{"title":"The Magian Position: Legal Consequences for Creedal Ignorance in the Far Maghrib, 8th/14th-11th/17th c","authors":"Caitlyn Olson","doi":"10.1163/15685195-bja10056","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"This article analyzes a series of legal opinions from the Far Maghrib between the 8th/14th and 11th/17th centuries in which the authors promote a remarkable position: that members of the Muslim community deemed ignorant of creedal doctrine should be accorded the legal status of Magians (<jats:italic>ḥukm al-majūs</jats:italic>). The primary consequence of categorizing people as Magians – meaning here something different than Zoroastrians – was the annulment of their marriages. After discussing the sources and offering comments on the social, political, and religious circumstances that may have conditioned this position (Section 1), I explain its intellectual architecture. I show that while the concepts animating the concern with creedal ignorance were rooted in Ashʿarī theology (Section 2), the tools of enforcement came from Mālikī law (Section 3). The “Magian position” thus sheds light on historical interactions between Islamic theology and law, as well as on the functioning of orthodoxy in Muslim societies.","PeriodicalId":55965,"journal":{"name":"Islamic Law and Society","volume":"37 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.3000,"publicationDate":"2024-04-15","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-bja10056","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
This article analyzes a series of legal opinions from the Far Maghrib between the 8th/14th and 11th/17th centuries in which the authors promote a remarkable position: that members of the Muslim community deemed ignorant of creedal doctrine should be accorded the legal status of Magians (ḥukm al-majūs). The primary consequence of categorizing people as Magians – meaning here something different than Zoroastrians – was the annulment of their marriages. After discussing the sources and offering comments on the social, political, and religious circumstances that may have conditioned this position (Section 1), I explain its intellectual architecture. I show that while the concepts animating the concern with creedal ignorance were rooted in Ashʿarī theology (Section 2), the tools of enforcement came from Mālikī law (Section 3). The “Magian position” thus sheds light on historical interactions between Islamic theology and law, as well as on the functioning of orthodoxy in Muslim societies.
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.