Dhimma as Action Space: Conceptualizing the Protection Relationship Between Iman Yahya Hamid Al-Din (r. 1904-1948) and the Jews of Sanaa

Date
Mar 12, 2019, 12:00 pm1:30 pm
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Event Description

This talk introduces the concept of Dhimma-Space, a new approach to understanding the “protection” of non-Muslims under sharia law. Drawing from court documents, legal theory, and personal memoirs, it offers new insights into sharia governance in theory and practice as well as into the actual experiences of the dhimmis themselves.

Kerstin Hünefeld studied Islamic and Jewish Studies at Free University Berlin and the Hebrew University in Jerusalem. She received her PhD from Berlin’s Graduate School of Muslim Cultures and Societies, and was adjunct faculty member at the Department of Islamic Studies at Freie Universität Berlin. She studied Zaydī fiqh with a private teacher in Yemen, where she also conducted archival research. She was awarded a six-month post-doc stipend by the Islamic State University Sunan Kalijaga in Yogyiakarta, Indonesia. Dr. Hünefeld is currently is a post-doc fellow at the Herbert D. Katz Center for Advanced Judaic Studies (UPenn). From October 2019 she will be a post doctoral fellow at the Buber Society (Hebrew University, Jerusalem).

Her publications include a monograph on Imam Yahya and the Jews of Sanaa and several articles published in international journals that relate to Islamic law as it pertains to non-Muslims.