Dr Christian Lange speaks at AKU-ISMC – Public and Private in Medieval Islamic Criminal Law

Dr Christian Lange presented a lunch hour seminar at AKU-ISMC entitled, Public and Private in Medieval Islamic Criminal Law.

On the 16th of April Dr Christian Lange presented a lunch hour seminar at AKU-ISMC entitled, Public and Private in Medieval Islamic Criminal Law. During the seminar he introduced his book Justice, Punishment and the Medieval Muslim Imagination (Cambridge University Press, 2008) which examines the construction of the category of "punishment" across a number of genres in late medieval Islamic societies.

Lange is Lecturer of Islamic Studies at the School of Divinity, Edinburgh University and his research combines the study of Arabic and Persian sources with his interest in the analytical categories and methodological approaches developed in the Study of Religion.

During his talk, Lange set out the concept of “punishment” in medieval Islam, focusing on the example of ignominious parading (Tashhir) to outline the major aspects of his research.

Lange’s talk paid close attention to the fact that state punishment in medieval Muslim societies was informed by a very clear definition between the public and private spheres. Further to this, Lange’s talk explored the administration of punitive justice and notions of eschatological punishment (punishment in the afterlife), in particular the Muslim imaginaire of Paradise and Hell.

Lange’s book focuses largely on the Seljuq dynasty, which ruled over large parts of Persia and Iraq from 1040 – 1190. The notion of punishment in pre-modern medieval Islamic societies, Lange explained, was a key regulatory mechanism of the kind of oppressive military regimes typical in this period.

Following Lange’s talk, a discussion was held which explored definitions of the public and private, notions of power and sanctioned violence.

“There is a broader notion that Islamic public law … was merely a theoretical smokescreen masking the real state of affairs on the ground. Curiously, at this point, the interest in punishment has tended to stop.”

Lange presented a number of types and institutions related to punishment in Seljuq society, of which he presented four basic types. “Firstly capital punishment … secondly corporal punishment … thirdly, imprisonment and banishment, and fourthly and importantly, shame punishment.”

In addition to this, Lange talked about those who, during this period, had the authority to punish - the Sultan; the judges; the police forces; and the market inspector. Lange explained that an important reason why a study of the pre-modern Islamic repressive state is required is that these practices illlustrate that violence is not an inherent part of Islam, but is a function of a power structure, something that is a part of all cultures.

Defining the meaning of the term justice as presented in his book, Lange explained that the notion of justice is relative – what is seen as an act of justice by some can be seen as an act of tyranny by others. Lange deals with three basic strategies to make sense of justice in the context of punishment. “That is the strategy or discourse of the ruling elite, that of the jurists and thirdly, that of the common people.”

Lange noted the difficulty in finding sources which express this, referring to conceptions of justice by the common people. This is due largely to the fact that most sources which still exist today were written or commissioned by the ruling classes.

Lange described the use of the notion of the imaginaire in his book, as described by French historian Jacques Le Goff, “a realm of ideas and concepts which does reflect a popular stratum of society.” The imaginaire of punishment, Lange argues, is expressed in the eschatological tradition of Islam – especially in tales of hell, as well as other people’s dream visions about hell. These imaginary notions of punishment in the hereafter helped common people to understand the rather unsettling notion of legal violence as enacted by the state.

Lange referred to the punishment of ignominious parading and explained his view that this is a key to understanding medieval punitive practices. Lange showed the audience an Ottoman miniature image of the punishment from the early 15th century, which outlines the main elements of the punishment.

“The common elements of this punishment [as seen in this image] are that you have the criminal sitting on a donkey facing backwards, with a funny conical hat on, paraded through the city as the whole population of the city seems to be looking on.”

Lange explained that the use of ignominious parading as a punishment expressed the fact that the punitive powers of the state were inscribed onto the private lives of the condemned. This very public punishment underlined the sovereign’s right to punish all those who transgressed the social status quo. Lange stressed the importance of ignominious parading as a punishment which behaves as a ritual strongly marking the public/private divide. Noting the role of the onlookers in the image, Lange suggested that the idea of ignominious parading plays heavily with the transgression of the public and private boundaries. The success of the punishment can be attributed to the reversal of the public and private realms, with the normally protected private sphere ‘invaded’ if social norms were not adhered to.

Further elaborating on the viewpoint of the common people, Lange suggested that the punishment of ignominious parading also had a very strong religious component. A link between punishment in this world, and punishment in the next, for example, can be drawn between the shame suffered by the victim on the day of ignominy, and that suffered on the day of judgment (before God in hell).

Lange ended by expressing the complexity of rituals of violence in terms of justice in medieval Islamic societies, which draws on notions of the public and private, as well as, punishment in the afterlife. The important point, Lange said, is to note who had the both the authority and the means to comprehend violence as legally sanctioned by the state.

Following Lange’s talk, a discussion was held which explored definitions of the public and private, notions of power and sanctioned violence as well as questions regarding the origin and development of ignominious parading as a form of punishment.

Online Resources*

• To listen to a recording (wma) of the seminar, please click here.

External Links**

• Dr Christian Lange's profile page (University of Edinburgh)
• Justice, Punishment and the Medieval Muslim Imagination (Publisher's website)

* This recording is the property of Aga Khan University (International) in the United Kingdom. You may not copy, reproduce, republish, download, post, broadcast, or otherwise use this recording in any way except for your own educational or personal non-commercial use. The views expressed by the speakers are their own personal views and do not necessarily reflect those of the Institute.

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