A single scholar’s fatwa circulated among Spanish Muslims for over sixty years

Evidence

A fatwa is an opinion emitted by an individual scholar and has the authority of that scholar. In the case of the Oran fatwa of 1504, the scholar in question is only known to us from just this one text, yet his opinion clearly did enjoy wide currency among the Muslims of Spain, for translations of it survive in three aljamiado manuscripts now preserved in three libraries. One of the translations bears the date 1564 [?]. This date is certainly not the date of the original, as has sometimes been mistakenly assumed, but it is positive evidence that over six decades the fatwa continued to circulate and be of importance to the Moriscos. — L. P. Harvey, Muslims in Spain, 1500 to 1614, 342

Categorization

• SHARE: A dated manuscript proves a legal opinion circulated 60+ years after it was issued — good detail for a friend into Islamic legal history.