Vilifying 'Ali and Denying it in Syria

Analysis of the Traditions Contained in The History of Damascus

Abstract

The History of Damascus, edited in Damascus during the latter half of the 12th century, records traditions that 'Ali b. Abi Talib was vilified by Syrian Muslims in Damascus until the 9th century. Although such vilification of 'Ali has already been mentioned by former studies as representative of Syrian support for the Banu Umayya, its background has not been closely analysed yet. Also, the character of the records and the evaluation of those traditions by The History of Damascus, which records the traditions to deny them, have hardly been discussed.
Given the research trends, this article analyses the traditions about 'Ali, the Banu Umayya and Syria, centering on the vilification of 'Ali and the annotations in The History. Consequently, the following point is clear. The Syrian vilification of 'Ali until the 9th century was representative of political partisanship for the Banu Umayya and revival movement of Umayyad caliphate. Furthermore, the descriptions in The History of Damascus are characteristic in displaying the co-existence of reverence for 'Ali and support for the Banu Umayya. From this point, we can see a local trait in Damascus Muslim society during the latter half of the 12th century. It is that the society accepted reverence for 'Ali, while on the other hand, it preserved a strong support for the Banu Umayya. It is possible that the reasons was that the Syrian Muslims' political support for the Banu Umayya transformed into a local nostalgia after the defeat of the revival of Umayyad caliphate.
It is the historical and local character of the reverence for 'Ali that strikes one from the analysis. At the same time, the local character of the traditions about the early periods of the Muslim community is made clear. Traditions recorded by local histories can be material by which we compare social situations of different periods and regions, because of their commonality and omnipresence.