An Introduction to Islamic Law (49 page)

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Authors: Wael B. Hallaq

Tags: #Law, #General, #Jurisprudence, #History, #Middle East, #Religion, #Islam, #International, #Political Science, #Social Science, #Sociology

BOOK: An Introduction to Islamic Law
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usul al-fiqh:
a discipline or a field of study specializing in methods of interpretation and reasoning (q.v.
ijtihad
), with the aim of arriving at
new legal norms for unprecedented cases or rationalizing existing ones. This discipline produced many important treatises dealing with the subject, and referred to as
usul al-fiqh
works.
usury (interest; Ar.
riba
):
categorically prohibited in Islamic law; literally meaning “excess,”
riba
refers to receiving or giving a lawful thing having monetary value in excess of that for which the thing was exchanged; interest charged on a debt is a prime example.
Vilayat-i Faqih:
see
Marja
-Taqlid
.
waqf
(also
habous
in North Africa):
a charitable endowment; usually, immovable property alienated and endowed to serve the interest of certain beneficiaries, such as members of the family, the poor, wayfarers, scholars, mystics, the general public, etc. Constituting more than half of real property in many parts of the Muslim world, endowments sustained the legal system and its institutions, and supported public life and a flourishing civil society. Examples of endowments are: mosques, schools and graduate colleges, hospitals, soup-kitchens, public drinking fountains, bridges, street lights and real estate.
Chronology
This chronology is intended to aid beginners in identifying landmarks and important dates in the history of the Shari
a. In the case of movements and historical processes, the dates should be taken as rough estimates of their beginnings and/or ends.
610
Prophet Muhammad receives the first revelation.
622
Muhammad migrates to Medina.
632
Death of Muhammad.
632–80s
Rise of the Prophetic Sunna.
661–749
The Umayyad Dynasty.
680s–
Scholars and early judges begin to study and specialize in Prophetic Sunna.
690s–730s
Rise of the class of private legal specialists (
mufti
s) and study circles.
740–
Rise of personal legal schools.
750–
The beginning of systematic exposition of substantive legal doctrine.
767
Death of Abu Hanifa, the eponym and main leader of the Hanafi school.
795
Death of Malik b. Anas, a leading Medinan jurist and the eponym of the Maliki school.
800
Substantive legal doctrine acquires its full-fledged form.
820
Death of Ibn Idris al-Shafi
i, the eponym and doctrinal leader of the Shafi
i school.
820–900
Compilation of Prophetic
hadith
.
855
Death of Ahmad Ibn Hanbal, a distinguished traditionist and eponym of the doctrinal Hanbali school.
860–900
Compilation of Prophetic
hadith
in canonical collections.
860–950
The formation of legal schools as doctrinal entities.
920–70
The first major expounders of a full-fledged theory of law (
usul al-fiqh
).
934–1055
The Buyids rule Iraq, Rayy and Fars.
939
The beginning of the Greater Occultation in Twelver-Shi
ism.
1037
The rise of the Saljuq Empire.
1055–1157
The Saljuqs rule Iraq.
1063–92
Tenure of the Saljuq vizier Nizam al-Mulk.
1077–1307
Saljuq state of Rum.
1250–1517
The Mamluks rule Egypt.
1347–61
Reign of the Mamluk sultan al-Nasir Hasan, interrupted between 1351 and 1354.
1389–1401
Reign of the Ottoman sultan Bayazid I.
1389–1922
The Ottoman Empire.
1453
The Ottomans capture Constantinople.
1501–1732
The Safavids rule Iran.
1520–66
The reign of the Ottoman sultan Sulayman the Lawgiver.
1526–
Beginning of the Mogul Empire in India.
1600
The British East India Company is chartered.
1602
The Dutch East India Company is chartered.
1757
The Battle of Plassey and acquisition of Bengal by the East India Company.
1772
Warren Hastings becomes Governor-General of India.
1779–1924
The Qajar Dynasty in Iran, consolidating its rule in 1794.
1786
Charles Cornwallis becomes Governor-General of India.
1804
The promulgation in France of the
Code civil
(
Code Napoléon
), later influential in several Muslim countries.
1805–11
Muhammad
Ali consolidates his grip over Egypt, eliminating the Mamluks and preparing for significant reforms.
1826
The abolition of the Janissary corps by Mahmud II.
1826
W
aqf
s are placed under the control of the Imperial Ministry of Endowments, Istanbul.
1826
The Straits Settlements come under the rule of the East India Company.
1828
Muhammad
Ali sends the first group of Egyptian (law) students to Paris. At, or around, this time the Ottomans and the Qajars do the same.
1830
The French conquer Algiers.
1830–80
Drastic weakening of the ulama class in the Ottoman Empire, Egypt and French Algeria.
1837
The proclamation of the
siyasatname
by Muhammad
Ali in Egypt.
1839
The proclamation of the Ottoman Gülhane Decree.
1839–76
The age of Ottoman Tanzimat.
1847–69
First major wave of educational reforms in the Ottoman Empire.
1850
A commercial, French-based code promulgated in the Ottoman Empire.
1853–56
The Crimean Wars and Ottoman defeat.
1856
The proclamation of the Humayun Decree.
1857
The Indian Rebellion.
1858
Promulgation in the Ottoman Empire of the Penal Code and Land Law.
1859
French penal code enacted in Algeria.
1860s
Egyptian legal experts begin translating French civil, commercial, penal and procedural codes into Arabic.
1860–80
Gradual restriction of Shari
a’s application to personal status in the Ottoman Empire and Egypt.
1864
Promulgation in the Ottoman Empire of the Law of Provincial Administration.
1870–77
The publication of the Ottoman
Majallat al-Ahkam al-‘Adliyya
.
1873
Loi Warnier
pertaining to land promulgated in French Algeria.

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