Introduction to Islamic law
Trento Law Faculty
First Semester (2011-2012)
Prof. Moussa Abou Ramadan
Part1:Historical introduction and sources of Islamic law
a)Brief Survey of Islamic Political History
-The Prophet Muhammad (530-632)
-The Well Guided Caliphs (632-661)
-The Umayyad (661-750)
-The ‘Abassid (750-1256)
-The Fatimids
-The Mamluks (1256-1516)
-The Ottomans(1516-1917)
Prophet, Well guided Caliph, caliph, Imam in Shiite doctrine, Shiite and Sunni.
*Albert Hourani, History of Arab Peoples
b)Madhhab (Law school)
-Ancient Schools
-Rise of personal schools
Abu Hanifa (150/767)
Malik (179/795)
Shafi ‘i (204/820)
Ibn Hanbal (241/855)
-The plurality of opinions within madhhab
-Construction of Authority
Takhrij
Tashih
-Official Madhhab of the Nation-State and the geographic repartition of madhhab
Joseph Schacht, Introduction to Islamic law
c)Other key words: ‘Ulama’, Mufti, Qadi, Mazalim, Muhtasib, waqf, thakahayyur
Qasim Zaman, The ‘Ulama’ in Contemporary
d)Islamic legal theory (usul al-fiqh ) and furu ‘ al-fiqh (Subtantive law)
e)Furu ‘ al-fiqh
‘ibadat (law related to relation to God) and mu ‘amalat (Law related to relation between human beings)
‘ibadat:
The purification( Tahara)
The prayers( Sala)
Haj
Fasting
Zakat
Pilgrimage (Haj)
Mu’amalat
Family law
Criminal law
Contracts law
Land law
Properties law
Waqf
f)Diyanatan wa qada’an: A distinction Between Law and Religion
Sources:
1)Qur’an
Shahab Ahmed,Ibn Taymiyyah and the Satanic Verses, Studia Islamica, 87, 1998, pp.67-124.
p.67-77
-The revelation: wahy
-Collections by Othman
-Theories of abrogation: naskh
-Legal verses
2)Sunna
a)Jonathan A.C.Brown, How we Know did Hadith Critics Matn Criticism and Why it’s so Hard to Find?, Islamic Law and Society, Vol. 15, 2008 , pp.143-184.
b)Jonathan Brown,Critical Rigor Vs. Juridical Pragmatism: How Legal Theorists and Hadith Scholar Approached the backgrowth of Isnad in the genre of ‘Ilal al-Hadith’’,Islamic Law and Society, 2007, Vol.14, pp.1-41.
c)Christopher Melchert, The Traditionist-Jurisprudents and the framing of Islamic law,Islamic Law and Society, Vol. 8, 2001, pp.383-406
d)Mohammad Ali Amir-Moezzi, Remarques sur les critères d’authenticité du hadîth et l’autorité du juriste dans le shi’isme imâmite,Studia Islamica, No.85,1997, pp.5-39
Living Tradition and Sunna of the Prophet
Ahl al-ray’ and ahl –al-hadith
Authenticity of the Hadith
-isnad and matn
-mutawatir and ahadi
-Channel of transmission
Verification of the moral characteristics (Just), Memory of the person, personal biography( Dates of birth and death, travel)
Number of transmitters, Arriving or not at the Prophet, Checking if there some missing person
Horizontal and vertical verification
3)Ijma’
Wael B.Hallaq, On the Authoritativeness of Sunni Consensus,International Journal of middle East Studies,Vol.18,1986, pp.427-454.
4)Qiyas
Robert Brunschvig, Valeur et fondement du raisonnement juridique par analogie chez al—Ghazali,Studia Islamica, No.34, 1971, pp.57-88.
5)Other sources
a)Chafik Chehata, Etudes de philosophie musulmane de droit II. L’Équité en tant que source du droit hanéfite, Studia Islamica,No.25, 1966,pp.123-138.
b)Felicitas Opwis,The Construction of Madhhab Authority: Ibn Taymiyya’s Interpretation of Juristic Preference (Istihsan), Islamic Law and Society, Vol.15, 2008, pp.219-249.
