The Anthropology of Islamic Law

John R. Bowen, Dunbar-Van Cleve Professor in Arts & Sciences, Professor of Anthropology, Washington University in St. Louis In a strikingly original work, Aria Nakissa brings contemporary philosophy together with deep ethnographic and textual knowledge to convey the logic and practices of traditionalist Islamic learning. Based on fieldwork in Cairo, the book provides the clearest account to date of competing Islamic approaches to Shara.


Ali Agrama, Associate Professor of Anthropology, at University of Chicago Professor Nakissa presents us with an erudite text. Deeply ethnographic, historically informed, and philosophically grounded, it draws the disparate strands of Islamic scholarship into a provocative synthesis. Scholars of Islam would benefit greatly from an engagement with Nakissa's arguments.


Brinkley Messick, Professor of Anthropology and of Middle Eastern, South Asian, and African Studies, and Director of the Middle East Institute, Columbia University Aria Nakissa's innovative analysis of the transmission of Shara knowledge at the venerable al-Azhar in Cairo combines a subtle ethnography of persisting academic relations based on teacher-student 'companionship' and emulation with astute readings in a wide variety of related conceptualizations in the history and present of Islamic thought.


Marion H. Katz, Professor of Middle Eastern and Islamic Studies, New York University Drawing deeply on both ethnographic and textual evidence, Nakissa bridges a deep methodological divide in Islamic studies. This lucidly written and persuasively argued study will engage readers across multiple disciplines.

Aria Nakissa is Assistant Professor of Islamic Studies and Anthropology at Washington University in St. Louis.