This article focuses on the use of Qurʾān LVIII,2 by contemporary Muslim jurists in debates about... more This article focuses on the use of Qurʾān LVIII,2 by contemporary Muslim jurists in debates about surrogacy arrangements. As argued by Ayman Shabana in a rich article published in 2015, the majority of those jurists claim that Qurʾān LVIII,2 provides an unequivocal legal definition of maternity and establishes that pregnancy and delivery provide the decisive criteria to determine whether a woman is the mother of a child instead of her contribution to that child’s genetic constitution. Since I am not convinced that the verse in question says exactly that, I have turned to authoritative interpretations of Qurʾān LVIII,2. Being a scholar of Islamic law familiar with legal sources from the pre-modern Islamic West, I have selected the well-known Qurʾān commentaries by Ibn Barraǧān, Ibn ʿAṭiyya, Abū Bakr Ibn al-ʿArabī, Ibn al-Faras al-Andalusī, and al-Qurṭubī. My intention is not to advocate for or against surrogate maternity but to delve into Andalusī Qurʾānic exegesis and show its inter...
This article deals with assessments by a number of contemporary Sunni fiqh experts on the legal d... more This article deals with assessments by a number of contemporary Sunni fiqh experts on the legal duration of pregnancy. Most of them strive to demonstrate that classical jurisprudence (fiqh) and modern medicine are perfectly compatible, despite the fact that the former contemplates gestational periods far longer than nine months. Also, they make proposals for national legislative bodies to best accommodate medical evidence to shari`a’s ethical and legal standards. In this way, they legitimize the drastic shortening of the legal duration of pregnancy that had already taken place in the family codes of most Muslim majority countries in order to adapt the Islamic jurisprudence on which these codes are avowedly based to modern medical knowledge. In this specific legal change case-study, legislation appears to have drawn jurisprudence rather than the reverse. The adoption of the medical duration of pregnancy affects such extremely sensitive issues like the criminalization of non-marital sexual intercourse and the denial of paternal filiation to the resulting offspring. As long as the latter two fields are not revised accordingly, the contemporary fiqh and legislation on the matter will seem flawed since their implementation leaves women and their children deprived from legal protections they used to have under the corresponding classical jurisprudence in the pre-modern period.
Studi Magrebini, 20/2, December 2022, 187-212, 2022
This article focuses on the use of Qurʾān LVIII,2 by contemporary Muslim jurists in debates about... more This article focuses on the use of Qurʾān LVIII,2 by contemporary Muslim jurists in debates about surrogacy arrangements. As argued by Ayman Shabana in a rich article published in 2015, the majority of those jurists claim that Qurʾān LVIII,2 provides an unequivocal legal definition of maternity and establishes that pregnancy and delivery provide the decisive criteria to determine whether a woman is the mother of a child instead of her contribution to that child’s genetic constitution. Since I am not convinced that the verse in question says exactly that, I have turned to authoritative interpretations of Qurʾān LVIII,2. Being a scholar of Islamic law familiar with legal sources from the pre-modern Islamic West, I have selected the well-known Qurʾān commentaries by Ibn Barraǧān, Ibn ʿAṭiyya, Abū Bakr Ibn al-ʿArabī, Ibn al-Faras al-Andalusī, and al-Qurṭubī. My intention is not to advocate for or against surrogate maternity but to delve into Andalusī Qurʾānic exegesis and show its interest to explore issues such as the legal definition of maternity that have acquired greater relevance in the wake of modern medical technologies.
After expanding the context of the examined exegetical works towards Arabic lexicography and pre-modern Islamic medical views on procreation and embryology, I show that Andalusī exegetes were aware of debates about women’s contribution to procreation, took a position in those debates and deemed the issue worthy of inclusion in their tafsīrs. Eventually I argue that none of the examined tafsīrs can be cited in support of the idea that Qurʾān LVIII,2 provides the textual basis of the Islamic legal definition of maternity let alone that legal maternity is determined by pregnancy and delivery to the exclusion of conception.
This article takes as its starting point the results obtained in two previous works published in ... more This article takes as its starting point the results obtained in two previous works published in specialized journals in the field of Islamic and gender studies (Serrano-Ruano, 2018, 2022). The main argument of the article is that in contemporary Islamic legal systems, a partial and biased incorporation of modern scientific knowledge on embryology, gynecology and genetics on the one hand while maintaining the criminalization of extra-marital relations (zinà), on the other, has led to increased vulnerability of certain groups of people such as single mothers and their children, or women who become pregnant after being widowed, divorced or abandoned by their husbands. Meanwhile, the written record seems to indicate that prior to the 20th century, the admission of extremely long pregnancy durations (encapsulated in the doctrine of the dormant embryo) was quite effective in protecting women in the situation described above against a charge of zinā and prevented that their children were considered illegitimate and deprived of all kinds of rights. To develop this argument, we first review classical Islamic jurisprudence as well as the legislation and judicial practice of a number of Islamic-majority countries, on the legal duration of pregnancy and paternal filiation. Next, we go on to analyze the social and legal impact that modern genetics and medicine are having on these issues. Ultimately, the work aims to go beyond the strict limits of Islamic studies and facilitate the reception of its results among specialists in gender studies from other disciplines lacking the necessary skills to read Arabic primary and secondary sources.
