Nakissa Aria - The Anthropology of Islamic Law

OXFORD ISLAMIC LEGAL STUDIES

Series Editors:

Anver M. Emon, Clark Lombardi, and Lynn Welchman

OXFORD ISLAMIC LEGAL STUDIES

Series Editors:

Anver M. Emon, Clark Lombardi, and Lynn Welchman

Satisfying the growing interest in Islam and Islamic law, the Oxford Islamic Legal Studies series speaks to both specialists and those interested in the study of a legal tradition that shapes lives and societies across the globe. Islamic law operates at several levels. It shapes private decision making, binds communities, and it is also imposed by states as domestic positive law. The series features innovative and interdisciplinary studies that explore Islamic law as it operates at each of these levels. The series also sheds new light on the history and jurisprudence of Islamic law and provides for a richer understanding of the state of Islamic law in the contemporary Muslim world, including parts of the world where Muslims are minorities.

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Aria Nakissa 2019

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Nakissa, Aria, author.

Title: The anthropology of Islamic law : education, ethics, and legal interpretation at Egypts al-Azhar / Aria Nakissa.

Description: New York : Oxford University Press, 2019. | Based on authors thesis in cultural anthropology (doctoralHarvard University, 2012) issued under title: Islamic law and legal education in modern Egypt. | Includes bibliographical references and index.

Identifiers: LCCN 2018048553 | ISBN 9780190932886 ((hardback) : alk. paper) | ISBN 9780190932909 (epub)

Subjects: LCSH: Jami at al-Azhar. | Islamic lawStudy and teaching. | Islamic lawEgypt.

Classification: LCC KBP43.E32 J36 2019 | DDC 297.1/40181dc23

LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2018048553

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The Oxford Islamic Legal Studies Series is pleased to include Aria Nakissas The Anthropology of Islamic Law among its lauded list of monographs. Nakissas monograph is an important study that blends two distinct disciplinary approaches to the study of Islam. Historically, the study of Islam and Islamic law (especially in North America) has been framed by the poles of philology on the one hand, and anthropology on the other. The former informs the curriculum of long-standing area studies programs, whereas the latter has increasingly informed the curriculum, training, and production of knowledge in religious studies departments. The two disciplinary vantage points present distinct orientations and starting points in the study of Islam and Islamic law.

Nakissas study is an attempt to bring the two approaches together. Through a close study of Islamic law as taught in the seminary classroom, Nakissa not only illuminates a specific environment of teaching, training, and knowledge transmission, but also interrogates the disciplinary formation of Islamic legal studies as a subfield of study and research. He blends a rich and deliberate ethnographic account of seminary training in al-Azhar, a major Sunni institution of learning, with close readings of the texts taught in those classrooms. His ethnographic account integrates the texts from which al-Azhars instructors teach. By locating his ethnography in the classroom, Nakissa brings together ethnography with text-based analysis to perform a composite study that, by this very characteristic, makes his study an important contribution to advanced research on Islamic legal studies.

Anver M. Emon

Clark B. Lombardi

Lynn Welchman

Like any human work, I know that this book is not free from error. I ask the reader to forgive my ignorance. Whatever insights this text contains have only been possible through the help and guidance of others. I would like to take this opportunity to thank them.

First, I would like to express my gratitude to the Islamic scholars of Egypt and Malaysia. I have learned so much from all of them. Special thanks are due to Shaykh abb al-Ramn Mohtisham, Shaykh Ysir Fahm, Professor Muammad al-hir al-Msw, Professor Ibrhm Zayn, Shaykh Sal asan Manr, and Professor Muammad al-Dusq.

Second, I wish to thank all those who have given generously of their time and expertise to help me improve the manuscript at various stages of its development. These include Baber Johansen, Talal Asad, Arzoo Osanloo, Asad Ahmed, Morgan Liu, Malika Zeghal, David Powers, Flagg Miller, Carl Sharif El-Tobgui, Daniel Reza Jou, Payam Mohseni, Jonathan Brown, Aron Zysow, Hussein Agrama, Nada Moumtaz, Charles Hirschkind, and Andrew Shryock. Although my views are not always in agreement with these scholars, I owe a deep intellectual debt to all of them.