Halim Fachrizal A. - Legal authority in premodern Islam : Yahya b. Sharaf al-nawawi in the Shafi’i school of law

Legal Authority in Premodern Islam

Offering a detailed analysis of the structure of authority in Islamic law, this book focuses on the figure of Yay b. Sharaf al-Nawaw, who is regarded as the chief contributor to the legal tradition known as the Shfi madhhab in traditional Muslim sources, named after Muammad b. Idrs al-Shfi (d. 204/820), the supposed founder of the school of law.

Al-Nawaws legal authority is situated in a context where Muslims demanded the stabilization of legal disposition that was consistent with the authority of the madhhab, since in premodern Islamic society, the ruling powers did not produce or promulgate law, as was the case in other, monarchic civilizations. Al-Nawaws place in the long-term formation of the madhhab is significant for many reasons but for one in particular: his efforts in reconciling the two major interpretive communities among the Shfiites, that is, the arqas of the Iraqians and Khurasanians. This book revisits the history of the Shfi school in the pre-Nawawic era and explores its later development in the post-Nawawic period.

Presenting a comprehensive picture of the structure of authority in Islamic law, specifically within the Shfiite legal tradition, this book is an essential resource for students and scholars of Islamic Studies, History and Law.

Fachrizal A. Halim teaches at the Department of Religion and Culture, University of Saskatchewan, Canada. He received his PhD in Islamic Studies from McGill University. Prior to joining the University of Saskatchewan, he taught at Universit de Montrl and Collge Marie-Victorin in Montreal.

CULTURE AND CIVILIZATION IN THE MIDDLE EAST

General Editor: Ian Richard Netton

Professor of Islamic Studies, University of Exeter

This series studies the Middle East through the twin foci of its diverse cultures and civilisations. Comprising original monographs as well as scholarly surveys, it covers topics in the fields of Middle Eastern literature, archaeology, law, history, philosophy, science, folklore, art, architecture and language. While there is a plurality of views, the series presents serious scholarship in a lucid and stimulating fashion.

PREVIOUSLY PUBLISHED BY CURZON

The Origins of Islamic Law

The Quran, the Muwatta and Madinan Amal

Yasin Dutton

A Jewish Archive from Old Cairo

The History of Cambridge Universitys Genizah Collection

Stefan Reif

The Formative Period of Twelver Shiism

Hadith as Discourse Between Qum and Baghdad

Andrew J. Newman

Quran Translation

Discourse, Texture and Exegesis

Hussein Abdul-Raof

Christians in Al-Andalus 7111000

Ann Rosemary Christys

Folklore and Folklife in the United Arab Emirates

Sayyid Hamid Hurriez

The Formation of Hanbalism

Piety into Power

Nimrod Hurvitz

Arabic Literature

An Overview

Pierre Cachia

Structure and Meaning in Medieval Arabic and Persian Lyric Poetry

Orient Pearls

Julie Scott Meisami

Muslims and Christians in Norman Sicily

Arabic-Speakers and the End of Islam

Alexander Metcalfe

Modern Arab Historiography

Historical Discourse and the Nation-State

Youssef Choueiri

The Philosophical Poetics of Alfarabi, Avicenna and Averroes

The Aristotelian Reception

Salim Kemal

PUBLISHED BY ROUTLEDGE

1. The Epistemology of Ibn Khaldn

Zaid Ahmad

2. The anbal School of Law and Ibn Taymiyyah

Conflict or Concilation

Abdul Hakim I Al-Matroudi

3. Arabic Rhetoric

A Pragmatic Analysis

Hussein Abdul-Raof

4. Arab Representations of the Occident

EastWest Encounters in Arabic Fiction

Rasheed El-Enany

5. God and Humans in Islamic Thought

Abd al-Jabbr, Ibn Sn and al-Ghazl

Maha Elkaisy-Friemuth

6. Original Islam

Mlik and the madhhab of Madina

Yasin Dutton

7. Al-Ghazl and the Qurn

One Book, Many Meanings

Martin Whittingham

8. Birth of The Prophet Muammad

Devotional Piety in Sunni Islam

Marion Holmes Katz

9. Space and Muslim Urban Life

At the Limits of the Labyrinth of Fez

Simon OMeara

10. Islam and Science

The Intellectual Career of Nm al-Dn al-Nsbr

Robert G. Morrison

11. Ibn Arab Time and Cosmology

Mohamed Haj Yousef

12. The Status of Women in Islamic Law and Society

Annotated translation of al-hir al-addds Imratun fi l-shara wa l-mujtama, with an introduction

Ronak Husni and Daniel L. Newman

13. Islam and the Bahai Faith

A Comparative Study of Muhammad Abduh and Abdul-Baha Abbas

Oliver Scharbrodt

14. Comte de Gobineau and Orientalism

Selected Eastern Writings

Translated by Daniel ODonoghue, edited by Geoffrey Nash

15. Early Islamic Spain

The History of Ibn al-Qya

David James

16. German Orientalism

The Study of the Middle East and Islam from 1800 to 1945

Ursula Wokoeck

17. Mull adr and Metaphysics

Modulation of Being

Sajjad H. Rizvi

18. Schools of Quranic Exegesis

Genesis and Development

Hussein Abdul-Raof

19. Al-Ghazali, Averros and the Interpretation of the Quran

Common Sense and Philosophy in Islam

Avital Wohlman, translated by David Burrell

20. Eastern Christianity in the Modern Middle East

Edited by Anthony OMahony and Emma Loosley

21. Islamic Reform and Arab Nationalism

Expanding the Crescent from the Mediterranean to the Indian Ocean (1880s1930s)

Amal N. Ghazal

22. Islamic Ethics

Divine Command Theory in Arabo-Islamic Thought

Mariam al-Attar

23. Muslim Fortresses in the Levant

Between Crusaders and Mongols

Kate Raphael

24. Being Human in Islam

The Impact of the Evolutionary Worldview

Damian Howard

25. The UAE and Foreign Policy

Foreign Aid, Identities and Interests

Khalid S. Almezaini

26. A History of Early Al-Andalus

The Akhbr Majma

David James

27. Inspired Knowledge in Islamic Thought

Al-Ghazlis Theory of Mystical Cognition and its Avicennian Foundation

Alexander Treiger

28. Shii Theology in Iran

The Challenge of Religious Experience

Ori Goldberg

29. Founding Figures and Commentators in Arabic Mathematics

A History of Arabic Sciences and Mathematics, Volume 1

Roshdi Rashed, edited by Nader El-Bizri

30. The Muslim Conquest of Iberia

Medieval Arabic Narratives

Nicola Clarke

31. Angels in Islam

Jall al-Dn al-Suyts al-abik f akhbr al-malik

Stephen Burge

32. Theological Approaches to Quranic Exegesis

A Practical Comparative-Contrastive Analysis

Hussein Abdul-Raof

33. Ibn al-Haytham and Analytical Mathematics

A History of Arabic Sciences and Mathematics, Volume 2

Roshdi Rashed, edited by Nader El-Bizri

34. Ghazls Politics in Context

Yazeed Said

35. Orientalism Revisited

Art, Land and Voyage

Edited by Ian Richard Netton

36. Ibn al-Haythams Theory of Conics, Geometrical Constructions and Practical Geometry

A History of Arabic Sciences and Mathematics, Volume 3

Roshdi Rashed, translated by J. V. Field

37. Science and Religion in Mamluk Egypt

Ibn al-Nafs, Pulmonary Transit and Bodily Resurrection

Nahyan Fancy

38. The Quran in ChristianMuslim Dialogue

Historical and Modern Interpretations

C. Jonn Block