This article deals with assessments by a number of contemporary Sunni fiqh experts on the legal d... more This article deals with assessments by a number of contemporary Sunni fiqh experts on the legal duration of pregnancy. Most of them strive to demonstrate that classical jurisprudence (fiqh) and modern medicine are perfectly compatible, despite the fact that the former contemplates gestational periods far longer than nine months. Also, they make proposals for national legislative bodies to best accommodate medical evidence to shari`a’s ethical and legal standards. In this way, they legitimize the drastic shortening of the legal duration of pregnancy that had already taken place in the family codes of most Muslim majority countries in order to adapt the Islamic jurisprudence on which these codes are avowedly based to modern medical knowledge. In this specific legal change case-study, legislation appears to have drawn jurisprudence rather than the reverse. The adoption of the medical duration of pregnancy affects such extremely sensitive issues like the criminalization of non-marital sexual intercourse and the denial of paternal filiation to the resulting offspring. As long as the latter two fields are not revised accordingly, the contemporary fiqh and legislation on the matter will seem flawed since their implementation leaves women and their children deprived from legal protections they used to have under the corresponding classical jurisprudence in the pre-modern period.
Pre-print de un articulo con el mismo titulo publicado en la revista Hesperia, Culturas del Medit... more Pre-print de un articulo con el mismo titulo publicado en la revista Hesperia, Culturas del Mediterraneo (Marzo 2020), pp. 151-169
Delfina Serrano (ed.), “La shari`a o ley sagrada de los musulmanes”, Awraq Revista de Análisis y Pensamiento sobre el Mundo Árabe e Islámico Contemporáneo, 20, número monográfico, pp. 9-21, 2022
En Delfina Serrano (ed.), La shari`a o ley sagrada de los musulmanes, 20, número monográfico de Awraq Revista de Análisis y Pensamiento sobre el Mundo Árabe e Islámico Contemporáneo , pp. 3-8, 2022
SPANISH: Aprovechando la reciente edición de las fetuas del famoso jurista almeriense Ibn Ward (m... more SPANISH: Aprovechando la reciente edición de las fetuas del famoso jurista almeriense Ibn Ward (m. 540/1146), que mejora en mucho las versiones que de algunos de dichos textos aparecen en el Mi`yâr de al-Wansharîsî, presentamos ahora una nueva traducción y estudio del dictamen relacionado con la deportación de cristianos de Granada, Córdoba y Sevilla a Mequínez y a Fez en 1126 d. C., acusados de haber ayudado al rey Alfonso I de Aragón en su famosa incursión por tierras de al-Andalus llevada a cabo un año antes. El dictamen aporta detalles muy relevantes acerca de la situación de los cristianos tributarios en el período almorávid, durante el cual se registra un endurecimiento del discurso legal sobre los no-musulmanes y su derecho a residir en territorio islámico, además de valiosos datos sobre la interacción entre el derecho islámico y el eclesiástico en una situación excepcional como es la de la ruptura del pacto y la deportación. ENGLISH: We present here a new Spanish translation and study of a fatua issued by the Maliki jurist Ibn Ward (Almeria, d. 540/1146) concerning the status of the properties, churches and endowments left behind by a series of Christians from Granada, Cordoba and Seville deported to Fez and Meknes in 1126 CE after having been accused of high treason, and hence of breaking the pact under which they were granted permanent residence (dhimma) in al-Andalus, on the grounds of the assistance they had allegedly provided to king Alfonso I of Aragon in his famous incursion into al-Andalus made a year before with the purpose to conquer Granada. The text provides a unique insight into the status of Andalusi non-Muslims in the Almoravid period and the interaction between Islamic and ecclesiastical law.
Paper presented at the “Islamic Law and Ethics. VIII International Conference of the Internationa... more Paper presented at the “Islamic Law and Ethics. VIII International Conference of the International Society for Islamic Legal Studies”, Leiden, LUCIS, 6-8 November, 2015
Revue des mondes musulmans et de la Méditerranée, 2016
Cet article examine le discours des mālikites sur l’arbitrage et la conciliation, a une epoque ou... more Cet article examine le discours des mālikites sur l’arbitrage et la conciliation, a une epoque ou al-Andalus connaissait une serie de developpements politiques, intellectuels et ideologiques qui affectaient en profondeur les idees recues, la politique judiciaire, ainsi que la maniere dont les juristes percevaient leur propre role social de mediateurs et de pacificateurs. Nous nous appuyons sur les œuvres de deux des plus grands fuqahā’ mālikites de la periode : al-Bājī (403-474/1013-1081) et Ibn Rushd al-Jadd (450-520/1058-1126). Il apparait tout d’abord que l’arbitrage etait reconnu comme un mode valide de resolution des conflits, bien qu’inferieur et subordonne a la judicature du cadi. On releve par ailleurs que le recours aux pratiques repandues de conciliation fut limite en droit, surtout pour des raisons ethiques.
