Islamic law scholarship round-up

In “Written Evidence and Its Probative Value in Islamic Law: Forgery Cases in Eighteenth-Century Ottoman Court Records” (Journal of Law and Religion), Ali Ekber Cinar (McGill University) concludes “that the Ottoman legal practice closely reflected the reluctance of Muslim jurists to recognize the probative value of written evidence in the eighteenth century, showcasing the harmony… CONTINUE READING

In Preaching Pious Rulership in Medieval Islam: Ibn al-Jawzi’s Political Thought (Edinburgh University Press), Han Hsien Liew (Arizona State University) “studies the relationship between political thought, preaching and emotions through the writings of Ibn al-Jawzi (d. 1201), a celebrated hortatory preacher in late Abbasid Baghdad. Through an intertextual analysis of Ibn al-Jawzi’s works in various… CONTINUE READING

In “Can Muslim Women Become Muftis? The Forgotten Legacy of Muslim Women Scholars” (India Tomorrow), Syed Khalique Ahmed (India Tomorrow) considers the questions “Can a Muslim woman become a mufti? Can she guide Muslims on matters of Sharia? Can she contribute to the fields of Islamic jurisprudence and law, or conduct educational sessions attended by… CONTINUE READING

In Litigating Subjects: Algerian Women, Local Courts, and the Making of Colonial Law (Stanford University Press), Sarah Ghabrial (Concordia University) “examines the activities of Algeria’s Muslim courts to reveal how Algerian subjects both incorporated and subverted colonial legal authorities and thereby exploited the tensions of the colonial state.” In “Harmonizing Criminal Law with Islamic Ethics,… CONTINUE READING

In “Penchants of the polymaths” (Aeon), Mariam Sabri (Aga Khan University) argues for “the recovery of the penchants of polymathy that once thrived in the Muslim world.” Sabri makes this argument using the examples of four polymaths, concluding that “If al-Biruni, Alhazen, Avicenna and al-Khwarizmi could turn scarcity, captivity, patronage and instability into new ways… CONTINUE READING

In “Archival Practices and the Codex 2” (Al-ʿUṣūr al-Wusṭā), Konrad Hirschler (University of Hamburg) and Said Aljoumani (University of Hamburg) demonstrate “how a widening understanding of archival materialities and the enlargement of our documentary corpora offer new insights into Mamluk-period cultural and social history, including the vivacity of knowledge cultures beyond major urban centers.” In… CONTINUE READING

In Regulative Verses of the Qurʾan (Brill Academic Publishers), Karen Bauer (Institute of Ismaili Studies), Seyed Mohammad Ghari S. Fatemi (AMI and Mofid University), Robert Gleave (University of Exeter), and Devin J. Stewart (Emory University) illustrate how “regulative verses of the Qurʾan offers a comprehensive study of how Islamic law emerged from scriptural interpretation, by… CONTINUE READING

In “Underage Marriage: Legal and Social Practice in Muslim Jurisdictions” (Arab Law Quarterly), Dörthe Engelcke (Max Planck Institute for Comparative and International Private Law), Dominik Krell (University of Oxford) and Nadjma Yassari (Swiss Institute of Comparative Law) discuss “the social phenomenon of underage and early marriages on its legal framework, on family policies and on… CONTINUE READING

In Islamic Economics and Finance in Action (Brill Academic Publishers), Shinsuke Nagaoka (Kyoto University) “provides an in-depth picture of how Islamic finance, which began as a commercial practice half a century ago, has grown globally through the trials and errors of bankers and scholars, with analyses of various controversies within the financial industry and academia… CONTINUE READING

In “The Moroccan Mellāḥ: Governing Jewish Spaces and the Islamic Secular” (Turkish Journal of Islamic Studies), Rachel M. Scott (Virginia Tech University) “examines the Moroccan institution of the mellāḥ—the walled Jewish quarters established in Fez, Marrakesh, Meknes, and Tetouan from 1438 onward—as a case study for testing Sherman Jackson’s distinction between the sharʿī and non-sharʿī… CONTINUE READING