Belief as Status: Premodern Islamic Law, Duties, and the Martyr Conundrum.

This article examines the central role of belief status in shaping duties and social hierarchies within premodern Islamic legal tradition, focusing on juristic discourse from the fifth/sixth Islamic centuries (eleventh/twelfth centuries CE) in Cordoba and Baghdad. It highlights how belief, rather than territorial or secular markers like citizenship, defined inclusion in the moral community and determined legal obligations, especially in contexts such as warfare and martyrdom. The discussion of funerary duties owed to martyrs illustrates jurists' efforts to reconcile practical wartime necessities with preserving the sacred status of martyrs, who, despite receiving fewer rites, were considered spiritually elevated. The article argues for expanding conventional understandings of status beyond secular frameworks to include belief as a dynamic and foundational criterion for membership and responsibility within Islamic polities.