Webinar: “The Second Formation of Islamic Law in Premodern Transoxiana: Evidences of Manuscripts” by Dr. Lola Dodkhudoeva, December 6, 2022 @ 5:00 pm

The collapse of the Timurid empire set in motion the complex mechanisms of a political reorganization of Eurasia and led to the emergence of new political formations. Among them, the nomadic Abu l-khayrids dynasty (906-1007/1500-99) established their power in Transoxiana but remained a marginal polity tryiong to inforce their influence and authority in the region. They did so by ‘favouring’ religious orthodoxy, which enabled them to unify the legal basis of society and battled, on the outer contour of their territory, against Shi‘ism, which had become the state ideology of Iran, which based its legitimacy as an “al-firqa al-nājiyya”.

For the administration of the state, the Abu l-khayrids needed a legal knowledge base and the region’s dominant Hanafi community (ulama and faqihs), launched a process of rethinking the Islamic legal heritage. This paper will address process by exploring manuscripts from collections held in Tajikistan and Uzbekistan containing legal treatises and fatwas from that period. I will argue that these documents reveal a process of  “acceptance, rejection, and reappropriation” that could be considered as a “second formation of Islamic law in premodern Transoxiana.

For Zoom registration details, please see here.