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The Khuffayn in Sunni Muslim Ritual Thought: A Brief Overview
Abstract by Mr. Hamza Dudgeon On Session 076  (Topics in Islamic Ritual Law)

On Friday, November 16 at 1:30 pm

2018 Annual Meeting

Abstract
Typically Islamic footwear is not casual conversation that one might have in the elevator, even amongst Islamic Studies academics. Slippers, leather socks, boots, moccasins, or whatever one may want to call them, the khuffayn are generally regarded as no more than a footnote by academics. Often, it is merely gleamed over as a mundane snipped of ?ah?ra (purity), and not deeply investigated. The reality is that the issue of footwear in medieval and contemporary Islam is surrounded by nuanced discussion and debate. Investigating the Qu’ran, medieval ?ad?th literature, various books of ?Ibad?t, and theological treatises, I discovered that not only do the khuffayn have legal ramifications, but also creedal. Some of the books examined are the ?a???ayn, Sham??il Tirmidhi, Kit?b al-?th?r of Ab? ?an?fa, The Muwa????, The Musnad of Imam Sh?fi??, al-?Aq?da a?-?a??w?ya, Ab? ?an?fa’s al-Fiqh al-Akbar, and so on. The mass mention of the khuffayn indicates that it was an important topic to the authors writing it down. I wanted to know what exactly the physical khuff was? And how Sunni Muslims conceptualized footwear’s legal and theological implications from the medieval period until now? Through analyzing the medieval passages that I used, it became apparent that in the early period, the khuffayn were never physically described. They were so common that the reader was assumed to be quite familiar with the footwear. In the stipulations of the jurists as to what components the khuffayn may consist of, or what basic elements constitutes a khuff, we are able to paint a partial picture as to what they might’ve been. Furthermore, in the later medieval period (11th - 17th centuries) we start to see more of a physical description of the khuffayn. The descriptions indicate that the khuffayn were probably a type of leather moccasin-boots, which had some universality in the Near East, and even East Africa. It is not until the 19th century that footwear besides the khuffayn and Jarm?q (galosh) are mentioned. Shoes appear in the ?anaf? encyclopedic text ??shiya Ibn ??bid?n. Contemporary Sunnis think about footwear and purity in a very different way. I demonstrate through contemporary texts how late Sunni Traditionalists, and different revisionist groups conceive of modern footwear, both legally and theologically, which often diverges significantly from medieval conceptualizations.
Discipline
Religious Studies/Theology
Geographic Area
Islamic World
Sub Area
Islamic Law