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Islamic Legal Interpretation: Muftis and their fatwas M K. MAsuD, BRINKLEY MESSICK & DAVID S. POWERS (Eds), 1996 Cambridge, M, and London, Harvard University Press 431 pp., hb. 29.95, ISBN 0 674 46870 8
This volume is an attempt to bring together in one collection studies of the institution of ifta' from a number of perspectives. Like most collections it is a mixed bag. There are two articles dealing with theoretical perspectives (in section 1, p. 3-45), followed by twenty-six studies of fatwas and muftis (in three sections: the pre-Modern period, the Early Modern Period and the Modern Period). The contributors range from established scholars in the field to graduate students. The quality of research and analysis is consistently high throughout.
Each of the twenty-six studies takes a fatwa or collection of fatwas and subjects it or them to a detailed analysis. In most cases the fatwa is translated in full, followed by the writer situating the fatwa in its historical and legal context. The reader gains an intimate knowledge of the thought processes of individual muftis, and learns of the variety of styles and forms of fatwas that have been issued in Muslim history. Fatwas can be long (Mallet, ch. 26) or as short as one word (Imber, ch. 11); they can be mere advice (Weiss, ch. 5) or issued with such force that...