The Qurʾān speaks of crucifixion (ṣalb) in many contexts—the confrontation of Moses with Pharaoh, the (thwarted) execution of Jesus, and even as a penalty for brigandage. But what did the notion of ‘crucifixion’ mean in the historical context of the Qurʾān’s emergence in Late Antiquity, and what kinds of punitive practices did it entail? Was it a revival of the Roman practice ostensibly banned by Constantine, or something else altogether? This talk investigates such questions and explores how early Muslim jurists conceived of the quranic penalty of crucifixion and how they circumscribed the conditions of its use by rulers in the early Islamic polity.
Sean Anthony (PhD University of Chicago) is Assistant Professor of History at the University of Oregon. He is the author of The Caliph and the Heretic: Ibn Saba’ and the Origins of Shi‘ism (Brill 2012), Crucifixion and the Spectacle of Death: Umayyad Crucifixion in Its Late Antique Context (2014), and the edition and translation of Ma‘mar ibn Rashid al-Azdi’s The Expeditions (Kitab al-Maghazi): An Early Biography of Muhammad (2014).
