Reli 351-Islamic law fall 2018 - Brannon Ingram

Ottoman mufti on horseback wearing green and purple robes with white turban, riding a brown horse with red saddle blanket - Ottoman mufti, undated

REL 351/MENA 390/HUM 370: Islamic Law Northwestern University Fall Quarter 2018 Professor Brannon Ingram brannon.ingram@northwestern.edu Monday and Wednesday 2:00 – 3:20 PM Harris Hall L04 Office Hours: Crowe Hall 4-135 Tuesdays at 4 PM or by appt

COURSE OVERVIEW

Islamic law – the sacred law of Islam grounded in the Qur'an, the practice of the Prophet Muhammad, and the writings of Muslim scholars and jurists – stretches back nearly 1400 years. This course offers, first, an overview of the origins and evolution of Islamic law from the life of Muhammad to end of the classical era. We then seek, secondly, to understand how colonialism and the modern nation-state affected the conceptualization and implementation of Islamic law in the modern period. To these ends, we look in-depth at two specific areas of law – marriage and divorce, and criminal law – in the Ottoman empire and contemporary Iran.

COURSE GOALS At the end of this course, you will:

Have a broad understanding of the origins and development of Islamic law from the era of the Prophet Muhammad to the present, including: how the notion of an Islamic "law" emerged out of Qur'anic ethics in conversation

with the politics and culture of early Islamic society; how the notion of a Prophetic model ( sunna ) developed over time and intersected with the rise of Hadith scholarship; the institutionalization of Islamic law in the early modern period, especially in the context of Ottoman Syria and Palestine; and the trajectory of Islamic law in the modern world, as it has become part of the apparatus of the modern nation-state. Have a detailed understanding of Islamic criminal law, as well as laws of marriage and divorce. Develop an appreciation for the flexibility and nuance of Islamic legal reasoning through short assignments. Be able to engage critically in conversations about the status and place of "Shari'a" in contemporary American politics and culture. Develop writing and analytical skills. We will refine our skills in thinking and writing, so that after the course you will be able to offer informed and insightful analysis of the major themes of the course. Throughout the course, I will stress the importance of clear and concise writing.

GRADING AND ASSIGNMENTS

(1) Class attendance, participation, and Canvas posts 30% (10% each)

I take attendance at the beginning of every class. You are permitted one "free" absence each quarter – that is, an absence for which you do not need an excuse (though, as a courtesy, I would still like to be informed if you expect to be absent). For any other absences, I require a medical, athletic or family-related reason for missing class. This course uses occasional short lectures to clarify material, but the vast majority of class time will be oriented around discussion. To do well in this class you must participate actively in these discussions. Beginning with the first week, you must post one comment on the course Canvas page (see "Discussions"). You may post your own comment, or respond to another student's comment. Your comment should be a focused 'talking point', in which you should:

reflect on an idea you found interesting or intriguing in the readings, discuss how the various readings complement or differ from one another, explore the implications of a particular idea, compare a reading to another work we've studied, trace how the work speaks to a theme we encountered earlier, or connect an idea in our readings to contemporary events.

Posts should reference the readings, and page numbers must accompany any

quotations. I will read these comments carefully and often use them to foster discussion in class, sometimes comparing or contrasting students' comments with each other.

To get credit you will need to post your comment no later than 11 AM the day of class. You cannot get credit for posting a comment for a class that has already met. (In other words, you cannot post on October 17 for the class that met October 15.)

(2) Hadith Analysis Assignment 10% You will write a short (500 word) isnad -focused analysis of hadiths related to Qur'an 53: 5-18, in which the Prophet Muhammad of an entity "intense in strength … at a distance of two bow lengths or nearer." See the assignment file on Canvas for more details. Due in class October 10.

(3) Film Analysis 15% You will write a 3-4 page (double-spaced) analysis of a film, Justice at Agadez , in response to a prompt (see below), or write on a topic of your own choice in relation to the film. Due October 26 at 5 PM.

(4) Fatwa Assignment 10% You will write a short fatwa (500 words) responding to specific queries (see "Fatwa Assignment" below). The source material for your fatwa is a set of readings from the Qur'an, hadith , and Islamic legal texts pertaining to the consumption of alcohol, posted to Canvas . Due in class November 5.

