Islamic Law and History

Catalog description

This course is designed to introduce law students to the terminology, principles, and concepts of classical Islamic law. After discussing the origins and evolution of Islamic law, we will turn first to the organization of qadi courts (procedure and evidence) and then to specific areas of the law, e.g., personal status (marriage and divorce), the intergenerational transmission of property (bequests, gifts, and endowments), commerce (contracts, hire, allocation of loss), and crime. The application of legal doctrine to actual disputes will be analyzed through the reading of expert judicial opinions or fatwas (in English translation) issued in connection with medieval and modern court cases.