Abu Lu'lu'a Firuz

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Abū Luʾluʾa Fīrūz
ابولولو.jpg
Shrine of Abu Lu'lu'a in Kashan, Iran
Bornunknown date
Nihawānd, Iran (likely)
DiedHistorical: 644
Medina, Arabia
Legendary: after 644
Kashan, Iran
Other namesBaba Shuja' al-Din
EraEarly Islamic period
Known forAssassinating the 2nd caliph Umar

Abū Luʾluʾa Fīrūz (Arabic: أبو لؤلؤة فيروز – Persian: ابولؤلؤ پیروز, romanized: Abū Luʾluʾ Pīrūz), also known as Bābā Shujāʿ al-Dīn (Arabic: بابا شجاع الدين), was a Persian slave who killed the second Islamic caliph Umar ibn al-Khattab (r. 634–644) in November 644.

Medina, the capital of the early caliphate, was normally off-limits to non-Arabs. However, as a highly skilled craftsman, Abu Lu'lu'a was exceptionally allowed entrance in order to work for the caliph. At one point, Abu Lu'lu'a asked the caliph to lift a tax imposed upon him by his Arab master al-Mughira ibn Shu'ba. When Umar refused to lift the tax, Abu Lu'lu'a attacked him while he was praying in the mosque, stabbing him with a double-bladed dagger and leaving him mortally wounded.

According to historical accounts, Abu Lu'lu'a was either captured and executed in Medina, or committed suicide there. In retaliation, Ubayd Allah ibn Umar (one of Umar's sons) killed not only Abu Lu'lu'a's daughter, but also an ex-Sasanian military officer called Hurmuzān, and Jufayna, a Christian man from al-Hira (Iraq) who served as a private tutor to a family in Medina.

According to later legends, however, the prophet Muhammad's cousin and son-in-law Ali (later revered as the first Shi'ite Imam) saved Abu Lu'lu'a from his pursuers and miraculously transported him to Kashan (central Iran), where Abu Lu'lu'a married and lived out the rest of his life. At some point a shrine was erected for him there, which from the 16th century onward became the focus of a yearly festival celebrating his deeds, called Omar Koshan (lit. 'the killing of Umar').

Name[]

His given name was most likely Pērōz, a Middle Persian name meaning "Victorious" and Arabicized in the extant sources as Fīrūz or Fayrūz.[1] However, in the early sources he is more commonly referred to by his Arabic kunya (teknonym) Abū Luʾluʾa, meaning "Father of Pearl".[2] From the 16th or 17th century onward he also received the Arabic laqab (honorific nickname) Bābā Shujāʿ al-Dīn (lit. 'Father Courageous of the Faith'), which was associated with the annual celebrations held in his honor in early modern Iran (see below).[3]

Biography[]

Abd al-Rahman (ibn Awf or ibn Abi Bakr) witnessing the purported conspiracy of Abu Lu'lu'a, Hurmuzān, and Jufayna (wrongly depicted here as a woman; the depiction of the murder weapon may also be wrong)[4]

Very little is known about his life.[5] According to some historical accounts, Abu Lu'lu'a was a Zoroastrian from Nihawānd (Iran), though other reports describe him as a Christian.[6] A highly skilled joiner and blacksmith,[7] Abu Lu'lu'a was probably taken captive by his Arab master al-Mughira ibn Shu'ba in the Battle of Nihawānd (642) and subsequently brought to Arabia, where he may also have converted to Islam.[8] Other historical sources report that he was rather taken captive by al-Mughira in the Battle of al-Qadisiyya (636), or that he was sold to al-Mughira by Hurmuzān, an ex-Sasanian military officer who had been working for Umar as an adviser after his own capture by the Muslims.[9] Although Medina was generally off-limits to the ʿajam (non-Arabs) under Umar's reign, Abu Lu'lu'a was exceptionally allowed to enter the capital of the early caliphate, being sent there by al-Mughira to serve the caliph.[10]

When al-Mughira forced Abu Lu'lu'a to pay a kharāj tax of two dirhams a day,[11] Abu Lu'lu'a turned to Umar to protest this tax. However, Umar refused to lift the tax, thus provoking Abu Lu'lu'a's rage.[12] Although this is the reason given by most historical accounts for Abu Lu'lu'a's assassination of Umar,[13] Umar's harsh policies against non-Arabs are also likely to have played a prominent role.[14] One day when Umar was praying in the mosque of Medina, Abu Lu'lu'a stabbed him with a double-bladed dagger.[15] According to some accounts, the caliph died on the same day, while other accounts maintain that he died three days later.[16] Umar died of his wounds on Wednesday 26 Dhu al-Hijjah of the Islamic year 23 (= 3 November 644 according to the Julian calendar, or 6 November 644 according to the Gregorian calendar).[17]

