{"title":"Debating Sharīʿa in Egypt’s National Courts","authors":"Brian Wright","doi":"10.53484/jil.v4.wright","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.53484/jil.v4.wright","url":null,"abstract":"This article explores debates about the role of Islamic law (sharīʿa) in the early development of the native courts in Egypt, established in 1883. Current literature focuses on the impact of European influence, arguing that the native courts and the codes they implemented broke away from a past dominated by Islamic law, sidelined pre-modern juristic (fiqh) understandings, and reflected an importation of European norms in service of a growing modern state. Using periodicals published within the first ten years following the establishment of the native courts, this article argues that, for both supporters and detractors, the question was not whether the sharīʿa was being implemented but how it should be understood and utilized. Ideas informed by external influences, such as the rule of law and the creation of an independent judiciary, were significant and helped to shape the development and operation of the native courts. However, these ideas were viewed by observers through a broader conceptualization of the sharīʿa that included the work of the political authority to achieve a central goal: to nationalize the sharīʿa and establish justice in a rapidly changing social and legal environment.","PeriodicalId":340573,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Islamic Law","volume":"11 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-06-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"126438504","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Forging a Habsburg Islamic Legal System: Legal Transformation and Local Agency in Habsburg Bosnia and Herzegovina (1878-1918)","authors":"Ninja Bumann","doi":"10.53484/jil.v4.bumann","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.53484/jil.v4.bumann","url":null,"abstract":"The integration of Islamic law into the Habsburg administration in Bosnia and Herzegovina following the 1878 occupation marked a significant shift in the existing Islamic legal system. This paper examines the impacts of the legal reforms implemented by the Austro-Hungarian government, focusing on the agency of local qāḍīs and plaintiffs in the process. The Habsburg bureaucracy reduced the application of Islamic law to the private sphere of family and marriage and established a two-tier court system, including a Supreme Sharia Court in Sarajevo, under state control. The analysis suggests that the integration of the Sharia courts into the Habsburg administration began a process of translation of legal norms, knowledge, values, and practices, resulting in a unique blend of Ottoman Islamic legal practices and Habsburg legal structures and values. The paper argues that this created new opportunities for legal claim-making by local plaintiffs.","PeriodicalId":340573,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Islamic Law","volume":"59 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-06-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"127981572","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"“Emancipating” Muslim Women in Early Nineteenth-Century Russia:Ākhūnd Fathullah bin Huseyn al-Uriwi, Ḥanafī Law, and Muslim Women’s Rights","authors":"R. Garipova","doi":"10.53484/jil.v4.garipova","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.53484/jil.v4.garipova","url":null,"abstract":"This paper examines the legal authority of Fathullah Huseyn ughli, a prominent jurist (ākhūnd) of the Volga-Ural region between the 1820s and his death in 1843. The analysis focuses on the fatwās he issued and legal cases he resolved regarding women’s divorce. Huseyn ughli’s fatwās reveal several significant points. Firstly, despite increased regulation of Muslim marriage and divorce by the Russian Empire during this period, Huseyn ughli maintained his legal authority and made independent legal decisions with the authorization of the Orenburg Assembly. Secondly, his fatwās highlight his support for women who were suffering and his efforts to find solutions for each unique case with the assistance of local Muslim communities. He utilized his legal authority to identify loopholes and deliver rulings that diverged from mainstream Ḥanafī opinions, particularly regarding divorce based on non-maintenance. However, his flexibility was limited after 1841–42, when Muftī Suleymanov intervened, establishing the mainstream Ḥanafī position that prohibited divorce in such cases and enforcing it as a rule for all Volga-Ural ʿulamāʾ.","PeriodicalId":340573,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Islamic Law","volume":"14 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-06-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"126113315","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Scholarly Debates: Moving Past Structural Death","authors":"D. Agisheva","doi":"10.53484/jil.v4.agisheva","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.53484/jil.v4.agisheva","url":null,"abstract":"This special issue explores the interactions between Islamic law and other legal traditions during the modern period, particularly in the contexts of colonialism, imperialism, and centralized bureaucratic states from the eighteenth to early twentieth centuries. The three essays in the issue contribute to the ongoing scholarly debates that present contrasting views on the fate of sharīʿa during this period. Between the two sides of this debate, there is a space ripe for exploring the fitness and movement of Islamic law in the contested period between tradition and modernity.","PeriodicalId":340573,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Islamic Law","volume":"1 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-06-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"130933228","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"What is Islamic Law? How Should We Study It?","authors":"J. Lowry","doi":"10.53484/jil.v2.lowry","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.53484/jil.v2.lowry","url":null,"abstract":"“When did pious speculation by Muslim individuals become Islamic law?,” asks Professor Joseph Lowry in his essay. He suggests that formal institutions applying legal norms historically may not have been necessary for the formation of Islamic law, especially if we understand that term to mean a collection of “juristic discourses.” Although we should not assume that the Qur’an and the prophetic sayings inevitably culminated in a legal tradition, we can certainly see these sources as contributing to a “distinctively Islamic legal hermeneutics.” Read more to see how, and why scholars should clarify their own working definitions of “Islamic law” in their own discourse and use of the early sources. \u0000 ","PeriodicalId":340573,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Islamic Law","volume":"98 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-05-27","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"117206069","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Triple Divorce and the Political Context of