hist-brewing: "An Arab Mead"

[PBLoomis at aol.com]

In a message dated 10/22/01 8:01:10 PM Central Daylight Time, 
obsidian at raex.com writes:

Owenbrau at earthlink.net wrote"
> > The other is based on my rather limited understanding of the Qur'an. As 
you
>  > state, this recipe comes from a medicinal text, and therefore it was
>  > intended to be drunk for medicinal purposes. The Qur'an bans alcohol made
>  > from grapes and grains, but not honey. This recipe, however, includes
>  > grapes, and would therefore be banned for any but medicinal uses.
>  
>   Well, not exactly. As I state in the article, the Qu'ran only 
>  specifically mentions "wine" three times, and never does it specify 
>  grapes or grain. In fact, I haven't been able to find the words "grape" 
>  or "barley" (or other grains) in the Qu'ran in ANY context yet. But your 
>  comment demonstrates what I was attempting to show -- that by defining a 
>  beverage as "medicine", you place it in a different set of rules than 
>  those regulating "recreational beverage".
>  
    According to one of the Muslim personae at Orluk Oasis at Pennsic
XXX this summer, the prohibition on fermented grapes comes not from the 
Qu'ran, but from something the second Caliph quoted Muhammad as 
having said to him.  
    In Western jurisprudence, that would be inadmissible hearsay, but 
in Islam, it counts as second-order canonical.  And who are we to say 
it's not?  After all, much of the New Testament was written down from 
verbal accounts several hundred years after the Crucifixion.
    Scotti

    "Not all chemicals [in food] are bad.  Hydrogen and oxygen 
are chemicals which go together to make water, one of the main 
ingredients in beer."                           -- Dave Barry

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