Food Sources: Earth, Water, and Air - Food Culture and Health in Pre-Modern Islamic Societies - page 88

forbidden whether they are mammals
equipped with fangs ( £ u nāb ) or birds
provided with claws ( £ ū mi ¶ lab ); but it is
not universally accepted, and the Mālikīs
permit the eating of the flesh of birds of
prey, while the Awzāīs consider that no
bird is arām. All the jurisconsults regard
the cat, the dog, the wolf, the crocodile
etc. as arām , and travellers report with
disgust any cases of eating dogs which
they witness; the fox is generally consid-
ered as lawful, the jackal and the wild cat
are the subject of disagreement, and the
hyena is lawful, except for the Mālikīs,
who pronounce it makrūh. (The Prophet,
questioned on the lawfulness of the hyena,
is said to have replied: “But who eats
the hyena?”). The classification of the
elephant is disputed, for although it is a
herbivore, it possesses means of defence
which are termed nāb in Arabic.
According to another adī º the Prophet
is said to have forbidden the killing of
bees (because God made a revelation to
them), ants (for the same reason), frogs
(because they were close to God when the
Throne was upon the water and because
their croaking is a praise to God), hoopoes
(because of the part which one of them
played with Solomon), and finally the
urad (magpie) which was the first to fast;
it follows that it is also forbidden to eat
the flesh of these animals, although opin-
ions do not altogether agree on this. Swal-
lows and bats are the subjects of the same
prohibition because the Prophet forbade
the killing of them for similar reasons,
but the jurisconsults are far from agree-
ing on the authenticity of the adī º s about
them. Conversely, certain animals are
arām because the Prophet ordered them
to be killed for their impious conduct;
these fawāsi are the kite ( idāa ), the black
and white crow ( aba ), the scorpion, the
mouse and the aūr dog; the kite and the
dog are already included in another pro-

hibition; the other varieties of crow are
lawful, while the prohibition concerning
the mouse extends to all rodents with the
exception of the jerboa, which in any case
is sometimes classed among the a ª arāt
or insects, which are considered as arām ,
except by the Mālikīs; thus the scorpion
is already forbidden under this heading,
but the idea of a ª arāt is rather confused,
for among them is found the lizard (which
is alāl ) and the hedgehog ( alāl among
the · āfiīs); on the other hand, locusts,
which form a supplementary food for the
Bedouin, are not forbidden by any school,
even if found dead (this, with fish, is one
of the two maytas which according to one
adī º are lawful ). But some insist that they
must have been intentionally killed and
their heads cut off. (Yet against this may
be cited Alī, who is reputed to have said
kulhu kullahu “eat them all”, when shown
a heap of locusts some of which were
already dead). Reptiles are in general con-
sidered unlawful or reprehensible, except
among the Mālikīs who merely apply the
criterion of harmfulness and authorize
the eating even of poisonous snakes if the
poisonous part has been cut off. The liz-
ard ( ubb ), however, is often recognized
as lawful, by virtue of some adī º s which
state that the Prophet abstained from
them merely because of personal dislike,
but some others say that this species rep-
resents a tribe of the Banū Isrāīl which
had been metamorphosed, and this leads
to their being prohibited. Animals which
are considered to have no liquid blood are
in general regarded as lawful, since blood
is what constitutes the impurity of animals
which have not been ritually slaughtered.
Many, however, are forbidden (except by
the Mālikīs) because of the disgust which
is felt for them and which causes them to
be classed among the ¶ abāi º , “unclean
foods”, discouraged by the urān (VII,
156/157). This vicious circle, from the