Some historical sources report that Abu Lu'lu'a was taken prisoner and executed for his assassination of Umar, while other sources claim that he committed suicide.[18] After Abu Lu'lu'a's death, his daughter was killed by Ubayd Allah ibn Umar, one of Umar's sons. Acting upon a claim that they had been seen (either by Abd al-Rahman ibn Awf or by Abd al-Rahman ibn Abi Bakr) conspiring with Abu Lu'lu'a while he was holding the double-bladed dagger, Ubayd Allah also killed Hurmuzān (Umar's Persian military adviser), and Jufayna, a Christian man from al-Hira (Iraq) who had been taken to Medina to serve as a private tutor to a family in Medina.[19] After Ubayd Allah was detained, he threatened to kill all foreign captives residing in Medina, as well as some others.[20]

In early 20th-century scholarship it was sometimes supposed that Abu Lu'lu'a had really been an instrument in the hands of a conspiracy, though not a conspiracy lead by Hurmuzān, but rather one lead by Ali, al-Zubayr ibn al-Awwam, and Talha ibn Ubayd Allah. These men, who according to the historical sources were appointed by Umar himself as members of the council who would elect the next caliph, were thought by scholars to have conspired to overthrow Umar's reign and to put Ali in his place.[21] This hypothesis, however, is rejected by more recent scholars.[22] Nevertheless, while Ubayd Allah was subsequently acquitted of his crimes by Umar's successor Uthman (r. 644–656), who considered execution of Ubayd Allah an excessive measure in view of his father's recent assassination,[23] Ali, among others, did protest against this and vowed to apply the regular punishment for murder if he were ever to be caliph.[24] Just like Abu Lu'lu'a's assassination of Umar over something as trivial as a tax burden, Ubayd Allah's retaliatory killing of apparently random non-Arabs bears witness to the strong tensions that existed between Arabs and non-Arabs in the early Islamic caliphate.[25] It is also here that the first seeds of the special affinity between Persia and the Hashimid family of the prophet (including Ali) may have been laid.[26]

Legacy[]

Sanctuary in Kashan[]

Main article: Shrine of Abu Lu'lu'a

The historical Abu Lu'lu'a died shortly after his assassination of Umar. However, in later times legends arose according to which Abu Lu'lu'a was saved from his pursuers by Ali. As these stories would have it, Ali instantaneously transported Abu Lu'lu'a by means of a special prayer to Kashan (a city in central Iran), where he married and lived out the rest of his life.[27] A shrine was eventually dedicated to Abu Lu'lu'a in the vicinity of Kashan.[28] Recently, there has been some controversy over this sanctuary, in which a number of Sunni institutions, such as the al-Azhar University and the International Union for Muslim Scholars, considered the shrine to be offensive and demanded the Iranian government to demolish it.[29]

Annual celebration[]

Main article: Omar Koshan
Shrine of Abu Lu'lu'a in Kashan, Iran

During the 16th-century conversion of Iran to Shia Islam under Safavid rule, a festival started to be celebrated in honor of Abu Lu'lu'a, commemorating his assassination of Umar ibn al-Khattab.[30] Named Omar-koshan (lit. 'the killing of Umar'), it was originally held around Abu Lu'lu'a's sanctuary in Kashan, each year at the anniversary of Umar's death (26 Dhu al-Hijja of the Islamic year).[31] However, later it also started to be celebrated elsewhere in Iran, sometimes on 9 Rabi' al-Awwal rather than on 26 Dhu al-Hijja.[32]

The festival celebrated Abu Lu'lu'a, nicknamed for the occasion Bābā Shujāʿ al-Dīn (lit. 'Father Courageous of the Faith'), as a national hero who had defended the religion by killing the oppressive caliph.[33] Umar was not only seen as a persecutor of non-Arabs, he was also thought to have threatened and injured the prophet Muhammad's daughter and Ali's wife Fatima, who had cursed him for this.[34] The new festival, which was related to the more general institution in early Safavid Iran of the ritual cursing of the first three Rashidun caliphs (who were all seen to have displaced Ali as the rightful caliph),[35] involved the beating and burning of effigies of Umar, accompanied by the recitation of vilifying poetry (sabb) and cursing (laʿn)).[36]

During the Qajar period (1789–1925), the ritual cursing and humiliation of the first three caliphs was gradually abandoned due to the improving political relations with the Sunni Ottomans. Thus, by the beginning of the 20th century, the festival of Omar Koshan had fallen into disuse in the major cities of Iran, surviving only in the countryside.[37] This evolution, further spurred on by the rise of pan-islamism (an ideology advocating the unity of all Muslims, both Shi'is and Sunnis) in the late 19th century,[38] reached a height with the Islamic Revolution in 1979, after which the ritual was officially banned in the Islamic Republic of Iran.[39]

