Robert Gleave – författare

Gleave brings together studies by experts in the area of religion in nineteenth-century Iran in order to present new insights into Qajar religion, political and cultural history. Key topics covered include the relationship between religion and the state, the importance of archival materials for the study of religion, the developments of Qajar religious thought, the position of religious minorities in Qajar Iran, the relationship between religion and Qajar culture, and the centrality of Shi'ite hierarchy and the state.

Gleave brings together studies by experts in the area of religion in nineteenth-century Iran in order to present new insights into Qajar religion, political and cultural history. Key topics covered include the relationship between religion and the state, the importance of archival materials for the study of religion, the developments of Qajar religious thought, the position of religious minorities in Qajar Iran, the relationship between religion and Qajar culture, and the centrality of Shi'ite hierarchy and the state.

Literal meaning is what a text means in itself, regardless of what its author intends to convey or the reader understands to be its message. The idea of literal meaning, together with insights from modern semantic and pragmatic philosophers, informs this reading of Islamic legal hermeneutics.Robert Gleave explores various competing notions of literal meaning, linked to both theological doctrine and historical developments. The idea of a text’s literal meaning that rules over human attempts to understand God’s message has become an element in discussions about who has the authority to interpret the revelatory texts, and how they can identify this meaning. This has resulted in a series of debates over the processing of legal meaning amongst modern Muslim legal theorists, which centre on the importance of defining, identifying and promulgating the literal meaning of the central texts of Islam. Focuses on Islamic legal writings, with reference to Quranic exegesis (tafsir) and Arabic rhetorical worksDescribes Muslim debates through the lens of modern Western linguistic philosophyStructured chronologically along the lines of the development of Muslim conceptions of literal meaning

Literal meaning is what a text means in itself, regardless of what its author intends to convey or the reader understands to be its message. The idea of literal meaning, together with insights from modern semantic and pragmatic philosophers, informs this reading of Islamic legal hermeneutics.Robert Gleave explores various competing notions of literal meaning, linked to both theological doctrine and historical developments. The idea of a text’s literal meaning that rules over human attempts to understand God’s message has become an element in discussions about who has the authority to interpret the revelatory texts, and how they can identify this meaning. This has resulted in a series of debates over the processing of legal meaning amongst modern Muslim legal theorists, which centre on the importance of defining, identifying and promulgating the literal meaning of the central texts of Islam. Focuses on Islamic legal writings, with reference to Quranic exegesis (tafsir) and Arabic rhetorical worksDescribes Muslim debates through the lens of modern Western linguistic philosophyStructured chronologically along the lines of the development of Muslim conceptions of literal meaning

This volume surveys the diversity of Islamic legal thought and practice, a 1500 - year tradition that has been cultivated throughout the Islamic world. It features translations of Islamic legal texts from across the spectrum of literary genres (including legal theory, judicial handbooks, pamphlets) that represent the range of temporal, geographic and linguistic contexts in which Islamic law has been, and continues to be, developed. Each text has been chosen and translated by a specialist. It is accompanied by an accessible introduction that places the author and text in historical and legal contexts and explains the state of the relevant field of study. An introduction to each section offers an overview of the genre and provides a useful bibliography. The volume will enable all researchers of Islamic law - established academics, undergraduate students, and general readers - to understand the tremendous and sometimes bewildering diversity of Islamic law, as well the continuities and common features that bind it together.

This volume surveys the diversity of Islamic legal thought and practice, a 1500 - year tradition that has been cultivated throughout the Islamic world. It features translations of Islamic legal texts from across the spectrum of literary genres (including legal theory, judicial handbooks, pamphlets) that represent the range of temporal, geographic and linguistic contexts in which Islamic law has been, and continues to be, developed. Each text has been chosen and translated by a specialist. It is accompanied by an accessible introduction that places the author and text in historical and legal contexts and explains the state of the relevant field of study. An introduction to each section offers an overview of the genre and provides a useful bibliography. The volume will enable all researchers of Islamic law - established academics, undergraduate students, and general readers - to understand the tremendous and sometimes bewildering diversity of Islamic law, as well the continuities and common features that bind it together.

