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How to Criticize a Numbskull: “Ideal” Asceticism in
Ibn al-Jawzī’s Kitāb Akhbār al-Ḥamqā wa-l-Mughaffalīn
Jeremy Farrell, Emory University
Van Gelder’s Paradox: Exclusivity
if {Fool =/= Rogue;then Fool > Rogue; else Fool < Rogue}
Van Gelder’s “Natural” Categories
Comedy Ability Vocation
– “Low” “Fool” “Rogue”
+ “High” “Intelligent”
“Righteous”
Discourse of an Ideal: Intelligence/Ability
Discourse of an Ideal:Vocation
Discourse of an Ideal:Comedy
Cottom (1989)
“[Humor] is constructed through political differences [...]”
A joke, “divides [manifestations of] power to serve and maintain an ideal of authority.”
Presentation Outline
Akhbār al-Ḥamqā wa-l-MughaffalīnIdiocy vs. NumbskulleryRosenbaum (1999), Ghersetti (1992, 2010), Shinikov (2013)
Polemical Ingredients: Ibn al-Jawzī, Ḥanbalism and zuhd
“Inter-ascetic criticism”: Freiberger (2006)“Mild asceticism”: Hurvitz (1997, 2001)
Numbskullery: Rhetorical Strategy & TypologiesThe “double-down”Ostentation – Camouflage – Scatology
Ibn al-Jawzī’s notion of ḥamāqah
gharīzah
Congenital trait
Natural properties
Inevitability
Ḥumq amongst notable Muslims
Analytical Categories:”Exclusive” & “Natural”
“Stupidity” (ḥamāqah)
“Reason” (ʿaql)
–
+
Sub-ideal Categories:ḥamāqah AND taghfīl
Rosenthal (1956): “Fools”
Marzolph (1991): “Dummen” .
Pellat (1963): “Mad and Thoughtless Men”
Malti-Douglas (1985): “Stupid and Gullible People”
Zakharia (1995): “Idiots et Sots”
Shinikov (2013): “Fools and Ignoramuses”
Ideal Praxis:Anecdotes of Idiots and
NumbskullsX: Numbskull Qurʾan recitersXI: Numbskull ḥadīth-transmitters
XII: Numbskull princes & local rulersXIII: Numbskull judges
XIV: Numbskull chancery clerks & chamberlains
XV: Numbskulls who perform the call to prayer
XVI: Numbskull prayer leaders
XVII: Numbskull Bedouins
XVIII: Numbskull pedantsXIX: Numbskulls who incorrectly quote poetry
XX: Numbskull sermonizers & fire-and-brimstone preachers
XXI: Numbskull over-zealous ascetics (mutazahhidīn)XXII: Numbskull school-teachers
XXIII: Numbskull story-tellers
XXIV: A grab-bag of numbskulls
Bāb 9: “A group of the sound-of-mind (ʿuqalāʾ) who performed acts of stupidity and persisted in them, believing that they were correct; by which they became numbskulls.”
The Numbskull Blueprint
al-ḥamāqah+ al-iṣrār
= mughaffal
Analytic Responses to Asceticism:Ideal Types vs. Dialectics
Dialectic of Ideal Asceticism
Oliver Freiberger (2006): Asceticism and Its Critics
Ascetics “criticize [...] another context or tradition,” in order to, “reinforce and harden the differences between the two groups.”
“Mild Asceticism”:The Ḥanbalī Ideal
Hurvitz (cf idem, 2001)“[zuhd] encompasses a range of moral outlooks.”
“a cluster of moral sensibilities whose common feature is the tension between world embracing and world denying impulses.”
“[...] investigate how this ideal was manifested in society.”
Ibn al-Jawzī’s Authority: Two Ideals
“Mild” asceticism
Ascetic Example
“Mild” Deviance
Anti-Sufi Polemic
Ṣifat al-ṣafwah
ʿAbd al-Qādir al-Jīlānī
Tablīs Iblīs
Numbskull Ascetics: Typologies
Conspicuous Ascetics
riyāʾ
Camouflage
kalām
Disgusting practices
ḥumq
Correction
taghfīl
The Numbskull Dialectic
Fool Rogue
Intelligent Righteous
–
+
Numbskull
Critic