Melchert traces the emergence of jurisprudence by h ad th, the personalization of the old regional schools in response, and finally the emergence of the classic

The Sunni schools of law are named for jurisprudents of the eighth and ninth centuries, but they did not actually function so early. The main division at that t

Who speaks for Islam? To whom do Muslims turn when they look for guidance? To what extent do individual scholars and preachers exert religious authority, and ho

Examines a complex global legal problem to demonstrate a compelling method for comparative legal, cultural, and social understanding.

This work presents an analysis of the earliest legal treatises on the Islamic trust, or waqf - the Ah kam al-Waaf" of Hilal al-Ray and the Ah kam al-Awqaf of al