The Islamic Law of Nations: Shaybani's Siyar [Paperback]

Majid Khadduri (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 28, 2001

From its origins Islam has been an expansionist religion, understanding itself as a matter of faith to be in a permanent state of war with the non-Muslim world. After the initial consolidation of the Islamic caliphate, however, it soon became apparent that constant military hostilities could not be sustained and that other forms of relationship with non-Muslim nations would be necessary. To reconcile the imperatives of faith with the limits of military power, Islamic scholars developed elaborate legal doctrines. In the second century of the Muslim era (eighth century C.E.), hundreds of years before the codification of international law in Europe by Grotius and others, Muhammad ibn al-Hasan al-Shaybani, an eminent jurist of the Hanafite school in present-day Iraq, wrote the first major Islamic treatise on the law of nations, Kitab al-Siyar al-Kabir. Translated with an extensive commentary by Majid Khadduri, Shaybani's Siyar describes in detail conditions for war (jihad) and for peace, principles for the conduct of military action and of diplomacy, and rules for the treatment of non-Muslims in Muslim lands. A foundational text of the leading school of law in Sunni Islam, it provides essential insights into relations between Islamic nations and the larger world from their earliest days up to the present.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Majid Khadduri is Professor Emeritus of the School of Advanced International Studies of the Johns Hopkins University. Before coming to the United States in 1947 he served in the government of Iraq and, as a member of the Delegation of Iraq, participated in the San Francisco Conference which prepared the United Nations Charter.

Product Details

• Paperback: 232 pages
• Publisher: The Johns Hopkins University Press (November 28, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0801869757
• ISBN-13: 978-0801869754
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,356,399 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An excellent insight into the shari'a for international relations, May 23, 2010

By 

dlp - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Islamic Law of Nations: Shaybani's Siyar (Paperback)

Don't be put off by these one-star reviews. These reviewers cannot distinguish between the importance and interest of a book from the implications upon modern reality. Yes, Islam does contain some supremacist doctrines that bode ill for Muslim and non-Muslim harmony, but this book is indispensable for understanding that. Khadduri not only explicates the classical doctrine of jihad in this book with clarity and concision, he also provides invaluable commentary on the historically important treatise of Shaybani, the first Islamic work on the "Law of Nations", i.e. foreign relations. As the eminent scholar of Islam Rudolph Peters said of this work, it is the first major Muslim work "devoted exclusively to Islamic law dealing with relations with non-Muslims." The global jihad that we are witnessing today is based firmly on the precepts explained in this book. The crucial concepts of the dar al-Islam and dar al-harb are explained and their significance could not be more important than they are today.

12 of 34 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Religion of . . . . Oppression, July 9, 2007

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Beowulf (Tempe, AZ) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Islamic Law of Nations: Shaybani's Siyar (Paperback)

I began investigating Islam years ago. I read only the Koran and books written by devout Muslims and more particularly legal treatises. As part of my study I read this book. What I found in this book is completely disgusting and abhorrent; a complete farce of the principles of justice and equality which Islam claims to espouse. The legal conclusions of this book follow the pattern of other Islamic legal texts (most of which are written by revered Islamic scholars). Namely that non-Muslims should be subjugated as second class citizens, forced to pay a religious poll-tax (simply for being non-Muslim), that they should be banned from erecting churches etc., that they are banned from displaying religious insignia or playing religious music, that they should have no part whatsoever in governance (which is reserved strictly for Muslims), and moreover no voice in the affairs of the state, and so forth. These laws have a remarkable resemblance to the "Jim Crow" laws formerly instituted in the United States! The "Jim Crow" laws were instituted as a matter of racial intolerance while these Islamic laws are a matter of religious obligation. Furthermore, Shaybani discusses at length how it is Islamically obligatory for Muslims to maintain a perpetual hostile state with non-Muslim governments and if possible to acquire their lands and people through warfare (jihad). He explains how it is permissible to take non-Muslims captured in warfare (jihad) as slaves and how the wives of these poor men then become the property of the Muslim conquers to be female slaves or wives against their will. Thus, their marriages to their former husbands (who were taken as slaves) are utterly dissolved against their will. And do not forget or fail to understand that many other Islamic legal texts make the argument that it is permissible for the slave master to have sex with his female slaves even though they may be slaves against their will. The principles contained in this book if instituted would represent a gross violation of basic and fundamental human rights. The principles of this book and many others like it are a complete affront to freedom, liberty, equal protection under the law, freedom from religious harassment and persecution under the law, and the right to equal citizenship regardless of political or religious affiliation. This book and others like it make me want to vomit; their multitude of intolerant principles makes me sick! But the ideas outlined in this book are not unique to Shaybani. Indeed, they can be found in almost every classic Islamic legal text. What is more terrifying is that everything in this book (and other legal texts) follows naturally from rules stipulated in the Koran, Hadith, and in the actions of the so-called "rightly guided companions" of Muhammad (the prophet of the Islamic religion). After years of studying these texts by renowned Muslim jurists, legal theorists, and scholars I can only come to the conclusion that Islam is simply not compatible with the idea of religious freedom held the west or those freedoms advocated by the enlightenment philosophers (the same religious and social freedoms which many men and women gave their lives to secure for us). I went searching for the religion of peace in Islam, hoping that I would find it there and that in it I would find a friend in it. However, after years of investigation, all I have found in Islam is a religion of darkness, intolerance, and oppression. For Muslims it might be a religion of peace, but that peace comes at the expense of the second-class citizenship and oppression of non-Muslims as outlined and compiled in Sharia Law.