Hauptinhalt

A convert and his daughters: What did it mean to be 'Jewish' or 'Muslim' in 12th-century Baghdad?

Vortrag

Veranstaltungsdaten

Multiple stories are told about the conversion to Islam of a Jewish physician, Abū al-Barakāt al-Baghdādī (physician, ca. 1077-ca. 1165). The basics seem clear: the biographers agree that he was at first Jewish and became Muslim after he was already established at the ruler's court. But what was it that made him "Jewish" beforehand and "Muslim" afterwards? Sarah Stroumsa has characterized conversion as a "broad spectrum of choices" and as a process rather than a moment. Which choices could Abū al-Barakāt make about his own religious affiliation, and which ones were available to his three daughters? In this presentation, I will investigate the case of Abū al-Barakāt in order to probe the social, linguistic, legal, and ethnic dimensions of conversion in medieval Baghdad.

"Physician Preparing an Elixir" (ink, opaque watercolor, and gold on paper), Folio from a Materia Medica of Dioscorides in the translation by 'Abdullah ibn al-Fadl (dated 621 AH/1224 CE Iraq or Northern Jazira, possibly Baghdad), Object Number: 13.152.6, public domain, https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/446288.