“[The Jews’] Hands Shall be Shackled and They Shall be Cursed” (Quran 5.64): Carceral State Logic and its Non-Muslim Victims in Medieval Egypt

• In Event: Works-in-Progress Group in Jewish Studies

Abstract

Non-Muslims (dhimmīs) in the medieval Islamic world—like ethnic and racial minorities in our society today—were incarcerated at much higher rates than their privileged neighbors. Religious minorities also suffered disproportionately at the hands of state police. Jews and Christians in medieval Egypt were imprisoned for many reasons, including failing to pay the discriminatory tax (jizyah) imposed on non-Muslims; engaging in sexual relations with Muslim women; “insulting” Islam; and being “immodest” in their displays of wealth or power. This paper contrasts accounts of mass incarceration of Jews in Cairo Genizah documents and Arabic state chronicles to reveal Muslim state actors’ ideological investments in incarcerating non-Muslims. In doing so, the paper also illuminates the real world consequences of carceral state ideology for medieval Jews and Christians in the Near East.

Author

• Brendan G Goldman, University of Washington