n recent years Islamic law or Shari’a has been appropriated as a tool of modernity in the Muslim world and in the West and has become highly politicised in consequence. Wael Hallaq’s magisterial overview of Shari’a sets the record straight by examining the doctrines and practices of Islamic law within the context of its history and by showing how it functioned within pre-modern Islamic societies as a moral imperative. In so doing Hallaq takes the reader on an epic journey tracing the history of Islamic law from its beginnings in seventh-century Arabia through its development and transformation under the Ottomans and across lands as diverse as India Africa and South-East Asia to the present. In a remarkably fluent narrative the author unravels the complexities of his subject to reveal a love and deep knowledge of the law which will inform engage and challenge the reader.

The formative period -- Legal theory : epistemology, language and legal reasoning -- Legal education and the politics of law -- Law and society -- The circle of justice and later dynasties -- The legal pillars of religion -- Contracts and othe obligations -- Family law and succession -- Property and ownership -- Offenses -- Jihād -- Courts of justice, suits and evidence -- The conceptual framework : an introduction -- The jural colonization of India and South-East-Asia -- Hegemonic modernity : the Middle East and North Africa during the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries -- Modernizing the law in the age of nation-states -- In search of a legal methodology -- Repercussions: concluding notes.