This article focuses on the use of Qurʾān LVIII,2 by contemporary Muslim jurists in debates about... more This article focuses on the use of Qurʾān LVIII,2 by contemporary Muslim jurists in debates about surrogacy arrangements. As argued by Ayman Shabana in a rich article published in 2015, the majority of those jurists claim that Qurʾān LVIII,2 provides an unequivocal legal definition of maternity and establishes that pregnancy and delivery provide the decisive criteria to determine whether a woman is the mother of a child instead of her contribution to that child’s genetic constitution. Since I am not convinced that the verse in question says exactly that, I have turned to authoritative interpretations of Qurʾān LVIII,2. Being a scholar of Islamic law familiar with legal sources from the pre-modern Islamic West, I have selected the well-known Qurʾān commentaries by Ibn Barraǧān, Ibn ʿAṭiyya, Abū Bakr Ibn al-ʿArabī, Ibn al-Faras al-Andalusī, and al-Qurṭubī. My intention is not to advocate for or against surrogate maternity but to delve into Andalusī Qurʾānic exegesis and show its inter...
This article deals with assessments by a number of contemporary Sunni fiqh experts on the legal d... more This article deals with assessments by a number of contemporary Sunni fiqh experts on the legal duration of pregnancy. Most of them strive to demonstrate that classical jurisprudence (fiqh) and modern medicine are perfectly compatible, despite the fact that the former contemplates gestational periods far longer than nine months. Also, they make proposals for national legislative bodies to best accommodate medical evidence to shari`a’s ethical and legal standards. In this way, they legitimize the drastic shortening of the legal duration of pregnancy that had already taken place in the family codes of most Muslim majority countries in order to adapt the Islamic jurisprudence on which these codes are avowedly based to modern medical knowledge. In this specific legal change case-study, legislation appears to have drawn jurisprudence rather than the reverse. The adoption of the medical duration of pregnancy affects such extremely sensitive issues like the criminalization of non-marital sexual intercourse and the denial of paternal filiation to the resulting offspring. As long as the latter two fields are not revised accordingly, the contemporary fiqh and legislation on the matter will seem flawed since their implementation leaves women and their children deprived from legal protections they used to have under the corresponding classical jurisprudence in the pre-modern period.
Studi Magrebini, 20/2, December 2022, 187-212, 2022
This article focuses on the use of Qurʾān LVIII,2 by contemporary Muslim jurists in debates about... more This article focuses on the use of Qurʾān LVIII,2 by contemporary Muslim jurists in debates about surrogacy arrangements. As argued by Ayman Shabana in a rich article published in 2015, the majority of those jurists claim that Qurʾān LVIII,2 provides an unequivocal legal definition of maternity and establishes that pregnancy and delivery provide the decisive criteria to determine whether a woman is the mother of a child instead of her contribution to that child’s genetic constitution. Since I am not convinced that the verse in question says exactly that, I have turned to authoritative interpretations of Qurʾān LVIII,2. Being a scholar of Islamic law familiar with legal sources from the pre-modern Islamic West, I have selected the well-known Qurʾān commentaries by Ibn Barraǧān, Ibn ʿAṭiyya, Abū Bakr Ibn al-ʿArabī, Ibn al-Faras al-Andalusī, and al-Qurṭubī. My intention is not to advocate for or against surrogate maternity but to delve into Andalusī Qurʾānic exegesis and show its interest to explore issues such as the legal definition of maternity that have acquired greater relevance in the wake of modern medical technologies.
After expanding the context of the examined exegetical works towards Arabic lexicography and pre-modern Islamic medical views on procreation and embryology, I show that Andalusī exegetes were aware of debates about women’s contribution to procreation, took a position in those debates and deemed the issue worthy of inclusion in their tafsīrs. Eventually I argue that none of the examined tafsīrs can be cited in support of the idea that Qurʾān LVIII,2 provides the textual basis of the Islamic legal definition of maternity let alone that legal maternity is determined by pregnancy and delivery to the exclusion of conception.
This article takes as its starting point the results obtained in two previous works published in ... more This article takes as its starting point the results obtained in two previous works published in specialized journals in the field of Islamic and gender studies (Serrano-Ruano, 2018, 2022). The main argument of the article is that in contemporary Islamic legal systems, a partial and biased incorporation of modern scientific knowledge on embryology, gynecology and genetics on the one hand while maintaining the criminalization of extra-marital relations (zinà), on the other, has led to increased vulnerability of certain groups of people such as single mothers and their children, or women who become pregnant after being widowed, divorced or abandoned by their husbands. Meanwhile, the written record seems to indicate that prior to the 20th century, the admission of extremely long pregnancy durations (encapsulated in the doctrine of the dormant embryo) was quite effective in protecting women in the situation described above against a charge of zinā and prevented that their children were considered illegitimate and deprived of all kinds of rights. To develop this argument, we first review classical Islamic jurisprudence as well as the legislation and judicial practice of a number of Islamic-majority countries, on the legal duration of pregnancy and paternal filiation. Next, we go on to analyze the social and legal impact that modern genetics and medicine are having on these issues. Ultimately, the work aims to go beyond the strict limits of Islamic studies and facilitate the reception of its results among specialists in gender studies from other disciplines lacking the necessary skills to read Arabic primary and secondary sources.
