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A (very serious and definitely not humorous) Thread: A Man’s Beard in Muslim Culture and Society…
I recently watched a video of a man cutting his dad's beard as he slept, for which he got a real beating. The comments were full of “the dad went too far” so I couldn’t help but laugh: if only they knew how much worse such a ‘prank’ would have gone down some centuries before!
The beard has always been a Muslim man’s pride, and if you are blessed with the hairy appendage, you know the routine: almost every bearded bro carries a comb wherever they go, and to treat the beard to quality oils and deep massages is nothing less than daily ritual for many.
For our ancestors, theirs' were perfumed with incense and musk. Some even went so far in their love that every beard hair that dislodged and fell would be carefully collected and respectfully buried.
For, God forbid, how shameful to throw away even a single one!
For, God forbid, how shameful to throw away even a single one!
We see even narrated in the Quran: irate with his brother, Moses specifically latches onto the former’s beard as a sign of anger. Harun, distressed, responds, ‘Son of my mother– let go of my beard!’ (20:94)
Looking further into the Abrahamic tradition, we uncover the same in the Bible: Which punishment does the Prophet David determine appropriate for a disgraced group of his ambassadors? “Shaving off half their beards”.
For the Ottomans, a shaved face was a mark of subjugation: Princes had to be bare-faced to show subservience to the fully-maned reigning Sultan.
And men who served in the harem were beardless. In fact, “I will let his beard grow” was a phrase used to give a servant his freedom!
And men who served in the harem were beardless. In fact, “I will let his beard grow” was a phrase used to give a servant his freedom!
Once, in a cruel war between Persians and Uzbek Tartars, the victorious laid the amputated beards of their enemies at the feet of their Shah as gleeful trophies of battle.
Historically, an oath commonly heard in Muslim lands was “by the glorious beard of the Prophet!”
If ever accused of deceit, you might have sometimes witnessed a Turk pointing to their beard and saying, “do you think this venerable beard could lie?”
In court, a man’s testimony would at times be measured in part by the state of his beard, and when seeking a witness for trial, the length of the beard was certainly a factor.
To touch a man’s beard, unless to kiss it respectfully, was an insult. Friends would often greet via a kiss on the beard, and “may God preserve your beard!” is a form of invoking blessing on a loved one.
Perhaps we can introduce “may God connect your beard!” as a modern variant.
Perhaps we can introduce “may God connect your beard!” as a modern variant.
To express high value for a thing, one would say, “it is worth more than one’s beard,” and to say, “Shame on your beard!” is a harsh reproach, and “I spit on your beard!” is from the most profound contempt:
As in 1826, when the Shah of Persia was speaking to an East India Company Ambassador concerning the Russians, and to show how low he esteemed them, he exclaimed, “I spit on their beards!”
An early Wahhabi chief would shave beards as a punishment for the gravest offences, and once, a prisoner allegedly struck a deal worth today $75,000 to spare his mane from confiscation.
When disease or accident rendered necessary the removal of a beard, a man would live secluded, and if obliged to go out, wear a thick black veil, until his chin reappeared “with all its pristine honours blushing thick upon it.”
In Ottoman tradition it is held that not a single hair fell or became white from the blessed beard of the Prophet Nuh throughout his entire millennium of life, and that in embarrassing contrast, the beard of Satan consists of just one long solitary hair.
Between non-Muslims, it used to be considered an almost impossible act of chivalry to nick a hair from the Muslim Sultan’s beard.
In one of Shakespeare’s romances, a character declares to his lover in a spirit of bravado, “I’ll fetch you a hair off the great Khan’s beard!”
In one of Shakespeare’s romances, a character declares to his lover in a spirit of bravado, “I’ll fetch you a hair off the great Khan’s beard!”
(Thread fully intended as light-hearted and mostly taken from “The Philosophy of Beards,” a Series of Lectures, Thomas S. Gowing, 1854)
