A reconceptualisation of the relationship between the society and culture of the Middle East.

This dissertation is a study of relationships between the production of knowledg e and the social reproduction of elites in high medieval Damascus (1190-1350). I t advances several related arguments intended to reassess relations between soci ety and culture in the pre-Ottoman Middle East. First, it argues that because of the peculiarities of political power in the medieval Middle East, the social hi story of the region cannot be compared to that of others through analysis of ins titutions, social bodies, or social structures. The most productive level of com parison is practices of social reproduction, rather than the institutions that i n other societies were the forms such practices took. Second, it argues that the best evidence for elite political and social strategies is to be found not in o riginal documents stored in archives, but rather in the biographical dictionarie s, which constituted a written repository for the critical practices of the soci ety. Third, it suggests that as medieval Damascus was a city without strong lega l, state, or corporate institutions, all status, wealth, and power were prizes w on and held through constant competition. To the civilian elite, control over th e production of knowledge was both the object of such competition and the instru ment by which it was carried out. An introduction examines approaches to relatio nships between society and culture in the pre-Ottoman Middle East. Chapter one e xamines how a changing form of domination in twelfth and thirteenth century Dama scus transformed the recruitment, relations to state power, and social reproduct ion of the civilian elite. Chapter two looks at madrasas to understand whether t hey constituted the form of specialized higher education scholars have thought t hey did. It argues that madrasas did not transform the nature of education in Da mascus, but had their greatest effect in establishing a set of prizes for social competition among elites. Chapter three examines how elites acquired their soci al and cultural capital through the cultivation of knowledge. It is especially i nterested in the ritual and performative aspects of the production of knowledge. Chapter four examines how the civilian elite made use of their control over the production of knowledge in social competition.

The Second Formation of Islamic Law is the first book to deal with the rise of an official school of law in the post-Mongol period. The author explores how the Ottoman dynasty shaped the structure and doctrine of a particular branch within the Hanafi school of law. In addition, the book examines the opposition of various jurists, mostly from the empire's Arab provinces, to this development. By looking at the emergence of the concept of an official school of law, the book seeks to call into question the grand narratives of Islamic legal history that tend to see the nineteenth century as the major rupture. Instead, an argument is formed that some of the supposedly nineteenth-century developments, such as the codification of Islamic law, are rooted in much earlier centuries. In so doing, the book offers a new periodization of Islamic legal history in the eastern Islamic lands.

This volume provides a comprehensive survey of the contemporary study of Islamic law and a critical analysis of its deficiencies. Written by outstanding senior and emerging scholars in their fields, it offers an innovative historiographical examination of the field of Islamic law and an ideal introduction to key personalities and concepts. While capturing the state of contemporary Islamic legal studies by chronicling how far the field has come, the Handbook also explains why certain debates recur and indicates fundamental gaps in our knowledge. Each chapter presents bold new avenues for research and will help readers appreciate the contested nature of key concepts and topics in Islamic law. This Handbook will be a major reference work for scholars and students of Islam and Islamic law for years to come.

This title explores the ways in which Muslims relate various forms of religious oratory to authoritative tradition in 21st-century Islamic practice, while striving to adapt to local contexts and the changing circumstances of politics, media and society.

This book investigates the intellectual currents among Ottoman and North African scholars of the early modern period.

Essays reflecting on the prolific, pioneering, and wide-ranging scholarship of Fred Dallmayr. Prolific and pioneering, Fred Dallmayr has been an active scholar for over fifty years. His research interests include modern and contemporary political theory, hermeneutics, phenomenology, the Frankfurt School, continental political thought, democratic theory, multiculturalism, environmentalism, and cosmopolitanism. Dallmayr is also one of the founders of comparative political thought and his interest in non-Western political theory spans Chinese, Islamic, Indian, Buddhist, and Latin American traditions. In emulation of the vast interdisciplinary and international character of Dallmayr’s work, this book draws upon senior and emerging scholars from an array of disciplines and countries, with essays that are philosophical (in the Western and non-Western traditions), cultural and/or political, and international. Dallmayr himself responds to the essays in a concluding chapter. “This book is both unique and outstanding. In very few other volumes have I come across such cross-cultural, diverse, and high quality responses to an author’s work. It is truly rare to find a volume that is so broad ranging and at the same time clearly and coherently organized, just as it is rare to find a scholar of Dallmayr’s range and depth. He counts as one of the great humanists of our time, and this book is a richly merited tribute to him.” — Joseph Prabhu, editor of The Intercultural Challenge of Raimon Panikkar