This article explores how jurists articulated the distinction between free and enslaved Muslim women through sartorial norms in the formative and early post-formative periods of Islamic law. Drawing on works of fiqh (positive law), tafsīr (Qurʾān commentary) and ḥadīth (Prophetic and non-Prophetic reports), I posit that this distinction attests to the tensions between “proprietary” and “theocentric” sexual ethics, as noted by Hina Azam. Specifically, I track the variant transmissions of a widely-cited report featuring the Caliph ʿUmar (r. 13–23/634–44), and trace how jurists responded to the free-slave binary in their discussion of “modesty zones” (ʿawrāt) and veiling practices. Based on a detailed examination of fiqh sources to the early fifth Islamic century (with some attention to subsequent material), I argue that Islamic modesty norms are best understood in light of the proprietary/theocentric binary, and that the divergence between juristic expectations of free and enslaved women increased in the post-formative period.
This article explores how mutakallimūn engaged with competing visions of the cosmos—traditionalist and Aristotelian-Ptolemaic—to the beginning of the sixth/ twelfth century. Drawing on works of kalām, Quran commentary, and items from other genres, I demonstrate that rationalist theologians remained divided on such questions as the shape of the earth to the end of this period. These disagreements, moreover, cannot be explained in terms of school affiliation. Based on a comprehensive examination of published sources, I argue that cosmographical opinion among mutakallimūn was a function of exposure to late ancient learning, intellectual formation, and personal inclination more than doctrinal commitment.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.