Minding their Place: Space and Religious Hierarchy in Ibn al-Qayyim’s Aḥkām ahl al-dhimma

454 Pages·2020·2.728 MB·English

by  Antonia Bosanquet

Minding their Place
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History of
Christian-Muslim
Relations
Editorial Board
Jon Hoover (University of Nottingham)
Sandra Toenies Keating (Providence College)
Tarif Khalidi (American University of Beirut)
Suleiman Mourad (Smith College)
Gabriel Said Reynolds (University of Notre Dame)
Mark Swanson (Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago)
David Thomas (University of Birmingham)
volume 42
Christians and Muslims have been involved in exchanges over matters of faith and morality
since the founding of Islam. Attitudes between the faiths today are deeply coloured by the legacy
of past encounters, and often preserve centuries-old negative views.
The History of Christian-Muslim Relations, Texts and Studies presents the surviving record of
past encounters in a variety of forms: authoritative, text editions and annotated translations,
studies of authors and their works and collections of essays on particular themes and historical
periods. It illustrates the development in mutual perceptions as these are contained in surviv-
ing Christian and Muslim writings, and makes available the arguments and rhetorical strategies
that, for good or for ill, have left their mark on attitudes today. The series casts light on a history
marked by intellectual creativity and occasional breakthroughs in communication, although,
on the whole beset by misunderstanding and misrepresentation. By making this history better
known, the series seeks to contribute to improved recognition between Christians and Muslims
in the future.
A number of volumes of the History of Christian-Muslim Relations series are published within
the subseries Christian-Muslim Relations. A Bibliographical History.
The titles published in this series are listed at brill.com/hcmr
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Minding their Place
Space and Religious Hierarchy in Ibn al-Qayyim’s
Aḥkām ahl al-dhimma
By
Antonia Bosanquet
LEIDEN | BOSTON
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Cover calligraphy by Nihad Nadam, 2020.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Bosanquet, Antonia, author.
Title: Minding their place : space and religious hierarchy in Ibn
 al-Qayyim’s Aḥkām ahl al-dhimma / by Antonia Bosanquet.
Description: Leiden ; Boston : Brill, 2020. | Series: The history of
 Christian-Muslim relations, 1570-7350 ; vol. 42 | Includes
 bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2020028135 (print) | LCCN 2020028136 (ebook) | ISBN
 9789004423695 (hardback) | ISBN 9789004437968 (ebook)
Subjects: LCSH: Ibn Qayyim al-Jawzīyah, Muḥammad ibn Abī Bakr,
 1292-1350. Aḥkām ahl al-dhimmah. | Minorities—Islamic Empire. |
 Dhimmis (Islamic law) | Religious minorities—Legal status, laws, etc.
Classification: LCC KBP529.6.I263 B67 2020 (print) | LCC KBP529.6.I263
 (ebook) | DDC 305.60956/09023—dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020028135
LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020028136
Typeface for the Latin, Greek, and Cyrillic scripts: “Brill”. See and download: brill.com/brill-typeface.
ISSN 1570-7350
ISBN 978-90-04-42369-5 (hardback)
ISBN 978-90-04-43796-8 (e-book)
Copyright 2020 by Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, The Netherlands.
Koninklijke Brill NV incorporates the imprints Brill, Brill Hes & De Graaf, Brill Nijhoff, Brill Rodopi,
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All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, translated, stored in a retrieval system,
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This book is printed on acid-free paper and produced in a sustainable manner.
