Text and Interpretation

Imam Jaʿfar al-Ṣādiq and His Legacy in Islamic Law

Hossein Modarressi

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English

Harvard University Press
09 August 2022

Middle Eastern history; Islam; Islamic life & practice; Islamic law; Legal history

Series: Harvard Series in Islamic Law

Text and Interpretation: Imam Jaʿfar al-Ṣādiq and His Legacy in Islamic Law examines the main characteristics of the legal thought of Imam Jaʿfar al-Ṣādiq, a preeminent religious scholar jurist of Medina in the first half of the second century of the Muslim calendar (mid-eighth century CE). Numerous works in different languages have appeared over the past half century to introduce this school of Islamic law and its history, legal theory, and substance in contexts of Shīʿī law.

While previous literature has focused on the current status of the school in its developed and expanded form, this book presents an intellectual history of how the school began. The Jaʿfarī school emerged within the general legal discourse of late-Umayyad and early- Abbasid periods, but was known to differ in certain approaches from the other main legal schools of this time. Namely, the Jaʿfarī school expanded the tools for legal interpretation generally and contracts specifically, to a degree unmatched by any of its counterparts in the Muslim legal tradition. In addition to sketching the origins of the school, the book examines Jaʿfar al-Ṣādiq’s interpretive approach through detailing his position on a number of specific questions, as well as the legal canons, presumptions, and other interpretive tools he adopted.

By: Hossein Modarressi
Imprint: Harvard University Press
Country of Publication: United States
Dimensions: Height: 235mm, Width: 156mm, Spine: 32mm
Weight: 930g
ISBN: 9780674271890
ISBN 10: 0674271890
Series: Harvard Series in Islamic Law
Pages: 456
Publication Date: 09 August 2022
Audience: Professional and scholarly , College/higher education , Professional and scholarly , Undergraduate , Primary
Format: Hardback
Publisher's Status: Active

Hossein Modarressi is Bayard Dodge Professor of Near Eastern Studies at Princeton University.

Reviews for Text and Interpretation: Imam Jaʿfar al-Ṣādiq and His Legacy in Islamic Law

A welcome rarity in presenting a book-length study of al-Ṣādiq in a European language… valuable and relentlessly erudite, and draws challenging but constructive attention to an overlooked aspect of this pivotal early Muslim figure. -- George Warner * Reading Religion * Scholars of Islamic legal studies can only be grateful for the continued presence and energy of [Modarressi]…In a nonornate style, Modarressi provides an account of the life and views of the eponym of one of Islam’s longest traditions of legal reasoning, and of how his example served as a basis for a school of law that can claim 200 million followers today—in Islam’s fifteenth century. -- Ahmad Atif Ahmad * Journal of the American Oriental Society * Jaʿfar al-Ṣādiq is a key figure in the formation of Shīʿī law, Hossein Modarressi’s expertise in the field is legendary, and the book brings together a trove of information that is otherwise scattered in a plethora of arcane sources. -- Michael Cook, Princeton University This study constitutes an impressive and significant contribution to Islamic legal studies. It provides an unparalleled insight into the legal thought of the founder of the Jaʿfarī school, and can also serve as a reliable introduction to major aspects of Twelver Shīʿī law. The novelty of the approach, the wealth of information provided, the fine rendition of judiciously chosen texts, and the masterful elucidation and analysis of legal terms and concepts will all be of great value to students of the Islamic legal tradition. -- Etan Kohlberg, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem This book represents a lifetime’s research and thinking about the legal thought of Jaʿfar al-Ṣādiq, one of the most important figures in the history of the Shīʿī tradition. Most broadly, it is a major contribution toward a better understanding of the formative history of Shīʿism, on the one hand, and of Islamic law in its first centuries, on the other. It will be the standard work of reference on early Shīʿism for many years to come. -- M. Qasim Zaman, Princeton University