Studies on the Ottoman Shaykh al-Islāms are largely focused on a few names, their fatwās, and their relations with the state. It is a fact that the fatwā constituted a significant part of their writings because they were mostly dealing with legal issues while maintaining their duties as a Shaykh al-Islāms. In addition, although the … Continue reading A Literary Bureaucrat Scholar and Shaykh al-Islām: Ahmad Ārif Hikmet Bey Efendi
Ottoman Shaykh al-Islāms of the Nineteenth Century and their Intellectual Biographies
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
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
Folk Interpretation and the “Dark Matter” of Pre-Modern Islamic Law
In his recent book The Making of the Medieval Middle East (Princeton University Press, 2018), Jack Tannous draws attention to the overwhelming majority of “simple” Christians and Muslims with minimal exposure to (or interest in) the rarefied doctrinal issues that dominate the received history of Late Antique Christianity and early Islam. He argues that, like … Continue reading Folk Interpretation and the “Dark Matter” of Pre-Modern Islamic Law
:: Muwaṭṭaʾ Roundtable :: Journey of the Muwaṭṭaʾ in different periods of the history of South Asia: Shāh Walīyullāh’s Pursuit of Mālik
By Ebrahim Moosa (University of Notre Dame) It is one of those twists of history that in a region famed for hosting the largest number of followers of the Ḥanafī school, and large numbers of the Shāfiʿī, Ahl al-Ḥadīth (salafī), Jaʿfarī, and Ismāʿīlī schools, South Asia can also boast a healthy interest in the Muwaṭṭaʾ … Continue reading :: Muwaṭṭaʾ Roundtable :: Journey of the Muwaṭṭaʾ in different periods of the history of South Asia: Shāh Walīyullāh’s Pursuit of Mālik
:: Muwaṭṭaʾ Roundtable :: Mālik, the Muwaṭṭa’, and Sunni Identity
By Jonathan Brown (Georgetown University) I once found myself trapped on a phone call with an exercised adherent of the Ḥanafī school of Islamic law who made it clear that the conversation was not going to end until I acknowledged that Abū Ḥanīfa (d. 767), the school’s founder, was the greatest Hadith scholar in Islamic … Continue reading :: Muwaṭṭaʾ Roundtable :: Mālik, the Muwaṭṭa’, and Sunni Identity
:: Muwaṭṭaʾ Roundtable :: Introduction
Mohammad Fadel (Professor of Law, University of Toronto) and Connell Monette (Vice President of Academic Affairs, American Academy Casablanca) organized a PIL Forum Roundtable on the recent publication of al-Muwaṭṭaʾ – Recension of Yahya b. Yahya al-Laythī (d. 234/848) by Mālik b. Anas, distributed through Harvard University Press. This translation is based on the recently … Continue reading :: Muwaṭṭaʾ Roundtable :: Introduction
:: Muwaṭṭaʾ Roundtable :: The Handmaiden’s Tale
By Kecia Ali (Boston University) As someone who researches and teaches about early Islamic law, I have longed for a translation of the Muwaṭṭaʾ which renders legal terminology with consistency and precision, suitable for skimming, quoting, recommending to interested lay readers, and assigning to students. There have been two “nonacademic” English translations, primarily aimed at “pious … Continue reading :: Muwaṭṭaʾ Roundtable :: The Handmaiden’s Tale
:: Muwaṭṭaʾ Roundtable :: Which is Superior: Medina or Mecca? The Muwaṭṭaʾ on the Unique Status of Medina and Its Scholarly Community
By Mariam Sheibani (Harvard Law School) Muslim jurists unanimously agreed that Mecca and Medina were the most sanctified places on earth. They nonetheless debated which of the two was greater. On this question, the lines were drawn between the Mālikīs, who upheld the preeminence of Medina, and the other three schools who by and large … Continue reading :: Muwaṭṭaʾ Roundtable :: Which is Superior: Medina or Mecca? The Muwaṭṭaʾ on the Unique Status of Medina and Its Scholarly Community
:: Muwaṭṭaʾ Roundtable :: Medina, the Mashriq, and the Maghrib in the recension of Mālik’s Muwaṭṭaʼ by the Cordoban Yaḥyā b. Yaḥyā al-Laythī*
By Maribel Fierro (National High Council for Scientific Research (CSIC), Spain) Mālik’s Muwaṭṭaʼ in the recension by the Cordoban Yaḥyā b. Yaḥyā al-Laythī includes many references to Medina.[1] This is hardly surprising given that Mālik b. Anas (d. 179/795) was a scholar from Medina and that the town of the Prophet plays an important role in … Continue reading :: Muwaṭṭaʾ Roundtable :: Medina, the Mashriq, and the Maghrib in the recension of Mālik’s Muwaṭṭaʼ by the Cordoban Yaḥyā b. Yaḥyā al-Laythī*