{"title":"The Status of Music in Islamic Law: Ibn Ḥajar al-Haytamī’s (d. 974/1567) Treatise Against Recreation in its Polemical Context","authors":"Fitzroy Morrissey","doi":"10.1163/15685195-bja10053","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<p><em>Kaff al-raʿāʿ ʿan muḥarramāt al-lahw wa-l-samāʿ</em> is an influential treatise on the legal status of music and other recreational activities written by the Shāfiʿī Ibn Ḥajar al-Haytamī (d. 974/1567) in 958/1551. This article offers the first analysis of this “treatise against recreation”. Ibn Ḥajar al-Haytamī argues for the impermissibility of most musical activities on the basis of the Qurʾan and Hadith, the consensus of the <em>ʿulamāʾ</em> (particularly from his Shāfiʿī school), and the incompatibility of recreation (<em>lahw</em>) and piety. These arguments are forged in response to claims found in more permissive texts by the Ẓāhirīs Ibn Ḥazm (d. 456/1064) and Ibn al-Qaysarānī (d. 507/1113) and the Mālikī Muḥammad al-Shādhilī al-Tūnisī (d. 882/1477). I suggest that it is Ibn Ḥajar’s negative attitude to <em>lahw</em> that underlies his restrictive views on music, highlight the gendered element in this attitude, and observe that attitudes to recreation are not interchangeable with affiliation to Sufism.</p>","PeriodicalId":55965,"journal":{"name":"Islamic Law and Society","volume":"56 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.3000,"publicationDate":"2024-03-06","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Islamic Law and Society","FirstCategoryId":"1085","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1163/15685195-bja10053","RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"哲学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"0","JCRName":"RELIGION","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
Kaff al-raʿāʿ ʿan muḥarramāt al-lahw wa-l-samāʿ is an influential treatise on the legal status of music and other recreational activities written by the Shāfiʿī Ibn Ḥajar al-Haytamī (d. 974/1567) in 958/1551. This article offers the first analysis of this “treatise against recreation”. Ibn Ḥajar al-Haytamī argues for the impermissibility of most musical activities on the basis of the Qurʾan and Hadith, the consensus of the ʿulamāʾ (particularly from his Shāfiʿī school), and the incompatibility of recreation (lahw) and piety. These arguments are forged in response to claims found in more permissive texts by the Ẓāhirīs Ibn Ḥazm (d. 456/1064) and Ibn al-Qaysarānī (d. 507/1113) and the Mālikī Muḥammad al-Shādhilī al-Tūnisī (d. 882/1477). I suggest that it is Ibn Ḥajar’s negative attitude to lahw that underlies his restrictive views on music, highlight the gendered element in this attitude, and observe that attitudes to recreation are not interchangeable with affiliation to Sufism.
期刊介绍:
Islamic Law and Society provides a forum for research in the field of classical and modern Islamic law, in Muslim and non-Muslim countries. Celebrating its sixteenth birthday in 2009, Islamic Law and Society has established itself as an invaluable resource for the subject both in the private collections of scholars and practitioners as well as in the major research libraries of the world. Islamic Law and Society encourages discussion on all branches of Islamic law, with a view to promoting an understanding of Islamic law, in both theory and practice, from its emergence until modern times and from juridical, historical and social-scientific perspectives. Islamic Law and Society offers you an easy way to stay on top of your discipline.