Program in Islamic Law | Program in Islamic Law

Islamic Law Speaker Series: “A Cultural History of the Arabic Book: Digital Explorations of Writerly Practices and Text Reuse” by Sarah Savant, Program in Islamic Law, April 8, 2025 @ 12:30 – 1:30 pm

Posted on January 07, 2025

On Tuesday, April 8, 2025, at 12:30-1:30PM US EST via Zoom, Professor Sarah Savant (Aga Khan University) will present “A Cultural History of the Arabic Book: Digital Explorations of Writerly Practices and Text Reuse.” This talk explores how one could reconstruct how major authors in the Arabic language from the eighth to sixteenth centuries wrote their books– the sources they used, what they copied out, and the scholars they knew. For most of these authors, reusing earlier works was the starting point for creating new ones. They abbreviated long works to make short ones, commented on short ones to make long ones, and mined general histories to compose works on specific themes. In these and many other ways, authors produced an enormously intertextual tradition, shaping how later individuals and communities would remember their pasts and conceive of their affiliations to groups bound by locality, profession, religion, tribe, ethnicity and other shared traits. To make the reconstruction of these relations possible on a large scale, the KITAB (Knowledge, Information Technology, & the Arabic Book) project built a digital corpus of thousands of these early Arabic books comprising more than two billion words. The talk addresses topics ranging from religion, philosophy and language to history, geography, medicine and astronomy, that were written over the first ten centuries of Islam in a region spanning from modern Spain to Central and South Asia. The team then utilized a text reuse detection algorithm to create an original data set that documents word-for-word relationships among all these books. This talk will visualize and investigate the broad patterns of text reuse using the KITAB data set and forensically analyze individual works to observe the tradition both from a satellite perspective and through a microscope, as it were. Registration is required.

Islamic Law Speaker Series: “The Genealogy of the Death Penalty for Apostasy and Blasphemy in Islam” by Mohsen Kadivar, Program in Islamic Law, March 11, 2025 @ 12:30 – 1:30 pm

Posted on December 10, 2024

On Tuesday, March 11, 2025, at 12:30-1:30PM US EST via Zoom, Professor Mohsen Kadivar (Duke University) will present “The Genealogy of the Death Penalty for Apostasy and Blasphemy in Islam.” This talk examines a few ḥadith that are attributed to the Prophet that support a penalty for apostasy, especially execution, that have been the foundation of this ruling of criminal law in conservative Islam. They are not only conjectural isolated ḥadith that directly contradict the Qurʾān but were also fabricated and forged under the influence of Jewish literature during the Umayyad and Abbasid dynasties. The so-called prophetic ḥadith of “Kill the one who changes his religion” was the product of the eighth and ninth centuries. The ruling of killing apostates entered Shīʿī law from the Sunni legal schools. From the tenth century onwards, narrations on the penalty for apostasy as well as blasphemy of the Prophet (and even the Imams), in the most restrictive sense, have been attributed to the Shīʿī Imams, although most of them are considered weak, having no chain of transmitters, or contain unknown individuals in the chain. Registration is required.

Islamic Law Speaker Series: “The Making of the Modern Muslim State: Islam and Governance in the Middle East and North Africa (Princeton University Press, 2024),” Malika Zeghal, Program in Islamic Law, February 11, 2025 @ 12:30 – 1:30 pm

Posted on November 12, 2024

On Tuesday, February 11, 2025, at 12:30-1:30PM US EST via Zoom, Professor Malika Zeghal (Harvard University) will present The Making of the Modern Muslim State: Islam and Governance in the Middle East and North Africa (Princeton University Press, 2024). This book reframes the role of Islam in modern Middle East governance. Challenging other accounts that claim that Middle Eastern states turned secular in modern times, Professor Zeghal shows instead the continuity of the state’s custodianship of Islam as the preferred religion. Drawing on intellectual, political, and economic history, she traces this custodianship from early forms of constitutional governance in the nineteenth century through post–Arab Spring experiments in democracy. She argues that the intense debates around the implementation and meaning of state support for Islam led to a political cleavage between conservatives and their opponents that long predated the polarization of the twentieth century that accompanied the emergence of mass politics and Islamist movements. Examining constitutional projects, public spending, school enrollments, and curricula, Professor Zeghal shows that although modern Muslim-majority polities have imported Western techniques of governance, the state has continued to protect and support the religion, community, and institutions of Islam. She finds that even as Middle Eastern states have expanded their nonreligious undertakings, they have dramatically increased their per capita supply of public religious provisions, especially Islamic education—further feeding the political schism between Islamists and their adversaries. Registration is required.

