Abstract
The article aims at illustrating the "interpretative viability"of the Ottoman Family Code of 1917 - i.e., its susceptibility to changing interpretations - and to discuss some of the interpretative tools that qāīs have applied to it over the years. By tracing the changing implementation of Article 130 of this law (nizā wa-shiqāq) by sharīa courts in Palestine/Israel over a period of one hundred years (1917-2017), the article shows that the codification of the sharīa did not produce a closed, immutable, monolithic legal system, but rather has provided qāīs with considerable interpretative freedom - much more than is commonly assumed. Moreover, the hermeneutic tools employed by qāīs to interpret the code build on earlier, pre-codification sources of pluralism and interpretative freedom within the sharīa. Thus, by highlighting the continuities between pre-codified and post-codified sharīa, the article aims at contributing to the debate concerning the transformation of the sharīa in modern times.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 890-934 |
| Number of pages | 45 |
| Journal | Journal of the Economic and Social History of the Orient |
| Volume | 65 |
| Issue number | 7 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - 2022 |
Bibliographical note
Publisher Copyright:Copyright © 2022 by Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden.
Keywords
- Ottoman Family Law
- Palestine/Israel
- codification
- judicial agency
- sharia courts
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- History
- Sociology and Political Science
- Economics and Econometrics