Dar al-hijra

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For the mosque in Virginia, see Dar Al-Hijrah.

The term dār al-hijra (

Isma'ilis
, for their strongholds, which were to serve both as bases of operations and as nuclei of 'true' Islamic communities.

Early use

The exile, or migration, of

dār al-ḥarb) and thus unable to practice their religion freely and be liable to commit wrong-doing, should migrate to Islamic lands; else they are to be condemned to hell.[2][3]

As a result, in early Islam, following the rapid

Zaydi Shi'a.[5] Thus, in the 680s, during the civil war of the Second Fitna, the Kharijite leader Nafi ibn al-Azraq, "held that only those who actively supported him were genuinely Muslims, and spoke of them as muhājirūn, who made the hijra to his camp, which was dār al-hijra" (W. Montgomery Watt).[6]

In the 9th century, the great

Zaidi imam and theologian al-Qasim al-Rassi (785–860) considered the Muslim rulers of his time as illegitimate tyrants, and the lands they ruled as "abode of injustice" (dār al-ẓulm). Consequently, according to al-Rassi, it was the duty of every faithful Muslim to emigrate.[7] In the words of the historian Wilferd Madelung, "The Quranic duty of hijra, imposed initially on the faithful in order that they should dissociate from the polytheists, was permanent and now applied to their dissociation from the unjust and oppressors".[7]

Isma'ilism

The first Isma'ili dār al-hijra was established in 885 by the missionary (

daʿwa).[8] The historian Heinz Halm
described this event thus:

This name recalls the Hijra, the emigration of the Prophet [Muhammad] from pagan Mecca to Medina, and with it the founding of the original Islamic community, which soon began to expand militarily: as the Prophet abandoned the corrupt Mecca and made a new beginning with a few loyal followers in exile, thus the followers of the daʿwa, the true "believers" or "friends of God", now abandoned the corrupted community of the Muslims, who had become unbelievers, to begin, in the dār al-hijra, the creation of an Islam renewed from its very foundations.

— Heinz Halm, Das Reich des Mahdi, pp. 56–57

The analogy was furthered by giving the name of muhājirūn to those who abandoned their homes to join Ibn Hawshab in the dār al-hijra. Likewise, those followers who remained behind were referred by the term "helpers" (

Fatimid Isma'ili principality, Multan was the de facto dār al-hijra for the local Isma'ilis.[15]

The concept continued to be used by the Isma'ili daʿwa, especially in

Nizari Isma'ili state and its Order of Assassins.[17]

References

  1. ^ Watt 1971, pp. 366–367.
  2. ^ Verskin 2015, pp. 31–32.
  3. ^ a b Peters 2004, p. 368.
  4. ^ Verskin 2015, p. 32.
  5. ^ a b Verskin 2015, p. 33.
  6. ^ Watt 1971, p. 367.
  7. ^ a b Madelung 1995, p. 454.
  8. ^ Halm 1991, pp. 55–56.
  9. ^ a b Halm 1991, p. 57.
  10. ^ Daftary 2007, pp. 108–109.
  11. ^ Halm 1991, p. 58.
  12. ^ Daftary 2007, p. 126.
  13. ^ Halm 1991, pp. 58–59.
  14. ^ Daftary 2007, p. 149.
  15. ^ Daftary 2007, p. 166.
  16. ^ Daftary 2007, pp. 327–328.
  17. ^ Daftary 2007, p. 339.

Sources

  • Avcu, Ali (2011). "Dār al-hijra in Khārijī and Ismāʿīlī thought". Ilahiyat Studies: A Journal on Islamic and Religious Studies. 2 (2): 169–187.
    doi:10.12730/13091719.2011.22.36
    .
  • ISBN 978-0-521-61636-2
    .
  • ISBN 978-3-406-35497-7
    .
  • ISBN 978-90-04-09834-3
    .
  • Peters, R. (2004). "Hid̲j̲ra". In
    ISBN 978-90-04-13974-9
    .
  • Verskin, Alan (2015). "The Concept of Hijra (Migration) in Medieval Iberia and the Maghrib". Islamic Law and the Crisis of the Reconquista: The Debate on the Status of Muslim Communities in Christendom. Leiden and Boston: Brill. pp. 31–60.
    ISBN 978-90-04-28319-0
    .
  • Watt, W. Montgomery (1971). "Hid̲j̲ra". In
    OCLC 495469525
    .
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