SOCIAL CRITICISM AND REFORMIST

ULAMA OF DAMASCUS

It is well-known that contemporary advocates of Islamic reform

object to inequitable distribution of wealth and hold the powerful
and wealthy responsible for social injustice. This position is often
traced to Hasan al-BannA and the Egyptian Muslim Brothers, and
it distinguishes contemporary Islamic movements from the earlier
educational and legal reformism of Muhammad `Abduh and Ras-
hid Rida. However religious reformers of Damascus who were
contemporary to `Abduh and Rids sharply criticized their city's
wealthy folk. What did these early examples of social criticism, if
not social conscience, by reformist ulama signify? To answer this
question we must consider not only the literary evidence but also
the social context of its authors, in this instance two religious scho-
l ars, a father, Muhammad Said al-Qasimi, and his son Jamal al-
Din. By considering both the texts and their ulama authors we
may come to understand their social criticism in the context of
changes in Damascene ulama's status as a group and of changes in
the internal relations among ulama. ( 1 )
First we must identify the place the Qasimis held in Damascus's
hierarchy of ulama. The first member of the family to attain
ulama status was Qas1m al-Hallaq (1806-1867), who left his trade

Author's note: I am indebted to Mr. Muhammad al-Husayn of the Department

of Near Eastern Studies at the University of Michigan for his assistance in transla-
ting the Arabic poetry.
(1) For a fuller treatment of the effects of social change on the ulama of Damas-
cus in the late Ottoman period, see my doctoral dissertation, "The Salafi Islamic
Reform Movement in Damascus, 1885-1914: Religious Intellectuals, Politics, and
Social Change in Late Ottoman Syria," University of Michigan, 1985.
170 DAVID COMMINS

as a barber to pursus a religious education in the 1820s. (z) Qasim

rose from a humble background into the ranks of Damascus's ulama
by virtue of his studies and the patronage of renowned religious
scholars. In his later years he became the Shafi'i prayer leader and
teacher at the Sinaniyyah mosque, the second most prestigious
mosque in Damascus. When he died in 1867 he bequeathed a
medium-sized estate and a spacious house to his heirs. ( 3)
The status and means Qasim attained after years of study and
work in lesser mosques passed by birthright to his eldest son,
Muhammad Said al-Qasimi (1843-1900).( 4) Hallaq gave him the
customary education for a 5haykh's son: memorization of the
Quran, lessons in Arabic, and studies in religious subjects. At
nineteen Muhammad Said assisted at his father's lessons and prea-
ched at asplesser mosque; and on Qasim's death he succeeded him
as prayer leader, teacher, and preacher at the Sinamyyah
mosque. Muhammad Said acquired a reputation for his wide
knowledge of history, literature, and poetry; and his evening
salons, noted for singing and recitation of verse, attracted leading
religious scholars and literati.
The third generation of Qasimi scholars was represented by
Muhammad Sa'id's oldest son, Jamal al-Din (1866-1914), who led
the modernist Islamic reform camp in Damascus in the early years
of the twentieth century and became a well-known figure in a cos-
mopolitan network of urban religious reformers that reached from
Java to Morocco. ( 5) Jamal al-Din likewise had a customary reli-

(2) On Qasim al-Hallaq, see Muhammad Jamil al-Shatti, A'yan dimashq ft al-
qarn al-thalith 'ashar wa nisf al-garn al-rdbi' 'ashar ( Damascus, 1972), pp. 221-224;
"'Abd al-Razzaq al-Bitar, Hilyal al-bashar ff tdrikh al-garn al-thalith 'ashar, 3 Vols.
( Damascus, 1961-1963), 2:725-727; Muhammad Sa'id al-Qasimi, "al-Thughr al-
basim fi tarjamat al-shaykh Qasim," manuscript, library of the Qasimi family,
Damascus; Jamal al-Din al-Qasimi, "Ta'tir al-masham ft ma'athir dimashq al-
sham," 4 Vols., manuscript, Qasimi library, revised copy, 2:458-462.
(3) Center for Historical Documents (Markaz al-walhd'iq al-tdrfkhigyah),
Damascus, Sijill 581, 109-110.
(4) On Muhammad Sa'id al-Qasimi, see Bitar, Hilyal al-bashar, 2:654-661;
Muhammad Said al-Qasimi, Jamal al-Din al-Qasimi, and Khalil al-'Azm, Qamds
al-sind'al al-shamiygah, 2 Vols. (Paris, 1960), 1:8-10; Ahmad ' Izzat 'Abd al-Karim's
i ntroduction to Ahmad al-Budayri, Hawddith dimashq al-yawmiyyah (Cairo, 1959),
pp. 17-23; Jamal al-Din al-Qasimi, : Ta'tir al-masham," unrevised copy, 2:24-40;
Jamal al-Din al-Qasimi, "Bayt al-gasid fi tarjamat al-imam al-walid al-sa'id,"
manuscript, Qasimi library, Damascus.
(5) For the fullest treatment of Jamal al-Din al-Qasimi, see Zafir al-Qasimi,
Jamdl al-Din al-Qasimi wa 'asruhu ( Damascus, 1965). In western language sources
Qasimi is briefly mentioned in Henri Laoust, Essai sur les doctrines sociales el poli-
 SOCIAL CRITICISM AND REFORMIST ULAMA 171

