“There is no harm in it”: Muslim Participation in Levantine Christian Religious Festivals (750–1000)

Abstract

ABSTRACT This article explores early Muslim participation in local and large Christian festivals through the lens of two discussions within a tenth-century legal responsa, the Ahl al-milal. The local festivals of Job at Dayr Ayyūb and the Epiphany at Ṭūr Tabūr, as well as the larger festivals of Palm Sunday, Holy Fire and Easter, provide evidence of shared attendance at festivals in the ʿAbbāsid period (750–1000). Islamic, and some Christian, legal, literary and geographical literature presents these events as Christian celebrations with shared narratives of venerated figures, which involved both practical and enjoyable aspects. Although the sharing of these celebrations was a common factor, there was a diversity in local practices. A trend developed amongst Muslim attendees to limit their participation to the market and activities outside the church building in some areas of the Levant, but not in Jerusalem. This seems to have occurred spontaneously in some areas and was not specifically due to a ruling by a jurist.