This article deals with assessments by a number of contemporary Sunni fiqh experts on the legal d... more This article deals with assessments by a number of contemporary Sunni fiqh experts on the legal duration of pregnancy. Most of them strive to demonstrate that classical jurisprudence (fiqh) and modern medicine are perfectly compatible, despite the fact that the former contemplates gestational periods far longer than nine months. Also, they make proposals for national legislative bodies to best accommodate medical evidence to shari`a’s ethical and legal standards. In this way, they legitimize the drastic shortening of the legal duration of pregnancy that had already taken place in the family codes of most Muslim majority countries in order to adapt the Islamic jurisprudence on which these codes are avowedly based to modern medical knowledge. In this specific legal change case-study, legislation appears to have drawn jurisprudence rather than the reverse. The adoption of the medical duration of pregnancy affects such extremely sensitive issues like the criminalization of non-marital sexual intercourse and the denial of paternal filiation to the resulting offspring. As long as the latter two fields are not revised accordingly, the contemporary fiqh and legislation on the matter will seem flawed since their implementation leaves women and their children deprived from legal protections they used to have under the corresponding classical jurisprudence in the pre-modern period.
Pre-print de un articulo con el mismo titulo publicado en la revista Hesperia, Culturas del Medit... more Pre-print de un articulo con el mismo titulo publicado en la revista Hesperia, Culturas del Mediterraneo (Marzo 2020), pp. 151-169
Delfina Serrano (ed.), “La shari`a o ley sagrada de los musulmanes”, Awraq Revista de Análisis y Pensamiento sobre el Mundo Árabe e Islámico Contemporáneo, 20, número monográfico, pp. 9-21, 2022
En Delfina Serrano (ed.), La shari`a o ley sagrada de los musulmanes, 20, número monográfico de Awraq Revista de Análisis y Pensamiento sobre el Mundo Árabe e Islámico Contemporáneo , pp. 3-8, 2022
SPANISH: Aprovechando la reciente edición de las fetuas del famoso jurista almeriense Ibn Ward (m... more SPANISH: Aprovechando la reciente edición de las fetuas del famoso jurista almeriense Ibn Ward (m. 540/1146), que mejora en mucho las versiones que de algunos de dichos textos aparecen en el Mi`yâr de al-Wansharîsî, presentamos ahora una nueva traducción y estudio del dictamen relacionado con la deportación de cristianos de Granada, Córdoba y Sevilla a Mequínez y a Fez en 1126 d. C., acusados de haber ayudado al rey Alfonso I de Aragón en su famosa incursión por tierras de al-Andalus llevada a cabo un año antes. El dictamen aporta detalles muy relevantes acerca de la situación de los cristianos tributarios en el período almorávid, durante el cual se registra un endurecimiento del discurso legal sobre los no-musulmanes y su derecho a residir en territorio islámico, además de valiosos datos sobre la interacción entre el derecho islámico y el eclesiástico en una situación excepcional como es la de la ruptura del pacto y la deportación. ENGLISH: We present here a new Spanish translation and study of a fatua issued by the Maliki jurist Ibn Ward (Almeria, d. 540/1146) concerning the status of the properties, churches and endowments left behind by a series of Christians from Granada, Cordoba and Seville deported to Fez and Meknes in 1126 CE after having been accused of high treason, and hence of breaking the pact under which they were granted permanent residence (dhimma) in al-Andalus, on the grounds of the assistance they had allegedly provided to king Alfonso I of Aragon in his famous incursion into al-Andalus made a year before with the purpose to conquer Granada. The text provides a unique insight into the status of Andalusi non-Muslims in the Almoravid period and the interaction between Islamic and ecclesiastical law.
Paper presented at the “Islamic Law and Ethics. VIII International Conference of the Internationa... more Paper presented at the “Islamic Law and Ethics. VIII International Conference of the International Society for Islamic Legal Studies”, Leiden, LUCIS, 6-8 November, 2015
Revue des mondes musulmans et de la Méditerranée, 2016
Cet article examine le discours des mālikites sur l’arbitrage et la conciliation, a une epoque ou... more Cet article examine le discours des mālikites sur l’arbitrage et la conciliation, a une epoque ou al-Andalus connaissait une serie de developpements politiques, intellectuels et ideologiques qui affectaient en profondeur les idees recues, la politique judiciaire, ainsi que la maniere dont les juristes percevaient leur propre role social de mediateurs et de pacificateurs. Nous nous appuyons sur les œuvres de deux des plus grands fuqahā’ mālikites de la periode : al-Bājī (403-474/1013-1081) et Ibn Rushd al-Jadd (450-520/1058-1126). Il apparait tout d’abord que l’arbitrage etait reconnu comme un mode valide de resolution des conflits, bien qu’inferieur et subordonne a la judicature du cadi. On releve par ailleurs que le recours aux pratiques repandues de conciliation fut limite en droit, surtout pour des raisons ethiques.
