Shari'a - Theory, Practice, Transformations

In recent years, Islamic law, or Shar&ibar;'a, has increasingly occupied center stage in the languages and practices of politics in the Muslim world as well as in the West. Popular narratives and quasi-scholarly accounts have distorted Shar&ibar;'a's principles and practices of the past, conflating them with distinctly modern, negative and highly politicized reincarnations. Wael B. Hallaq's magisterial overview sets the record straight by examining the doctrines and practices of the Shar&ibar;'a within the context of its history, and by showing how it functioned within pre-modern Islamic societies as a moral imperative. In so doing, Hallaq takes the reader on an epic journey, tracing the history of Islamic law from its beginnings in seventh-century Arabia through its development and transformation in the following centuries under the Ottomans, and across lands as diverse as India, Africa, and South-East Asia, to the present. In a remarkably fluent narrative, the author unravels the complexities of his subject to reveal a love and deep knowledge of the law which will engage and challenge the reader.