Ahmed El Shamsy
Biographic Data
| ID | 526546 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Ahmed El Shamsy |
| GIVEN NAMES | Ahmed |
| FAMILY NAME | El Shamsy |
| SIGNATURE | EL SHAMSY A |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of Chicago |
| ORCID | 0000-0003-4209-2452 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 19 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 2 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 19 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2007 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2022 |
| H-INDEX | 1 |
The Death and Disposal of Sacred Texts
Both Islamic and Jewish thought display a sensitivity to the treatment of texts, particularly sacred texts. This article investigates Muslim debates on how to dispose of worn-out sacred texts. It argues that these debates were rooted in the precedent formed by the reported destruction of noncanonical copies of the Qurʾān by the third caliph ʿUthmān, and they featured various preferred and rejected methods of text disposal, including burning, wash…
The Ur-Muwaṭṭaʾ and Its Recensions
In this essay, I use the numerous extensive quotations from Mālik found in al-Shāfiʿī’s Kitāb al-Umm to reconstruct what might be called al-Shāfiʿī’s recension of Mālik’s Muwaṭṭaʾ and to compare this recension with the surviving complete Muwaṭṭaʾ recensions of Abū Muṣʿab al-Zuhrī, Ibn Bukayr, and Yaḥyā b. Yaḥyā al-Laythī. I present examples of the differences between the recensions, analyze one specific type of variant closely, and use my finding…
Dialectical Forge: Juridical Disputation and the Evolution of Islamic Law. By Walter Edward Young
The Dialectical Forge: Juridical Disputation and the Evolution of Islamic Law. By Walter Edward Young. Logic, Argumentation and Reasoning, vol. 9. Cham, Switzerland: Springer, 2017. Pp. xiv + 643. $149.99, €124.79 (cloth); $109, €101.14 (ebook
The Written Word in the Medieval Arabic Lands: A Social and Cultural History of Reading Practices. By Konrad Hirschler
The Written Word in the Medieval Arabic Lands: A Social and Cultural History of Reading Practices. By Konrad Hirschler. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2012. Pp. vi + 234. £65, $105
Formation of Islamic Hermeneutics: How Sunni Legal Theorists Imagined a Revealed Law. By David Vishanoff
The Formation of Islamic Hermeneutics: How Sunni Legal Theorists Imagined a Revealed Law. By David Vishanoff. American Oriental Series, vol. 93. New Haven: American Oriental Society, 2011. Pp. xxi + 318. $46
Bridging the Gap: Two Early Texts of Islamic Legal Theory
This article presents two short but complete treatises on legal theory (uṣūl al-fiqh). The first was written by Ibn Surayj (d. 306/918) as an addendum to his compendium on Shāfiʿī law, al-Wadāʾiʿ, and the second by Abū Bakr al-Khaffāf (fl. early fourth/tenth century), who included it as an introduction to his legal text al-Aqsām wa-l-khiṣāl. An analysis of these texts reveals the existence of a self-conscious legal-theoretical discourse around th…
Rediscovering the Islamic Classics: How Editors and Print Culture Transformed an Intellectual Tradition
Rediscovering the Islamic Classics: How Editors and Print Culture Transformed an Intellectual Tradition
Islamic book culture dates back to late antiquity, when Muslim scholars began to write down their doctrines on parchment, papyrus, and paper and then to compose increasingly elaborate analyses of, and commentaries on, these ideas. Movable type was adopted in the Middle East only in the early nineteenth century, and it wasn't until the second half of the century that the first works of classical Islamic religious scholarship were printed there. Bu…
The Classical Period: Scripture, Origins, and Early Development
This article examines whether the Qur’an served as a source for the early jurists during the classical period; whether Hadith reports contain authentic information regarding Muhammad’s sayings and actions (and if they do not, when and how they became attributed to him); whether and how the regional legal traditions were transformed into legal schools centered around particular individuals; and how the nature of legal reasoning changed within this…