Gorgias Press is delighted to announce the launch of its new inter-disciplinary book series Islam... more Gorgias Press is delighted to announce the launch of its new inter-disciplinary book series Islamic History and Thought. The series will provide a platform for scholarly research on any geographic area within the expansive Islamic world, stretching from the Mediterranean to China, and dated to any period from the eve of Islam until the early modern era.
Draft of a review published by the Journal of the American Oriental Society, 138.3 (2018), pp. 63... more Draft of a review published by the Journal of the American Oriental Society, 138.3 (2018), pp. 636-639.
Herméneutiques juridiques et sources scripturaires en Islam L'atelier propose de réfléchir aux mé... more Herméneutiques juridiques et sources scripturaires en Islam L'atelier propose de réfléchir aux méthodes d'interprétation des sources scripturaires mises en oeuvre par les juristes et les exégètes musulmans à travers l'histoire. Les sources scripturaires seront comprises dans un sens large, de la première source le Coran, aux doctrines d'autorités fondatrices instaurées comme canoniques par les maḏhab-s. Cet atelier propose de partir de la description philologique et de l'étude du genre littéraire afin de caractériser des méthodes et de mettre en évidence des fonctions dans le discours. Dans un second temps l'atelier devrait tenter de « comprendre » et d'inclure les discours, dans le contexte intellectuel, social et politique, de leur production et de leur énonciation. En bref, il s'agit dans cet atelier de reconsidérer les différentes fonctions du recours aux sources scripturaires selon les méthodes de la philologie et de l'histoire intellectuelle ; ainsi que d'interroger le lien éventuel de ces textes à l'histoire sociale et politique. Sur ce point, il peut être intéressant de comparer la réception et le sens que peut avoir un texte à l'époque de sa production, avec ceux qu'il acquiert à l'époque contemporaine. Responsable : Géraldine Jenvrin (Programme Iyas Hassan (IFPO) Coran normatif, exégèse et récit. La génération d'une matière narrative à partir de textes de loi À travers les premiers textes exégétiques, cette communication interrogera les asbāb al-nuzūl comme un phénomène littéraire. En tentant de pallier l'aspect équivoque de l'expression coranique, et en recréant le contexte de la composition des versets commentés, les « circonstances de la révélation » introduites en marge de versets purement normatifs, contribuent à la génération d'une prose narrative, là où celle-ci n'est pas attendue. Cette communication proposera d'analyser plusieurs de ces récits et de tenter de définir ce qui, dans leur structure, est propre à leur statut normatif et ce qui est commun à l'ensemble de ce qu'on peut appeler la « narration du tafsīr ». Delfina Serrano Ruano (Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas) « Legal methodology illustrated: Andalusi Qur'ānic exegesis on pregnancy and maternity » It is with sound reasons that Ibn Farḥ al-Qurṭubī's (d. 671/1273) al-Jāmì li-aḥkām al-Qur'ān is considered to represent the peak of the Andalusī exegetical genre. The declared comprehensive approach to the sacred text , combining a vast array of disciplines and skills to-as Calder , Mujaddedi and Rippin put it-" draw as much law from the text as possible " , produced a master piece of Qur ' ānic interprÉtation that has continued to be a fundamental reference until our days. The value of the Jāmì is beyond question , yet certain aspects of its methodology considered original by those who have studied it result less so when compared with that of Qurṭubī ' s closest precedent in space and time , Abū Bakr Ibn al-` Arabī ' s (d. 543 / 1148) Aḥkām al-Qur ' ān , as far as argument and the involvement of other religious sciences like ḥadīth , Arabic language and kalām are concerned… This contention will be tested taking the example of two verses (Coran XIII , 8 & LVIII , 2) that use to be mentioned to represent Islamic stances on pregnancy and maternity. Apart from illustrating whether or not and to which point it is possible to talk about a common exegetical thread transcending both authors ' disagreements and specificities , the cases at stake can shed light on attitudes towards non-religious disciplines as valid exegetical tools in a specific intellectual and ideological context .
There is a strong relationship between ethics and politics in the ancient philosophical sys... more There is a strong relationship between ethics and politics in the ancient philosophical system, even the practical wisdom of Aristotle consists of two books: “The Ethics of Nicomachus” and “The Book of Politics”. His ethical philosophy is established on the political vision. The first book discusses the idea that every society thrives because of ethics; whereas, the second book is based on the fixation of ethics in the souls of youth. Aristotle arranged what Plato said concerning the industrial progress in a narrative way.
