The theme of anthropomorphism in the Islamic tradition has been addressed in many studies in the West. The book under review proposes an original approach that brings order to previous studies. Livnat Holtzman has framed the topic by specifying both the historical period and the main theological issues raised by the aḥādīth al-ṣifāt (traditions dealing with divine attributes). Ḥadīth literature is at the basis of almost all anthropomorphic notions and concepts; Quranic verses are generally mentioned only in a subsidiary way, although some tradition-reports are intended to justify the meaning of some Quranic verses in order to establish a definitive dogma on divine attributes (ṣifāt).
The book's five chapters follow a deductive logic that is pedagogically effective. It presents the following topics: the construction of anthropomorphic discourses in the form of tradition reports; the history of some of these discourses and their substantive consequences; the dimensions of gestures in these discourses; attempts to mitigate the traditionalist defiance; and finally, the iconic books that spread the aḥādīth al-ṣifāt in the public sphere. The author convincingly demonstrates that tashbīh has always been at the heart of religious debates and that these debates reinvigorate every generation, sometimes requiring the intervention of political powers.
The author scrutinizes the frame story in these tradition-reports in a sophisticated analysis that takes into account the intended audience, as well as the motivations of the narrators. The case of Abū Burda in the dissemination of the ḥadīths al-ruʾya is subtly studied through many versions that reveal Abū Burda's desire for material rewards and his boasting for being the son of the Prophet's Companion. We must be grateful to Holtzman for having developed a comparative analysis of the first authorities among the Companions to transmit tradition-reports dealing with al-ṣifāt.
The author illustrates the impertinence of the two newly converted Bedouins, Abū Razīn and Jarīr al-Bajalī. On the other hand the differences between the two men, from the point of view of their status and rank within their respective tribes, are taken into account in explaining the wide dissemination of al-Bajalī’s version of the ruʾya tradition-report compared to that of Abū Razīn. Moreover, the author demonstrates that al-Bajalī's version spread through a rich and diverse network, which explains the importance his version acquired in the canonical books of ḥadīth. The author does not lose sight of the role and extent of the power of the tribe of al-Bajalī after the death of the Prophet, which favoured the expansion of the tribe's transmissions, particularly in Iraq (pp. 93–9).
In the chapter devoted to prophetic gesticulations that are mentioned in al-ṣifāt tradition-reports, Holtzman introduces D. McNeill's work on gestures, specifically the categorization into four types (iconic, metaphoric, and deictic, except the typical beat). These four categories are evident in tradition-reports. The specific craze of Ḥammād b. Salama (d. 784) for the anthropomorphic tradition-reports emphasizes individual initiatives in the diffusion of this type of discourse (pp. 134–45) while taking into account the evaluations of this material by later specialists.
The author excels in showing both the origins and the various uses of the famous medieval idea of bilā kayf, wrongly considered by some researchers to be a Ḥanbal ī invention. In addition to the classical use made by Abū ʿUbayd, the author presents a more sophisticated use of Ibn Rāhawayh, for example, and later for theological speculation within the Ashʿarī school (the case of Ibn Fūrak), which is fiercely opposed by the Ḥanbal īs. Returning to the charge of gesticulation in the last chapter, Holtzman successfully combined the iconic dimension of the works that facilitated the dissemination of the tradition-reports on divine attributes. The author presents Ibn Khuzayma's (d. 923) Kitāb al-Tawḥīd as the basis of naive faith called for by this type of ḥadīth. She surveys the virulent criticism this book provoked for two and a half centuries, including Asās al-Taqdīs, the equally iconic work of al-Rāzī (d. 1210) against which Ibn Taymiyya in turn reacts more than a century later by writing al-Ḥamawiyya al-Kubrā. Ibn Taymiyya's work (including his Talbīs al-Jahmiyya) is more a political manifesto than a theoretical discussion on the interpretation of the al-ṣifāt tradition-reports. Contextualized historically, politically and theologically, these works are of considerable interest in the dissemination of the divine attributes tradition-reports and the revival of the debate between fundamentalist traditionalists and rational theologians.
This excellent study, which will not become outdated anytime soon, suffers from some errors, of which what follows are the most significant (the error is reported in parentheses). Since the names of people and places are not consistently transliterated in the book, their correct reading is often challenging: Ṣuhayb b. Sinān (Suhayb b. Sinan); Shahr b. Ḥawshab (b. Hawshab): kāna yukṯir (yukaṯṯir, p. 30); Abū Burda as a rāwī (muḥaddiṯ, p. 47); rabbāniyyīn (rabbāniyyin, p. 66), fāḥish ’l-laḥn (faḥish, p. 96), al-Ṭayālisī (al-Tayālisī, p. 106); lā yankiḥu (yankuḥu, p. 117); M. b. Shujāʿ al-Thaljī (Shujjāʿ, p. 153); fa-ashārat ilayhi (ilayhim, p. 181, Q. 19: 29); aṣābi ʿ (aṣābiʾ, p. 201); Mawḍūʿāt (Mawḍuʿāt, p. 207, twice); rabbī (rabbi, p. 249); dialectique, Hanafites (dialeqtique, Hanafaites, p. 250); ʿIyāḍ (ʿIyaḍ, p. 253); yarfaʿ (yurfaʿ, p. 350); al-lugha (al-lughgha, p. 351, 433); al-Ḥajjāj (al-Ḥahhah, p. 384). In the bibliography: al-Athariyya (al-Athriyya, p. 393); al-Fiqī (al-Fiqqī, p. 394); Bashshār ʿAwwād (Bashār, p. 395, 400, 401); al-ʿAraqsūsī (ʿArqasūsī, p. 395); Andalusī (Andalūsī, p 395); al-Zībaq (al-Zaybak, p. 396); Dār al-Ṣumayʿī (Ṣamīʿī, p. 397, 399); Ṭāriq b. ʿAwaḍ (ʿAwḍ, p. 399, 402); Dār ʿĀlam al-Fawāʾid (ʿĀlim, p. 398, five times); ʿUwayḍa (ʿAwīḍa, p. 400); Yaḥṣubī (Yaḥṣūbī, p. 400); Mulūk (Muluk, p. 402); b. Sahw al-ʿUtaybī (ʿAtībī, p. 403); Ramaḍān (Ramadān, p. 415). In the index: Kammiyyat (Kamiyyat, p. 425); Mukhtaṣar al-Ṣawāʿiq (Mukhtasar al-Sawāʿiq, p. 427), Intiṣār (Intisār, id.); al-ḥissiyya (hissiyya, p. 432).
