Analyzing the Book
Law is at the central of Islamic thought and life, but only few books with such scholarly insights have successfully offered the elaborated discussion on the early formative years of Islamic law as “The origins and Evolutions of Islamic law” did. It is a significant book by Wael Hallaq that provides scholarly insight in Islamic Law’s formative years. He defined the early years of Islamic law as the phase when the Islamic legal system developed into a definite shape. The book uses various maps, biographies of significant figures, glossary which is really helpful for readers with limited knowledge. This book guides the reader through the formation Islamic laws to it transformation. The book is centered on the early formative years of Sunni Islamic legalization and laws supported with comprehensive narratives.
He systematically divided the book into some chapters; in the first chapter “The preIslamic near east Muhammad and Quranic law” he explains how Islam took its shape during the pre-Islamic era. He agrees with the general conception of Mecca being an important religious and cultural center and believes that the East would be transformed due to Prophet’s Hijra. Hallaq stated that the year 5/626 should be marked as “the beginning of substantive legislation in the Quran”. Hallaq explains how Jewish communities in Medina refused to acknowledge the prophetic authority and leads to the legal development of Islam. The elite class of that era was greatly depended on the Islamic law provided legitimacy. The Islamic law is different than most other existing laws as body politic was almost absent in the laws development.
In “The emergence of an Islamic legal ethic” he investigated legal ethics development in Islam after Prophet Muhammad’s death. The chapter focused on the proto Qadis as the similarity can be found in the newly established Islamic empire. In Chapter three “The early judges, legal specialists and the search for religious authority” The garrioson and tribal societies of the empire emerged the parallel growth of prophetic authority. According to him this process gave rise to the Hadith and legal specialists.
Chapter four titled as “The judiciary coming of age” explores how during the second century of Islamic era the Muslim court experience evolution with greater sophistication. Chapter five he explores the Hadith’s proliferation and how it transformed into a significant determinant for Sunna. It also discusses consensus notion, legal reasoning of various forms and the legal hierarchy. Chapter six examines the development of the legal theories of Islam during the fourth/tenth century of Islamic era. Hallaq witnesses a synthesis of traditionalism and rationalism in this phase. In the sixth chapter he presented long discussion on the legal theory of Sunni Islam. Chapter seven investigated how the Islamic legal schools transformed over the time. He identified some issues in Makdisi discussions over law and orthodoxy of Islam. He explored the evolution of Islamic legal school from regional to personal to guild. Makdisi explained the evolution of Islamic legal school as scholarly gathering to personal to doctrine school. This initial discussion over the relationship between the legal system and the state has been initiated but elaborately discussed in the eighth chapter. There was definitely difference between the state and the mosque but both of them greatly influenced each other.
Chapter-wise Understanding:
In the world of today the book provides in depth knowledge in our understanding of the Islamic law. The author challenges many western scholars in their basic ideas of Islamic law. In the formation of legal activity Hallaq places Hejaz in an important place so the position of Basra and Kufa ahead of Islam cannot be agreed upon. The only other book by Schacht was considered for references related to Islamic jurisprudence, but “The Origins and Evolution of Islamic Law” succeeded its predecessor in many ways. Schacht identified ninth century as the period of initial development of Islamic laws but the author suggested that few essential attributes made the Islamic laws more developed a century later. However his suggestions make the formation of Islamic law sudden but other scholars suggest that the evolution was more gradual. Hallaq contradicted Schacht by stating that formative years should be considered as tenth century not the ninth century. The legal methodology was neither concrete till that period nor the legal doctrinal schools. Most other scholars focus on the evolution of Hadith sciences in order to establish a framework of the Islamic law’s origin, but Hallaq does not fall into this trap of obsession. He explains that the prophetic authority is constituted of continuous evolution of Islamic conceptions and authority statements. Going beyond Schacht’s only representation of theoretical approaches, the author here goes further by analyzing the theories and searching their realistic implications in that time. He examined the role of judges in the early formative years of Islamic law and investigated the evolution of legal schools from personal to doctrinal. He explored the cultural origin of the Sunni Law in a sophisticated way like no scholar did before. His analysis suggested that various Semitic and Greco-Roman laws were incorporated in the formation of Islamic legal tradition.
He criticizes Schacht for associating Hadith proliferation with Islamic law movement keeping the Umayyads’ secular practice away from it. According to Hallaq the religious aspects of the Islamic law was present before this time but in a different manifestation. Hallaq challenges other western scholars like Martin Hinds, Patricia Crone and Chrisopher Melchert in their demonstration of the Islamic law and its evolution. He challenged Patricia Crone in her zero-sum hypothesis and suggested a symbiotic relationship between politics and law in Abbasid era. The revisionist thesis of culminating the synthesis of rationalism and traditionalism was adopted by the author in analyzing the hermeneutic hierarchy in the Hadith and the Quran. Hallaq used the analogical reasoning that helps him to refer the holy texts into realistic situations. Melchert concludes that madhhabs only caused by the transmission of knowledge from the teacher to the student, but Hallaq highlights that the madhhabs schools actually was not just limited being a personal schools, rather its doctrinal features made it doctrinal school.
He explored the significant contribution of the Qadis by controlling power from the Caliphs with the help of bureaucratic and military transformation that led them to become judge. He argued that the ahl al ray or the rationalists’ influence was declined and ahl al hadith experienced an emergence. Finally the madhhabs or Sunni legal schools were developed with the assistance of scholarships from scholarly circles like Shafii that helped the four doctrinal schools to contribute significantly in the foundation.
There are few problematic areas which should be addressed while reviewing the books. Hallaq only addressed the laws of the Sunnis. The scholarly circles he chose, is exclusively consisted of en only the women’s role in the formation is largely ignored. However his discussion of few laws and its implication should have been discussed in more detail as they potentially cause the reader’s confusion. The law related to wine drinking after the death of the Prophet was represented by the author in such a way that it seems to be just a theoretical proposition without any practical implication. Hallaq has incorporated various fictions while analyzing the synthesis of traditionalism and rationalism in the formation of Islamic law.
Hallaq discussed the four essential attributes in forming the Islamic legal system to be the court system with a functional judiciary, legal doctrine, and development of doctrinal legal schools and raise legal methodology in connection with science. The evolution was not as orderly as few scholars like Wasil Ibn, suggested that scholarly consensus, prophetic traditions, the Quran and rational proof have shaped the synthesis. All of these elements were present in the middle of Tenth century but failed to build a strong and concrete legal system until the next century. He analyzed these four essential attributes in seven chapters through his book with the purpose of defining their characteristics in order to examine the Islamic law’s development in the early era.
One can argue over his use of emphasizing on the essential attributes, as in how can the essential attributes possess certain specific feature as the evolution of the Islamic law is happening for more than thousand years. The historical manifestations of that era defined the elements but might not be applicable for the next transformation. Therefore it can be said many of his argument is based on a specific moment of time and specific incidents that he thought to be appropriate for the argument and chosen.
Islamic legal academia lacks adequate scholarly consensus that provides in depth analysis of the early years o Islamic law and its evolution. “The Origins and Evolution of Islamic Law” offers a long journey of Islamic law from its formation in the pre-Islamic culture to the concrete functionality after the Prophet’s death. The book presents a specialized and detailed study of themes of the Sunni Islamic law and creates a better understanding for an enthusiastic reader and students.
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