Eunuchs and Sacred Space in Islam, pt. 1

[JesusA (imported)]

One of the important roles for eunuchs in traditional Moslem society was as guardians of the tombs of the dead. Shaun Marmon's book, Eunuchs and Sacred Boundaries in Islamic Society (1995, Oxford University Press) discusses this, along with other roles of eunuchs. I will quote below some long passages relating to this guardianship of the dead. In transliteration from Arabic script, it is usual to use the macron (long mark) on certain vowels. Because of the vagaries of some browsers, I have opted to double the vowel instead. E.g., "aa" represents a single "a" with a long mark in the normal transliteration, "uu" represents a single "u" with a long mark, etc.

One important location for eunuchs is as guardians of the tomb of the Prophet Mohammed. According to accounts which I have read, eunuchs were still being recruited for this role as recently as the late 1970s, and with the resurgence of chattel slavery in the Sudan and recent reports of young Afghan orphans being sold into slavery in the Middle East, recruiting may still be going on. It has, after all, only been a few years since Anti-Slavery International reported on the castration of slave boys in the Sudan (though for domestic use).

"In the literature of the cult of the Prophet, a great emphasis is placed on the 'hadiith' (tradition) which indicates that the Prophet is, in fact, still resident in his tomb/household. His body is incorruptible, 'for the worms dare not consume the bodies of martyrs.' His 'baraka,' the essence of his prophetic charisma, is very much alive in his tomb and infuses the entire sanctuary. On occasion he even returns the greeting of peace to pious men who visit his tomb/dwelling (hujra). The Prophet's death, in time, is not denied. But within his tomb and in the area immediately surrounding it, time is suspended. The sphere of 'baraka' becomes the sphere of no-time.

"Eunuchs, given their peculiar qualities as a human category, were particularly well suited to serve within this atemporal zone. Like most people of slave origin, eunuchs had been violently uprooted from their past. Their biological parents had been erased along with the names those parents had given them. The anonymity of the patronymic of the first-generation slave, 'ibn 'Abd Allaah,' 'son of the slave of God,' underscores the complete separation from one's parents and ancestors which was in theory a necessary aspect of the 'death' of enslavement. The destruction of the past was the first stage in a process of socialization which all slaves - male, female, and eunuch - underwent, and from which many would be 'resurrected' through manumission to a new Muslim identity. For the eunuch, however, the 'death' of enslavement suffered as a child was succeeded almost immediately by castration. If he survived the physical trauma of the operation, he would enter the Islamic world as a member of an unusual category, removed from the normal cycle of human maturation and deprived of a biological future.

"Islamic law divides the life cycle of the individual according to various stages of maturity. The most important moment of the cycle by far is puberty, or 'buluugh' (lit. 'readiness,' 'ripeness'), the physical transformation of the child into a 'complete man' (rajul kaamil) or a 'complete woman' (mar'a kaamila), that is, a person with a set sexual identity who is capable of playing his or her appropriate role in society. Once a person is pubescent (baaligh/baaligha), he or she crosses over the boundary between child and adult and takes on a new legal, moral, and social identity. The signs of 'buluugh' are the physical signs of sexual maturity: the growth of pubic hair, menarche, and the development of breasts in girls; nocturnal emissions, pubic hair, and facial hair in boys.

"The eunuch, castrated before adolescence, would never go through the change of 'buluugh.' Because Islamic law, like most sophisticated systems of jurisprudence, also recognized another standard of competence, intellectual maturity (rushd", the free adult eunuch was not condemned to a perpetual state of legal infancy but possessed full legal capacity in most areas of the law. In strictly legal terms a eunuch could thus be 'rashiid' (mentally competent), but, on a more profound level, he could never be 'kaamil' (complete). Within his own lifetime he was condemned to a strange kind of physical stasis. If he survived the painful urinary tract infections from which eunuchs often suffered, he would grow old as all men grow old. But the aging process would not manifest itself in the cycle of physical changes of 'complete' men, the progression from beardless boy (amrad) to black-bearded adult, to white-bearded old man. His oddly distorted body, warped by hormonal deprivation, would not age like the bodies of uncastrated men but would only become more wasted and cadaverous with time.

[JesusA (imported)]

I just ran across a brief note by Ahmad 'Abd al-Rahim Nasr, a Sudanese scholar, that he published in 2001. He interviewed the eunuchs of Medina in 1986 and reported that the youngest of them had been recruited in 1984. He thought that he would probably be the last eunuch produced to guard the sacred spaces of Islam.

[Francis (imported)]

Interesting. We keep seeing ocasional notes in the press that suggest that eunuchs are still being produced in some countries (I am trying to be non- judgemental here) I suspect that some are coerced and have not had the choice but I think many are pursuaded by religious belief into some of the guardian positions mentioned in your article. I wondered if there is a term for a post pubescent eunuch in their heirarchy? I gather from your article that such a person would not be considered pure enough for the duties described. There was an article somewhere that was posted by a doctor working in Saudi who was doing castrations for them because the alternative of the local practice was too primitive and resulted in serious infection and scarring as well as a significant fatality rate. He suggested that the candidates were younger (prepubescent) and were willing to become eunuchs for religious reasons. I have no way of telling if it was truth or fiction but it had the ring of truth to it.

I think that it is likely still to be discreetly practiced by conservative traditional societies in that area

[JesusA (imported)]

I’ve been on the road and without adequate access to the Internet. When I got home, I found an automated message from the Archive about a post on this moderated board. Unfortunately, the post itself seems to have disappeared before I could validate it, but here is a cut-and-paste of what was sent to me:

micropenis has just posted in the Non-Fiction Articles forum of Eunuch Archive Message Boards under the title of Eunuchs and Sacred Space in Islam, pt. 1.

Here is the message that has just been posted:

***************

I don't know, but I've been told...

I spoke with a veteran of the armed forces who was stationed in Kuwait between both Iraq wars. He told me that Kuwait was like the gay capital of the Middle East. He said that some of the wealthy shieks there have what he described as harems of eunuchs. It is some sort of wealthy status symbol over there.

[Paolo]

Sorry,

I should have been checking that while you were gone, Jesus, but this short little loud thing had my attention...

[Lesley (imported)]

Eunuchs and the transgender have been associated with spitual matters since ancient history.

The Egyptian goddess Isis had eunuch priests to attend to her. The Greeks had a deity that could only be ministered to through eunuch priests. To be a priest meant that you had to be a eunuch as well.

The Indian transgender community know as the Hydja’s (A corruption of the Greek Hydra or it could be the other way around.) are associated with fertility and are a part of a traditional Hindu marriage. My Indians ask Hydjas for blessings.

In Baroque Italy, the Castrati tradition developed from the Popes choirs, where girl sopranos were not allowed. Females were not considered close enough to god.

Many posts in this forum express a desire to be gelded in a ritual, that I can only assume goes back to primal memories of associating the gelded with the spiritually pure. I suspect that many wish for castration in an effort to break away from the eathly realms.