Misplaced Methodologies: The Legal Hermeneutics of Muḥammad b. al Ḥasan al-Shaybānῑ (d.189/804)

As a student of Islamic law, one quickly comes to the realisation that much of the historiography of early Islamic law reads like a love letter to Muḥammad b. al-Idrῑs al-Shāfiʿῑ (d.204/820). Such renditions remain as an ode to the ‘master architect,’ the ‘deus ex machina’ who emerged victorious at the end of a centuries long battle, bringing ‘an unbridled law down to the knees of revelation.’ But what exactly was this “unbridled law?” The pre-Shāfian legal culture has largely been considered rudimentary according to the dominant narrative in the field. The story goes on to state that though substantive law (furūʿ) may have matured to a large degree, the systemisation and conceptualisation of a coherent law was yet to come, and it was only made possible first by al-Shāfiʿῑ’s intervention, and second by the development of a new discipline in the form of uṣūl al-fiqh. This study seeks to re-examine the legal contributions of this period, and asks whether they were as rudimentary, unsystematic and incoherent as has been suggested. Were there other equally sound, legal hermeneutical paradigms in this period of Islamic law before, or alongside, al-Shāfiʿῑ’s intervention? If so, who articulated them and what were the distinctive features of these other paradigms? Could they be deemed coherent if the condition of their conformance to al-Shāfiʿῑ and classical legal theory is removed? This thesis offers answers to these questions through an investigation of the legal thought of another prime figure of the formative period, Muḥammad b. al-Ḥasan al-Shaybānῑ (d.189/804). Al-Shaybānῑ is a commonly cited figure in the history of early Islamic law, given credit for being an early systematiser, developing a mature body of furūʿ and engaging technically and rigorously with questions of law. Using his polemical work, al-Ḥujjah ʿalā ahl al-madῑnah, directed against the Medinans of his time, this thesis reconstructs al-Shaybānῑ’s legal hermeneutics. Consequently, a conscious legal methodology is ascribed to him that has a clear outline of legal sources and how they interact, pointing to his legal epistemological and hermeneutical commitments, and notions of the nature of divine law directed to a human domain. Thus this study seeks to reduce the emphasis placed on the Shāfian lens, which has dominated the study of early Islamic law, in order to allow other aspects of the vista to enter the frame, and other figures to stand alongside him.<p></p>

Author dc:creator

• Shahanaz Begum (21040034)

• Islamic law
• Formative period
• Al-Shaybani
• Islamic legal hermeneutics
• Furu
• Usul al-fiqh

Statement dc:rights

• All rights reserved
• Open Access after 2027-09-02

Identifier

10779/exe.31454188.v1

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:figshare.com:article/31454188