Islamic heritage is an umbrella term encompassing everything to do with Islam, ranging from the Holy Qur'an and the Sunnah to the traditions of the Ahl al-Bayt. The pivotal role of such texts prompted us to conduct an interview with Dr. Muhammad Saeed al-Turayhi, a researcher of Islamic heritage and the editor-in-chief of the magazine 'al-Mawsim'. He has been especially active in recent years in an effort to counteract the years of neglecting Islamic heritage in Iraq under the dictatorship.
Hussein Revivalism had the opportunity to talk with Dr. al-Turayhi, who used to be a high-ranking official in the Iraqi Ministry of Culture; the interview was conducted during one of his visits to the holy shrine of Imam al-Hussain.
Hussein Revivalism: Some researchers hold that the Islamic tradition encompasses both good and bad aspects; how can we address this?
Al-Turayhi: This is a concern for researchers and research institutes. Researchers in this matter must be fully grounded in all the relevant disciplines, combining wide erudition with a detailed knowledge of the sciences of the Qur’an and the Hadith, as well as Arabic linguistics and history. They must, moreover, be careful to avoid all prejudice and bias.
Hussein Revivalism: How can we benefit from tradition of the Ahl al-Bayt, in all its richness and diversity?
Al-Turayhi: An important first step is the gathering of everything that has been written about the truth of the Ahl al-Bayt. We therefore need to search all of the world’s libraries for texts written on this subject, be they in Arabic or in other languages. An example of such an endeavour is the late Sayyid Abd al-Aziz Tabataba'i's book 'The Ahl al-Bayt in Arabic Literature', which has been printed in several volumes, as is the late Sheikh Agha Bozorgh al-Tehrani's monumental bibliographical compendium, 'The Way to the Compositions of the Shi’a', in which he recorded more than one thousand titles by Shiah authors. Thus, we must make every effort to educate the world about the Ahl al-Bayt and all the literature about them.
Hussein Revivalism: Should we deal with the Islamic tradition only as history, or it is there a need to bring that history into the present and to put it into practice?
Al-Turayhi: The Islamic tradition is, in itself, a history, but we must treat it like a living person, despite the passage of time. We must approach it with the greatest academic precision and objectivity, ascertaining even the copyists who wrote the manuscripts, which we read, for as a historical tradition there is always the risk of forgery.
Hussein Revivalism: How can we preserve our Islamic tradition in the current climate of globalisation and cultural aggression?
Al-Turayhi: We have to increase public awareness, distinguishing between what is good and useful and what is not. The means of communication now available to us greatly facilitate this task; we can investigate things thoroughly and portray them as they should be portrayed.
Maintaining our heritage comes through the efforts of our professors, researchers, and students to disseminate it in its proper form; such people as these have the power to show our tradition to the world as it truly is.
Hussein Revivalism: Islam as practiced by the followers of the Ahl al-Bayt and the understanding thereof is in a continuous state of interpretation. Is this to be regarded as eroding our heritage and identity?
Al-Turayhi: The various Islamic mausoleums that we see today have been developed and altered over time, but this is a completely natural development; it is only to be expected that they are developed according to the customs of the age. For example, the holy shrine of Imam Hussain has passed through several stages of development, but this is not destruction or erosion, rather it is the process by which the shrine flourishes in every era.
Hussein Revivalism: Could you tell us about the history of Kufa and its civilisation, given what you have written on the subject?
Al-Turayhi: Kufa is the great Islamic city which Imam Ali made his capital, describing it as ‘the crown of Arabs, the spear of God and the treasure of faith’. Imam Ja`far al-Sadiq once said, Kufa is a city of Ali; it loves us and we, the Ahl al-Bayt, love her. It was the first school of the Ja’fariyya, where Imam al-Sadiq taught hundreds of students at the grand mosque of Kufa. It was the birthplace of such influential figures as al-Mutanabbi, the poet of the Arabs, al-Kindi, the first Arab philosopher and Jabir ibn Hayan, the first Arab chemist, as well as a great many scholars and scribes of the Qur’an and the hadith. All of this is in the past, of course.
Unfortunately, of the many books which were written on Kufa in the first centuries only a few remain, even though we have many books about places such as Samarqand, Baghdad and Khurasan. The oldest text on Kufa which we have found is that written by Sayyid Muhammad ibn Hasan al-Shajari, who died in 445 A.H., entitled The Virtue of Kufa and of its People, which records the virtue of Kufa and its people and describes different events which have occurred there since the days of the Prophet Muhammad and the prophet Abraham before him.
Hussein Revivalism: As the editor-in-chief of the magazine al-Mawsim, published in the Netherlands, what sort of thing do you publish about Islamic heritage?
Al-Turayhi: The magazine was first published about a quarter of a century ago in the Netherlands. It amounts to thirty thousand pages from issues one to eighty. We have assembled and published a great deal of the heritage of Islam in its many forms and its various scholarly and artistic traditions. We take particular interest in biographies of scholars and litterateurs from Islam’spast and archaeological assessments of shrines and mosques. Al-Mawsim also publishes many books about the heritage of Islam, as well as thousands of papers about Ahl al-Bayt.
Hussein Revivalism: What are the most important books you have written about Kufa and its Islamic heritage?
Al-Turayhi: There is a group of books on Kufa comprising more than ten volumes, including The Merits of Kufa and of its People and The Merits of Kufa and of its Mosques. There is a critique of the maps of Kufa by the French Orientalist Louis Massignon. There is also a work on the geography of Kufa, an important chapter of which is that covering the various Christian sects who lived in Kufa and its suburbs in antiquity.