Introduction to Islamic Law

(4 Credits)

What is Islamic law? What kinds of sources do we use to access Islamic law, and how has Islamic legal thinking and practice changed historically? This course introduces students to topics in Islamic law while addressing questions of continuity and change in the Islamic legal tradition from medieval to modern times. The first part of the course will introduce aspects of substantive Islamic law, including criminal and penal law, family law, and the law of war, through the eyes of a twelfth-century jurist's legal handbook. The second part will explore the diversity of Islamic law across chronological and geographic space, examining topics from classical jurisprudence to Ottoman constitutionalism, the encounter with colonialism and contemporary Islamic states.