Islamic law scholarship round-up

In “Religious Elites and the Management of Islamic Affairs in Sarawak: A Mixed Scorecard” (Fulcrum), Mohd Faizal Musa (ISEAS–Yusof Ishak Institute) argues that “political rather than religious authority still calls the shots in multi-religious Sarawak.” In “Ahmad al-Sharaa Is Building the State Abu Mohammed al-Golani Promised” (Lawfare), Sara Harmouch (H9 Defense) argues that the “new… CONTINUE READING

In “When the Internet Goes Dark: What Medieval Islamic Philosophy Reveals About Legal Personhood” (JURISTnews), AmirAli Maleki, “an international law and philosophy researcher based in Iran, argues that al-Fārābī’s medieval concept of the ‘stranger’—one who exists within a political order but is denied the capacity for ethical participation—illuminates how contemporary international law transforms human beings… CONTINUE READING

In “Beyond the Secular Binary: Bargaining with God in Modern Constitutions” (International Society of Public Law Blog), Ali Shirvani (Northwest University) observes that “few questions have haunted modern constitutional theory as persistently as the relationship between divine authority and popular sovereignty. While this tension is a global phenomenon present in various religious traditions, it has… CONTINUE READING

“John Tolan’s Islam: A New History from Muhammad to the Present (Princeton University Press) offers a sweeping account of Islam’s evolution, highlighting influential figures, sectarian divisions, and global expansion. Though it lacks in-depth exploration of some claims and underplays Sufi contributions to the religion’s development, Haider Ali [Jamia Millia Islamia] finds it an engaging and… CONTINUE READING

In Slavery and the Shaping of the Muslim Family (De Gruyter), Cristina de la Puente (Instituto de Lenguas y Culturas del Mediterráneo), Karen Moukheiber (University of Balamond) and Serena Tolino (University of Bern) delve “into the wide-ranging and complex subject of slavery within the familial sphere of Islamic societies. For too long, secondary literature has… CONTINUE READING

In an episode of Unlocking Academia, “host Raja Aderdor speaks with Dr. Mutaz Al-Khatib, Associate Professor at the Research Center for Islamic Legislation and Ethics and Director of the Master’s program in Applied Islamic Ethics at Hamad Bin Khalifa University. Together, they explore Key Classical Works on Islamic Ethics (Brill, 2024), a groundbreaking edited volume that… CONTINUE READING

In “The Roots And Persistence Of Terengganu’s Hardline Approach To Islamic Law” (Eurasia Review), Mohd Faizal Musa (ISEAS Yusof Ishak Institute) observes that “the Muslim populace of [Terengganu, Malaysia] remains unwavering in their demand for the full implementation of Islamic law…[so] that any incoming government must acknowledge and conform to the socio-political, Malay-Islamic cultural, and… CONTINUE READING

In “Contesting the Zaydi Political Tradition in Early Modern Yemen: an Edition of Imam Yaḥyā Sharaf al-Dīn’s Will of 18 Ramadan 933/27 June 1527” (Shii Studies Review), Ekaterina Pukhovaia (Utrecht University) presents “a unique manuscript housed in the Imam Zayd b. ʿAlī Cultural Foundation [that] preserves the earliest known copy of a will (waṣiyya) of… CONTINUE READING

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),… CONTINUE READING

Radio ReOrient interviewed Sherman Jackson (University of Southern California) about The Islamic Secular (Oxford University Press), which “provocatively challenges the assumption that the secular is external to Islam and the Islamicate.” See part 1 here and part two here. In “Aligning Islamic ethics with reproductive health policy: addressing gaps in early termination access in Saudi… CONTINUE READING