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Title: A Manichaean 'Blood Libel'?
Author(s): REEVES, J.C.
Journal: ARAM Periodical
Volume: 16    Date: 2004   
Pages: 217-232
DOI: 10.2143/ARAM.16.0.504680

Abstract :
Within the multi-volume Kitâb al-Aghânî ('Book of Songs') of ABû'l Faraj al-Isfahânî, there is preserved for us a curious anecdote featuring a sharp exchange of verbal barbs between the eight century litterateurs and satirists Bashshâr b. Brud and Hammâd 'Ajrad. Neither Bashshâr nor Hammâd were renowned for their othodox piety, and both figures enjoyed a reputation for dissoluteness and irreverence that contemporaries and later commentators often branded as zandaqa. 'Abd al-Jabbâr numbers both of them among 'the leaders ofthe dualists', a list of whom he found in al-Nawbahtî and al-Misma'î. It remains unclear whether either bard merited such a charge in terms of actual religious affiliation or sympathy, but the allusions made by both interlocutors suggest they were not ignorant of dualist rhetoric.

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