SCHOLARSHIP ROUNDUP On Islamic Law: In "Judicial Crisis in Damascus on the Eve of Baybars’s Reform: The Case of the Minor Orphan Girl (651–55/1253–57)" (Islamic Law and Society (March 23, 2022)), Mariam Sheibani (The University of Toronto Scarborough) "reconstructs a late-Ayyubid court case in Damascus that was litigated repeatedly between 651/1253 and 655/1257, five years … Continue reading Weekend Scholarship Roundup
By Junaid Quadri* In 663/1265, Sultan al-Ẓāhir Baybars appointed a chief judge from each of the four Sunnī madhhabs. For scholars of Islamic law, this decision has served as a signal moment in the story told about the normative pluralism found within Sunnī Islam. I say that this was a signal moment, but it was … Continue reading Intellectual and Practical Caution as Grounds for Legal Pluralism
Thank you, Christian Mauder, for joining us as guest blog editor in October. In case you missed Prof. Mauder's essays on legal culture at the late Mamlūk court, here they are: Legal Diversity at the Late Mamlūk Court Studying Law in the Mamlūk Barracks Enjoying the Law: Legal Riddling at the Mamlūk Court A Sultan … Continue reading Thank you, Christian Mauder!
By Christian Mauder This is part four in a series of four posts on legal culture at the late Mamlūk court. The governing elite of what is known as the Mamlūk Sultanate is often depicted as decidedly uninterested in notions of Islamic political thought and good governance. Robert Irwin sums up this traditional view of … Continue reading A Sultan Becomes Caliph: Legal Knowledge and Late Mamlūk Political Thought
By Christian Mauder This is part three in a series of four posts on legal culture at the late Mamlūk court. As the rulers of a vast realm in which Islam was the dominant religion, many members of the military elite of the Mamlūk Sultanate (1250–1517) seem to have considered knowledge about Islamic legal norms … Continue reading Enjoying the Law: Legal Riddling at the Mamlūk Court
By Christian Mauder This is part two in a series of four posts on legal culture at the late Mamlūk court. As former slave soldiers (mamlūks) of non-Muslim origin, many members of the military elite of the Mamlūk Sultanate did not acquire a natural familiarity with Islamic legal norms in their childhood and youth. Many … Continue reading Studying Islamic Law in the Mamlūk Barracks
By Christian Mauder This is part one in a series of four posts on legal culture at the late Mamlūk court. Many students of Islamic history are fascinated by the unusual polity that ruled Egypt, Syria, and neighboring regions from about 1250 to 1517 CE. This political entity was dominated by a small elite group … Continue reading Legal Diversity at the Late Mamlūk Court
Thank you, Mehdi Berriah, for joining us as guest blog editor in September. In case you missed Prof. Berriah's essays on the financing of jihād in the Mamlūk era, here they are: The Issue of Financing Jihād in Islamic Law: Three Case Studies from the Mamlūk Period Episodes in which the ʿUlamāʾ, according to Islamic … Continue reading Thank you, Mehdi Berriah!
By Mehdi Berriah This is part four in a series of four posts on the financing of jihād during the Mamlūk period. As noted by Ibrāhīm b. ʿAlī al-Hanafī al-Ṭarsūsī, the possibility of resorting to the imposition of new taxes or the requisition, on the order of the sultan, of goods to finance a war effort … Continue reading A Lack of Resources in the bayt al-māl: A Sine Qua Non Condition for the Imposition of a Tax?
By Mehdi Berriah This is part three in a series of four posts on the financing of jihād during the Mamlūk period. In the cases presented in the sources discussed in the previous post, sultans and amīrs met, in general, with firm opposition on the part of several ʿulamāʾ to the imposition of additional taxes on … Continue reading The Sharīʿa on the Financing of Jihād
