The Appearance of the Name Abdullah at the End of the 9th Century Hijri

Book Title: Measuring the Authenticity of Habib Lineage in Indonesia
Author: KH Imaduddin Utsman Al Bantani, leader of Nahdlatul Ulum Islamic Boarding School, Banten
First Edition: October 2022
Publisher: Maktabah Nahdatul Ulum
Translator: alkhoirot.org | Al-Khoirot Research and Publication
Field of Study: Islamic History, genealogy  

Contents

1. The Appearance of the Name Abdullah at the End of the 9th Century Hijri
2. In the 10th Century, the Name Abdullah and His Descendants Began to Mature, Although He Was Not Yet Referred to as Ubaidillah
3. Is the Abdullah of the 9th Century AH the Same as the Abdullah of the 10th Century AH?
4. Back to Book  Measuring the Authenticity of Habib Lineage in Indonesia   

THE EMERGENCE OF THE NAME ABDULLAH AT THE END OF THE 9TH CENTURY AH

The name Ubaidillah had not yet appeared by the end of the ninth century; however, a new name was mentioned in the book An-Nafhah al-Anbariyah by Muhammad Kadzim bin Abil Futuh al-Yamani al-Musawi (d. 880 AH): Abdullah bin Ahmad. From this, we see that the name Abdullah had disappeared from the radar of genealogical authors for 543 years, calculated from the death of Ahmad bin Isa. At the very least, among the books that began recording the name of Ahmad bin Isa—as the author mentioned above—there are seven books from the fifth to the ninth centuries that do not mention Abdullah as a child of Ahmad bin Isa. The full excerpt from an-Nafhah is as follows:

"Then Muhammad an-Naqib migrated to the city of Ros [Ray], and he had a son, Isa. Among the children of Isa was Ahmad, who moved to Hadramaut. From his descendants there was Sayyid Abul Jadid (with a fatha on the jim, a kasra on the undotted dal, a sukun on the ya with two dots below, followed by the letter dal) who arrived in the city of Aden during the reign of al-Mas’ud bin Togtokin (with a fatha on the undotted ta, a sukun on the dotted ghain, a fatha on the ta with two dots above, a nun after the ya with two dots below, and a kasra on the kaf) bin Ayub bin Shadi (with a fatha on the shin and a kasra on the dotted zal) in the year 611 AH. Al-Mas’ud then acted harshly toward al-Jadid for a certain reason, arrested him, and prepared for his deportation to India; however, he returned to Hadramaut after the death of al-Mas’ud. From the descendants of this al-Jadid are the Bani Abu Alawi, namely Abu Alawi bin Abul Jadid bin Ali bin Muhammad bin Ahmad bin Jadid bin Ali bin Muhammad bin Jadid bin Abdullah bin Ahmad bin Isa, who was mentioned previously."

From the excerpt above, the author of an-Nafhah al-Anbariyah, Sheikh Muhammad Kadzim, stands alone without references from the previously mentioned genealogical books:

• First, he is alone regarding the migration of Muhammad an-Naqib to the city of Ros [Ray], as this was not mentioned by previous genealogists.
• Second, he is alone regarding Ahmad's move to Hadramaut; no genealogist in their books mentions such a thing.
• Third, he is alone regarding the name Abdullah as a son of Ahmad bin Isa, which only appeared 543 years after the death of his father, Ahmad bin Isa.
• Fourth, he is alone regarding the genealogical sequence mentioning the Bani Abi Alawi. That sequence becomes very confusing when it is later claimed that Abdullah is another name for Ubaidillah—who supposedly had a son named Alwi, the ancestor of the Ba Alawi in Indonesia—which the author will discuss later. 

IN THE TENTH CENTURY, THE NAME ABDULLAH AND HIS DESCENDANTS BEGAN TO MATURE, ALTHOUGH HE WAS NOT YET REFERRED TO AS UBAIDILLAH

In the book Tuhfat al-Thalib bi Ma’rifati man Yantasibu Ila Abdillah wa Abi Thalib by Sayyid Muhammad bin al-Husain as-Samarqandi (d. 996 AH), it is stated as follows:

