A History of Islamic law (Islamic Surveys) [Hardcover]

Noel J. Coulson (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0852241119 | ISBN-13: 978-0852241110 | Publication Date: December 1964

The classic introduction to Islamic law, tracing its development from its origins,through the medieval period, to its place in modern Islam.

--This text refers to the Paperback edition.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 272 pages
• Publisher: Edinburgh University Press (December 1964)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0852241119
• ISBN-13: 978-0852241110
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,157,385 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars More of an introduction than anything else, July 21, 2007

By 

Gogol (England) - See all my reviews

This review is from: A History of Islamic Law (New Edinburgh Islamic Surveys) (Paperback)

More of an introduction to Islamic law than a history of it. This book is also seriously lacking and a little dated. The basic context of the book is the development of a system of law that has expanded from its 'primative' boundries to coming into contact with complex societies such as the Persians and Byzantines to a peak of the 11th centures when the four schools were truly codified to the so called 'stagnation and decline' The book then moves on to the contact with European laws through loss of teritorry and colonial expansion. The impression throughout this part of the book is 'Islamic law became outdated, for 'humanitarian reasons' people would be horrified by amputated hands and stoning of people so western laws were adopted, with the exeption of Saudi Arabia, Northern Nigeria and Afghanistan.

The book simply does not cover the issues here as to why western laws were adopted. It is far too simplisitic to simply go on about amputeted hands and stoning as though that is all Islamic law consists of (It would be a bit like saying all US law consists of is gassing, injecting or electricuting prisoners)

This is simply not an honest study of the development of Islamic law but rather a dated skim over of history. I suppose you couldnt expect much from a book consisting of only 264 pages to cover around 1400 years of history but this is pretty poor. Especially considering this is on most reading lists in Universities.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Still the best introduction, warts and all, May 27, 2010

By 

Jonathan Zasloff - See all my reviews
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This review is from: A History of Islamic Law (New Edinburgh Islamic Surveys) (Paperback)

Writing an introduction to Islamic law for Western audiences is a difficult task, because such a project involves not only clear and succinct explanations of some technical legal doctrines, but also a history of early Islam as well as constant use of unfamiliar terms. To my mind, Coulson succeeded about as well as could be expected, in addition to advancing some important new academic theories.

In order to see the value of this work, you might compare it to its nearest competitors. Ignaz Goldziher's Introduction to Islamic Theology and Law (Modern Classics in Near Eastern Studies) is really the ur-text of modern western writing on the topic, but really is not about Islamic LAW strictly speaking: it is a broad survey of Islamic theology and civilization. Overall, it is truly a masterpiece of synthesis and analysis, but it doesn't do what Coulson does. Joseph Schacht's An Introduction to Islamic Law (Clarendon Paperbacks) is boring and pedantic, not to mention simply wrong in what it asserts. Wael Hallaq's A History of Islamic Legal Theories: An Introduction to Sunni usul al-fiqh is superb scholarship, but perhaps a little too advanced for someone trying to get an introductory sense of Islamic Law. It is better to read Hallaq's work AFTER Coulson. And my colleague Khaled Abou El Fadl's Speaking in God's Name: Islamic Law, Authority and Women is terrific and pathbreaking, but it is also not an introduction: instead, it is the beginning of a new comprehensive theory of Islamic jurisprudence. It is vital, but should be read afterwards.

That leaves us with Coulson, which is actually quite a bit. For dealing with such a technical area, he writes clearly and well. Other reviewers are right to suggest that sometimes he gets mired too much in details, but to some extent that is unavoidable. He argues about a trend, and then wants to show you an example. At some level, you just have to wade through, but Coulson does it about as painlessly as has been done so far.

That said, there are two main problems with this book, which any reader needs to know.

First, it is very outdated, despite what the book's publisher might claim. There is virtually nothing about developments since the early 1960's, which is particularly inexcusable since Coulson died in 1986 and probably could have included critical material concerning the Iranian revolution and the emergence of Wahhabi dominance in many areas of Islam.

Second, two of Coulson's principal theories have been severely challenged, most prominently (and to my relatively uneducated mind, persuasively) by Hallaq. Coulson argues that Ibn-Idris ash-Shafi'i was the "master architect" of Islamic law because Shafi'i developed a system for integrating Hadith (traditions of the Prophet) with Qiyas (analogical reasoning). Hallaq challenges this by arguing that Shafi'i had not nearly worked out a complete system. Coulson also argues that "the door of Ijtihad" (the exercise of human reason to find a principle of law) was closed by the 11th century CE, and that Islamic Law because crimped and overly conservative by then.

Hallaq and Abou El Fadl vigorously and successfully challenge this, and present compelling evidence of creative, reasoned jurisprudence centuries afterwards. They want to argue that current Islamic law has ample room for creative thought; updating Islamic law according to modern conditions, they contend, is not breaking with tradition but actually adhering to it. The 900-pound gorilla in the room is Wahhabism, which Abou El Fadl in particular sees as a perversion of the tradition, not its culmination. Coulson would have agreed on where the law should go, and in fact at the end of his book calls for "neo-Ijtihad." His difference with Abou El Fadl is that he says that this is a more radical step.

So in all, this is still the best introduction around. Just be aware of its flaws, and definitely follow up with other work.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Poorly written, lacks focus, February 20, 2009

By 

Enjolras (Washington, DC) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: A History of Islamic Law (New Edinburgh Islamic Surveys) (Paperback)

I read this book as part of a class on Islamic Law, but could not even finish (and I am a law student, so I am used to reading long, boring documents). The problem with the book is that it lacks focus, and talks vaguely about historical developments in Islamic law and changes in jurisprudence, but wanders into discourses on inheritance law or other features. She rarely mentions the political context of the era except to assume all Islamic leaders were absolute tyrants. If this was supposed to be a history, it should have tracked the development of the schools and legal thought with the political/social/historical context. Instead, for the most part, it reads like a jumble of observations on evolving Islamic jurisprudence.