Launched: A New Translation of Malik’s Muwa ṭṭ a ʾ by Mohammad Fadel & Connell Monette by Mohammad Fadel & Connell Monette On December 9th, scholars around the world came together to officially launch the new publication of Malik b. Anas’s Muwatta’ —an early treatise on Islamic law. PIL hosted ten scholars on the online roundtable featured on the Islamic Law Blog in the lead up to the public book launch. Convened by Professor Intisar Rabb (Harvard Law School) and Dr. Dana Lee (Harvard Law School), the events underscored the text’s historical and modern importance. The author-translators, Professor Mohammad Fadel (University of Toronto) and Dr. Connell Monette (American College Casablanca), discussed the contours of the work and the Herculean effort of its translation with three panelists, Professor Kecia Ali (Boston University), Professor Ahmed El Shamsy (University of Chicago), and Dr. Mariam Sheibani (Harvard Law School). Representatives from Morocco’s Ministry for Endowments and Islamic Affairs, which published the Arabic critical edition that served as a basis for this translation, attended as well: His Excellency Minister Ahmed Toufiq and Minister Delegate Driss Ouaouicha —their presence attesting to the international reach of the work. This book, the eighth volume in the Harvard Series in Islamic Law , is now available for purchase through Harvard University Press . Image credit: Program in Islamic Law
SHARIAsource PORTAL: Online Companion to Malik’s Muwa ṭṭ aʾ Just launched on the SHARIAsource Portal is an Online Companion to the Book, al-Muwaṭṭaʾ – Recension of Yaḥyā b. Yaḥyā (d. 234/848). The Online Companion includes historical maps of principal cities of the Umayyad empire where the text originated and spread from Mecca and Medina to the Maghreb and al-Andalus. Readers of the Muwaṭṭaʾ can also link the work to its greater context through links to the online roundtable’s ten expert commentaries, read biographies of historical figures, and compare Arabic to English excerpts of the text. Stay tuned for the full Arabic and English text, to be posted! Image credit: SHARIAsource/Program in Islamic Law
BLOG: What is dark matter in Early Islamic Law? This month our blog features Marion Katz , who references Jack Tannous’ “recent book The Making of the Medieval Middle East (Princeton University Press, 2018)” to discuss the importance of “be[ing] vigilant for f leeting glimpses of the interpretive activities of ordinary Muslims” in Late Antiquity Christianity and early Islam. These activities are the “dark matter” of Islamic law because ” the lives of [ordinary] unlearned people accounted for the great bulk of the religious experiences of the past but are rarely directly represented in our sources.” Check out all of Marion Katz’s posts . Image credit: Phys.org
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