Comans
Comans (in Turkish, Quman). Branch of the Turkish Qipcaq (Kipchak) confederation who, fleeing before the Mongol invasion of 1237, sought asylum in Hungary. The famous Codex Comanicus of the fourteenth century is a collection of texts brought together in South Russia by Italian and German missionaries.
Quman see Comans
Quman see Comans
Committee of Union and Progress
Committee of Union and Progress (CUP) (Committee of Ottoman Union) (Ittihad we Teraqqi Jem‘iyyeti) (Ittihat ve Terakki Cemiyeti) (Ittihad-i Osmani Cemiyeti). Main organization of the group of Turkish nationalists who took control of the Ottoman government in 1908.
The Committee of Union and Progress (CUP) (Turkish: İttihat ve Terakki Cemiyeti) began as a secret society established as the "Committee of Ottoman Union" (Turkish: İttihad-ı Osmanî Cemiyeti) in 1889 by the medical students İbrahim Temo, Abdullah Cevdet, İshak Sükuti and Hüseyinzade Ali. It became a political organization, established by Bahaeddin Sakir among Young Turks in 1906, during the period of the dissolution of the Ottoman Empire. The CUP came to power between 1908 and 1918. At the end of World War I most of its members were court-martialled by the sultan Mehmed VI and imprisoned. A few of the members of the organization were executed in Turkey during the "attempted assassination of Atatürk" trials in 1926. Members who survived continued their political careers in Turkey as members of the Republican People's Party (Turkish: Cumhuriyet Halk Partisi) and other political parties as well.
The Committee of Union and Progress was an umbrella name for different underground factions, some of which were generally known as the "Young Turks". The name was officially sanctioned to a specific group in 1906 by Bahaeddin Sakir. The organization was based upon the revolutionary
Italian Carbonari. The CUP had built an extensive organization, in home towns, at the capital, and in Europe. Under this umbrella name one could find ethnic Albanians, Bulgarians, Arabs, Slavs, Jews, Greeks, Turks, Kurds and Armenians. Changing the régime was their common goal but after the 1908 revolution, the Young Turk Revolution, this goal lost its meaning and factions began to emerge. Abdul Hamid II was quite successful in suppressing the CUP, and even approached France and Germany in suppression of this political movement.
The Young Turk Revolution played a significant role in the evolution of Committee of Union and Progress from a revolutionary organization to a political party. The revolution and CUP's work made a strong impact on Muslims. The Persian community in Istanbul founded the Iranian Union and Progress Committee. Indian Muslims imitated the CUP oath for joining the organization. The leaders of the Young Bukhara movement were deeply influenced by the Young Turk Revolution, and saw it as an example to emulate.
The Chinese Revolution of 1911 and the Russian Revolution of 1917 diverted the attention of world revolutionaries from the Young Turk Revolution.
The first election to the Ottoman Parliament after the Young Turk Revolution netted the Committee of Union and Progress only 60 of the 275 seats, despite its leading role in the revolution. Other parties represented in Parliament at this time included the Armenian nationalist Dashnak and Hunchak parties (four and two members respectively) and the main opposition, the Liberty and Entente party, sometimes referred to by Ottoman historians as the "Liberal Union".
As a result of the "Law of Associations" shutting down ethnically based organizations and clubs, by the time of the second general election in 1912, smaller parties had coalesced with the Liberal Union. At this election, a total of 67% or 184 seats were won by the CUP. In most republics this is the margin required for wholesale transformation of the constitution. However, this Parliament was in a very short session due to the outbreak of the First Balkan War. Sensing the danger, the government won passage of a bill conscripting dhimmis into the army. This proved too little and too late to salvage the Ottoman toehold in southeast Europe. The Ottomans lost Albania, Macedonia and western Thrace.
On August 5, 1912, the government shuttered Parliament. Just prior to that it had succeeded in passing the "Law for the Prevention of Brigandage and Sedition," a measure ostensibly intended to prevent insurgency against the central government which assigned that duty to newly created paramilitary formations. These later came under the control of the Teşkilat-i Mahsusa.
In spite of parliamentary elections, non-partisan figures from the pre-revolutionary period known as the "Old Turks" still dominated the Ottoman cabinet, known as the Sublime Porte. The Grand Vizier Mehmed Kamil Pasha and his minister of war Nazim Pasha became targets of the CUP, which overthrew them in a military coup d'etat on January 23, 1913.
