The Qussas of Early Islam.

다국어 초록 (Multilingual Abstract)

The Islamic qās&dotbelow;s&dotbelow; (pl. qus&dotbelow;s&dotbelow;ās&dotbelow; ) has been widely viewed as a teller of stories who gathered around him the uneducated public and filled their minds with fabulous stories while commenting on the Qur’ān or while relating unreliable traditions (h&dotbelow;adīth) about the Prophet Muhammad. This research seeks to revisit this image of the qās&dotbelow;s&dotbelow; particularly as it applies to the early period of Islam.
The early Islamic qās&dotbelow;s&dotbelow; was a person of diverse interests, engaging in religious education on myriad topics, encouraging soldiers in battle and promoting religio-political causes. A large percentage of the qus&dotbelow;s&dotbelow;ās&dotbelow; excelled in a number of the religious and didactic disciplines of the community. However, while the qās&dotbelow;s&dotbelow; was expected to be knowledgeable and a competent speaker, he was maligned in many traditions for introducing destructive innovations into the community. In spite of these traditions, the qus&dotbelow;s&dotbelow;ās&dotbelow; appear to have been part of the scholarly landscape of the community since the earliest decades of Islamic history and may have even existed from the time of the Prophet Muhammad. The qus&dotbelow;s&dotbelow;ās&dotbelow; continued to play an active role in both the religious and political environment of the community during the Rāshidūn period and throughout the Umayyad period.
Building on a new pool of statements described as qas&dotbelow;ās&dotbelow; and of scholars identified by the sources as qus&dotbelow;s&dotbelow;ās&dotbelow; , this study reexamines the role that the qus&dotbelow;s&dotbelow;ās&dotbelow; played in the development of early Islamic society, specifically in regard to various religious disciplines, such as Qur’ān commentary and h&dotbelow;adīth, among others. I argue that criticisms of the early qās&dotbelow;s&dotbelow; an unreliable storyteller for the masses cannot be supported by the sources. Moreover, I attempt to trace the involvement of the qus&dotbelow;s&dotbelow;ās&dotbelow; in the religio-political movements of the Islamic community until the end of the Umayyad period.