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HDS 3613

Religious Texts From the Eleventh to Fourteenth Centuries on Power and Property

Baber Johansen

Description

The relation between power, gender and property in Islamic religious and legal texts from the eleventh to the fourteenth century is at the center of this course. We will analyze different concepts of property and ownership, and distinguish between property and other titles of control and disposition. We will use the distinction between licit and illicit objects of property as a means to establish the limits of property rights and as an indicator of the composite character of the property rules. Special attention will be paid to the question why the marriage tie between husband and wife is considered as a "property" in the hands of the husband, and why this terminology is apt to misguide the interpretation of the occidental reader. The course will focus on the integrative force of property and ownership in the field of social and political relations. Muslims and non-Muslims, men, women, and children are proprietors. The category of property thus tends to transcend gender and religion as a unifying category and to define the subjects of the law. Male and female slaves, non-proprietors par excellence, are reduced to a marginal (or instrumental) role in the field of legal transactions (mu'amalat) and to that of being gender-specific objects of property. The Muslim political authorities guarantee the property rights of their subjects. Property rights are seen as a factor that unites the members of the political community of Islam. The schools of Muslim law dissent on the question whether property rights enjoy only a territorially limited validity. The existence and recognition of the property rights of the non-Muslims who live under non-Muslim rule pose difficult problems Private property and ownership are characterized by the Muslim jurists as important factors in a religiously well ordered society. Belief in private property distinguishes law-abiding Muslims from heretics and from savage peoples.

Enrollment Limited: No
Open to BTI Students: Yes

Scheduling

Half Course
Not Offered 2009-10
Course times to be announced.
Location to be announced.

Relationship to Program Requirements

Program Requirement	Area / Category / Art / Designation
MTS Area(s) of Focus	Islamic Studies Religion, Ethics, and Politics
MDiv Distribution Category/ies	Islam
MDiv Art(s) of Ministry	none
ThM, pre-2007 MTS, and pre-2005 MDiv Area	Area 3
Language Course Designation(s)	n/a