The Economy of Certainty
An Introduction to the Typology of Islamic Legal Theory
By (author) Aron Zysow Preface by Robert Gleave
Paperback (Published)
(July 2013)
ISBN: 9781937040093
6.97 x 10 inches
Price: $36.95
In stock
Aron Zysow’s 1984 Ph.D. dissertation, “The Economy of Certainty,” remains the most important, compelling, and intellectually ambitious treatment of Islamic legal theory (usul al-fiqh) in Western scholarship to date. It continues to be widely read and cited, and remains unsurpassed in its incisive analysis of the most fundamental assumptions of Islamic legal thought. Zysow argues that the great dividing line in Islamic legal thought is between those legal theories that require certainty in every detail of the law and those that will admit probability. The latter were historically dominant and include the leading legal schools that have survived to our own day. Zahirism and, for much of its history, Twelver Shi’ism, are examples of the former. The well-known dispute regarding the legitimacy of juridical analogy is only one feature of this fundamental epistemological division, since probability can enter the law in the process of authenticating prophetic traditions and in the interpretation of the revealed texts, as well as through analogy. The notion of consensus in Islamic legal theory functioned to reintroduce some measure of certainty into the law by identifying one of the competing probable solutions as correct. Consequently consensus has only a reduced role, if any, in those systems that reject probability. Another, more radical, means of regaining certainty was the doctrine that regarded the legal reasoning of all qualified jurists on matters of probability as infallible. The development of legal theories of both types, that of Zahirism no less than that of Hanafism, was to a large extent shaped by theology and, most significantly, by Mu’tazilism, and subsequently by Ash’arism and Maturidism. Zysow’s important work is published here in full, for the first time, with updated references and some further reflections by the author.
- By (author) Aron Zysow
- Preface by Robert Gleave
Other Titles in this Series
Politics, Peoples, and Polities in the Ancient Near East
Proceedings of the 69th Rencontre Assyriologique Internationale, Helsinki
The Restoration of Sunnism
The Early History of Islamic Law Schools and the Professoriate in Egypt, 495-647/1101-1249
Volume 14
Similar Books
Cities through Time
Glimpses into Urbanity and Community in Mediaeval to Modern West Asia and Egypt
Volume 1
Cuneiform Artefacts from Archaeological Contexts: New Research on Ancient Iraq
Proceedings of a Conference Held at the Bavarian Academy of Sciences and Humanities, July 4–5, 2024
Volume 2
Global Gulf
Geo-Economic, Geo-Political, and Geo-Technological Transformation in Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, and Qatar
Ismail Hakki Bursevi’s translation of and commentary on Fusus al-Hikam By Muhyiddin Ibn ‘Arabi
Volumes 1-4
Legal Pluralism and the Tajik Experience of Xinjiang
Between Custom and the Chinese State: An Ethnographic Perspective
Liturgia semper reformanda
Adaptations and accommodations in the liturgy in light of canon 838 of the Code of Canon Law
Monastic Manuscripts from the Eastern Mediterranean (Sinai, Jerusalem, Antioch)
Production, Use, and Contexts
Qatar’s Societal Security
Towards the Inclusive National Concept of ‘Baladna’ Identity, Migration and External Threats Since 2017
The Biblical Tale of Judah and Tamar in Fourteenth-Century Iran
A Judeo-Persian Versified Account by Shāhīn with Scholarly Edition, Annotated Translation and Persian Transliteration
Volume 94, 951
The Discourse of Rites
Shaping and Reshaping the (Counter-)Priestly Rituals Conducted Outside the Tabernacle
The EPPO/OLAF Compendium of National Procedures: Estonia
Desktop codes on the procedural law of the Member States with annotations by national experts
The EPPO/OLAF Compendium of National Procedures: Greece
Desktop codes on the procedural law of the Member States with annotations by national experts
The EPPO/OLAF Compendium of National Procedures: Italy
Desktop codes on the procedural law of the Member States with annotations by national experts
»Ein elend-schönes Land«
Gattung und Gedächtnis in Lea Goldbergs hebräischer Literatur. Aus dem Hebräischen von Rainer Wenzel
(Bloß) symbolische Rechtsetzung
Eine interdisziplinäre Untersuchung der deutschen Glücksspielregulierung auf ihre funktionelle und symbolische Wirkung
Additiver Grundrechtseingriff und informationelle Selbstbestimmung
Grundrechtsdogmatik als Legitimationsproblem
Credit Default Swap-Aktivismus
Eine ökonomische Analyse und rechtliche Bewertung der Einflussnahme von Credit Default Swap-Investoren auf Unternehmen
Das Rheinische Recht
Neue Perspektiven auf die Geschichte des französischen Rechts an Rhein und Mosel, ca. 1750 bis 1900
Das Rückschrittsverbot als Instrument Europäischen Werteschutzes
Schutz unionaler Werte im Spannungsfeld nationalstaatlichen Pluralismus
Der gewöhnliche Aufenthalt des Erblassers
Grundlagen und Grenzen der Aufenthaltsanknüpfung in der Europäischen Erbrechtsverordnung
Volume 249
Der politische Streik im deutschen Arbeitskampfrecht
Dogmatische Entwicklungslinien von 1869 bis in die 1980er Jahre
Volume 393
Deutsche Erbengemeinschaft und italienische comunione ereditaria
Eine historisch-vergleichende Untersuchung
Die Erhebung und Bewertung von Zeugenaussagen im Strafprozess
Juristische, aussagepsychologische und psychiatrische Aspekte. Bd. 9
Die Konjunkturkomponente des Grundgesetzes
Die konjunkturbedingte Kreditaufnahme im System der Kreditermächtigungen, europarechtlichen und gesamtwirtschaftlichen Verpflichtungen der Finanzverfassung
