Mut'a in the formation of sectarian identity, law, and morality: a digital humanities approach

Our study explores the role of temporary marriage (mutʿa) in the development of sectarian identities and the intersection of law and morality in early Islamic law. Through digital humanities techniques, we construct a corpus from hundreds of hadiths to examine the debate over mutʿa’s legitimacy. Analyzing the hadiths' geographic spread and the sectarian affiliations of their transmitters, we highlight mutʿa's influence on sectarian identity formation and the jurisprudential tensions between law and morality in early Islam. This research showcases the value of digital humanities in historical Islamic law and hadith analysis.