Nevertheless, the festival itself is still celebrated in Iran, though often secretly and indoors rather than outdoors.[40] It is now held on the 9th day of the month of Rabi' Al-Awwal of the Islamic year, lasting until the 27th of the same month.[41] It is a carnival-type of festival in which social roles are reversed and communal norms upturned,[42] generally functioning as a more lighthearted counterpart to the Ta'zieh passion plays commemorating the death of the prophet Muhammad's grandson Husayn ibn Ali at the Battle of Karbala in 680.[43] Nowadays, the Umar who is scorned at the festival is sometimes taken to be Umar ibn Sa'ad, the leader of the troops who killed Husayn.[44]

References[]

  1. ^ Most sources that specify his given name mention "Fīrūz"; see Ishkevari & Nejad 2008; Pellat 2011 ("Fērōz", an alternative transliteration of the same). Calmard 1996, p. 161 and Fischer 1980, p. 16 refer to him as "Firuz", while Madelung 1997, p. 75 gives his fuller name as "Abū Luʾluʾa Fayrūz". On the Parthian and Middle Persian origin of the name, see Chkeidze 2012; on its meaning "Victorious", see Rezakhani 2017, p. 78.
  2. ^ Cf. the usage in Levi Della Vida & Bonner 1960–2007; Pellat 2011; Madelung 1997, pp. 68–70, 75, 346; El-Hibri 2010, pp. 107–114 et pass.
  3. ^ Johnson 1994, p. 127, note 23; Calmard 1996, p. 161.
  4. ^ Madelung 1997, p. 404 refers to Jufayna as "al-Naṣrānī", indicating that he was a man. Moreover, while the murder weapon seems to be depicted here as a split-blade sword (like Zulfiqar), El-Hibri 2010, p. 109 describes it as "a unique dagger", having "two pointed sharp edges, with a handle in the middle". The picture is taken from Tārīkhunā bi-uslūb qaṣaṣī ('Our History in a Narrative style'), a popular history book first published in Iraq in 1935.
  5. ^ Ishkevari & Nejad 2008.
  6. ^ Pellat 2011. Modern authors also take different views: Levi Della Vida & Bonner 1960–2007 merely state that he was a Christian slave, whereas Madelung 1997, p. 75, note 67 finds the sources claiming he was Christian unreliable.
  7. ^ Pellat 2011.
  8. ^ This is the view of Madelung 1997, p. 75, note 67.
  9. ^ See the sources cited by El-Hibri 2010, pp. 108–109 (cf. also p. 112).
  10. ^ Pellat 2011; cf. Madelung 1997, p. 75, note 64.
  11. ^ Other sources speak of three dirhams a month; see Pellat 2011.
  12. ^ Pellat 2011; Levi Della Vida & Bonner 1960–2007. As pointed out by Pellat 2011, other accounts rather maintain that Abu Lu'lu'a's was angry about the caliph's raising a kharāj tax on his master al-Mughira.
  13. ^ Levi Della Vida & Bonner 1960–2007.
  14. ^ This is the hypothesis of Madelung 1997, p. 75.
  15. ^ El-Hibri 2010, p. 109 describes the dagger as "unique", having "two pointed sharp edges, with a handle in the middle".
  16. ^ Pellat 2011.
  17. ^ Levi Della Vida & Bonner 1960–2007; Pellat 2011.
  18. ^ Pellat 2011.
  19. ^ Madelung 1997, p. 69 (cf. p. 404, where Madelung refers to him as "Jufayna al-Naṣrānī").
  20. ^ Madelung 1997, p. 69.
  21. ^ Caetani 1905–1926, vol. V, pp. 40–51, as reported by Madelung 1997, pp. 68–70.
  22. ^ Madelung 1997, pp. 68–70; Levi Della Vida & Bonner 1960–2007; Pellat 2011.
  23. ^ Madelung 1997, p. 70.
  24. ^ Madelung 1997, pp. 69–70.
  25. ^ Madelung 1997, p. 75.
  26. ^ El-Hibri 2010, p. 107.
  27. ^ Fischer 1980, p. 16; Johnson 1994, p. 127, note 23.
  28. ^ Algar 1990.
  29. ^ Ismail 2016, p. 93, who also refers to the Al Arabiya news report by Isma'il 2007.
  30. ^ Algar 1990; Torab 2007, p. 196.
  31. ^ Johnson 1994, p. 127, note 23; cf. Algar 1990.
  32. ^ Calmard 1996, p. 161; Algar 1990.
  33. ^ Calmard 1996, p. 161; Johnson 1994, p. 127, note 23; Torab 2007, p. 196.
  34. ^ Torab 2007, p. 195.
  35. ^ Algar 1990.
  36. ^ Algar 1990; Torab 2007, p. 194.
  37. ^ Algar 1990.
  38. ^ Algar 1990.
  39. ^ Torab 2007, pp. 194–195.
  40. ^ Torab 2007, p. 195.
  41. ^ Torab 2007, p. 198.
  42. ^ Torab 2007, p. 194.
  43. ^ Algar 1990.
  44. ^ Torab 2007, p. 197.

Works cited[]

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