Qahwa and Kalam: A History of Islamic Legal System

Join Mohamed Serag Professor at Arab and Islamic Civilizations, AUC, for an explorative journey through Islamic legal history and its significant, yet often overlooked, modern relevance.
This reference book offers an introduction to the history of the Islamic legal system. In the construction of this history, this reference book aims to bring to light the concerted efforts of Muslim jurists, judges, and legislators to revisit certain common misconceptions, not only related to the past but also connected to the role of this system in the present time. Missing the contributions of Muslim judges in the formation and development of this system by most of the prominent historians has resulted in a serious misunderstanding of our legal history.

Unlike those prominent scholars who argued against situating this system in the modern secular state, Professor Serag attempts to unveil the active role of this system in shaping modern family and civil laws, particularly in the Arab world. Interactions between the Islamic legal system and Western laws are introduced to facilitate understanding the evolution of the comparative approach in the 19th century and its active role up to recent times. This book opens the door for reviewing Islamic legal experiences of the past with an eye on availing its richness to improve the administration of justice in our contemporary societies. The lawyers are not always bad historians.

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