SCHOLARSHIP ROUNDUP On Islamic Law: In "Islam through Objects" (Bloomsbury Academic, 2021), Anna Bigelow (ed.) (Stanford University) curates a collection of essays on objects in Islam and how these objects, including, for example, prayer beads, rugs, amulets, clothing, shed light on what the author terms "Islamic material culture studies." In "Violence in Early Islam: Religious … Continue reading Weekend Scholarship Roundup
By Christian Mauder This is part three in a series of four posts on legal culture at the late Mamlūk court. As the rulers of a vast realm in which Islam was the dominant religion, many members of the military elite of the Mamlūk Sultanate (1250–1517) seem to have considered knowledge about Islamic legal norms … Continue reading Enjoying the Law: Legal Riddling at the Mamlūk Court
ISLAMIC LAW IN THE NEWS After retiring from the NBA, Hakeem Olajuwon launched a successful career in real estate, all the while avoiding borrowing money for his acquisitions that would result in paying or charging interest, which contradicts his faith. Al Barakeh Wheat - a project founded by two Jordanians - teaches people how to … Continue reading Islamic Law in the News Roundup
SCHOLARSHIP ROUNDUP On Islamic Law: In "The Textual Evolution of the Ottoman Şeyhülislams’ Fetvas: A Cross-Corpora Computational Analysis" (Der Islam 98, no. 2 (2021)), Bogac Ergene (The University of Vermont) and Atabey Kaygun (Istanbul Technical University) "use a mix of computational techniques to identify textual shifts in the Ottoman şeyhülislams’ fetvas between the sixteenth and twentieth centuries." In … Continue reading Weekend Scholarship Roundup
By Christian Mauder This is part two in a series of four posts on legal culture at the late Mamlūk court. As former slave soldiers (mamlūks) of non-Muslim origin, many members of the military elite of the Mamlūk Sultanate did not acquire a natural familiarity with Islamic legal norms in their childhood and youth. Many … Continue reading Studying Islamic Law in the Mamlūk Barracks
By Christian Mauder This is part one in a series of four posts on legal culture at the late Mamlūk court. Many students of Islamic history are fascinated by the unusual polity that ruled Egypt, Syria, and neighboring regions from about 1250 to 1517 CE. This political entity was dominated by a small elite group … Continue reading Legal Diversity at the Late Mamlūk Court
By Mehdi Berriah This is part four in a series of four posts on the financing of jihād during the Mamlūk period. As noted by Ibrāhīm b. ʿAlī al-Hanafī al-Ṭarsūsī, the possibility of resorting to the imposition of new taxes or the requisition, on the order of the sultan, of goods to finance a war effort … Continue reading A Lack of Resources in the bayt al-māl: A Sine Qua Non Condition for the Imposition of a Tax?
By Mehdi Berriah This is part three in a series of four posts on the financing of jihād during the Mamlūk period. In the cases presented in the sources discussed in the previous post, sultans and amīrs met, in general, with firm opposition on the part of several ʿulamāʾ to the imposition of additional taxes on … Continue reading The Sharīʿa on the Financing of Jihād
The United States' withdrawal from Afghanistan, and the Taliban's subsequent takeover of the country has brought, once again, Islam and Islamic law to the fore in recent news coverage, reports, and analyses. This renewed attention to Islamic law is in part due to the fact that the Taliban identifies itself as a Muslim military organization … Continue reading Resource Roundup: Afghanistan, the Taliban, and Islamic Law
By Mehdi Berriah This is part two in a series of four posts on the financing of jihād during the Mamlūk period. First Episode The first episode took place in dhū-l-qaʿda 657/November 1259, after Quṭuz dismissed al-Manṣūr ʿAlī, the son of his former master, the first Mamlūk sultan al-Muʿizz Aybak (d. 655/1257), and proclaimed himself sultan. The … Continue reading Episodes in which the ʿUlamāʾ, according to Islamic Law, were Opposed to the Tax
