Salafism is a global religious movement whose male participants often distinguish themselves from their co-religionists by a particular style of facial hair. Historians have focused largely on this movement’s engagement with questions of theology and politics, while anthropologists have assumed that Salafi practice reflects a longer Islamic tradition. In this article, I move beyond both approaches by tracing the gradual formation of a distinctly Salafi beard in the 20th century Middle East. Drawing on Salafi scholarly compendia, leading journals, popular pamphlets, and daily newspapers produced primarily in Egypt and Saudi Arabia, I argue that Salafi elites revived a longer Islamic legal tradition in order to distinguish their flock from secular nationalist projects of communal identity and Islamic activists alike. In doing so, I cast light on Salafism’s interpretative approach, the dynamics that define its development as a social movement, and the broader significance of visual markers in modern projects of Islamic piety.

萨拉菲主义是一项全球性的宗教运动，其男性参与者经常通过一种特殊的面部发型与自己的共同宗教主义者脱颖而出。历史学家在很大程度上集中于该运动对神学和政治问题的参与，而人类学家则认为萨拉菲的实践反映了更长的伊斯兰传统。在本文中，我将通过追溯20世纪中东独特的萨拉菲胡须的逐渐形成来超越这两种方法。我认为，萨拉菲（Salafi）学术著作，主要在埃及和沙特阿拉伯生产的主要期刊，流行的小册子和日报均会借鉴萨拉菲（Salafi）精英，以复兴其更长的伊斯兰法律传统，以便将其羊群与世俗的民族主义民族认同计划和伊斯兰激进主义者区分开来。一样。在这样做，