Scalping Saint Peter’s Head: An Interreligious Controversy over a Punishment from Baghdad to Rome (Eighth to Twelfth Centuries)
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Abel Lorenzo-Rodríguez
Abstract
Saint Peter was an Apostle, hence a key figure in the history of the Christian Church. The interest in his life and death in Islam was based on his proximity to Jesus (ʿĪsā ), his attribution to some religious and geographical texts in Arabic, and, finally, on the relevance of Rome for Christians (one of the former capitals of the ancient world, but also the most important place of martyrdom in the West due to the execution of Saint Paul and Saint Peter there). In the popular imagination about past punishments, Saint Peter’s execution was remembered throughout the centuries as a foundational moment, but understood and interpreted via different legal and penal systems. In these regards, the deeds of Saint Peter became globally known and were discussed from Baghdad to Rome. The purpose of this study is to define the possibilities of identifying a global perspective in Medieval Studies via an analysis of various forms of punishments and hence of types of identity practiced by neighboring cultures. The term ‘global’ is here understood as the long-distance exchange of information about executions, martyrdoms, and punishment functioning as a connector of collective identity. Two medieval Islamicate geographers, Ibn Rusta (ninth century) and al-Bakrī (eleventh century), offered descriptions of Rome and of the Christian worship of Saint Peter’s corpse: every year the pope cut the beard, hair, and nails of the saint sharing with Romans his remains. Christians and Muslims used the decalvatio - or scalping the head - as a humiliating punishment for criminals, but this legal measure also apparead in Saint Peter’s martyrdom. The saint’s scalped head became a symbol of the late Roman penal system, but also a representation of Islamic and Christian legal systems, since both head scalping entailed a form of public punishment. Both Muslims and Christians found Saint Peter’s martyrdom appealing for different reasons: whereas for Muslims it triggered their religious curiosity, for Christians it was a serious worship matter. Both communities shared much information about martyrdom and penal systems during the early Middle Ages from Baghdad to al-Andalus via Rome. Both religious groups responded to decalvatio in this process with worship, imitation, and re-enactment of Saint Peter’s life and death when they became the basis for a global debate from Passionaries to Christian-Arabic glossaries, and mainly in geographical (mis)information about Christians from Europe.
Abstract
Saint Peter was an Apostle, hence a key figure in the history of the Christian Church. The interest in his life and death in Islam was based on his proximity to Jesus (ʿĪsā ), his attribution to some religious and geographical texts in Arabic, and, finally, on the relevance of Rome for Christians (one of the former capitals of the ancient world, but also the most important place of martyrdom in the West due to the execution of Saint Paul and Saint Peter there). In the popular imagination about past punishments, Saint Peter’s execution was remembered throughout the centuries as a foundational moment, but understood and interpreted via different legal and penal systems. In these regards, the deeds of Saint Peter became globally known and were discussed from Baghdad to Rome. The purpose of this study is to define the possibilities of identifying a global perspective in Medieval Studies via an analysis of various forms of punishments and hence of types of identity practiced by neighboring cultures. The term ‘global’ is here understood as the long-distance exchange of information about executions, martyrdoms, and punishment functioning as a connector of collective identity. Two medieval Islamicate geographers, Ibn Rusta (ninth century) and al-Bakrī (eleventh century), offered descriptions of Rome and of the Christian worship of Saint Peter’s corpse: every year the pope cut the beard, hair, and nails of the saint sharing with Romans his remains. Christians and Muslims used the decalvatio - or scalping the head - as a humiliating punishment for criminals, but this legal measure also apparead in Saint Peter’s martyrdom. The saint’s scalped head became a symbol of the late Roman penal system, but also a representation of Islamic and Christian legal systems, since both head scalping entailed a form of public punishment. Both Muslims and Christians found Saint Peter’s martyrdom appealing for different reasons: whereas for Muslims it triggered their religious curiosity, for Christians it was a serious worship matter. Both communities shared much information about martyrdom and penal systems during the early Middle Ages from Baghdad to al-Andalus via Rome. Both religious groups responded to decalvatio in this process with worship, imitation, and re-enactment of Saint Peter’s life and death when they became the basis for a global debate from Passionaries to Christian-Arabic glossaries, and mainly in geographical (mis)information about Christians from Europe.
