Description
Book SynopsisFocusing on the late seventh to early eleventh centuries in the region between Iraq in the east and present-day Tunisia in the west, this study explores the multiplicity of judicial systems that coexisted under early Islam to reveal a complex array of social obligations that connected individuals across confessional boundaries.
Trade Review"This is a very welcome book. It offers a theoretically informed and up-to-date analysis of the workings of social power within communities that lived side by side, even if they are said to have lived separate lives." * Arietta Papaconstantinou, Université Paris I *
"An important and much-needed contribution to ongoing debates about minorities in the Middle Ages and about minorities under Islam as well as their relative freedoms and disabilities. The book is built on solid research and an impressive mastery of a wide variety of source materials in numerous languages. The arguments it puts forward are entirely convincing and have the potential to help move forward a remarkably stubborn and ideologically laden historiographic consensus." * Marina Rustow, Johns Hopkins University *
"A complex and detailed picture of judicial attitudes and practices of the Christian and Jewish leaderships and communities under Muslim rule in the early Islamic period, throwing light on the lives of these communities from a particularly interesting point of view. The presentation of the ample evidence, as well as the discussion, is clear and coherent and the conclusions are convincing and thought-provoking." *
The Medieval Review *
Table of ContentsNote on Transliteration
Introduction
PART I. LEGAL PLURALISM IN LATE ANTIQUITY AND CLASSICAL ISLAM: SURVEY AND ANALYSIS
Chapter 1. A Late Antique Legacy of Legal Pluralism
Chapter 2. Islam's Judicial Bazaar
PART II. THE JUDICIAL CHOICES OF CHRISTIANS AND JEWS IN THE EARLY ISLAMIC PERIOD: A COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS
Chapter 3. Eastern Christian Judicial Authorities in the Early Islamic Period
Chapter 4. Rabbanite Judicial Authorities in the Late Geonic Period
Chapter 5. Christian Recourse to Nonecclesiastical Judicial Institutions
Chapter 6. Jewish Recourse to Islamic Courts
Conclusion
List of Abbreviations
Notes
Bibliography
Index
Acknowledgments
