- In “The Succession to the Prophet in Zaydi Theology: An Editio Princeps of a Treatise on the Imamate from the Early Sixth/Twelfth Century” (Shii Studies Review), Hassan Ansari (Institute for Advanced Study) and others argue that “the Mukhtaṣar fī l-imāma is most likely authored by Zayd b. al-Ḥasan b. ʿAlī al-Bayhaqī al-Burūghanī (d. c. 545/1150), an Iranian Zaydi scholar who, toward of the end of his life, settled in Yemen. The work draws extensively on Kitāb al-Diʿāma by the Zaydi Imam of northern Iran, Abū Ṭālib al-Hārūnī (d. 424/1033), and survives as an addendum to al-Hārūnī’s Ziyādāt Sharḥ al-uṣūl, itself a commentary on Ibn Khallād’s Muʿtazili theological handbook, Kitāb al-Uṣūl. In this treatise, the author undertakes a systematic refutation of Muʿtazili and Imami Shiʿi doctrines concerning the imamate.” [login required]
- In “Debating the Origins: The Sanctity of Madina in Ḥadīth Narratives” (Journal of Islamic Studies), Seyfeddin Kara (University of Groningen) “analyses ḥadīth narratives about the sanctification of Madina, using the isnād-cum-matn analysis pioneered by the late Harald Motzki. It challenges the view––derived from the persistent assumption in Western scholarship that, unless proven case by case to be otherwise, the ḥadīth corpus must be regarded as back-projected forgery––that the sanctity of the Prophet’s city evolved several generations after his death.” [login required]
- In “Interfaith Marriage: Can a Muslim Woman Marry a Non-Muslim Man?” (Comparative Islamic Studies), Nayel Badareen (University of Arizona) “examines the legal reasoning behind the law which forbids Muslim women from marrying outside their faith….[and] shows that such claims by Muslim jurists have no base in the Qur’an or traditions of the Prophet.” [login required]