HIST 2538/HLS 2538 Introduction to Islamic Law (Rabb)

This course will survey core concepts of Islamic law (sharia) in historical and comparative modern contexts. Popular perceptions of this legal system imagine it to be a static code from 7th-century Arabia. Islamic law is in fact a dynamic legal tradition, with a rich history that reveals processes of "legislation" and interpretation analogous to our own. It also developed substantive rulings and out of institutional structures quite different from our own. Those laws and structures evolved over time, with notable changes accompanying the breakup of the Islamic empire in the 10th and 12th centuries, colonial interventions in the 18th and 19th centuries, and independence movements in the 20th and 21st centuries. How and why did Muslim jurists, judges, and political leaders define or operate within the grammar of Islamic law? Did the law impose religious-moral values or reflect cultural and socially constructed ones? What explains the recent appeal of shari?a in the last few decades and how might we understand Islamic law in our times? This course will equip students with tools to examine these questions in the course of conversations about five core subjects: Islamic legal theory, family law, criminal law, property and contract law, and constitutional law. We will relate each to the central-most question in law of any system today, through focus on Islamic law as a compelling subject of legal history and comparative law with a widespread contemporary reach: how and why do shifts in institutional structures, moral values, and the legal process affect law? Students may opt for a long paper or four short papers for an additional credit.* Students need not have prior knowledge of Islamic law.