ABSTRACT

Zoroastrian menstrual purity laws served as one of the most salient markers of socio-religious distinction during the tumultuous early centuries of Islamic rule in the Iranian world. This article surveys Islamic polemics – particularly by the Muʿtazilah—directed against these Zoroastrian strictures on bodily purity and reads them intertextually, as it were, in conjunction with Pahlavi apologetic texts that defend the sanctity of these millennia-old practices. It is argued that the Zoroastrian scholar-priests were responding directly to the charges levelled against them by their Muslim counterparts, clearly suggesting that both theology and jurisprudence were produced through inter-confessional debate and dialogue, much as we find in the better-studied cases of Christian-Islamic interactions.

摘要

琐罗亚斯德教的月经纯度法是伊朗世界伊斯兰统治早期几个世纪动荡的社会宗教区别的最显着标志之一。本文调查了伊斯兰教的论战——尤其是穆塔兹拉（Muʿtazilah）——针对这些琐罗亚斯德教对身体纯洁的限制，并结合巴列维的护教文本，将它们互文地阅读，这些文本捍卫这些数千年前的做法的神圣性。有人争辩说，琐罗亚斯德教的学者牧师直接回应了他们的穆斯林同行对他们提出的指控，这清楚地表明神学和法学都是通过教派间的辩论和对话产生的，就像我们在更深入研究的案例中发现的那样基督教与伊斯兰教的互动。