2019/10/01 by Matthew L. Keegan · 2 citations
Business, Management and Accounting · Social Sciences · #Islamic Finance and Banking Studies #Islamic Studies and History #Marriage and Sexual Relationships
paper · doi:10.1163/15685195-00260a10
openalex publication_date 2019/10/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/22
Abstract This article traces the emergence of compilations of a particular kind of legal riddle in the 8th/14th century, with special reference to the compilation of Ibn Farḥūn (d. 799/1397). Ibn Farḥūn’s riddles could be solved only by someone with detailed knowledge of Islamic positive law ( furūʿ ), and he argues that they are both an appropriate form of restful entertainment and a kind of competitive pedagogy. At the same time, Ibn Farḥūn derived novel legal opinions on the basis of his riddles, which demonstrates that jurists used hypothetical, imaginative situations to derive new rulings. The article also traces the origins of furūʿ -based legal riddles in the more diffuse tradition of Islamic riddling and in the adab tradition of riddling.