ARAB 571: Islamic Law: Concepts and Controversies Felicitas Opwis Spring 2007 Friday, 10:15am-12:30pm Location: STM 120 Office Hours: Thursday, 1:30-3:00pm or by appointment e-mail: fmo2@georgetown.edu This course introduces students to the main concepts of Islamic law and points out controversies among Muslim jurists as well as scholars of Islamic law. The first part of the course covers the historical development of Islamic law, its sources, and tools of lawfinding. The second part, which concentrates on the modern period, gives an overview of different areas of law, such as commercial law, criminal law, family law and the position of women, law and the state, and human rights. The course follows a seminar setting with discussion as the essential element. Students are expected to have read the assigned readings for each class and be prepared for discussing them. Course requirements: - attendance - participation - in-class presentation of assigned book(s) or article(s); and write-up to be handed in two weeks after class presentation - term paper (15-20 pages for graduate students, 10-15 pages for undergraduates) to be handed in by the end of the course (May 13 th ). Books available at GU bookstore Hallaq, Wael B. The Origins and Evolution of Islamic Law. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2005. Hallaq, Wael. B. A History of Islamic Legal Theories: An Introduction to Sunni Usul al- Fiqh. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1997. Schacht, Joseph. An Introduction to Islamic Law. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1964.
SYLLABUS Week 1: January 12, 2007: Introduction Introduction to the Course and Shopkeeping Week 2: January 19, 2007: Origins of Legal Thought and the Emergence of Schools of Law (I) Schacht, Joseph. An Introduction to Islamic Law. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1964. Introduction, pp. 1-5; Chapters 5-9, pp. 23-68. Hallaq, Wael B. The Origins and Evolution of Islamic Law. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2005. Chapter 1: The pre-islamic Near East: Muhạmmad and Quranic Law, pp. 8-28; Chapter 2: The emergence of an Islamic legal ethic, pp. 29-56; Chapter 3: The early judges, legal specialists and the search for religious authority, pp. 57-78. Week 3: January 26, 2007: Origins of Legal Thought and the Emergence of Schools of Law (II) Melchert, Christopher. The Formation of the Sunni Schools of Law, 9 th -10 th Centuries C.E. Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1997. Chapters 1 and 2, pp. 1-47. Hallaq, Wael B. The Origins and Evolution of Islamic Law. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2005. Chapter 7: The Formation of Legal Schools, pp. 150-177. Calder, Norman. Studies in Early Muslim Jurisprudence. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1993. Chapter 3, pp. 39-52. Brockopp, Jonathan. Early Islamic Jurisprudence in Egypt: Two Scholars and their Mukhtasars, International Journal of Middle East Studies 30 (1998): 167-82. Islamic Jurisprudence: Sha fiʿī s Risāla. Translated with an Introduction, Notes, and Appendices by Majid Khadduri. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins Press, 1961. Selections: 102-108, 210-212, 285-287, 288-294.
Motzki, Harald. The Origins of Islamic Jurisprudence: Meccan Fiqh before the Classical Schools. Translated from the German by Marion Katz. Leiden: E. J. Brill, 2002. Week 4: February 2, 2007: The Textual Sources of the Law: Qur ān and Sunna Rahman, Fazlur. Islam. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2 nd ed. 1979. Chapter 2: The Qurʾān, pp. 30-42. Kamali, Mohammad Hashim. Principles of Islamic Jurisprudence. Revised ed. Cambridge: Islamic Text Society, 1991. Chapter 2: The Qurʾān, pp. 16-57; Chapter 3: The Sunna, pp. 58-116. Hallaq, Wael. B. A History of Islamic Legal Theories: An Introduction to Sunni Usul al- Fiqh. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1997. Chapter 2: The Articulation of Legal Theory I, pp. 58-68. Schacht, Joseph. The Origins of Muhammadan Jurisprudence. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1950. Part II: The Growth of Legal Tradition, pp. 138-9, 152-62, 180-9. Presentation in class: Dutton, Yasin. The Origins of Islamic Law: The Qurʾan, the Muwaṭṭaʿ and Medinan ʿAmal. Richmond: Curzon, 1999. Week 5: February 9, 2007: The Procedural Sources of the Law: Consensus of the Community (Ijmāʿ) and Legal Analogy (Qiyās) Kamali, Mohammad Hashim. Principles of Islamic Jurisprudence. Revised ed. Cambridge: Islamic Text Society, 1991. Chapter 8: Ijmāʿ, or Consensus of Opinion, pp. 228-63. Weiss, Bernhard. The Search for God s Law: Islamic Jurisprudence in the Writings of Sayf al-dīn al-āmidī. Salt Lake City: University of Utah Press, 1992. Chapter 5: The Ijmāʿ, pp. 181-211. Hallaq, Wael B. On the Authoritativeness of Sunni Consensus. International Journal of Middle East Studies 18 (1986): 427-54.
