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; I
111:1.i11l.ai11:: \.11:1.L
1.1,
..
""'""' Al1i1 'l'11r:d>' 1::
\.11
l>n dl'r1v1d /"r11111 1'\J'l'parl'11L
meaning is one
of
censure
(?Cihfrv.hii
'l-d/iamrn
wa.-inna.rnr7ynr idfinlf. {n:/1/i
'I
111111(/i ).
1
'
The
noun
titrab is also somewhat ambiguous: it means
both' dusL
'arnl ' arLl1 ',
and so the name might
arguably either be
translated
majestically as '
f:1.Ll14:r
of the earth', or more humbly as
'dustman
'.
6
As will appear,
boLh sla1t11: JHiOplo ror calling you Ahli Turab '. 'Ali turned
pale
1111 li1::1,ri11g Ll1iH, Ho
the
Prophet
took his
hand and
told
him
of his special position
in fHla.111, which
wnR
second only to that of JVln}.iammad himself (anta akhi
11J1H1Ja6ri ?111t klwlYi1ti i ahli . . .
.
9
Now the crucial element for the Shi'is lies
of cour8c in the latter part of the story (which often appears
as an independent
tradition) ; yet the first part unwittingly reveals
both that the
name ' Abii
Turab'
was coined by the people and not by Mu}:iammad, and that 'Ali
himself
regarded this designation as offensive,
and had
to be consoled by the Prophet.
t is precisely such revelations which yet another account seeks
to counter.
t describes how 'Ali left his home following a dispute with his
wife
Fatima,
and lay
on the
dusty
floor of
the
masjicl. \Vhcn the
Prophet
found
him
there,
he removed
the dust
from his back
and
said
to
him, 'Sit up, Abii Turab '.
10
Another version has it that when 'Ali was
angry
with Fatima it was
not
his
practice to say anything that might. annoy her; instead he would
pour
dust
on
his
head
as a
token of
his distress. That is
why
the
Prophet
addressed him as
' Abii Turab '.U In
both
versions it is
not
immediately obvious
what
the
Prophet
had
in
mind: he
may have
been describing the
state in
which he found
his son-in-law,
without
wishing
to
reproach him.
Yet
the fear of derogatory
interpretations
apparently prompted
the traditionists who cited
the story to
insist that
it
proved the very opposite, i.e. that ' Abii Turab' was the
sobriquet
most
favoured
by
'Ali.1
2
t
s difficult
to
reconcile
this statement
with the
story
on which
it
is based ; perhaps
the
underlying idea is
that
the
Prophet
deliberately used the name to cheer up a despondent 'Ali,
knowing that he
liked
best to be
addressed
in
that manner. "Whatever the correot explanation,
the
main
implication of the story is clear enough: 'Ali is the
henpecked
husband, Fatima
the
nagging
termagant, and
the ahl al-bayt
in
general
far
from perfect.13 No wonder that the Shi'i scholar Ibn Babawayhi
(d. 381/991)
is uncomfortable with this
tradition and
casts
doubts
on
its
authenticity.
14
The two versions which he nevertheless cites end on a
happy
note : the
Prophet
restores
marital harmony and then
emerges smiling,
having
reconciled ' the
two persons
most
beloved by
me and by
the
inhabitants of heaven
'.
15
In trying to piece together these traditions so as to obtain a
coherent whole
one is confronted by two difficulties. In the first place,
even
in
the seemingly
older
parts of
the traditions (referred to above as the core),
the
derogatory
' Ibn Shahrashiib, llfanaqib iil Abi Talib, ed. by a committee
of Najaf scholars, Najaf,
1376/1956,
II,
301l.
And
see J\ful.isin al-Amin,
Joe.
cit.
9
Ibn Babawayhi, op. cit., 157, cit. Ibn Shahrashiib,
Joe.
cit.;
Bi(1ar, IX,
11.
10
Al-Bukhari, $ahib, eel. J\L
L.
Kreh , 1862-1908,
I,
122, n, 435, IV, 159; Muslim,
$aMIJ,
Cairo, 1375/1950.
IV,
1874; al-Tabari, op. cit.,
I,
1272-3; Abu Faraj al-Isfahani,
Maqiitil
al-tiilibiyyin,
Cairo, 1368/1919, 25-6,
and the
references given on p. 26, n. 1 ; al-J;lalabi, op. cit.,
II , 136.
11
Ihn Hishiim, Joe.
cit.;
al-I;falabi, op. cit., 136-7. See also Mu]:isin al-Amin, op.
cit., III ,
l pp. 12-13.
1
2
See the references aboV e, n. 10.
13
This is the (rather biased) picture presentert by Lammens. See
especially his account of
the relationship between 'Ali
and
Fatima
after their
marria.ge, in
the
third
chapter of
his Fatima
et les filles
de
Mahomet,
39-60. According
to
Lammens, 'Aboii Torah, dans le
principe
une
injure,
signi:Ae
probablement le dormeur, l homme endormi,
litt.
l homme de la poussiere '
(ibid., 141).
14
Ibn Babawayhi,
op. cit., 156.
"ibid.,
155-6, cit.
Bil;ar,
Joe. cit.
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*
:1110
cor1110La.Lio11 or ' Alii1
'l 'urali,
i:1 110 , alway:i 111Linly
...
11'/l,I'. Nt't'.'
