By Matthew L. Keegan How do we imagine the law? What shapes our sense of how the legal system operates? In a culture saturated with television narratives, one clear avenue for shaping the imagined law is the various franchises and spin-offs of television shows like Law & Order and CSI, which give viewers a heavily … Continue reading Skullduggery, Literature, and the Legal Imagination
By Matthew L. Keegan Islamic law is one among several Islamic discourses and normative discourses that intermingled with Islamic epistemes and ecumenes in the pre-modern world. In Marion Holmes Katz's recent monograph, readers encounter a sophisticated reading of the intersecting and divergent approaches of law, asceticism, and Islamic philosophical ethics. As she demonstrates in one … Continue reading Moral Registers in Islamic Law, Adab, and Ethics
SCHOLARSHIP ROUNDUP On Islamic Law In "The Method in Understanding Hadith Through Ijmā' and Its Implications for Islamic Law in Indonesia: Studies on the Hadiths of the Month of Qamariyah" (Samarah 7, no. 1 (2023)), Abdul Majid (Universitas Islam Negeri Sultan Aji Muhammad Idris, Samarinda) and others investigate how the meaning of certain Prophetic teaching … Continue reading Weekend Scholarship Roundup
By Matthew L. Keegan How did scholars from different Sunnī legal schools respond to and interact with the scholarship of other schools? The answer to this question, of course, depends upon the particular historical context, the institutional strength of one school or another, the social context of education, and other factors. In some places and … Continue reading Riddles, Influence, and Borrowing from Rival Legal Schools
ISLAMIC LAW IN THE NEWS Indonesia's Religious Affairs Ministry has stated that it is in talks with Saudi Arabia and the two countries "are looking for ways to reduce the Hajj waiting time to cater to the increasing number of Muslims seeking to perform the ritual." "The Islamic Republic’s Assembly of Experts, the deliberative body … Continue reading Islamic Law in the News Roundup
SCHOLARSHIP ROUNDUP On Islamic Law In "Can the Taliban Be Convinced to Reverse Course?" (Human Rights Watch, February 12, 2023), John Sifton and Fereshta Abbasi (HRW), commenting on the Taliban's policies regarding women, argue that "[n]o country can function with half its adult population locked up at home." In "Project Illumine — a Qur’an commentary … Continue reading Weekend Scholarship Roundup
SCHOLARSHIP ROUNDUP On Islamic Law Haider Ala Hamoudi has been appointed interim dean of University of Pittsburgh Law School. In "Hijab Ban Controversy in India’s Karnataka State – Analysis" (Eurasia Review, February 13, 2023), Azka Ali Khan, commenting on the recent controversy in Karnataka (India) concerning the right of Muslim women who wear the hijab … Continue reading Weekend Scholarship Roundup
By Iza Hussin The opening pages of KPG7514.M35 1837,[1] the text that forms the subject of the first blog entry, and texts like it, have given scholars a better sense of how law was understood in the Malay world in its moment: Bahawa Ini Kitab Undang-Undang Qanun Yang Dipakai Dalam Negeri Johor, "this is the … Continue reading How to do things with translation: Translation as archives of mobility
By Iza Hussin Having focussed in the first blog post on a Malay world text and its internal translations of concepts relating to law in Malay, Arabic, and English, this second blog post considers translative dynamics within adjudicative institutions. In the case of the Kitab Undang-Undang Qanun Yang Dipakai Dalam Negeri Johor, we focused on … Continue reading How to do things with translation: ‘Religion’
By Iza Hussin Kitab Undang-Undang Qanun Yang Dipakai Dalam Negeri Johor, 1837 As last week's blog entry briefly introduced, these are the opening pages of KPG7514.M35 1837, a Malay text recently rediscovered at the Library of Congress.[1] The pencilled title on the facing page is in English and underlined: Malay Code of Laws, followed by … Continue reading How to do things with translation: ‘Law’ in the Malay world
