Everything from reviews of recent publications and cases to reflections on the book-writing and tenure process for scholars in Islamic law. Junior and senior scholars known in the field of Islamic legal studies are invited to become guest editors of the blog for one-month terms. The posts do not undergo editorial review, and offer room for these scholars to content and context on Islamic law, and more.
By Janina Safran The question arose in a recent round table discussion and is challenging to answer for three central reasons.[1] First are the usual problems of little textual evidence: … Continue reading How did jurists interpret and practice law in al-Andalus in the Umayyad period?
Janina Safran is Associate Professor of History at The Pennsylvania State University. Her field is Islamic history (c. 600–1250), and her particular area of research is al-Andalus (Islamic Iberia) and … Continue reading Welcome to our July Guest Blogger: Janina Safran
Many thanks to Haroon Bashir for joining us as guest blog editor in May. In case you missed his essays, here they are: The Emancipatory Ethic? Freedom in Classical Islamic … Continue reading Thank you, Haroon Bashir!
By Haroon Bashir Debates regarding slavery and Islam have resurfaced in modern times, partly due to the re-emergence of slavery through the actions of groups such as ISIS and Boko … Continue reading Competing Moral Logics: Islamic Law, Slavery, and Abolition in the Contemporary World
By Haroon Bashir While the gradual abolition thesis gained popularity, as demonstrated in the previous essay, it was by no means universally accepted. Scholars such as Ḥusayn al-Jisr (d. 1327/1909) … Continue reading Preserving the Past: Slavery, Tradition and Legal Authority
By Haroon Bashir It is often stated in contemporary discussions on slavery and Islam, almost to the point of ubiquity, that Islam always aimed to abolish slavery.[1] Yet, the first … Continue reading Abolitionist Trajectories? Modern Rereadings of Emancipation
By Haroon Bashir Slavery has been a near-universal institution throughout human history, and its formal abolition is a relatively recent development.[1] Like all scholars, Muslim jurists were shaped by their … Continue reading The Emancipatory Ethic? Freedom in Classical Islamic Law
Dr. Haroon Bashir is Associate Professor of Contemporary Islam at the Markfield Institute of Higher Education. His research explores contemporary Islamic thought, Quranic hermeneutics, and the ethical engagement of Muslim … Continue reading Welcome to our May Guest Blogger: Haroon Bashir
Thank you, Dominik Krell and Muhammad Zubair Abbasi for joining us as guest blog editors in April. In case you missed their essays, here they are: Is Saudi Arabia’s Legal System … Continue reading Thank you, Dominik Krell and Muhammad Zubair Abbasi!
Editor’s Note: In the previous three essays of this series, Dominik Krell explored codification, muftis, and legal change in contemporary Saudi Arabia. In this final essay, Muhammad Zubair Abbasi takes … Continue reading Expanding Muslim Women’s Right to Divorce: Judicial Khulʿ in Saudi Arabia’s Personal Status Law and Muslim Personal Law in South Asia
