Islamic Jurisprudence and Social Dependency in a Premodern Saharan Oasis Society
This paper investigates the role of Islamic jurisprudence in creating and sustaining forms of social dependency in the oases of Tuwāt (in present-day southern Algeria). Drawing upon a series of fatwās collections compiled between 1750 and 1850, I examine how Saharan legal scholars reinforced the str...
| Main Author: | |
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| Format: | Electronic Article |
| Language: | English |
| Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
| Journals Online & Print: | Drawer...
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| Fernleihe: | Fernleihe für die Fachinformationsdienste |
| Published: |
Brill
2024
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| In: |
Die Welt des Islams
Year: 2024, Volume: 64, Issue: 2/3, Pages: 168-196 |
| Further subjects: | B
Saharan manuscripts
B Saharan west B trans-Saharan slavery B Islamic Law B khammāsa B Haratin B Algeria B Fatwā B precolonial North Africa B Tuwāt |
| Online Access: |
Volltext (lizenzpflichtig) Volltext (lizenzpflichtig) |
| Summary: | This paper investigates the role of Islamic jurisprudence in creating and sustaining forms of social dependency in the oases of Tuwāt (in present-day southern Algeria). Drawing upon a series of fatwās collections compiled between 1750 and 1850, I examine how Saharan legal scholars reinforced the structural hegemony of local elites and ensured their control over servile and semi-servile groups, particularly the Haratin population. The materials reveal that jurisprudential techniques and arguments were instrumental in fostering practices of subordination, most notably through the defense of exploitative sharecropping arrangements. The tendency of local jurists to uphold individual property rights de facto worked in favor of descent groups claiming genealogical and cultural superiority. It significantly contributed to the maintenance of unequal relationships between individuals and social groups in a society profoundly shaped by the trans-Saharan slave trade. |
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| ISSN: | 1570-0607 |
| Contains: | Enthalten in: Die Welt des Islams
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| Persistent identifiers: | DOI: 10.1163/15700607-20230028 |