Islamic Legal Thought: A Compendium of Muslim Jurists
Islamic Legal Thought: A Compendium of Muslim Jurists
Islamic Legal Thought: A Compendium of Muslim Jurists
To cite this article: Opwis, Felicitas. “Islamic Legal Thought: A Compendium of Muslim
Jurists, edited by Oussama Arabi, David S. Powers, and Susan A. Spectorsky.” Ilahiyat
Studies 9, no. 2 (2018): 293-297. https://doi.org/10.12730/13091719.2018.92.183
294 Felicitas Opwis
divine word. Their formulations of the laws of the relatively new
religious community of Muslims is the result of the interaction of
geographical, political, economic as well as societal factors of their
times. Furthermore, their distinct personalities played a role in their
engagement with the world – and, thus, in their understanding of the
role of law and its application in society. Apparent in these chapters is
that all jurists here presented were eager to resolve issues facing
Muslims in their daily life based on what they understood to be the
legacy of the Prophet Muḥammad, be that based on direct transmission
of his doctrine or rationalization of its spirit. Their goal was to ensure
that the believers’ actions were in consonance with the prophetic
message; yet, they had different approaches and priorities. The
chapters in the first section show that two factors had major influence
on shaping these jurists’ articulation of law: educational structures and
politics. Who studied with whom and in which political environment
proved formative on their respective doctrines. Reading the first six
chapters of Islamic Legal Thought is also a digest of “who’s who” of
early Islamic legal deliberations and practice. Clearly, the formation of
Islamic law was a slow process and one of cumulative efforts by many
more than the figure heads of the schools of law.
The second, and longest part of Islamic Legal Thought covers the
classical period. The editors, laudably, extend the usual definition of
“classical” to include the long stretch between the formation of Islamic
law (from about 300/900) until the modern period, the latter of which
is marked by the interaction with European imperialism and the French
invasion of Egypt in 1213/1798. While having the classical period last
almost 900 years might seem unwieldy, it makes good sense for the
commonalities and continuities of this period for Islamic law. This is
the time period of consolidation and elaboration of legal doctrines in
compendia and commentaries; the articulation of the interplay of law
and theology in the emerging genre of uṣūl al-fiqh; the
institutionalization of legal education in the madrasah system; and the
continuous and increasing integration of Islamic law and its
practitioners into the body politic culminating in the Ottoman official
legal hierarchy. The scholars of this section belong to a second stage
in the history of Islamic law. By sifting through the legal views current
in the previous centuries, Ḥanafī jurists such as al-Ṭaḥāwī (d. 321/933;
by N. Tsafrir) and al-Sarakhsī (d. 483/1090; by O. Taştan) built a
coherent legal doctrine and helped crystallize the identity of their
school. Other scholars contributed to the development of the
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