Abstract
Islamic law’s gender system is based on a conception of humans as sexually dimorphic. The presence of nonbinary bodies, specifically the khunthā, posed a challenge to the gender system. Law practitioners, like ʿAbd al-Raḥīm al-Isnawī (d. 722/1322), attempted to redefine sex and intersexuality to stabilise the legal gender system. In an exploration of al-Isnawī’s writings, I argue that he engages in a form of object translation, following Marais’s typology of translation. Al-Isnawī incorporated the khunthā into the gender system by unravelling the challenge posed by their ambiguity onto Islamic law. This redefinition effectively defines them into impossibility by legal technicalities.
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