The emerging government could hardly be called constitutional. Indeed, 1913 was a period of government by assassination as Nazim and then his successor Mahmud Sevket Pasha were both slain, Nazim at the very instant the CUP seized power. The passage of a new law the following year made the CUP the Empire's only legal political party; all provincial and local officials reported to "Responsible Secretaries" chosen by the party for each vilayet.
Absent the wartime atmosphere, the CUP did not purge minority religions from political life. At least 23 Christians joined it and were elected to the third Parliament. This is one possible motivation for the entry into the war, another being the "pan-Turkic" ideology of the party which emphasized the Empire's manifest destiny of ruling over the Muslims of Central Asia once Russia was driven out of that region. Notably, two principal leaders from this time, Enver Pasha and Ahmed Djemal, would in fact die in the Soviet Union leading Muslim anti-Communist movements years after the Russian Revolution and the Ottoman defeat in World War I.
The CUP was especially hostile to the Armenian population, and began plotting their extermination almost immediately. Indeed, the first major offensive the Turks undertook in World War I was an unsuccessful attempt to drive the Russians from the portion of partially classic Armenia which they had taken over in the Russo-Turkish War of 1877. After the predictable failure of this expedition, the CUP was involved in the genocide of between one and one and one half million Armenians between 1915-1916. As explained in the key indictment at the trial (in absentia) of the Three Pashas (Enver, Cemal, and Talaat); the Armenian Genocide massacres were spearheaded by the Teşkilat-i Mahsusa under its leader, Turkish physician Behaeddin Shakir.
The disbandment process of the CUP was achieved through military trials. As the military position of the Central Powers disintegrated in October 1918, the government resigned. A new Grand Vizier, Damad Ferid Pasha, negotiated the Armistice of Mudros at the end of the month. The position of the CUP was now untenable, and its top leaders fled three days later.
British forces occupied various points throughout the Empire, and through their High Commissioner Somerset Calthorpe demanded those members of the leadership who had not fled be put on trial, a policy also demanded by Part VII of the Treaty of Sevres formally ending hostilities between the Allies and the Empire. The British carried off sixty Turks thought to be responsible for atrocities to Malta, where trials were planned. The new government obligingly arrested over 100 party and military officials by April 1919 and began a series of trials. These were initially promising, with one district governor, Mehmed Kemal, being hanged on April 10.
Any possibility of a general effort at truth, reconciliation, or democratization was, however, lost when Greece, which had sought to remain neutral through most of World War I, was invited by France, Britain, and the United States to occupy western Anatolia in May 1919. Nationalist leader Mustafa Kemal (no relation to the CUP official) rallied the Turkish people to resist. Two additional organizers of the genocide were hanged, but while a few others were convicted, none completed their prison terms. The CUP and other Turkish prisoners held on Malta were eventually traded for almost 30 British prisoners held by Nationalist forces, obliging the British to give up their plans for international trials.
The CUP has at times been identified with the two opposition parties attempted to be introduced into Turkish politics during the life of Kemal, the Progressive Republican Party and the Liberal Republican Party. While neither of these parties was primarily made up of persons indicted for genocidal activities, they were eventually taken over (or at least exploited) by persons who wished to restore the caliphate. Consequently, both parties had to be outlawed, although Kazim Karabekir, founder of the PRP, was eventually rehabilitated after the death of Kemal and even served as speaker of the Grand National Assembly.
It was also Karabekir who crystallized the modern Turkish position on the Armenian Genocide, telling Soviet peace commissioners that the return of any Armenians to territory controlled by Turks was out of the question, as the Armenians had perished in a rebellion of their own making. Historian Taner Akçam has identified four definitions of Turkey which have been handed down by Kemal's generation to modern Turks, of which the second is "Turkey is a society without ethnic minorities or cultures." While the postwar reconstruction of Eastern Europe was generally dominated by Wilsonian ideas of national self-determination, Turkey probably came closer than most of the new countries to ethnic homogeneity due to the subsequent population exchanges with neighboring countries. Similarly with countries which came under Soviet domination following World War II, it has not become truly multi-ethnic like the immigrant havens of Western Europe or the United States, rather serving as a net exporter of people. This is probably the main reason Karabekir's approach has continued to be viable.