Islamic Law Speaker Series: “On Theocratic Criminal Law: The Rule of Religion and Punishment in Iran,” Bahman Khodadadi, Program in Islamic Law, December 10, 2024 @ 12:30 – 1:30 pm

Posted on October 15, 2024

On Tuesday, December 10, 2024, at 12:30-1:30PM US EST, Dr. Bahman Khodadadi (Harvard Law School) will present On Theocratic Criminal Law: The Rule of Religion and Punishment in Iran (Oxford University Press, 2024). This talk explores the roots and structures of the criminal law system of the world’s most prominent constitutional theocracy, the Shīʿī theocracy. While discussing the processes of de-westernization which occurred in the wake of the Islamic Revolution, this work examines how the Islamic conception of civil order and polity has been established within the legal and theological framework of the Iranian Constitution. The presentation offers a ‘rational reconstruction’ of the theocratic criminal law and offers a critical analysis of the way criminal law functions as the centerpiece of this mode of theocratic domination. It illuminates how this revelation-based, punitive ideology functions, how the current Islamic Penal Code mirrors prevailing Shīʿī jurisprudence. It also explores the jurisprudential principles and dynamic power of Shīʿī Islam not only as a driving force behind political and social change but as a force that has been capable of forging a whole theocratic legal system. Registration is required.

Islamic Law Speaker Series: “Islamic Apocalyptic Jurisprudence: End-Times Law in Sunnī and Shīʿī Discourses” by Ali Rod Khadem, Program in Islamic Law, November 12, 2024 @ 12:30 pm – 1:30 pm

Posted on October 15, 2024

On Tuesday, November 12, 2024, at 12:30-1:30PM US EST, Professor Ali Rod Khadem (Suffolk University) will present “Islamic Apocalyptic Jurisprudence: End-Times Law in Sunnī and Shīʿī Discourses” (Islamic Law and Society 31 (3), 2024). This talk explores theories of the final legal system that will govern humanity in the End Times, as envisioned in the apocalyptic discourses of several Sunnī and Shīʿī case studies. Key themes include the sources of law, the role of jurists, conflicts between Islamic, Jewish, Christian, and international legal systems, changes to classical Islamic legal theory, and the introduction of new laws and policies in the apocalyptic era. The presentation will highlight how the lens of apocalypticism enables movements and thinkers to advocate for radical changes to the foundations and particulars of Islamic law, while still claiming to operate within the boundaries of Islamic orthodoxy. Registration is required.

Islamic Law Speaker Series: “The Imam of the Christians: The World of Dionysius of Tel-Mahre, c. 750–850” with Philip Wood, Program in Islamic Law, May 14, 2024 @ 12:30 – 1:30 pm

Posted on February 13, 2024

On Tuesday, May 14, 2024 at 12:30-1:30PM US EST via Zoom, Philip Wood (Aga Khan University) will give a book talk on The Imam of the Christians: The World of Dionysius of Tel-Mahre, c. 750–850 (Princeton University Press, 2021) as part of our Islamic Law Speaker Series. This book examines how Christian leaders adopted and adapted the political practices and ideas of their Muslim rulers between 750 and 850 in the Abbasid caliphate in the Jazira (modern eastern Turkey and northern Syria). Focusing on the writings of Dionysius of Tel-Mahre, the patriarch of the Jacobite church, Wood describes how this encounter produced an Islamicate Christianity that differed from the Christianities of Byzantium and western Europe in far more than just theology. In doing so, Wood opens a new window on the world of early Islam and Muslims’ interactions with other religious communities. Register today!

PIL–LC Research Fellowship Application, 2024-2025, February 15, 2024

Posted on January 29, 2024

In collaboration with the John W. Kluge Center at the Library of Congress, the Program in Islamic Law at Harvard Law School is pleased to invite applications for the 2024-2025 PIL–LC Research Fellowship (due: February 15, 2024). This newly offered fellowship is designed to provide an intellectual home to promising young scholars in Islamic legal studies, to advance their research, and to contribute to the intellectual life of the Program, the greater Harvard community, and the Library of Congress community. The unique opportunity afforded by this joint fellowship award allows the selected fellow to pursue independent research on Islamic law and history that utilizes the extensive collections of the Harvard Libraries and the Library of Congress. The PIL–LC Research Fellowship award is a full-time residential fellowship at Harvard Law School (for nine months, during the academic year) and at the John W. Kluge Center at the Library of Congress (for three months, the following summer).

