Islamic and Jewish Legal Reasoning Encountering Our Legal Other

by Emon, Anver

• ISBN13: 9781780748801
• ISBN10: 1780748809
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2016-05-10
• Publisher: Oneworld Publications

Summary

By pairing a scholar of Islamic law with a scholar of Jewish law, a unique dynamic is created, and new perspectives are made possible. These new perspectives not only enable an understanding of the other’s legal tradition, but most saliently, they offer new insights into one’s own legal tradition, shedding light on what had previously been assumed to be outside the scope of analytic vision.

In the course of this volume, scholars come together to examine such issues as judicial authority, the legal policing of female sexuality, and the status of those who stand outside one’s own tradition. Whether for the pursuit of advanced scholarship, pedagogic innovation in the classroom, or simply a greater appreciation of how to live in a multi-faith, post-secular world, these encounters are richly-stimulating, demonstrating how legal tradition can be used as a common site for developing discussions and opening up diverse approaches to questions about law, politics, and community. Islamic and Jewish Legal Reasoning offers a truly incisive model for considering the good, the right and the legal in our societies today.

Author Biography

Dr. Anver M. Emon is Professor and Canada Research Chair in Religion, Pluralism and the Rule of Law at the University of Toronto. His research focuses on pre-modern and modern Islamic legal history and theory, pre-modern modes of governance and adjudication, and the role of Shari’ah Law both inside and outside the Muslim world. He lives in Toronto.

Table of Contents

Introduction: Islamic and Jewish Legal Reasoning—Beginnings

(Anver M. Emon and Robert Gibbs)

On Reading Together

Formation of a Reading Practice

From Reading Together to Writing Together

PART I

1 Assuming Power: Judges, Imagined Authority, and the Quotidian

(Rumee Ahmed and Aryeh Cohen)

Introduction

Rumee Ahmed

Aryeh Cohen

Rumee Ahmed

Aryeh Cohen: Coda

Conclusion

2 Guardianship of Women in Islamic and Jewish Legal Texts

(Rachel Adler and Ayesha S. Chaudhry)

Introduction

Reading an Islamic Legal Text Together

Reading a Jewish Legal Text Together

Further Reflections: Rachel Adler

Comparative Reflections: Ayesha S. Chaudhry

Conclusion

3 The Cowering Calf and the Thirsty Dog: Narrating and Legislating Kindness to Animals in Jewish and Islamic Texts

(Beth Berkowitz and Marion Katz)

Introduction

Dialogue 1: Legal Obligations toward Animals

Dialogue 2: Compassion toward Animals

Conclusion

4 Policing Women: Virginity Checkers and the Sotah Ordeal as Sites of Women’s Agency

(Ayesha S. Chaudhry and Shari Golberg)

Women Policing Women: From Montreal to Jerusalem

The Hidaya: Testimony in Cases of Zina

Mishnah Sotah: Testimony in the Case of Suspected Adultery

The Adulteress vs. the Adulterer

Conclusion

5 Sovereignty, Law, and the Pedagogy of Historical Fantasy: On the Halakha on the Laws of War and the Fiqh on Dhimmis

(Arye Edrei and Anver M. Emon)

Introduction

Early Rabbinic and Islamic Legal Trajectories

Inverting the Political Form

Conclusion

PART II

6 Cross-Textual Reflections on Tradition, Reason, and Authority

(Adam B. Seligman)

Introduction: Tradition and Reason

Tradition and Dialogue

Authority and Religion

7 The Social Life of Reason

(Robert Gibbs)

A Philosophical Framework

Philosophical Questions



List of Contributors

Index