SCHOLARSHIP ROUNDUP
On Islamic Law
- In “Is Marriage Really (Like) a Sale? Reflections of Muslim Jurists of the Fifth–Sixth Century AH / Eleventh–Twelfth Century CE” (Hawwa), Marion Katz (New York University) argues that “by this period some leading jurists were expressing explicit skepticism and discomfort towards the idea that the marriage contract comprised an exchange of the husband’s material support for the wife’s sexual availability.” [login required]
- In “‘Is fiqh now Determined based on Dreams?!’ The Debate Over the Legal Value of Dreams and the Question of Religious Authority in Sunni Islam” (Islamic Law and Society), Or Amir (Hebrew University of Jerusalem) examines “juristsʼ approach to the epistemic value of dreams.”
On Islam and Data Science
- In “Islamicate Knowledge in the Digital Age: AI, Computational Methods, and the Future of Scholarship” (Journal of Digital Islamicate Research), Eid Mohamed (Qatar University) and Mai Zaki (American University of Sharjah) argue that “digital tools cannot be adopted uncritically. They must be situated within the ethical frameworks, knowledge systems, and interpretive practices that have long governed these domains.”
- In “Scaling Artificial Intelligence for Augmented Learning: Developing a Generative AI Evaluation Scale through a Case Study in Islamic Inheritance Law” (Journal of Digital Islamicate Research), M. Zubair Abbasi (Royal Holloway, University of London) “evaluates the potential of four Generative Artificial Intelligence (GenAI) models—ChatGPT-4, DeepSeek, Gemini, and Co-Pilot—to apply the principles of Islamic inheritance law.”
- In “Artificial Intelligence in Islamic Guidance: Assessing Chatbot Performance and Jurisprudential Adherence” (Journal of Digital Islamicate Research), Soleh Hasan Wahid (Institut Agama Islam Negeri Ponorogo) “assessed five Islamic chatbots using Bloom’s Taxonomy, Islamic accuracy from the perspectives of Ahl al-ḥadīth and Ahl al-raʾy, and the risks of AI hallucinations.”
FIELD GUIDE TO ISLAMIC LAW ONLINE: RECENT SOURCES
The Field Guide to Islamic Law Online is an ever-growing collection of links to hundreds of primary sources and archival collections around the world, online. We recently added new resources to this list:
- Recogito is a free, web-based tool for collaboratively annotating and interpreting manuscripts, images, texts, and spreadsheets. It allows users to identify and link entities like people, places, and events in their files to digital gazetteers for geospatial mapping and network analysis. The site offers various resources to help users get started, and supports research and annotation in multiple languages.
UPCOMING EVENTS AND OPPORTUNITIES
PIL & Harvard Events:
- Talk: “The Taliban Courts in Afghanistan, Waging War by Law,” Adam Baczko, October 9, 2025 @ 4:30pm
Other Events:
- Summer School: Digital Humanities and Islamic Studies, University of Bern, September 1–4, 2025
- Conference: Paris Congress at 125—Comparative Law’s Entanglement with Power from Paris to Today, McGill University, Canada, October 16–18, 2025
- Conference: 5th ACM Conference on Equity and Access in Algorithms, Mechanisms, and Optimization, University of Pittsburgh, November 5–7, 2025
- Conference: ASLH 2025 Annual Meeting, Detroit, MI, November 13–15, 2025
- Conference: “Islam and Artificial Intelligence: Challenges and Opportunities,” North American Association of Islamic and Muslim Studies, November 20, 202
- Conference: International Conference “Poetry and Knowledge,” University of Münster, November 20–22, 2025
- Conference: MESA 2025, Westin Downtown, Washington DC, November 22–25, 2025
- Conference: Faith, Values, and the Rule of Law—An Interdisciplinary Conference, Seton Hall University School of Law, February February 4–5, 2026
PIL & Harvard Opportunities:
- Call for Papers: Middle East Beyond Borders Fall 2025 Workshop, September 12
Other Opportunities:
- Call for Papers: Faith, Values, and the Rule of Law—An Interdisciplinary Conference, Seton Hall University School of Law, November 1, 2025
- Call for Submissions: Journal of Trends in Intellectual Property Research, Volume 3, Issue 2, December 29, 2025
- Call for Submissions: Journal of Legal Research & Analysis, Volume 3, Issue 2, December 29, 2025