gious education, taught and led prayer at a minor mosque, and

assumed the posts at the Sinaniyyah mosque on his father's
death. The line of Qasimi ulama ended with Jamal al-Din; his
younger brother received a non-religious education in newly esta-
blished state schools and became a medical doctor, while all of
Jamal al-Din's sons pursued careers in the modern professions. (6 )
In the context of Damascene ulama families the Qasimis belon-
ged to the middle stratum: families of comfortable yet modest
means, intermediate status, and holding local posts, but not those
i n the religious courts or at the most prestigious mosque. The
Qasimis and other middle ulama stood a cut below the city's
"high" ulama who monopolized the choice religious posts and
accumulated great wealth. (7 ) The Qasimi family rose to ulama
status at a time when the ulama as a status group was declining in
relation to new local elites and ruling groups in the imperial cen-
ter. In the reshuffling of Damascus's elite during the last fifty
years of Ottoman rule, high ulama families possessed the means to
retain their hold on prestigious posts, and they prospered in the
new economic and social order by investing in rural landholdings
and preparing sons for careers in both religious courts and the
growing civil bureaucracy. ( 8 ) Meanwhile middle ulama were
denied the prospect of increasing their social influence by two fac-
tors. First, the basis of urban elite status shifted to rural pro-
perty and civil bureaucratic posts, and most middle ulama lacked
the wealth necessary for obtaining much property or important
posts. Second, the ulama's sphere of influence in society dimi-
nished as the civil institutions of the Tanzimat established non-

liques de Taki-al-Din Ahmad ibn Taimigyah (Cairo, 1939), pp. 535-536; Laoust, "Le
Reformisme Orthodoxe des `Salafiya' et les Caracteres Generaux de son Orientation
Actuelle," Revue des Etudes Islamiques 6 (1932): 191; Abd al-Latif al-Tibawi, Modern
History of Syria (London, 1969), p. 185. I give a full exposition of Qasimi's life and
thought in "The Salafi Islamic Reform Movement in Damascus."
(6) On Jamal al-Din's younger brother Salah al-Din, - see Muhibb al-Din al-Kha-
tib, ed., al-Duktur Salah al-Dun al-Qusimu, 1305-1344: Athdruhu (Cairo, 1959), pre-
faces by Khatib and Zafir al-Qasimi.
(7) For sketches of elite ulama families, see Linda Schatkowski Schilcher, Fami-
lies in Politics: Damascene Factions and Estates of the 18th and 19th Centuries (Stutt-
gart, 1985), pp. 156-211; Philip S. Khoury, Urban Notables and Arab Nationalism:
The Politics of Damascus, 1860-1920 (Cambridge, 1983), pp. 31-35.
(8) For an account of the emergence of a landholding-bureaucratic elite in
Damascus, see Khoury, Urban Notables, pp. 1-53.
17 2 DAVID COMMINS

