Circumcision, regarded by Muslims and non-Muslims alike as a cardinal religious duty in Islam, is not mentioned in the Koran. References exist to it in the ḥadīth in which it is presented as a pre-Islamic custom. Certain differences exist between the major ‘schools’ of Islamic law but, on the whole, legal texts give no greater prominence to circumcision than to numerous other practices which the Muslims are adjured to follow. In popular opinion, however, circumcision has come to be seen as an indispensable mark of adherence to Islam.

Anthropologists studying Islamic societies have, for the most part, followed this popular view. In most cases, they have been content to note that their subjects, being Muslims, practise circumcision as part of their adherence to Islamic precepts and, if they have paid any specific attention to it, they have usually concentrated on analysing the sociological aspects of circumcision rituals, celebrations and feasts (e.g. Marx 1973). The emerging impression is that the cultural aspects of these events have not been seen as problematic, and that the cultural meaning of circumcision has been seen as exhausted by its signification of ‘essentially a man's induction into the religious congregation’ (Marx 1973: 414). Yet, the age at which children are circumcised in different societies and communities varies from the seventh day after birth to the mid or even late teens and the degree of ritual elaboration which accompanies the operation also varies.