Get 20M+ Full-Text Papers For Less Than $1.50/day. Start a 14-Day Trial for You or Your Team.

Learn More →

Shari‘ah Law and Capitulations Governing the Non-Muslim Foreign Merchants in the Ottoman Empire

Shari‘ah Law and Capitulations Governing the Non-Muslim Foreign Merchants in the Ottoman Empire Muslim-non-Muslim relations have a long and checkered history. The concept of Siyar (Muslim code governing international-interfaith relations) developed by early Muslim jurists, provided the legal basis for coexistence with ‘foreignness’ and ‘foreigners. Yet, the classical norms of Siyar were seldom strictly implemented by Muslim rulers. Thus, Capitulations, governing the presence and movement of foreign merchants and diplomats in the Ottoman empire, increasingly broke with the classical norms of Siyar in their successive incarnations. However, there have been few investigations of how the religious establishment’s stance vis-à-vis Capitulations evolved over time. The present study is a modest attempt to fill this gap. The paper departs from essentialist conceptions of Shariah Law, and examines how successive Ottoman jurists interpreted Siyar and accommodated it to the changing political and economic realities. Our investigation bears out the non-essentialist position that Islamic laws have been anchored in empirical realities, pre-Islamic norms, and legalistic traditions. http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png Sociology of Islam Brill

Shari‘ah Law and Capitulations Governing the Non-Muslim Foreign Merchants in the Ottoman Empire

Mughal, Abdul Ghaffar; Sadiki, Larbi
Sociology of Islam , Volume 5 (2-3): 23 – Jun 21, 2017
Download PDF
23 pages

Loading next page...
 
/lp/brill/shari-ah-law-and-capitulations-governing-the-non-muslim-foreign-JYPWi9lQbL

References (35)

Publisher
Brill
Copyright
Copyright © Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, The Netherlands
ISSN
2213-140X
eISSN
2213-1418
DOI
10.1163/22131418-00503006
Publisher site
See Article on Publisher Site

Abstract

Muslim-non-Muslim relations have a long and checkered history. The concept of Siyar (Muslim code governing international-interfaith relations) developed by early Muslim jurists, provided the legal basis for coexistence with ‘foreignness’ and ‘foreigners. Yet, the classical norms of Siyar were seldom strictly implemented by Muslim rulers. Thus, Capitulations, governing the presence and movement of foreign merchants and diplomats in the Ottoman empire, increasingly broke with the classical norms of Siyar in their successive incarnations. However, there have been few investigations of how the religious establishment’s stance vis-à-vis Capitulations evolved over time. The present study is a modest attempt to fill this gap. The paper departs from essentialist conceptions of Shariah Law, and examines how successive Ottoman jurists interpreted Siyar and accommodated it to the changing political and economic realities. Our investigation bears out the non-essentialist position that Islamic laws have been anchored in empirical realities, pre-Islamic norms, and legalistic traditions.

Journal

Sociology of Islam – Brill

Published: Jun 21, 2017

There are no references for this article.