religious principles as a rival basis of social authority. ( 9 ) While

several high ulama families adjusted to the new conditions of
urban elite status, most middle ulama languished. A growing
split between the new urban elite and middle ulama is manifest in
the Qasimis' writings.
The Qasimis' rich literary legacy includes a two-volume "dictio-
nary" of Damascene crafts and occupations. (I°) Muhammad
Said composed the first volume, and Jamal al-Din collaborated
with his brother-in-law Khalil al-`Azm to complete the second
volume. The authors defined each occupation, explained the tools
and techniques of various crafts, and estimated the livelihoods gai-
ned from each trade. In many instances the Qasimis judged the
moral qualities of occupations, usually according to their reputa-
tion for honesty or fraud. Several trades that the Qasimis sharply
denounced involved food processing: millers, bakers, yogurt ven-
dors, and sellers of ground coffee, all of whom frequently adultera-
ted or diluted their products. (I1)
Muhammad Said used especially harsh language to describe the
wholesale grain merchant (al-bawdyiki), who dealt in wheat, corn,
and barley that he stored in large granaries. (12) He observed that
bawayikis prosper because they monopolize grain supplies by hoar-
ding it and selling it off at high prices during the winter
months. In addition to their power over the market, grain whole-
salers enjoyed leverage over peasants, who toiled to cultivate, har-
vest, and thresh the grain. After the peasant paid a tax in kind
on the harvest he would bring the remainder to his creditor, quite
often a bawayiki, who then cheated the peasant in measuring the
grain and forced the peasant to sell for a low price in return for the
loan he needed to get by to the next harvest. Consequently pea-
sants stayed in debt, poor, and exhausted, while bawayikis grew
rich. Muhammad Said concluded his account by citing Quranic
verses threatening divine punishment for fraud and hoarding.
In similar fashion Jamal al-Din disparaged moneylenders in his
entry on al-murdbi. (13) He related that this immoral practice had
fomerly been restricted to a few Jews, but in recent years had

(9) On the ulama's dwindling social authority, see Chapter One of "The Salafi
Islamic Reform Movement in Damascus," pp. 27-44.
(10) Muhammad Said al-Qasimi et al., Qamus al-sind `al al-shamigyah.
(11) Ibid., 1:51, 105, 121; 2:218, 290.
(12) Ibid., 1:55-56.
(13) Ibid., 2:429.
 SOCIAL CRITICISM AND REFORMIST ULAMA 173

become common among men of all religious. Another powerful

figure condemned by Jam51 al-Din was the tax farmer, al-'ash-
sdr. (14) Q5simi wrote that men would bid for tax farms at auc
tions held by government authorities. At harvest time the 'ash-
sh5r collected the tithe and could rightfully take 12.5 % of the
harvest for himself. Q5simi added that tax farmers who knew
officials could appropriate well over their customary portion, some-
times more than half the crop. He then denounced urban
notables who dominated tax farms and exploited peasants, and
with righteous certainty he related that all 'ashsh5r's met with
unhappy fates.
Jam51 al-Din criticized Damascus's wealthy elite in his passage
on poets. ( 15) Whereas poetry once flourished because rich men
and rulers used to rewards poets handsomely for laudatory verse,
poets had become scarce as the rich grew greedy and offered mere
trifles to poets. In another work Jam51 al-Din praised the Alge-
rian hero 'Abd al-Q5dir al-Jaz5'iri, who lived in Damascus from
1855 until his death in 1883, for his magnanimous patronage of
poets. ( 16 ) In the eyes of Q5simi and other middle ulama Jaz5'iri
conducted himself in a manner befitting someone possessing great
wealth and prestige.
Jam51 al-Din al-Q5simi also denounced wealthy folk in his work
on cleansing mosques of ritual innovations. (17) He pointed out
that many orphans and poor folk took refuge in mosques, partly
because the wealthy neglected their duties to help them. Appa-
rently some rich men claimed that the Quran does not oblige them
to feed the poor, but that, according to Q5simi, is a lie. He rela-
ted how one sick wretch had been turned away from the hospital,
showed up at the Smaniyyah mosque, and died there. The lesson
is that the wealthy should fund the construction of shelters for the
poor, much as the early generations of Muslims donated their
wealth for the benefit of schools and hospitals and set aside pious
endowments (al-awgdf) to alleviate the suffering of the poor. (18)
Because rich folk cling to their money Q5simi does not blame the
poor for seeking alms. Were the wealthy to behave charitably

(14) Ibid., 2:310.

