Thesiss

The earliest hadith collections treat the precedent of the Companions as a significant source of law, yet in time some of the most distinguished thinkers of Islamic history would categorically deny the legal authority of the Companions. How did reliance on a legal source that wa…

Unraveling the complex dynamics that created and sustained the hegemony of the four principal schools of Sunni Islamic law necessarily requires an appreciation of the schools' historical genesis. This dissertation provides the first comprehensive account of the emergence and ear…

The 3rd /9th and 4th /10 th centuries witnessed significant developments in Islamic intellectual history. Most of the hadith collections that later came to be recognized as canonical were compiled in this period and the major schools of law and certain theological schools also c…