The Oxford Handbook on Islamic Law
The study of Islamic law has taken on new significance in recent years. It has been at the center of considerable controversies around multiculturalism, democratic accountability, and the formation of new political visions that intermingle religion and politics. It has also fomented considerable debate about the ongoing salience of religion in what many call a post-secular world. In this highly volatile political context, it would be naive to suggest that the study of Islamic law does not have its own politics. Uncovering these politics in the scholarly production of knowledge underlies the intellectual commitment to Islamic legal historiography described herein.
Currently in progress is the Oxford Handbook on Islamic Law, which I am co-editing with Rumee Ahmed (University of British Columbia). Committed to providing scholars, graduate students, and the reading public with a background to Islamic law, the Handbook is not about summarizing whole areas of Islamic law. In this sense, it is not a positivist intellectual enterprise that will answer for the reader what “is” Islamic law. Rather, it will review the scholarly approaches to various features of Islamic law to reveal the stakes (intellectual, political, and otherwise) in different lines of argument that animate scholarly disputes in the field of Islamic law.
The project is underway, and we are delighted to have so many illustrious colleagues participating in the project. We hope to launch the Handbook in early 2016. Check back here for updates.