(15) Ibid., 2:247-248.
(16) Jamal al-Din al-Qasimi, "Ta'tir al-Masham," revised copy, 2:532; unrevised
copy, Vol. 2, unpaginated insert, pp. 6-7.
(17) Jamal al-Din al-Qasimi, Islah al-masajid min al-bida' wa al-'awd'id (Cairo,
1923).
(18) Ibid., p. 243-246.
174 DAVID COMMINS

i nstead of hoarding their fortunes, beggary would diminish. Rich

men are obliged by religion to ease poverty, but they find Islamic
j urists (al-fugahd') who devise legal fictions allowing them to shirk
their duties. (19) Jamal al-Din is silent on the question of why
these jurists twist the law, but the implication is that they presu-
mably benefit from their misdeeds.
From these examples it is clear that the Qasimls strongly objec-
ted to the practices and behavior of certain wealthy men who
accumulated their riches at the expense of peasant cultiva-
tors. Grain wholesale merchants and tax farmers were part of the
urban elite that had emerged during the second half of the nine-
teenth century when southern Syria became a granary for
Europe. This development resulted from growing European
demand and rising prices during the Crimean war as well as the
earlier advent of regular steamship service in the eastern Mediter
ranean. ( 20) Damascene families that invested in the city's agri-
cultural hinterland become part of the local elite. Bureaucratic
posts comprised the other basis of elite status, and Jamal al-Din's
entry on tax farmers plainly tells us how office holders abetted the
former's rapacious actions.
Recent scholarship suggests that few ulama families belonged to
the new elite, and that this elite adopted the cultural trappings of
Istanbul's post-Tanzimat bureaucracy. (2I ) It seems that the civil
culture emanating from Istanbul in the late Ottoman period and
emulated by provincial elites attached little value to the ideals and
values embodied by the ulama. This shift in cultural orientation
appeared in the growing tendency for Damascene notables to learn
Ottoman Turkish and affect Ottoman manners rather than develo-
ping a taste for Arabic letters. The trend toward educating sons
i n state schools rather than with religious teachers also reflected
this cultural shift. Jamal al-Din gave evidence of such change in
the elite's culture when he chided the wealthy for their parsimo-
nious treatment of poets. He could recall from his youth how
men like 'Abd al-Q5dir al-Jaza'irl handsomely rewarded poets, and
Qasiml lamented the passing of such noble behaviour.
Muhammad Sa'!d al-Qasimi's poetry offers the most vivid
examples of hostility toward the wealthy in general and his resent-

(19) Ibid., p. 195. _

(20) For economic devolopments in Syria during the ninetheenth century, see
Schilcher, Families in Politics, pp. 60-86.
(21) Khoury, Urban Notables, pp. 50-51.
 SOCIAL CRITICISM AND REFORMIST ULAMA 175

ment of notable ulama in particular. With respect to the former,

Qasimi denounced rich men for their callous attitude toward the
miseries suffered by the poor: ( 22)
Why do you deny the poor a share of your wealth
While you see how endless is their suffering?
Your rich man indulges in his food
His drink and his many furs.
But you do not consider the condition of the poor
Although you see them living in misery.
You see them in the marketplace at evening time
Buying olives and coarse bread,
Roving about sad and crying, while your rich man
Gomes and goes cheerful and smiling.
At dusk he strolls around the fruit stalls
Or the pastry vendors to buy from them.
And when he buys something he is so stingy
He stealthily hides it under his clothes,
While the destitute ogle with eyes
On the rich man, then retreat empty-handed.
And if a poor man comes to him seeking a morsel,
Or comes a guest looking for hospitality,
His generosity is a blow from a cane,
Or at best a penny.

Here Qasimi depicts the contemptible behavior of a rich man

ignoring the wretched poverty around him, his niggardly treat-
ment of poor men, and perhaps worst of all, his cheerful demeanor
as he strolls about enjoying the comforts afforded by his wealth.
In another poem Qasimi treats with biting sarcasm the events
surrounding the mortal illness, death, and funeral of a wealthy
notable. The poem opens with ten verses describing the wealthy
as follows: ( 23)
Beware of the harm of great, wealthy men.
Yes! Take refuge in God from their wily deceptions.
For their nature is to take, not to give;
So do not hope to receive their charity.
Do not think that God gave them wealth
For their sake in spite of their evil deeds.
Nay! By the lord of the Throne it is a curse

(22) Bitar, Hilyal al-bashar, 2:660.

(23) Excerpted from Jamal al-Din al-Qasimi, "Bayt al-gasid fi tarjamat al-imam
al-walid al-said," p. 100.
176 DAVID COMMINS

On them in this world and the herealter for their greed.

