On Scriptuaries and Pagans as Slave-Concubines

doi:10.1017/9781009031783.043

Chapter 37 - On Scriptuaries and Pagans as Slave-Concubines

An Excerpt from the IS Publication al-Sabī: Aḥkām wa-Masāʾil of Turkī al-Binʿalī (d. 1438/2017)

from Part V - Judicial Manuals and Reference Books

Published online by Cambridge University Press: 14 November 2024

Omar Anchassi

Edited by

Omar Anchassi and

Robert Gleave

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Omar Anchassi: Affiliation:
Universität Bern, Switzerland
Robert Gleave: Affiliation:
University of Exeter

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Summary

This chapter concerns the 1435/2014 IS booklet on slave-concubinage, al-Sabī: Aḥkām wa-Masāʾil, probably authored by the group’s jurisconsult (muftī), Turkī al-Binʿalī (d. 1438/2017). The text was widely disseminated online when first published, attracting much comment in the international press. In the section excerpted here, al-Binʿalī focuses on the permissibility of taking female pagans as slave-concubines. While premodern Sunnī jurists had typically permitted female People of the Book (i.e. Kitābiyyāt, Jews and Christians) as sexual partners for male Muslims living in the Muslim polity, whether through marriage or slave-concubinage, they were almost unanimous in prohibiting such unions with Zoroastrians and other religious groups. Based on largely historical considerations, and adducing the views of Ibn Taymiyya (d. 728/1328), Ibn al-Qayyim (d. 751/1350) and al-Shawkānī (d. 1250/1834) as proof, al-Binʿalī undermines the classical Sunnī view that female pagans are unlawful as slave-concubines.

Keywords

Slavery (riqq)Islamic State (IS)Slave-concubinage Mothers of the master’s child (sing. umm al-walad)Scriptuaries (ahl al-kitāb)Jihad Purificatory waiting period (istibrāʾ).

Type: Chapter
Information: Islamic Law in Context
A Primary Source Reader
, pp. 384 - 396

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009031783.043 [Opens in a new window]

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Print publication year: 2024

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