Al-Wansharisi vs. al-Wahrani Revisited: Debating the Significance of Two Fatwas on Muslims Living under Christian Rule

The Reconquest of Spain presented Muslim jurists with unprecedented and difficult questions regarding the legal status of significant Muslim populations which had come under Christian rule.  Modern scholarly debate has focused on two fatwas (legal opinions) in particular which address the responsibilities of these Spanish Muslims.  The first text, a 1491 treatise by the chief judge of Fez, al-Wansharîsî (d. 1508), states categorically that Muslims may not live under Christian rule and must emigrate to Islamic territory.  On the other hand, al-Wahrânî’s (d. 1511) 1504 fatwa advises the Moriscos to remain and practice Islam in secret.  Scholars such as L.P. Harvey, Kathryn Miller, Gerard Wiegers, and Hossein Buzineb have championed al-Wahrânî as a voice of openness and compassion for the plight of the Moriscos, in contrast to al-Wansharîsî’s strictly ‘orthodox’ and authoritarian point of view.  Al-Wahrânî’s impact on Morisco religious practice has also been widely discussed; Harvey has even called his fatwa “the key theological document for the study of Spanish Islam.”  In contrast to these approaches, I analyze not only the opinions expressed in these two fatwas, but also their formal structure and likely audience; in addition, I focus some much-needed attention on the impact of al-Wahrânî’s fatwa on the later development of Islamic legal thought on Muslim minorities.  I argue that while al-Wahrânî’s opinion may have provided crucial aid to Moriscos resisting assimilation, it had no appreciable impact on later legal thought, and was probably not meant to; unlike al-Wansharîsî, al-Wahrânî did not craft or circulate his opinion in a way conducive to influencing the North African juristic discourse on the status of Muslims living under Christian rule.  I will demonstrate that al-Wansharîsî’s ruling became the authoritative precedent for later opinions on similar cases, and will identify specific reasons for the failure of al-Wahrânî’s fatwa to do so.