“Insanity in Islamic Law” is a portion of a chapter originally published in Majun: The Madman in Medieval Islamic Society (1992) and was reprinted here with permission of Oxford University Press. Its author, Michael Dols, was a Professor of History at California State University–Hayward and a Visiting Research Fellow at Oxford University's Wellcome Unit when he completed the manuscript, which was published posthumously.
Notes
[The notes in this article begin at n35 and end at n147 because it is a portion of a chapter taken from Manjun: The Madman in Medieval Islamic Society (1992), and the original note numbers have been maintained to reflect the original publication. It was reprinted with permission from Oxford University Press.]
35. For the historical development of the notion of legal capacity (ahliyya) and its relations to reason (aql), see the study of R. Brunschvig that is based on the work of al-Pazdawi (d. 482/1089): ‘Theorie generale de la capacite chez les Hanafites medievaux, Revue' internationale des droits de l’antiquite, 2 (1949), 157–72.
36. Josheph Schacht, An Introduction to Islamic Law, 124–5.
37. The sane adult Muslim is deprived of his will when asleep, unconscious or drunk. In the first two cases, the individual's words cannot be construed as expressing his will and, therefore, have no juridical effect. On the other hand, the status of the drunkard is complicated by the Muslim prohibition of intoxicants. Consequently the majority of jurists hold that an individual is responsible for his acts while intoxicated. See Y. Linant de Bellefonds, Traite de droit musulman compare (3 vols: The Hague–Paris, 1965–73), i. 248–50.
38. Al-Hujwiri, The Kashf al Mahjub, 35I.
39. Gotthelf Bergstrasser, Bergstrassers Grundzuge des islamischen Rechts, ed. Josheph Schacht.
40. It is interesting to note that in Hanafi law interdiction was also extended to the ignorant doctor in an attempt to protect the public from his practice of the craft.
41. J. Schacht; Linant de Bellefonds, Traite, iii. 259.
42. I am greatly indebted to Dr. Gary Leiser for his making available to me his unpublished paper “On the Concept of Insanity in Islamic Law.”
43. Muhammad Z. an-Najjar, ed., viii (Cairo, 1961), 105.
44. Ibid.
45. Minhaj at-talibin, trans. L.W.C. Van den Berg and E.C. Howard (London, 1914), 167–9.
46. Cf. Carl E. Sachau.
47. Taha M. az-Zayni, ed., iv (Cairo, 1969), 343, 351–2.
48. Ibid. 353.
49. Ibid. 344.
50. Kitab al-Mabsut xxiv. 156–8.
51. Abd ar-Rahman al-Jaza’iri.
52. Badai as-sana’ I which is discussed by Chehata, Etudes, iii-35.
53. The Hedaya or Guide: A Commentary on the Mussulman Laws. Trans. Charles Hamilton, 2nd edn. Ed. S. Grady (London, 1870).
54. Al-Jaza’iri, Kitab al-Fiqh, 479.
55. e.g. The Mukhtasar of Khalil ibn Ishaq (d. 767/1365) gives a clear description of the judge's duty publicly to prohibit transactions with interdicted minors but nothing is said about the insane.
56. Tunis, 1280 AH.
57. Beirut, 1970 AD.
58. Cairo, 1952, ii. 275–80. The section of Bidaya on hajr translated by G.H. Bousquet.
59. Khalil ibn Ishaq, Precis, iv. 58 f. See also F. H. Ruxton's translation of Ibn Ishaq's al-Mukhtasar: Maliki Law (London, 1916).
