Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-t7czq Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-25T07:31:15.175Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Magian cheese: an archaic problem in Islamic law

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 December 2009

Michael Cook
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

One of the less prominent episodes associated with the conquest of Mecca in the year 8 is an encounter between the Arabian Prophet and a Persian cheese. A tradition quoted by Bayhaqī (d. 458) from Abū Dāwūd al-Ṭayālisī (d. 203) tells the story as follows: ‘When the Apostle of God conquered Mecca, he saw a cheese. He asked what it was; they told him that it was a foodstuff made in Persia (arḍ al-'Ajam). The Apostle of God responded: “Take a knife to it, invoke the name of God, and eat”.’ Similar encounters take place in Ṭā'if in the same year, in Tabūk in the following year, and at places and times unknown.

Type
Articles
Information
Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies , Volume 47 , Issue 3 , October 1984 , pp. 449 - 467
Copyright
Copyright © School of Oriental and African Studies 1984

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Ahlwardt, W.Verzeichniss der arabischen Handschriften der Königlichen Bibliothek zu Berlin, Berlin, 1887–1899Google Scholar
Böckenhoff, K.Speisesatzungen mosäischer Art in mittelalterlichen Kirchenrechtsquellen des Morgen- und Abendlandes, Münster, 1907Google Scholar
Boyce, M., A history of Zoroastrianism, I, Leiden and Cologne, 1975Google Scholar
Brock, S. P. ‘Christians in Sasanian Empire: a case of divided loyalties’, in Mews, S. (ed.), Religion and national identity (Studies in Church History, 18), Oxford, 1982Google Scholar
Brockelmann, C.Geschichte der Arabischen Litteratur, second edition, Leiden, 1943–9Google Scholar
Cook, M.Early Muslim dogma, Cambridge, 1981Google Scholar
Cook, M. ‘Early Islamic dietary law’, forthcoming in Jerusalem Studies in Arabic and IslamGoogle Scholar
Cook, P. and Cook, M.. Hagarism: the making of the Islamic world, Cambridge, 1977Google Scholar
Ennami, A. k. ‘A description of new Ibadi manuscripts from North Africa’, Journal of Semitic Studies, XV, 1, 1970, 63–87Google Scholar
Enṣiqlopediah Talmudit, Jerusalem, 5712–40/1951–1980Google Scholar
Hoffmann, G.Auszüge aus syrischen Akten persischer Märtyrer, Leipzig, 1880Google Scholar
Jastrow, M.A dictionary of the Targumim, the Talmud Babli and Yerushalmi, and the Midrashic literature, London and New York, 1903Google Scholar
Kister, M. J. review of Talb's, M. edition of Ṭurṭūshī's al.Ḥawādith wa'l-bida', Journal of Semitic Studies, 6, 1, 1961, 137–42Google Scholar
Kohlberg, E., ‘The position of Sunn‛s in Imāmī fiqh’, forthcoming in Jerusalem Studies in Arabic and IslamGoogle Scholar
Lane, E. W.An Arabic-English lexicom, London, 1863–1893Google Scholar
Liebermann, S.Hayerushalmi kiphshuto, part 1, I, Jerusalem, 5695/1934Google Scholar
Madelung, W.Der Imam al-Qāsim ibn Ibrāhīm und die Glaubenslehre der Zaiditen, Berlin, 1965CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Nau, F. ‘Littérature canonique syriaque inédite’, Revue de l'Orient Chrétien, 14, 1909Google Scholar
Schacht, J.The origins of Muhammadan jurisprudence, Oxford, 1950Google Scholar
Schacht, J. ‘Maita’, in Encyclopaedia of Islam, first edition Leiden and London, 1913–1934Google Scholar
Sezgin, F.Geschichte des arabischen Schrifttums, Leiden, 1967–Google Scholar
Speight, R. M ‘Attitudes toward Christians as revealed in the Musnad of al-Ṭayālisī, The Muslim World, LXIII, 4, 1973, 249–68Google Scholar