authors is not favourable to any Shiite community, past or present. As far as Shiites are concernced, they have to reject any tendency to rehabilitate the Umayyads.165 Their attempts to dissociate the origin of the nakhawila from the awlad alharra-story would therefore need another starting point. In addition, it should be noted that any protest by modern Sunnite historians against what they consider as the vilification of the Umayyads does not necessarily imply a sudden change in the popular view of history. Apparently, the traditional version of the nakhawila being the descendants of the awlad al-harra, born after the ibaha, has not disappeared. It is to be found, e.g., in a relatively recent history of his home-town written by the Medinese Sunnite author 'Abd al-Salam Hashim Hafiz.166 It was also related quite spontaneously to the present writer by a Sunnite from Medina who was asked about the nakhawila in March 1988. Generally speaking, it is obvious that the more or less malicious stories concerning the Shiites of Medina found in earlier Sunnite sources are repeated (and even elaborated) in the 19th and 20th Centuries. In this connection, it would be wrong to believe that modern educated Sunnite authors were necessarily more critical about the oral and written information they were able to gather about the nakhawila. Two Egyptian authors, Muhammad Bey Sadiq and Ibrahim Rif'at Pasha, may both serve as cases in point: the latter's remarks concerning the nakhawila (mentioned below, p. 308f.) are partly based on a passage in Muhammad Bey Sadiq's work Kawkab al-hajj, published in Bulaq in 1303/1885-86. Like Ibrahim Rif'at, Sadiq (1822-1902)-who had studied in Cairo and Paris-was an army officer who in 1880 served as amin al-surra of the Egyptian mahmal.167Ibrahim Rifat copied Sadiq's words concerning the nakhawila being the offspring of Persians and their
165 Ibid., 113ff. 166 Al-Madina, 124. 167 Mujahid: Al-a'lam, vol. 2, 48f.

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custom of concluding sentences:

mut'a marriages, but omitted the following

"Before washing their dead, they beat them on the mouth and on the face, enjoining them not to mention the Shaykhan(Abu Bakr and 'Umar) when questioned by the two angels (Munkarand Nakir). This is what I heard from SayyidHusayn in Mecca. That ta'ifa is (also?) known as the Isma'iliya."168

In what follows, S$diq makes a short comparison between the nakhawila and the Qaramita and the latters' alleged heretical beliefs and practices. The whole passage concerning the nakhawila shows the author's bias and his reluctance to gather serious information about this community. Rather, he is all too ready to believe the calumnious stories he has heard from local informants such as the Sayyid Husayn in Mecca he refers to. This is astonishing in view of the fact that Sadiq is to be considered an enlightened personwho, incidentally, took (and published) the first ever photographs of Mecca and Medina and later became an active member of the Khedivial Geographic Society.169 Under these circumstances, it is remarkable that a modern Hijazi Sunni author, the journalist-cum-historian Ahmad al-Siba'i (1905-1983/84),170 has strongly protested against the widespread slander in his country against the Shia in general and of the nakhawila in particular. In his book TdrikhMakka, he comments on the defamatory legends concerning the origin of the nakhawila in the following way:
"In this context, it must offend any righteous person to read what some historians relate about the present-day Shiite inhabitants of Medina, i.e. that those people, whom they call al-nakhawila, the offspring (of the women are who had become the victims) of the ibaha. Such a view is the clearest evidence of fanaticism. How else could one see a connection between the descendants (of those women) and Shiism? If, as some accounts say, the people of Medina had really repudiated those of their offspring who were born after the ibahaand had banished them to live in a certain area of Medina-then why were these descendants not ashamed of their stigma and why have they not dispersed all over the land? It would have been more logical for them to do this than to remain in one region of Medina until today. As a matter of fact, some historians just stop using their brains whenever they transmit tales (of the past), while others allow their (confessional) ten168

169

Sadiq: Kawkab, 53. Facey: Saudi Arabia, 8, 23 (fn. 1 and 3). See also Badr El-Hage: Saudi Ara-

bia. Caught in Time, London 1997. (This book was due to appear when the present study was already at proof stage. The original Arabic version, Suwarmin al-madi,London 1989, was not available to me.)
170 About this author see Ibn Salam: Mawsu'at al-udabd', vol. 1, 30-32.

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dencies to dominate their opinions. Thus, they write according to their passions rather than for the sake of the truth and of (factual) history. in Further, it is deplorable that some of the common people ('dmrma) Medina are still today influenced by those outrageous tales. As a result, they view their brethren, the nakhawila, according to this (negative image). this Among the nakhdwila, attitude (in turn) strengthens them in their revolt of against the madhhab the Sunna. In reality, the nakhawilaare part of the Shia in the Islamic World, and Shiism is not alien to the Arab countries. Rather, the history (of Islam) attests (its existence) in all periods and in many (social) strata, i.e. from the ashrdfto the common herd. People learned to disavow the nakhtwila because the Ottomans, for political reasons, were enemies of Shiism. There is no other way for the (Sunnite) Muslims to reach an agreement with the nakhawilathan to take an interest in them and to agree upon (an effort) to convince them, so that the latter mayjoin the ranks of their brethren and be united unanimously with them. In this way, disagreement would be overcome at a time when we are more in need of integration and unification than ever before".171

To the passage quoted above in translation, the editor of the fourth edition of SibaT'is book, 'Atiq b. Ghayth al-Biladi,172 has added an interesting footnote:
"In (Saudi) governmental departments, the official name (of the nakhdwila) wrote a chapter about them. In it, I expounded my view with regard to the questions raised by the esteemed author, but it (i.e. the chapter) was not permitted to be published".173
is al-nakhliyfun,with the singular nakhli. In (my work) Mu'jam qaba'il al-Hijaz I

In another of his works, Biladi-with obvious reluctance-quotes a legend still popular among Sunni Medinese which claims that it was the Umayyad Caliph 'Abd al-Malik (reigned 685-705) who assigned a palm grove to the awlad al-harra. As those children could not be related to a particular tribe, they were called after the palm grove which had been allotted to them. When they grew up, they became followers of the Shia because they saw themselves as victims of acts committed by Sunnites.174 It seems that not all Sunnite authors who mention the nakhawila have heard- or are convinced-of the awlad al-harra-version. In their accounts concerning the population of Medina, a number of foreign writers give other explanations with regard to the origin of the nakhdwila. An Egyptian officer and former amir al-hajj, Ibrahim
Riffat (d. 1935),175 assumes that the nakhdwila are dhurriyat al171 Tarikh Makka, 4th ed., vol. 1, 94f. 172 About Biladi see Ibn Salam: Mawsiu'at al-udabd'.

173 Tarikh Makka, 95 (fn. 1), and Siba'T's preface, 14. 174 Mu'jam ma'alim, vol. 6, 186. 175 About this person see Stratk6tter:VonKairo,15-19, and the literature men-

vol. 1, 89ff.

tioned there.

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a'ajim, i.e. "the offspring of non-Arab foreigners (or: Persians)".176 If we suppose that Riffat Pasha is using the term a'djim here to mean Persians, this would appear to be simply an extrapolation from the fact that the nakhawila, like the majority of the Iranians, are Twelver-Shiites. To the best of my knowledge, Shiite writers in general and Iranians in particular never mention the possibility of an Iranian origin of the nakhdwila. Jalal Al-i Ahmad,177 an Iranian author who, after his pilgrimage to Mecca in 1964, went to Medina for a ziydra, notes that "all" of the nakhawila he met there were of dark complexion, with the exception of one of them-who spoke some Persian.178 While it well be that over the centuries a number of Shiites from Iran, may India and other Eastern countries, living in Medina, have mixed the nakhdwila, there is no socially-and even intermarried-with evidence so far that the whole group, or a considerable part of it, is originally of Iranian, Indian or otherwise "Eastern" extraction. Al-i Ahmad's observation that most of the nakhawila he met in Medina were dark-skinned may, on the other hand, lend credence to the notion that they are (to some extent at least) descendants of black Africans (not necessarily: slaves). With regard to the remarks of several authors to this effect179 we should keep in mind that there has been, over many centuries, a steady influx of black Africans-both men and women-into the towns and villages of Arabia. One of several reasons for this development was the need, in the early centuries of Islam, to replace the indigenous agricultural labourers who had left the oases of the Arabian Peninsula following the expansion of the early Caliphal state in order to settle in the lands of the Fertile Crescent and far beyond. In his Travels in Arabia Deserta, Charles Doughty notes his observation, made between 1876 and 1878, that
"there are a multitude of negroes in Arabia;they are bond-servantsin oases and nomad tribes, and freed men, and the posterity of such. There are some whole villages of negro blood in Arabia, as Kheybarand el-Hayat".180

Mir'atal-haramayn, 1, 440. vol. 77 Encyclopaedia Iranica,vol. 1, 745-47. 178 Khasi,39, 64, 66f.; engl. translation (Lostin thecrowd)27, 44-46. 179 See, e.g., al-Ansari:Tuhfatal-muhibbin, 480; Hasan:Al-shi'a,vol. 1, 66. 180 Travels, vol. 2, 656.