Debates on Prayer in Second/Eighth-century Islam: Some Remarks on Sijpesteijn’s Papyrus
Al-Aṣl
The Epistle of the Eloquent Clarification concerning the Refutation of Ibn Qutayba by al-Q d al-Nu m n b. Muhammad (d. 363/974) Edited and introduced by Avraham Hakim
Journal Article The Epistle of the Eloquent Clarification concerning the Refutation of Ibn Qutayba by al-Qāḍī al-Nuʿmān b. Muḥammad (d. 363/974) Edited and introduced by Avraham Hakim Get access The Epistle of the Eloquent Clarification concerning the Refutation of Ibn Qutayba by al-Qāḍī al-Nuʿmān b. Muḥammad (d. 363/974)Edited and introduced by Avraham Hakim (Leiden and Boston: Brill, 2012), xi + 22 pp. (English), xii + 175 pp. (Arabic). Price H…
Mālik and Medina: Islamic Legal Reasoning in the Formative Period, by Umar F. Abd-Allah Wymann-Landgraf
(First paragraph) The year 2013 saw the long-overdue publication of Umar Faruq Abd-Allah Wymann-Landgraf ́s immensely important study on Islamic law. Mālik and Medina is based on Abd-Allah ́s 1978 dissertation, “Mālik ́s concept of ʿamal in the light of Mālikī legal theory,„ which has circulated for decades in the form of photocopies and PDF files. The work ́s appearance in printed form provides an opportunity for a critical evaluation of its con…
Zayde Antrim. Routes and Realms: The Power of Place in the Early Islamic World
The great wave of conquests by the newly Islamized Arabs in the seventh century c.e. dispersed the conquerors across almost the entirety of the known world. Initially the Arab settlers were privileged minorities in the midst of majority populations that were culturally, linguistically, and religiously alien to them, but the following two centuries witnessed the emergence of a transregional Islamic culture that entailed a common spatial imaginary …
The Ḥāshiya in Islamic Law: A Sketch of the Shāfiʿī Literature
This essay presents a survey of legal ḥawāshī (glosses) produced by Shāfiʿī jurists between the fifteenth and twentieth centuries. I outline the particular features of the legal ḥāshiya, the kind of legal reasoning that it promoted, and the structure of scholastic authority within the legal school that it embodied. I argue that the rise and decline of the ḥāshiya genre is reflective of broader trends in the evolution of Islamic scholarship
Al-Shāfiʿī's Written Corpus: A Source-Critical Study
Analysing Muslim Traditions: Studies in Legal, Exegetical and Maghāzī Hadīth
The Cambridge Companion to Classical Islamic Theology
This series of critical reflections on the evolution and major themes of pre-modern Muslim theology begins with the revelation of the Koran, and extends to the beginnings of modernity in the eighteenth century. The significance of Islamic theology reflects the immense importance of Islam in the history of monotheism, to which it has brought a unique approach and style, and a range of solutions which are of abiding interest. Devoting especial atte…
The First Shāfiī: The Traditionalist Legal Thought of Abū Ya qūb al-Buwaytī (d. 231/846)
Abū Ya qūb al-Buwaytī, the first successor of Muhammad b. Idrīs al-Shāfiī, made an important but hitherto unappreciated contribution to the formation of the Shāfiī school of law and the convergence of the rival legal approaches of the traditionalists (ahl al- hadīth) and the rationalists (ahl al-ra'y) over the course of the 3d/9th century. An analysis of the content and transmission history of al-Buwaytī's recently discovered Mukhtasar, the earli…
The Ur-Muwaṭṭaʾ and Its Recensions
In this essay, I use the numerous extensive quotations from Mālik found in al-Shāfiʿī’s Kitāb al-Umm to reconstruct what might be called al-Shāfiʿī’s recension of Mālik’s Muwaṭṭaʾ and to compare this recension with the surviving complete Muwaṭṭaʾ recensions of Abū Muṣʿab al-Zuhrī, Ibn Bukayr, and Yaḥyā b. Yaḥyā al-Laythī. I present examples of the differences between the recensions, analyze one specific type of variant closely, and use my finding…
