Tarikh al-Tashri al-Islami
- Author died
- 1420 AH
- Editions
- Maktabat Wahba
Tarikh al-Tashri al-Islami (History of Islamic Legislation) is a foundational modern textbook on the historical development of Islamic jurisprudence and its legal sources by the Egyptian-Saudi scholar Manna al-Qattan (d. 1420 AH / 1999 CE) .
Composition and Title
The work was originally published for its first three editions under the title al-Tashri wa-al-Fiqh fi al-Islam: Tarikhan wa-Manhajan (Legislation and Jurisprudence in Islam: History and Methodology) . Beginning with the fourth edition, al-Qattan changed the title to Tarikh al-Tashri al-Islami to conform with the standard designation used in academic curricula, noting that jurisprudence is derived from the sources of legislation . In that edition, he also revised parts of the text and added further legal discussions based on feedback from scholars teaching the book to their students .
Purpose and Scope
In his introduction, al-Qattan states that the book is designed to present the core subjects concerning divine legislation, its primary sources, the emergence and evolution of jurisprudence (fiqh), the schools of legal thought (madhahib), and their underlying methodological principles (usul) . It also aims to highlight the biographies of the major jurists (mujtahidun), their deductive efforts from textual proofs, the flourishing of Islamic legal thought, and the capacity of Islamic law to provide solutions for contemporary societal challenges .
Structure and Contents
The book is organized into an extensive conceptual introduction followed by chronological chapters tracing the historical periods of Islamic legal development:
- Preliminary Concepts: Covers the necessity of law in human society, definitions of positive law (qanun), divine law (sharia), and legislation (tashri), the distinction between revealed law and man-made codification, and the general stages of legislation in Islamic intellectual history .
- The Era of Legislation (Prophetic Era): Examines the legal environment of pre-Islamic Arabia and the world at the advent of Islam, the methodology of revelation during the lifetime of the Prophet ﷺ (from the prophetic call to 11 AH), the division between Makkan and Madinan legislation, and the Quranic modes of legal address . It analyzes the authority of the Sunnah, its recording and genres of compilation, ijtihad during the prophetic era, and the historical institution of rulings across domains such as worship, commercial transactions, family law, criminal law, and international relations .
- The Era of the Rightly Guided Caliphs (11–40 AH): Explores the political context, legal sources, the compilation of the Quran under Abu Bakr and Uthman ibn Affan, major questions on which the Companions reached consensus, and notable points of disagreement among them .
- The Era of the Successors and the Early Jurists: Discusses the emergence of the regional legal trends of the jurists of legal reasoning (Ahl al-Ray) in Iraq and the traditionalists (Ahl al-Hadith) in the Hijaz, the Seven Jurists of Medina, and prominent legal authorities of the period such as Abdullah ibn Abbas, Said ibn al-Musayyab, Urwa ibn al-Zubayr, al-Hasan al-Basri, and Umar ibn Abd al-Aziz .
- The Four Sunnite Imams: Details the lives, trials, and legal foundations of Abu Hanifa, Malik ibn Anas, al-Shafi'i, and Ahmad ibn Hanbal, highlighting foundational texts associated with them—such as Malik's al-Muwatta, al-Shafi'i's al-Umm and al-Risalah, and Ahmad's al-Musnad—and the spread of their respective schools .
Publication History
The work has been published in multiple editions across several publishing houses in the Arab world, including Maktabat Wahbah in Cairo, Maktabat al-Ma'arif in Riyadh, and Mu'assasat al-Risalah in Beirut .
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