Brinkley Messick
Biographic Data
| ID | 84978 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Brinkley Messick |
| GIVEN NAMES | Brinkley |
| FAMILY NAME | Messick |
| SIGNATURE | MESSICK B |
| AFFILIATIONS | Brandeis University |
| VERIFIED | No |
| TOTAL WORKS | 27 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 210 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 26 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 1 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1983 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2020 |
| H-INDEX | 5 |
Notes on Transliteration
The Yemeni texts are in handwritten Arabic on vertical paper rolls. In examining such features as the structure of competing legal narratives, the detailed devices for the quotation or indirect reporting of evidential testimony and the textual markers of an authoritative legal record, the author translates large segments of the judgment texts. In the usage of anthropologists, transcription is the original technique. It was elaborated in the early…
Writing Histories
Kissing Hands and Knees: Hegemony and Hierarchy in Shari‘a Discourse
This chapter examines conceptions of common sense and consensus, and the relation of knowledge and ignorance in the methodological literature. Shari'a discourse represents a specialized subset of formal Arabic usage in the same way that jurisprudence is a specialized subset of all knowledge. A man from a rural village makes his way along stone paved alleys and through the central market street to the shari'a judge's house near the Great Mosque. U…
Property and the Private in a Sharia System
I AS we commonly employ it, the private-public distinction is a Western one, anchored in the history of the rise of modern states and societies and in the economic and legal transformation of Europe. As such, the private-public distinction is closely associated with the advent of the Western capitalist property regime. This private-public distinction subsequently came into significance in Muslim societies in the Middle East, North Africa, the Ind…
Evidence: From Memory to Archive
This is an analysis of an evidence doctrine in Islamic law, based on a close reading of a chapter in an authoritative Zaydī school manual in conjunction with nineteenth and twentieth-century commentaries. As I follow the presentation of the doctrinal issues by these Muslim jurists, I examine concepts and procedures surrounding the witnesses and their testimony, the related role of the judge, the distinctive institution of jarh wa-ta'dīl, and the …
Indexing the Self: Intent and Expression in Islamic Legal Acts
This is a discussion of the theory of intent in Islamic law. In an extended example, I focus on the doctrinal views of Zaydī school jurists from Yemen, but I also indicate that the issues and the analytic distinctions characterize the Sunnī schools as well. As in western law, ascertaining intent is fundamental to applied Islamic legal analyses in sharī'a courts, in matters ranging from contracts to criminal cases. My discussion here, however, is …
Islamic Legal Interpretation: Muftis and Their Fatwas
For more than a millenium, fatwas have guided and shaped Muslim understandings of law. The whole world knows of Ayatollah Khomeini's fatwa in the Salman Rushdi case, yet this key institution in Muslim society has not been the subject of a major examination until now. Ranging in import from the routine to the revolutionary, and in form from one-line answers to short treatises, fatwas have served to reaffirm received wisdom, caution against error, …
L'écriture en procès: Les récits d'un meurtre devant un tribunal sharʻî
The Trial of Writing : Murder Narratives in a Shariʻa Court. A murder judgement from a shariʻa court in mid-twentieth-century Yemen is the point of departure for an analysis intended to advance an "archival anthropology". This ethnographic and historical project centers on a close reading of the judgement in question using methods inspired by Mikhail Bakhtin. Attention is given to how the judgement is composed of fragments of other texts, both or…
Islamic Legal Interpretation: Muftis and Their Fatwas
Islamic Legal Interpretation: Muftis and Their Fatwas
Journal Article Islamic Legal Interpretation: Muftis and their Fatwas Get access Masud Muhammad Khalid Messick Brinkley Powers David S., eds., Islamic Legal Interpretation: Muftis and their Fatwas. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1996. x, 431 pp. $45.00. Rodolphe J.A. De Seife Rodolphe J.A. De Seife Northern Illinois University College of Law Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar American Journal of …
Written Identities: Legal Subjects in an Islamic State
Islamic Law and the State. The Constitutional Jurisprudence of Shihab al-Din al-Qarafi
Textual Properties: Writing and Wealth in a Shari'a Case
