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 … Continue reading Fragments of Provincial Life

Tax Receipts and Rent for a Mill: The Multiple Normative Orders of Medieval Islamic Societies

By Lev Weitz My last essay in this series showed how Arabic documentary sources can extend our view of the practical operation of Islamic law from urban centers into medieval … Continue reading Tax Receipts and Rent for a Mill: The Multiple Normative Orders of Medieval Islamic Societies

Why I No Longer Use the Term “Qāḍī-Court Documents”

By Marina Rustow I came into my graduate seminar on Arabic legal documents with some experience in paleography and diplomatics, but vanishingly little knowledge of the material I was going … Continue reading Why I No Longer Use the Term “Qāḍī-Court Documents”

Islamic law and the documentary record before 1500: Unsolved problems and untried solutions

By Marina Rustow (Princeton University) This essay is part of the Islamic Law Blog’s Roundtable on Islamic Legal History & Historiography, edited by Intisar Rabb (Editor-in-Chief) and Mariam Sheibani (Lead … Continue reading Islamic law and the documentary record before 1500: Unsolved problems and untried solutions