The First Shāfiī: The Traditionalist Legal Thought of Abū Ya qūb al-Buwaytī (d. 231/846)
Abū Ya qūb al-Buwaytī, the first successor of Muhammad b. Idrīs al-Shāfiī, made an important but hitherto unappreciated contribution to the formation of the Shāfiī school of law and the convergence of the rival legal approaches of the traditionalists (ahl al- hadīth) and the rationalists (ahl al-ra'y) over the course of the 3d/9th century. An analysis of the content and transmission history of al-Buwaytī's recently discovered Mukhtasar, the earli…
The First Shāfiī: The Traditionalist Legal Thought of Abū Ya qūb al-Buwaytī (d. 231/846)
Abū Ya qūb al-Buwaytī, the first successor of Muhammad b. Idrīs al-Shāfiī, made an important but hitherto unappreciated contribution to the formation of the Shāfiī school of law and the convergence of the rival legal approaches of the traditionalists (ahl al- hadīth) and the rationalists (ahl al-ra'y) over the course of the 3d/9th century. An analysis of the content and transmission history of al-Buwaytī's recently discovered Mukhtasar, the earli…
The Cambridge Companion to Classical Islamic Theology
This series of critical reflections on the evolution and major themes of pre-modern Muslim theology begins with the revelation of the Koran, and extends to the beginnings of modernity in the eighteenth century. The significance of Islamic theology reflects the immense importance of Islam in the history of monotheism, to which it has brought a unique approach and style, and a range of solutions which are of abiding interest. Devoting especial atte…
Analysing Muslim Traditions: Studies in Legal, Exegetical and Maghāzī Hadīth
Al-Shāfiʿī's Written Corpus: A Source-Critical Study
The Ḥāshiya in Islamic Law: A Sketch of the Shāfiʿī Literature
This essay presents a survey of legal ḥawāshī (glosses) produced by Shāfiʿī jurists between the fifteenth and twentieth centuries. I outline the particular features of the legal ḥāshiya, the kind of legal reasoning that it promoted, and the structure of scholastic authority within the legal school that it embodied. I argue that the rise and decline of the ḥāshiya genre is reflective of broader trends in the evolution of Islamic scholarship
The Epistle of the Eloquent Clarification concerning the Refutation of Ibn Qutayba by al-Q d al-Nu m n b. Muhammad (d. 363/974) Edited and introduced by Avraham Hakim
Journal Article The Epistle of the Eloquent Clarification concerning the Refutation of Ibn Qutayba by al-Qāḍī al-Nuʿmān b. Muḥammad (d. 363/974) Edited and introduced by Avraham Hakim Get access The Epistle of the Eloquent Clarification concerning the Refutation of Ibn Qutayba by al-Qāḍī al-Nuʿmān b. Muḥammad (d. 363/974)Edited and introduced by Avraham Hakim (Leiden and Boston: Brill, 2012), xi + 22 pp. (English), xii + 175 pp. (Arabic). Price H…
Mālik and Medina: Islamic Legal Reasoning in the Formative Period, by Umar F. Abd-Allah Wymann-Landgraf
(First paragraph) The year 2013 saw the long-overdue publication of Umar Faruq Abd-Allah Wymann-Landgraf ́s immensely important study on Islamic law. Mālik and Medina is based on Abd-Allah ́s 1978 dissertation, “Mālik ́s concept of ʿamal in the light of Mālikī legal theory,„ which has circulated for decades in the form of photocopies and PDF files. The work ́s appearance in printed form provides an opportunity for a critical evaluation of its con…
Zayde Antrim. Routes and Realms: The Power of Place in the Early Islamic World
The great wave of conquests by the newly Islamized Arabs in the seventh century c.e. dispersed the conquerors across almost the entirety of the known world. Initially the Arab settlers were privileged minorities in the midst of majority populations that were culturally, linguistically, and religiously alien to them, but the following two centuries witnessed the emergence of a transregional Islamic culture that entailed a common spatial imaginary …
