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This volume is a tribute to the work of legal and social historian and Arabist Rudolph Peters (University of Amsterdam). Presenting case studies from different periods and areas of the Muslim world, the book examines the use of legal documents for the study of the history of Muslim societies. From examinations of the conceptual status of legal documents to comparative studies of the development of legal formulae and the socio-economic or political historical information documents contain, the aim is to approach legal documents as specialised texts belonging to a specific social domain, while simultaneously connecting them to other historical sources. It discusses the daily functioning of legal institutions, the reflections of regime changes on legal documentation, daily life, and the materiality of legal documents. Contributors are Maaike van Berkel, Maurits H. van den Boogert, Léon Buskens, Khaled Fahmy, Aharon Layish, Sergio Carro Martín, Brinkley Messick, Toru Miura, Christian Müller, Petra M. Sijpesteijn, Mathieu Tillier, and Amalia Zomeño.

Legal documents (Islamic law) --- Islamic law --- History.

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A case study in the textual architecture of the venerable legal and ethical tradition at the center of the Islamic experience, Sharīʿa Scripts is a work of historical anthropology focused on Yemen in the early twentieth century. There-while colonial regimes, late Ottoman reformers, and early nationalists wrought decisive changes to the legal status of the sharīʿa, significantly narrowing its sphere of relevance-the Zaydī school of jurisprudence, rooted in highland Yemen for a millennium, still held sway.Brinkley Messick uses the richly varied writings of the Yemeni past to offer a uniquely comprehensive view of the sharīʿa as a localized and lived phenomenon. Sharīʿa Scripts reads a wide spectrum of sources in search of a new historical-anthropological perspective on Islamic textual relations. Messick analyzes the sharīʿa as a local system of texts, distinguishing between theoretical or doctrinal juridical texts (or the "library") and those produced by the sharīʿa courts and notarial writers (termed the "archive"). Attending to textual form, he closely examines representative books of madrasa instruction; formal opinion-giving by muftis and imams; the structure of court judgments; and the drafting of contracts. Messick's intensive readings of texts are supplemented by retrospective ethnography and oral history based on extensive field research. Further, the book ventures a major methodological contribution by confronting anthropology's longstanding reliance upon the observational and the colloquial. Presenting a new understanding of Islamic legal history, Sharīʿa Scripts is a groundbreaking examination of the interpretative range and historical insights offered by the anthropologist as reader.

Justice, Administration of --- Law reform --- Islamic law --- Zaydīyah --- Legal documents (Islamic law) --- Legal documents --- Documents --- Documents, Legal --- Authentication --- Commercial documents --- Legal instruments --- Legalization --- Zaidiya --- Shīʻah --- Civil law (Islamic law) --- Law, Arab --- Law, Islamic --- Law in the Qurʼan --- Sharia (Islamic law) --- Shariʻah (Islamic law) --- Law, Oriental --- Law, Semitic --- Legal reform --- Administration of justice --- Law --- Courts --- History --- Law and legislation --- #SBIB:39A4 --- #SBIB:39A10 --- #SBIB:316.331H332 --- #SBIB:340H00 --- Toegepaste antropologie --- Antropologie: religie, riten, magie, hekserij --- Godsdienst en staat --- Recht algemeen