Islamic Law in India","authors":"Sohaira Siddiqui","doi":"10.53484/jil.v2.siddiqui","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.53484/jil.v2.siddiqui","url":null,"abstract":"The 2019 passage of the ‘The Muslim Women Protection of Rights on Marriage Act’ criminalizing the practice of triple-ṭalāq has been actively debated in both political and academic spheres. For some, the act signals a much-awaited victory for the Muslim women of India who have suffered the consequences of instantaneous and irrevocable divorces; while for others, it signals the continued marginalization of the Muslim community and the willingness of the Indian government to encroach upon their rights as a distinct religious community. To understand the passage of this Act in context, this article explores the larger context surrounding debates over Islamic Law in India, prior watershed Supreme Court decisions, and the recent political agenda of the BJP. These explorations reveal that ‘The Muslim Women Protection of Rights on Marriage Act’ is a red herring that, if fully enacted, can exacerbate the social and legal challenges women face when seeking divorce while also encroaching upon the rights of the increasingly politically marginalized Muslim community. ","PeriodicalId":340573,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Islamic Law","volume":"25 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-05-27","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"127683431","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Methods and Meaning in Islamic Law","authors":"Intisar A. Rabb","doi":"10.53484/jil.v2.rabb2","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.53484/jil.v2.rabb2","url":null,"abstract":"How should we think about the most pressing questions of Islamic law and legal history today? We asked leading scholars of Islamic law and history to weigh in on the methods and meaning they notice or favor, at a time when much has changed in the field and the world since Islamic law emerged as a major field of studies in the global academy over the last century, and at a time when access to new sources, historiographical advances, and data science tools promise that more changes are yet to come.","PeriodicalId":340573,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Islamic Law","volume":"181 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-05-27","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"124526319","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Her Majesty's Attorney General - v - Akhter & Ors.","authors":"T. Francis","doi":"10.53484/jil.v2.francis","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.53484/jil.v2.francis","url":null,"abstract":"This brief considers the February 2020 judgment of the Court of Appeal of England & Wales in Akhter - v - Khan, an appeal brought by the Attorney General against the decision at first-instance to grant the petitioner wife, Akhter, a decree nisi, or provisional decree of divorce. The decision of the Court of Appeal was against the backdrop of the Law Commission holding a public consultation into the status at law of certain 'religious-only' marriages (including Islamic weddings) and whether, absent a contemporaneous or succeeding civil marriage, they are to be regarded as void (entitling petitioners to ancillary relief, such as spousal support) or 'non-marriages'.","PeriodicalId":340573,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Islamic Law","volume":"21 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-05-27","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"114511175","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Recent Case: The Turkish Decision on Hagia Sophia","authors":"C. Tecimer","doi":"10.53484/jil.v2.tecimer","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.53484/jil.v2.tecimer","url":null,"abstract":"On July 2, 2020, a division of Turkey’s highest administrative appellate court annulled[reference_link 1] a 1934 presidential decision[reference_link 2] by Kemal Ataturk, founding president of Turkey, converting Hagia Sophia (tr. Aya Sofya) into a museum. Days later, on July 10, 2020, Recep Tayyip Erdogan issued a decision[reference_link 3] based on the court ruling, restoring its status as a mosque open to worship and transferring its maintenance to the country’s Presidency of Religious Affairs. Following a Turkish administrative court ruling that revoked an earlier administrative decision (1934) converting the mosque into a museum, President Erdogan of Turkey was expected[reference_link 4] to restore Hagia Sophia’s status as a mosque. Upon his decision to restore the site’s status as a mosque open to worship, Erdogan personally inspected[reference_link 5] the site and the preparations to have it ready for the Friday prayer on July 24, 2020. The government quickly named[reference_link 6] 3 imāms, one a professor of religious studies, for Hagia Sophia. On July 24, 2020, Erdogan, accompanied by top government officials and politicians, participated[reference_link 7] in the first Friday prayer at the site after a 86-year hiatus where he recited passages from the Qur’ān. 350,000 people are estimated[reference_link 8] to have been in attendance). \u0000For further context, see the Case Roundup on the Islamic Law Blog.[reference_link 9]","PeriodicalId":340573,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Islamic Law","volume":"36 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-05-27","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"116651803","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"New Approaches to Islamic Law and the Documentary Record before 1500","authors":"M. Rustow","doi":"10.53484/jil.v2.rustow","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.53484/jil.v2.rustow","url":null,"abstract":"Marina Rustow notes how prevalent scholarly attention is to long-form texts of Islamic law—attention that she argues, comes at the expense of studying Islamic legal documents in a sufficient manner. Study of the documents is an indispensable enterprise if we are to fully understand “how law worked in practice.” In view of what we know to have been “heaps” of documents produced by Muslim judges and notaries, Rustow underscores how particularly noticeable a disjuncture there is between those documents and the long-form texts. Moreover, scholars often skip over and thus fail to avail themselves of the utility of documents in adding texture to social and legal history. She cautions social historians against “pseudo-knowledge,” that is, the temptation to overlook complex factors, usually embedded in legal documents, that render our otherwise tame scholarly perception of the past truer but more “unruly.” In the end, her invitation to join her in the study of documents and thereby improve the state of Islamic legal history is terse and timely: “Please go find yourself some documents.”","PeriodicalId":340573,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Islamic Law","volume":"7 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-05-27","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"131445860","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}