Islamic Law and Linguistics Solecisms: A Case of ‘Insulting the Prophet’ in Late 10th/16th-Century West Africa
Abstract
A passage in the West African chronicle Tārīkh al-fattāsh recounts a tenth-/sixteenth-century case of a mosque attendant in Timbuktu having been executed for an absurdly faulty reading of a single word in a celebrated Arabic panegyric on the Prophet, al-Fāzāzī’s ʿIshrīniyyāt . In addition to presenting and analysing this instructive case of unintentional sabb al-rasūl (‘insulting the Prophet’), the essay discusses some of the juridical aspects of the incorrect use of Arabic, especially linguistic considerations affecting the sanctions against blasphemous and insulting utterances.
Fields of Study & Subjects
Islamic Thought and Society Studies
African Studies and Geopolitics
Linguistic
Cultural
and Literary Studies
Publication details
- Journal / source
- Acta Orientalia
- Volume
- 79
- Issue
- 1
- Pages
- 187–201
- Publication date
- 11 February 2026
- Language
- EN