From THE HISTORICAL-IDEOLOGICAL FRAMEWORK OF ISLAMIC FĀṬIMID SICILY (FOURTH/TENTH CENTURY) WITH REFERENCE TO THE WORKS OF THE QĀḌĪ L- NUʿMĀN (Antonino Pellitteri) Al-Masāq: Islam and the Medieval Mediterranean, 7 (1994), 111–163. ... The third and last section to which we shall refer, and which also concerns Sicily, deals with the celebration of the circumcision of al-Muʿizzʾs son (dhikr ṭahūr walad al-Muʿizz li-Dīn Allāh)100 in the year 351/962: [he said] and when the imām al-Muʿizz li-Dīn Allāh (ṣallā Allāh ʿalayhi) wanted to circumcize ʿAbd Allāh, Nizar and ʿĀqil, his son .... ordered his closest collaborators, men of power, the military, his faithful followers and all his men, all those representing commercial bodies and craftsmen, all the subjects of al- Manṣūriyya and al-Qayrawān, all the people of the cities of Ifrīqiya and their provinces (settlers and nomads), and he sent a written order to the governors, from Barqa and its administrative districts to Sijilmāsa and its outer limits, from where it encircles the kingdom (mamlakatahu) as far as the island of Sicily, and, within these territories, to all social categories (min ṭabaqāt al-nās) both settler and nomad, commanding them to have their sons circumcized, beginning the first Tuesday of the month of Rabīʿ al- Awwal in the year 351/962 until the end of the same month. He also ordered that a certain amount of money should be sent to each territory and distributed among those sons of Muslims; both common men and those of high standing who had had themselves circumcized. From what we saw, fifty coffers of money (ḥiml) were sent to Sicily to be distributed as presents, and, similarly, about the same amount was given to every governer for him to divide among the people of his province. He ordered (ṣallā Allāh ʿalayhi) that his son should be circumcized on the above mentioned Tuesday, and all participated, in that testimony to purification (both settled and nomadic peoples). And he ordered the raising of canopies (surādiqāt) in the open places at the Sea Palace (qaṣr al-baḥr), around the water, and children accompanied by as many as wanted to enter, were let in there, fathers and mothers, their slaves and servants, and as many of these as wanted to be circumcized. And he established that the prayer of the ṭahūr should be read all the days of the month. It was widely known by all that he (ṣallā Allāh ʿalayhi) had ordered that whoever did not have his sons circumcized on that occasion could not have it done before another seven years had passed, and that it would not be to his advantage to oppose this order. All the people rushed to have their own sons and slaves circumicized, supporting, without reservation, the declaration (wa-ttaṣala bi-hi ashyāʿ min dhālika). And he said: ʾthe best is he who agrees to that, in which he can distinguish himself from us, he who has our times at heartʾ. Up to this point, the comment is pertinent also to Sicily, where 15,000 Muslim children participated in the the ṭahūr of the son of al-Muʿizz, both sons of the nobility and of the common people, after the Kalbite governor Aḥmad b. al- Ḥasan, had taken a census of the infant Islamic population on the order of the caliph of al-Manṣūriyya.102 It is known that the term ṭahūr here used (elsewhere, at Mecca, ṭahār) for circumcision (more commonly, khitān) is derived from a root implying a sense of purity and a feeling of purification in religious terms. The collective celebration of ṭahūr determined by al-Muʿizz, and the rites connected to it, added to this sense the more political one of mass support and of recognition of the glory of the caliph. The meticulous description of al-Nuʿmān is similarly meaningful, as when he adds: The days of this month were holidays, days of joyful ceremonies, and gladness in every corner, of the lands possessed by the Prince of Believers, amongst the nomads and settlers, amongst the rich and the needy. Happiness entered every home and left a good sign that no-one had perceived before the coming [of al-Muʿizz]. And I do not believe that anyone can remember anything similar. If nothing else, our qāḍī seems to emphasize a colossal financial commitment and responsibility on the other part of the administrators and governors of the province, if one thinks that every day between at least five and ten thousand children (aqall dhālika)104 were circumcized, and moreover, the caliph imām had affirmed: laqad aḥsan man shayyaʿa hādhā wa mā yatakhallafu ʿanna fī dhālika man yuḥibbu ayyāminā. ... photo: Castello a mare (qasr al-bahr), Palermo
Posted on: Sat, 22 Nov 2014 08:37:48 +0000
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