Baber Johansen

4
allowed the theologians to define the way in which the contingent world
differs from its creator and, as most of these theologians did not use a
concept of natural causality, it helped them to prove that only God can
put these elements together and that, on the Day of Resurrection, He can
create living bodies from dead remnants and a new earth in order to
replace the old one. The same analysis provides the theologians with an
ontological grounding for the human being’s capacity to act. This type of
theology puts the philosophy of nature and the natural sciences of Late
Antiquity to use in order to answer theological questions. The result is
that the contingent world proves God’s existence as the non-contingent
being. 20 The cosmic dimension of human existence is at the very core of
this theology.
But the Abbasids did not only sponsor theology. Under Hārûn al-Rashīd
(786-809), they put into place a special administration of justice directed
by the highest qÁÃÐ of the empire. This administration controlled the
nomination and destitution of the judges in the provinces. Some of the
most important Iraqi jurists engaged in this administration from its very
beginning. 21 Their integration into the administration of an empire-wide
judiciary gave the jurists leverage for the diffusion of their normative
systems among the Muslim townspeople in different regions. Through
the institution of the empire’s judiciary, the jurists were associated to the
caliphate and able to use its power to find acceptance for their norms. 22
In 833, in the aftermath of a long and bitter civil war, the Caliph MaÞmÙn
tried to renew his alliance with the speculative theologians. The long
civil war that started in 809 had turned Baghdad into an unruly
metropolis. No caliph had set foot in the city between 813 and 819 and
the rise of popular movements and gangs had led the population to
organize its own defense under the leadership of men who held the
opinion that all Muslims are obliged to "command the good and forbid
the evil" and that Muslims do not need Caliphs or other authorities to do
so. 23 The caliph feared that religious scholars, such as jurists and
traditionists, that is scholars who collect reports on the Prophet’s
normative practice, would contribute to the city dwellers’ ambitious