Shari’a

In his “Introduction,” Hallaq states that this work approaches the field ofIslamic law in a way that few other scholars have attempted. “To write thehistory of Shari’a is to represent the Other,” he argues; “history, both Islamicand European, is the modern’s Other, and ... in the case of Islam this historyis preceded by another Other – namely contemporary Islam” (p. 1). This approach, which treats the Shari`ah as an aggregate of its history – its theory,institutional and societal applications, and implications in projects of power– also draws the discipline of Islamic legal studies into its analysis. ForHallaq, the “extraordinary innocence” of modern scholarship concerningIslamic law and society “proceeds ... unaware of (its) culpable dependency... on the ideology of the state” (p. 5). His approach brings together two intellectualaims: (a) to illumine the conditions of production and power relationswithin which Islamic legal knowledge, as an academic discipline, was builtand (b) to further elaborate upon the Shari`ah’s development as a system ofthought, practice, and institutions throughout its history. My review willfocus upon how these two major strands interweave and the new contributionsthe author makes to the study of Islamic law and society ...