Ibn Rushd was a philosophical heir to this philosophical tradition which moved with al-Farabi, who combined the work of Plato's with the work of Aristotle, producing practical thought; the Platonic political-oriented and the Aristotelian ethical-oriented. So he took care of Plato's book in politics and of Aristotle’s book in ethics. But Ibn Rushd is also considered a descendant of an Islamic ethical heritage that has been manifested in jurisprudence, in Sufism and in the philosophical heritage as well. Therefore, we believe that the search for the Rushdian ethical vision should not be separated from this system of practice and knowledge, which is framed by both philosophical and religious visions. Ibn Rushd speaks of the jurisprudence as a practical virtue, and speaks of the death of lusts as a condition for the rightness of the vision, and summarizes the book of Aristotle of ethics, in which the virtues had been listed and shed light upon, and those last had the greatest impact on the ethical philosophical vision in Islam. He also treats the political book of Plato in a special way by pointing to the political and educational heritage of the Islamic society, therefore we find ourselves before many effects directed the Rushdian ethical vision. We believe that those effects have formed a scientific and practical structure for the Rushdian ethical experience. Because of the deliberate formulation, in which Abu al-Waleed weaved the grown of reform and righteousness from the wrap and and weft of politics and ethics, there was an intellectual shock in the Muslim West, which led the people of the state of the Almohad Caliphate to hold him accountable for the reform of education in our country. Similarly, there are still urgent needs that make the man lives among us with all his beauty and cognitive violence and sincere intentions towards the nation, and make us look to his track as a memory in Marrakech, in order to raise the structure of what he wanted to be with all his cognitive encyclopedia that exceeded the borders of gender, geography and time. From this point of view, the Center of Rawafd for Studies and Research in the Maghreb Civilization and the Mediterranean Heritage urges to focus on the political ethical question of Ibn Rushd and its treatment through the following proposed axes: The nature of the ethical question of Ibn Rushd? The nature of the political question of Ibn Rushd? Ethics and Politics of Ibn Rushd: any relationship? Political Concepts and ethical Concepts: any Relationship? The ethical vision and concerns of the Islamic society? Jurisprudence between Ethics and Politics of Ibn Rushd?
What is the status of Ibn Rushd's political and ethical heritage in our reality today? Can it be valid for the requirements of our situation?
In order to go through this section of knowledge, we invite researchers to participate in their valuable research concerning the work of this scientific symposium, so that they can choose to write in one of the proposed axes. In view of the scientific efforts done by Professor Ahmed Shehlan in directing Ibn Rushd's two main works on the subject, the "Plato Synopses of Politics" and "Summing up the Ethics book of Ibn Rushd," the Center decided to dedicate the work of this symposium to its own merit as a result of its efforts in bringing the practical work of Ibn Rushd closer to scholars
Paper presented at the “Islamic Law and Ethics. VIII International Conference of the International Society for Islamic Legal Studies”, Leiden University Center for the Study of Islam and Society (LUCIS), 6-8 November 2015, 2019
"The contribution ofAshàrism to the development of Maliki discourses on sincere belief and good b... more "The contribution ofAshàrism to the development of Maliki discourses on sincere belief and good behavior: Ibn Rushd al-Jadd's (d. Cordoba 1126 C.E.) doctrine on taklīf " by Delfina Serrano-Ruano is licensed under a Creative Commons Reconocimiento-NoComercial 4.0 Internacional License. The interplay between Islamic law and theology is well known and does not need to be further stressed or argued here. Yet we still need to know better how this relationship was constructed and justified in specific cases and moments in history which no doubt will lead us also to gain a more accurate understanding of the development of each separate discipline. The concept of taklīf on which I have decided to focus my contribution to the theme of this conference, has the double advantage of being a common place from which to explore the relationship between Islamic law and ethics but also that of Islamic law and theology in a historical context in which those bonds were not taken for granted. Once more, the protagonist of my presentation is the Cordoban Maliki jurist Ibn Rushd al-Jadd, not to be confused with his famous grandson, the physician, philosopher and legal scholar Ibn Rushd al-Ḥafīd better known in the Latin West as Averroes. The grandfather, to whose seminal and voluminous writings I have been paying attention in the last years, was one of the most influential Maliki scholars of all times whom only recently we have started to discover as anAshàri theologian as well, an extremely interesting and original one indeed, so that the jurist in him cannot be studied without also having the theologian into account. The factors having contributed to shape Ibn Rushd's independent and innovative thinking, which in many respects anticipate the genius of his grandson, are not easy to ascertain. Ibn Rushd attributes his thorough training in uṣūl al-din wa-l-fiqh
Christine Mazzoli-Guintard (ed.), Patrimonio andalusí : cultura, documentos y paisajes, Colección Estudios Árabe Islámicos de Almonaster la Real, Sevilla: Editorial Universidad de Sevilla-Ayuntamiento de Almonaster la Real, 2021., 2021
Resumen: En este trabajo traducimos y estudiamos un texto perteneciente a la colección de fetuas ... more Resumen: En este trabajo traducimos y estudiamos un texto perteneciente a la colección de fetuas del gran jurista cordobés Ibn al-Haŷŷ al-Tuŷıbı (m. 529/1134). Su contenido arroja nueva luz sobre la cuestión de la legitimación de la autoridad religiosa de los teólogos de la escuela aš‘arí ante los juristas de la escuela malikí, un proceso que está íntimamente ligado a la llegada y difusión en el Occidente islámico de las doctrinas contenidas en las obras escritas por los teólogos aš‘aríes orientales. La fetua que traducimos y examinamos en esta ocasión es una secuela de las emitidas anteriormente sobre el mismo tema por Ibn Rušd al-Ŷadd (m. 520/1126) a petición de la cúpula del poder almorávid. La fetua permite esclarecer las circunstancias de la muerte de Ibn al-Haŷŷ y confirma su rivalidad intelectual con Ibn Rušd al-Ŷadd. Nos obliga además a adelantar en unos años las fechas del proceso de legitimación de la autoridad religiosa de los teólogos aš‘aríes en al-Andalus, sumando la contribución al mismo de Abü l-Walıd Hišam b. Ahmad b. Sa‘ıd Ibn al-‘Awwad (m. 509/1115) y, sobre todo, poner de manifiesto la deuda de Ibn Rušd al-Ŷadd para con Abü l-Walıd al-Baŷı (m. 474/1081).