Successful applicants will have completed an advanced degree (JD, PhD, or SJD) before the start of the fellowship, and plan to pursue a scholarly research agenda in Islamic law that engages legal history, law and society, or comparative law approaches. Fellows will receive a stipend for the duration of the fellowship.

To apply for this fellowship, please submit the following materials via the research fellowship online application form by February 15, 2024:

1. a curriculum vitae

2. a research proposal consisting of

a single-paragraph abstract of your proposed research
a research statement, not to exceed 1500 words (3 single-spaced pages), and
a bibliography of works you have consulted that describes the proposed work during the fellowship period.

The proposal should outline research in your area of expertise or interest related to contemporary or historical issues of Islamic law that can be accomplished during the fellowship term; projects are to utilize the Harvard and Library of Congress collections to advance a novel contribution to scholarship through research in Islamic law, with a legal history, comparative law, or law and society approach.

3. an explanation of why Harvard/PIL and the Library of Congress are the required venue for your research (e.g., identification of specific Harvard/PIL resources and Library of Congress collections that are necessary to pursue the research project)

4. a writing sample of no more than 25 pages in length, in English (which can be a recent publication or unpublished work; works-in-progress are especially welcome)

5. 3 reference letters from recommenders who are to upload letters directly at the referee link.

A panel of scholars at both Harvard and the Library of Congress will review your application materials. The panel will consider your application in relation to numerous other proposals. Evaluation criteria will include:

The significance of the contribution that the project will make to knowledge in the field
The quality or the promise of quality of the work
The quality of the conception, definition, organization and description of the project
The likelihood that the applicant will complete the project
The appropriateness of the research for Harvard/PIL resources and the Library of Congress collections

Please ensure that your references have ample time to consider and comment on your proposal. Letters of reference are more highly regarded if they address the specific proposed activity and how well the candidate is suited to undertake it, as opposed to letters that verify character, limit comments to previous work, or make only general observations on the topic.

Following a process of committee review, applicants will be notified of decisions in March 2024.

Deadline: February 15, 2024

Islamic Law Speaker Series: “The Rise of Critical Islam: 10th-13th Century Legal Debate” with Youcef L. Soufi, Program in Islamic Law, March 5, 2024 @ 12:30 – 1:30 pm

Posted on January 25, 2024

The Rise of Critical Islam: 10th-13th Century Legal Debate

This event will take place via Zoom. The link is available here.

Islamic Law Speaker Series: “The Transition of Ottoman Land Law: Theory and Practice between 16th-18th Centuries” with Fatma Gul Karagoz, Program in Islamic Law, April 9, 2024 @ 12:30 – 1:30 pm

Posted on January 25, 2024

Islamic Law Speaker Series:: Fatma Gül Karagöz (2023-2024 PIL-LC Fellow)

The Transition of Ottoman Land Law: Theory and Practice between 16th-18th Centuries

This event will take place via Zoom. The link for this event is available here.

Roundtable: Islamic Land Law, Program in Islamic Law, Harvard Law School, February 21, 2024 @ 12:30 – 1:30 pm

Posted on January 25, 2024

WED 21 FEB 2024 | 12.30-1.30 | via Zoom

Event::Roundtable on Islamic Land Law

The roundtable focuses on the transformation of the Ottoman land system in the 19th century, particularly examining the 1858 Land Code (Kanunname-i Arazi) and its impact on land laws in the Ottoman Empire’s successor states. With case studies focusing on Bosnia, Greece, Bulgaria, and Serbia, the roundtable will explore how these changes influenced the balance between labor and capital, the privatization of estates and agricultural lands, the legal rights of landholders, and the link between land ownership and sovereignty. The discussion aims to understand continuity and change between Ottoman and successor state legal systems by analyzing bureaucratic interactions and the use of Ottoman and European legal sources. By also considering the political and economic reasons behind these legal changes, including how new administrations used them for nation-building, the roundtable offers new perspectives on legal continuity and adaptation in post-Ottoman regions.

The link for this roundtable is available here.