Deborah, I was scrolling through my book on the Middle East today looking for material to put on Medium and found that I had written the following about circumcision:

All of the Imams were distinguished by the fact that they were born circumcised and without umbilical cords. The fact that they were born circumcised is attested to by Ibn Babuyah al Qummi (c.923-991 CE) in his book ‘Uyunau akhbari l-rida.

The practice of circumcision dates back to the Prophet Abraham who is said to have circumcised himself, possibly with an axe, at the age of 70, 80 or 120 depending on the source. It is not clear. The possible origin for the practice of circumcision may have been to distinguish the dead believers after a battle from the uncircumcised unbelievers, the Amalekites with whom they were fighting.

There is some controversy over whether the prophet Muhammad was born circumcised or not. The companion of the Prophet, Anas bin Malik (c. 612-709 CE) attests that he was. However, Muhammad Al Munnawi (952-1031 CE) who recorded this tradition has expressed doubts about it and about the soundness of the chain of transmission (See Faydu al Qadir). And Nur ad Din Al Halabi (975-1044 CE) in Al Sira al halabiyya states that the Prophet was born as if he were circumcised and that his grandfather completed the circumcision.

None of this, however, detracts from the fact that the circumcising of male offspring is celebrated in various forms throughout the Arab world. Female circumcision is also widespread in places like rural Egypt and as mentioned elsewhere to a small extent in the villages in Bahrain. The practice is more widespread in Egypt because of its adherence to Shafi’i fiqh (one of the four main schools of Sunni Islam).

According to the leading Shafi’i Jurist Ahmad ibn Naqib Al Misri ( 1302-1367 CE) in his classical work Umdat al-Salik:

Circumcision is obligatory (for every male and female)

by cutting off the piece of skin on the glans of the penis of the male,

but circumcision of the female is by cutting out the clitoris

(this is called HufaaD).

The Arabic for clitoris is bathr or bazr and this is the word used in this book. A number of jurists have claimed that it refers to the prepuce or clitoral hood but this is a misleading translation of the word bazr.