Debates on Prayer in Second/Eighth-century Islam: Some Remarks on Sijpesteijn’s Papyrus
Al-Aṣl
The Classical Period: Scripture, Origins, and Early Development
This article examines whether the Qur’an served as a source for the early jurists during the classical period; whether Hadith reports contain authentic information regarding Muhammad’s sayings and actions (and if they do not, when and how they became attributed to him); whether and how the regional legal traditions were transformed into legal schools centered around particular individuals; and how the nature of legal reasoning changed within this…
Rediscovering the Islamic Classics: How Editors and Print Culture Transformed an Intellectual Tradition
Rediscovering the Islamic Classics: How Editors and Print Culture Transformed an Intellectual Tradition
Islamic book culture dates back to late antiquity, when Muslim scholars began to write down their doctrines on parchment, papyrus, and paper and then to compose increasingly elaborate analyses of, and commentaries on, these ideas. Movable type was adopted in the Middle East only in the early nineteenth century, and it wasn't until the second half of the century that the first works of classical Islamic religious scholarship were printed there. Bu…
The Ur-Muwaṭṭaʾ and Its Recensions
In this essay, I use the numerous extensive quotations from Mālik found in al-Shāfiʿī’s Kitāb al-Umm to reconstruct what might be called al-Shāfiʿī’s recension of Mālik’s Muwaṭṭaʾ and to compare this recension with the surviving complete Muwaṭṭaʾ recensions of Abū Muṣʿab al-Zuhrī, Ibn Bukayr, and Yaḥyā b. Yaḥyā al-Laythī. I present examples of the differences between the recensions, analyze one specific type of variant closely, and use my finding…
Dialectical Forge: Juridical Disputation and the Evolution of Islamic Law. By Walter Edward Young
The Dialectical Forge: Juridical Disputation and the Evolution of Islamic Law. By Walter Edward Young. Logic, Argumentation and Reasoning, vol. 9. Cham, Switzerland: Springer, 2017. Pp. xiv + 643. $149.99, €124.79 (cloth); $109, €101.14 (ebook
The Written Word in the Medieval Arabic Lands: A Social and Cultural History of Reading Practices. By Konrad Hirschler
The Written Word in the Medieval Arabic Lands: A Social and Cultural History of Reading Practices. By Konrad Hirschler. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2012. Pp. vi + 234. £65, $105
Formation of Islamic Hermeneutics: How Sunni Legal Theorists Imagined a Revealed Law. By David Vishanoff
The Formation of Islamic Hermeneutics: How Sunni Legal Theorists Imagined a Revealed Law. By David Vishanoff. American Oriental Series, vol. 93. New Haven: American Oriental Society, 2011. Pp. xxi + 318. $46
Bridging the Gap: Two Early Texts of Islamic Legal Theory
This article presents two short but complete treatises on legal theory (uṣūl al-fiqh). The first was written by Ibn Surayj (d. 306/918) as an addendum to his compendium on Shāfiʿī law, al-Wadāʾiʿ, and the second by Abū Bakr al-Khaffāf (fl. early fourth/tenth century), who included it as an introduction to his legal text al-Aqsām wa-l-khiṣāl. An analysis of these texts reveals the existence of a self-conscious legal-theoretical discourse around th…
The Death and Disposal of Sacred Texts
Both Islamic and Jewish thought display a sensitivity to the treatment of texts, particularly sacred texts. This article investigates Muslim debates on how to dispose of worn-out sacred texts. It argues that these debates were rooted in the precedent formed by the reported destruction of noncanonical copies of the Qurʾān by the third caliph ʿUthmān, and they featured various preferred and rejected methods of text disposal, including burning, wash…
Philosophy (17 works) · Islamic Studies and History (16 works) · History (13 works) · Islam (12 works) · Political science (11 works) · Law (10 works) · Art (8 works) · Historical and Linguistic Studies (8 works) · Theology (8 works) · Archaeology and Historical Studies (7 works)