How to Criticize a Numbskull: “Ideal” Asceticism in

Ibn al-Jawzī’s Kitāb Akhbār al-Ḥamqā wa-l-Mughaffalīn

Jeremy Farrell, Emory University

Van Gelder’s Paradox: Exclusivity

if {Fool =/= Rogue;then Fool > Rogue; else Fool < Rogue}

Van Gelder’s “Natural” Categories

Comedy Ability Vocation

– “Low” “Fool” “Rogue”

+ “High” “Intelligent”

“Righteous”

Discourse of an Ideal: Intelligence/Ability

Discourse of an Ideal:Vocation

Discourse of an Ideal:Comedy

Cottom (1989)

“[Humor] is constructed through political differences [...]”

A joke, “divides [manifestations of] power to serve and maintain an ideal of authority.”

Presentation Outline

Akhbār al-Ḥamqā wa-l-MughaffalīnIdiocy vs. NumbskulleryRosenbaum (1999), Ghersetti (1992, 2010), Shinikov (2013)

Polemical Ingredients: Ibn al-Jawzī, Ḥanbalism and zuhd

“Inter-ascetic criticism”: Freiberger (2006)“Mild asceticism”: Hurvitz (1997, 2001)

Numbskullery: Rhetorical Strategy & TypologiesThe “double-down”Ostentation – Camouflage – Scatology

Ibn al-Jawzī’s notion of ḥamāqah

gharīzah

Congenital trait

Natural properties

Inevitability

Ḥumq amongst notable Muslims

Analytical Categories:”Exclusive” & “Natural”

“Stupidity” (ḥamāqah)

“Reason” (ʿaql)

–

+

Sub-ideal Categories:ḥamāqah AND taghfīl

Rosenthal (1956): “Fools”

Marzolph (1991): “Dummen” .

Pellat (1963): “Mad and Thoughtless Men”

Malti-Douglas (1985): “Stupid and Gullible People”

Zakharia (1995): “Idiots et Sots”

Shinikov (2013): “Fools and Ignoramuses”

Ideal Praxis:Anecdotes of Idiots and

NumbskullsX: Numbskull Qurʾan recitersXI: Numbskull ḥadīth-transmitters

XII: Numbskull princes & local rulersXIII: Numbskull judges

XIV: Numbskull chancery clerks & chamberlains

XV: Numbskulls who perform the call to prayer

XVI: Numbskull prayer leaders

XVII: Numbskull Bedouins

XVIII: Numbskull pedantsXIX: Numbskulls who incorrectly quote poetry

XX: Numbskull sermonizers & fire-and-brimstone preachers

XXI: Numbskull over-zealous ascetics (mutazahhidīn)XXII: Numbskull school-teachers

XXIII: Numbskull story-tellers

XXIV: A grab-bag of numbskulls

Bāb 9: “A group of the sound-of-mind (ʿuqalāʾ) who performed acts of stupidity and persisted in them, believing that they were correct; by which they became numbskulls.”

The Numbskull Blueprint

al-ḥamāqah+ al-iṣrār

= mughaffal

Analytic Responses to Asceticism:Ideal Types vs. Dialectics

Dialectic of Ideal Asceticism

Oliver Freiberger (2006): Asceticism and Its Critics

Ascetics “criticize [...] another context or tradition,” in order to, “reinforce and harden the differences between the two groups.”

“Mild Asceticism”:The Ḥanbalī Ideal

Hurvitz (cf idem, 2001)“[zuhd] encompasses a range of moral outlooks.”

“a cluster of moral sensibilities whose common feature is the tension between world embracing and world denying impulses.”

“[...] investigate how this ideal was manifested in society.”

Ibn al-Jawzī’s Authority: Two Ideals

“Mild” asceticism

Ascetic Example

“Mild” Deviance

Anti-Sufi Polemic

Ṣifat al-ṣafwah

ʿAbd al-Qādir al-Jīlānī

Tablīs Iblīs

Numbskull Ascetics: Typologies

Conspicuous Ascetics

riyāʾ

Camouflage

kalām

Disgusting practices

ḥumq

Correction

taghfīl

The Numbskull Dialectic

Fool Rogue

Intelligent Righteous

–

+

Numbskull

Critic