This article deals with a fatwà drawn from the collection of legal cases (Nawāzil) of the Cordoban Maliki jurist Ibn al-Hajj al-Tujıbı (d. 529/1134). The fatwà, which we present in Spanish translation, sheds new light on the process whereby Andalusi Malikis were convinced of the need to accept the religious authority of Ash‘arı theologians. Among other factors, this process was triggered by the arrival in the Islamic West of works written by Ash‘arı theologians and the dissemination of their doctrines. The fatwà in question is a sequel of other fatwàs on the same subject issued previously by Ibn Rushd al-Jadd (d. 520/1126) at the request of top Almoravid political authorities. It helps at clarifying the circumstances of Ibn al-Hajj’s death and confirms his competitive stance towards Ibn Rushd. In his fatwà Ibn al-Hajj quotes a hitherto unknown opinion by Abü l-Walıd Hishm b. A˛mad b. Sa‘ıd Ibn al-‘Awwad (d. 509/1115) which points to the need of moving the dates assumed for the abovementioned process a few years forward. Last but not least, the text appears to have been meant to emphasize Ibn Rushd’s intellectual debt towards Abü l-Walıd al-Bajı (d. 474/1081).
Este curso, abierto al público general, tiene dos objetivos principales: de un lado, ofrecer al a... more Este curso, abierto al público general, tiene dos objetivos principales: de un lado, ofrecer al alumno una visión general sobre la historia y cultura de los judíos en territorios islámicos y, de otro, familiarizarle con las herramientas esenciales (bibliografía, recursos de internet, bases de datos…) para informarse en profundidad o incluso realizar trabajos de investigación de forma independiente sobre este tema. El curso cuenta con 1 ECTS de la Universidad Complutense de Madrid.
Uploads
After expanding the context of the examined exegetical works towards Arabic lexicography and pre-modern Islamic medical views on procreation and embryology, I show that Andalusī exegetes were aware of debates about women’s contribution to procreation, took a position in those debates and deemed the issue worthy of inclusion in their tafsīrs. Eventually I argue that none of the examined tafsīrs can be cited in support of the idea that Qurʾān LVIII,2 provides the textual basis of the Islamic legal definition of maternity let alone that legal maternity is determined by pregnancy and delivery to the exclusion of conception.
vulnerability of certain groups of people such as single mothers and their children, or women who become pregnant after being widowed, divorced or abandoned by their husbands. Meanwhile, the written record seems to indicate that prior to the 20th century, the admission of extremely long pregnancy durations (encapsulated in the doctrine of the dormant embryo) was quite effective in protecting women in the situation described above against a charge of zinā and prevented that their children
were considered illegitimate and deprived of all kinds of rights.
To develop this argument, we first review classical Islamic jurisprudence as well as the legislation and judicial practice of a number of Islamic-majority countries, on the legal duration of pregnancy and paternal filiation. Next, we go on to analyze the social and legal impact that modern genetics and medicine are having on these issues.
Ultimately, the work aims to go beyond the strict limits of Islamic studies and facilitate the reception of its results among specialists in gender studies from other disciplines lacking the necessary skills to read Arabic primary and secondary sources.
The adoption of the medical duration of pregnancy affects such extremely sensitive issues like the criminalization of non-marital sexual intercourse and the denial of paternal filiation to the resulting offspring. As long as the latter two fields are not revised accordingly, the contemporary fiqh and legislation on the matter will seem flawed since their implementation
leaves women and their children deprived from legal protections they used to have under the corresponding classical jurisprudence in the pre-modern period.
After expanding the context of the examined exegetical works towards Arabic lexicography and pre-modern Islamic medical views on procreation and embryology, I show that Andalusī exegetes were aware of debates about women’s contribution to procreation, took a position in those debates and deemed the issue worthy of inclusion in their tafsīrs. Eventually I argue that none of the examined tafsīrs can be cited in support of the idea that Qurʾān LVIII,2 provides the textual basis of the Islamic legal definition of maternity let alone that legal maternity is determined by pregnancy and delivery to the exclusion of conception.
vulnerability of certain groups of people such as single mothers and their children, or women who become pregnant after being widowed, divorced or abandoned by their husbands. Meanwhile, the written record seems to indicate that prior to the 20th century, the admission of extremely long pregnancy durations (encapsulated in the doctrine of the dormant embryo) was quite effective in protecting women in the situation described above against a charge of zinā and prevented that their children
were considered illegitimate and deprived of all kinds of rights.
