Social Science Research Council

"Muslim Jurists under the Almoravids"

My dissertation will examine the role of Muslim jurists under Almoravid rule in North Africa and Iberia between 1062 and 1147. The dissertation will begin by surveying legal opinions, cases, and judgments (fatawa, nawazil, and ahkam) produced in this period. It will then analyze the legal reasoning of two or three representative jurists using cases selected from the survey. (Tentatively, these jurists are: Ibn Rushd al-Jadd, Abu Bakr Ibn al-'Arabi, and Qadi Iyad). The study will thus approach the sources in two basic ways: as a broad survey of trends in legal thought and practice as evinced by extant compilations; and, as a close reading of selected cases, analyzing the legal reasoning that produced the related opinions or judgments. This analysis will center on the jurist's role as a cultural and political actor within the specific social and historical reality producing the cases in question.Carrying out this project involves spending twelve months in Morocco, profiting from expertise in what is still a living legal tradition, as well as exploring manuscripts and archives. Many of the manuscripts with which my dissertation will deal are in Moroccan libraries and private collections. While a few of the compilations I will be surveying are available in edited editions, such as al-Wansharisi's, Kitab al-Mi'yar, others, such as the nawazil of Ibn al-Hajj and Ibn Ward, can only be found in manuscript form in Morocco, almost entirely unknown to Western scholarship.One of the most difficult and exciting dimensions of the project involves determining the precise relationship of law to society at the time. My current readings in legal anthropology and critical legal studies are aimed at untangling these mysteries. I suspect, however, that the key to understanding will be sitting down, in the country that was, after all, the seat of the Almoravid state, with a practicing Islamic legal scholar of the Maliki School, read these difficult texts and try to re-imagine the context. The mint tea will surely help.