[blank page]

PART II

Development of Jurisprudence

CHAPTER I

The scope of jurisprudence among Muslims; the earliest elements in it, Arab custom, Jewish law, personality of Muhammad; his attitude toward law; elements after death of Muhammad; Qur'an, usage of the Prophet, common law of al-Madina; conception of Sunna before Muhammad and after; traditions and their transmission; traditions in book form; influence of Umayyads; forgery of traditions; the Muwatta of Malik ibn Anas; the Musnad of Amad ibn Hanbal; the musannafs; al-Bukhari; Muslim; Ibn Maja; at-Tirmidhi; an-Nasa'i; al-Baghawi; the problem of the Muslim lawyers; their sources; Roman law; the influence of the doctrine of the Responsa prudentium; Opinion in Islam; the Law of Nature or Equity in Islam; istihsan; istislah; Analogy; the patriarchal period in Islam; the Umayyad period; the growth of the canon law.

IN tracing the development of Muslim jurisprudence few of the difficulties are encountered which surrounded Sir Henry Maine when he first examined the origins and history of European law. We do not need to push our researches back to the primitive family, nor to work our way through periods of centuries guided by the merest fragments of documents and hints of usage. Our subject was born in the light of history; it ran its course in a couple of hundred years and has left at every important point