Islamic Law in Context A Primary Source Reader

This volume surveys the diversity of Islamic legal thought and practice, a 1500 - year tradition that has been cultivated throughout the Islamic world. It features translations of Islamic legal texts from across the spectrum of literary genres (including legal theory, judicial handbooks, pamphlets) that represent the range of temporal, geographic and linguistic contexts in which Islamic law has been, and continues to be, developed. Each text has been chosen and translated by a specialist. It is accompanied by an accessible introduction that places the author and text in historical and legal contexts and explains the state of the relevant field of study. An introduction to each section offers an overview of the genre and provides a useful bibliography. The volume will enable all researchers of Islamic law - established academics, undergraduate students, and general readers - to understand the tremendous and sometimes bewildering diversity of Islamic law, as well the continuities and common features that bind it together.

Introduction Robert Gleave and Omar Anchassi; Part I. Islamic Legal Theory (Uṣūl al-Fiqh) and Related Genres: 1. The Foundation of Analogy Ziad Bou Akl; 2. The Insufficiency of Concomitance Alone Walter Edward Young; 3. Selections from al-Manthūr fī-l-Qawāʾid of Badr al-Dīn al-Zarkashī (d. 794/1392) Elias G. Saba; 4. 'Is Every Mujtahid Correct or Not?' and the implications of holding incorrect theological beliefs for one's fate in the hereafter, from Qawānīn al-Uṣūl of Mīrzā al-Qummī (d. 1231/1816) Ali-reza Bhojani; 5. The 'Innovation' of Legal School Affiliation Robert Gleave; Part II. Islamic Jurisprudence (Fiqh) and Related Genres: 6. The Kitāb al-Umma, or Ṣaḥīfat al-Madīna Rehanna Nurmohamed; 7. Section on lawful food from al-Mabsūṭ fī Fiqh al-Imāmiyya of Muḥammad b. al-Ḥasan al-Ṭūsī (d. 460/1067) Sumeyra Yakar; 8. 'The Treatise of Refutation of those who Criticise [Our] Conduct' (Kitāb al-Radd ʿalā man Ṭaʿana fī l-Sīra) attributed to Imam al-Mutawakkil ʿalā Allāh, Aḥmad b. Sulaymān (d. 566/1170) Eirik Hovden; 9. Menstruating Women and Visiting the Mosque Robert Gleave; 10. Section on the law of rebellion from the Radd al-Muḥtār of Ibn ʿĀbidīn (d. 1252/1836) Aysegul Simsek; 11. Offer and Acceptance in Islamic Marriage Robert Gleave; 12. Treatise on Jihad and Migration Magomed Gizbulaev; 13. Alms Tax (zakā) in Shīʿī Law Maryam Rutner; 14. A Difficult Case of Divorce, Tholaq Samvadam of ʿAbd Allāh Musliyār (b. ?) Sayyed Mohamed Muhsin; Part III. Legal Opinions (Fatwās): 15. Ottoman Fatwās on the Substitution of Defunct Endowment Properties, from al-Aqwāl al-Marḍiyya of Qāḍīzādah Muḥammad Ṭāhir (d. 1254/1834) Hatice Kubra; 16. Settling Disputes among Nomads Ismail Warscheid; 17. Fatwās on Aspects of Modern Life Knut S. Vikør; 18. 'According to the qaul muʿtamad it is unlawful and invalid' Mohamad Bekti Khudari Lantong; 19. Women and Leadership Mahmoud Afifi; 20. 'His doctrine is deviant' Mukhsin Achmed; Part IV. Court Judgements and other Court Documentation: 21. The Restitituion of Conjugal Rights Sohaira Siddiqui; 22. A Sharīʿa Court Judgement of Muḥammad Ḥusayn Fishārakī (d. 1353/1935) reviving the Safavid Waqf of Mīrzā Aḥmad Kafrānī (d. after 988/1580) Zahir Bhalloo; 23. Authenticating Marriage Monika Lindbekk; 24. Judgment of the Moroccan Supreme Council of Sharīʿa Appeals, Ruling #52 on Issue #4164 concerning Inheritance, Slavery, and Paternity (1359/1943) Ari Schriber; 25. Sharīʿa, Sales and Loans in the Malaysian High Court Amir Shaharuddin; 26. A Sharīʿa Court Decision on the Type of 'Compensation' in huləʾə/khulʿ Divorce Asnakech Getnet; Part V. Judicial Manuals and Reference Books: 27. 'The Discretion of the İmâm' Kubra Nugay; 28. On Criminal Law Mina Khalil; 29. Custody Disputes and the Best Interest of the Child, from al-Murshid fī l-Qaḍāʾ al-Sharʿī by Qāḍī Iyad Zahalka Nijmi Edres; 30. Ibn Khunyan (b. 1376/1956) on Ajudication and Judicial Organisation, from al-Kāshif fī Sharḥ Niẓām al-Murāfaʿāt al-Sharʿiyya al-Saʿūdī ('A Commentary on the Saudi Code of Sharīʿa Procedure') Dominik Krell; 31. Temporary Marriage in Iranian Family Law Hannah L. Richter; 32. On Scriptuaries and Pagans as Slave-Concubines Omar Anchassi; Part VI. Alternative Sources for Islamic Legal Studies: Licenses, Biographies, Pamphlets, Speeches and Novels: 33. Reform of Islamic Law in 19th century Afghanistan Elham Bakhtary; 34. The 'Permission to Teach' the Law Robert Gleave; 35. Controversial and Uncontroversial Biographies in Rayḥānat al-Adab of Mīrzā Muḥammad ʿAlī Mudarris (d. 1373/1954) Robert Gleave; 36. Battle of the Qāḍīs Mahmood Kooria; 37. Aḥlām al-Naṣr and the Islamic State's Justification for Execution by Burning Mathias Ghyoot.

Omar Anchassi is a scholar of Islamic intellectual history with a focus on the disciplines of law (fiqh), theology and Qur'an commentary. He has published on violence, slavery, gender and sexuality in Islamic thought and practice in prestigious venues including Islamic Law and Society, and Edinburgh and Cambridge University Presses. He is currently a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the University of Exeter, and was previously an Early Career Fellow in Islamic Studies at the University of Edinburgh. For three years, he served as Treasurer of BRAIS (the British Association for Islamic Studies).
Robert Gleave is Professor of Arabic Studies at the University of Exeter, UK. He teaches and researches in Arabic and Islamic Studies with a focus on Islamic law and legal theory, Shi'ite Islam and techniques of exegesis in Islamic intellectual history. He is author of Inevitable Doubt (Brill, 2000), Scripturalist Islam (Brill, 2007) and Islam and Literalism (EUP, 2011). He edited the Violence in Islamic Thought series (EUP, 2016 to 2021). Islamic law in Context is one of the outputs of the Understanding Sharia project (funded by the HERA consortium), of which he was Principal Investigator.