LAUSR

Abstract This article examines the nexus of Islam, difference, and the senses. Amidst the diverse ethno-religious landscape of post-conquest Islam where communal boundaries often blurred, religious and state authorities defined belonging in the Muslim community through differences; they felt compelled to set apart Muslims from non-Muslims and other “wayward” Muslims by disciplining the physical body, including the sensorium. Building upon a robust theory of the senses advanced by Abbasid Muslim litterateur Jāḥiẓ (d. 868/9), I demonstrate how pre-modern (7th – 14th centuries CE) Muslim discourses and practices of difference configured the senses in specific ways, transforming body, object and landscape into material signs of collective identity in public life. Drawing upon literary and material sources, I narrate four episodes set in the pre-modern Islamic Middle East where Muslim authorities defined ritual and everyday quotidian practice along lines of communal difference. Together, the episodes highlight the multisensoriality of Muslim difference: the visibility of Christian crosses; acoustic memories of the adhān (audible call to prayer); the expensive taste of gold and silver metalware; and, finally, sensory overload at commemorative public gatherings (ʿīds)—holiday celebrations, tomb visitations, and funerals.