Title:
Eunuchs and sacred boundaries in Islamic society
Personal Author:
Publication Information:
New York : Oxford University Press, 1995
ISBN:
9780195071016
Available:*
Library | Item Barcode | Call Number | Material Type | Item Category 1 | Status |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Searching... | 30000003163197 | HQ449.M27 1995 | Open Access Book | Book | Searching... |
On Order
Summary
Summary
In this thought-provoking interdisciplinary work, Shaun Marmon describes how eunuchs, as a category of people who embodied ambiguity, both defined and mediated critical thresholds of moral and physical space in the household, in the palace and in the tomb of pre-modern Islamic society. The author's central focus is on the sacred society of eunuchs who guarded the tomb of the Prophet Muhammad in Medina for over six centuries and whose last representatives still perform many of their time honored rituals to this day. Through Marmon's account, the "sacred" eunuchs of Medina become historical guides into uncharted dimensions of Islamic ritual, political symbolism, social order, gender and time.
Author Notes
Shaun Marmon is at Princeton University.
Table of Contents
1 Cairo: Eunuchs and Sacred Boundaries | p. 3 |
2 Madina: Sultan and Prophet | p. 31 |
3 More Exalted Than the Service of Kings | p. 55 |
4 Eunuchs, Children, and Time | p. 79 |
5 The Longue Duree of the Eunuchs of the Prophet | p. 93 |
Notes | p. 113 |
Index | p. 151 |