60. Victor Perreimond, De la protection juridique des incapables en droit musulman: (Paris, 1903), 270–89.
61. Chehata, Etudes, 80.
62. Quoted in Linant de Bellefonds, Traite, 245.
63. This term generally meant, according to an-Naysuburi, one who was congenitally insane.
64. Linant de Bellefonds, Traite, i. 247–8, iii. 262–3.
65. Ibid. i. 254.
66. See Hadan (Y. Linant de Bellefonds); Hans-Eberhard Klinkhardt.
67. Chehata (Etudes, 82–4).
68. A. Querry. 2 vols. Paris, 1871.
69. The Muqaddimah, Rosenthal trans., i. 455.
70. Especially sura 4:2 ff.
71. T. W. Juynboll.
72. Seymour Vesey-Fitzgeral, Muhammadan Law (Oxford, 1931), 106–10.
73. Schact, Introduction, 188.
74. Klinkhardt, Die Personengsorge, 78; Sachau.
75. J. Lapanne-Joinville.
76. J. Schacht. Nor is a man or woman liable to legal punishment for intercourse with jinn in Maliki law; see Khalil ibn Ishaq.
77. Querry, Droit musulman, ii. 484; Maliki Law.
78. N. J. Couson, Succession in the Muslim Family (Cambridge, Mass. 1971) 176–7.
79. Ibid. 179.
80. Schacht, Introduction.
81. Coulson, Succession, 176.
82. Ibid. 181.
83. Ibid.
84. Ibid. 181.
85. In Hanafi law, all contracts by an interdicted person were void; see J.N.D. Anderson.
86. Ibn Qudama quoted in Linant de Bellefonds.
87. An-Nawawi, Minhaj at-Talibin.
88. Ruston, Maliki Law.
89. See Vesey-Fitzgeral, Muhammadan Law.
90. SET, Nikah (J. Schacht)
91. Stephan, ‘Lunacy in Palestinian Folklore.’
92. Querry, Droit musulman, i. 708 f.
93. According to the 5th century Syriac law book, a buyer of slaves could not return a young slave to the seller except when the buyer found a demon in the slave.
94. The Bidaya, 259.
95. Dermenghem, Vies des saints, 340.
96. Schacht, Introduction, 129.
97. Ruxton, Maliki Law, 92.
98. Ibadat (G.H. Bousquet)
99. Querry, Droit musulman, i. pp.53, 110.
100. Tahara has become the common name for circumcision, and on this topic nothing is said about insanity: presumably, it is not an impediment.
101. Khalil ibn Ishaw, Precis, i. 15,44.
102. SEI, s.v. ‘Salat’ (A.J. Wensinck).
103. Khalil ibn Ishaq, Precis, i. 91–203. Incidentally, prayer under the direction of a leper is permitted as long as the disease has not reached the point that it is offensive to others and the leader's voice has not become dull and hoarse (ibid. 208, see also p. 265). This instance of an implicit tolerance of lepers in western Islamic countries may be compared to the explicit prohibition of the leper as imam in Shi’i law; see Querry, Droit musulman, i. 118.
104. Khalil ibn Ishaw, Precis, i. 506.
105. Ibid. i. 503.
106. Querry, Droit musulman, i. 122, ii. 389.
107. Al-Hujwiri, The Kashf al-Mahjub, 93–4. Al-Hujwiri says that story illustrates the wisdom of Abu Hanifa in not being tempted by worldly renown, popularity, and wealth. It also shows the soundness, according to the author, of malamat or dissimulation because all three worthy men resorted to some trick in order to avoid popularity (p. 94). Schacht points out that this biographical legend, and similar ones, were intended to explain the facts that (I) Abu Hanifa ended his life in prison, and (2) this famous jurist had never held the office of qadi; the truth may be that he compromised himself by injudicious remarks during an ‘Alid rebellion in AH 145 and was imprisoned for them. See Abu Hanifa al-Nu’man (J.Schacht).