Hallaq, Wael. B. A History of Islamic Legal Theories: An Introduction to Sunni Usul al- Fiqh. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1997. Chapter 3: The Articulation of Legal Theory II, pp. 82-107. Week 6: February 16, 2007: Legal Procedure: Istiḥsān, Istiṣlāḥ, and Ijtihād Kamali, Mohammad Hashim. Principles of Islamic Jurisprudence. Revised ed. Cambridge: Islamic Text Society, 1991. Chapter 12: Istiḥsa n, pp. 323-50. Opwis, Felicitas. Islamic Law and Legal Change: The Concept of Maṣlaḥa in Classical and Contemporary Islamic Legal Theory. In: Sharīʿa, ed. Frank Griffel and Abbas Amanat. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2007, 43 pages. Hallaq, Wael B. Was the Gate of Ijtihad Closed? International Journal of Middle East Studies 16 (1984): 3-41. Rapoport, Yossef. Legal Diversity in the Age of Taqlīd: The Four Chief Qāḍīs under the Mamluks. Islamic Law and Society 10 (2003): 210-28. Week 7: February 23, 2007: Legal Institutions: Qāḍī, Muftī Tyon, E. Judicial Organization. In: Law in the Middle East, ed. Majid Khadduri and H. J. Liebesny. Washington, DC: The Middle East Institute, 1955, pp. 236-78. Hallaq, Wael B. From Fatwa s to Furūʿ: Growth and Change in Islamic Substantive Law. Islamic Law and Society 1 (1994): 17-56. Abramski-Bligh, Irit. The Judiciary (Qāḍīs) as a Governmental- Administrative Tool in Early Islam. Journal of the Economic and Social History of the Orient 35 (1992): 40-71. Masud, Khalid, Brink Messick and David Powers (eds.). Islamic Legal Interpretation: Muftīs and their Fatwās. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1996. Week 8: March 2, 2007: Islamic Law in the Modern World
Opwis, Felicitas. Changes in Modern Islamic Legal Theory: Reform or Reformation? In: An Islamic Reformation? Ed. Michaelle Browers and Charles Kurzman. Lanham: Lexington Books, 2004, pp. 28-53. Maḥmaṣṣānī, Sobḥī. Muslims: Decadence and Renaissance: Adaptation of Islamic Jurisprudence to Modern Social Needs. Muslim World 44 (1954): 186-201. Zebiri, Kate. Maḥmūd Shaltūt and Islamic Modernism. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1993. Chapter 5: Fiqh in the Twentieth Century: A Comparative Approach, pp. 82-106. Hallaq, Wael B. Can the Sharīʿa be Restored? In: Islamic Law and the Challenges of Modernity, ed. Barabara Stowasser and Yvonne Haddad. Walnut Creek, CA: Altamira Press, 2004, pp.???? Layish, Aharon. The Transformation of the Sharīʿa from Jurists Law to Statutory Law in the Contemporary Muslim World. Die Welt des Islams 44 (2004): 85-113. Krawietz, Birgit. Ḍarūra in Modern Islamic Law: The Case of Organ Transplantation. In: Islamic Law, Theory and Practice, ed. R. Gleave and E. Kermeli. London: Tauris, 1997, pp. 185-93. Mallat, Chibli. The Renewal of Islamic Law: Muhammad Baqer al-sadr, Najaf, and the Shi i International. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1993. Week 9: March 16, 2007: Commercial Law Haim, Gerber. The Muslim Law of Partnerships in Ottoman Court Records. Studia Islamica 53 (1981): 109-20. Kuran, Timur. On the Notion of Economic Justice in Contemporary Islamic Thought. International Journal of Middle East Studies 21 (1989): 171-91. Saeed, Abdullah. Islamic Banking and Interest: A Study of the Prohibition of Riba and its Contemporary Interpretation. Leiden: Brill, 1996.