176

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Of Kheybar, Doughty says it appeared to him as if it were "an African village in the Hejaz".181 Under these circumstances, the comparatively dark complexion of the "real" nakhdwila, i.e. peasants, farmhands, gardeners, herdsmen and workers of different trades living in the palm groves near Medina, does not really come as a surprise. It is likely that some of the nakhdwila themselves imagine they are the distant offspring of Bilal, Muhammad's companion and first "official" mu'adhdhin. According to Muslim tradition, this was a man of black African origin, who had been born in slavery in Mecca and had emigrated to Medina together with the Prophet.182 On the other hand, the Sunnite population of Medina, influenced by the old accounts concerning the battle of the harra, may have associated (and may still associate) the dark skin of most of the nakhdwila with the ibahat al-Madina: a number of medieval sources mention that black Umayyad troops were involved in the transgressions against the women of Medina.183 It cannot, of course, be ruled out that further research may show that the nakhdwila peasants are in fact of mixed origin, i.e. a group somehow combining Arab, African and, to a lesser extent, Iranian, Indian and/or other ethnic elements. There is a possibility that at least one component of this community consisted of people who had come to Medina as pilgrims from abroad and, for some reason or other, remained there. Others, including some Shiite mujdwiran, may have joined them later. As we can see from Ansari's remarks quoted above (p. 303), speculation concerning such a mixed origin was already rife among Sunnite Medinese in the 18th Century-and possibly much earlier. There can be no doubt, however, that the core of this community as it exists today has deep roots in the Hijaz and is basically of Arab origin. According to Hamza al-Hasan, a number of members of other tribes, seeking protection, joined them about two centuries ago-among them some of the 'Asara or Banfu A'sar, a section of the 'Anaza.184 At least until recently, more or less all nakhdwila were engaged in the performance of what their neighbours would see as menial
181 Ibid., 94. 182 Al-i Ahmad: Khasi, 64 (Lost in the Crowd, 44); EI, vol. 1, 1215. 183 See, e.g., al-Jahiz: Thalath rasa'il, 70f.; 'Ayyashi: Al-Madina, 344. 184 Al-Shi'a, vol. 1, 65.

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tasks. In the past, this has given rise to speculation about the nakhdwila being "gypsies". The Tunisian traveller Muhammad Bayram,185 who visited Medina in the 1880s, has the following to say about them:
"This tribe originates from people (qawm) scattered over all parts of the

world. Wherever they are, it is typical for them to live entirely self-reliantly, talking to outsiders and mixing with other people only when necessary (such as) in the case of buying and selling. In every region where they live, they have a special name (laqab)given by the inhabitants of that region. Thus, in the countries of the Turks they are called shinkanah, and in Tunis Everywherethey pursue humble occupations like that of repairjamdziya.186 ing copper vessels and horseshoes. This also applies to Medina".187

It is well known that a great number of terms denoting "gypsies" are applied to different minority groups all over the world. In the Middle East and North Africa, names like cingane, luli, ghurbat, nawar, ghajar etc.188 are used for several groups, both settled and nomadic, whose real ethnic origin is not clear at all, and who may not be related in terms of ethnicity, but who have at least one thing in common: their members pursue occupations considered degrading and more or less despicable by the majority of the population. A discussion of the problems caused by terminological and other kinds of confusion concerning these "pariah"-groups would certainly fall outside the scope of the present study. Suffice it to say here that with regard to the Arabian Peninsula, there exist a number of useful surveys as well as case studies concerning lowstatus groups such as the du'afa', akhddm and others in Yemen and elsewhere.189 In future research, the information gathered in this literature should be compared with all the data available about the (urban and rural) nakhdwila. As a result of that comparison, we may come to the conclusion that the latter fit quite well into the general pattern of pariah-groups in Arabia, but, given their peculiar religious orientation and special relationship with both the
185 See above, p. 294. 186 For shinkanahsee fn. 188 below (art. seems to be de"Cingane"); jam&ziya

rived from Ottoman Turkish jambazor jdnbaz, "acrobat","rope dancer", "trickster" etc., see art. "Djanbaz" El, vol. 2, 442f. in
187

See arts. "6ingane", "Lfili" and "Nuri"in EI, vol. 2, 40f., vol. 5, 816-19 and vol. 8, 138f., respectively. Further Canova:Notizie.
189

188

Safwat al-i'tibdr, vol. 5, 19.

Bruck:Beingworthy, stdmme; passim (with good bibliography).

Grohmann: Sudarabien, 52-106; Dostal: Paria-Gruppen; Henninger:

Paria-

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tribes of Hijaz and the ashraf of Medina, represent a category apart. According to Muhammad Shawqi Makki, who describes the situation prevailing in the 1970s and early 1980s, the (more or less self-imposed) isolation of the nakhawila (including the preference for in-group marriages) is still common among them. He adds:
"This isolation has contributed to the fact that the nakhawilacan be easily distinguished from the rest of the inhabitants, namely because of their facial expression (sahnat al-wajh) and their somewhat dark complexion as compared to the other residents of Medina, who have mixed with other races. Their present generation has begun to marry (partners) from outside Medina, but probably not from outside the followers of their own madhhab."190

With regard to the point last mentioned, we may ask whether there have been, in modern times, any marriages between (crypto-)Shiite ashraf and "real" nakhdwila families. According to oral information I received in 1996, such marriages, if any, would be extremely rare. Rather, those ashraf prefer to give their children in marriage to members of families belonging to the Sunnite middle or upper classes of the Hijaz. Ownershipand cultivation of land It seems that-at least until recently-most of the nakhzwila were tenant-farmers or farm labourers. According to Muhsin al-Amin,191 quite a number of the palm groves were owned at the time of his visits by aghawat or khudddm, i.e. eunuchs serving in the Prophet's mosque.192 Other authors mention Hasanid and Husaynid ashraf as well as Sunni Medinese notables as owners of the palm groves.193 In addition, many of these estates were in the possession of tribal leaders: according to Hogarth, the Banfi 'Amr section of the Harb owned most of the date gardens near Medina, while the Banfu All (who are called "a turbulent lot of Shiahs" by Hogarth), a sub-section of the 'Awf (also belonging to the Harb), cultivated the gar190Sukkan,128. 191 Rihalat,48; see also Ibn Miusa: Wasf,26f. 192 For the origin and development of the eunuch society of Medina see Marmon: Eunuchs, passim; Caskel: Das Farraschen-Amt; further Ibn Mfsa, ibid., 71f., and Ibn Salam:Al-Madina,32-35, 233-36. 193 Ibn Musa, ibid., 18ff. Many Medinese, however, would rent a garden only for a number of months every year, see Abul Fadl: ZurKultur,299.

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dens around Quba in the 'Awali plains.194 Elsewhere, the author remarks that the Harb tribe held "all the vicinity of Medina". He adds that the Banfi 'Ali clan "was most to be reckoned within and near the city itself, where it was a constant source of trouble to the Turks and disorder among the citizens."195 It is a well-known fact that nomadic tribes or the families of tribal leaders used to own agricultural land in the oases of Arabia.196 This land was cultivated by tenant farmers and their servants. If it is true that the Harb, as Hogarth claims, owned "most" of the palm groves near Medina, we may deduce from this fact that their special relationship with the nakhawila of Medina, al-'Awali and other villages in this region, as described by Muhsin alAmin197, was partly based on strong economic interests. Nevertheless, Hogarth's statement seems to need some qualification: according to Burckhardt, many of the gardens and fields in the immediate vicinity of Medina were indeed the property of Medinese notables or had long been turned into waqf land, to be administered by urban mutawallis, such as notables, 'ulama' and servants of the haram. The situation may have changed somewhat between 1815, i.e. the year of Burckhardt's visit, and the time when Hogarth filed his report, but it is very probable that the Swiss traveller's description was still valid about a century later. The relevant passage in Burckhardt's work runs as follows:
"Mostof the gardens and plantations belong to the people of the town; and the Arabs who cultivate them (called nowakhele)are mostly farmers. The property of the gardens is either mulkof wakf,the former, if they belong to an individual; the latter, if they belong to the mosque, or any of the medreses or pious foundations, from which they are farmed, at very long leases, by the people of Medina themselves, who re-let them on shorter terms to the cultivators."198

Burckhardt's description is correct mainly for the agricultural land on the immediate outskirts of Medina, and much less for al-'Awali and the area further South. For the latter region, i.e. the realm of the Harb, Hogarth's statement stands. In several sources, however, gardens and houses even in this area are mentioned as being
194 196 197 198

95 Ibid., 28.

Hejaz, 39. Pfullmann: Steuern, esp. 432-34. See above, p. 290f. Travels, vol. 2, 207f.

