Doubt in Islamic law : a history of legal maxims, interpretation, and Islamic criminal law / Intisar A. Rabb, Harvard Law School.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Rabb, Intisar A., author.

Series:

Cambridge studies in Islamic civilization.

Cambridge studies in Islamic civilization

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Criminal law (Islamic law)--Interpretation and construction.

Criminal law (Islamic law).

Belief and doubt.

Legal certainty.

Legal maxims (Islamic law)--History.

Legal maxims (Islamic law).

Islamic law--Interpretation and construction.

Islamic law.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (xiii, 414 pages) : digital, PDF file(s).

Place of Publication:

Cambridge : Cambridge University Press, 2015.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

This book considers an important and largely neglected area of Islamic law by exploring how medieval Muslim jurists resolved criminal cases that could not be proven beyond a doubt, calling into question a controversial popular notion about Islamic law today, which is that Islamic law is a divine legal tradition that has little room for discretion or doubt, particularly in Islamic criminal law. Despite its contemporary popularity, that notion turns out to have been far outside the mainstream of Islamic law for most of its history. Instead of rejecting doubt, medieval Muslim scholars largely embraced it. In fact, they used doubt to enlarge their own power and to construct Islamic criminal law itself. Through examination of legal, historical, and theological sources, and a range of illustrative case studies, this book shows that Muslim jurists developed a highly sophisticated and regulated system for dealing with Islam's unique concept of doubt, which evolved from the seventh to the sixteenth century.

Contents:

Introduction. pt. I. Islamic Institutional Structures and Doubt, First/Seventh-Tenth/Sixteenth Centuries. 1. The God of severity and lenity

2. The rise of doubt. pt. II. Morality and Social Context, First/Seventh-Fifth/Eleventh Centuries. 3. Hierarchy and Ḥudūd laws

4. Doubt as moral concern. pt. III. The Jurisprudence of Doubt, Second/Eighth-Tenth/Sixteenth Centuries. 5. Early doubt : Doubt as an element of Islamic criminal law

6. Sunnī Doubt : Substantive, procedural, and interpretive doubt. pt. IV. Interpretive Authority, Second/Eighth-Tenth/Sixteenth Centuries. 7. Against Doubt : Strict textualism in opposition to doubt

8. Shīʻī Doubt : Dueling theories of delegation and interpretation. Conclusion : doubt in comparative and contemporary context.

Notes:

Title from publisher's bibliographic system (viewed on 05 Oct 2015).

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

1-316-19170-2

1-316-21205-X

1-316-18986-4

1-316-21020-0

1-316-20650-5

1-107-44051-3

1-139-95305-2

1-316-20835-4

1-316-20470-7

1-316-20286-0