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A society remembers its past by recourse to legends. In the case of Islamic society, a particularly interesting legendary event is that of the “Hurub al-Ridda” (the “Apostasy Wars”), and of this event a particularly interesting legendary individual is "Musaylima" the “al-Kadhdhaab” (“the arch-liar”). The Apostasy Wars are said by to have been a series of bloody campaigns waged against the Caliphate shortly after the death of the Prophet Muhammad by a broad assortment of Arab groups, circa 633-4 CE. Musaylima was one of the combatants: portrayed as an ancient and lecherous man, he claimed to be a prophet like Muhammad — and as leader of one of the most powerful tribes in the peninsula, he possessed the power to back it up. However, after dogged and brutal campaigning, he was nevertheless defeated by the Caliphate and slain.
Both legends come down to us not from any Arabic saga or epic, but from Muslim historical works of the Eighth and Ninth Centuries CE, in particular that of Abu Jafar Muhammad ibn Jarir al-Tabari (d. 923 CE). Tabari was a master historian: with a flick of his pen, he may very well have been able to delete Musaylima's existence. Why didn't he?
Clearly something about Musaylima unnerved Tabari. After all, why else would he devote an entire volume of his epic History to the conflict, and a nearly a quarter of that volume specifically to a loser called an “arch-liar”? Indeed, why decry him as an “arch-liar,” or even a liar at all, when it would be simpler and safer to forget that he even existed? The answer must be that someone wanted Musaylima to be remembered, and they were actively doing so.
I propose that what we see in Tabari’s History is an artifact from a forgotten intellectual war waged for control over the memory of Musaylima. Considering that the Musaylima legend is so closely connected to what has become the orthodox Sunni mythology of Islam's beginnings, this forgotten mnemonic conflict may have been at heart over control for the narrative of the origins of Islamic community itself. Deciphering what about Musaylima or his memory so disturbed Tabari, as well as who was remembering the “false prophet” and why, will be no easy task, requring much in the way of deconstruction and literary criticism. If nothing else, I hope to at least recover the “historical Musaylima” as much as reasonably or pragmatically possible.
My analysis operates within the framework developed by Drs. Michael Cook and Patricia Crone, beginning with their groundbreaking work, Hagarism: The Making of the Islamic World (1977), as well as that of John Wansbrough's Quranic Studies: Sources and Methods of Scriptural Interpretation (1977) and James Holeman's "Looking Behind the Veil of an Idealized Past: The Useful Legacy of a False Prophet" (2006). My advisor is Dr. Robert Dobie, Assistant Professor of Medieval Christian and Islamic philosophy, comparative philosophy, and metaphysics at La Salle University.
PDF coming soon!
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