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owned by Medinese. In these cases, we may assume that at least some of those persons were ashraf who, as crypto-Shiites, had established a special relationship with the chiefs of the Harb in general and with the Shiite BanC 'Ali in particular. Otherwise it would not have been possible for them to make full use of their property. One such person, by the name of Shahin b. Muhsin al-Husayni alShadqami, is named by 'Ali b. Mfisa as main owner of a well and a garden for about the year 1885. Almost at the same time, a Persian visitor remarks upon a palm grove and pleasent garden near the mosque of Fadih which, he says, was the property of a Shi'i Sharif of Hasani descent.199 Nevertheless, the bulk of agricultural land in that area was under the direct or indirect control of the Harb. Otheroccupations Muhammad Bayram's above-mentioned attempt to link the nakhawila with similar "low-caste" or "gypsy"-communities is interesting.200 He does not say what the humble professions of the nakhawila were. Other sources, notably Burckhardt, mention occupations in addition to those of gardeners, peasants or herdsmen:
"the women of the cultivators,and of the inhabitants of the suburbs, serve in the families of the townspeople, as domestics, principally to grind corn in the handmills".201

Although Burckhardt does not say here that these cultivators were mostly Shiites, it is safe to assume that at least at the time of his visit (1815), many of the female servants employed in the richer households of Medina did in fact belong to nakhawila families, who would come to town daily (or sporadically) from the suburbs. Eldon Rutter, who visited Medina in the mid-1920s, notes that a number of nakhawila used to come daily to an open space near one of the gates of the haram, the Bab al-Salam, in order to sell vegetables there.202 It should be added here that the nakhawila's income did not derive solely from the cultivation and (direct or indirect) sale of
199 Ibn Muisa: Wasf, 25; Farahani: Safar namah, 236 (English translation, Shi'ite Pilgrimage, 279). 200 See p. 311 above. 201 Travels, vol. 2, 265. 202 The Holy Cities, 552. A

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dates and vegetables: Another substantial source of income was the manufacture of goods from the trunks, the branches and the leaves of the date palm, namely seats, armchairs and benches, bedsteads, tables, baskets, fans and brooms, mats, wall hangings and even a special type of veil to be used during the hajj. The production of many of these goods was more or less exclusively in the hands of women.203 Other occupations the nakhdwila are said to have pursued, or to pursue today, are those of butcher, house-servant, and sweeper. Probably they were also hired from time to time to clean the cesspools of Medina.204 Especially during the hajj-season, many of their men would serve Shiite pilgrims visiting Medina as guides (muzawwirun or adilla), hosts, interpreters etc. Some of them offered to perform the rites of the pilgrimage as "substitutes" for people who were prevented from doing so themselves. According tojalal Al-i Ahmad, this practice was still alive in the mid-1960s.205 To this day, the functions last mentioned provide the nakhdwila with a more or less important source of income. It may have been envious Medinese Sunnites who first suggested that the nakhdwila in general would rent not only their houses, but also "all that is inside", i.e. even their wives and daughters to their Shiite coreligionists visiting Medina. In this context, almost all Sunnite authors mention the institution of the mut'a-marriage.206 Shiite writers never seem to touch on this issue when talking about the nakhdwila. But there may have been cases-even recently- of concluded between nakhawila women and mut'a-marriages being Shiite visitors to Medina. In spite of some criticism by modernist scholars, temporary marriage (mut'a) is considered valid by all Twelver Shiite fuqahd'. In recent years, it has even been propagated by some Shiite religious writers as a means of solving social problems.207 There would therefore be nothing wrong with nakhawila women concluding
203 Abul Fadl: Zur Kultur, 301-03. 204 See Ansari 304

above); Burckhardt: Travels, vol. 2, 239; Al-i (quoted p. Ahmad: Khasi, 66; Winder: Al-Madina, El, vol. 5, 1007. 205 Khasi, 39f. (English translation 27). 206 See p. 298 and 305f. above; further Rutter: The Holy Cities, 552. 207 See art. "Mut'a" in El, vol. 7, 757-59; Ende: Ehe, 17-25, 38-42.

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mut'a-marriages with Shiite foreigners, provided that the rules of Twelver Shiite law governing this practice were observed-in particular the rule that a woman who is normally married may not conclude a mut'a. It is, of course, almost impossible to say whether or not these rules were (and are) always respected. Sunnite sources suggest that the prostitution of married and unmarried nakhawila women was (and possibly still is) more or less general. This innuendo is certainly without foundation. But since there are some so-called "gypsy" tribes in Arabia who-at least until recently-were indeed known for the prostitution of their womenfolk,208 Sunnite Medinese as well as Sunnite visitors to Medina may have been all too willing to believe that the nakhawila do the same. Anotheruncertainty:the numericalsize There is uncertainty with regard to the numerical size of the Shiite community of Medina: in 1964, a young nakhili, answering a question by the Iranian writer Jalal Al-i Ahmad, said that it numbered about 5,000.209 In a booklet written especially for Shiite pilgrims and published in Pakistan in 1972, the number of the nakhdwila is given as 4,000.210 However, in the second edition of his Mu'jam qaba'il al-'arab, published in Beirut in 1968, the Syrian Sunnite author 'Umar Rida Kahhala notes that the number of the nakhdwila is close to 12,000.211 In this connection Kahhala is drawing on Batanfini's Rihla hijaziya.212Batanuni (d. 1938) wrote his travel account in 1909 (first ed. Cairo 1910, second enlarged ed. 1911). It is highly probable that he in turn derived the number of 12,000 nakhawila from Eyyub Sabri (d. 1890), who mentions exactly this figure.213 As this author had been living as an Ottoman official in
208 Serjeant The Ma'n "Gypsies",741f.; Dostal: "Sexual Hospitality"; see also Henninger in Arabica Varia, index pp. 488 (s.v. "Gastprostitution") and 494

("Prostitution"). 209 Khasi, 66 (English translation 45).


211

213See above, p. 305. Curiously enough the number of 12,000 has found its vol. way even into a modern Persian dictionary, i.e. Dihkhuda's Lughat-ndmah, 11, 310.

Hajj Masail, 55. Vol. 2, 1176. 212 Rihla, p. 52 of the tamhid.

210

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Medina for some time, his estimation may be close to the truth as far as the situation in the early 1880s is concerned. The number of 12,000 persons for that period is more or less borne out by an Iranian traveller, Muhammad Husayn Farahani, who visited the holy cities in 1885-86. According to this author, Medina and the surrounding villages had a total population of 80,000 at the time, including 10,000 Shiites. Of the latter, about 4,000 would have resided in the city, and 6,000 in the adjacent villages. It seems that Farahani counts as nakh&wilaboth the Banu Husayn in the town and the poor peasants outside the walls, since, in his words, their homes "are in part in the city and outside the wall near the Baqi' cemetery". He distinguishes them both from the Banfi 'All and two other Bedouin groups and from the few Hasani ashrdf residing in the city, who were also Shiites.214 Describing his visit to Medina in 1888, Na'ib al-Sadr-i Shirazi speaks of 2,000 persons, but he is referring here only to the inhabitants of the mahalla outside the town, a quarter which he calls a "new enclosure" (hisdr-i jadid).215 No official data are available for present-day Medina. There may be reliable Saudi statistics concerning the nakhawila, but, to the best of my knowledge, no material of this kind has ever been published. Some of the estimates given by Shiite authors are obviously exaggerated. Moreover, we have to bear in mind that some of the figures mentioned by them refer to the Twelver Shiites of the Hijaz in general, while others refer only to the nakhdwila living in Medina or in the villages south of that town.216 Even in this case, we have to differentiate. Thus, Yousif al-Khoei in his recent report on the Shi'a of Medina is careful to avoid sweeping statements:
"The actual population of the Nakhawilais difficult to estimate. Some have indicated a figure above 100,000. But a religious leader I met proffered the more conservativeestimate of about 32,000, comprising some 19,000 Nakhawila-8,000 from the tribes in Wadi al-Fara'-in addition to some 5,000

214 Safar ndma, 210 (English translation 257). 215 235.

Tuhfat al-haramayn, 216 Hasan: Al-shi'a, vol. 1, 68, mentions about 100,000 Twelver Shiites for

Medina and its vicinity and another 20,000 forJeddah, Ta'if and Mecca. In addition, there are allegedly 160,000 Zaydis and between 250,000 and 300,000 Isma'ilis in Saudi Arabia (ibid.).

