Early Hanbalism and the Shi‘a

Abstract

Sunnis and Shi‘is have fought each other in the streets of Baghdad and burned down each other’s quarters since the early decades of the fourth century Hijri (tenth century CE.).¹ Intercommunal fighting, often labeled by chroniclers as fitna (civil strife), reached a peak between the years 972 and 974. In 972, fighting broke out between Sunnis and Shi‘is when the inhabitants of Baghdad were preparing for a military expedition (ghazwa) against the Byzantines.² In the course of the fitna, the Sunnis burned down a large number of houses in the quarter of Karkh. A year later, in 973, the Sunni wazir, Abu al-Fadl al-Shirazi, who was known as a Sunni zealot, sent people once more to torch the Karkh quarter. According to Ibn al-Kathir, the damage was enormous: many houses in the Karkh quarter were burned down 300 shops and 33 mosques and 17,000 people were hurt.³ Though the wazir paid for this incitement with his position, the tensions remained and fighting between Sunnis and Shi‘is erupted again in the following year.⁴