To develop this argument, we first review classical Islamic jurisprudence as well as the legislation and judicial practice of a number of Islamic-majority countries, on the legal duration of pregnancy and paternal filiation. Next, we go on to analyze the social and legal impact that modern genetics and medicine are having on these issues.
Ultimately, the work aims to go beyond the strict limits of Islamic studies and facilitate the reception of its results among specialists in gender studies from other disciplines lacking the necessary skills to read Arabic primary and secondary sources.
The adoption of the medical duration of pregnancy affects such extremely sensitive issues like the criminalization of non-marital sexual intercourse and the denial of paternal filiation to the resulting offspring. As long as the latter two fields are not revised accordingly, the contemporary fiqh and legislation on the matter will seem flawed since their implementation
leaves women and their children deprived from legal protections they used to have under the corresponding classical jurisprudence in the pre-modern period.
Ibn Rushd was a philosophical heir to this philosophical tradition which moved with al-Farabi, who combined the work of Plato's with the work of Aristotle, producing practical thought; the Platonic political-oriented and the Aristotelian ethical-oriented. So he took care of Plato's book in politics and of Aristotle’s book in ethics.
But Ibn Rushd is also considered a descendant of an Islamic ethical heritage that has been manifested in jurisprudence, in Sufism and in the philosophical heritage as well. Therefore, we believe that the search for the Rushdian ethical vision should not be separated from this system of practice and knowledge, which is framed by both philosophical and religious visions.
Ibn Rushd speaks of the jurisprudence as a practical virtue, and speaks of the death of lusts as a condition for the rightness of the vision, and summarizes the book of Aristotle of ethics, in which the virtues had been listed and shed light upon, and those last had the greatest impact on the ethical philosophical vision in Islam. He also treats the political book of Plato in a special way by pointing to the political and educational heritage of the Islamic society, therefore we find ourselves before many effects directed the Rushdian ethical vision. We believe that those effects have formed a scientific and practical structure for the Rushdian ethical experience.
Because of the deliberate formulation, in which Abu al-Waleed weaved the grown of reform and righteousness from the wrap and and weft of politics and ethics, there was an intellectual shock in the Muslim West, which led the people of the state of the Almohad Caliphate to hold him accountable for the reform of education in our country. Similarly, there are still urgent needs that make the man lives among us with all his beauty and cognitive violence and sincere intentions towards the nation, and make us look to his track as a memory in Marrakech, in order to raise the structure of what he wanted to be with all his cognitive encyclopedia that exceeded the borders of gender, geography and time.
From this point of view, the Center of Rawafd for Studies and Research in the Maghreb Civilization and the Mediterranean Heritage urges to focus on the political ethical question of Ibn Rushd and its treatment through the following proposed axes:
The nature of the ethical question of Ibn Rushd?
The nature of the political question of Ibn Rushd?
Ethics and Politics of Ibn Rushd: any relationship?
Political Concepts and ethical Concepts: any Relationship?
The ethical vision and concerns of the Islamic society?
Jurisprudence between Ethics and Politics of Ibn Rushd?
What is the status of Ibn Rushd's political and ethical heritage in our reality today? Can it be valid for the requirements of our situation?
In order to go through this section of knowledge, we invite researchers to participate in their valuable research concerning the work of this scientific symposium, so that they can choose to write in one of the proposed axes.
In view of the scientific efforts done by Professor Ahmed Shehlan in directing Ibn Rushd's two main works on the subject, the "Plato Synopses of Politics" and "Summing up the Ethics book of Ibn Rushd," the Center decided to dedicate the work of this symposium to its own merit as a result of its efforts in bringing the practical work of Ibn Rushd closer to scholars
This article deals with a fatwà drawn from the collection of legal cases
(Nawāzil) of the Cordoban Maliki jurist Ibn al-Hajj al-Tujıbı (d. 529/1134). The fatwà, which we present in Spanish translation, sheds new light on the process whereby Andalusi Malikis were convinced of the need to accept the religious authority of Ash‘arı theologians. Among other factors, this process was triggered by the arrival in the Islamic West of works written by Ash‘arı theologians and the dissemination of their doctrines.
The fatwà in question is a sequel of other fatwàs on the same subject issued previously by Ibn Rushd al-Jadd (d. 520/1126) at the request of top Almoravid political authorities. It helps at clarifying the circumstances of Ibn al-Hajj’s death and confirms his competitive stance towards Ibn Rushd. In his fatwà Ibn al-Hajj quotes a hitherto unknown opinion by Abü l-Walıd Hishm b. A˛mad b. Sa‘ıd Ibn al-‘Awwad (d. 509/1115) which points to the need of moving the dates assumed for the abovementioned
process a few years forward. Last but not least, the text appears to have
been meant to emphasize Ibn Rushd’s intellectual debt towards Abü l-Walıd al-Bajı (d. 474/1081).
El curso cuenta con 1 ECTS de la Universidad Complutense de Madrid.