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Shi'a Sayyeds living in and around Medina. Others put the figure nearer 40,000, based on an estimate of 15% of Shi'a pupils in Medina's schools."217

Burial and cemeteries As Eldon Rutter notes after making enquiries about them: "The Nakhawila, say the (Sunnite) Medinans, will do anything for money". Thus, he continues, a number of them were prepared, after the Saudi occupation of Medina in late 1925, to demolish the tombs of al-Baqi' at the behest of the Wahhabi qddi Ibn Bulayhid.218 With regard to the tombs of 'Uthman and many other sahaba buried there, the nakhawila may not have had many qualms about performing the task for which they had been hired by the new rulers. It is also possible that they were forced to do so by the Wahhabi conquerors. In this case, Ibn Bulayhid's order must be interpreted as an expression of his spitefulness towards this poor and weak minority, since the demolitions included the tombs of the four Imams buried at the Baqi' as well as those of a number of the ahl al-bayt. There was, incidentally, a precedent to Ibn Bulayhid's action: according to Ahmad ibn Zayni Dahlan, at the time of the first Wahhabi occupation of Mecca in 1803 the (Sunnite) inhabitants of the town were forced by the conquerors to destroy the cupolas at the cemetery of al-Ma'la and elsewhere.219 Since 1925, protests against the destructions at the Baqz' in general and of the tombs of the Imams in particular have been a leitmotiv in Shiite writings about Medina.220 For a long period of time, the "real" nakhawila (i.e. the inhabitants of the mahalla and of the palm groves south of Medina) were not allowed to bury their dead at al-Baqi'.221On the other hand,
217Khoei: TheShi'a, 4; for Wadi al-Fara'(sic) see fn. 130 above. 218 TheHolyCities,552, 563. Afatwa to this effect, issued by a number of Sunni Medinese 'ulama' at the request of Ibn Bulayhid, and a critical comment concerning its content is to be found in Amin: Kashf,359ff. An Italian translation of the fatwa was published in "Oriente Moderno" (Rome), vol. 6 (1926), 288f.

219 Peskes: Muhammad b. 'Abdalwahhab, 146, 320. 220 See, e.g., al-Amin: Kashf, 60f.; Najafi: Madinah-shindsi, 337-39; Mughniya: Hadhihi, 46-49, reprinted in: Tajarib, 371-73; Faqihi: Wahhabiyan, 215ff.; Salfr:

and Samarra'i mentioned above, fn. 6. A number of prominent Sunni visitors to Medina have also criticised the Wahhabi measures, see, e.g., Haykal: Ft manzil, 525f. 221 Rutter: The Holy Cities, 563; Madani and Zu'bi: Al-islam, 126. According to

18, Armaghdn, 22-24, and Hasan: Al-shi'a,vol. 2, 203ff. Further the books by Hajiri

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'Ali b. Mfsa mentions the fact that some 'Alawi Sayyids as well as a number of Emirs of Medina from the Banuf Husayn had been buried near the burial place of the Al al-bayt. This information is corroborated by Richard Burton.222 Describing the situation as it was in about 1885, 'Ali b. Mfsaa local official and for some time Imam of the Malikiya in Medina223-says that no prayers were recited over the nakhdwila's dead inside the haram. Rather, they would enter the Baqi' through a gate singled out for that purpose, i.e. to bring their jana'iz to the tombs of the Al al-Bayt and perform mourning prayers there.224 We may assume that in almost all these cases the burial of the dead took place outside the walls of al-Baqi', namely at an adjacent cemetery mentioned by Burton and marked accordingly on his map of Medina. With regard to this spot, he speaks sarcastically of his blunder of momentarily mistaking "the decaying place of those miserable schismatics the Nakhawilah for Al-Bakia, the glorious cemetery of the Saints".225 In recent years the Shiites of Medina have also been allowed to bury their dead at al-Baqic, "in a special plot close to the graves of the Ahl al-Bayt".226 It should be noted here that a number of foreign Shiites who happened to die in Medina have been buried at al-Baqi' under Ottoman and even under Saudi rule. As for the Saudi period, Muhammad Sharif-i Razi in this connection mentions three Iranian Shiite scholars: 1. Muhammad Taqi Taliqani (of whom more will be said below, see p. 332); 2. Sayyid Muhammad Riza Bihbihani Hayiri (d. 1391/1971-72); 3. Hujjat al-Islam Hajj Mirza 'Abd al-Rasfil Marzubani Tabriz! (d. 1393/1973-74).227 There is, moreover, a Shiite cemetery near the village of Quba. This burial ground covers the alleged site of the Masjid al-Dirar. This mosque is said to have been destroyed by order of the Prophet Muhammad in the year 9 A.H.228 Given the religious connoAnsari, however, the nakhdwila did not want to bury their dead side by side with the Sunnis, see p. 303 above. 222 Ibn Musa: Wasf, 11; Burton: Personal Narrative, vol. 2, 4. 223 See preface by 'Ubayd Madani to Ibn Musa: Wasf, 10. 224 Ibid., 12. 225 Burton: Personal Narrative, vol. 2, pp. 2 and 31, and map in vol. 1, 392f. 226 The Shi'a, 5. 227 Ganjinah-i ddnishmanddn, vol. 7, 66. 228 Lecker: Muslims, 74, 145f.; see also EI, vol. 6, 642.

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tations of such an account, it may not be too far-fetched to suppose that it was put into circulation by enemies of the Shia. We shall refrain from discussing this point any further. The famous Egyptian writer and politician Muhammad Husayn Haykal (d. 1956), who visited Quba in 1936, notes he was told that the cemetery in question was at present "the burial place of the rafida,the He shi'a and (sic!) the nakhawila". rejects, however, its identification with the site of the Masjid al-Dirar.229 According to Yousif alKhoei, who was there in 1996, it is now a large cemetery, where Shiite pilgrims having died in Medina may also be buried.230
Isolation, discriminationand survival 1. The mahalla

In addition to discrimination with regard to the burial of their dead, both Sunnite and Shiite as well as non-Muslim authors mention other forms of prejudice towards, and ill-treatment of, the nakhawilaat the hands of the Sunnite majority.Of course, not everything reported in this respect is necessarily true. For instance, some (Ottoman) pashas allegedly ordered the nakhawilato wear red turbans and orange-coloured clothes.231It is not certain that such an order ever existed. If it did, we may assume that the order in question (the red turban being an allusion to the qzzzlbash?) as well as some other discriminatory measures described in the sources were short-livedand/or were not enforced strictly. Nevertheless it is evident that the nakhawila(with the exception of the ashraf)were for a long time forced to exist under conditions typical for a pariah-like community. First of all, they were not allowed-in Ottoman times at least-to stay overnight within the walls of Medina, let alone to settle there.232 Their mahalla,consisting of clusters of enclosures called hawsh (plural ahwisha,ahwash or hishan), was located outside the walls, south of the haram.On a map printed in 'Abd al-Quddfisal-Ansari'sbook, Atharal-Madina
229 ft manzil, 574. 230 The Shi'a, 5. 232

231 Madani and Zu'bi:Al-islam, 126. Rutter: The Holy Cities, 552.

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al-Munawwara (published in 1935), it is marked as mahallat alnakhdwila.233On another, earlier map, based on sketches made by Turkish officials and published by Bernhard Moritz in 1916, the area in question is marked as "Garten mit Hausern".234 The best short description of these rural suburbs is to be found in Burton's work. At the time of his visit (1852), the whole area to the South of Medina appeared as
"a collection of walled villages, with plantations and gardens between. They are laid out in the form, called here, as in Egypt, Hosh-court-yards, with single storied tenements opening into them. These enclosures contain the cattle of the inhabitants; they have strong wooden doors, shut at night to prevent "lifting",and they are capable of being stoutly defended. The inhabitants of the suburb are for the most part Badawisettlers, and a race of schismatics who will be noticed in another chapter."235

On a number of modern maps or sketches, the mahalla is no longer discernible, or at least not mentioned as such. However, a "Nakhawila Street" (shari' al-nakhawila), leading from the South to the Baqi', is to be found on a map attached to the second edition of 'Abd al-Salam Hashim Hafiz' book as well as in a number of other publications in Arabic.236 It also appears (as khiyabdn-i nakhawilah) in vol. I of a more recent Persian work on the historical topography of Medina.237 According to R.B. Winder, the hawsh of the nakhawila was "broken up by the Su'udi regime first, apparently, in the 1920s and, definitely, following serious communal disturbances in the mid1960s, when a large highway was routed through it."238This highway, forming a southern extension of Abu Dharr Street, is to be found on a number of modern maps of Medina. Parallel to it, but
233Athar,2; see also Haykal:Fi manzil,facing 512, and Najafi:Madinah-shindsi, map no. 45; Ibn Salam:Al-Madina,241. 234 Bilder,no. 63a. It is obvious that this map, as well as earlier ones published by Batanini (Rihla, facing p. 252) and others are based on Burckhardt (Travels, vol. 2, 144) and Burton (Personal vol. 1, 392f.). See also Rutter, op. cit., Narrative, and The MiddleEast Intelligence vol. 2, 562. The area to the South of Handbooks, Darb al-Jana'izis called "El-Shahriye" Burckhardt (vol. 2, 146, no. 37) and a by number of other Western authors, including Rutter. As far as I can see, this designation is not used by Muslim authors. For Burckhardt'sand Burton's maps, see reproduction at the end of the present study. 235Burton, op. cit., vol. 1, 396f. 236 Hafiz: Al-Madina, facing 208; Ibn Salam: Al-Madina,173 (no. 7); Bulayhishi: Al-Madina,32. 237Najafi:Madinah-shindsi, maps no. 36-40, 42-43, 46. 238 Art. "Al-Madina", 999.

