Shu'ubiyya

Shu'ubiyya was a tendency that appeared in the early Abbasid period. Ahmad Amin considers it more a tendency than a creed with limited teachings. ²

Ahmad Amin distinguishes three tendencies in the dispute between the Arabs and the mawali. The first is that its adherents grant the Arabs the merit of having brought Islam. The second is equality among the peoples in nobility and baseness. The third is that they belittle the Arabs and prefer others. The name shu'ubiyya was given to the adherents of the last two, and the people most entitled to it are those of equality. ²

In al-Iqd al-farid: "the shu'ubiyya are the people of equality." In al-Sihah: "a sect that does not prefer the Arabs over the non-Arabs." Later the name was extended to those hostile to the Arabs, so that it is applied most often to the third kind. In Lisan al-Arab: "the shu'ubi is one who belittles the standing of the Arabs." ²

The oldest surviving books that use the term are al-Jahiz's al-Bayan wal-tabyin. This tendency supported the national and tribal feeling. In al-Andalus Ibn Gharsiya appeared and wrote his treatise on the shu'ubiyya. ³