Treats the strands of Shi'ite legal theory as a family of legal traditions, providing illustrative examples with editions of previously unpublished worksExamines for the first time in English an intergrated analysis of Shiite traditions and legal theories, including the validity of personal juristic reasoning (ijtih?d), linguistic interpretations, the role of certainty in the deduction of law and the legal authority of the im?msCovers Shi?i u??l, which has received little attention in scholarly discussions of Islamic legal theoryFocuses not only on the less-neglected Twelver u??l but also on Isma?ili and Zaydi u??l traditionsPresents texts from a range of regions (Yemen, Iraq and Safavid Persia) and written across a broad time period (from the 5th/11th century to the 13th/18th century)Incorporation of Zaydi, Isma?ili and Twelver legal traditions in a single analytical framework Alongside the individual rules of God's law (shar??a), there has been a vibrant history of more philosophical or theoretical discussions in Islamic thought. Where does God's law come from? How are God's rules to be discovered for situations not covered in the revealed sources? Who, within the Muslim community, can make a valid pronouncement on the content of the shar??a? The answers to these questions have been debated and discussed by Muslim scholars in the genre of literature called u??l al-fiqh, glossed in English language secondary literature as Islamic legal theory". This volume contains editions and commentaries of hitherto un-edited manuscripts from the various strands of the Shi?ite tradition of Islamic thought (Zaydi, Isma?ili and Twelver). A careful side-by-side reading of these texts and commentaries will help identify themes peculiar to the Shi?ite "family" of legal theories. The distinctive Shi?ite contribution to the history of u??l al-fiqh has not received the attention it deserves in contemporary scholarship; this volume forms part of wider attempt to bring the richness and diversity of Shi?ite u??l to the wider field."

The violent conquest of the eastern part of the lands under Muslim rule by the Mongols marked a new period in the history of Islamic civilisation and in attitudes towards violence. This volume examines the various intellectual and cultural reactions of Muslim thinkers to these events, both within and without the territories subjected to Mongol control. Each chapter examines how violent acts were assessed by Muslim intellectuals, analysing both changes and continuity within Islamic thought over time. Each chapter is structured around a case study in which violent acts are justified or condemned, revealing the variety of attitudes to violence in the medieval period. They are framed by a detailed introduction, focusing on theoretical perspectives on violence and religion and their application, or otherwise, to medieval Islam.

This volume shows the diversity of approaches to violence in Islamic thought between the 19th century and the present day, avoiding the limiting characterisations of Islam being inherently ‘violent’ or ‘peaceful’. It shows how ideas of ‘justified violence’ – grounded in Islamic theological and juristic traditions – reoccur throughout history, up to the contemporary period. Chapters on earlier events provide context for contemporary debates on violence, showing how traditional legal and theological ideas (such as the sovereignty of God’s law and peace treaties) are used to both legitimise and de-legitimise violence.

Explores Muslim attitudes towards violence from the 19th century to the present dayExamines perceptions and expressions of violence in a wide range of contexts in the modern period: Algeria, Afghanistan, Egypt, India, Iraq, Israel, Libya, Nigeria, Palestine, Syria, Tunisia and Yemen Shows the nuances behind headline-making events and organisations such as al-Qaeda, the Taliban, Islamic State, Salafi jihadism, the Mahdi Army, Hamas, Hezbollah and the Arab RevolutionsEngages with key figures including Fa?l-i ?aqq Khayr?b?d?, Ahmad Riza Khan, Muqtad al-?adr, Mu?ammad al-Maqdisi, Ayman al-?aw?hir? and Turk? al-Bin?Al?Enables a more informed understanding of the nature of violence in the modern period, in the Muslim world and beyondMuslim attitudes toward violence have been reshaped in light of the colonial context since the 18th and 19th centuries, and in response to regional and world-changing events of the contemporary period. This volume shows the diversity of approaches to violence in Islamic thought, avoiding the limiting characterisations of Islam being inherently 'violent' or 'peaceful'.It shows how ideas of 'justified violence' grounded in Islamic theological and juristic traditions reoccur throughout history, up to the contemporary period. Chapters on earlier events provide context for contemporary debates on violence, showing how traditional legal and theological ideas (such as the sovereignty of God's law and peace treaties) are used to both legitimise and de-legitimise violence.Violence in Islamic Thought from European Imperialism to the Post-Colonial Era is the final volume in the Violence in Islamic Thought trilogy. Taken together, the three books cover key aspects of violence in Islamic thought from the earliest time to the present day, mapping a trajectory of thinking about violence over 14 centuries of Islamic history.

This text deals with the theory and practice of Islamic law in both the formative classic and modern periods and over a range of societies. It is divided into four sections dealing with: legal theory; fatwas and muftis in classical Islamic law; the position of religious minorities under Islamic law, and modern developents in Islamic law. In addition to exploring the tension between theory and practice, the book focuses on the role of ijtihad in both Sunni and Shi'i fiqh and in collections of fatwa, and looks at the relationship between judicial practice and positive law.

The diverse studies presented in this volume recount the production, understanding and organisation of Muslim literature, both in the Muslim world and Western Europe. First, there are bio-bibliographical studies of Middle Eastern and Muslim literature, in which contributors examine texts and their interrelations in a series of discrete studies, demonstrating how bio-bibliography is reliant on the resources devised and maintained by librarians. Recurrent themes include the vexed question of “authorship”; extant books, tracts or reports are attributed to particular authors, but their content, at times, seems to indicate an alternative author. In the second section, the focus is on the advancement of the study of this literary heritage outside of the Muslim world, primarily in Western Europe. These studies describe the processes and individuals within the development of the western study of the Islamicate world and reflect some of the interests of Paul Auchterlonie, to whom the volume is dedicated.