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Contents
Acknowledgements ix
List of Figure and Tables xi
Introduction 1
1 Questions Raised in this Study 3
2 Terms and Concepts 5
3 Space and Aḥkām ahl al-dhimma 12
4 Text as Space? 14
5 Significance of this Study 18
6 Method and Chapter Outline 23
part 1
Aḥkām ahl al-dhimma: Text and Content
1 Author, Text and Reception 29
1 Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyya 29
2 The Text of Aḥkām ahl al-dhimma 33
3 Reception 38
4 Manuscripts and Editions 40
2 Historical Background 51
1 Muslims and non-Muslims in the Mamluk Empire 58
2 The ʿUlamāʾ in the Mamluk Period 63
3 Literary Precedents 69
1 The Pact of ʿUmar and the Contract Genre 72
2 The Fiqh Compendia 75
3 Juristic Literature Focusing on the Ahl al-Dhimma 79
4 Manuals of Governance and Statecraft 82
5 Ādāb al-Muḥtasib 85
6 Mamluk Prescriptive Literature 88
7 Similarities and Differences Between the Literary Precedents for
Aḥkām ahl al-dhimma 95
8 Conclusions: Locating Aḥkām ahl al-dhimma 97
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vi Contents
4 Structure and Method 99
1 Structure and Subject Division Within Aḥkām ahl al-dhimma 99
2 Sources and Method 105
3 Sources for Aḥkām Ahl al-Dhimma 106
4 Source Incorporation and Authorial Agency 112
5 The Dialectical Method 117
6 Digression: its Uses and Functions 120
7 Qur’anic Verses and Hadith 121
8 Conclusion to Part One 122
part 2
Space in Aḥkām ahl al-dhimma
5 Separate Space 129
1 Mosques, Churches and Dhimmi Homes 131
2 Geographical Boundaries and Muslim Space 140
3 Ṣulḥ Land, ʿAnwa Land and Dhimmi Space 148
4 Tax 151
5 Employment in State Administration 161
6 Festivals 173
7 Dhimmi Marriage 176
8 The Dhimmi Wife and the Female Body 178
9 Death, Burial and the Afterlife 186
10 Conclusion: Separate Space and Private Space in Aḥkām ahl
al-dhimma 189
6 The Relational Space of Personal Interaction 196
1 Greeting 198
2 Visiting the Sick and Attending Funerals 203
3 Commercial Exchange and Business Partnerships 209
4 Conversion to Islam and Marriage Relations 231
5 The Female Convert’s Relations with her Non-Muslim Family 242
6 The Male Convert’s Relations with his Non-Muslim Family 245
7 Mixed Marriages and Shared Households 253
8 Conclusion: The Characterisation of the Dhimmi 255
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Contents vii
7 The Relational Space of Public Performance 262
1 Structural Incorporation of the Pact of ʿUmar in Aḥkām Ahl
al-Dhimma 265
2 Ibn al-Qayyim’s Sources for the Pact of ʿUmar 269
3 Ibn al-Qayyim’s Presentation of the Pact of ʿUmar 280
4 Stage Props: Movable Religious Symbols 282
5 Stage Backdrop: Non-Movable Religious Symbols 295
6 Scripting Dhimmi Performance: Regulating Appearance and
Comportment 304
7 Conclusion 320
8 The Contested Space of Non-Muslim Children 323
1 Aḥkām Ahl al-Dhimma and the Question of Dhimmi Children 325
2 Sources and Framing 329
3 Children in This Abode: Legal Responsibility and Religious
Education 332
4 Legitimising the Non-Muslim Status of the Child 335
5 Legitimising the Conversion of the Non-Muslim Child 339
6 Sunni Positions on the Fate of Non-Muslim Children After
Death 344
7 Ibn al-Qayyim’s Review of the Positions 348
8 Conclusion 368
Conclusion: Space, Religious Difference and Aḥkām ahl al-dhimma 371
1 Space in Aḥkām ahl al-dhimma 371
2 Muslims and non-Muslims in Aḥkām Ahl al-Dhimma 375
3 The Place of Dhimmis in the Abode of Islam 381
4 Identity, Alterity and Power 386
5 Aḥkām Ahl al-Dhimma, Regulatory Discourse about Dhimmis and
Ibn al-Qayyim 391
Bibliography 397
Index of Authors 435
Index of Subjects 438
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Acknowledgements
When I first read Aḥkām ahl al-dhimma, at the beginning of a PhD on a quite
different topic, I was fascinated by it. My research on the text and the book
that emerged from this would not have been possible without the help of nu-
merous individuals and institutions, whom it is a pleasure to thank here. My
first supervisor, Birgit Krawietz, and my second supervisor, Gudrun Krämer,
provided invaluable support, criticism and insights from the beginning to the
end of my project. Abdessamad Belhaj’s incisive questions and comments wid-
ened my perspective and narrowed my focus. Change of course, squalls and
doldrums notwithstanding, the patience and enthusiasm of my three mentors
not only kept my project afloat, but even enabled me to enjoy it.
