Anthropology of Islamic Law: Education, Ethics, and Legal Interpretation at Egypt's Al-Azhar

The Anthropology of Islamic Law shows how hermeneutic theory and practice theory can be brought together to analyze cultural, legal, and religious traditions. These ideas are developed through an analysis of the Islamic legal tradition, which examines both Islamic legal doctrine and religious education. The book combines anthropology and Islamicist history, using ethnography and in-depth analysis of Arabic religious texts. The book focuses on higher religious learning in contemporary Egypt, examining its intellectual, ethical, and pedagogical dimensions. Data is drawn from fieldwork inside al-Azhar University, Cairo University's Dar al-Ulum, and the network of traditional study circles associated with the al-Azhar mosque. Together these sites constitute the most important venue for the transmission of religious learning in the contemporary Muslim world. The book gives special attention to contemporary Egypt, and also provides a broader analysis relevant to Islamic legal doctrine
and religious education throughout history.


Author: Aria Nakissa
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
Published: 05/03/2019
Pages: 326
Binding Type: Hardcover
Weight: 1.30lbs
Size: 6.40h x 9.30w x 1.20d
ISBN: 9780190932886

About the Author

Aria Nakissa is Assistant Professor of Islamic Studies and Anthropology at Washington University in St. Louis.