From the Amazon.com website<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n
Today, in my Islamic philosophy class, we\u2019re going to begin the discussion of the last text that we\u2019re reading for the course, which is Majid Khadduri\u2019s\u00a0The Islamic Law of Nations: Shaybani\u2019s Siyar\u00a0<\/i>(2002). \u00a0It\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
Abu \u2018Abd Allah Mu\u1e25ammad b. al-\u1e24asan b. Farqad al-Shayb\u0101n\u012b\u00a0(\u0645\u062d\u0645\u062f \u0628\u0646 \u0627\u0644\u062d\u0633\u0646 \u0627\u0644\u0634\u064a\u0628\u0627\u0646\u064a<\/span>\u200e), who lived in Iraq between roughly AD 749 and AD 805, is sometimes called \u201cthe father of Islamic international law.\u201d<\/p>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n
He\u2019s also interesting because of his association with the principal founders of three of the four \u201corthodox\u201d Sunni madhahib<\/em> or legal schools \u2014 meaning \u201cschools of thought,\u201d not \u201claw schools\u201d in the sense that Harvard and Stanford and BYU have law schools. \u00a0In Kufa, he was a student of Abu Hanifa, the founder of what soon came to be known as the Hanafi school of jurisprudence (fiqh<\/em>). \u00a0But only for about two years, because Abu Hanifa died in AD 767, when al-Shaybani was just eighteen. \u00a0Thereafter, he studied with Abu Hanifa\u2019s foremost disciple, and it\u2019s fair to say that al-Shaybani should be considered a Hanafi legal thinker.<\/p>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n
But he also studied for perhaps two or three years with\u00a0Malik b. Anas, the founder of the\u00a0Maliki school of jurisprudence. \u00a0And, much later in his life, he was the teacher of\u00a0Muhammad b. Idris al-Shafi\u2018i, the founder of the Shafi\u2018i madhhab<\/em>. \u00a0Although al-Shafi\u2019\u012b ultimately parted ways with al-Shaybani and even wrote a book criticizing him \u2014 the\u00a0Kit\u0101b al-Radd \u02bfal\u0101 Mu\u1e25ammad b. al-\u1e24asan<\/i>\u00a0(\u201cBook of the Answer to Mu\u1e25ammad b. al-\u1e24asan\u201d or \u201cRefutation of Mu\u1e25ammad b. al-\u1e24asan\u201d) \u2014 al-Shafi\u2019\u012b continued to admire al-Shaybani and to hold him in affection.<\/sup><\/p>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n
Thus, the only one of the four eponymous founders of the Sunni madhahib<\/em> with whom al-Shaybani had no significant personal interaction was his younger contemporary,\u00a0A\u1e25mad ibn \u1e24anbal, the founder of the Hanbali school of jurisprudence.<\/p>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n
Moreover, al-Shaybani also studied with other famous jurists, such as Sufyan al-Thawr\u012b (whose short-lived \u201cThawr\u012b\u201d madhhab<\/em> or school of law barely outlived its founder) and\u00a0al-Awz\u0101\u02bf\u012b (who likewise founded his own madhhab<\/em>, which lasted in Syria and Andalusia until the tenth century).<\/p>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n
For the better part of a decade, by appointment of the great Abbasid caliph\u00a0Harun al-Rashid,\u00a0al-Shaybani served as\u00a0qadi<\/i>\u00a0or chief judge of\u00a0Raqqa, which Harun had taken as his capital in lieu of Baghdad. \u00a0This is the same Raqqa that, for a while, recently served as the seat of the so-called \u201ccaliphate\u201d of Abu Bakr Al-Baghdadi, the leader of ISIS.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
It is said that al-Shaybani died on the same day as his near neighbor al-Kis\u0101\u2019i, one of the greatest of classical Arabic grammarians and philologists and the compiler of one of the best of the fascinating collections of Qi\u1e63a\u1e63 al-\u2018Anbiy\u0101\u2019<\/em>\u00a0(\u0642\u0635\u0635 \u0627\u0644\u0623\u0646\u0628\u064a\u0627\u0621<\/span>\u200e) or \u201cStories of the Prophets\u201d that were very popular at the time and that preserve many otherwise lost stories and legends about biblical and other prophetic figures. \u00a0The Caliph is reported to have lamented that, with their deaths, he had \u201cburied law and grammar alongside each other.\u201d<\/p>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n
Here\u2019s the jacket note for the book that we\u2019re reading and discussing:<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
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,\u00a0Kitab al-Siyar al-Kabir<\/i>. Translated with an extensive commentary by Majid Khadduri, Shaybani\u2019s 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.<\/span><\/p>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n
I might quibble just a bit with the opening line of that jacket summary (though perhaps not), but, otherwise, it\u2019s pretty well done.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
\u00a0 \u00a0 Today, in my Islamic philosophy class, we\u2019re going to begin the discussion of the last text that we\u2019re reading for the course, which is Majid Khadduri\u2019s\u00a0The Islamic Law of Nations: Shaybani\u2019s Siyar\u00a0(2002). \u00a0It\u2019s a bit of a departure from philosophy as such, but, given the interests of the students in this particular small […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1019,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-72038","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\n
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<\/a>