ʿUmar ii and the Prohibition of Ṭilāʾ and Nabīdh

Abstract

Abstract Following a brief introduction, this article has two parts and an appendix. In the first part, I examine the passage prohibiting intoxicating ṭilāʾ (cooked grape juice) in the “fiscal rescript” attributed to ʿUmar ii (d. 101/720) by Ibn ʿAbd al-Ḥakam (d. 214/829). I argue that this passage’s core goes back to an edict of ʿUmar ii that is no longer extant. I suggest that ʿUmar ii issued the prohibition following an earthquake that devastated Syria because he feared that the drinkers of intoxicants would cause a similar catastrophe to befall all Muslims. I situate ʿUmar ii’s prohibition within the early legal discussions about ṭilāʾ. In the second part, I analyze a group of edicts prohibiting nabīdh (date wine) that are attributed to ʿUmar ii. I conclude that the edicts are pseudepigraphical. In the appendix, I trace the transmission history of a tradition attributed to al-Shaʿbī about a missive of Umar I concerning ṭilāʾ.