Commentary :: Raziya bt. Abdallah v. Hafiza bt. Receb: A Former Concubine Wins her Manumission in Court

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Case: Translation of the Court Record The woman called Radiya bt. Abd Allah, of Georgian origin and medium stature, appeared in the courthouse. She is known as the former slave of her recently deceased master, Küçük Hasan Beşe. She initiated a claim against [fakhr aqranihi – pride of equals] al-Hajj Sinan Beşe ibn Hasan, the … Continue reading Commentary :: Raziya bt. Abdallah v. Hafiza bt. Receb: A Former Concubine Wins her Manumission in Court

Weekend Scholarship Roundup

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SCHOLARSHIP ROUNDUP On Islamic Law: Nobuaki Kondo’s studies on Islamic law in Qajar Iran has been published in Persian. In "The Immorality of Incarceration" (Journal of Islamic Law 3 no. 1 (2022)), Adnan Zulfiqar (Rutgers Law School) "shows how perspectives from the Global South, in this case Islamic law, might inform new approaches to abolition … Continue reading Weekend Scholarship Roundup

Four Historical Strategies for Approaching Early Islamic Law

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By Elizabeth Urban (West Chester University of Pennsylvania) 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 Blog Editor), and introduced with a list of further readings in the short post by Intisar Rabb: “Methods and Meaning in Islamic Law: … Continue reading Four Historical Strategies for Approaching Early Islamic Law

Weekend Scholarship Roundup

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Quoted in an article appearing in the Wall Street Journal titled "Vienna Shooting Suspect Had Previous Terrorism Conviction," past Program in Islamic Law fellow and professor of Islamic law at Vienna University Ebrahim Afsah takes issue with state interventions across Europe to "stop the spread of Islamism." Afsah contends that European states create counterproductive results … Continue reading Weekend Scholarship Roundup

Weekend Scholarship Roundup

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Elizabeth Urban explores the ways in which new Muslims of slave origins were integrated into early Islamic society in "Conquered Populations in Early Islam; Non-Arabs, Slaves and the Sons of Slave Mothers," Edinburgh University Press. The book focuses on Muslims of slave origins, who belonged to the society in which they lived but whose slave … Continue reading Weekend Scholarship Roundup

The Problem of Slavery in Islamic Law: A Review of Possessed by the Right Hand, by Bernard Freamon

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For my final guest post on this esteemed Islamic Law Blog, I wanted to highlight the publication of a recent book on a subject that has not received the treatment it deserves in the Islamic world. This is the highly charged matter of slavery, which Professor Bernard Freamon tackles admirably in Possessed by the Right … Continue reading The Problem of Slavery in Islamic Law: A Review of Possessed by the Right Hand, by Bernard Freamon

:: Muwaṭṭaʾ Roundtable :: The Handmaiden’s Tale

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By Kecia Ali (Boston University) As someone who researches and teaches about early Islamic law, I have longed for a translation of the Muwaṭṭaʾ which renders legal terminology with consistency and precision, suitable for skimming, quoting, recommending to interested lay readers, and assigning to students. There have been two “nonacademic” English translations, primarily aimed at “pious … Continue reading :: Muwaṭṭaʾ Roundtable :: The Handmaiden’s Tale

Slavery and Freedom in the Yaḥyā b. Yaḥyā (d. 234/848) Recension of the Muwaṭṭaʾ of Mālik b. Anas

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The years I spent working on the forthcoming translation of the Muwaṭṭaʾ overlapped in part with the rise of the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (“ISIS”), and its claim to a caliphate. Among other outrages, ISIS introduced certain forms of slavery to the territory under its control, most prominently, concubinage. This decision was ostensibly … Continue reading Slavery and Freedom in the Yaḥyā b. Yaḥyā (d. 234/848) Recension of the Muwaṭṭaʾ of Mālik b. Anas

Recent Scholarship: Smiley on the Ottoman Empire, Russia, and International Law

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Public Domain: Parkhet P.P. (1907 - 1986)

A new book by Will Smiley (Reed College), From Slaves to Prisoners of War: The Ottoman Empire, Russia, and International Law (Oxford University Press, Nov. 2018), examines the origins of the concept of the “prisoner of war” in the Ottoman Empire, telling the story of an alternate path to the rules of modern international law. … Continue reading Recent Scholarship: Smiley on the Ottoman Empire, Russia, and International Law