108. SEI, s.v. Zakat (J. Scacht).
109. Ruxton, Maliki Law, 44.
110. Ruston, Maliki Law, 180.
111. Bousquet, Abrege, para. 153.
112. B. Lewis.
113. Shahid (W. Heffening).
114. Coulson, Succession, 215–27.
115. Khalil ibn Ishaq, Precis, v. 515 f.
116. Ibid.
117. The Ma’alim al-Qurba fi ahkam al-hisba, ed. and trans. Reuben Levy.
118. The Ma’alim al-Qurba. Reuben Levy (E.J.W. Gibb Memorial Series, 1976). 88.
119. Ibid, Levy edn., 18.
120. Ibid, 18, 71.
121. Ibid. 84.
122. Ibid. 84.
123. Ibid. 80.
124. Ibid. 260, 263.
125. Ibid. Levy, 268.
126. Fatwa (E. Tyan).
127. The use of fatawa as sources of Ottoman social history is demonstrated by Johannes Benzing.
128. Uddat arbab al-fatwa.
129. Fath al-ali al-Malik (Cairo, 1958), ii. 161.
130. See A.J. Wensinck, The Refused Dignity.
131. Ibid. 495–6.
132. See Marzolph, Der Weise Narr Buhlul, 19.
133. Ibn Abi Usaybi’a, Uyun al-anba fi tabaqat al-atibba, ed. A. Muller (Cairo, 1882), ii. 9i.
134. Ibid. 90; see DSB, s.v. ‘Ibn al-Haytham’ (A.I. Sabra).
135. Jospeh H. Escovitz, The Office of Qadi al-Qudat in Cairo Under the Bahri Mamluks 136–7, cf. p. 135.
136. Linant de Bellefonds, Traite, 262.
137. In classical Islamic law, however, leprosy was not invariably an impediment to legal capacity, as madness was, and this fact helps to explain the tolerance of the leper in medieval Islamic society. (See Dols, ‘The Leper in Medieval Islamic Society,’ Speculum, 58 (1983), 891–916.) On the other hand, the law of the Ottoman Criminal Code that lepers should be expelled from the society explains their legal incapacity in the early modern period and their segregation in extramural leper houses in the Ottoman period. (Uriel Heyd, Studies in Old Ottoman Criminal Law, ed. V.L. Menage (Oxford, 1973), 120, 303.)
138. Coulson, Succession, 177.
139. Granek, ‘Le Concept de fou,’ 26.
140. Huda Lutfi, Al-Quds al-Mamlukiyya: A History of Mamluk Jerusalem Based on the Haram Documents. 21–2; see also D.P. Little, A Catalogue of the Islamic Documents … . 266.
141. Little, A Catalogue, 230.
142. In one instance, a well known Baghdadi jurist Muhammad ibn ‘Abdalbaqi (d. 535/1141) was known as qadi l-maristan. This nickname may have resulted from his supervision of a local hospital—or simply from the district in which he lived, Suq al-Maristan. See Heinrich Schutzinger, “Der Qadi l-Maristan,’ Die Welt des Islams, 18 (1978), 108.
143. Emile Tyan, Histore de l’organisation judiciaire en pays d’Islam (Annales de l’Universite de Lyon, 3rd ser., 2; Lyon, 1943), 29–31.
144. Patricia Crone, Roman, Provincial and Islamic Law: The Origins of the Islamic Patronate (Cambridge, 1987), 112 n. 25.
145. Ibid. 42, 93.
146. Bruns and Sachau, eds. Syrisch-Romisches Rechtsbuch, paragraphs 5–8, 32, 34, 90. A distinction is made between a tutor and a guardian. Moreover, there is voluntary and compulsory exemption from these two responsibilities: doctors and learned men ‘who are in the cities and the countryside … are not compelled to be tutors or curators for orphans because the doctors heal the body and the learned the soul; and soldiers, and government officials are not permitted to be tutors or curators. Otherwise, the law says that a man with less than five should be a guardian for orphans.
147. Ignaz Goldziher, Introduction to Islamic Theology and Law, trans. Andras and Ruth Hamori (Princeton, NJ, 1981), 42. See also SEI, s.v. Niya; Schacht, Introduction, 116–18.