The Heretic Talks Back: Feigning Orthodoxy in Ṣaffār al-Qummī’s Baṣāʾir al-Darajāt (d. 902–3)

Abstract

In this essay I study a piece of early Islamic polemical literature concerned with accusations of libertinism—illicit sex, wine drinking, and other offenses—along with some unorthodox teachings. Through the study of this text, I explore the role of social context and configurations of power in the way premodern Islamic theological discourses have been formulated. In particular, I look at how, in a situation of power imbalance, members of a maligned minority group have pretended to renounce what the majority might have found offensive, while actually trying to renounce as little as possible.