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medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture From: Christopher Melchert [mailto:[log in to unmask]] Sent: 16 February 2008 20:59 Rob Gleave raised the subject of sorcery at a little colloquium we organized last spring. I think he was talking about some classic Twelver rulebooks. He mentioned a shocking story of Hafsah's putting to death a slave girl of hers for practising sorcery. Unfortunately, I cannot find my notes. I do remember looking up sorcery in my usual first resort for Hanbali rules, al- mardAwI (d. Damascus, 885/1480), _al-inSAf_, a commentary on ibn qudAmah (d. Damascus, 620/1223), _al-muqni`_. Near the end of _k. al-HudUd_ is this (to me) surprising quotation of ibn qudAmah: 'The sorcerer (_sAHir_) is the one who rides on a broom and goes with it in the air and the like.' This mode of transportation is evidently not peculiar to European folklore. Mardawi adds that he may also claim to be addressed by stars. Ibn Qudamah's verdict: 'He is pronounced an unbeliever and killed.' There follows various evidence that this is the majority opinion of the school. There is some disagreement over whether he is necessarily an unbeliever. Next from Ibn Qudamah: 'As for the one who enchants by medicines, smoking, and pouring what is harmful, he is neither pronounced an unbeliever nor killed but punished (_yu`azzar_ [i.e. at the qadi's discretion]).' Then more about variant opinions within the school. I find also that there's an extensive discussion of sorcery from the Shafi`i al- mAwardI (d. Baghdad, 450/1058) in _al-HAwI al-kabIr_ at the end of _k. al- qasAmah_ & just before _qitAl ahl al-baghy_ (16:342-54 of the Dar al-Fikr edn., but there's a rival edn. from Dar al-Kutub al-`Ilmiyah with different pagination). He begins with an exposition from the Qur'an of why sorcery is forbidden. Then he comes to whether there is any truth to sorcery: the Mu`tazilah, the Maghribi of _ahl al-ZAhir_ (possibly Ibn Hazm, who was still alive & so could not be named; it would be easy to check his _k. al-muHalla_ if the library were open), & Abu Ja`far al-Istirabadhi among the Shafi`iyah (a Khurasani who died _ca_. 375/985-6? not mentioned by Subki) say there is not. Mawardi thinks there is, & goes on to mention various hadith reports that implicitly ascribe true effectiveness to sorcery. Also, it would derogate from Moses' miracle if there were no sorcery. Moreover, it should be possible to influence people by words, since the Qur'an so influences people by making them unable to produce the like of it. There's a short section on the sorts of things sorcerers can do, then a longer section on the penalties for performing it & teaching it. Abu Hanifah & Malik are said to favour the death penalty but they do not say certainly that the sorcerer is an unbeliever. Shafi`i is said to have called for neither pronouncing him an unbeliever nor killing him, at least for practising sorcery: if his explanation of his power involves unbelief or he denies that it is forbidden, then he is pronounced an unbeliever & killed, but not precisely for the fact of practising sorcery. Continuing to go backward in time, the story of Hafsah's putting to death a slave girl of hers is in Sunni hadith collections. The caliph of the day, `Uthman, is angry with her for doing this privately (at the hand of `Abd al- Rahman ibn Zayd), not leaving it to him. This is obviously a very incomplete report. I mean just to show what sort of material there is to find in legal discussions. -- Christopher Melchert Oriental Institute Pusey Lane Oxford OX1 2LE ********************************************************************** To join the list, send the message: join medieval-religion YOUR NAME to: [log in to unmask] To send a message to the list, address it to: [log in to unmask] To leave the list, send the message: leave medieval-religion to: [log in to unmask] In order to report problems or to contact the list's owners, write to: [log in to unmask] For further information, visit our web site: http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/lists/medieval-religion.html