The Zaydī Imāmate Theory as Explicated in “al-Asās li-‘aqā’id al-akyās” of the Imām al-Manṣūr bi-llāh

Abstract

The present paper is devoted to the lexical and conceptual study of the imāmate theory as explicated in “al-Asās li-‘aqā’id al-akyās” as one of the famous compendiums of the theological and legal doctrine (fiqh) of Zaydī school of Šī‘ī Islam composed by al-Manṣūr bi-llāh al-Qāsim b. Muḥammad (967/1559–1029/1620), the Zaydī Imām of Yemen and prolific author of works concerning the Zaydī theology and jurisprudence.

“al-Asās”, the Imām al-Manṣūr bi-llāh’s treatise was chosen as a source of the theory of the Zaydī imāmate due to the fact that it hasn’t become the subject of the Zaydī fiqh studies and was only marginally mentioned in the works on the Zaydī jurisprudence without being given detailed consideration. The literary and scholarly legacy of the Imām al-Manṣūr bi-llāh and his main work “al-Asās li-‘aqā’id al-akyās” that is the collection of the rules and regulations of the Zaydī imāmate, were paid proper attention, not least because of the fact that the Imām al-Manṣūr bi-llāh belongs to a cohort of later Zaydī writers who embraced in his work the provisions regarding the imāmate put forward by the classical theorists of Zaydī law.

A corpus of terms related to the Zaydī imāmate was extracted from “al-Asās li-‘aqā’id al-akyās” and given etymological and functional-semantic examination. The selected terminological body was described in the framework of certain thematic fields outlined to specify the religious and secular role and powers of the imām. It will be shown that the Zaydī legal terminology belongs to the lexicon of Classical Arabic which lexical components acquire terminological value due to its semantic development.

At the same time, it will be shown that the Zaydī imāmate fiqh revolves around such points as the exclusive right of the Family of the Prophet (al-‘itra) to the imāmate and ability of the imām to render independent legal judgments (al-iğtihād).