Functions of discourses on heresy: The invention of zandaqah in the early Islamic period

Tanaka, Yuko

Abstract

This dissertation attempts to demonstrate that the Arabic word zindīq, an ambiguous appellation to discredit various targets characterized with heretical tendencies (zandaqah), functioned as a rhetorical device through which Muslim authors displayed their imaginations surrounding past events and figures, while claiming the legitimacy of their religious/political positions, during the early Islamic period. While modern scholars generally perceive the original meaning of zindīq, i.e., the meaning before its connotation expanded, to be Manichaean, this study purports that before the later third/ninth centuries the term was used among Muslims more often to indicate a denier of fundamental Islamic creeds. The original meaning of zindīq, i.e., Manichaean, was restored when different sects of heresy in Islam, such as Ismāʿīlism, were correlated with the term.
It will be articulated that the ambiguity of the early use of this term allowed Muslim writers to label different groups at once, which benefitted them in the historical contextualization of their own positions. By describing zindīqs as archetypal enemies, authors connected themselves to righteous figures or regimes who fought against the heretics of old. Chapters 1-3 respectively analyses discourses concerning the history of Iranian heretics, zindīqs among Qurashī tribesmen, and religious persecution conducted by the Abbasid caliphs. The discussion reveals how views of later authors are shown in the way they describe zindīqs who lived in the past and incidents regarding them. Chapter 4 analyses the portrayal of three especially well-known zindīqs, Ṣāliḥ b. ʿAbd al-Quddūs, ʿAbd al-Karīm b. Abī ʿAwjāʾ, and Ibn al-Muqaffaʿ, which reveals that their historical personalities were constructed during the development of different divisions of Islamic thoughts from around the third/ninth, to the fourth/tenth, centuries.
Throughout the entirety of this discursive discussion, the study offers new perspectives on the significance of heresy in Islam, by determining its role as a “narrative” tool, i.e., equipment to make narratives rich with implication. Zindīqs are often more symbolic than real, and their existence in narrations enabled the articulation of Islam under its formation.

Citation

Tanaka, Y. Functions of discourses on heresy: The invention of zandaqah in the early Islamic period. (Thesis). SOAS University of London

• Thesis Type: Thesis
• Deposit Date: May 16, 2025
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.25501/soas.00463325
• Additional Information: 458 pages
• Award Date: Jan 1, 2025