For they are the evil rich, may their wealth not multiply,
And may the Merciful not bless their long lives.
Perish their hands! Their wealth avails them not, (24)
Neither what they have earned at the Day of Resurrection.
They will burn in a searing flame and upon their necks
Will be placed necklaces they hoarded.
For the Lord enjoined them
To give alms from their honest earnings.
Thus speaks the Book of God amongst them,
Yet they did not act according to the Book,
Thereby violating the Book's clear meaning as though
Feigning to forget God's threat against hoarding their wealth.
Qasimi then describes how the death of a rich man brings joy
rather than sorrow to many different people. The doctor, who
had never visited the wealthy man's home, sits cheerfully at the
death bed, prescribing medicine and charging an expensive
fee. The heirs hasten the patriarch's demise by contriving to
bring on a relapse. When the man finally dies, the news quickly
spreads through town and many take heart. Beggars flocks to the
house like locusts and stand outside waiting for alms in memory of
the deceased. They fight like jackals over the spoils, making a
chaotic, noisy scene. Then comes the turn of those in the funeral
trade: the washer of the corpse who wants to keep the deceased's
clothes; the bearers of the bier; the chanters at the head and rear of
the funeral procession; the Sufi dervishes marching in their special
costume. The gaiety attending the funeral is like that of a public
celebration, and not a soul is crying.
One might think the grieving family would find the entire spec-
tacle repugnant, and so would retreat to their home to mourn their
loss. Instead the loved ones gather at a happy party, forget the

(24) This verse draws on the imagery of Surah III of the Quran:
"In the Name of God, the Merciful, the Compassionate Perish the hands of Abu
Lahab, and perish he!
His wealth avails him not, neither what he has earned;
he shall roast at a flaming fire
and his wife, the carrier of the firewood,
Upon her neck a rope of palm-fibre."
A. J. Arberry, The Koran Interpreted ( New York, 1970), p. 353. Mr. Muham-
mad al-Husayn directed my attention to the Quranic reference in the poem.
 SOCIAL CRITICISM AND REFORMIST ULAMA 177

deceased, and irreverently carry on eating, drinking coffee, and

smoking cigarettes and narghiles: ( 25)

There you find the family and loved ones

And the sons all with joyful hearts.
And this one entertains them, that offers his chair,
Another jokes to make them laugh.
Then the heirs open up the chests holding their treasure and
plunder it. They make a din with their shouting, counting out the
money to divide it, bickering over furniture, clothes, clocks and
other property. They then squander their inheritance on bawdy
parties where wine flows, music is played, and men lose their
senses. They spend all they have dallying with prostitutes, dan-
cing, singing, and drinking until the rooster crows. Qasimi
concludes his sarcastic poem by restating that all the foregoing
befalls the rich man who shirks his duty to pay al-zakdl. An air of
moral depravity pervades the entire poem, as though the sin of not
paying the zakat multiplies and taints all those connected with the
deceased. The lesson is not that wealth is bad, but that man is
obliged to use his wealth for the good of the community, and
paying the zakat is the supreme symbol of righteous disposition of
wealth. While Qasimi did not condemn all rich folk, the absence
of counterexamples of pious rich men indicates that he probably
considered most wealthy people to be immoral.
In an earlier poem Qasimi likewise expressed contempt for pro-
minent people, in this instance dividing them into three categories:
men who falsely pose as ulama, men of high standing, and men of
wealth. ( 26)
People are bankrupt in piety and faith
But devils in tricky ways for worldly goods.
Be not deceived by a man's noble stature
For at heart he is deceiving and sly.
"God is great!" I do not appeal to people thus [by declaring faith]
Except for a few and the rest are wicked.
You see him [the noble one] blown up in arrogance, conceit,
And vanity, frowning at people.
The so-called scholar among them, by merely commencing
His lesson darkens the lanterns.

(25) Jamal al-Din al-Qasimi, "Bayt al-gasid fi tarjamat al-Imam al-walid al-
sa'id," p. 101.
(26) Ibid., p. 78.
 178 DAVID COMMINS

When he recites to the people from a page

He kisses it so much the lines are erased.
He stumbles as an ignoramus through his sermons
And yet deceives his ignorant audience.
He commands people to do good, then is seen
In blameful things, in defiled clothes.
He arrogantly spreads out his feet to be taken
By his disciples to rub and massage.
As for the man of prestige, no good comes of him.
He has no share in erecting the building of virtue.
You find him in his conceit, proudly strutting,
Scorning the people, showing no courtesy.
As for the man of wealth, greed, and avarice,
He worships the holdings of treasure chests and money bags.