A number of teachers and colleagues have read parts of my work or dis-
cussed ideas and questions about specific points. I am grateful to Schirin
Amir-Moazimi, Lutz Berger, Islam Dayeh, Ahmed el-Shamsy, Andreas Goerke,
Livnat Holtzman, Jon Hoover, Christian Lange, Ruth Mas, Amr Osman and
Jens Scheiner for their expertise. Particular thanks are due to Luke Yarbrough,
whose symposium on religious alterity and political power in 2015 was help-
ful for this project and whose prompt and patient responses to my questions
were formative for my understanding of the subject of non-Muslim minorities
in the Islamic world. Omar Anchassi, Christopher Melchert, Uriel Simonsohn
and Lev Weitz have helped me return to some questions after the PhD project
ended, and Ali Guma’a, Faarid Gouverneur, Stefan Schreiner and Tim Winter
steered my interests before it began. I am very grateful to Sadida Athaullah and
her family for their patience, interest and cooperation with my queries about
the manuscript of Aḥkām ahl al-dhimma, and to Nabeel al-Sindi, for respond-
ing to additional queries and for sending me an advance copy of his forthcom-
ing edition of the book, a few weeks before I submitted my own manuscript.
I am also grateful to Khalid Yusuf, for introducing me to Ibn al-Qayyim and for
his academic support since then.
I would like to thank the Berlin Graduate School of Muslim Cultures and
Societies, especially Bettina Gräf and Jutta Schmidbauer, for the institutional
support for my research. My stay at the Islamic Jurisprudence Department
at the College of Islamic Sciences in Muscat allowed me to deepen my un-
derstanding of Islamic law and I thank Muhammad and Ahmad al-Ma’mari
for giving me this opportunity. I have also benefitted from the support of
the Leibniz-Zentrum Moderner Orient, especially the colloquia organised
by Ulrike Freitag, and from the workshops of the USPPIP (Understanding
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x Acknowledgements
Sharia – Past Perfect, Imperfect Present) and LAWALISI (Law Authority and
Learning in Imami Shiite Islam) programmes at the University of Exeter. My
post-doctoral work at the Asien-Afrika Institut at the University of Hamburg
has been beneficial for understanding the historical context of my research
focus and I am grateful to all my colleagues there, especially the Early Islamic
Empire at Work team, for their support. Thank you also to the editing team at
Brill, particularly Wilma de Weert and Franca de Kort, and to Carol Rowe, for
her careful copy-editing and thought-provoking queries. I am also grateful to
the anonymous reviewers who read through a first draft of this book and pro-
vided thorough and insightful feedback.
I owe a happy debt to the friends and colleagues who encouraged me
throughout the research and writing of this work, particularly Olly Akkerman,
Su’ad al-Ghafal, Doru Doroftei, Guy Gilboa, Hannah-Lena Hagemann, Yasmin
Mahazi, Katharine Mühlbeyer, Barbara Ogbone, Ignacio Sanchez, Neda Soltani
and Yunus Yildiz. My biggest debt is to Maria Rzehak and to my family: to my
children, for their kindness and support, and to their dad, for everything. With
love, thanks and apologies, this book is for you.
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