Weekend Scholarship Roundup

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 and sayings are determined by… CONTINUE READING

Riddles, Influence, and Borrowing from Rival Legal Schools

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 Roundup

ISLAMIC LAW IN THE NEWS “The Taliban banned women from participating in Eid gatherings in two districts in Afghanistan ahead of widespread celebrations expected in the country to mark the end of Ramadan.” For more content and context on the recent developments in Afghanistan, consult our Editor-in-Chief, Professor Intisar Rabb’s “Resource Roundup: Afghanistan, the Taliban, and Islamic Law.” In the African Sahel region, the Islamic… CONTINUE READING

Weekend Scholarship Roundup

SCHOLARSHIP ROUNDUP On Islamic Law: Systemic Islamophobia in Canada: A Research Agenda (University of Toronto Press, 2023), edited by Anver M. Emon (University of Toronto Faculty of Law), “presents critical perspectives on systemic Islamophobia in Canadian politics, law, and society, and maps areas for future research and inquiry. The authors consist of both scholars and professionals who encounter in the… CONTINUE READING

Why Study Islamic Legal Riddles?

By Matthew L. Keegan When I first came across a chapter on legal riddles in the Kitāb al-Ashbāh wa’l-Naẓāʾir of Ibn Nujaym (d. 970/1563) in graduate school, I was immediately fascinated. I had never heard of the genre and could find little about it. The riddles themselves had a playful literariness to them, which appealed … Continue reading Why Study Islamic Legal Riddles?

Welcome to our May Guest Blogger: Matthew L. Keegan

Matthew L. Keegan is the Moinian Assistant Professor of Asian and Middle Eastern Cultures at Barnard College of Columbia University. His research program explores the intersections of Islamic law and Arabic literature. He has published articles on Islamic legal riddles, Quranic exegesis, the commentary tradition around al-Ḥarīrī’s Maqāmāt, and the prose and poetry of the … Continue reading Welcome to our May Guest Blogger: Matthew L. Keegan

Islamic Law in the News Roundup

ISLAMIC LAW IN THE NEWS Kenya sanctioned a man who disguised himself in a burqa to compete in a national chess competition for women. The cleric who performed former Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan’s marriage declared the marriage to be against Islamic law, alleging that Khan’s wife did not wait out the 130-day period (iddat) after divorcing her former spouse.… CONTINUE READING

Weekend Scholarship Roundup

SCHOLARSHIP ROUNDUP On Islamic Law: In Peace and Reconciliation in International Islamic Law (Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2023), Kaleem Hussain (University of Birmingham) “presents a lucid analysis, observing how the sources of international law and Islamic Law help or hinder the pathway towards peace and reconciliation in selected conflict theatres: namely, Afghanistan, Palestine-Israel and Kashmir.” In “Politics of Islamic Law in the… CONTINUE READING

Thank you, Lev Weitz!

Thank you, Lev Weitz, for joining us as guest blog editor in April. In case you missed his essays, here they are: Documentary Sources and Islamic Legal History: The View from the Provinces Tracing the Judicial Infrastructure of a Rural Province Tax Receipts and Rent for a Mill: The Multiple Normative Orders of Medieval Islamic … Continue reading Thank you, Lev Weitz!

Fragments of Provincial Life

By Lev Weitz For social historians, legal sources have been among the most captivating, tried-and-true means to get at the microhistorical detail of everyday life in times past. In the final essay of this series, I’ll consider what Arabic legal documents can offer as sources for medieval social history. We’ll return to the region of … Continue reading Fragments of Provincial Life