JAWĀLIQI, HEŠĀM

 

JAWĀLIQI, HEŠĀM b. Sālem, an Imami jurist and theologian of the 2nd/8th century. He was a close associate of the Imams Jaʿfar al-Ṣādeq and Musā al-Kāẓem (qq.v.). His nesba was derived from his vocation, which was the selling of woolen sacks (jawāliq < Pers. govāl, jovāl). He was also called al-ʿAllāf after another trade of his, the selling of fodder (ʿalaf), which he turned to later in his life (Kašši, II, p. 566). According to his biographers, Hešām b. Sālem was a captive from Khorasan, hence he became a client (mawlā) for the Umayyad prince and governor of Kufa, Bešr b. Marwān. He transmitted 363 Hadiths on the authority of the Imams Jaʿfar al-Ṣādeq and Musā al-Kāẓem. He had heard each Hadith either directly from one of the two Imams or from one of their close associates (Ḵoʾi, XX, p. 330). Therefore, his collection of Hadiths is considered a primary source (asÂl) and one of the 400 authoritative collections of Imami Hadith (for a partial list of these collections, see Āḡā Bozorg Ṭehrāni, II, p. 128).

Imami biographers considered Jawāliqi to be among the most trustworthy transmitters of Hadith (Najāši, II. p. 435; Kašši, II, p. 567; Ḥelli, II, p. 290). He compiled three other books (al-Ḥajj, al-Tafsir, and al-Meʿrāj) in addition to his own book (asÂl) of Hadith (Najāši, II, p. 435). Jawāliqi narrated Hadith on the authority of prominent companions of Jaʿfar al-Ṣādeq and Musā al-Kāẓem, including Abu BasÂir, Abu Ḥamza Ṭomali, Abān b. Taḡleb, Zorāra b. Aʿyān, Jāber Joʿfi, and ʿAmmār Sābāṭi.

Abu’l-Ḥasan ʿAli Ašʿari refers to Jawāliqi as the head of a Shiʿite sub-sect that was named after him “al-Hešāmiya,” alleging that this sect “claimed that their Lord possesses the image of a human (ṣurat al-ensān), but they deny His possessing flesh and blood, saying that He is bright light (nur sāṭeʿ) and He has five senses like human beings” (Ašʿari, 1950, p. 105; idem, 1980, p. 34). However, no sub-sect with such a belief was reported by Ḥasan Nawbaḵti, whose Feraq al-Šiʿa is more authoritative on the subject, and it was written earlier than Ašʿari’s book. There is, however, an attribution of this belief to Jawāliqi, reported in a conversation between the Imam ʿAli al-Reżā (q.v.) and an associate named ʿAbd-al-Malek Ḥannāṭ (Kašši, II, pp. 568-69), but Ḵoʾi considers the report as weak and not reliable (Ḵoʾi, XX, p. 329).

We have no record of Jawāliqi’s date of death, which must have been before 799, that is, the year in which Imam Musā al-Kāẓem died, since there is no record that he narrated any Hadiths from the following Imam, ʿAli al-Reżā. Besides, he was an accomplished theologian in the time of the Imam Jaʿfar al-Ṣādeq (d. 765), which makes it unlikely that he would outlive the long duration of al-Kāẓem’s imamate (765-99). Furthermore, he was influential in settling the dispute over the Imamate after the death of Imam al-Ṣādeq, but his name was not mentioned in the controversy following the death of Imam al-Kāẓem (Nawbaḵti, tr. Maškur, pp. 117 ff., tr. Kadhim, pp. 133 ff.; Kašši, II, pp. 566-68), which indicates that he was not alive at that time.

 

Bibliography:

Abu’l-Ḥasan ʿAli Ašʿari, Ketāb maqālāt al-eslāmiyin wa eḵtelāf al-moṣellin, Cairo, 1950; ed. Helmut Ritter, Wiesbaden, 1980.

ʿAllāma Ḥasan b. Yusof Ḥelli, ḴolāsÂat al-aqwāl fi maʿrefat al-rejāl, Qom, 1996.

Moḥammad b. ʿOmar Kašši, Rejāl al-Kašši, Qom, 1970.

Abu’l-Qāsem Ḵoʾi, Moʿjam rejāl al-ḥadiṯ wa tafṣil ṭabaqāt al-rowāh, 24 vols., Beirut, 1992.

Abu’l-ʿAbbās Najāši, Rejāl al-Najāši, ed. Musā Šobayri Zan-jāni as Fahrasat asmāʾ moṣannefin al-Šiʿa al-moštahar be-Rejāl al-Najāši, Qom, 1986.

Ḥasan b. Musā Nawbaḵti, Feraq al-Šiʿa, Najaf, 1931; tr. Moḥammad-Jawād Maškur as Tarjama-ye Feraq al-Šiʿa-ye Nawbaḵti, Tehran, 1974; tr. Abbas Kadhim as Shiʿa Sects, London, 2007.

Āḡā Bozorg Ṭehrāni, al-Ḏariʿa elā taṣānif al-šiʿa, Beirut, 1983. Abu Jaʿfar Moḥammad b. Ḥasan Ṭusi, Fehrest, Beirut, 1983.

(Abbas Kadhim)

Originally Published: December 15, 2008

Last Updated: April 13, 2012

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Vol. XIV, Fasc. 6, pp. 610-611