Justice and Islamic Law: Mazalim Courts and Legal Reform [Hardcover]

The first major English language work on themazalimcourts

What do you do when divine law and the justice demanded by your conscience clash? Muslims have wrestled with this problem since the earliest caliphates. Themazalimcourts, dating back to the eighth century, were the answer: courts where any subject could appeal directly to an Islamic ruler regarding any matter of justice.Mazalimcourts, which were not bound by the rulings of an established school of Islamic law, could address crises in authority and order that Shariah courts could not. Bestselling author Jonathan A.C. Brown unveils the history ofmazalimcourts, analyses the political, legal and theological thought of its tradition and contends thatmazalimcourts did not oppose or transcend Shariah.Mazalim courtsallowed the state to step in and provide substantive justice when procedural justice failed its subjects.Jonathan A.C. Brown is Professor and Alwaleed bin Talal Chair of Islamic Civilization in the School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University. He is the author ofIslam and Blackness,Misquoting MuhammadandHadith: Muhammad’s Legacy in the Medieval and Modern World, all of which are published by Oneworld.'This learned and engaging book... Brown (who is himself Muslim) seems to be laying the ground for a kind of Islamic post-liberalism, where politics and law are shaped by Aristotelian-cum-Islamic notions of justice and the common good.'Fitzroy Morrissey,The Critic'In this composite volume, Jonathan Brown does the field a great service, first by deploying an extensive analysis and commentary on themazalimtribunals across centuries, and second, by offering a translation of two treatises on the subject. This is an important work that will for long remain a reference for historians.'Wael B. Hallaq, author ofRadical Separation of Powers'This deeply learned book explores both the concrete histolÓÃ