The Origins of Islamic Law: The Quran, the Muwatta and Madinan Amal.

• Author: Melchert, Christopher
• Position: Reviews of Books

The Origins of Islamic Law: The [Qur.sup.[contains]]an, the [Muwatta.sup.[contains]] and Madinan [Amal.sup.[subset]]. By YASIN DUTTON. Richmond, Surrey: CURZON PRESS, 1999. Pp. xiv + 264. [pounds sterling]40.

In the Sunni view that became general in the tenth century A.D., the origins of Islamic law are to be sought in the early 600s, with the revelation of the Qur[contains]an on the one hand and the inspired word and deed of the Prophet on the other. Naturally, the Prophet's word and deed were carefully attended by his Companions and reverently transmitted in hadith reports for generations after. In the eighth century, some irresponsible or even wicked persons proposed to find other bases for the law. such as personal opinion, but righteous teachers such as [Shafi.sup.[subset]]i successfully maintained the priority of hadith from the Prophet. The standard skeptical view, developed above all by Schacht in The Origins of Muhammadan Jurisprudence (1950), is that Islamic law in the eighth century had other bases, notably local custom, the speculation of local experts, and decrees from governors and caliphs. The priority of hadith from the Prophet as the basis of Islamic law was not rediscovered by [Shafi.sup.[subset]]i; rather, al ong with prophetic hadith itself, it was invented by him and the traditionists, especially during his lifetime and in the next half-century after. Now Yasin Dutton proposes a third scheme, by which the [Qur.sup.[contains]]an and the Prophet's word and deed were the original basis of Islamic law but were earliest and best preserved, not in prophetic hadith, such as [Shafi.sup.[subset]]i proposed to heed to the exclusion of all else, but rather in the practice ([amal.sup.[subset]]) of the people of Medina. Dutton's title announces the ambition of supplanting Schacht and his paradigm.

Dutton divides his book into three main parts. The first is a general survey of the [Muwatta.sup.[contains]] of Malik and its relation to Medinese practice. The [Muwatta.sup.[contains]] is basically a book of law, says Dutton, not a collection of hadith, and the law is regularly inferred there not from hadith, if there happens to be a contradiction, but from the practice of Medina. This is of course what Goldziher, Brunschvig, and Schacht have observed before. Dutton moreover asserts that when Malik refers to amr (e.g., al-amr al-[mujtama.sup.[subset]] [alayhi.sup.[subset]] [indana.sup.[subset]]), he indicates practice that, "although...