"As for Ahmad bin Isa bin Muhammad bin (Ali) al-Uraidhi, Ibn Anbah said: Abu Muhammad al-Hasan al-Dallal bin Muhammad bin Ali bin Muhammad bin Ahmad bin Isa ar-Rumi is of the lineage of Ahmad bin Isa; he (Ibn Anbah) was silent regarding others besides Abu Muhammad. I (the author of Tuhfat al-Thalib) say: I saw in some ta’liq (marginal notes written by students in a book while listening to a teacher's explanation) a text that reads: 'The researchers (al-muhaqqiqun) of this branch of knowledge (genealogy) from the people of Yemen and Hadramaut—such as Imam Ibn Samrah, al-Imam al-Jundi, al-Imam al-Futuhi who authored the book at-Talkhis, al-Imam Husain bin Abdurrahman al-Ahdal, al-Imam Abil Hubbi al-Bur’i, al-Imam Fadhol bin Muhammad al-Bur’i, al-Imam Muhammad bin Abi Bakar bin Ibad as-Syami, Sheikh Fadlullah bin Abdullah as-Syajari, and al-Imam Abdurrahman bin Hisan—have said that Sayyid Syarif Ahmad bin Isa went with his son, Abdullah, in a party of children, relatives, friends, and servants from Basra and Iraq toward Hadramaut after moving through various regions and hiding from various countries, as a wisdom from God, the King who is the Bestower of Grace. Subsequently, Abdullah had a son named Alwi, and Alwi had a son named Muhammad, and Muhammad had a son named Alwi (again), and Alwi had a son named Ali Khali’ Qasam. Ali Khali’ Qasam had a son named Muhammad Shahib Mirbath, and Muhammad Shahib Mirbath had sons named Alwi and Ali. As for Alwi, he had four children: Ahmad (who had descendants), Abdullah (who had no descendants), Abdul Malik (whose descendants are in India), and Abdurrahman (who had descendants). As for Ali, he had a son, al-Faqih al-Muqaddam Muhammad, who had many descendants.'" (Tuhfat al-Thalib, Sayyid Muhammad bin al-Husain, pp. 76-77)

First introduced by Sheikh Muhammad Kadzim in his book an-Nafhah al-Anbariyah at the end of the ninth century, the name Abdullah reappeared in the tenth century in the book Tuhfat al-Thalib, 116 years after an-Nafhah was written.

To mention the descendants of Ahmad bin Isa, the author of Tuhfat al-Thalib first quotes the opinion of Ibn Anbah from the book Umdat al-Talib. In Umdat al-Talib, it is written that Ahmad bin Isa had descendants through his son named Muhammad. The author of Tuhfat al-Thalib adds the phrase "wa sakata 'an ghairihi," meaning "And Ibn Anbah was silent regarding other descendants." With this sentence, the author of Tuhfat al-Thalib intends to suggest that there are other names not mentioned by Ibn Anbah because Ibn Anbah did not explicitly state the total number of Ahmad bin Isa's children.

He then says, "I found a ta’liq," referring to a student's notes in a book while studying before a teacher. Within that ta’liq was the genealogical structure of the Ba Alawi, which was then included in his book without cross-checking earlier texts. It was from this point that the Ba Alawi clan began to gain fame as descendants of Ahmad bin Isa.

The author suspects that the writer of Tuhfat al-Thalib had not read or did not possess the book al-Syajarah al-Mubarakah written by Ar-Razi in the sixth century, which states that Ahmad bin Isa had only three children: Muhammad, Ali, and Husain. Had he possessed that book, he might not have included the ta’liq in his work, as it would seem odd for a fragmentary note on a piece of paper to contradict a genealogical book written 390 years prior. 

IS THE ABDULLAH OF THE NINTH CENTURY THE SAME AS THE ABDULLAH OF THE TENTH CENTURY?

The similarity between the book an-Nafhah al-Anbariyah (9th century) and the book Tuhfat al-Thalib (10th century) is that both mention the name Abdullah as a son of Ahmad bin Isa. The second similarity concerns Hadramaut. However, there are several points where they differ: first, regarding the child of Abdullah bin Isa—an-Nafhah mentions that Abdullah's son is Abul Jadid, whereas Tuhfat al-Thalib states that Abdullah's son is Alwi. The second difference is about the Ba Alawi. An-Nafhah states that the descendants of Abdullah are the Bani Abi Alwi, while Tuhfat al-Thalib calls them the Bani Alwi (without the "Abi"). Are the two the same?

An-Nafhah states that the "Bani Abi Alwi" refers to Abu Alwi, namely Abu Alwi bin Abul Jadid, the ninth-generation descendant of Abdullah bin Isa. Conversely, Tuhfat al-Thalib states that the "Bani Alawi" are the descendants of Alwi bin Abdullah bin Ahmad, the first-generation descendant of Abdullah.

So, from whom do the Ba Alawi currently in Indonesia descend? Is it from the Bani Abi Alwi as per an-Nafhah, or the Bani Alwi as per Tuhfat al-Thalib? Or is it from neither, given that the name recorded in the current Ba Alawi family is not Abdullah, but Ubaidillah? Whichever source is taken, both present issues regarding the continuity (marfu') of the historical report. The first appeared suddenly without cause, and the second appeared based on a ta’liq (a fragment of paper), according to the book's author. Unless a source other than these two is used, there might be another account that can be scientifically accounted for; however, such a claim would require evidence.[]