Kapitel in diesem Buch
- Frontmatter I
- Contents V
- Globalism in the Pre-Modern World? Questions, Challenges, and the Emergence of a New Approach to the Middle Ages and the Early Modern Age 1
- Global Inferno: Medieval Giants, Monsters, and the Breaching of the Great Barrier 99
- Swords as Medieval Icons and Early “Global Brands” 147
- Ecce! A Ninth-Century Isidorean T-O Map Labeled in Arabic 189
- Going Rogue Across the Globe: International Vagrants, Outlaws, Bandits, and Tricksters from Medieval Europe, Asia, and the Middle East 221
- Modifying Ancestral Memories in Post-Carolingian West Francia and Post-Tang Wuyue China 247
- Scalping Saint Peter’s Head: An Interreligious Controversy over a Punishment from Baghdad to Rome (Eighth to Twelfth Centuries) 273
- A Global Dialogue in al-Kindī’s “A Short Treatise on the Soul” 293
- Globalism in Paul of Antioch’s Letter to a Muslim Friend and Its Refutation by Ibn Taymiyya 315
- The Global Fable in the Middle Ages 351
- Globalism in the Late Middle Ages: The Low German Niederrheinische Orientbericht as a Significant Outpost of a Paradigm Shift. The Move Away from Traditional Eurocentrism 381
- The Germanic Translations of Lanfranc’s Surgical Works as Example of Global Circulation of Knowledge 407
- Brick by Brick: Constructing Identity at Don Lope Fernández de Luna’s Parroquieta at La Seo 445
- Quello assalto di Otranto fu cagione di assai male. First Results of a Study of the Globalization in the Neapolitan Army in the 1480s 463
- The Diplomat and the Public House: Ioannes Dantiscus (1485–1548) and His Use of the Inns, Taverns, and Alehouses of Europe 485
- Globalism During the Reign of Queen Elizabeth I 509
- Between East and West: John Pory’s Translation of Leo Africanus’s Description of Africa 537
- The Old and the New – Pepper, Bezoar, and Other Exotic Substances in Bohemian Narratives about Distant Lands from the Middle Ages and Early Modern Period (up to the 1560s) 553
- John Dee and the Creation of the British Empire 581
- Eberhard Werner Happel: A Seventeenth-Century Cosmographer and Cosmopolitan 595
- Globalism Before Modern Globalism 613
- List of Illustrations 623
- Biographies of the Contributors 627
- Index 635
Kapitel in diesem Buch
- Frontmatter I
- Contents V
- Globalism in the Pre-Modern World? Questions, Challenges, and the Emergence of a New Approach to the Middle Ages and the Early Modern Age 1
- Global Inferno: Medieval Giants, Monsters, and the Breaching of the Great Barrier 99
- Swords as Medieval Icons and Early “Global Brands” 147
- Ecce! A Ninth-Century Isidorean T-O Map Labeled in Arabic 189
- Going Rogue Across the Globe: International Vagrants, Outlaws, Bandits, and Tricksters from Medieval Europe, Asia, and the Middle East 221
- Modifying Ancestral Memories in Post-Carolingian West Francia and Post-Tang Wuyue China 247
- Scalping Saint Peter’s Head: An Interreligious Controversy over a Punishment from Baghdad to Rome (Eighth to Twelfth Centuries) 273
- A Global Dialogue in al-Kindī’s “A Short Treatise on the Soul” 293
- Globalism in Paul of Antioch’s Letter to a Muslim Friend and Its Refutation by Ibn Taymiyya 315
- The Global Fable in the Middle Ages 351
- Globalism in the Late Middle Ages: The Low German Niederrheinische Orientbericht as a Significant Outpost of a Paradigm Shift. The Move Away from Traditional Eurocentrism 381
- The Germanic Translations of Lanfranc’s Surgical Works as Example of Global Circulation of Knowledge 407
- Brick by Brick: Constructing Identity at Don Lope Fernández de Luna’s Parroquieta at La Seo 445
- Quello assalto di Otranto fu cagione di assai male. First Results of a Study of the Globalization in the Neapolitan Army in the 1480s 463
- The Diplomat and the Public House: Ioannes Dantiscus (1485–1548) and His Use of the Inns, Taverns, and Alehouses of Europe 485
- Globalism During the Reign of Queen Elizabeth I 509
- Between East and West: John Pory’s Translation of Leo Africanus’s Description of Africa 537
- The Old and the New – Pepper, Bezoar, and Other Exotic Substances in Bohemian Narratives about Distant Lands from the Middle Ages and Early Modern Period (up to the 1560s) 553
- John Dee and the Creation of the British Empire 581
- Eberhard Werner Happel: A Seventeenth-Century Cosmographer and Cosmopolitan 595
- Globalism Before Modern Globalism 613
- List of Illustrations 623
- Biographies of the Contributors 627
- Index 635
