Shari’a

Abstract

In his “Introduction,” Hallaq states that this work approaches the field of Islamic law in a way that few other scholars have attempted. “To write the history of Shari’a is to represent the Other,” he argues; “history, both Islamic and European, is the modern’s Other, and ... in the case of Islam this history is preceded by another Other – namely contemporary Islam” (p. 1). This approach, which treats the Shari`ah as an aggregate of its history – its theory, institutional and societal applications, and implications in projects of power – also draws the discipline of Islamic legal studies into its analysis. For Hallaq, the “extraordinary innocence” of modern scholarship concerning Islamic law and society “proceeds ... unaware of (its) culpable dependency ... on the ideology of the state” (p. 5). His approach brings together two intellectual aims: (a) to illumine the conditions of production and power relations within which Islamic legal knowledge, as an academic discipline, was built and (b) to further elaborate upon the Shari`ah’s development as a system of thought, practice, and institutions throughout its history. My review will focus upon how these two major strands interweave and the new contributions the author makes to the study of Islamic law and society ...