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with a dead end towards Darb al-Jana'iz, there is (or was until recently) a smaller street running from South to North-probably the older Shari' al-Nakhawila.239 Whether or not the destruction of the quarter really began in the mid-1920s, i.e. immediately after the Saudi conquest of the Hijaz, is not altogether clear. There is no mention of such an event, with regard to that period, in any of the other sources known to me. In any case the continuous existence of the mahalla is attested in various sources up to the 1960s.24? According to Hamza alHasan, the district which had been known in the past as mahallat (or zuqaq) al-nakhdwila is now called .Hayy al-Rawda.241There is, however, no detailed description of its layout and the area it covered. Nevertheless, the snippets of information that can be culled from a great number of works make it appear an especially interesting case for the study of ethnic clusters in Middle Eastern cities, namely for the study of "population groups maintaining a particular identity based on racial, religious, linguistic or cultural status, on tribe, subtribe or family, or on region, town or village of origin".242 For the various aspects of this topic, such as the relationship of immigration and quarter formation, the barriers of separation between the members of the cluster and the surrounding population, processes of assimilation and disintegration etc., the mahalla of the nakhawila certainly would be a rewarding object of research. For the time being, however, the available documentation is not sufficient to allow a comprehensive study. With regard to the road-building measures from the 1960s onwards which affected, inter alia, the quarter of the nakhdwila, there is some more or less vague information in a number of publications. One author speaks of the necessity to enlarge the streets leading into the ahwish (not only, of course, those of the nakhdwila) in order to facilitate the access of modern traffic, and particularly fire-brigades, to these districts.243
239 Ibid., 1001 (map of the modern city); Bindaqji: Maps; Farsi: Map; Badr: Altarikh, vol. 3, facing 301. 240 Philby A Pilgrim, 59 (for 1935); Bayglari: Ahkam, 353; Shihabi: Awqaf, 128f.; Al-i Ahmad: Khasi, 76 (for 1964); Makki: Sukkan, 127 (hawsh al-nakhawila). 241 Al-shi'a, vol. 1, 67; see Farsi: Map and Guide. 242 Greenshields: "Quarters", 120. 243 Sayyid Rajab: Al-Madina, 39ff., see also Hafiz: Fusul, 301, 308, 310; further

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In 1986/87, a new wave of urban development was ushered in at Medina by the Saudi government.244 One can safely assume that if anything has been left of the old mahalla of the nakhawila, it is going to be destroyed sooner or later. Nakhawila families may still be an important element in some of the newly-established suburbs in the south-western parts of Medina, but probably there is no longer a closed quarter populated exclusively by members of this community. According to al-Khoei, however, the nakhawila still inhabit an area of approximately 12 sq. km. named after them.245 The importance of Medina's agricultural sector, including the once famous palm groves, is rapidly dwindling, and gardens and farmland are being turned into modern housing estates. The nakhdwila farmers therefore have to look for other occupations. According to oral information (March 1988), quite a few of them now own little shops or stalls, mainly in one street of Medina, where they sell grilled meat etc. The neglect and even destruction (as a result of building measures etc.) of many mosques, cemeteries and other places of religious importance is noted with regret not only by Shiite, but also by Sunnite authors.246 Some of the palm groves have been transformed into public parks. The annual official 'Id al-fitr festivities, organized by the Municipality of Medina, were held at a public garden called "AlNakheel Park" in February 1997.247 Where Shiites (both urban ashraf or "real" nakhawila) owned land in the areas touched by modern development schemes, it is been compensated for the likely that they-like Sunnites-have expropriation of their estates.248
Ibn Salam: Al-Madina, 192-95; Rasch: Die Zeltstddte, 226-28, and Mustafa: AlMadina. 244 Badr: vol. Al-tarikh, 3, 310-23; for the gigantic expansion of the haramarea see, e.g., Al-Nounou: On s'y rend,and Al-Hamid:Expansion.In 1997, a new master plan for Medina was made public. According to the Governor, Prince 'Abd alMajid, the authorities are determined to make Medina "one of the most advanced cities in the world" ("ArabNews",April 13, 1997, p. 2). 245 The Shi'a, 4. According to Hasan: Al-shi'a,vol. 1, 67, there are nakhawila also in the Bab al-Kumaquarter, North-Westof the Prophet's Mosque. 246 See, 25, e.g., al-Yusuf: Al-masdjid, 46-48, 66f., 74, 82, 91, 95 (footnotes 4 and 5). 247 Makki:Tawzi';"ArabNews", February2, 1997, p. 2. 248Hafiz:Fusul, 306, 308; Rasch:Die Zeltstddte, Badr, vol. 3, 232. 226;

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A good number of them are said to have benefited from the oil boom and to be successful businessmen, shopkeepers and landlords who rent their houses, on the outskirts of their farms close to the vicinity of the haram, to pilgrims. Moreover, many are enjoying economic benefits from the Saudi state such as social security payments as well as interest-free loans up to an amount of 300,000 Rials (about 80,000 US-Dollars).249 As for the two gardens called .Safaand Maijan, it is unlikely that much of them is left in the wake of the Saudi town-planning measures.250Jalal Al-i Ahmad, noticing with surprise the popularity of the two gardens with the Iranian pilgrims, found them quite unimpressive and neglected: the toilets of al-.Safa were extremely filthy.251 Without giving his precise name, he mentions an Iranian mujawir-a man from Yazd or Isfahan-as the "owner" (sahib) of This designation may be the result of a misunderBagh-i .Safa.252 i.e. it is quite likely that the Iranian mujawir had only standing, leased the garden in question. However, it is far from certain that both al-Safa and al-Marjan were still considered as waqfin 1964, or even in the 19th Century. If we give any credence to the assertion that the two gardens had been mawquf for a long time, we may assume that they had already been turned into private property under the Ottomans. The very names of the gardens seem to support this hypothesis: according to 'Ali b. Musa, a Sunnite Medinese describing the situation in 1885, one of the two gardens was owned (and named after) a servant of the haram, Marjan Agha Salim, a eunuch holding the office of mutesellim. This information is corroborated by an Iranian author writing in 1888.253 mentioned by name-'Ali b. Concerning a second garden-not Muisa says that it was owned by one "Al-Sayyid Safi".254 As the editor, Hamad al-Jasir, remarks at this point, the text of the manuscript is corrupt here. It is possible that the name of the garden,
249 Khoei, op. cit., 4. 250 See above, fn. 244. 251 Khasi, 44 (English translation 30f.). For Bdgh-i Marjan as a place for con253 Wasf, 27, 54; Na'ib al-Sadr Shirazi: Tuhfat al-haramayn, 233.

20, gregational prayer see also Salfr: Armaghan, 25. 252Al-i Ahmad, ibid.

254 Wasf,54 (probably identical with the SayyidSafi al-Ja'farimentioned ibid., 43 and 50); Farhad Mirza, who visited Medina in 1875, mentions a SayyidSafi as his host. His house had a garden with palm trees (Safarnamah, 139, 147, 158).

