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Collective Liability in Islam

Collective Liability in Islam

Collective Liability in Islam

The ‘Aqila and Blood Money Payments
Nurit Tsafrir, Tel-Aviv University
March 2022
Available
Paperback
9781108724289

    Offering the first close study of the ʿAqila, a group collectively liable for blood money payments on behalf of a member who committed an accidental homicide, Nurit Tsafrir analyses the group's transformation from a pre-Islamic custom to an institution of the Shari'a, and its further evolution through medieval and post medieval Islamic law and society. Having been an essential factor in the maintenance of social order within Muslim societies, the ʿAqila is the intersection between legal theory and practice, between Islamic law and religion, and between Islamic law and the state. Tracing the history of the ʿAqila, this study reveals how religious values, state considerations and social organization have participated in shaping and reshaping this central institution, which still concerns contemporary Muslim scholars.

    • Provides the first analysis of the Shari'a institution of the ʿAqila, a group collectively liable for blood money payments
    • Presents a clear, detailed outline of the law's evolution from its pre-Islamic origins through to the modern day
    • Places legal theory within the context of historical transformations in religion, state and society

    Product details

    March 2022
    Paperback
    9781108724289
    189 pages
    228 × 152 × 11 mm
    0.28kg
    Available

    Table of Contents

    • Part I. The Contribution of Islamic Values:
    • 1. The modern perspective and the Islamic perspective, and their application to the law of homicide
    • 2. Major modifications of the Islamic law of homicide
    • 3. The 'Āqila's liability for homicide restricted, and justified
    • Part II. The Contribution of the State Administration:
    • 4. The Dīwān innovation in Umayyad practice
    • 5. From Umayyad practice to Ḥanafī law
    • 6. The Dīwān innovation in Ḥanafī law
    • Part III. The Contribution of the Persians:
    • 7. The Eastern Iranian Ḥanafī views on the 'Āqila: a presentation
    • 8. The Eastern Iranian Ḥanafī views: the general context
    • 9. The Eastern Iranian Ḥanafī views on the 'Āqila: an examination
    • Conclusion
    • Bibliography
    • Index.
      Author
    • Nurit Tsafrir , Tel-Aviv University

      Nurit Tsafrir is Senior Lecturer in the Department of Middle Eastern and African History at Tel-Aviv University. She was previously a member of the Israel Institution for Advanced Studies in the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, and of the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton University, New Jersey. A specialist in medieval Islam focusing on the Hanafi school of law, she is the author of The History of an Islamic School of Law: The Early Spread of Hanafism (2004).