“The Beginnings of Islamic Law: Late Antique Islamicate Legal Traditions” with Lena Salaymeh

About the Lecture

The Beginnings of Islamic Law is a major and innovative contribution to our understanding of the historical unfolding of Islamic law. Scrutinizing its historical contexts, the book proposes that Islamic law is a continuous intermingling of innovation and tradition. Salaymeh challenges the embedded assumptions in conventional Islamic legal historiography by developing a critical approach to the study of both Islamic and Jewish legal history. Through case studies of the treatment of war prisoners, circumcision, and wife-initiated divorce, she examines how Muslim jurists incorporated and transformed ‘Near Eastern’ legal traditions. She also demonstrates how socio-political and historical situations shaped the everyday practice of law, legal education, and the organization of the legal profession in the late antique and medieval eras. Aimed at scholars and students interested in Islamic history, Islamic law, and the relationship between Jewish and Islamic legal traditions, this book’s interdisciplinary approach provides accessible explanations and translations of complex materials and ideas.

About the Lecturer

Lena Salaymeh is Associate Professor (Senior Lecturer) at Tel Aviv Law. She researches and teaches Islamic and Jewish jurisprudence in both historical and contemporary legal systems. Her book, The Beginnings of Islamic Law: Late Antique Islamicate Legal Traditions (Cambridge University Press, 2016) explores how critical historiography can illuminate Islamic legal beginnings. She has published in Law and History Review, Law & Social Inquiry, Islamic Law & Society, Journal of Legal Education, UC Irvine Law Review, Islam and Christian–Muslim Relations, and The Immanent Frame. Salaymeh also writes and speaks on the politics of knowledge production in Islamic studies. Salaymeh earned her PhD in Legal and Middle Eastern History from UC Berkeley and her JD from Harvard Law School. She is a member of the California Bar. (Her publications can be downloaded at http://telaviv.academia.edu/LenaSalaymeh/)