Table of Contents

1. The pre-Islamic Near East, Muhammad and Quranic law; 2. The emergence of an Islamic legal ethic; 3. The early judges, legal specialists and the search for religious authority; 4. The judiciary coming of age; 5. Prophetic authority and the modification of legal reasoning; 6. Legal theory expounded; 7. The formation of legal schools; 8. Law and politics: caliphs, judges and jurists; Conclusion.

Promotional Information

The history of Islamic law from pre-Islamic times across three centuries.

About the Author

Wael B. Hallaq is Professor of Islamic Law at the Institute of Islamic Studies, McGill University. He is the author of Ibn Taymiyya: Against the Greek Logicians (1993), A History of Islamic Legal Theories (1997) and Authority, Continuity and Change in Islamic Law (2001).

Reviews

'The publication of this book is timely and apposite. ...The aim of this book, which it successfully achieves, is to make a survey of the origins and evolution of Islamic Law ...'. Journal of Comparative Law ' ... the unprecedented comprehensiveness and conciseness of the work should make it standard reading for novice students approaching the study of early Islamic law ... Professor Hallaq's book should be welcomed as an interesting and provocative contribution to an ongoing discussion.' The Journal of Relgion