Ebu's-su`ud: The Islamic Legal Tradition

by Colin Imber

Overview

The jurist Ebu's-suud (c. 1490–1574) occupies a key position in the history of Islamic law. An Ottoman tradition, which began in the seventeenth century and which modern historians often reiterate, asserts that Ebu's-suud succeeded in harmonizing the secular law with the shari 'a, creating, in effect, a new ideal Islamic legal system. This book examines the validity of this assertion.

The author begins by choosing five areas of Islamic law for analysis: the Sultan and legal sovereignty; land tenure and taxation; trusts in mortmain; marriage and the family; and crimes and torts. In each of these areas, he lays out the most important rules and concepts in the Islamic juristic tradition, and then gives his translations of a selection of Ebu's-suud's writings on the topic in question, with a brief analysis. From these materials, the author suggests that readers draw their own conclusions as to whether Ebu's-suud did indeed reconcile Ottoman secular legal practice with the sacred law.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780804729277
Publisher:	Stanford University Press
Publication date:	08/01/1997
Series:	Jurists: Profiles in Legal Theory
Edition description:	1
Pages:	304
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 1.20(d)

About the Author

Colin Imber teaches in the Department of Middle Eastern Studies at the University of Manchester.

Table of Contents

Abbreviations viii

Acknowledgements ix

Introduction x

Part I The Historical and Legal Background

Chapter 1 The Ottoman Empire, the Law and Ebu's-su'ud 3

Chapter 2 The Law: shari'a and qanun 24

Part II The Sources of Legal Authority: The Holy Law and the Ottoman Sultan

Chapter 3 The Sultan and Legal Sovereignty 65

Chapter 4 The Caliphate 98

Part III The Law in Detail

Chapter 5 Land Tenure and Taxation 115

Chapter 6 Trusts in Mortmain 139

Chapter 7 Marriage and its Dissolution 165

Chapter 8 Crimes and Torts: Offences against Property 210

Chapter 9 Crimes and Torts: Offences against the Person 236

Conclusion 269

English Equivalents of Legal and Technical Terms 273

Glossary 275

Index 280

Editorial Reviews

"Colin Imber's study of the sixteenth-century Ottoman Sheikh al-Islam, Ebu's-Su'ud, the preeminent jurisconsult of the Ottoman Empire, is an illuminating and timely addition to a sparse, but growing, literature dedicated to this more proximate inheritance of the contemporary Islamic world."—Comparative Studies in Society & History

From the Publisher

"Colin Imber's study of the sixteenth-century Ottoman Sheikh al-Islam, Ebu's-Su'ud, the preeminent jurisconsult of the Ottoman Empire, is an illuminating and timely addition to a sparse, but growing, literature dedicated to this more proximate inheritance of the contemporary Islamic world."

Comparative Studies in Society & History