Purity and Polemics: Zoroastrian Women’s Bodies as Sites of Difference and Contestation in Early Islamic Iran

Zoroastrian menstrual purity laws served as one of the most salient markers socio-religious distinction during tumultuous early centuries Islamic rule in Iranian world. This article surveys polemics – particularly by Muʿtazilah—directed against these strictures on bodily and reads them intertextually, it were, conjunction with Pahlavi apologetic texts that defend sanctity millennia-old practices. It is argued scholar-priests were responding directly to charges levelled their Muslim counterparts, clearly suggesting both theology jurisprudence produced through inter-confessional debate dialogue, much we find better-studied cases Christian-Islamic interactions.