6)The Problem of Ijtihad
a)Wael B.Hallaq, Was the Gate of Ijtihad Closed?IJMES, Vol.16, 1984,pp.3-41
b)Eric Chaumont,La problématique classique de l’Ijtihad et la question de l’ijtihad du Prophète: Ijtihad, Wahy et Isma,Studia Islamica,No.75,1995, pp.105-139
Part II: Classical Islamic Law
Chapter 1: Family Law
Section 1: General introduction
Section1: Marriage
-Offer and acceptance
-Legal capacity
-Wilayat al-jabr
-Kafa’a
-Witness
-Registration
-impediment to marriage
Permanent
Temporary
Judith Tucker,Muftis and Matrimony: Islamic Law and Gender in Ottoman Syria and Palestine, Islamic Law and Society, Vol. 1, No. 3, (1994), pp. 265-300, 265-283.
Section3: Divorce
-Different categories of divorce
-Talaq : Repudiation (Unilateral divorce)
-Talaq raj ‘i and talaq ba ‘in ( Reversible and irreversible divorce)
-Faskh and talaq ( Dissolution and repudiation)
-Causes of divorce
-Disagreements
-non payments of alimony
-Harm
-Impotency
-Prolonged physical desertion
-Khul‘
-Legal Reforms in the field of divorce
Egypt
Jordan
Israel
Algeria
Morocco
Section4: Alimony
1) Alimony for wife ( Nafaqa)
Conditions:
-Valid marriage contract
-Confinement
Amount
2)Alimony for children
Conditions
Amount
Section5: Custody (Hadana)
- The Hanafi Rules on Custody
1. Definition of the Hadana
2. Conditions for Custodianship Legal Capacity: Majority and Sanity
a. Freedom
b. Physical Capacity
c. Religion
d. Special Conditions for Women
3. Duration of Hadana
4. Order of Those Entitled to Child Custody
5. The Child's Will in the Hadana
Chapter2: Democracy , Human Rights and Shari ‘a
-Human Rights and Shari’ ‘a
The non Muslims
Criminal Islamic law
Women status
-Democracy and Shari ‘a
People will and divine sovereignty
Moussa Abou Ramadan, ‘‘ Notes on Shari'a, Human Rights , Democracy and the European Court of Human Rights ‘‘, Israel Law Review 2007, Vol.40, pp.156-197.
Part3: A case study: Israeli Family Law
Section1:The Institutional analysis
- Judicial Activism of Shari a Courts
- TheAnomaly of Sharia Field in Israel
Section2: Marriage
Section3: Divorce Reform
Moussa Abou Ramadan, Divorce Reform in the Shari'a Court of Appeals in Israel (1992-2003), Islamic Law and Society, 2006 ,vol.13,pp.242-274.
Section4: Alimony Reform
Moussa Abou Ramadan, ‘’ Islamic Legal Reform: The Alimony of Muslim Wife in the Shari'a Court of Appeals, HAWWA: Journal of the Women of the Middle East and the Islamic World(2006)Vol.4(1),pp.29-75, pp.47-54and 63-66
Section5: Custody Reform
Moussa Abou Ramadan, “The Transition From Tradition to Reform: The Shari ‘a Appeals Court Rulings onChild Custody (1992-2001)”, Fordham International Law Journal, No. 26,2003, pp 595-655,pp.595-635
Section5:
Moussa Abou Ramadan, ‘’The Shari'a In Israel: Islamicization, Israelization and the Invented Islamic Law’’, UCLA Journal of Islamic and Near eastern law(2006),Vol.5, pp.81-129
Part4: Discussions of different issues
1)Discussions on hijab-
Amani Hamdan, The Issue of hijab in France: Reflections and Analysis, Muslim World Journal of Human Rights, 2007, Vol.4. (Published by The Berkeley Electronic Press, 2007).
