‘Hind Bint, Utba and the Construction of Jahiliyya’ at AUB

Under the auspices of its new Islamic Studies program, CAMES is pleased to announce the launching of the research forum, ‘Majãlis in Islamic Studies.’ The forum draws together interested scholars, faculty and students in and around AUB and Beirut whose research intersects with themes in Islamic studies, and provides a space to share works in progress or recently completed, and to discuss common interests and concerns. AUB would like to invite you all to join them for stimulating discussions.

First presentation is entitled ‘Hind Bint, Utba and the Construction of Jahiliyya’ by AUB Professor Nadia Cheikh.

Abstract: The ruptures that are consigned to the rise of Islam have been represented in Islamic historiography as having been fundamental. Historians have pointed that the pre-Islamic period served as “a historical, ideological, and ethical counterpoint, to the Islamic ethos.” The people of jahiliyya functioned, thus, as a signifier of a new Muslim identity, one that could not exist without the constant remembering and retelling of the story of jahiliyya. Abbasid rhetoric relied upon the concept of jahiliyya, which supplied it with the image of the common past as well as an ulterior mode of existence against which the Abbasids could define themselves. The representation of Hind bint ‘Utba in the Abbasid texts provides a case study that needs to be reexamined within this context. Hind bint ‘Utba is the jahiliyya woman par excellence and the material on her provides an example of contrasts that contribute to the depiction of difference between Islamic values and those of the cultural system that existed before. Hind’s behavior, as it was portrayed in the Abbasid texts, seems to constitute a prototype of jahiliyya behavior. It is an intentional construction, and tracing it allows us to begin to understand the elaboration of the jahiliyya concept.

Location: Seminar Room, Building 37