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Safa, was mentioned in the original, and that this designation was somehow related to that Sayyid Safi. It is not certain that this person was the official proprietorof that garden. Concerning the popularity of the two gardens especially with the Iranians, it should be noted that not only Shiites, but also (at least occasionally) Sunnites from Iran used to stay there during their visit to Medina. Thus, Sayyid 'Abdallah Shirazi, who performed the pilgrimage in 1942, mentions that a number of Sunnite villagers from Khurasan found accommodation at al-Safa while he himself was staying there. They were even ready temporarily to vacate part of the space they were occupying at al-Safa so that their Shiite countrymen could celebrate 'Ashura' without the danger of overcrowding.255 2. Public education The Saudi authorities have expanded public education,256 and it seems that the nakhawila have not been excluded from this development. A book published in Beirut in 1950 devoted to the promotion of better understanding between Sunnites and Shiites, quotes a letter to the authors from one Shaykh Muhammad al-Daftardar (a Saudi official responsible for educational affairs in Medina) stating that the government had set up modern schools for the children of the nakhdwila. They would now be able to become partners of their (Sunnite) brethren in every respect, since the Saudi government was pursuing its policy according to the example of the salaf salih, mindful of the Islamic injunction of tolerance.257 At first glance, a statement such as this paints an attractive picture, but it can (and probably should) be interpreted as meaning that the government conducted a policy of forced assimilation in religious matters: it is extremely unlikely that the Saudi authorities would ever have endorsed any special school curricula for Shiites with regard to both the dogma and the history of Islam. Rather, we
255 Al-ihtijajat, 24; in the Persian translation (Munazardt) 41f. 256 For Medina in the late Ottoman and Hashimite periods, see Shamikh: Alta'lim, 59ff., and Duhaish: ElementarySchools;for the Saudi era Bulayhishi, op. cit., 11 lff., and al-Ansari: Al-ta'lim. 257 Madani and Zu'bi: Al-isldm, 126; about Shaykh Muhammad al-Daftardar see Hafiz: Al-Madina, 167, and Ibn Salam: Mawsu'at al-udaba', vol. 1, 361.

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should expect that every topic relating to these fields would be taught uniformly at all Saudi schools, i.e. including those attended by the children of the nakhdwila, strictly according to the doctrines of the Wahhabiya. Concerning the early history of Islam, the attitude of the sahiba during the fitna, the image of Mu'awiya and his son Yazid, or the role of 'Abdallah ibn Saba' would be cases in point.258 Pupils and parents alike would inevitably see the teaching of such topics in Saudi state schools as the enforcement of an antiShiite view of Islam and its history. In November 1991, there were protests by Shiite students in the Eastern Province against new textbooks in which their madhhab was treated as an outright heresy.259 According to a recent report, it is an unwritten rule that a Shiite may not become a teacher of religion, history or Arabic, or the headmaster of a school.260 On the other hand, there are, of course, no special state-run schools for the nakhdwila. At the same time, they are not allowed to establish private schools. The last of the traditional Shiite maddris ( in the Eastern Province) are said to have been closed in the 1950s.261 Pupils of nakhawila origin have little or no chance of receiving state scholarships to study abroad.262 Nevertheless, it is to be assumed that in recent years, public education, including for girls, has made some progress among them. Whatever the results of this development, it is likely that at least some children of the nakhawila have made use of the opportunities offered by modern education, and may increasingly be doing so today. Better education for the nakhdwila, however, does not necessarily mean equality of opportunities in social life. There may be more or less subtle measures to keep them out of attractive jobs etc. In this context, al-Khoei speaks of a feeling of widespread discrimination in employment: those who manage to find work in the civil service, the police and the armed forces cannot achieve senior positions, although on occasion they may reach middle

258 Ende: Arabische Nation, 191ff. and passim. See also p. 304f. above. 259 Hasan: Dajja, 16; see also "Issues"(Paris),January 1992, 7. 260 Khoei, 4. 261 Hasan: Al-shi'a, vol. 2, 341. 262 Khoei, 4.

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ranks. The nakhawila are not given duties in sensitive areas such as the judiciary, the haram or at al-Baqi'.263 3. Representationin domesticpolitics With regard to their representation in domestic politics, Nallinodrawing on oral information- speaks of widespread local (Sunnite) protests, in 1937, against the admission of the nakhawila to participate in the elections for the majlis al-shura of the Hijaz. Citing the alleged precedent of the Young Turk administration early this century, Ibn Sa'ud reacted to the protests by denying the nakhawila the right to vote.264 According to anti-Saudi writings published in Beirut and elsewhere by members of the opposition in exile, the nakhawila staged a demonstration in 1952 (or 1953?) to demand equal treatment for themselves and an end to all kinds of humiliation, as well as an end to their persecution-as Shiites-by Saudi (Sunnite) men of religion. A son of Prince (later King) Faysal, Emir 'Abdallah alFaysal (for some time minister of the Interior), is said to have personally supervised a punitive expedition by soldiers and slaves (sic) against the defenceless peasants: first they were rounded up in their huts and brutally beaten. Then some of them were fettered to the backs of motor vehicles and dragged through the streets of Medina. Finally, many of the detainees were roughly thrown into lorries and whisked off to prison, where some of them died as a result of torture.265 Here again, it is difficult to ascertain the reliability of the report. It may be based on a single (perhaps biased) source. To the best of my knowledge, there exists no statement by the Saudi government concerning such an incident in 1952 or 1953. A scrutiny of the contemporary Middle Eastern press may yield some results to this effect, but this is a task we have not so far been able to carry out. There is also the possibility that the incident in question is referred to in some diplomatic correspondence.
Ibid. L'Arabia Saudiana, 92. 265 Jabhat al-islh: Jahim, 7; al-'Attar: Al-harakat, 70; al-Sa'id: Tirikh, 491f.; Amini: Makka, 305. (Both Jabhat al-islah and al-'Attar give 1953 as the year of this event, the two following 1952.)
264 263

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With regard to the demands raised by the nakhawila in their demonstration, the opposition publications describing the event do not give many details. One author notes that the nakhdwila were not allowed to testify in court (when Sunnites are involved). They may have demanded that the Saudi authorities abolish this practice. A passage in another publication seems to imply that on the same occasion, the nakhdwila demanded the right to form a niqdba, i.e. a kind of guild or union, such as had existed, the author claims, at the end of Ottoman rule and had been dissolved by the Saudis on the first day of their assumption of power in Medina. (Perhaps he is referring to a niqaba of Shiite muzawwiruin).266 In the early 1950s, there was indeed organized labour unrest in Saudi Arabia, which culminated in a mass strike at the oilfields around Dammam (Eastern Province) in October 1953. The government reacted, inter alia, by repeatedly banning all kinds of union organization. With the material at my disposal, however, it is impossible to ascertain whether or not there was any connection between the demonstration staged by the nakhawila in Medina and the unrest in the Eastern Province-where many workers and other employees of ARAMCO are Shiites.267 If the demonstration of the nakhawila took place in 1953 rather than 1952, we may speculate that there could be a connection between this incident and the death of King 'Abd al-'Aziz Ibn Sa'ufd in the same year (November 9, 1953). 4. A lonely minority:the religious aspect It is presumed that at some time under Ottoman rule, the nakhdwila were prohibited from entering the Prophet's mosque; however, they are said to have been ordered by one mayor of Medina to supply a guard around the mosque to drive away the dogs.268 In the late Ottoman period, Shiite ta'ziya practices were to some extent tolerated by the authorities: as Amin al-Dawla observed in 1899, Muharram elegies for Imam Husayn could be recited more or less openly during gatherings of the nakhawila in the 'Awali

266 Al-Sa'id, ibid., 492. 267 Hasan: Al-shi'a, vol. 2, 296ff. 268 Rifat: vol.

Mir'at,

1, 440; Rutter, op. cit., 552.

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region.269 It is difficult to say whether the Shiite villages of that region have witnessed any public processions commemorating Imam Husayn's martyrdom. Self-flagellation and other related practices would probably not have been permitted in public, but may have been performed behind closed doors during private majalis. It should be remembered, however, that flagellation had come to the western Arab Shiite communities (such as those of Jabal 'Amil) at a relatively late stage.270 With regard to the Hijaz, we may assume that, if any, it was Shiite mujzwirin and visitors from the East who imported these practices, and that the nakhawila would not necessarily have participated. Recent oppositional publications criticize the Saudis for preventing the nakhawila from practising their religious customs.271 With regard to this criticism, we should bear in mind that a number of measures taken by the Wahhabis against what they perceived as bida' affected Sunnis and Shi'is alike. The public celebration of the birthday of Prophet Muhammad and Sufi dhikrs would be cases in point.272 But there can be no doubt that any outward expression of the nakhawila's Shiite customs are more or less strictly suppressed by the Saudi authorities. As compared to the situation in the Eastern Province (Qat.if and Ahsa'), the Shiites of Medina are
"neither allowed to proclaim their faith nor to perform their rituals openly; they may not declare their call to prayer, and must not wear the traditional turban, though foreign pilgrims are excluded from this prohibition (...). Government employees who have to join in congregational prayer may not display any outwardsigns of being Shi'a, such as using the turba."273

Moreover, the nakhdwila are not allowed to build mosques, but may assemble in so-called majalis husayniya (see below). On the other hand, they cannot really be prevented from entering the haram and praying there: given the growth of the town's population (ac269 Safar ndmah, 265. 270 Ende: The 26-28. Flagellations, 271 See titles mentioned in fn.

