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Definition of Zindiq
Zindik (pl. zanadika; abstract zandaka), the term used in Muslim criminal law to describe the heretic whose teaching becomes a danger to the state; this crime is liable to capital punishment ... and to damnation ... The term was borrowed in the 'Irak from the Iranian vocabulary of the Sasanian administration; ...
Indeed, it appears for the first time in the 'Irak in 125/742, in connection with the execution of Dia'd b. Dirham; ...
The term became a technical one and literary tradition designates three famous writers, Ibn al-Rawandi, al Tawhidi and al-Ma'arri, as the "three zanadika of Islam". But in general use, the term lost its precision and if the official definition of the zindik (a dualist ascetic, then a Muslim who is secretly a Manichaean, according to the caliph Mahdi) is already carelessly applied to the three first men executed mentioned above, it is clear that it does not at all explain the psychology of the three "zanadika of Islam". In practice, the polemics of the conservatives describe as a zindik or "free thinker" any one whose external profession of Islam seems to them not sufficiently sincere (cf. the poet Dj. S.Zahawi in Baghdad or the critic Taha Husain in Cairo). This is the meaning in which it is already used by al-Ma'arri in his Risalat al-ghufran. This meaning denotes the radical doctrines of the free-thinkers, whose chief works, contained in Isma'ili refutations, derive from authors as Eranshahri, Abu 'Isa al-Warrak, Ibn al'Rawandi (K. al-zumurrudh, cf. RSO, xiv. 1933), the great physician al-Razi(K. Makharik al-anbiya) and al-Thughuri, and have been edited by P. Kraus.
The evolution of the term is explained by its political character; it brands the heresy which imperils the Muslim state (this is already clear in the trial of al-Halladj); and as the only crime systematically punished by the Prophet himself by death had been sabb al-rasul, the jurists more and more made zandaka an intellectual rebellion insulting to the Prophet's honour (cf. Ibn Taimiya and Ibn Hadjar al-Haitami).
The stages of this evolution can be brought closer together by summing up the definitions given of the word zandaka by the various Muslim schools.The Hanbalis, according to Khashish (d. 253/867), recognize five sects of zanadika:
mu'attila, who deny the creation and the Creator, reducing the world to an unstable mixture of the four elements; manawiya (Manichaeans) and mazdakiya who are dualists; 'abdakiya (vegetarian Imami ascetics of Kufa; cf. Massignon, Recuiel ..., p11-12); and ruhaniya (four ecstatic sects, who seek to free themselves from the constraint of observances and laws by an amorous union of the soul with God, a union denounced as implying identity of nature between the Creator and his creatures; ...) ... ... As to the theologians, the Mu'tazilis at first saw in zandaka an amorous devotion seeking liberation from obligatory duties (cf. Thumama, in al-Baghdadi, Fark, abbr. and ed. Hitti, p. 105), then a tendency to the ibaha of the Khurramiya; Muhji ed-din Ghazzali defines it as a tendency to atheism.
The Sufis were early persecuted as zanadika in view of their doctrine of the divine love (trial in the year 262/875 of Nuri; execution of al-Halladj); ...
- Shorter encyclopedia of Islam, edited by H.A.R. Gibb and J.H. Kramers (Cornell University Press: Ithaca NY 1953) p 659
Indeed, it appears for the first time in the 'Irak in 125/742, in connection with the execution of Dia'd b. Dirham; ...
The term became a technical one and literary tradition designates three famous writers, Ibn al-Rawandi, al Tawhidi and al-Ma'arri, as the "three zanadika of Islam". But in general use, the term lost its precision and if the official definition of the zindik (a dualist ascetic, then a Muslim who is secretly a Manichaean, according to the caliph Mahdi) is already carelessly applied to the three first men executed mentioned above, it is clear that it does not at all explain the psychology of the three "zanadika of Islam". In practice, the polemics of the conservatives describe as a zindik or "free thinker" any one whose external profession of Islam seems to them not sufficiently sincere (cf. the poet Dj. S.Zahawi in Baghdad or the critic Taha Husain in Cairo). This is the meaning in which it is already used by al-Ma'arri in his Risalat al-ghufran. This meaning denotes the radical doctrines of the free-thinkers, whose chief works, contained in Isma'ili refutations, derive from authors as Eranshahri, Abu 'Isa al-Warrak, Ibn al'Rawandi (K. al-zumurrudh, cf. RSO, xiv. 1933), the great physician al-Razi(K. Makharik al-anbiya) and al-Thughuri, and have been edited by P. Kraus.
The evolution of the term is explained by its political character; it brands the heresy which imperils the Muslim state (this is already clear in the trial of al-Halladj); and as the only crime systematically punished by the Prophet himself by death had been sabb al-rasul, the jurists more and more made zandaka an intellectual rebellion insulting to the Prophet's honour (cf. Ibn Taimiya and Ibn Hadjar al-Haitami).
The stages of this evolution can be brought closer together by summing up the definitions given of the word zandaka by the various Muslim schools.The Hanbalis, according to Khashish (d. 253/867), recognize five sects of zanadika:
mu'attila, who deny the creation and the Creator, reducing the world to an unstable mixture of the four elements; manawiya (Manichaeans) and mazdakiya who are dualists; 'abdakiya (vegetarian Imami ascetics of Kufa; cf. Massignon, Recuiel ..., p11-12); and ruhaniya (four ecstatic sects, who seek to free themselves from the constraint of observances and laws by an amorous union of the soul with God, a union denounced as implying identity of nature between the Creator and his creatures; ...) ... ... As to the theologians, the Mu'tazilis at first saw in zandaka an amorous devotion seeking liberation from obligatory duties (cf. Thumama, in al-Baghdadi, Fark, abbr. and ed. Hitti, p. 105), then a tendency to the ibaha of the Khurramiya; Muhji ed-din Ghazzali defines it as a tendency to atheism.
The Sufis were early persecuted as zanadika in view of their doctrine of the divine love (trial in the year 262/875 of Nuri; execution of al-Halladj); ...
- Shorter encyclopedia of Islam, edited by H.A.R. Gibb and J.H. Kramers (Cornell University Press: Ithaca NY 1953) p 659