973: Ibn Ḥawqal on Christian-Muslim Marriages in Sicily

Author: Theresa Jäckh

Source

Ibn Ḥawqal, Kitāb ṣūrat al-arḍ, ed. Michael J. De Goeje, rev. Johannes H. Kramers (Bibliotheca geographorum Arabicorum 2a), Leiden: Brill, 1938, p. 129, transl. Theresa Jäckh.

المشعمذون اكثر اهل حصونهم وباديتهم وضياعهم، رأيتهم التزويج الى النصارى على ان ما كان بينهم من ولدٍ ذكر لحق بأبيه من المشعمذون وما كانت من انثى فنصرانية مع امها، لايصلّون ولا يتطهرون ولا يزكون ولا يحجّون. وفيهم من يصوم شهر الرمضان ويغتسلون اذا صاموا من الجنابة. وهذه منقبةٌ لا يشَركهم أحد وفضيلة دون جميع الخلق، احرزوا بها في الجهل قصب السبق.

Most inhabitants of their fortresses, rural areas, and villages are mušaʿmiḏūn. I have seen that they enter into marriage with Christian women, which leads to the boys being assigned to their fathers as al-mušʿamiḏūn and the girls becoming Christian women with their mothers. They do not pray, they do not perform acts of ritual purification, they do not give alms, and they do not go on pilgrimage. Some of them fast in the month Ramaḍān and thus achieve purification after great ritual impurity (al-ğanāba). This [practice] is a curiosity they do not share with anyone else in the world, and with this trait they have won the trophy in the race of stupidity.

Ibn Ḥawqal, Kitāb al-masālik wa-l-mamālik, ed. Michael J. De Goeje (Bibliotheca geographorum Arabicorum 2), Leiden: Brill, 1873.

Ibn Ḥawqal, Kitāb ṣūrat al-arḍ, ed. Michael J. De Goeje, rev. Johannes H. Kramers (Bibliotheca geographorum Arabicorum 2a), Leiden: Brill, 1938.

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Editions & Translations

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Cited & Additional Literature

Apostasy, Cairo Genizah, conversion, Hebrew-Arabic, Ibn Ḥawqal, Images of “the Other”, interreligious marriage and family, Islamic law, Jewish law, linguistic transfer, minorities, (im)purity, religion, Sicily, Talmud

Recommended Citation

Theresa Jäckh, "973: Ibn Ḥawqal on Christian-Muslim Marriages in Sicily", in: Transmediterranean History. Commented Anthology of Primary Sources, ed. Daniel G. König, Theresa Jäckh, Eric Böhme, URL: https://wiki.uni-konstanz.de/transmed-en/index.php/973:_Ibn_Ḥawqal_on_Christian-Muslim_Marriages_in_Sicily. Last Revision: 02.06.2020, Access: 22.11.2024.

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