Hisba, Arts and Craft in Islam

摘要

Ahmad Ghabin's monograph investigates the classical Islamic institution known as hisba and its relationship to artistic production. A quick review of the article on this institution in the standard reference work, the Encyclopaedia of Islam, shows why such a study is needed, for virtually everything about it is unclear. The term itself refers on the one hand to the obligation incumbent on all Muslims to "promote good and forbid evil" (itself a topic of recent study by Michael Cook) and on the other to the function of the muhtasib, the townsperson entrusted with applying this rule in the supervision of moral behaviour, particularly in the marketplace, in other words a sort of censor. The term hisba is not found in the Qur'an, and no other text states explicitly either the reason for its choice or how such meanings might have arisen from the idea of "calculation" or "sufficiency" expressed by the Arabic root h-s-b. Most written accounts deal either with a general overview of the merits of the institution or with the practical and technical duties of the muhtasib. The former date only from the fifth/eleventh century, two centuries after the appearance of the institution. The latter, while several centuries older, do not explain the origins of the office. In short, the article shows that there is much room for research.