International Treaties (Mu’âhadât) in Islam

In the post-9/11 era and with increasing tension between the Islamic and thenon-Islamic worlds due to al-Qa’ida’s purported global jihad, Labeeb Bsoul’sstudy of the Islamic law of international treaties is certainly a timely contributionto an important topic. While this work represents a fairly comprehensiveresource for researchers in this area insofar as it gathers the opinions ofnumerous pre-modern (and some modern) scholars of Islamic law on variousissues related to war and peace between Islamic and non-Muslim states,it is, unfortunately, no more than a simple compilation of their views.Indeed, the author provides no meaningful historical framework by which one could trace doctrinal development or tie these doctrines to a wider historicalor philosophical tradition of international law. Those looking foranswers regarding the possibilities for mutual co-existence between Muslimand non-Muslim states on the basis of mutual equality will be severelydisappointed ...