(5) Final Paper (10-12 pages) 35% You will write a final paper of 10-12 pages (double-spaced) on a subject of your choice. I advise you to speak with me before finalizing your paper topic. Due December 13 at 5 PM.

CLASSROOM ETIQUETTE Please arrive to class on time. Habitually arriving late to class will affect your participation grade . If you have another class immediately before this one and you may occasionally be late to class, please let me know. Bring ALL READINGS for that day's discussion to every class, every time. NO COMPUTERS OR TABLETS are allowed in class.

REQUIRED TEXTS

Rumee Ahmed, Sharia Compliant: A User's Guide to Hacking Islamic Law (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2018) – 9781503605701 (list price $22.95) Wael B. Hallaq, An Introduction to Islamic Law (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2009) – 9780521678735 (list price $42.00) Rudolph Peters, Crime and Punishment in Islamic Law (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2006) – ISBN 9780521796705 (list price $36.00) Judith E. Tucker, In the House of the Law: Gender and Islamic Law in Ottoman Syria and Palestine (University of California Press, 1998) – ISBN 9780520224742 (list price $31.95) Coursepack [readings marked with CP] available for purchase at Quartet Printing

COURSE SCHEDULE

PART I: ORIGINS AND EVOLUTION

Monday, October 1

Introduction

In-class lecture on origins of Islam, Prophet Muhammad, Qur'an Discussion of Qur'an, sura 2: 168-73, 178-203, 216-42, 267-84, sura 4: 1-43, 127-34, sura 24: 1-9, sura 65, suras 92-93, sura 102-103, sura 107 [CP]

Wednesday, October 3

Pre-Islamic Arabia, the Advent of Islam, and the Qur'an Hallaq, "Islamic law: history and transformation," The New Cambridge History of Islam , 142-158 [CP] Ibn 'Abd al-Barr on relation between Qur'an and sunna – in Classical Islam , 178-184 [CP]

Monday, October 8

Emergence of Legal Communities and the Rise of Hadith Hallaq, "Islamic law: history and transformation," 158-183 [CP] Ibn Qudama on the mujtahid and Nawawi on muftis and fatwas – in Classical Islam , 185-201 [CP]

Wednesday, October 10

Hadith Sciences

Brown, "The Transmission and Collection of Prophetic Traditions," in Hadith: Muhammad's Legacy in the Medieval and Modern World , 1-42, 67-84 [CP] Hadith analysis assignment due in class

Monday, October 15

Law and Politics

Hallaq, Introduction to Islamic Law , 38-56 Hallaq, Origins and Evolution of Islamic Law , 178-193 [CP] Mawardi, Ordinances of Government , 3-22 [CP]

Monday, October 22

The Qadi's Practice

Hallaq, Introduction to Islamic Law , 57-82 Justice at Agadez [Canvas] – film discussion in class Gerber, excerpt from State, Society and Law in Islam [on Weber's concept of " kadi justice"], 25-42 [CP] Weber, Economy and Society , 654-58 [on 'rational' and 'irrational' law], 818-22 [on Islamic law], 976-78 [on kadi -justice] [CP] Film analysis due Friday, October 26 at 5 PM

Wednesday, October 24

Foundations of Islamic Criminal Law Peters, Crime and Punishment in Islamic Law , 1-68 Highly recommended: Brown, " Stoning and Hand Cutting: Understanding the Hudud and the Shariah in Islam "

PART II: ISLAMIC LAW IN THE EARLY MODERN AND MODERN WORLD

Monday, October 29

Family Law in Ottoman Syria and Palestine

Tucker, In the House of the Law , 1-57 Review Qur'an sura 4 excerpts from October 1

Wednesday, October 31

Family Law in Ottoman Syria and Palestine (contd.)

Tucker, In the House of the Law , 58-112, 179-86

Monday, November 5

The Fatwa Assignment Fatwa assignment due, in class discussion Research a contemporary online fatwa on a topic that interests you and prepare to discuss it in class: What is the context? Who requested it? Does it provide legal reasoning or cite its sources? Does it affirm or contradict what we've discussed in this class so far?

