Arabic oration in early Islam: religion, ritual, and rhetoric

Across the mosques, homes, battlefields, and open town spaces of the Middle East in the seventh and eighth centuries ad, religion, politics, and aesthetics coalesced in the richly artistic public performance of spontaneous Arabic oration (khuṭba). Exquisite in rhetorical craftsmanship, these interactive speeches and sermons by the Prophet Muhammad (d. 632), Imam Ali (d. 661), and other political and military leaders were also the major vehicle of policymaking and persuasion, and the primary conduit for dissemination of ethical, religious, and legal teachings. The Friday sermon that is an intrinsic part of Muslim ritual across the globe in our present time has a long history rooted in the first Friday sermon delivered by Muhammad in Medina, and more broadly in these multifunctional orations of the early Islamic world. In this chapter, I consider Arabic-Islamic oration across different social domains in its foundational age and situate religious speech within them. Drawing on a decade of research for my book published in 2019, Arabic Oration: Art and Function, I discuss the major features of classical Arabic oration, with a focus on religion, ritual, and the rhetoric of orality; further details for each of the points discussed below may be found in my book. I begin with a section on rhetoric, discussing the oral milieu of early Islamic oration and its aesthetic memory-based techniques. In a second section focusing on religion, I then discuss the pious themes of the early oration, and their diffusion across political and military speechmaking, which shows how boundaries between religion and other spheres of life were fluid in the early Islamic period. In the third section, on ritual, I say a few words about ceremonial aspects of the oration that served, among other things, as a mode of authority assertion. Altogether, I present the religious face of Arabic oration in early Islam, and some of its interconnections with art and society...

Los sermones de ‘Alī ibn Abī Ṭālib en la confluencia entre las enseñanzas islámicas del Corán y la ética cultural basada en las tradiciones orales sobre la naturaleza de la Arabia del siglo VII

Sermons attributed to ‘Alī ibn Abī Ṭālib (c. 600-661, first Shi‘a imam and fourth Sunni caliph) promoted core Qur’anic doctrine and ethics through an aesthetic steeped in the oral, nature-based, poetic culture of seventh-century Arabia. Using traditional Arabian metaphors of camels, watering holes, and pithy, rhythmic, orality-grounded cadences, ‘Ali urged his audience to worship the One God, follow the guidance of His prophet Muhammad, shun worldliness, perform good deeds, and prepare for the imminent hereafter. Through a close reading of his most celebrated discourses, this paper explores these teachings and their religious and cultural underpinnings.Los sermones atribuidos a ‘Alī ibn Abī Ṭālib (c. 600-661, primer imam chií y cuarto califa suní) fomentaron las doctrinas y la ética coránicas fundacionales mediante una estética oratoria, imbuida de la cultura poética oral basada en metáforas de la naturaleza, característica de la Arabia del siglo VII. ‘Ali utilizaba metáforas tradicionales de camellos y abrevaderos, junto con expresiones rítmicas y lacónicas llenas de cadencias de la oralidad, para instar a los oyentes a adorar al Dios único, seguir la dirección de su profeta Muhammad, rehuir las cosas mundanas, practicar las buenas obras y prepararse para la inminente vida en el más allá. A través de un análisis pormenorizado de sus discursos más célebres, este artículo explora dichas enseñanzas y sus bases religiosas y culturales

Classical Islamic oration’s art, function, and life-altering power of persuasion: the ultimate response by Hammam to Ali’s sermon on piety, and by Hurr to Husayn’s battle oration in Karbala

This article discusses classical Islamic oration’s power of persuasion through two lenses, one wide-angled, one focused. First, it introduces topographies of Arabic oration in its foundational oral period in early Islam, addressing notable aspects of its art, function, and provenance. Then, it pivots to speak of major life changes induced by particular orations, or sermon-induced ‘conversion’. Two early Islamic orations that induced such transformations are transcribed and briefly discussed: (1) the ‘sermon describing the truly pious’ by the successor of the Prophet according to the Shia and the fourth caliph according to the Sunnis, Imam Ali ibn Abi Talib (d. 661) in Kufa, Iraq, which is said to have caused his associate Hammam to give up his life spirit, and (2) the battlefield speech addressed to the surrounding Umayyad army by Ali’s son, the Shia Imam Husayn (d. 680), in Karbala, also in Iraq, which is reported to have won over the enemy sub-commander Hurr to Husayn’s side and prompted him to fight for Husayn unto death. Both are striking examples of the life-altering effects of intense and eloquent sermons, manifest here in the ultimate passage — an end to life in this world and entry into the hereafter

<i>“The Intellect is the Essence of the Human”</i>: The Arabic Poem of the Intellect (<i>Qaṣīdat al-ʿAql</i>) by the Indian Fatimid-Ṭayyibī Dāʿī al-Muṭlaq Sayyidna Taher Saifuddin (1888–1965)

The 177-verse Arabic Poem of the Intellect (Qaṣīdat al-ʿAql) composed by the Indian Fatimid-Ṭayyibī Dāʿī al-Muṭlaq Sayyidna Taher Saifuddin (d. 1385/1965) breaks new ground in substance and form. In form, the poem creatively amalgamates the genres of qaṣīdah (poem), risālah (treatise), and waṣiyyah (testament) to produce an eloquent and innovative hybrid text. In content, it uniquely combines a philosophical exposition on Islamic theology and ethics with a road map to living a Pure Life. After an opening frame that provides a philosophical foundation, the poem’s three large thematic sections draw on the Qurʾan, the Prophet’s Hadith, and the sermons of Imam ʿAlī to describe principles of belief and approach, articles of character and deeds, and the grounding of both—abstract philosophy and concrete instructions—in love for and allegiance to the divine guides, the Imams and Dāʿīs, who are “God’s rope.” It has a gentle tone, preaching harmony between all people on earth, tranquility in one’s life, cheerfulness and positivity, and an atmosphere of love and caring. The closing section brings the poet directly into the frame of reference, stating that he, as the incumbent Dāʿī, is himself the manifestation of God’s rope in the current time, and those who follow his guidance will return to Paradise. The present article provides a window into Sayyidna Taher Saifuddin’s remarkable poem, translating and analyzing it against the backdrop of Fatimid and Ṭayyibī theological works and, briefly, the colonial and post-colonial fabric of early 20th century India, to explore a significant and largely unknown chapter of Arabic poetry