[Sca-cooks] Moslems and alcohol

[lilinah at earthlink.net]

>  > The range of utterly no alcohol to some alcohol so long as it isn't
>  > brewed from grapes, appears to have varied by sect. I'm not sure that
>  > there has been a loosening of the alcohol restriction over the years  in
>  > general. I believe that it is still forbidden to most Moslems.
>  >
>  > Stefan
>
>The prohibition on alcohol depends on interpretation of the religious law.
>The absolute prohibition is on "the fruit of the grape," so grape wines,
>brandies, etc. are completely prohibited, while other alcoholic beverages
>may or may not be permitted depending on the particular brand of Islam one
>follows and on how strictly one follows Islamic dietary laws.  The strictest
>adherents say that the prohibition applies to anything that alters the mind,
>which is part of the reason coffee and qhat were prohibited at one time.
>The best general rule is that alcohol is forbidden to Moslems.
>
>Bear

The "official" rules are important to know. But we are faced with an 
additional issue as students of history - and that is what people 
really did.

Let's say, for example, that we only study Christianity through the 
Bible (as a parallel to studying Islam via the Qur'an). We will then 
have one idea of who Christians were/are and what they did/do.

But if we look at the actual lives of Christians throughout history 
and in many different cultural areas, we will find that who 
Christians were/are and what Christians did/do is quite varied. 
Christians did not (and most still do not) scrupulously and literally 
follow the Bible, even if they say they do. Even literalists are 
quite selective as to which parts of the Bible they ignore - and it's 
not just an issue of different interpretations.

The same is true of Muslims. While it is true that "alcohol is 
forbidden to Moslems", whether or not Muslims within SCA-period drank 
alcohol is a completely different issue. I'm interested in what 
people did, not just what they were supposed to do or not do.

Let's look at some other Muslim laws: A literal interpretation of the 
Qur'an indicates that pictures of living beings, especially humans, 
is forbidden. And yet we have a wealth of art that includes or even 
features humans, from what is now Afghanistan to al-Andalus. The one 
place that representations of humans do not appear is in the Qur'an 
itself. Yet there are, outside of the Qur'an, paintings of the life 
of Muhammed and the Prophet is represented as a normal human (and 
this is in several cultures, not just one) - the one fairly 
consistent hedge is that he is painted with a small rectangle of 
cloth covering his face from forehead to chin.

In studying the Islamic world - and especially foodways, hospitality, 
and entertaining - it is clear that wine was commonly used by many in 
the upper classes and among intellectuals and artists. There are 
clear unveiled non-metaphorical references to wine and wine drinking 
in many parts of Dar al-Islam.

Now, many modern converts have complained that historical references 
to alcohol-imbibing Muslims are just falsehoods spread by non-Muslims 
trying to slander Islam. Or that such references are due to faulty 
translations or even intentional errors by non-Muslims, yet many of 
the texts i'm reading have Muslims as translators.

In fact, the actual and the ideal do not always match. I suspect that 
some of our tiptoeing around this issue is due to several factors. 
One is our desire not to be offensive to actual Muslims. Another is 
the fact that most of us are not Muslims. And a third is that most of 
us have not studied this issue deeply.

I am not a Muslim, i don't intend to offend Muslims, and i have not 
studied this issue to the fullest extent - i'm still studying. But it 
is clear that some Muslims drank alcohol - some very important 
Muslims, such as the highest classes in Persia, and the ruling class 
and Janissaries in the Ottoman Empire - and some to excess within SCA 
period.

Let me note here that i am myself not much of a drinker. In the 
course of a year i may have a few sips of alcoholic beverages in 
toasts at weddings, anniversary parties, and similar celebrations. 
And i may have a few - and i mean, maybe 2 or 3 - entire glasses full 
of some mixed drinks in the course of a year. So my comments are not 
an excuse for me to drink alcohol.

Before the Almohads invaded, wine was a common beverage openly drunk 
in al-Andalus by all classes and religions. And i've been reading 
Andalusian poetry which is clearly not metaphorical discussing 
drinking wine.

There are many paintings of pitchers and cups of wine in Persian art 
- ok, no absolute proof, but i'm skeptical that all those wine 
colored beverages are merely wine-dark sharbats. Europeans travelling 
in Persia in the 16th and 17th centuries were shocked that the 
Persians they met - generally high level officials - drank 
*undiluted* wine - and began drinking it in the morning. And in his 
own autobiography, Baybars, the Persian who became the first Moghul 
ruler, discusses his drinking, and there are paintings of him 
drunkenly riding his horse.

The Turks, especially the Ottomans, were known to drink alcohol 
(certainly not all of them, but many of them) and they appear to have 
a tradition of making and drinking non-grape alcoholic beverages as 
well.

And there is the clear probability within Dar al-Islam of non-grape 
based fermented beverages from fruits, honey, or palm sap.

Certainly, we cannot assume that Muslims generally ignored the 
injunction against drinking. And it is true that while grapes were 
grown by Muslims, wine was made and sold by non-Muslims - there were 
laws to this affect in many polities that were actually enforced 
(many laws were made that were not). But it is clear that wine was 
not unknown in the Muslim world as a beverage of some prominent, and 
not so prominent, Muslims.
-- 
Urtatim (that's err-tah-TEEM)
the persona formerly known as Anahita