Cette ethnographie textuelle concerne un cas de propriete fonciere juge au tribunal au milieu du 20 eme siecle au Yemen. L'analyse relate le travail textuel du juge, plus specialement sa construction de l'autorite dans un jugement decisif ou il utilise des textes ecrits et oraux, des playdoyers et des sources doctrinales lors de conflits structuraux de richesse dans une famille etendue
Chapter 6. Print Culture
Calligraphic State: Textual Domination and History in a Muslim Society
In this innovative combination of anthropology, history, and postmodern theory, Brinkley Messick examines the changing relation of writing and authority in a Muslim society from the late nineteenth century to the present. The creation and interpretation of texts, from sacred scriptures to administrative and legal contracts, are among the fundamental ways that authority is established and maintained in a complex state. Yet few scholars have explor…
The Calligraphic StateTextual Domination and History in a Muslim Society: Textual domination and history in a Muslim society
"In this innovative combination of anthropology, history, and postmodern theory, Brinkley Messick examines the changing relation of writing and authority in a Muslim society from the late nineteenth century to the present. The creation and interpretation of texts, from sacred scriptures to administrative and legal contracts, are among the fundamental ways that authority is established and maintained in a complex state. Yet few scholars have explo…
General/Theoretical Anthropology: Cloth and Human Experience . Annette B. Weiner and Jane Schneider , eds
Social/Cultural Anthropology: The Flower of Paradise: The Institutionalized Use of the Drug Qat in North Yemen . John G. Kennedy
Just Writing: Paradox and Political Economy in Yemeni Legal Documents
Association for Political and Legal Anthropology
Kissing Hands and Knees: Hegemony and Hierarchy in Sharfa Discourse
Two categories of Muslim legal texts are utilized in Yemen. In the methodological literature I examine conceptions of common sense and consensus, and the relation of knowledge and ignorance. In the applied literature, I review egalitarian and hierarchical themes. The hegemonic qualities of such texts derive from their appropriation of ordinary wisdom and from the shifting polyvocality of the texts themselves
Qat in Yemen: Consumption and Social Change. SHELAGH Weir
Subordinate Discourse: Women, weaving, and gender relations in North Africa
The discourse of women's domestic weaving in North Africa embeds a distinctively female worldview. Ethnography concerning one Moroccan text of this discourse is cross-referenced with versions documented across the region. The reconstruction of the historically specific discourse of North African women is followed by an account of the political economy of its dissolution. In hierarchical societies, cultural accounts tap shared, public representati…
Social/Cultural Anthropology: Social Change in a Yemeni Highlands Town . Thomas B. Stevenson
The Mufti, the Text and the World: Legal Interpretation in Yemen
Calligraphic State: Textual Domination and History in a Muslim Society
In this innovative combination of anthropology, history, and postmodern theory, Brinkley Messick examines the changing relation of writing and authority in a Muslim society from the late nineteenth century to the present. The creation and interpretation of texts, from sacred scriptures to administrative and legal contracts, are among the fundamental ways that authority is established and maintained in a complex state. Yet few scholars have explor…
Subordinate Discourse: Women, weaving, and gender relations in North Africa
The discourse of women's domestic weaving in North Africa embeds a distinctively female worldview. Ethnography concerning one Moroccan text of this discourse is cross-referenced with versions documented across the region. The reconstruction of the historically specific discourse of North African women is followed by an account of the political economy of its dissolution. In hierarchical societies, cultural accounts tap shared, public representati…
The Mufti, the Text and the World: Legal Interpretation in Yemen
Just Writing: Paradox and Political Economy in Yemeni Legal Documents
Kissing Hands and Knees: Hegemony and Hierarchy in Sharfa Discourse
Two categories of Muslim legal texts are utilized in Yemen. In the methodological literature I examine conceptions of common sense and consensus, and the relation of knowledge and ignorance. In the applied literature, I review egalitarian and hierarchical themes. The hegemonic qualities of such texts derive from their appropriation of ordinary wisdom and from the shifting polyvocality of the texts themselves
Evidence: From Memory to Archive
