OverviewIn Islamic law, rape is placed under the category
of ™add(pl. ™udùd) crimes, which are offenses
with specific punishments ordained by God. £add
crimes include offenses such as apostasy, drinking,
theft, zinà(sexual indiscretion), and false accusa-
tion of zinà(qadhf), and are crimes warranting
some of the harshest punishments in Islamic law
including the death penalty. Rape is defined as a
zinàcrime in juridical writings. Unlike Western
legal traditions, Islamic law does not consider rape
a separate legal category, but places it together with
other sex acts outside of the marriage contract,
such as fornication, adultery, incest, homosexual-
ity, prostitution, procurement of prostitution, and
bestiality. The inclusion of rape in the catch-all clas-
sification of zinàhas led some authors to question
whether the concept of rape exists at all in Islamic
law. Historical sources clearly do recognize rape as
a social reality, and it is usually described in Islamic
sources as forced zinàand, as such, a crime subject
to prosecution.
Rape in history
Although rape is not discussed in the Qur±àn, it is
mentioned in ™adìthsources. One ™adìth transmit-
ted by Íafiyya bt. ≠Ubayd describes how rape cases
were treated: “A state-owned slave had sexual
intercourse with a girl from among the war booty
(khumus). He had coerced her until he raped her.
Therefore, ≠Umar flogged him according to the
™addand banished him, but he did not flog the girl
because she was forced” (al-Bukhari 1985, ix, 67).
This is one of the earliest documented cases of rape
in Islamic history and demonstrates the difference
between willing and coerced zinà. It draws an
important distinction between rapist and victim.
£adìths were used to set legal precedents in the
early Islamic community, and in this case the ™adìth
advocated flogging and banishment as punishment
for rape. As Islamic law developed, rape was con-
sidered bodily harm and was subject to the pay-
ment of blood money (diya). As a result, juridical
writings often suggested monetary payment for
reparations in rape cases.
Rape is discussed in several Islamic sources such
as fiqh(Islamic jurisprudence), fatwas (legal opin-
ions), and Sharì≠a court records. In these sources
Rape
rape is described as “forced zinà.” Coercion to
commit zinà±, whether forced prostitution or rape,
is viewed as the worst form of zinàin Islamic law.
Abù£anìfa argued that if anyone forced another to
commit zinàhe was subject to punishment. This is
why several sources discuss the punishment of
procurers and not the punishment of prostitutes,
since prostitutes were viewed as being subject to
coercion.
Islamic law passed through another significant
phase of development in the early Ottoman period.
As a consequence there are several sixteenth-
century sources for Ottoman law that include the
kanùn-nàmes (Ottoman imperial codes) and thou-
sands of fatwas issued by Ebu’s-su≠ud (Abùal-Sa≠ùd
Mu™ammad b. Mu™ammad, 1492/3–1574/5), Otto-
man jurist and Shaykh al-Islàm, who was the
supreme religious counselor under Sultan Süleymàn
(r. 1520–66). One fatwa written by Ebu’s-su≠ud
demands that a man who raped a boy was to be exe-
cuted if force were proven by bodily damage,
namely a ruptured anus. According to the kanùn-
nàmesif a man abducted a boy, he was to be pun-
ished by castration or payment of 24 gold pieces.
The kanùn-nàmes contain several codes on the
abduction of girls, boys, and women. Abduction
was a crime viewed as rape since it was often per-
formed for that purpose. Throughout the sixteenth
century raids by tribesmen and disgruntled irregu-
lar troops in Anatolia often included the abduction
of girls and boys. The kanùn-nàmes reflect an
attempt to curb this activity by prescribing severe
punishments for abduction. The punishment of cas-
tration was also applied in cases of the abduction of
women from private homes.
The kanùn-nàmes advocate severe flogging and a
fine of one akçe per stroke in cases of molestation
or “kissing” of women, both terms connoting rape.
The kanùn-nàmes discuss rape euphemistically, for
example: “If a person enters a woman’s house or
approaches her on her way and cuts off her hair or
takes away her garment or kerchief, [thus] offering
[her] a gross indignity, the cadi shall, after [the
offense] has been proved, chastise [him]; he shall
have [him] imprisoned” (Heyd 1973, 100).
Ebu’s-su≠ud advocates a woman’s right to self-
defense during rape stating that she has the right to
defend herself to the point of killing her attacker
with an ax without suffering punishment. Ebu’s-