FOR RELEASE: Nov. 8, 2002
Contact: Linda Myers Office: 607-255-9735 E-Mail: lbm3 at cornell.edu
A new book by a Cornell authority on early Islamic law shows that Muslim societies today have grown out of a rational, balanced legal tradition dating back at least to the 14th century.
The book, Law, Society and Culture in the Maghrib, 1300-1500, by David Powers, professor of Arabic and Islamic studies in Cornell's Department of Near Eastern Studies, has just been published by Cambridge University Press as part of that publisher's series on Islamic civilization. Powers' book suggests that Islamic law as it was applied in the 14th and 15th century involved reasoned thought and argument by Muslim judges and jurists, who were highly sensitive to society and culture and how the law shaped, and was shaped by both. That finding refutes claims by an earlier generation of Western scholars who asserted that Islamic law lacked a body of legal doctrine and was, therefore, irrational. It also calls into question the popular assumption that Islamic legal practice can only be extremist.
To unravel the subtlety and sophistication of the law, Powers considers six actual cases on subjects as diverse as paternity, fornication, water rights, family endowments, the slander of the Prophet and inheritance. The cases took place in 14th and 15th century Islamic societies in the Maghrib (or Islamic West -- present-day Morocco and Algeria). The author's source for information on those disputes are fatwas, or legal decrees, issued by the muftis -- councils of religious leaders -- and qadis -- judges -- in those societies. Leaders in similar roles issue decrees in Muslim societies today.
Powers examines each case in great detail, and in doing so paints a vivid picture of Muslim society in the Maghrib in the 14th and 15th century. While the prescribed punishments for certain offenses, such as the stoning of an adulterer, seem harsh, Powers shows that the law was flexible and allowed for mitigating circumstances and that the jurists tended to interpret the law in a lenient and moderate manner. Judges meticulously scrutinized the testimonies of witnesses to winnow out the truth and, the author points out, the voices of credible community members were given more weight than the emotionally tinged claims of disputants.
In addition, while judges and jurists rarely strayed from commonly understood interpretations of the law, the practice of soliciting expert legal opinions before issuing a judgment did allow for some creativity of interpretation in difficult cases. And, most revealing, Powers shows a sophisticated appeals process -- not unlike legal processes in contemporary Western societies -- that permitted comparisons with older, similar cases, encouraged reasoned discourse and made room for extra-legal considerations such as the desire for social harmony.
"Like jurists in other legal cultures, the mufti turned to the legal authority of established sources, first and foremost the [Quran] and the [findings] of the Prophet, but also school doctrine as articulated in works on substantive law, treatises dealing with legal formularies, earlier fatwas and court practice," Powers writes.
While there may be many reasons for the rise of fundamentalist societies in modern times in places like Iran or Afghanistan under the Taliban, Powers' book makes clear that the Islamic legal heritage is a lot closer to Western values than people realize.
Powers, who also is the author of Studies in Qur'an and Hadith: The Formation of the Islamic Law of Inheritance , co-editor of Islamic Legal Interpretation; Muftis and Their Fatwas and editor of the journal Islamic Law and Society, teaches Introduction to Islamic Law at Cornell.
For review copies of Powers' book, send the book's title, author and ISBN number, 816912, on your publication's letterhead, to: Cambridge University Press, fax: (212) 691-3239. --- Sent from UnionMail Service [http://mail.union.org.za]