This is an analysis of an evidence doctrine in Islamic law, based on a close reading of a chapter in an authoritative Zaydī school manual in conjunction with nineteenth and twentieth-century commentaries. As I follow the presentation of the doctrinal issues by these Muslim jurists, I examine concepts and procedures surrounding the witnesses and their testimony, the related role of the judge, the distinctive institution of jarh wa-ta'dīl, and the …
Islamic Law and the State. The Constitutional Jurisprudence of Shihab al-Din al-Qarafi
Property and the Private in a Sharia System
I AS we commonly employ it, the private-public distinction is a Western one, anchored in the history of the rise of modern states and societies and in the economic and legal transformation of Europe. As such, the private-public distinction is closely associated with the advent of the Western capitalist property regime. This private-public distinction subsequently came into significance in Muslim societies in the Middle East, North Africa, the Ind…
Written Identities: Legal Subjects in an Islamic State
Prosecution in Yemen: The Introduction of the Niyāba
By resolution of the ruling Command Council on 19 March 1977, a new judicial organization known as the niyāba (formal name: al-niyāba al-'āmma ) was introduced in the Yemen Arab Republic. Derived ultimately from a French model, the new institution has been provided with wide statutory powers, many of which are new to Yemen. Essentially, the niyāba is an agency of investigation and prosecution, with jurisdiction in criminal cases and other areas o…
Legal documents and the concept of 'restricted literacy' in a traditional society
Article Legal documents and the concept of ‘restricted literacy’ in a traditional society was published on January 1, 1983 in the journal International Journal of the Sociology of Language (volume 1983, issue 42)
Prosecution in Yemen: The Introduction of the Niyāba
By resolution of the ruling Command Council on 19 March 1977, a new judicial organization known as the niyāba (formal name: al-niyāba al-'āmma ) was introduced in the Yemen Arab Republic. Derived ultimately from a French model, the new institution has been provided with wide statutory powers, many of which are new to Yemen. Essentially, the niyāba is an agency of investigation and prosecution, with jurisdiction in criminal cases and other areas o…
Legal documents and the concept of 'restricted literacy' in a traditional society
Article Legal documents and the concept of ‘restricted literacy’ in a traditional society was published on January 1, 1983 in the journal International Journal of the Sociology of Language (volume 1983, issue 42)
Social/Cultural Anthropology: Social Change in a Yemeni Highlands Town . Thomas B. Stevenson
The Mufti, the Text and the World: Legal Interpretation in Yemen
Subordinate Discourse: Women, weaving, and gender relations in North Africa
The discourse of women's domestic weaving in North Africa embeds a distinctively female worldview. Ethnography concerning one Moroccan text of this discourse is cross-referenced with versions documented across the region. The reconstruction of the historically specific discourse of North African women is followed by an account of the political economy of its dissolution. In hierarchical societies, cultural accounts tap shared, public representati…
Association for Political and Legal Anthropology
Kissing Hands and Knees: Hegemony and Hierarchy in Sharfa Discourse
Two categories of Muslim legal texts are utilized in Yemen. In the methodological literature I examine conceptions of common sense and consensus, and the relation of knowledge and ignorance. In the applied literature, I review egalitarian and hierarchical themes. The hegemonic qualities of such texts derive from their appropriation of ordinary wisdom and from the shifting polyvocality of the texts themselves
Qat in Yemen: Consumption and Social Change. SHELAGH Weir
Social/Cultural Anthropology: The Flower of Paradise: The Institutionalized Use of the Drug Qat in North Yemen . John G. Kennedy
Just Writing: Paradox and Political Economy in Yemeni Legal Documents
General/Theoretical Anthropology: Cloth and Human Experience . Annette B. Weiner and Jane Schneider , eds
The Calligraphic StateTextual Domination and History in a Muslim Society: Textual domination and history in a Muslim society
"In this innovative combination of anthropology, history, and postmodern theory, Brinkley Messick examines the changing relation of writing and authority in a Muslim society from the late nineteenth century to the present. The creation and interpretation of texts, from sacred scriptures to administrative and legal contracts, are among the fundamental ways that authority is established and maintained in a complex state. Yet few scholars have explo…
Chapter 6. Print Culture
Calligraphic State: Textual Domination and History in a Muslim Society
