The authority of the jurists under the Almoravids
The basis of the Idrissid's politico-religious orientation was threefold : Zaydi[1], maliki and mutazili. The Zayidi went along with Shia dissent though not adopting all its tenets wholesale: From Sunni Islam, they retained the principle of « choice »
(ikhtiyâr) of the successor and refused to consider the two first caliphs, abu Bakr and Umar as « usurpers »
while still thinking that the imamship fell by right to Ali and Fatima's descent. In other words they borrowed from both major Muslim currents and held that the legitimate right to power must be defended militarily. Mutazilah[2] is thought to be the first school of speculative theology (Kalam). Its origin is associated with the debate around the case of a Muslim guilty of a sin considered serious: to the Kariji, he would be an « infidel »
(Kafir) but the Mutazali would consider him « immoral »
(fasiq), someone between the « faithful »
and the « Infidel »
. From the affirmation of God's absolute unicity, these Mutazili infer that the Qu'ran had to be “created”, which was variously met with adhesion or rejection by Muslim scholars and jurists. Under the Abassid Caliph al-Ma'mun[3], Mutazili thought became the power's official doctrine, imposed by force; but it was later rejected with equal violence during al Mutawakkil's[4] caliphate. At the beginning of the 10th century, al Ashari[5]defected from Mutazilah to compile a corpus of specifically Sunni references that encompass the thinking of the four main Sunni law schools: malikite, hanafite, shafiite, hanbalite.
The Idrisids adopted the Malikite legal doctrine. Malik Ibn Anas[6] was the first to write an Islamic law book : Al-Muwatta. This treatise is inspired by legal practice in the Medina community within which Malik Ibn Anas lived for a long time. He set store by the criteria of « Hadith » (recorded « saying » or « deed » attributed to the Prophet of Islam), « personal opinion » (ra'y) as well as «analogy » (qiyas). Among the 80 transmitters and readers of the Muwatta recorded in the Islamic sources, around ten hailed from al-Andalus or Ifriqiyya (among others Kairouan's Ibn Sinân[7]. At that stage, it would be hasty to talk of a « school »
based on a considered system that could undergird a well defined body of law and legislation: disagreements could be vehement; justice was meted out on an ad hoc basis, without systematic pronouncement, at least until Sahnun[8] who set forth the Mudawwana: a case law drawn from experience as opposed to the Hanafite school where cases were hypothetical. From the end of the 9th century the repetition-imitation approach (taglid) became widespread among jurists : everything got reduced to a known casuistry for which the master had provided prior solutions. Nevertheless, Almoravids didn't promote a legalistic version of Islam radically opposed to the traditional kalam nor to mysticism.
The Almoravids were warriors in the name of Islam: they originally gathered around Abdallah Ibn Yasin[9] who, circa 1048 formed a ribat[10] (fortress) bringing together men devoted to worship, prayer and warfare. For Ibn Yasin, a disciple of Yahya ibn Umar al-Lamtuni[11], himself influenced by Sidi Abu Imran al-Fasi[12], a Kairouan jurist met on his way back from theHajj[13], in 1039, Muslims must observe the Malekite tradition in the most rigorous way. This outlook was adopted by Yusuf Ibn Tashfin who in his political dealings had no qualms in resorting to tribal practice ranging from military campaigns against tribes deemed « infidel »
to sidelining the figure of Abu Bakr Ibn Umar[14] by showering him with gifts seized from the booty won in conquests (horses, weaponry or virgin slaves, fabrics...) via the award and allocation of major positions to members of his extended family. From the Andalusian architecture that fascinated him, he drew lessons for the constructions of mosques, palaces or ramparts in northern Africa and thus increased his prestige. Poets took it upon themselves to vaunt his merits and those of his successors such as his son Ali Ibn Yusuf[15]. The main feature of Almoravid government is the role granted to the fuqaha[16]trained in the Empire's affairs at the Kairouan School. According to their adversaries (Almohads), no aspect of life escaped the fatwa-s[17] issued by that group lead by its Qadi al-Quda, who coincidentally enjoyed financial clout through the management of the religious welfare funds (Zakat). Their practice would cause a well documented controversy between renowned scholars : Al-Ghazali[18], who criticised the failure to resort to reason to handle new cases, and Ceuta's Qadi Ayyad[19] as well as Cordoba's Qadi Ibn Hamdun[20] who ordered the burning of al-Ghazali's works and sentenced to death or exile all his disciples. Ibn Tumart, by disputing Malekite casuistry and referencing as found in the Furu[21]and pointing to the gap between the jurists' prescriptions and the realities of life for Muslims (who gave precedence to their choices in their personal and collective life) succeeded in gathering many fighters around him.
