Authority, Continuity and Change in Islamic Law

by Wael B. Hallaq

Overview

In this path-breaking new book, the author shows how authority guaranteed both continuity and change in Islamic law. Hallaq demonstrates that it was the construction of the absolutist authority of the school founder, an image which he suggests was actually developed later in history, that maintained the foundations of school methodology and hermeneutics. The defense of that methodology gave rise to an infinite variety of individual legal opinions, ultimately accomodating changes in the law. Thus the author concludes that the mechanisms of change were embedded in the very structure of Islamic law, despite its essentially conservative nature.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780521803311
Publisher:	Cambridge University Press
Publication date:	07/02/2001
Pages:	284
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.10(h) x 1.00(d)

Table of Contents

1. Juristic typologies: a framework for enquiry; 2. Early ijtihad and the later construction of authority; 3. The rise and augmentation of school authority; 4. Taqlid: authority, hermeneutics and function; 5. Operative terminology and the dynamics of legal doctrine; 6. The jurisconsult, the author-jurist and legal change; Summary and conclusions.