Dispensing Justice in Islam—Qadis And Their Judgements

US and European scholars of law, history, sociology, and anthropology who specialize in Muslim societies gathered in Leiden, the Netherlands, in October 2001 for The Application of Islamic Law in Courts conference, which focused on the role of the qadi, or judge. The 21 papers from that conference published here cover judging, organizing law, applying doctrines, and recording procedures and evidence. Among the topics are the shifting legal environment of a 16th-century Ottoman court, a trans-Saharan comparison of Islamic judicial councils and their sociopolitical context, and Christians and family law in modern Egypt. Annotation c2006 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

Muhammad Khalid Masud, Ph.D. in Islamic Studies, McGill University, formerly Academic Director, ISIM, Leiden is Chairman, Council of Islamic Ideology, Pakistan. He has published extensively on Islamic law and social change. His recent publications include Shatibi’s Philosophy of Islamic Law (1996), the co-edited work Islamic Legal Interpretations (1996), and the edited volume Travelers in Faith (Brill 2000).David S. Powers, Ph.D., Islamic History, Princeton (1979). Professor of Arabic and Islamic Studies at Cornell University since 1979; editor of the journal Islamic Law and Society (Brill); author of Studies in Qur’an and Hadith: The Formation of the Islamic Law of Inheritance (University of California Press, 1986); and Law, Society and Culture in the Maghrib, 1300-1500 (Cambridge); co-editor of Islamic Legal Interpretation: Muftis and the Fatwas (Harvard, 1996). He has published articles in Arabica, Studia Islamica, Journal of the American Oriental Society, Journal of Near Eastern Studies, Comparative Studies in Society and History, Continuity and Change, Law and Society Review.Rudolph Peters, Ph.D., Islamic Studies, University of Amsterdam (1979). Professor of Islamic Studies at University of Amsterdam; co-editor of the series Studies in Islamic Law and Society (Brill); author of Islam and Colonialism: The doctrine of jihad in modern history (Mouton/Walter de Gruyter, 1979), Jihad in classial and modern Islam (Princeton, Wiener, 1996), Crime and punishment in Islamic law (Cambridge University Press, 2005). He has published articles in Islamic Law and Society, Die Welt des Islams,International Journal of Middle Eastern Studies, Mediterranean Studies and Annales Islamologiques.