Chapter 2: Riba in the Qur ān, Sunna and Fiqh, pp. 17-40; Chapter 3: Interpretation of Riba in the Modern Period, pp. 41-50. Saleh, Nabil. Unlawful Gain and Legitimate Profit in Islamic Law: Riba, Gharar and Islamic Banking. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1986, pp. 86-114; 123-6. Week 10: March 23, 2007: Family Law Schacht, Joseph. An Introduction to Islamic Law. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1964. Chapter 22: Family, pp. 161-8; Chapter 23: Inheritance, pp. 169-74. Tucker, Judith E. In the House of the Law: Gender and Islamic Law in Ottoman Syria and Palestine. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1998, Chapter 3: Release her with Kindness: Divorce, pp. 78-112. Rahman, Fazlur. A Survey of Modernization of Muslim Family Law. International Journal of Middle East Studies 2 (1980): 451-65. Anderson, J. N. D. The Tunisian Law of Personal Status. International and Comparative Law Quarterly 7 (1958): 262-79. Alami, Dawoud Sudqi El and Doreen Hinchcliffe. Islamic Marriage and Divorce Laws of the Arab World. London: Kluwer Law, 1996. Part II: The Codified Law, pp. 35-7, 181-95. Mir-Hosseini, Ziba. Marriage on Trial: A Study of Islamic Family Law, Iran and Morocco Compared. London: I. B. Tauris, 1993. Week 11: March 30, 2007: Criminal Law Schacht, Joseph. An Introduction to Islamic Law. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1964. Chapter 25: Penal Law, pp. 175-87. Peters, Rudolph. The Islamization of Criminal Law: A Comparative Analysis. Die Welt des Islams 34 (1994): 246-74. Peters, Rudolph. Islamic and Secular Criminal Law in Nineteenth Century Egypt: the Role and Function of the Qadi. Islamic Law and Society 4 (1997): 70-90.
Lippman, Matthew. Islamic Criminal Law and Procedure: Religious Fundamentalism v. Modern Law. Boston College International and Comparative Law Review 12 (1989): 29-62. Peters, Rudolph. Jihad in Classical and Modern Times. Princeton: Markus Wiener, 1996. Week 12: April 13, 2007: Islamic Law and the State Abou El Fadl, Khaled. Constitutionalism and the Islamic Sunni Legacy. UCLA Journal of Islamic and Near Eastern Law 1 (2001): 67-101. Peters, Rudolph. From Jurists Law to Statute Law or What Happens When the Shari a is Codified. Mediterranean Politics 7, iii (2002): 82-95. Brown, Nathan. Shariʿa and State in the Modern Muslim Middle East. International Journal of Middle East Studies 29 (1997): 359-76. Bälz, Kilian. Submitting Faith to Judicial Scrutiny Through the Family Trial: The Abu Zayd Case. Die Welt des Islams 37 (1997): 135-55. Brown, Nathan. Constitutions in a Non-Constitutional World: Arab Basic Laws and the Prospects for Accountable Government. Albany, NY: State University of New York Press, 2002. Week 13: April 20, 2007: Islamic Law, Minorities, and Human Rights (I) Kamali, Mohammad H. Fundamental Rights of the Individual. An Analysis of Haqq (Right) in Islamic Law. American Journal of Islamic Social Sciences 10 (1993): 340-66. An-Na im, Abdullahi A. Religious Minorities and Islamic Law and the Limits of Cultural Relativism. Human Rights Quarterly 9 (1987): 1-18. The Nineteenth Islamic Conference of Foreign Ministers. Cairo Declaration of Human Rights in Islam.Cairo, 1990: 1-9. Edge, Ian. A Comparative Approach to the Treatment of Non-Muslim Minorities in the Middle East, with Special Reference to Egypt. In: Islamic Family Law, ed. Ch. Mallat and J. Connors. London: Graham and Trotman, 1990, pp. 31-54.
