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Islām al-kāfir fÄ« ḥāl al-juá¹­ba: sobre la conversión de los “infieles” al Islam durante el sermón del viernes en el Egipto mameluco

2012; Spanish National Research Council; Volume: 42; Issue: 1 Linguagem: Espanhol

10.3989/aem.2012.42.1.03

1988-4230

Linda G. Jones,

Historical and Linguistic Studies

Ibn al-Hajj al-'Abdari a Maliki jurist in Mamluk Cairo, denounced a religious "innovation" (bid'a) that had apparently become current in fourteenthcentury Egypt: "Infi dels" would interrupt the Muslim Friday sermon in order to profess or reiterate their conversion to Islam before the entire congregation.Ibn al-Hajj urged preachers not to tolerate such interruptions under any circumstances, a posture that seems at odd with Mamluk policy of inducing such conversions especially among the Coptic community.The Maliki jurist's legal arguments furnish new insights into the hitherto unexplored role of the Friday liturgical sermon in the conversion to Islam.This article will explain the legal basis of Ibn al-Hajj's opposition to this practice, propose some explanations for the motivations behind the would-be convert's interruption of the sermon, and relate this phenomenon to the historical context of tense Muslim-Christian relations in fourteenth-century Mamluk Egypt.