“The Islamic Law of Nations”

Last updated on: March 26, 2019 at 11:56 am by Dan Peterson

“The Islamic Law of Nations” 2019-03-26T11:56:16-06:00 Dan Peterson

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

From the Amazon.com website

Today, in my Islamic philosophy class, we’re going to begin the discussion of the last text that we’re reading for the course, which is Majid Khadduri’s The Islamic Law of Nations: Shaybani’s Siyar (2002). It’s a bit of a departure from philosophy as such, but, given the interests of the students in this particular small class, I thought it worth a look.

Abu ‘Abd Allah Muḥammad b. al-Ḥasan b. Farqad al-Shaybānī (محمد بن الحسن الشيباني‎), who lived in Iraq between roughly AD 749 and AD 805, is sometimes called “the father of Islamic international law.”

He’s also interesting because of his association with the principal founders of three of the four “orthodox” Sunni madhahib or legal schools — meaning “schools of thought,” not “law schools” in the sense that Harvard and Stanford and BYU have law schools. In Kufa, he was a student of Abu Hanifa, the founder of what soon came to be known as the Hanafi school of jurisprudence (fiqh). But only for about two years, because Abu Hanifa died in AD 767, when al-Shaybani was just eighteen. Thereafter, he studied with Abu Hanifa’s foremost disciple, and it’s fair to say that al-Shaybani should be considered a Hanafi legal thinker.

But he also studied for perhaps two or three years with Malik b. Anas, the founder of the Maliki school of jurisprudence. And, much later in his life, he was the teacher of Muhammad b. Idris al-Shafi‘i, the founder of the Shafi‘i madhhab. Although al-Shafi’ī ultimately parted ways with al-Shaybani and even wrote a book criticizing him — the Kitāb al-Radd ʿalā Muḥammad b. al-Ḥasan (“Book of the Answer to Muḥammad b. al-Ḥasan” or “Refutation of Muḥammad b. al-Ḥasan”) — al-Shafi’ī continued to admire al-Shaybani and to hold him in affection.

Thus, the only one of the four eponymous founders of the Sunni madhahib with whom al-Shaybani had no significant personal interaction was his younger contemporary, Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal, the founder of the Hanbali school of jurisprudence.

Moreover, al-Shaybani also studied with other famous jurists, such as Sufyan al-Thawrī (whose short-lived “Thawrī” madhhab or school of law barely outlived its founder) and al-Awzāʿī (who likewise founded his own madhhab, which lasted in Syria and Andalusia until the tenth century).

For the better part of a decade, by appointment of the great Abbasid caliph Harun al-Rashid, al-Shaybani served as qadi or chief judge of Raqqa, which Harun had taken as his capital in lieu of Baghdad. This is the same Raqqa that, for a while, recently served as the seat of the so-called “caliphate” of Abu Bakr Al-Baghdadi, the leader of ISIS.

It is said that al-Shaybani died on the same day as his near neighbor al-Kisā’i, one of the greatest of classical Arabic grammarians and philologists and the compiler of one of the best of the fascinating collections of Qiṣaṣ al-‘Anbiyā’ (قصص الأنبياء‎) or “Stories of the Prophets” that were very popular at the time and that preserve many otherwise lost stories and legends about biblical and other prophetic figures. The Caliph is reported to have lamented that, with their deaths, he had “buried law and grammar alongside each other.”

Here’s the jacket note for the book that we’re reading and discussing:

From its origins Islam has been an expansionist religion, understanding itself as a matter of faith to be in a permanent state of war with the non-Muslim world. After the initial consolidation of the Islamic caliphate, however, it soon became apparent that constant military hostilities could not be sustained and that other forms of relationship with non-Muslim nations would be necessary. To reconcile the imperatives of faith with the limits of military power, Islamic scholars developed elaborate legal doctrines. In the second century of the Muslim era (eighth century C.E.), hundreds of years before the codification of international law in Europe by Grotius and others, Muhammad ibn al-Hasan al-Shaybani, an eminent jurist of the Hanafite school in present-day Iraq, wrote the first major Islamic treatise on the law of nations, Kitab al-Siyar al-Kabir. Translated with an extensive commentary by Majid Khadduri, Shaybani’s Siyar describes in detail conditions for war (jihad) and for peace, principles for the conduct of military action and of diplomacy, and rules for the treatment of non-Muslims in Muslim lands. A foundational text of the leading school of law in Sunni Islam, it provides essential insights into relations between Islamic nations and the larger world from their earliest days up to the present.

I might quibble just a bit with the opening line of that jacket summary (though perhaps not), but, otherwise, it’s pretty well done.

Uncategorized

Previous Post

March 25, 2019

New Testament Notes 145-146

Next Post

March 26, 2019 "Physics Is Pointing Inexorably to Mind"

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category Uncategorized

Select a Month October 2026 September 2026 August 2026 July 2026 June 2026 May 2026 April 2026 March 2026 February 2026 January 2026 December 2025 November 2025 October 2025 September 2025 August 2025 July 2025 June 2025 May 2025 April 2025 March 2025 February 2025 January 2025 December 2024 November 2024 October 2024 September 2024 August 2024 July 2024 June 2024 May 2024 April 2024 March 2024 February 2024 January 2024 December 2023 November 2023 October 2023 September 2023 August 2023 July 2023 June 2023 May 2023 April 2023 March 2023 February 2023 January 2023 December 2022 November 2022 October 2022 September 2022 August 2022 July 2022 June 2022 May 2022 April 2022 March 2022 February 2022 January 2022 December 2021 November 2021 October 2021 September 2021 August 2021 July 2021 June 2021 May 2021 April 2021 March 2021 February 2021 January 2021 December 2020 November 2020 October 2020 September 2020 August 2020 July 2020 June 2020 May 2020 April 2020 March 2020 February 2020 January 2020 December 2019 November 2019 October 2019 September 2019 August 2019 July 2019 June 2019 May 2019 April 2019 March 2019 February 2019 January 2019 December 2018 November 2018 October 2018 September 2018 August 2018 July 2018 June 2018 May 2018 April 2018 March 2018 February 2018 January 2018 December 2017 November 2017 October 2017 September 2017 August 2017 July 2017 June 2017 May 2017 April 2017 March 2017 February 2017 January 2017 December 2016 November 2016 October 2016 September 2016 August 2016 July 2016 June 2016 May 2016 April 2016 March 2016 February 2016 January 2016 December 2015 November 2015 October 2015 September 2015 August 2015 July 2015 June 2015 May 2015 April 2015 March 2015 February 2015 January 2015 December 2014 November 2014 March 2014 August 2013 February 2012

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz

Who predicted the birth of John the Baptist?

Select your answer to see how you score.

Gabriel Michael Raphael Uriel