Bringing together essays on topics related to Islamic law, this book is composed of articles by prominent legal scholars and historians of Islam. They exemplify a critical development in the field of Islamic Studies: the proliferation of methodological approaches that employ a broad variety of sources to analyze social and political developments.

Autorentext
Michael Cook is Class of 1943 University Professor of Near Eastern Studies at Princeton University.

Najam Haider is an assistant professor in the Department of Religion at Barnard College/Columbia University.

Intisar Rabb is an associate professor at New York University in the Department of Middle Eastern and Islamic Studies and at the NYU School of Law.

Asma Sayeed is an assistant professor of Islamic Studies in the Department of Near Eastern Languages and Cultures at UCLA.

Inhalt
Introduction PART I: SOURCE STUDIES 1. The Ab? Bas?r Tradition: Qur??nic Verses on the Merits of the Sh??a; E.Kohlberg 2. Criteria for Emending the Text of the Qur'an; B.Sadeki 3. Mu??wiya in the Hij?z : The Study of a Tradition; N.Haider PART II: SHI'I TRADITION 4. The Kit?b al-was.iyya of ??s? b. al-Mustaf?d:The History of a Text; H. Ansari 5. Women in Im?m? Biographical Collections; A. Sayeed 6. Why Incline to the Left in Prayer? Sectarianism, Dialectic, and Archaeology in Im?m? Sh??ism; M. Cook PART III: ISLAMIC LEGAL TRADITIONS 7. Dissent and Uncertainty in the Process of Legal Norm Construction in Muslim Sunn? Law; B. Johansen 8. Islamic Legal Minimalism: Legal Maxims and Lawmaking When Jurists Disappear; I.A. Rabb 9. Cultivating Human Rights: Islamic Law and the Humanist Imperative; K.A.El Fadl PART IV: PHILOSOPHICAL TRADITIONS 10. Yah. y? b. ?Ad?'s Discussion of the Prolegomena to the Study of a Philosophical Text; R. Wisnovsky 11. Two Commentaries on Najm al-D?n al-K?tib?'s al-Shamsiyya, Copied in the Hand of David b. Joshua Maimonides (fl. ca. 13351410 CE ); S. Schmidtke 12. Logic in the Khayr?b?d? School of India: A Preliminary Exploration; A. Ahmed PART V: HISTORICAL TRADITIONS 13. The Eastern Travels of Solomon: Reimagining Persepolis and the Iranian Past; R. Mottahedeh 14. Al-Hasan b. M?s? al-Nawbakht? on the Views of Astronomers and Astrologers; W. Madelung 15. Conversion and Law: A Muslim-Christian Comparison; R. Bulliet PART VI: THE SCHOLARLY OUTPUT OF PROFESSOR HOSSEIN MODARRESSI Bibliography of Works by Professor Hossein Modarressi; I.A.Rabb and H. Ansari A Bibliographical Note on the Persian Works; H. Kamaly Contributors Index