Open AccessDar al-Islam / Dar al-Harb: Categories of Space in Medieval Islam
Author(s) -
Vasiltsov Konstantin Sergeevich,
Ethnography Sb Rаs
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
islamovedenie
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
eISSN - 2411-0302
pISSN - 2077-8155
DOI - 10.21779/2077-8155-2020-11-4-69-80
Subject(s) - islam , politics , arabic , space (punctuation) , history , sharia , sociology , law , religious studies , political science , philosophy , archaeology , linguistics
The article deals with some issues related to the conception of space/territory in medieval Islam. At the turn of XX–XXI centuries within the framework of various humanitarian disci-plines has been widely discussed a new understanding of space which came to be realized as a heterogeneous social and cultural phenomenon, reflecting political, legal and social norms spe-cific to a particular culture. At the first centuries of the history of Islam there appeared the idea of two geo-religious regions: Dar al-Islam ("Territory of Islam") and Dar al-Harb (Territory of war) or otherwise Dar al-Kufr ("Territory of unbelief"). On the one hand, these concepts reflect the real boundaries of the Muslim / non-Muslim world and the criteria by which those belonging to it were determined, and at the same time it contains an indication of certain non-spatial cultur-al symbols, categories and values. Special attention here is paid to the history of the origin and evolution of the concepts Dar al-Islam / Dar al-Harb (both in sunni and shi‘ite traditions) repre-sented in the foundational texts of Islam, medieval Arabic dictionaries, travelogues, and essays on Islamic law (fiqh).