REL394-01 INTRODUCTION TO ISLAMIC LAW

Fall 2006 http://www.macalester.edu/~ahmad/fall-06-courses.html Ahmad Atif Ahmad

ahmad@macalester.edu 651-233-3578 Office Hours: By Appointment

This course introduces students to the basic concepts that recur in the study of Islamic law and its history and provides and overview of the history and development of Islamic law and legal theories. The course will also offer the students an opportunity to delve into the process of legal reasoning as practiced by Muslim jurists in order to understand it and anticipate its outcome. We will discuss Muslim juristic hermeneutics (their unique way of reading the authoritative texts of the Quran and the Sunna/Tradition of the Prophet), their reasoning based on analogy, utility, and their concept of rights. Comparisons with Western legal reasoning will be offered in the course of our discussions, but previous knowledge of law or legal philosophy is not assumed. Readings - Ahmad Atif Ahmad, Structural Interrelations of Theory and Practice in Islamic Law: A Study of Six Works of Medieval Islamic Jurisprudence (Leiden, 2006) - Wael Hallaq, The Origins and Evolution of Islamic Law (Cambridge, 2005) - Package (E-Reserve) Grades 20% Class participation (including presentation) 40% 2 short papers (1,500 words) at least one of which is a commentary on a relevant entry in the Encyclopedia of Islam/Encyclopedia of the Quran Due 10/5, 11/9 40% Final take-home exam/3,000 word final paper Due 12/19

Monday 9/11/06
INTRODUCTION [Approaches to teaching Islamic legal history; elaboration of syllabus] PRELIMINARIES I THE CONCEPT OF LAW IN ISLAM AND IN THE WEST Bernard Weiss, Law in Islam and in the West in Wael Hallaq (ed.), Islamic Studies Presented to Charles J. Adams Haim Gerber, Islamic Law and Cultures 1600-1800 (selections) Ahmad (Structural), xv-xix

Monday 9/18/06
PRELIMINARIES II TEXTUAL FOUNDATION OF ISLAMIC LAW AND THE MAKING OF ISLAMIC LEGAL THEORIES Khalid Abou El Fadl, Speaking in Gods Name (selections) Wael Hallaq, A History of Islamic Legal Theories (selections)

Monday 9/25/06
THE EVOLUTION OF ISLAMIC LAW I THE PRE-ISLAMIC NEAR-EAST AND THE EMERGENCE OF AN ISLAMIC LEGAL ETHIC Hallaq (The Origins), 1-56

Monday 10/2/06
THE EVOLUTION OF ISLAMIC LAW II EARLY JUDGES AND THE JUDICARY COMING OF AGE Hallaq (The Origins), 57-121

Monday 10/9/06
THE EVOLUTION OF ISLAMIC LAW III LEGAL THEORY EXPOUNDED, THE FORMATION OF LEGAL SCOOLS, AND THE INTERACTION OF LAW AND POLITICS Hallaq (The Origins), 122-206

Monday 10/16/06
MAJOR MUSLIM LEGAL THEORISTS (SHFI< AND MID) George Makdisi, The Juridical Theology of Shfi< in Studia Islamica Bernard Weiss, The Primacy of Revelation in Classical Islamic Legal Theory in Studia Islamica

Monday 10/23/06
LEGAL OPINIONS M. K. Masud, B. Messick, D. S. Powers, Muftis, Fatwas, and Islamic Legal Interpretation and Wael Hallaq, Ifta> and Ijtihad in Sunni Legal Theory, both in Masud (ed.), Islamic Legal Interpretations.

Mohammad Fadel, Rules, Judicial Discretion, and the Rule of Law in Narid Granada in R. Gleave and E. Kermeli (eds.), Islamic Law: Theory and Practice

Monday 10/30/06
OBJECTIVITY AND THE MAKING OF LAW IN ISLAM Bernard Weiss, Exotericism and Objectivity in Islamic Jurisprudence in Nicholas Heer (ed.) Islamic Law and Jurisprudence Bernard Weiss, The Search for Gods Law (selections)

Monday 11/6/06
THE CONSTRUCTION AND DECONSTRUCTION OF AUTHORITY IN ISLAMIC SCHOOLS OF LAW (MADHHABS) Wael Hallaq, Authority, Continuity and Change in Islamic Law (selections)

Monday 11/13/06
THE ISLAMIC LEGAL SCIENCES AND LEGAL TRAINING Encyclopedia of Islam II (Fikh); Wolfhart Heinrichs, Qaw<id as a Genre of Legal Literature in Bernard Weiss (ed.), Studies in Islamic Legal Theory Wolfhart Heinrichs, Structuring the Law: Remarks on the Furq Literature in Ian Richard Netton (ed.), Studies in Honor of Clifford Edmund Bosworth, v. 1 George Makdisi, The Guilds of Law in Medieval Legal History in Fuat Sezgin, Zeitschrift fr Geschichte der Arabisch-Islamischen Wissenschaften.

Monday 11/20/06
SUBSTANTIVE LAW: ASPECTS OF THE ISLAMIC LAW OF CONTRACTS Frank Vogel and Samuel L. Hayes, III, Islamic Law and Finance (selections). ISLAMIC LAW AND THE COMMON LAW John Makdisi, An Inquiry into Islamic Influences during the Formative Period of the Common Law in Studia Islamica.

Monday 11/27/06
THEY THEORY-VERSUS-PRACTICE CONTROVERSY I SOURCES OF CONTROVERSY Ahmad (Structural), 1-48 + skim xxi-xxvii & 49-72

Monday 12/4/06
THEY THEORY-VERSUS-PRACTICE CONTROVERSY II AGENCY, RESPONSIBILITY, RIGHTS, AND THE TEXTUAL SOURCES OF THE LAW Ahmad (Structural), 73-130

Monday 12/11/06
THEY THEORY-VERSUS-PRACTICE CONTROVERSY III EXTRA-TEXTUAL SOURCES AND UNCLASSIFIABLE PRINCIPLES OF LEGAL THEORY Ahmad (Structural), 131-196