(t1111
ol' Ll11 111
may even
be
true ).
In
this
case the
other
elemcntM
in
tlw Lr:uliLio11N
nprn.:c11L
subsequent 'Alid reinterpretations. Alternatively, it may
be tlin.t'
;\ liii
'l'urii.11
'
originally had a
laudatory, or
at
least
a
neutral,
meaning, and tl1a.t
t.hnNe
corn
sections belong
to the corpus of Umayyad traditions hostile to
'Ali,
whicl1
aimed
at
suppressing
this
meaning
by
circulating
derogatory
stories
abo11L
him.
In
this
case
the other
elements
in
the
traditions represent 'Alid
attcmpt.:i
to preserve the original connotations (if not
the exact
meaning)
of
the name.
An
examination
of
the
occasions
on
which 'Abii
Turab
' was used to refer
to 'Ali after his death does not
get
us
much
further: it is true
that
the
Umayyads
and their
supporters regarded the name
as derogatory,
16
and thiN
may also hold for the Christian sources in which it occurs; yet
'Ali's partisarrn
are said
to
have
seen in it
an
expression
of
praise, and
it
is by
no means
clear
whether their attitude reflects the original significance, or
whether it is merely
a
typical
reflex action to Umayyad taunts. A similar
ambiguity
exists as
regards the term Turabiyya, by which 'Ali's followers were
sometimes known."
I conclude therefore that the original
meaning of
'Abii Turab ' was so
thoroughly
obscured by partisan polemics
that it
will
probably remain
forever
unknown.
The
question remains
of how the
Shi'is
try
to prove
the
correctness
of their
interpretations of the name. As has been mentioned above, some
Shi'i traditions
link
it
to
'Ali's
piety.
18
Elsewhere Mu}.iammad is
said
to
have
called 'Ali
' Abii Turab ' because on the Day of Resurrection he is to
be
the first to have
the dust shaken
from his
head
(i.e.
the
first
to
be
brought
back to life).
19
A different
explanation
is
that the sobriquet
was given
in order to
emphasize
the
resemblance
between
'Ali and
Adam
(who was
created
of dust and so
16
See for instance
Zayd
b. Abi Sufyan's deliberately offensive
manner of
asking one of the
Shi'i
supporters of I,Iujr b. 'Adi, ' What is
your
view
of
Abii
Turab
? ' The Shi'i
pretends
not
to
know who
Abii
Turab
is,
implying that he regards
the
by-name
as
insulting (al-Baladhuri,
Ansiib al-ashriif,
IV,
I, ed. M. Schloessinger and M. J.
Kister,
Jerusalem, 1971, 219,
and the
references given there). Elsewhere
it
is reported
that
Mu'awiya demanded
to know
why Sa'd b.
Abi Waqqii.G refrained from
vilifying Abii
Turab (Ibn
I,Iajar al-'Asqalani, al-1$iiba
i tamyiz
al-$ahiiba, IV, Cairo, 1325/1907, 270),
that
al-I,Iusayn's
adversary Shamir
addressed
him
as
Ibn
Abi
Turab
(Bi/:iiir,
x,
255),
and that
when
the
Syrians
attacked the
tawwiibun,
they
con
temptuously
referred
to them
as
a?hiib
Abi
Turiib (al-Mas'iidi,
Muruj
al-dhahab,
ed.
and tr .
C.
Barbier de
Meynard, v,
Paris,
1869,
217;
the
French
translation at this point (left unchanged
in
Ch.
Pellat's revised
translation,
Les
prairies d'or, HI,
Paris,
1971,
p.
788, 1980) is
probably
wrong, and this is perhaps what misled Sarasin (op. cit., 35)).
Cf. also
Ibn 'Abd
Rabbihi, al- Iqd
al-Jarid, I I I , Cairo, 1321/1903-4, 12,
34;
al-Shaybi, al-$ila bayna 'l-ta?awwuf
wa
'l-tashayyu',
I,
Baghdad,
1382/1963,
86. Many
more examples
could be adduced.
17
The
derogatory use of the term
Turabiyya
by the
Umayyads
is attested by al-I,Iasan
al-BaGri (d. 110/728) (Mul.JSin al-Amin, op. cit., I I I ,
I, p.
13). And see
al-Kumayt's
reaction,
Hashimiyyiit,
ed.
and tr. J. Horovitz, Leiden,
1904, 36 (Arabic
text),
cit.
Muhsin
al-Amin,
Joe. cit. See also al-Mas'iidi, Joe. cit.; Goldziher,
Jl.fuh.
Stud., II , 121 =Muslim
studies,
n, 117,
and the references given
there;
Lammens,
Etudes,
184.
1s
See above,
pp.
348-9,
with
n. 8.
19
Ibn
Shahrii.shiib, op. cit., II ,
306;
Muhsin al-Amin , l oc.
cit.;
Niildeke,
art.
cit., and the
references given
there.
According
to the
Tafsir
of Furat
b.
Ibrahim
(Najaf, 1354/1935-6, 203),
the
radifa
of Qur'an
LXXIX, 7 (usually
interpreted as
the
Day
of
Judgement,
or
as
the
second
blast
or
quake announcing it) refers
to
'Ali,
'who
would be the first to
have the
dust
shaken
from his
head
'.
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lwrn1111. lo11k vi:ry
1111prl':::ill . 1.r1al.1'
