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 Yavuz Aykan This is the first essay in a series of four essays on "Why the Ottoman fiqh? Reading Ḥanafī jurisprudence in its historical longue durée." In my essay series, I will … Continue reading Introduction: On the Authority of the Qāḍī’s Judgment
Yavuz Aykan is Associate Professor of Early Modern History at University of Paris 1's School of History (École d'Histoire de la Sorbonne). He is the author of Rendre la justice … Continue reading Welcome to our December Guest Blogger: Yavuz Aykan
Thank you, Elizabeth Urban, for joining us as guest blog editor in November. In case you missed her essays, here they are: Freedwomen in ʿAbd al-Razzāq’s al-Muṣannaf Freedwomen in Ibn … Continue reading Thank you, Elizabeth Urban!
By Elizabeth Urban For my final essay, I want to move away from research and into pedagogy. I teach a 4/4 load at a regional university. Most of my students … Continue reading Playing with Islamic Law in the Undergraduate Classroom
By Elizabeth Urban For the results I presented in my first and second essays, I used the search function on al-Maktaba al-Shamela to search for the key terms mawlāh and … Continue reading Vocabularies of Enslavement & Unfreedom
By Elizabeth Urban In my previous essay, I wrote about how ʿAbd al-Razzāq’s (d. 211/827) al-Muṣannaf features freedwomen in “tricky” inheritance cases; in this essay I turn to Ibn Abī … Continue reading Freedwomen in Ibn Abī Shayba’s al-Muṣannaf
By Elizabeth Urban Scholars who have studied manumission in early Islamic contexts have usually focused on male freedmen (mawālī).[1] Conversely, scholars who have studied unfree women have usually focused on … Continue reading Freedwomen in ʿAbd al-Razzāq’s al-Muṣannaf
Elizabeth Urban is Associate Professor of History at West Chester University of Pennsylvania, where she specializes in the first two centuries of Islamic history. She particularly seeks to understand how Islam … Continue reading Welcome to our November Guest Blogger: Elizabeth Urban
Thank you, Rabiat Akande, for joining us as guest blog editor in October. In case you missed her essays, here they are: Colonialism and Islamic Law Siyāsa Authority in the … Continue reading Thank you, Rabiat Akande!
By Rabiat Akande The tussle over diya (compensation for unlawful killing) was one over the locus of sovereignty in the colonial state. For colonial officials, the colonial state and, ultimately, … Continue reading Diya and the Legacy of Empire
