What counts as proof in an Islamic court? How does a judge rule between competing claims to truth? How does technological advancement impact notions of evidence? How can our understanding of Islamic law writ large change if we center its rules of adjudication? And what constitutes an “Islamic” court or judge in the first place? The participants of this roundtable seek to address these questions through five respective case studies and propose that attention to evidence, proof, and procedure will help us better understand both the adjudicative process and juristic intent of Islamic legal rules. Focusing primarily on the modern and contemporary world, the five contributions center varying conceptions of proof amidst rapid social and technological changes in Islamic judicial contexts.

Conveners: Nurul Hoda Mohd. Razif (University of Bergen) and Ari Schriber (University of Erfurt)

Contributors: Aya Bejermi (University of Bordeaux), Léon Buskens (Leiden University), Dominik Krell (University of Oxford), Irene Schneider (Göttingen University), Mashal Saif (Clemson University)

Join us on zoom, April 16, 2026 @ 12:00pm EST. Registration required.