265; further Hasan: Al-shi'a,vol. 2, passim, and 42-44. Al-Lajnaal-Duwaliya: .Huqfuq, 272See the article by MarkSedgwick in this issue. 273 Khoei: The Shi'a, 5. The so-called shahada thalithain the adhdn (the formula "I bear witness that 'Ali is the wali of God") is, of course, to be avoided in public. For the dispute over the use of the turba (prayer tablet, Persian muhr-i namdz) by Shiite visitors from abroad see Shirazi: Al-ihtijdjdt, 13-16 (Mundzardt, 17-22).

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cording to the 1974 census, almost 200,000 even then)274 as well as the growing number of Saudi and foreign visitors, it would be difficult for the guards and servants of the mosque to single out the nakhawila and prevent them from entering. It is more likely that the complaint of being discriminated against refers (inter alia) to the fact that public Shiite ceremonies such as ta'ziya-processions, and especially passion plays etc., are forbidden. A Lebanese Shiite scholar who visited the nakhawila during the pilgrimage season of 1964, however, mentions their husayniya where he delivered a lecture on the occasion of a Shiite holiday, the 'id al-ghadir. The scholar in question, Muhammad Jawad Mughniya (d. Dec. 1979), did so, he says, at the request of Shaykh Muhammad 'Ali al-'Amri, who was then the religious leader of the nakhawila. Mughniya states that a large crowd attended his lecture.275 As for the Husayniya mentioned by Mughniya, it is probably identical to the one described by Yousif al-Khoei in 1996 as the place where the main commemoration of 'Ashura' was performed. According to this author, it "is situated in a run-down farm away from the centre", in the neighbourhood of a mosque named after Salman al-Farisi. In addition to this large one mentioned by alKhoei, there are today a number of other Husayniyas in Medina (about ten altogether), including one for women. All of them are to be found in unmarked houses, i.e. situated inside buildings without any outward signs or inscriptions.276 It is obvious that, even under Saudi rule, the nakhawila have provided (and still provide) opportunities for Shiite pilgrims to commemorate the death of the martyrs of the Al al-bayt according to tradition and without Wahhabi interference. An Iranian author thus advises his co-religionists that
"it is better to perform (the ceremonies of) 'azddariand the lamentation over the wretchedness and martyrdom of Fatima as well as of the Imams (buried at) al-Baqi'in the company of (local) Shiites and inside their living quarters, awayfrom the glances of Sunnites."277

In the chapter about his stay in Medina in 1950, an Iranian author, Sultanhusayn Tabandah Gunabadi (also known as Riza 'Alishah,
"Al-Madina", EI, vol. 5, 999. Hadhihi, 50; Tajarib, 374. 276 TheShi'a, 5. 277 Bayglari: Ahkam, 353.
275 274

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born in 1913/14) quotes the complaint of a Saudi Wahhabi scholar about the unacceptable behaviour of the nakhawila. According to this person, one Ibrahim al-Salam (sic), who at the time was chief librarian of the haram, the nakhawila still practice the sabb alshaykhayn,i.e. the cursing of Abu Bakr and 'Umar. This custom, the Iranian author admits, should indeed be abandoned.278 There can be no doubt that the great majority of the 'ulama' teaching at the haram as well as at the Islamic University of Medina (established in 1961/62)279 invariably take a wholly negative view of the Shia in general, and of any genuine rapprochement between Sunnites and Shiites in particular. It is, therefore, still unthinkable that a Shiite foreigner or a Saudi Shiite from the Hijaz or from the Eastern Province should be allowed to study regularly at one of these institutes in Medina-with the exception, perhaps, of a person who had previously declared his conversion to Sunnism officially and convincingly. Likewise, the proposal made by the Iranian scholar Mirza Khalil Kamarah'i (Kamare'i), in a letter to King Faysal in December 1964, that the study of Imami Shi'ifiqh should be introduced into the teaching program at the Prophet's mosque in Medina (and Iranian students be admitted there) appears to be totally unrealistic, and has been treated as such by Saudi religious and political authorities.280 5. Religious guidance It seems that there was (and probably still is) a tradition among the nakhawila of inviting Shiite scholars from abroad to stay with them for some time and to act as religious authorities. In a biography of Sayyid 'Abd al-Husayn Sharaf al-Din, a Shiite Lebanese scholar, it is reported that, at the request of the nakhawila, he gave religious lectures and advised them on Muslim ethics when he came to Medina in 1328/1910-11.281 Probably Sayyid Muhsin al-Amin, who visited Medina three times in his life, did likewise.282 For 1964, we have the example of Mughniyajust mentioned.
278 Khdtirat, 80f., 84f. 279 Badr, vol. 3, 236-41; Bulayhishi, 85-105; Ansari: Al-ta'lim, 610-40. 280 Mandzil al-wahy, 110. 281 106. About Sharaf al-Din see art. in vol. 314f.

Qubaysi: Hayat, 282 About this person see above, fn. 91.

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After World War II, the Iranian Ayatollah Burujirdi (d. 1961), for several years the highest Shiite religious authority,283 even sent one of his former students to Medina in order "to keep the remnants of Shiism alive" there.284 This representative, a man called Muhammad Taqi Taliqani, suddenly died in Medina in 1953, about two years after his arrival.285 Thirteen years later, his younger brother, the Iranian writer Jalal Al-i Ahmad (d. 1969)who had been a member of the Tudeh Party for some time-went on a pilgrimage to Mecca and later visited Medina. However, he did not get very far with his enquiries among the nakhawila about the circumstances of his brother's death.286 There may be, in Qom or elsewhere, letters and other documents concerning Muhammad Taqi Taliqani's activities in Medina, but even if they existed, they would not yet be made available. Muhammad Taqi Taliqani was not the only person to be sent to Medina as a representative of the Ayatollahs of Qom. About one year after the latter's death, Hajj Sayyid Ahmad Lawasani was ordered by Burujirdi to go to Medina in a similar capacity. An Iranian author briefly mentions him and his activities there in an account of a pilgrimage made in 1956.287 From the material available to me, it is not clear how long Lawasani had been in Medina. Over several years, another religious scholar, Shaykh 'Abd alHusayn Faqihi Rashti (born in Najaf in 1903), went to Mecca and Medina during the hajj season in order to advise the Iranian pilgrims on all matters related to the shari'a and more particularly on the pilgrimage. This he did at the behest of his teacher, Burujirdi, and he continued to do so after the latter's death (1961) at least until the early 1970s. However, his main task was the instruction of pilgrims, not the guidance of the native Shi'is of Medina.288 A discussion of Burujirdi's policy of sending representatives abroad would fall outside the scope of the present study. What
283 See articles in EI, Iranica, vol. 4, supplement 3-4, 157f., and Encyclopaedia 376-79. 284Al-i Ahmad: Khasi,139 (Engl. translation 115). 285Razi: Athar,vol. 2, 348f.; Ganjinah,vol. 4, 506, and vol. 7, 66 (portraits in Athar,vol. 2, 349, and Ganjinah,vol. 4, 692). 286Khasi,40, 66f., 167 (English translation 27, 45f., 115); see Mottahedeh: The Mantle,303f. 287 Razi: Athar,vol. 2, 349; Salhr:Armaghan, 28, 34. 26, 288 Razi: Ganjinah,vol. 2, 222f.

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interests us here is rather how these representatives of Qom were received by the local Shiite community, especially since their own religious leader, Shaykh 'Amri, was a follower of the maraji' residing in Najaf. Another question is whether or not the Saudi authorities were fully informed about these developments. From the sparse data available it is clear at least that the nakhawila have had their own religious leaders in modern times (though probably not in an uninterrupted succession), but have also been eager to receive foreign scholars in order to gain their spiritual support. We may assume that those of the latter who carried an Iranian passport were (at least during the greater part of the Pahlavi period) in a somewhat better position vis-a-vis the Saudi authorities than any indigenous religious leader of the nakhdwila. With regard to these local 'ulam', it is an open question where these men received their (higher) religious education. Some may have studied in the Iraqi 'atabat for some time. In his account of his visits to Medina in the late Ottoman period, Sayyid Muhsin alAmin mentions two learned men from 'Awali he met there. Both had been students at Najaf.289 Men such as Shaykh Muhammad 'Ali al-Hajutj probably acted primarily as religious authorities at all-among among their own tribe, and only occasionally-if the nakhawila of Medina. Concerning Shaykh Muhammad 'All al-'Amri, already mentioned above (p. 330), we may assume that his nisba points to the Banuf 'Amr, a subtribe of the Harb.290 In fact al-Khoei calls him "an elderly religious and tribal leader".291A portrait of this person, who is called al-'allama by Mughniya, can be found in Hamza al-Hasan's book on the Shia of Saudi Arabia-to the best of my knowledge the only photograph of a "real" nakhili published so far.292According to oral information I was able to gather about him in 1995, Shaykh Muhammad cAll al-'Amri received his religious education mainly in Najaf. His principal teacher there, in the 1940s and 50s, was Sayyid Baqir (ibn al-Sayyid 'All) al-Ahsa'i, known as al-Shakhs. This person (who is called "Ayatollah" by some) was born in a
289 A'yan, vol. 10, 364f.; see above, p. 289. 290 Biladi: Nasab, 66ff.; Oppenheim: Die Beduinen, vol. 2, 379-82.