CUP see Committee of Union and Progress
Ittihat ve Terakki Cemiyeti see Committee of Union and Progress
Committee of Ottoman Union see Committee of Union and Progress
Ittihad-i Osmani Cemiyeti see Committee of Union and Progress
Ittihad we Teraqqi Jem‘iyyeti see Committee of Union and Progress
The Young Turk Revolution played a significant role in the evolution of Committee of Union and Progress from a revolutionary organization to a political party. The revolution and CUP's work made a strong impact on Muslims. The Persian community in Istanbul founded the Iranian Union and Progress Committee. Indian Muslims imitated the CUP oath for joining the organization. The leaders of the Young Bukhara movement were deeply influenced by the Young Turk Revolution, and saw it as an example to emulate.
The Chinese Revolution of 1911 and the Russian Revolution of 1917 diverted the attention of world revolutionaries from the Young Turk Revolution.
The first election to the Ottoman Parliament after the Young Turk Revolution netted the Committee of Union and Progress only 60 of the 275 seats, despite its leading role in the revolution. Other parties represented in Parliament at this time included the Armenian nationalist Dashnak and Hunchak parties (four and two members respectively) and the main opposition, the Liberty and Entente party, sometimes referred to by Ottoman historians as the "Liberal Union".
As a result of the "Law of Associations" shutting down ethnically based organizations and clubs, by the time of the second general election in 1912, smaller parties had coalesced with the Liberal Union. At this election, a total of 67% or 184 seats were won by the CUP. In most republics this is the margin required for wholesale transformation of the constitution. However, this Parliament was in a very short session due to the outbreak of the First Balkan War. Sensing the danger, the government won passage of a bill conscripting dhimmis into the army. This proved too little and too late to salvage the Ottoman toehold in southeast Europe. The Ottomans lost Albania, Macedonia and western Thrace.
On August 5, 1912, the government shuttered Parliament. Just prior to that it had succeeded in passing the "Law for the Prevention of Brigandage and Sedition," a measure ostensibly intended to prevent insurgency against the central government which assigned that duty to newly created paramilitary formations. These later came under the control of the Teşkilat-i Mahsusa.
In spite of parliamentary elections, non-partisan figures from the pre-revolutionary period known as the "Old Turks" still dominated the Ottoman cabinet, known as the Sublime Porte. The Grand Vizier Mehmed Kamil Pasha and his minister of war Nazim Pasha became targets of the CUP, which overthrew them in a military coup d'etat on January 23, 1913.
The emerging government could hardly be called constitutional. Indeed, 1913 was a period of government by assassination as Nazim and then his successor Mahmud Sevket Pasha were both slain, Nazim at the very instant the CUP seized power. The passage of a new law the following year made the CUP the Empire's only legal political party; all provincial and local officials reported to "Responsible Secretaries" chosen by the party for each vilayet.
Absent the wartime atmosphere, the CUP did not purge minority religions from political life. At least 23 Christians joined it and were elected to the third Parliament. This is one possible motivation for the entry into the war, another being the "pan-Turkic" ideology of the party which emphasized the Empire's manifest destiny of ruling over the Muslims of Central Asia once Russia was driven out of that region. Notably, two principal leaders from this time, Enver Pasha and Ahmed Djemal, would in fact die in the Soviet Union leading Muslim anti-Communist movements years after the Russian Revolution and the Ottoman defeat in World War I.
The CUP was especially hostile to the Armenian population, and began plotting their extermination almost immediately. Indeed, the first major offensive the Turks undertook in World War I was an unsuccessful attempt to drive the Russians from the portion of partially classic Armenia which they had taken over in the Russo-Turkish War of 1877. After the predictable failure of this expedition, the CUP was involved in the genocide of between one and one and one half million Armenians between 1915-1916. As explained in the key indictment at the trial (in absentia) of the Three Pashas (Enver, Cemal, and Talaat); the Armenian Genocide massacres were spearheaded by the Teşkilat-i Mahsusa under its leader, Turkish physician Behaeddin Shakir.
The disbandment process of the CUP was achieved through military trials. As the military position of the Central Powers disintegrated in October 1918, the government resigned. A new Grand Vizier, Damad Ferid Pasha, negotiated the Armistice of Mudros at the end of the month. The position of the CUP was now untenable, and its top leaders fled three days later.
British forces occupied various points throughout the Empire, and through their High Commissioner Somerset Calthorpe demanded those members of the leadership who had not fled be put on trial, a policy also demanded by Part VII of the Treaty of Sevres formally ending hostilities between the Allies and the Empire. The British carried off sixty Turks thought to be responsible for atrocities to Malta, where trials were planned. The new government obligingly arrested over 100 party and military officials by April 1919 and began a series of trials. These were initially promising, with one district governor, Mehmed Kemal, being hanged on April 10.
