Vocabularies of Enslavement & Unfreedom

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

Freedwomen in Ibn Abī Shayba’s al-Muṣannaf

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

Freedwomen in ʿAbd al-Razzāq’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

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

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

Weekend Scholarship Roundup

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. … Continue reading Weekend Scholarship Roundup

Four Historical Strategies for Approaching Early Islamic Law

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 … Continue reading Four Historical Strategies for Approaching Early Islamic Law

Weekend Scholarship Roundup

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 … Continue reading Weekend Scholarship Roundup

Weekend Scholarship Roundup

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 … Continue reading Weekend Scholarship Roundup

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

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 … 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

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 … Continue reading :: Muwaṭṭaʾ Roundtable :: The Handmaiden’s Tale