The novel element in this poem is the counterfeit religious scholar

who knows only the gestures associated with learning: respectfully
kissing the book and exhibiting his high status by having his pupils
rub his feet; but he lacks virtue and stumbles though his ser-
mons. Such inauthentic ulama share with wealthy and prominent
men such unsavory traits as conceit, arrogance, and meanness.
A final example of Qasimi's poetry brings us to the heart of his
grievance with society: the degradation of knowledge and the dissi-
pation of virtue. (27 )

How long will knowledge be lowered and degraded

While ignorance and injustice are raised up high?
And virtue sleeps still in a tomb of weakness
While vice stands straight untouched by malady?
And miserliness spreads over the towns of our land
While generosity is barren and extinct?
The dogs of its marketplaces have their fill of meat
And the great heroes perish of hunger.
The blessings of man are too many to be reckoned
So here are the most splendid ones, eloquently stated:
Knowledge, then money, then honor.
It suffices me that knowledge be my lot.
I expose myself to its many splendors
And I hold aloof from the gross-hearted, the rude.

While the reader may consider these sentiments as no more than

maudlin self-righteousness, if we see them in the context of the

(27) Ibid., pp. 82-83.

 SOCIAL CRITICISM AND REFORMIST ULAMA 179

other poems cited and our knowledge of developments in Damas-

cene society we may interpret Qasimi's social criticism as voicing
the anguish and frustation of a subculture beginning to find itself
shunted off to society's periphery. Qasimi yearns for an idyllic
past, a recent past in his view, in which piety, scholarship, good
works, honor, and even wealth were the tokens of the ulama. In
those halcyon days the high ulama were men in whom learning,
dignity, and worldly blessings combined.
Socially, they may have formed an endogamous group, but they
also comprised part of an urban elite that dominated the local
economy and mediated relations with Istanbul. ( 28) With the sea
change in the bases of elite status, religious knowledge still coun-
ted, but it counted for less. The demotion of the ulama to a
subordinate position in the local leadership carried a cultual corol-
lary, namely the values and symbols of religion lost ground to a
new set of ideas. It is not as though once upon a time rich men
were good and treated the poor fairly, though the Qasimis may
have believed so; rather people formerly made a greater effort to
display respect for customary noblesse oblige, thereby softening
the rough edges of social inequality, in the eyes of the ulama if not
the poor themselves.

Conclusion

Recent scholarship on late Ottoman Syria has described the

objective processes involved in the dissolution of the urban elite of
the early nineteenth century and the constitution of a new one: the
growing trade with Europe in Syrian grains disposed urban
notables to invest in rural holdings; the extension of Ottoman
bureaucratic reforms to Syria after 1860 made provincial adminis-
trative positions a basis of power and wealth; the ulama as a group
became subordinate members of the local elite as parallel civil ins-
titutions challenged their educational and juridical preroga-
tives. The Qasimis' searing poetic and prosaic protests against
corrupt rich men and degenerate ulama are striking testimony of
the tensions that accompanied this rearrangement of social rela-
tions. They present us with a subjective dimension of social
change, eloquently expressing the alienation and resentment felt
by some middle ulama toward the new elite, including its ulama.

(28) Schilcher, Families in Politics, pp. 35, 49, 54-55, 114-124.

18 0 DAVID COMMINS

The Qasimis believed that knowledge and virtues had declined

with the fall in stature of the ulama. But they held the ulama
themselves responsible for this states of affairs. Salafi Islamic
reform as advocated by the Qasimis and others called on the ulama
to raise the standards of their teachings and practices in order to
conforme to the example set by Islam's first generations. Only
then would the ulama recover influence, for they could then
demonstrate the suitability of Islamic norms and precepts to gui-
ding Muslims to progress and strength in the modern age. ( 29 )
This positive prescription for Muslim scholars follows a negative
assessment of their current state, an assessment clearly articulated
i n Muhammad Sa'id's lamenting the fallen state of knowledge and
his scathing verses against counterfeit ulama of high social stan-
ding. The broad outlines of salafism in Damascus resemble its
contemporary and later analogues elsewhere; but the social context
was distinctive and it explains the early appearence of social criti-
cism among reformist ulama of Damascus.

David COMMINS.
(Carlisle, P.A., U.S.A.)

(29) On the salafiyyah movement in Ottoman Damascus, see Commins, "The

Salafi Islamic Reform Movement in Damascus."