291 The Shi'a, 5. 292 Al-shi'a, vol. 2, 367.

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village of al-Ahsa' in 1316/1898-99. He came to Najaf, as a child, in 1321/1903-4, and lived there until his death in 1962. Having been a student of Mirza Muhammad Husayn al-Na'ini and a number of other prominent Mujtahids, he later became one of the most successful teachers himself, while the number of his worksto be rather limited.293 at least of the printed ones-seems It was with this scholar that our Shaykh 'Amri studied in the first place. He seems to have been rather close to his teacher, and is even said to have married one of his daughters, who followed him to Medina when he returned there. After the death of al-Shakhs, Shaykh 'Amri continued his studies in Najaf for some time, and especially with the two famous Ayatollahs Muhsin al-Hakim (d. 1970) and Abfi 1-Qasim al-Khfu'i (d. 1992). The exact date of his return to Medina is not known to me. Likewise I am not able to say whether, before coming to Najaf, Shaykh 'Amri received his primary religious instruction in Medina itself or in the vicinity of the holy city, and if so, who his teacher was-a local (nakhdwila) teacher, a mujdwir or some other person. It is unlikely that he would have been prepared-or been allowed-to enrol as a regular student at any Sunnite institute of learning in the Hijaz or elsewhere. Rather, we may assume that he went directly to Najaf in his youth. Possibly on his way there or after graduation, i.e. before his final return to Medina, he may have stayed in Bahrayn or in al-Ahsa', i.e. the home of his teacher, Sayyid Baqir al-Shakhs. (There are ties between the Shiites of alAhsa' and those of Medina, but no details are known to me). According to al-Khoei, there are now (1996) "also a handful of other Shi'a religious figures in Medina",294 but for many years, Shaykh Muhammad al-'Amri has been the main representative of the leading maraji' of Najaf such as Sayyid Muhsin al-Hakim, Abfi 1-Qasim al-Khi'i and, currently, Ayatollah 'All Sistani. On the occasion of his visit to the place where Shaykh 'Amri holds congregational prayer, al-Khoei noticed portraits of (his grandfather) Abu 1-Qasim al-Khu'i as well as of both Ayatollah Gulpaygani (d. 1993) and Sistani.
293 al-Shakhs: Min 'ulama'ina (Shaykh 'Amri is mentioned in a list of his students on page 298); on the family of al-Shakhs see idem (?), Al-usar, 114-16, and Amini: Mu'jam rijal, vol. 2, 722. 294 The Shi'a, 5.

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In addition to leading midday and evening prayers and also prayers for the dead, Shaykh al-'Amri performs marriage ceremonies. As there are no Shiite courts in Medina, he acts as an unofficial arbiter in disputes involving nakhawila only. Likewise, he is consulted in matters related to Shiite awqaf. it is, incidentally, not clear what has happened to the old ones, but it seems that new foundations have been established by Shiites, which are registered separately from those of the Sunnites.295 There is some indication that a tradition of religious learning has continued in the family of Shaykh 'Amri: on July 1, 1987, i.e. a few weeks before the "bloody Friday" in Mecca (July 31),296 a report appeared in Kayhdn-i Hawa'i of Tehran dated June 23, 1987, saying that a prominent man of religion in Saudi Arabia, namely "the leader (rahbar) of the Shiites of Medina", Shaykh Kazim 'All al-'Amri, had been arrested. According to "well informed sources", Saudi security agents had arrested him in midApril, following a sermon he had preached on the occasion of laylat nisf sha'bdn (which is considered by the Twelver Shia to be the birthday of the Mahdi). Shaykh Kazim is mentioned by Hamza al-Hasan as Shaykh Muhammad 'Ali al-'Amri's son.297 As I have no reliable information about Shaykh Kazim's arrest, viz. its political background, duration and possible repercussions on the nakhawila, I shall refrain from commenting on this event. It is clear that the nakhawila are presently in danger of becoming the object of Shiite (not only Iranian) revolutionary agitation, and also the target of extreme suspicion by the Saudi authorities. As a result of tension between Saudi Arabia and Iran, that suspicion is partly political, but at the same time intertwined with longstanding controversial issues of religion such as the sabb al-sahdba. A wave of polemical literature published by both sides especially after the "Bloody Friday" of 1987 clearly supports this assertion.298 There are recent fatdwd issued by leading Wahhabi 'ulama' such as 'Abd al-'Aziz Ibn Baz, Ibn Jibrin and others to the effect that Shiites (Twelver as well as Zaydis) are heretics and that, accord-

295 Ibid.
296 298

297 Al-shi'a, vol. 1, 66.

See Kramer: Behind the Riot; idem, Tragedy, and Khomeini's Messengers.

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ingly, "true" Muslims should not even eat the meat of animals slaughtered by a Shi'i butcher, for example.299 Nevertheless, some relaxation of Saudi Wahhabi policy towards the Shiites of the Kingdom is said to have been observed after the Gulf War of 1991, and especially since 1993/94. There have even been promises that the ban on building mosques and Husayniyas would be lifted and (public?) ta'ziyaceremonies allowed. It seems, however, that such a relaxation, if any, is intended for the Eastern Province only and not for Medina.300 Compared to their co-religionists in the Eastern Province, the Shiites of Medina appear to be scarcely politicized even following the Iranian Revolution of 1978/79. They have for the most part avoided involvement in both domestic politics and in the recent political tension following the clashes in Medina and Mecca, especially in the 1980s, between Shiite (mainly Iranian) pilgrims and Saudi security forces during the annual hajjseason.301 is said that It
in these years Shaykh Muhammad 'Ali al-'Amri used to leave

Medina at the time of the hajj in order to avoid being drawn into the nascent conflicts.302 One point of contention which comes up time and again is the demand that the two holy cities (or at least the organization of, and control over both the hajj to Mecca and the ziyira to Medina) should be entrusted to an international Muslim body. The idea as such is not new. Over the years, it has been put forward by different authors, movements and politicians-both Sunnite and Shiite.303 is clear that such a demand, if advanced by Iran or any It Shiite group in that country or elsewhere, will sooner or later call the attention of Muslims all over the world to the long-standing existence of a Shiite community in the Hijaz. As a result, the Saudi authorities (who, of course, totally reject the idea of international control over the haramayn)are in turn monitoring the behaviour
299Hasan: Al-shi'a,vol. 2, 341; idem, Dajja;"Issues"(Paris),January 1992, 6f.; see also Ibn Baz et al.: Fatdwahay'atkibdr,136; idem: Fatawaisldmiya, vol. 3, 10407. 300 al-Rasheed: The Politics,esp. 113f. 301 See Kramer (fn. 296 above) and the same author's annual surveysin MiddleEast Contemporary Survey, esp. from vol. 11 (1987) onwards. e.g., Contemporary Survey,vol. 11 (1987), 175f.; further Massacre, esp. 77-85, also Al-i Ahmad: Khasi,45 (Engl. transBangash: TheMakkah lation 31).
302 AI-Khoei, 5. 303 See, Middle East

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of this minority group with increasing distrust. They may even be considering preventive action. So far the Iranian government as well as most of its allies and sympathisers abroad have refrained from launching any vociferous propaganda campaign in favour of the nakhdwila. Such a campaign would not in fact help them. Drawing international attention to their difficult situation is, however, another matter. Bibliography
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.Map .1

II,

(From: John

Lewis Burckhardt's Travels in Arabia,

London 1829).

Map 1. Medina (From:John Lewis Burckhardt's Travels in Arabia, II, London 1829).

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?' 7 ?P

Map 2. Medina. (From: Richards F. Burton's Personal Narrative of a Pilgrimage to Al-Madinah and Meccah, I, London 1893.

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