The Formation of the Sunni Schools of Law, 9th-10th Centuries C.E.

by Christopher Melchert
The Formation of the Sunni Schools of Law, 9th-10th Centuries C.E.
Author: Christopher Melchert
Publisher: BRILL
Total Pages: 273
Release: 2024-01-08
Genre: Law
ISBN: 9004661182
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The Sunni schools of law are named for jurisprudents of the eighth and ninth centuries, but they did not actually function so early. The main division at that time was rather between adherents of ra'y and ḥadīth. No school had a regular means of forming students. Relying mainly on biographical dictionaries, this study traces the constitutive elements of the classical schools and finds that they first came together in the early tenth century, particularly with the work of Ibn Surayj (d. 306/918), al-Khallāl (d. 311/923), and a series of ḥanafī teachers ending with al-Karkhī (d. 340/952). Mālikism prospered in the West for political reasons, while the ẓāhirī and Jarīrī schools faded out due to their refusal to adopt the common new teaching methods. In this book the author fleshes out these historical developments in a manner that will be extremely useful to the field, while at the same time developing some new and highly original perspectives.

The Formation of the Sunni Schools of Law

by Christopher Melchert
The Formation of the Sunni Schools of Law
Author: Christopher Melchert
Publisher: BRILL
Total Pages: 282
Release: 1997
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 9789004109520
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Melchert traces the emergence of jurisprudence by h ad th, the personalization of the old regional schools in response, and finally the emergence of the classical, guild schools, with regular means of forming students, in the early tenth century.

The Canonization of Islamic Law

by Ahmed El Shamsy
The Canonization of Islamic Law
Author: Ahmed El Shamsy
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 265
Release: 2013-10-21
Genre: History
ISBN: 1107041481
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Ahmed El Shamsy's The Canonization of Islamic Law is a detailed history of the birth of classical Islamic law. It shows how Islamic law and its institutions emerged out of the canonization of the sacred sources of Quran and Sunna (prophetic practice) in the eighth and ninth centuries CE. The book focuses on the ideas and influence of the jurist al-Shāfiʿī (d. 820 CE), who inaugurated the process of canonization, and it paints a rich picture of the intellectual engagements, political turbulence, and social changes that formed the context of his and his followers' careers.

The Formation of Islamic Law

by Wael B. Hallaq
The Formation of Islamic Law
Author: Wael B. Hallaq
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 458
Release: 2016-12-05
Genre: History
ISBN: 1351889540
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The fourteen studies included in this volume have been chosen to serve several purposes simultaneously. At a basic level, they aim to provide a general - if not wholly systematic - coverage of the emergence and evolution of law during the first three and a half centuries of Islam. On another level, they reflect the different and, at times, widely divergent scholarly approaches to this subject matter. These two levels combined will offer a useful account of the rise of Islamic law not only for students in this field but also for Islamicists who are not specialists in matters of law, comparative legal historians, and others. At the same time, however, and as the Introduction to the work argues, this collection of distinguished contributions illustrates both the achievements and the shortcomings of paradigmatic scholarship on the formative period of Islamic law.

An Introduction to Islamic Law

by Wael B. Hallaq
An Introduction to Islamic Law
Author: Wael B. Hallaq
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 209
Release: 2009-07-09
Genre: Law
ISBN: 1139489305
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The study of Islamic law can be a forbidding prospect for those entering the field for the first time. Wael Hallaq, a leading scholar and practitioner of Islamic law, guides students through the intricacies of the subject in this absorbing introduction. The first half of the book is devoted to a discussion of Islamic law in its pre-modern natural habitat. The second part explains how the law was transformed and ultimately dismantled during the colonial period. In the final chapters, the author charts recent developments and the struggles of the Islamists to negotiate changes which have seen the law emerge as a primarily textual entity focused on fixed punishments and ritual requirements. The book, which includes a chronology, a glossary of key terms, and lists of further reading, will be the first stop for those who wish to understand the fundamentals of Islamic law, its practices and history.

The Formation of Islamic Hermeneutics

by David R. Vishanoff
The Formation of Islamic Hermeneutics
Author: David R. Vishanoff
Publisher:
Total Pages: 0
Release: 2011
Genre: Literary Criticism
ISBN: 9780940490314
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This book is the first historical analysis of those parts of Islamic legal theory that deal with the language of revelation, and a milestone in reconstructing the missing history of legal theory in the ninth and tenth centuries. It offers a fresh interpretation of al-Shafii's seminal thought, and traces the development of four different responses to his hermeneutic, culminating in the works of Ibn Hazm, Abd al-Jabbar, al-Baqillani, and Abu Yala Ibn al-Farra. It reveals startling connections between rationalism and literalism, and documents how the remarkable diversity that characterized even traditionalist schools of law was eclipsed in the fifth/eleventh century by a pragmatic hermeneutic that gave jurists the interpretive power and flexibility they needed to claim revealed status for their legal doctrines. More than a detailed and richly documented history, this book opens new avenues for the comparative study of legal and hermeneutical theories, and offers new insights into unstated premises that shape and restrict Muslim legal discourse today. The book is of interest to all occupied with classical Islam, the development of Islamic law, and comparative hermeneutical research.

Between God and the Sultan

by Knut S. Vikør
Between God and the Sultan
Author: Knut S. Vikør
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
Total Pages: 406
Release: 2005
Genre: Law
ISBN: 9780195223989
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The contrast between religion and law has been continuous throughout Muslim history. Islamic law has always existed in a tension between these two forces: God, who gave the law, and the state--the sultan--representing society and implementing the law. This tension and dynamic have created a very particular history for the law--in how it was formulated and by whom, in its theoretical basis and its actual rules, and in how it was practiced in historical reality from the time of its formation until today. That is the main theme of this book. Knut S. Vikor introduces the development and practice of Islamic law to a wide readership: students, lawyers, and the growing number of those interested in Islamic civilization. He summarizes the main concepts of Islamic jurisprudence; discusses debates concerning the historicity of Islamic sources of dogma and the dating of early Islamic law; describes the classic practice of the law, in the formulation and elaboration of legal rules and practice in the courts; and sets out various substantive legal rules, on such vital matters as the family and economic activity.

Doubt in Islamic Law

by Intisar A. Rabb
Doubt in Islamic Law
Author: Intisar A. Rabb
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 431
Release: 2015
Genre: History
ISBN: 1107080991
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This book considers the rarely studied but pervasive concepts of doubt that medieval Muslim jurists used to resolve problematic criminal cases.

Shari’a

by Abbas Amanat
Shari’a
Author: Abbas Amanat
Publisher: Stanford University Press
Total Pages: 265
Release: 2007-09-17
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 0804779538
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This volume presents ten leading scholars' writings on contemporary Islamic law and Muslim thought. The essays examine a range of issues, from modern Muslim discourses on justice, natural law, and the common good, to democracy, the social contract, and "the authority of the preeminent jurist." Changes in how Shari'a has been understood over the centuries are explored, as well as how it has been applied in both Sunni and Shi'i Islam. Debates on the nature, interpretation, reform, and application of Shari'a lie at the core of all Islamist revivalist ideologies and movements of the past two centuries. The demand for the implementation of Shari'a is one of the hallmarks of Islamic fundamentalism, and Shari'a has become one of the most controversial and politicized concepts in Muslim-majority countries today. This is one of the first books to examine how Muslims understand and apply Shari'a in contemporary societies.