Harmonizing Similarities
About this book
"Harmonizing Similarities" is a study of the legal distinctions (al-furūq al-fiqhiyya) literature and its role in the development of the Islamic legal heritage. This book reconsiders how the public performance of Islamic law helped shape legal literature. It identifies the origins of this tradition in contemporaneous lexicographic and medical literature, both of which demonstrated the productive potential of drawing distinctions.
Elias G. Saba demonstrates the implications of the legal furūq and how changes to this genre reflect shifts in the social consumption of Islamic legal knowledge. The interest in legal distinctions grew out of the performance of knowledge in formalized legal disputations. From here, legal distinctions incorporated elements of play through its interactions with the genre of legal riddles.
As play, books of legal distinctions were supplements to performance in literary salons, study circles, and court performances; these books also served as mimetic objects, allowing the reader to participate in a session virtually. Saba underscores how social and intellectual practices helped shape the literary development of Islamic law and that literary elaboration became a main driver of dynamism in Islamic law.
This monograph has been awarded the annual BRAIS – De Gruyter Prize in the Study of Islam and the Muslim World.
Author / Editor information
Topics
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Frontmatter
I -
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Acknowledgements
V -
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Contents
VII -
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Introduction
1 -
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Chapter One: What Is a Legal Distinction?
16 -
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Chapter Two: A General History of Distinctions
43 -
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Chapter Three: Jadal as a Source for Legal Writings: The Cases of Khilāf and Furūq
81 -
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Excursus: The Logic of Legal Distinctions
110 -
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Chapter Four: Riddles and Entertainment
119 -
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Chapter Five: A Bibliographic Survey of the Distinctions Genre
157 -
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Conclusion
194 -
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Appendix I: Bibliography of Furūq Works by Madhhab
198 -
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Appendix II: Chronological Furūq Bibliography
215 -
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Appendix III: The Manuscripts of Furūq-A: Table of Contents
218 -
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Appendix IV: The Manuscripts of Furūq-B (Najm al-Dīn Naysābūrī, attrib.): Table of Contents
221 -
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Works Cited
225 -
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Index
243
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