This book offers a new theoretical perspective on the thought of the great fifteenth-century Egyptian polymath, Jalal al-Din al-Suyuti (d. 1505). In spite of the enormous popularity that al-Suyuti's works continue to enjoy amongst scholars and students in the Muslim world, he remains underappreciated by western academia. This project contributes to the fields of Mamluk Studies, Islamic Studies, and Middle Eastern Studies not only an interdisciplinary analysis of al-Suyuti's legal writing within its historical context, but also a reflection on the legacy of the medieval jurist to modern debates. The study highlights the discursive strategies that the jurist uses to construct his own authority and frame his identity as a superior legal scholar during a key transitional moment in Islamic history. The approach aims for a balance between detailed textual analysis and 'big picture' questions of how legal identity and religious authority are constructed, negotiated and maintained. Al-Suyuti's struggle for authority as one of a select group of trained experts vested with the moral responsibility of interpreting God's law in society finds echoes in contemporary debates, particularly in his native land of Egypt. At a time when increasing numbers of people in the Arab world have raised their voices to demand democratic forms of government that nevertheless stay true to the principles of Shari'a, the issue of who has the ultimate authority to interpret the sources of law, to set legal norms, and to represent the 'voice' of Shari'a principles in society is still in dispute.

A masterful overview of Islamic law and its diversity Al-Qadi al-Nu'man was the chief legal theorist and ideologue of the North African Fatimid dynasty in the tenth century. This translation makes available for the first time in English his major work on Islamic legal theory (usul al-fiqh), which presents a legal model in support of the Fatimid claim to legitimate rule. Composed as part of a grand project to establish the theoretical bases of the official Fatimid legal school, Disagreements of the Jurists expounds a distinctly Shi'i system of hermeneutics. The work begins with a discussion of the historical causes of jurisprudential divergence in the first Islamic centuries and goes on to engage, point by point, with the specific interpretive methods of Sunni legal theory. The text thus preserves important passages from several Islamic legal theoretical works no longer extant, and in the process throws light on a critical stage in the development of Islamic legal theory that would otherwise be lost to history. An English-only edition.

Essay from the year 2004 in the subject Orientalism / Sinology - Islamic Studies, grade: 75%, Middlesex University in London (School of Oriental and African Studies), course: Islamic Law, 18 Literaturquellen entries in the bibliography, language: English, comment: The history of the sharia, or Islamic law, has been one of permanent changes and challenges. It has been constantly subjected to influences from its social environment. Also today, in the current globalizing context, the question arises as to how Muslims can react to these structural changes, and how the sharia can be adapted to the new social reality. This paper discusses as to whether individuals are entitled to interpret the Quran and the Hadith., abstract: "Each individual has direct access to the Quran and hadith and is in principle entitled to engage in ijtihad, so long as she has the requisite knowledge. Thus not only countries, but also individuals are entitled to their own jurisprudential choices." (al-Hibri in Muslim Womens Rights in the Global Village). This paper discusses al-Hibris statement on the position in Islamic law today.