This Companion provides a comprehensive and authoritative guide to current research in the thriving area of Islamic law. The book presents classical Islamic law through a historiographical introduction to and analysis of Western scholarship. A distinguished group of authors provide an overview of their particular specialty, reflect on past and current thinking and also point to directions for future research. The Companion covers key debates and provokes new ways of thinking about long-standing issues in this increasingly relevant and popular discipline.

Rudolph Peters is Professor Emeritus of Law, University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands and Peri Bearman is Associate Director of the Islamic Legal Studies Program (retired), Harvard Law School, USA.

Contents: Preface; Introduction: The nature of the Sharia, Rudolph Peters and Peri Bearman. Part I The Historical Islamic Law: The origins of the Sharia, Knut S. Vikÿr; The divine sources, Herbert Berg; The schools of law, Paul R. Powers; Deriving rules of law, Robert Gleave; The judge and the mufti, Brinkley Messick; State and Sharia, Mohammad Fadel; Qanun and Sharia, BoÄYaç A. Ergene. Part II Substantive Islamic Law: Equality before the law, Gianluca P. Parolin; Gender relations, Christina Jones-Pauly; Socio-economic justice, Hiroyuki Yanagihashi; Public order, Christian R. Lange; Constitutional authority, Andrew F. March; War and peace, Sohail H. Hashmi. Part III Islamic Law through the Prism of the Modern State: Sharia and the colonial state, Léon Buskens; Sharia and the nation state, Maurits S. Berger; The re-Islamization of legal systems, Martin Lau. Part IV Present-Day Discussions about Sharia: Sharia and finance, Abdullah Saeed; Sharia and the Muslim diaspora, Mathias Rohe; Sharia and modernity, Kristine Kalanges; Sharia and medical ethics, Birgit Krawietz; Epilogue: the normative relevance of Sharia in the modern context, Abdullahi Ahmed An-Na>im. Glossary; Index.