In this innovative combination of anthropology, history, and postmodern theory, Brinkley Messick examines the changing relation of writing and authority in a Muslim society from the late nineteenth century to the present. The creation and interpretation of texts, from sacred scriptures to administrative and legal contracts, are among the fundamental ways that authority is established and maintained in a complex state. Yet few scholars have explor…
Textual Properties: Writing and Wealth in a Shari'a Case
Cette ethnographie textuelle concerne un cas de propriete fonciere juge au tribunal au milieu du 20 eme siecle au Yemen. L'analyse relate le travail textuel du juge, plus specialement sa construction de l'autorite dans un jugement decisif ou il utilise des textes ecrits et oraux, des playdoyers et des sources doctrinales lors de conflits structuraux de richesse dans une famille etendue
Islamic Law and the State. The Constitutional Jurisprudence of Shihab al-Din al-Qarafi
L'écriture en procès: Les récits d'un meurtre devant un tribunal sharʻî
The Trial of Writing : Murder Narratives in a Shariʻa Court. A murder judgement from a shariʻa court in mid-twentieth-century Yemen is the point of departure for an analysis intended to advance an "archival anthropology". This ethnographic and historical project centers on a close reading of the judgement in question using methods inspired by Mikhail Bakhtin. Attention is given to how the judgement is composed of fragments of other texts, both or…
Islamic Legal Interpretation: Muftis and Their Fatwas
Islamic Legal Interpretation: Muftis and Their Fatwas
Journal Article Islamic Legal Interpretation: Muftis and their Fatwas Get access Masud Muhammad Khalid Messick Brinkley Powers David S., eds., Islamic Legal Interpretation: Muftis and their Fatwas. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1996. x, 431 pp. $45.00. Rodolphe J.A. De Seife Rodolphe J.A. De Seife Northern Illinois University College of Law Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar American Journal of …
Written Identities: Legal Subjects in an Islamic State
Islamic Legal Interpretation: Muftis and Their Fatwas
For more than a millenium, fatwas have guided and shaped Muslim understandings of law. The whole world knows of Ayatollah Khomeini's fatwa in the Salman Rushdi case, yet this key institution in Muslim society has not been the subject of a major examination until now. Ranging in import from the routine to the revolutionary, and in form from one-line answers to short treatises, fatwas have served to reaffirm received wisdom, caution against error, …
Indexing the Self: Intent and Expression in Islamic Legal Acts
This is a discussion of the theory of intent in Islamic law. In an extended example, I focus on the doctrinal views of Zaydī school jurists from Yemen, but I also indicate that the issues and the analytic distinctions characterize the Sunnī schools as well. As in western law, ascertaining intent is fundamental to applied Islamic legal analyses in sharī'a courts, in matters ranging from contracts to criminal cases. My discussion here, however, is …
Evidence: From Memory to Archive
This is an analysis of an evidence doctrine in Islamic law, based on a close reading of a chapter in an authoritative Zaydī school manual in conjunction with nineteenth and twentieth-century commentaries. As I follow the presentation of the doctrinal issues by these Muslim jurists, I examine concepts and procedures surrounding the witnesses and their testimony, the related role of the judge, the distinctive institution of jarh wa-ta'dīl, and the …
Property and the Private in a Sharia System
I AS we commonly employ it, the private-public distinction is a Western one, anchored in the history of the rise of modern states and societies and in the economic and legal transformation of Europe. As such, the private-public distinction is closely associated with the advent of the Western capitalist property regime. This private-public distinction subsequently came into significance in Muslim societies in the Middle East, North Africa, the Ind…
Kissing Hands and Knees: Hegemony and Hierarchy in Shari‘a Discourse
This chapter examines conceptions of common sense and consensus, and the relation of knowledge and ignorance in the methodological literature. Shari'a discourse represents a specialized subset of formal Arabic usage in the same way that jurisprudence is a specialized subset of all knowledge. A man from a rural village makes his way along stone paved alleys and through the central market street to the shari'a judge's house near the Great Mosque. U…
Sociology (19 works) · Islamic Studies and History (17 works) · Political science (17 works) · Law (15 works) · History (12 works) · Computer Science (10 works) · Philosophy (10 works) · Islam (9 works) · Law (9 works) · Middle East and Rwanda Conflicts (9 works)