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by Al-Qāḍ Al-Nuʿmān (Author), Devin Stewart (Editor), Devin Stewart (Translator)
A masterful overview of Islamic law and its diversity
Al-Qadi al-Nu'man was the chief legal theorist and ideologue of the North African Fatimid dynasty in the tenth century. This translation makes available in English for the first time his major work on Islamic legal theory, which presents a legal model in support of the Fatimids' principle of legitimate rule over the Islamic community. Composed as part of a grand project to establish the theoretical bases of the official Fatimid legal school, Disagreements of the Jurists expounds a distinctly Shi'i system of hermeneutics, which refutes the methods of legal interpretation adopted by Sunni jurists.
Author Biography
al-Qāḍī al-Nuʿmān (Author)
Al-Qāḍī al-Nuʿmān (d. 364/974) was born in Tunisia and joined the service of the Fatimids in 313/925, eventually rising to the position of supreme judge. As the most important jurist and legal author of the Fatimid Empire, his work founded Ismāʿīlī law as a discipline.
Devin J. Stewart is Professor of Arabic and Islamic Studies at Emory University. He has written on the Qurʾan, Shiʿi Islam, and Islamic legal education.
