Between Christ and Caliph
DIVINATIONS: REREADING LATE ANCIENT RELIGION
SERIES EDITORS
Daniel BoyarinVirginia BurrusDerek Krueger
A complete list of books in the series is available from the publisher.
Between Christ and Caliph
LAW, MARRIAGE, AND CHRISTIAN COMMUNITY IN EARLY ISLAM
Lev E. Weitz
UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA PRESS Philadelphia
THIS BOOK IS MADE POSSIBLE BY A COLLABORATIVE GRANT FROM THE ANDREW W. MELLON FOUNDATION.
Copyright © 2018 University of Pennsylvania Press
All rights reserved. Except for brief quotations used for purposes of review or scholarly citation, none of this book may be reproduced in any form by any means without written permission from the publisher.
Published by
University of Pennsylvania Press
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19104-4112
Printed in the United States of America on acid-free paper
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available from the Library of Congress
ISBN 978-0-8122-5027-5
CONTENTS
A Note on Transliteration, Translations, and Dates
PART I. EMPIRE, HOUSEHOLD, AND CHRISTIAN COMMUNITY FROM LATE ANTIQUITY TO THE ABBASID CALIPHATE
1. Marriage and the Family Between Religion and Empire in Late Antiquity
2. Christianizing Marriage Under Early Islam
3. Forming Households and Forging Religious Boundaries in the Abbasid Caliphate
PART II. CHRISTIAN FAMILY LAW IN THE MAKING OF CALIPHAL SOCIETY AND INTELLECTUAL CULTURE
4. The Ancient Roots and Islamic Milieu of Syriac Family Law
5. Islamic Institutions, Ecclesiastical Justice, and the Practical Shape of Christian Communities
6. Can Christians Marry Their Cousins? Kinship, Legal Reasoning, and Islamic Intellectual Culture
7. The Many Wives of Ahona: Christian Polygamy in Islamic Society
8. Interreligious Marriage and the Multiconfessional Social Order
PART III. ISLAMIC LAW AND CHRISTIAN JURISTS AFTER IMPERIAL FRAGMENTATION
Conclusion. Christians and Christian Law in the Making of the Medieval Islamic Empire
A NOTE ON TRANSLITERATION, TRANSLATIONS, AND DATES
In order to keep the text reasonably free of clutter, I have employed full diacritics in the transliteration of Arabic and Syriac only in quoted passages, first instances of technical terms, and the endnotes. I transliterate Arabic with the standard system modified from that of the Encyclopedia of Islam, 2nd edition (Leiden: Brill, 1954–2009). Syriac transliterations follow East Syriac orthography, thus noting the vowels a, ā, e, ē, i, o, and u but not, for example, distinguishing between u and ū. I transliterate according to the West Syriac vowel system only West Syrian proper names. I note gemination of consonants but not spirantization. I render the phonemes /x/ and /∫/ as kh and sh, respectively, in all transliterations of Arabic, Syriac, and very occasionally Middle Persian.
I have not been entirely consistent in rendering Syriac proper names into English. Generally, I render those of Greek derivation with an Anglicized form of the Greek (e.g., Kyriakos rather than Syriac Quryaqos). Syriac names of Semitic linguistic derivation I tend to transliterate according to the guidelines above (e.g., Ishoʿyahb), unless a different usage is standard in scholarship (e.g., Jacob, rather than Yaʿqub, of Edessa). I render Arabic names using standard transliteration, leaving aside diacritics in the body of the text. Following generally standard practice, I give the titles of Syriac texts in English but those of Arabic texts in transliteration.
All endnote citations of Arabic and Syriac text editions published with a translation into a modern language include the translation in the page ranges cited, or separate the text and translation pages with a forward slash. All translations into English given in this book, however, are my own unless otherwise noted. Biblical citations are either of the New Revised Standard Version or translated from the Syriac Peshitta. I quote the Quran according to the translation of M. A. S. Abdel Haleem (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2008).
Most of the individuals who appear in this book thought of the passage of time in terms of one or both of the Seleucid and Hijri calendars. In the interest of simplicity and intelligibility I have opted to use only Common Era dating.
Between Christ and Caliph
Introduction
What makes [the Christians] great in the hearts of the commoners and beloved to regular folk is that among them are scribes to sultans, attendants to kings, physicians to noblemen, pharmacists, and moneychangers; while you won’t find a Jew other than a dyer, tanner, cupper, butcher, or repairman.
Despite the great number of monks and nuns, and the fact that most priests imitate their [celibacy] … and the fact that anyone among [the Christians] who does marry cannot exchange his wife, marry another in addition to her, or take concubines—despite all this, they have covered the earth, filled the horizons, and conquered the nations in number and progeny. This has compounded our calamities and magnified our tribulation.
—Abu ʿUthman