Wednesday, November 7

The Impacts of Colonialism: An Overview

Hallaq, Introduction to Islamic Law , 85-89 Kugle, "Framed, Blamed and Renamed: The Recasting of Islamic Jurisprudence in Colonial South Asia," Modern Asian Studies 35, 2 (2001): 257-313 [CP] Peters, Crime and Punishment in Islamic Law , 103-124 Hamilton, "Preliminary Discourse," Hedaya, or Guide (1791), xiii-li [Canvas] Focus on pp. xiii-xv and xxv-xxvi

Monday, November 12

Islamic Law and the Modern Nation-State Hallaq, Introduction to Islamic Law , 140-143, 148-158 Mawdudi, "The Islamic Law," 79-106 [CP] Khomeini, Islam and Revolution , 27-54 [CP]

Wednesday, November 14

Navigating Legal Bureaucracies

Divorce Iranian Style [Canvas] Mir-Hosseini, Marriage on Trial , 54-83 [CP]

Monday, November 19

No class (professor at conference). Read on your own : Ahmed, Sharia Compliant , ix-64

Wednesday, November 21

Film screening in class: The Judge

Monday, November 26

Debating the Future of Islamic Law Ahmed, Sharia Compliant , 65-157

Wednesday, November 28

Debating the Future of Islamic Law Ahmed, Sharia Compliant , 159-232

Final paper due Thursday, December 13 at 5 PM FILM ANALYSIS PAPER

In Terminiello v. City of Chicago (1949), a landmark Supreme Court case on freedom of speech, Justice Felix Frankfurter remarked in his dissenting opinion, drawing on Max Weber's notion of ' kadi justice': "This is a court of review, not a tribunal unbounded by rules. We do not sit like a kadi under a tree dispensing justice according to considerations of individual expediency." Was Frankfurter right in his understanding of the qadi 's practice? Using the Weber readings, write a 3-4 (double spaced) page analysis of the film Justice at Agadez . How does the qadi in the film mediate between Islamic legal principles and the needs and demands of those who come to him? Does he do so successfully? Does his role affirm or contradict how we have discussed the role of the qadi in this class so far?

You may also write your film response paper on a topic of your choice. The film is posted to the course Canvas page under "Library Media" if you need to review the film as you compose your film analysis.

FATWA ASSIGNMENT To complete this assignment, you will consult the set of excerpts from Hanafi and Hanbali fiqh texts that are posted on Canvas. See the file "Rel 351-Mena 301 Fatwa Exercise Readings."

You are a mujtahid whose strongly held, independently-arrived at views happen to coincide exactly with those either of the Hanafi or of the Hanbali school (according to your assignment to one of these schools in class). The following questions have been sent to you by an Islamic judge ( qadi ) who is a muqallid (one not

qualified to practice ijtihad ), and who seeks your legal opinion ( fatwa ) to aid him in ruling on cases before him. According to the Islamic conception of ifta' , or the giving of fatwas , you assume the truth of the facts stated in the fatwa request. (Not you, but the qadi and the parties and witnesses in the trial of this case, will be religiously and legally responsible for the truth of the facts.)

A Muslim man has just been brought before me by two upright male Muslim citizens 1 of our town, who testified that they had moments before observed the accused "drink whiskey" and that his breath "smelled of alcohol." An open bottle of whiskey was produced from his pocket. The accused appeared not at all intoxicated. Is he guilty of a crime? If so, is it a crime of hadd or of ta'zir ? In a previous case of khamr -drinking ( shurb al-khamr ), two upright male Muslim citizens of our town brought a free Muslim before me, stating that the man was a consumer of wine. When I asked them whether the man was now intoxicated and whether his breath smelled of khamr , they denied that either was the case. I asked the accused whether he had drunk khamr , and he answered, "Yes." I sentenced him to forty lashes. Was my sentence correct?

Write a fatwa , no longer than 500 words, in response to each of the questions that are posed to you. Your fatwa should begin with your precise answer to the fatwa request, followed by your arguments supporting it. Your fatwa should outline your arguments with brief references to their proofs. Please confine yourself to the sources provided and cite any authority you mention.

1 Two upright male Muslim eye-witnesses constitute the canonically standard form of proof ( bayyina ), varied from in certain circumstances (such as adultery), but usually adequate to meet the plaintiff's burden of proof.