--Shari ‘a in Canada
Sherene h. Razack, The “Sharia Law Debate” in Ontario: The Modernity/Premodernity Distinction in Legal Efforts to Protect Women From Culture, Feminist Legal Studies (2007) 15:3–32
Discussions of some issues on Islamic Family Law
1)Egypt: Nathalie Bernard-Maugiron and Baudouin Dupret, ‘ Breaking Up the Family:
Divorce in Egyptian Law and Practice,’ Journal of Women of the Middle East
and the Islamic World 6 (2008) 52–74
2)Yemen: Anna Wurth, ‘Stalled Reform: Family Law in Post-Unification Yemen’, Islamic Law and Society, 10, (2003), pp.12-33
3) Algeria: Valentine M.Moghadam, ‘Organizing Women. The New Women’movement in Algeria’,Cultural Dynamics 2001; 13; 131
4)Tunisia: M.M.Charrad, ‘Policy Shifts: State, Islam, and Gender in Tunisia, 1930s-1990s’,Social Politics, 1997,pp.284-318
5)Morocco: Bruce Maddy-Weitzman, ‘Women, Islam, and the MoroccanState: The
Struggle over the Personal Status Law’, MIDDLE EAST JOURNAL , VO.59, 2005,pp.393-410
6)India: Shiobban Mullally, ‘Feminism and Multicultural Dilemmas in India: Revisiting the Shah Bano Case’, Oxford Journal of Legal Studies, Vol.24, 2004, pp.671-692,
7)Marie-Claire Foblets, ‘The Admissibility of Repudiation: Recent Developments in Dutch, French and Belgian Private International Law’, HAWWA, Vol.5, 2007, pp.10-32.
8 ) Muftis and Qadis:
a)JorgenS.Nielsen, ‘Sultan al-Zahir Baybars and the Appointment of Four Chief Qadis, 663/1265’, Studia islamica,Vol.60,1984,pp.167-176
b)Joseph Rapoport, ‘Legal Diversity in the Age of Taqlid:The Four Chief Qadis under the Mamluks’, Islamic Law and Society,Vol. 10, (2003), pp.210-228.
c)Rachid El Hour, ‘The Andalusian Qadi in the Almoravid Period: Political and Juridical Authority’,Studia Islamica,No. 90,2000,pp.67-83
d)Juan Akiba, ‘A New School for Qadis: Education of the Sharia Judges in the Late Ottoman Empire’,Turcica, 35 (2003). pp.125-163
e)Alexandre Caiero, ‘The Shifting Moral Univereses of the Islamic Tradition Ifta’: A Diachronic Study of Four Adab al-Fatwas Maunual’, The Muslim World, 96,2006, pp.661-685.
Religious Authority
a) Marc Gaborieau et Malika Zeghal, Autorité religieuse en Islam,Arch.de Sc.soc. desRel.,2004,125,(2004), pp.5-21.
b) Christian Décobert, L’autorité religieuse aux premiers siècles de l’islam, Arch.de Sc.soc. desRel.,2004,125,(2004),23-44.
c) Nathalie Clayer,L’autorité religieuses dans l’islam ottoman sous le contrôle de l’Etat, Arch.de Sc.soc. desRel.,2004,125,(2004),pp.45-62
d) Aminah Muhammad-Arif, Musulmans-indo-pakistanais et autorité religieuse en diaspora: Le cas américain, Arch.de Sc.soc. desRel., 2004,125,(2004),pp.147-164
e) Hamit Bozarslan,Islam, laïcité et la question d’autorité de l’empire ottoman à la Turquie kémaliste, Arch.de Sc.soc. desRel.,2004,125,(2004),pp.99-113.
f) Abdel rrahmane El Moudden, The Idea of Caliphate between Moroccans and Ottomans: Political and Symbolic stakes in the 16 th and 17 th Century Maghreb,Studia Islamica,1995, pp.103-112
g) Aziz Ahmad, The Role of Ulema in Indo-Muslim History, Studia Islamica,No.31, (1971), pp.1-13.
h) Hussain Monés,Le rôle des hommes de religion dans l’histoire de l’Espagne musulmane jusqu’à la fin du Califat,Studia Islamica,No.20, 1964, pp.47-88.
i) S. V. R. Nasr ,The Rise of Sunni Militancy in Pakistan: The Changing Role of Islamism and the Ulama in Society and Politics, Modern Asian Studies, Vol. 34, No. 1, (Feb., 2000), pp. 139-180