I went to the doctor Thursday and took a couple shots... to my immune system. I was sick as a dog that night and as dog-tired yesterday. I didn't see anything worth blogging, sufficient to surmount that rheumatism. (I may end up backdating some stuff back then anyway.) I am much better today... although a windstorm is raging outside and they're threatening to cut off my power. So: quickpoast, 'Âisha.
Jonathan A.C. Brown thinks the tradition of 'Âisha's marriage is authentic back to the Mother Of The Believers herself. Robert Spencer agrees; and why not, since if Dr. Brown did not exist, Spencer would have to invent him. Joshua J Little, not a Dr. Little at the time, argues against the 'Âisha tradition.
Little-as-Dr., having redefined Islam, now considers himself an "ex-islamophobe" and indeed an anti-islamophobe. Spencer won't permit Little to do that. Islam's motte is sura 4. If your hands possess it - and mâ is neuter - do what thou wilt.
From my experience of Spencer's attitude, if he doesn't like the man he won't approve the scholarship. And I doubt Spencer has spent much time with Little's 546 pages, any more that he's read Brown's own Canonization (which I have read, and recommend). BUT: Spencer has become (perhaps perforce) a decent judge of character. And Little has every motivation to slither around Islam's implications; why choose the life of a public 'phobe.
Back to the 'Âisha tradition, Little several years ago had written a thesis which argued for a Zubayrid origin. Whether or not 'Âisha consummated the marriage, her followers treated her as the Prophet's bride - and her allies at her peak included the patriarch Zubayr, whose sons will revive 'Umar's caliphate but from Mecca itself. That thesis earned for Little, his Master's. I had independently come to a similar conclusion, as of 2017; although of course not submitting it for peer-review. It was my position to blame 'Âisha as a politician; until 'Ali put paid to her adventure, and Mu'awiya made impossible future adventures, after which she was just an aging liar. My counter to objections that her minions made all this up would be simple: what quality of woman attracts dishonest (and violent) men. If this be impressionistic, and not remotely as scholarly as Little; as of 2017, I felt I had more important things to do.
Little's PhD thesis proposes, against Little, that the origin is not Zubayrid - but 'Iraqi. Her nine years of age may even owe something to Sasanian law, which (then) was hardly more enlightened than Islam.
It's... a thesis. It deserves taking seriously. That Little's mentor was Christopher Melchert should be enough for most of us.
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