Foundational studies on Islamic legal history in the modern era have largely ignored Ottoman legal thought and experience. This approach, which dominated the historiography of Islamic law written in the 20th century, prevents us from understanding the role played by fiqh in the Ottoman era, which shaped and guided the fields of law, economics and … Continue reading Ottoman Shaykh al-Islāms of the Nineteenth Century and their Intellectual Biographies
Weekend Scholarship Roundup
Radhika Kanchana addresses citizenship access to “outsiders” in Muslim-majority states in "How do Muslim States Treat their 'Outsiders'?: Is Islamic Practice of Naturalisation Synonymous with Jus Sanguinis?", Islamic Law & Law of the Muslim World eJournal, (originally published in Migration and Islamic Ethics: Issues of Residence, Naturalisation and Citizenship). Kanchana focuses mainly on the states’ practice … Continue reading Weekend Scholarship Roundup
PIL Fellowships 2020-2021 Announced! — Research + (new) Data Science Tracks
The Program in Islamic Law at Harvard Law School invites applications to its 2020-2021 Fellowship Program (due Jan. 31, 2020). Research Fellowships are designed to provide an intellectual home to promising young scholars in Islamic legal studies to advance their own research and to contribute to the intellectual life of the Program and the Harvard … Continue reading PIL Fellowships 2020-2021 Announced! — Research + (new) Data Science Tracks
Thank you, Marion Katz and Ahmed El Shamsy!
Thank you to Marion Katz and Ahmed El Shamsy for joining us as guest blog editors throughout the month of December. In case you missed any of their posts, here they are: Marion Katz: Law, Narrative, and the Case of Fāṭima’s Chores Folk Interpretation and the “Dark Matter” of Pre-Modern Islamic Law Law in Action, in … Continue reading Thank you, Marion Katz and Ahmed El Shamsy!
Comparative law, the role of the judge, and the law theorized
In this final post reflecting on my primary source seminar “Readings in Islamic law,” I want to highlight three further topics covered in the course. The first of these is the genre of comparative law (khilāf), for which we read writings by Ibn al-Mundhir from the early fourth/tenth century, al-Kadamī from the fourth/tenth century, and … Continue reading Comparative law, the role of the judge, and the law theorized
Fatwas: diverse in form, diverse in reach
After the first session of my Islamic law seminar this fall, I chose the readings for each class with an eye on the particular interests of the enrolled students. Accordingly, of the three fatwas we read, spanning the fourteenth and twentieth centuries, the first reflected one student’s interest in medical ethics. The fatwa in question … Continue reading Fatwas: diverse in form, diverse in reach
Law in Action, in the Peripheral Vision of the Sources
In my last post I referenced Jack Tannous’s metaphor of “dark matter,” which draws our attention to the scattered traces of the vast majority of premodern Muslims who have left us few direct records of their opinions. In this post I’d like to suggest another metaphor, “peripheral vision.” We can think of the disciplines and … Continue reading Law in Action, in the Peripheral Vision of the Sources
The Making of a Colonial Islamic Law in Northern Nigeria
[This post is a sequel to part 1, addressing secularism and Nigeria's colonial legacy] Situated within a broader research project aimed at disentangling the complex struggles over religion-state relations in colonial Northern Nigeria, my article, “Secularizing Islam: The Colonial Encounter and the Making of a British Colonial Islamic Criminal Law in Northern Nigeria, 1903-58” tells … Continue reading The Making of a Colonial Islamic Law in Northern Nigeria
Different genres, different approaches
For the first session of my graduate seminar “Readings in Islamic Law” this fall, I asked students to read two texts: a hadith on divorce initiated by the wife (al-Bukhārī, Kitāb al-Khulʿ, story of the wife of Thābit b. Qays) and a legal debate between Abū Isḥāq al-Shīrāzī and al-Dāmaghānī in the eleventh century (from … Continue reading Different genres, different approaches
Program in Islamic Law Celebrates Its New English Translation of al-Muwaṭṭaʾ
Earlier this fall, the Program in Islamic Law published the eighth volume in its Harvard Series on Islamic Law, an English translation of al-Muwaṭṭaʾ, the Royal Moroccan Edition, The Recension of Yaḥyā Ibn Yaḥyā al-Laythī. On December 9th, PIL celebrated the book’s launch by bringing together scholars from the accompanying online roundtable in a roundtable … Continue reading Program in Islamic Law Celebrates Its New English Translation of al-Muwaṭṭaʾ