Any possibility of a general effort at truth, reconciliation, or democratization was, however, lost when Greece, which had sought to remain neutral through most of World War I, was invited by France, Britain, and the United States to occupy western Anatolia in May 1919. Nationalist leader Mustafa Kemal (no relation to the CUP official) rallied the Turkish people to resist. Two additional organizers of the genocide were hanged, but while a few others were convicted, none completed their prison terms. The CUP and other Turkish prisoners held on Malta were eventually traded for almost 30 British prisoners held by Nationalist forces, obliging the British to give up their plans for international trials.
The CUP has at times been identified with the two opposition parties attempted to be introduced into Turkish politics during the life of Kemal, the Progressive Republican Party and the Liberal Republican Party. While neither of these parties was primarily made up of persons indicted for genocidal activities, they were eventually taken over (or at least exploited) by persons who wished to restore the caliphate. Consequently, both parties had to be outlawed, although Kazim Karabekir, founder of the PRP, was eventually rehabilitated after the death of Kemal and even served as speaker of the Grand National Assembly.
It was also Karabekir who crystallized the modern Turkish position on the Armenian Genocide, telling Soviet peace commissioners that the return of any Armenians to territory controlled by Turks was out of the question, as the Armenians had perished in a rebellion of their own making. Historian Taner Akçam has identified four definitions of Turkey which have been handed down by Kemal's generation to modern Turks, of which the second is "Turkey is a society without ethnic minorities or cultures." While the postwar reconstruction of Eastern Europe was generally dominated by Wilsonian ideas of national self-determination, Turkey probably came closer than most of the new countries to ethnic homogeneity due to the subsequent population exchanges with neighboring countries. Similarly with countries which came under Soviet domination following World War II, it has not become truly multi-ethnic like the immigrant havens of Western Europe or the United States, rather serving as a net exporter of people. This is probably the main reason Karabekir's approach has continued to be viable.
CUP see Committee of Union and Progress
Ittihat ve Terakki Cemiyeti see Committee of Union and Progress
Committee of Ottoman Union see Committee of Union and Progress
Ittihad-i Osmani Cemiyeti see Committee of Union and Progress
Ittihad we Teraqqi Jem‘iyyeti see Committee of Union and Progress
Companions of the Prophet
Companions of the Prophet (in Arabic, ashab or sahaba or Sahabah). In earlier times, the term was restricted to those who had been close to the Prophet. Later it also included those who had met him during his life, or who had seen him even if only for a few brief moments. After the Qur’an, the Companions were the sources of authentic religious doctrine. Tradition is based on the utterances handed down by them as authentic. The highest place among them is taken by the first four caliphs: Abu Bakr, ‘Umar ibn al-Khattab, ‘Uthman ibn ‘Affan and ‘Ali. Other categories are the Emigrants, the Helpers and the Badriyun (i.e., those who cooperated with him at the Battle of Badr). The Shi‘a in general hold a different attitude towards the Companions, because it was with the approval of the Companions that the first three caliphs took away the rights of ‘Ali and his family.
In Islam, the Ṣaḥābah were the companions of the Islamic prophet Muḥammad. Most Sunnis regard anyone who, in the state of faith, saw Muḥammad to be a ṣaḥāba. Lists of prominent companions usually run to fifty or sixty names, being the people most closely associated with Muḥammad. However, there were clearly many others who had some contact with Muḥammad, and their names and biographies were recorded in religious reference texts such as Muḥammad ibn Sa'd's early Kitāb at-Tabāqat al-Kabīr.
Muhammed bin Ahmed Efendi (died 1622), who is also known with the sobriquet "Nişancızâde", the author of the book entitled Mir’ât-i-kâinât (in Turkish), states as follows: "Once a male or female Muslim has seen Hadrat Muhammad only for a short time, no matter whether he/she is a child or an adult, he/she is called a Sahaba with the proviso of dying with as a believer; the same rule applies to blind Muslims who have talked with the Prophet at least once. If a disbeliever sees the Prophet and then joins the Believers after the demise of Muhammad, he is not a Sahaba; nor is a person called a Sahaba if he converted to Islam afterwards although he had seen the Prophet Muhammad as a Muslim. A person who converts to Islam after being a Sahaba and then becomes a Believer again after the demise of Prophet Muhammad, is a Sahaba."
