We invited attendees from the most recent American Society for Legal History‘s Annual Meeting (ASLH 2025) to report back on panels relevant to Islamic law, and to reflect on the state of the field. Here is what they had to
Program in Islamic Law | Harvard Law School
The Program in Islamic Law at Harvard Law School is an academic initiative focused on the study and dissemination of Islamic law and its historical, social, and legal contexts. It publishes scholarly articles, research notes, and roundups that explore various aspects of Islamic jurisprudence, legal traditions, manuscript studies, and contemporary issues related to Islamic law across different regions. The program covers topics such as Islamic legal history, family law, fatwas, legislation, and the interaction of Islamic law with modern societal challenges. It also highlights manuscript traditions and scholarly exchanges within Islamic legal schools, contributing to academic discourse on Islamic law globally.
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::Roundtable:: Knowledge in the Islamic Court
By Ari Schriber
Introduction: Centering Evidence, Proof, and Procedure in Islamic Law
What counts as proof in an Islamic court? How does technological advancement impact notions of evidence? How does a judge rule between competing claims to truth? And what…
Islamic Law at MESA 2025
We invited a group of attendees from the most recent Middle Eastern Studies Association’s 2025 Annual Meeting (MESA 2025) to report back on their panels related to Islamic law and reflect on the state of the field, as seen at …
Digital Humanities at MESA 2025
We invited attendees from the most recent Middle Eastern Studies Association’s Annual Meeting (MESA 2025) to report back on panels relevant to digital humanities, and to reflect on the state of the field. Here is what they had to say. …
Top 25 Posts of 2025
As we begin the new year, we look back at the Islamic Law Blog’s most-read posts of 2025. See here for a curated snapshot of all 2025 research and scholarship at the Program in Islamic Law and in the SHARIAsource…
Islamic Law at AALS 2026! (A PIL Guide)
The Program in Islamic Law (PIL) has curated a list of presentations related to Islamic law and history from the Association of American Law Schools’ (AALS) Annual Meeting, to be held January 6–9, 2026 in New Orleans, LA. Are …
Weekend Scholarship Roundup
SCHOLARSHIP ROUNDUP
On Islamic Law
- In Mantle of the Sufi Kings: Political Sufism and the Rise of Early Modern Iran (Cambridge University Press), Hani Khafipour (State University of New York at Buffalo) “explores how loyalty, social cohesion, and power dynamics
…
Islamic Law in the News Roundup
ISLAMIC LAW IN THE NEWS
- In a special report, Friday Times journalist Amna Usman described how “surrogacy in Pakistan is deeply stigmatised despite medical benefits, raising ethical, religious and legal debates over lineage, dignity and regulated compassion.”
- In Iran, “the Islamic
…
Thank you, Jonathan Brockopp!
Thank you, Jonathan Brockopp, for joining us as guest blog editor in November. In case you missed his essays, here they are:
- Four manuscripts from the Mālikī tradition: Al-Azhar, fiqh Mālikī 1655
- Four manuscripts from the Mālikī tradition: Qarawiyyīn,
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Four manuscripts from the Mālikī tradition: NLPCPM, Raqqada, 10-1648
By Jonathan Brockopp
When I started my graduate program, I had no idea I would be working on Arabic manuscripts. At that point, I knew more about the manuscript tradition of Christianity and Judaism than I did the early Islamic…