Conclusion: Why the princely states? Why now? What’s next?

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By Elizabeth Lhost During my time as guest blogger this month, I’ve demonstrated how sources from the Indian princely states can help historians overcome the binaries, dichotomies, and oppositions that sometimes hamper the study of colonial legal change, especially in the context of understanding developments in the interpretation, administration, and governance of Islamic law. The … Continue reading Conclusion: Why the princely states? Why now? What’s next?

Dekan Lā Ripōrṫ: Familiar genres, unfamiliar stories

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By Elizabeth Lhost For my final essay this month, I’ve selected the Deccan Law Reports for analysis. Law reports are a familiar genre for many legal historians, and the Deccan Law Reports are exemplars of the genre. Each volume includes cases dedicated to criminal (faujdārī) and civil (dīwānī) cases. There are also cases from the … Continue reading Dekan Lā Ripōrṫ: Familiar genres, unfamiliar stories

Naql-i Rejisṫarḋ khaṭ: Letters, postcards, and telegrams as sources of law

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By Elizabeth Lhost In March 1950, Muḥyī-ud-dīn Ṣāḥib sent a request to the dār al-iftāʾ (office for issuing fatwās, judicial opinions) of the Ṣadārat al-ʿĀliya (ecclesiastical department) of the princely state of Hyderabad in which he raised a question about “Zayd’s” use of a registered letter (“regisṫarḋ khaṭ”) to notify his wife of their irrevocable … Continue reading Naql-i Rejisṫarḋ khaṭ: Letters, postcards, and telegrams as sources of law

Farāmīn-i Niẓāmat: Looking at legal layers in a royal decree

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By Elizabeth Lhost The first farmān (order) (pictured below) in a volume titled Farāmīn-i Niẓāmat-i dār al-qażāʿ-yi balada, min ibtidāʿ–yi sana-yi 1339 H li-ghāyata-yi sana-yi 1350 H, daftar-i Senṫral Rikārḋ, Ḥukūmat-i Ḥaidarābād (Orders from the office of the qażī of the city, from the start of year 1339 AH to the end of year 1350 … Continue reading Farāmīn-i Niẓāmat: Looking at legal layers in a royal decree

Raftār-i Taraqqī-yi ʿAdālat: Rethinking “progress” in the history of Hyderabad’s Āṣafī Courts

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By Elizabeth Lhost Like a good social scientist, I begin with a diagram. Mir Basit Ali Khan’s Urdu-language Tārīkh-i ʿAdālat-i Āṣafī (History of the Asafi Courts) (1937) opens with a grand illustration celebrating judicial progress in the princely state of Hyderabad between 1911, when the last independent ruler, Niẓām Mir Osman Ali Khan (r. 1911–1948) … Continue reading Raftār-i Taraqqī-yi ʿAdālat: Rethinking “progress” in the history of Hyderabad’s Āṣafī Courts

Breaking out of “Anglo-Muslim” hybrids, or the case for studying the princely states

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By Elizabeth Lhost Sources matter, especially for the study of history. They determine the stories we tell, the perspectives we portray, the experiences we recover. Yet when it comes to telling the story of Islamic legal change in South Asia under British rule, some sources lend themselves more easily and more willingly to narrative history. … Continue reading Breaking out of “Anglo-Muslim” hybrids, or the case for studying the princely states

Weekend Scholarship Roundup

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SCHOLARSHIP ROUNDUP On Islamic Law In "Insight: the legal and regulatory framework governing Islamic finance and markets in Malaysia" (Lexology, October 19, 2022) Murni Zuyati Zulkifli Aziz and Rodney Gerard D'Cruz (Adnan Sundra & Low) predict that "[w]ith the government's determination to focus on its Shared Prosperity Vision 2030 to promote Malaysia as an Islamic … Continue reading Weekend Scholarship Roundup

Weekend Scholarship Roundup

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SCHOLARSHIP ROUNDUP On Islamic Law In "The Dominion of Rights, the Resistance of Duties" (Rutgers Journal of Law and Religion 22, no. 3 (2022)), Adnan A. Zulfiqar (Rutgers Law School) "argues that while colonial domination had devastating consequences for patterns of life, social order and communal ties, its most profound impact was on the paradigm … Continue reading Weekend Scholarship Roundup

Weekend Scholarship Roundup

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SCHOLARSHIP ROUNDUP On Islamic Law: In "Review: Syed Mahmood; Colonial India’s Dissenting Judge by Mohammad Nasir and Samreen Ahmad" (Hindustan Times, May 23, 2022), Shafey Kidwai (Aligarh Muslim University) reviews the book Syed Mahmood: Colonial India’s Dissenting Judge (Bloomsbury 2022). In "Methodology for Studying the Relationship between Islamic Law and National Customs in the Uzbek … Continue reading Weekend Scholarship Roundup

Excavating the Colonial Modern in Islamic Law

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By Junaid Quadri How shall we understand the encounter between the sharīʿa and the colonial modern? What have been the responses of Muslim jurists to the twin pressures of colonialism and modernity? A surge of works in recent years have given us a range of responses to these questions. While some stress the deep penetration … Continue reading Excavating the Colonial Modern in Islamic Law