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.

This chapter discusses the 2015 Islamic State (IS) publication Bal ʾaṭʿanā allāh idh aḥraqanāhu yā ʿabīda al-rafāhiyya (‘Nay, We Obeyed God When We Burned Him, You Slaves of the Luxurious Life’), which justifies the execution by immolation of Jordanian fighter pilot Muʿādh al-Kasāsba. The act prompted widespread criticism, sparking outrage across the Muslim world. This condemnation was even echoed within the Salafī jihādī, including the notorious Abū Muḥammad al-Maqdisī (b. 1959). The author of the piece, Shaymāʾ Haddād (b. 1992), more commonly known by her pseudonym Aḥlām al-Naṣr, exploits juristic disagreements in the medieval scholarly tradition to persuade the reader that immolation was never prohibited by the Prophet Muḥammad. Far from presenting the punishment of immolation as a timeless repetition of Prophetic custom, she claims that immolation is a necessary evil in a modern world where ‘incendiary weaponry’ (al-asliḥa fī hi ḥaraqa) - such as missiles, napalm, and cluster bombs - has become a norm in the conduct of war.

Iraq’s post-2003 political order has experienced unremitting turbulence despite the end of Saddam Hussein’s dictatorial regime. While federalism was seen as a means to safeguard against the reemergence of authoritarianism, the rationale for decentralizing central authority, beginning in 2015, can be viewed primarily as an attempt to salvage state legitimacy by addressing governance issues amid growing popular disenfranchisement and the violent onslaught of so-called Islamic State. But the decentralization process has failed to achieve its desired results, namely, enhancing local service provisions and improving state–society relations. Meanwhile, contestations over the powers and authorities of national and subnational entities have exacerbated political tensions. Ensuring that decentralization contributes positively to state legitimacy rather than undermining it first requires addressing the underlying structural flaws. This includes improving the competence and expertise of local administrative units, enhancing accountability and anti-corruption mechanisms, introducing electoral reforms that can temper political intransigence, and recalibrating international assistance efforts.