Description
Book SynopsisShari?a Scripts is a work of historical anthropology focused on Yemen in the early twentieth century. Brinkley Messick uses the writings of the Yemeni past to offer a comprehensive view of the shari?a as a localized and lived phenomenon in a groundbreaking examination of the interpretative range and insights offered by the anthropologist as reader.
Trade ReviewThis book explores debates within an Islamic legal tradition about the status of writing and thus of recorded truth. This is an impressive piece of work that draws upon the author's four decades of thought and reading. No one else can move among these Yemeni texts with such assurance, and classic works such as those of Kitab al-Azhar, Sharh al-Azhar and Sayl al-Jarrar are read more closely than any Western academic has attempted previously. ?A formative and distinguished book. -- Paul Dresch, St John's College, Oxford
Table of ContentsMap of Western Yemen
Introduction
Part I. Library1. Books
2. Pre-text: Five Sciences
3. Commentaries: “Write It Down”
4. Opinions
5. “Practice with Writing”
Part II. Archive6. Intermission
7. Judgments
8. Minutes
9. Moral Stipulations
10. Contracts
Postscript
Notes
Manuscripts and Archival Materials
Bibliography
Index
