Jahm bin Safwan
Umayyad theologian whose doctrines shaped early Islamic debates on divine attributes.
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The term "Jahmiyya" derives from the name of Jahm bin Safwan, a theologian active during the Umayyad period.[1] Salm ibn Ahwaz put Jahm bin Safwan to death in the year 745.[1] What is known about Jahm comes from later writers who were hostile to him, and dependable historical details are scarce.[2]
Life and work
He was killed during the first attempt to take Merv in 746.[3] Jahm is said to have developed the most minimal definition of belief: knowing God in one’s heart without expressing it in correct Arabic speech.[4] Jahm was a proponent of extreme determinism, holding that a man acts only metaphorically.[5] In Khurasan, Jahm became a follower of the rebel Al-Harith ibn Surayj.[1]
According to reports, Jahm's doctrine held that God can be described by only a few attributes—like creation, power, and action—but not by others, such as speech.[6] Because Jahm maintained that God does not speak, he argued that referring to the Qur'an as God's eternal word is incorrect.[6] No writings by Jahm survive; however, his teachings were discussed by many later Muslim scholars.[7]
What the cited sources add
The same source states that Jahm’s concept of God could have been neo-Platonic, fitting with ideas of the Ṣābians in Ḥarrān.[4]
References
- Wikipedia, "Jahm bin Safwan" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Shorter Encyclopaedia of Islam p.83, Leiden 1974 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
- Wikipedia, "Jahm bin Safwan" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Suleiman, "Ibn Taymiyya und die Attribute Gottes", De Gruyter, 2019, p. 40–41 (we also read that source) en.wikipedia.org
- Wikipedia, "Jahm bin Safwan" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Hawting, "The First Dynasty of Islam: The Umayyad Caliphate AD 661-750", Routledge, 2002-01-04 (we also read that source) en.wikipedia.org
- van Ess, "JAHM B. ṢAFWĀN – Encyclopaedia Iranica", www.iranicaonline.org. facts only, no text reused. iranicaonline.org
- Wikipedia, "Jahm bin Safwan" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: P. W. Pestman, Acta Orientalia Neerlandica: Proceedings of the Congress of the Dutch Oriental Society Held in Leiden on the Occasion of Its 50th Anniversary, 8– (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
- Wikipedia, "Jahm bin Safwan" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Clinton Bennett, The Bloomsbury Companion to Islamic Studies, p. 126. . (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
- Wikipedia, "Jahm bin Safwan" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Sources on the Jahmiyya are largely tendentious, as is the case with all heresiographies of the past. For modern studies see: Jamal al-Din al-Qasimi, Tarikh al-; Richard M. Frank, "The Neoplatonism of Ğahm ibn Ṣafwān", Le Muséon, 1965, p. 395–424 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
Each numbered sentence above was checked against the source it cites before publication. Sentences citing Wikipedia adapt text from the English Wikipedia article Jahm bin Safwan (contributors), used under CC BY-SA 4.0; this entry is available under the same licence. Other sources were used for facts only; no text or images are copied from them.
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Sources
Compiled from Wikipedia and the sources listed below. Text from Wikipedia is available under CC BY-SA 4.0; this entry is adapted from it.
- Wikipedia: Jahm bin Safwan (CC BY-SA 4.0).
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