It was important to identify the companions because later scholars accepted their testimony (the hadith, or traditions) as to the words and deeds of Muḥammad, the occasions on which the Qur'an was revealed, and various important matters of Islamic history and practice (sunnah). The testimony of the companions, as it was passed down through chains of trusted narrators (isnads), was the basis of the developing Islamic tradition.
Because the hadith were not written down until many years after the death of Muḥammad, the isnads, or chains of transmission, always have several links. The first link is preferably a companion, who had direct contact with Muḥammad. The companion then related the tradition to a tābi‘īn, the companion of the companion. Tābi‘īn had no direct contact with Muḥammad, but did have direct contact with the Ṣahāba. The tradition then would have been passed from the Tābi‘īn to the Tābi‘ at-Tābi‘īn, the third link.
The second and third links in the chain of transmission were also of great interest to Muslim scholars, who referred to them in biographical dictionaries and evaluated them for bias and reliability. Shi'a and Sunni apply different metrics.
Some Muslims assert that there were more than two hundred thousand companions. One hundred twenty four thousand are believed to have witnessed the last sermon Muḥammad delivered after making his last pilgrimage, or Hajj, to Mecca.
The book entitled Istî’âb fî ma’rifat-il-Ashâb by Hafidh Yusuf bin Muhammad bin Qurtubi (death 1071) consists of two thousand seven hundred and seventy biographies of male Sahaba and three hundred and eighty-one biographies of female Sahaba. According to an observation in the book entitled Mawâhib-i-ladunniyya, an untold number of persons had already converted to Islam by the time Muhammad died. There were ten thousand Sahaba by the time Mecca was conquered and seventy thousand Sahaba during the Battle of Tabuk in 630.
Soon after Muḥammad's death the Muslim community, the ummah, was riven by conflicts over leadership. Companions took sides in the conflicts – or were forced to take sides – and later scholars considered their allegiances in weighing their testimony. The two largest Muslim denominations, the Shi'a and Sunni take very different approaches in weighing the value of the companions' testimony.
According to Sunni scholars, Muslims of the past should be considered companions if they had any contact with Muḥammad, and they were not liars or opposed to the Prophet and his teachings. If they saw him, heard him, or were in his presence even briefly, they are companions. Blind people are considered companions even if they could not see Muḥammad. Even unlearned Muslims are considered companions. However, anyone who died after rejecting Islam and becoming an apostate is not considered a companion.
Sunni Muslim scholars classified companions into many categories, based on a number of criteria. The hadith quoted above shows the rank of ṣaḥābah, tābi‘īn, and tābi‘ at-tābi‘īn. Suyuti recognized eleven levels of companionship. However, all companions are assumed to be just (udul) unless they are proven otherwise. That is, Sunni scholars do not believe that companions would lie or fabricate hadith unless they were proven to be liars, untrustworthy or opposed to Islam.
Shi'a Muslims do not accept all companions as just. The Shi'a believe that after the death of Muḥammad, the majority of the sahabah turned aside from true Islam and deviated from Muhammad's family, instead electing the caliph by themselves. Although some of the sahabah repented later, only a few of the early Muslims held fast to Ali, whom Shi'a Muslims regard as the rightful successor to Muḥammad. Shi'a scholars therefore deprecate hadith believed to have been transmitted through unjust companions, and place much more reliance on hadith believed to have been related by Muhammad's family members and companions who supported Ali.
ashab see Companions of the Prophet
sahaba see Companions of the Prophet
Companions of the Prophet (in Arabic, ashab or sahaba or Sahabah). In earlier times, the term was restricted to those who had been close to the Prophet. Later it also included those who had met him during his life, or who had seen him even if only for a few brief moments. After the Qur’an, the Companions were the sources of authentic religious doctrine. Tradition is based on the utterances handed down by them as authentic. The highest place among them is taken by the first four caliphs: Abu Bakr, ‘Umar ibn al-Khattab, ‘Uthman ibn ‘Affan and ‘Ali. Other categories are the Emigrants, the Helpers and the Badriyun (i.e., those who cooperated with him at the Battle of Badr). The Shi‘a in general hold a different attitude towards the Companions, because it was with the approval of the Companions that the first three caliphs took away the rights of ‘Ali and his family.
In Islam, the Ṣaḥābah were the companions of the Islamic prophet Muḥammad. Most Sunnis regard anyone who, in the state of faith, saw Muḥammad to be a ṣaḥāba. Lists of prominent companions usually run to fifty or sixty names, being the people most closely associated with Muḥammad. However, there were clearly many others who had some contact with Muḥammad, and their names and biographies were recorded in religious reference texts such as Muḥammad ibn Sa'd's early Kitāb at-Tabāqat al-Kabīr.
