Shi?Ite Legal Theory: Sources and Commentaries

This book provides an integrated analysis of Shiite legal theories, including the validity of personal juristic reasoning, linguistic interpretations, the role of certainty in the deduction of law, and the legal authority of the imams. It covers Shiite u??l, which has received little attention in scholarly discussions of Islamic legal theory, and presents texts from a range of regions and written across a broad time period. The book aims to bring the richness and diversity of Shiite u??l to the wider field.

Format: Hardback
Length: 352 pages
Publication date: 15 March 2023
Publisher: Edinburgh University Press

Shiite legal theory is a family of legal traditions, with illustrative examples from previously unpublished works. This book examines an integrated analysis of Shiite traditions and legal theories, including personal juristic reasoning, linguistic interpretations, certainty in the deduction of law, and the legal authority of the imams. It covers Shiite ulama, which has received little attention in scholarly discussions of Islamic legal theory. The book focuses not only on the less-neglected Twelver ulama but also on Isma'ili and Zaydi ulama traditions. It presents texts from various regions and written across a broad time period, from the 5th/11th century to the 13th/18th century.

Incorporation of Zaydi, Isma'ili, and Twelver legal traditions in a single analytical framework

Alongside the individual rules of God's law (shar??a), there has been a vibrant history of more philosophical or theoretical discussions in Islamic thought. Where does God's law come from? How are God's rules to be discovered for situations not covered in the revealed sources? Who, within the Muslim community, can make a valid pronouncement on the content of the shar??a? The answers to these questions have been debated and discussed by Muslim scholars in the genre of literature called u??l al-fiqh, glossed in English language secondary literature as Islamic legal theory.

This volume contains editions and commentaries of hitherto un-edited manuscripts from the various strands of the Shi?ite tradition of Islamic thought (Zaydi, Isma'ili, and Twelver). A careful side-by-side reading of these texts and commentaries will help identify themes peculiar to the Shi?ite family of legal theories.

Dimension: 244 x 170 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9781399520256