19:00-20:30 Uhr
The encyclopedic and systematic writings of Jalāl al-Dīn al-Suyūṭī, especially in the Qur’anic and the hadith sciences, had a significant influence on scholars in Yemen. In particular, the ulama who represent the “Sunnifying tradition” among the Zaydis of the highlands--Aḥmad b. Ḥasan al-Jalāl (d. 1084/1673), Mahdī b. Ṣāliḥ al-Maqbalī (d. 1108/1696), Muḥammad b. Ismāʿīl al-Amīr (also known as Ibn al-Amīr aṣ-Ṣanʿānī, d. 1182/1769), and Muḥammad al-Shawkānī (d. 1250/1834)—all appear to have drawn on al-Suyūṭī’s scholarship and some among them, most notably al-Shawkānī, tried to emulate and build on his work. In a similar fashion, albeit for different reasons, traditional Zaydi scholars were also influenced by al-Suyūṭī works. Yet their effort was directed at defending their tradition from what they perceived to be an attack on their imams’ authority through a systematic presentation of the hadith corpus as an alternative, and superior, source for knowing God’s law. The presentation will explore al-Suyūṭī’s influence on these Yemeni scholars.
Bio
Bernard Haykel is a scholar of the Arabian Peninsula, focusing on the politics, economics and history of the Gulf Cooperation Countries (GCC) and Yemen. He is professor of Near Eastern Studies at Princeton University where he teaches courses on history, politics and energy. He is also a Senior Fellow of the Hudson Institute in Washington DC. He earned his doctorate in Oriental Studies from the University of Oxford. He has published on Yemen’s intellectual and political history and is now completing a book on the modern history and transformation of Saudi Arabia and the rise of Crown Prince Muhammad bin Salman.