Abou El Fadl, Khaled. Islamic law and Muslim minorities: the Juristic Discourse on Muslim Minorities from the Second/Eighth to the Eleventh/Seventeenth Centuries. Islamic Law and Society 1 (1994): 141-87. Week 14: April 27, 2007: Islamic Law, Minorities, and Human Rights (II) Abou El Fadl, Khaled. Striking a Balance: Islamic Legal Discourse on Muslim Minorities. In: Muslims on the Americanization Path? Ed. Y.Yazbeck Haddad and J.L.Esposito. New York: Oxford University Press, 2000, pp. 47-63. Poulter, Sebastian. The Claim to a Separate Islamic Personal Status Law for British Muslims. In: Islamic Family Law, ed. Ch. Mallat and J. Connors. London: Graham and Trotman, 1990, pp. 147-66. Pearl, David. The Application of Islamic Law in the English Courts. Arab Law Quarterly 12 (1997): 211-19. Abdal-Haqq, Irshad. Homosexuality and Islam in America: a brief overview. Journal of Islamic Law & Culture 5 (2000): 87-96.
Potential Articles to Present in Class: Goitein, S. D. The Birth-Hour of Muslim Law? Muslim World 50 (1960): 23-9. Melchert, Christopher. How Ḥanafism Came to Origin in Kufa and Traditionalism in Medina. Islamic Law and Society 6 (1999): 318-47. Juynboll, G. H. A. Some Notes on Islam s First Fuqahāʾ Distilled from Early Ḥadīth Literature. Arabica 39 (1992): 287-314. Zaman, Muhammad Qasim. The Caliphs, the ʿUlamāʾ, and the Law: Defining the Role and Function of the Caliph in Early ʿAbbāsid Period. Islamic Law and Society 4 (1997): 1-36. Hawting, G. R. The Role of Qur ān and Ḥadīth in the Legal Controversy about the Rights of a Divorced Woman During her Waiting Period (ʿIdda). Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies 52 (1989): 430-45. Hourani, George. The Basis of Authority of Consensus in Sunnite Islam. Studia Islamica 21 (1964): 11-60. Fadel, Mohammad. The Social Logic of Taqlīd and the Rise of the Mukhataṣar [sic]. Islamic Law and Society 3 (1996): 193-233. Calder, Norman. al-nawawī s Typology of Muftīs and its Significance for a General Theory of Islamic Law. Islamic Law and Society 4 (1996): 137-64. Johansen, Baber. Truth and Validity of the Qadi s Judgment: A Legal Debate among Muslim Sunni Jurists from the 9 th to the 13 th Centuries. Recht van de Islam 14 (1997): 1-26. Johansen, Baber. Signs as Evidence: The Doctrine of Ibn Taymiyya (1263-1328) and Ibn Qayyim al-jawziyya (d. 1351) on Proof. Islamic Law and Society 9 (2002): 168-193. Badr, Gamal Moursi. Islamic Law and the Challenge of Modern Times. In: Law, Personalities, and Politics of the Middle East. Essays in Honor of Majid Khadduri, ed. James Piscatori and George S. Harris. Boulder: Westview Press, 1987, pp. 27-44.
Rosen, Lawrence. Equity and Discretion in a Modern Islamic Legal System. Law and Society Review 15 (1980-01): 217-45. Hamlin, Kristan L. Peters. The Impact of Islamic Revivalism on Contract and Usury Law in Iran, Saudi Arabia, and Egypt. Texas International Law Journal 22 (1987): 351-81. Lombardi, C. B. Islamic Law as a Source of Constitutional Law in Egypt: The Constitutionalization of the Sharia in a Modern Arab State. Columbia Journal of Transnational Law 37 (1998): 81-123.