The historiography of islamic law: The case of tarikh al-tashri' literature

Abstract

Tarikh al-Tashri' (the history of sharia affairs) is a relatively new genre of Islamic historiography and very popular among students of Islamic Law. Despite its popularity, academics of Islamic historiography seem not interested in studying it. There is hardly any academic paper seriously studied the literature. This paper is a first effort to explore the Tarikh al-Tashri' literature through a historiographical analysis. As an initial exploration, it argues that Tarikh al-Tashri' is the latest development of Islamic historiography, developed in the 19th century, but it is a genre of the old Islamic historiography with some new elements. The new elements are influenced by both modern Western historiography and the need to re-open the supposedly closed gate of ijtihad. The paper studied books of Tarikh al-Tashri' available during the research between 2013-2015.