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New Evidence for the Survival of Libertine Rites among Some Nusayri 'Alawis of the Nineteenth Century
Abstract
Claims that the Shiite ghulat engage in sexually libertine rituals are almost de rigueur in the Islamic firaq literature. Meant to convey the moral depravity of the ghulat, these charges have generally been dismissed by modern scholars as polemical slander. However, in her forthcoming book The Nativist Prophets of Early Islamic Iran, Patricia Crone begins to deconstruct this assumption by pointing to actual social customs that underlie the sensationalized accounts of the heresiographers. This paper continues in this vein by presenting the first internal evidence in a ghulat text of what the heresiographers called ibahat al-nisa'. This text is a newly discovered nineteenth century Nusayri -'Alawi manuscript that provides explicit instructions and theological rationale for the practices of guest prostitution, wife sharing, and the orgiastic night. After determining the authenticity of this text, we will discuss its implications for our understanding of the concept of ibaha and for our reading of heresiographical texts in general.
Discipline
History
Geographic Area
Syria
Sub Area
Gender/Women's Studies