Muhammed bin Ahmed Efendi (died 1622), who is also known with the sobriquet "Nişancızâde", the author of the book entitled Mir’ât-i-kâinât (in Turkish), states as follows: "Once a male or female Muslim has seen Hadrat Muhammad only for a short time, no matter whether he/she is a child or an adult, he/she is called a Sahaba with the proviso of dying with as a believer; the same rule applies to blind Muslims who have talked with the Prophet at least once. If a disbeliever sees the Prophet and then joins the Believers after the demise of Muhammad, he is not a Sahaba; nor is a person called a Sahaba if he converted to Islam afterwards although he had seen the Prophet Muhammad as a Muslim. A person who converts to Islam after being a Sahaba and then becomes a Believer again after the demise of Prophet Muhammad, is a Sahaba."
It was important to identify the companions because later scholars accepted their testimony (the hadith, or traditions) as to the words and deeds of Muḥammad, the occasions on which the Qur'an was revealed, and various important matters of Islamic history and practice (sunnah). The testimony of the companions, as it was passed down through chains of trusted narrators (isnads), was the basis of the developing Islamic tradition.
Because the hadith were not written down until many years after the death of Muḥammad, the isnads, or chains of transmission, always have several links. The first link is preferably a companion, who had direct contact with Muḥammad. The companion then related the tradition to a tābi‘īn, the companion of the companion. Tābi‘īn had no direct contact with Muḥammad, but did have direct contact with the Ṣahāba. The tradition then would have been passed from the Tābi‘īn to the Tābi‘ at-Tābi‘īn, the third link.
The second and third links in the chain of transmission were also of great interest to Muslim scholars, who referred to them in biographical dictionaries and evaluated them for bias and reliability. Shi'a and Sunni apply different metrics.
Some Muslims assert that there were more than two hundred thousand companions. One hundred twenty four thousand are believed to have witnessed the last sermon Muḥammad delivered after making his last pilgrimage, or Hajj, to Mecca.
The book entitled Istî’âb fî ma’rifat-il-Ashâb by Hafidh Yusuf bin Muhammad bin Qurtubi (death 1071) consists of two thousand seven hundred and seventy biographies of male Sahaba and three hundred and eighty-one biographies of female Sahaba. According to an observation in the book entitled Mawâhib-i-ladunniyya, an untold number of persons had already converted to Islam by the time Muhammad died. There were ten thousand Sahaba by the time Mecca was conquered and seventy thousand Sahaba during the Battle of Tabuk in 630.
Soon after Muḥammad's death the Muslim community, the ummah, was riven by conflicts over leadership. Companions took sides in the conflicts – or were forced to take sides – and later scholars considered their allegiances in weighing their testimony. The two largest Muslim denominations, the Shi'a and Sunni take very different approaches in weighing the value of the companions' testimony.
According to Sunni scholars, Muslims of the past should be considered companions if they had any contact with Muḥammad, and they were not liars or opposed to the Prophet and his teachings. If they saw him, heard him, or were in his presence even briefly, they are companions. Blind people are considered companions even if they could not see Muḥammad. Even unlearned Muslims are considered companions. However, anyone who died after rejecting Islam and becoming an apostate is not considered a companion.
Sunni Muslim scholars classified companions into many categories, based on a number of criteria. The hadith quoted above shows the rank of ṣaḥābah, tābi‘īn, and tābi‘ at-tābi‘īn. Suyuti recognized eleven levels of companionship. However, all companions are assumed to be just (udul) unless they are proven otherwise. That is, Sunni scholars do not believe that companions would lie or fabricate hadith unless they were proven to be liars, untrustworthy or opposed to Islam.
Shi'a Muslims do not accept all companions as just. The Shi'a believe that after the death of Muḥammad, the majority of the sahabah turned aside from true Islam and deviated from Muhammad's family, instead electing the caliph by themselves. Although some of the sahabah repented later, only a few of the early Muslims held fast to Ali, whom Shi'a Muslims regard as the rightful successor to Muḥammad. Shi'a scholars therefore deprecate hadith believed to have been transmitted through unjust companions, and place much more reliance on hadith believed to have been related by Muhammad's family members and companions who supported Ali.
ashab see Companions of the Prophet
sahaba see Companions of the Prophet
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