Radical Separation of Powers

Reviews / Votes

'Hallaq has already authored definitive books on how Islamic civilisation articulated law and how both Western scholarship and many Islamist movements have grossly misunderstood Islamic law and the premodern state. Now this latest, fascinating volume draws on a career of expertise to bring these studies together, laying out how the Shariah and state fit together and should be understood today.' Jonathan A. C. Brown, author of Islam & Blackness 'Hallaq offers a much-needed corrective to the Orientalist narratives, which do not provide a viable foundation for historical inquiry nor serve as building blocks for new scholarship. In their place, he presents a panoramic account of constitutionalism and the separation of powers, giving readers a fine-grained perspective on the primacy of law in curbing, limiting, and guiding executive authority. Spanning the millennium from the tenth to the eighteenth century, Hallaq not only presents a historical account of constitutional practice but also offers a narrative infused with theoretical inquiry and multidimensional critique. The reader will appreciate the book's explication of a Shari?a-oriented, ulema-led mode of political thought in relation to recent scholarly interventions on the secular adab al-siyasa discourses of good governance in Islamic history.' Hayrettin Yuecesoy, author of Disenchanting the Caliphate 'This is Wael Hallaq at his provocative and erudite best. He re-imagines Arabic philology as an empathetic praxis, shows how modern scholars must re-integrate the fields of Islamic learning artificially separated by Orientalism, and in the process re-writes the history of Islamic political thought to make a powerful case for a distinctive Islamic constitutionalism rooted in prophethood, ethics, and above all the Shari'a. His reassessment of Islamic constitutional structures, from the Qur'an to the Ottomans, aims also to lay the groundwork-in ways likely to be equally controversial and generative-for a sober appraisal of the constitutional disappointments and dilemmas that we confront today.' Joseph E. Lowry, translator of The Epistle on Legal Theory 'The breadth of Hallaq's analysis of Islamic constitutionalism and the philosophical depth that he brings to it open new vistas on political thought in pre-modern Islam. His brilliant readings of key texts in Islamic political theory serve to peel off thick layers of misrepresentation, bringing those texts to life and allowing us to view them with fresh eyes. Along the way, he offers a trenchant critique of both Orientalism and liberalism. This book will have a transformative impact on the study of Islamic political thought, but its arguments speak to a much wider audience, which, too, will be in Hallaq's debt.' Muhammad Qasim Zaman, author of Islam in Pakistan: A History