Islamic Law in South Asia

This seminar offers a broad-ranging survey of the history of Islamic law in South Asia, from the early sixteenth century to the present. It examines key developments relating to legal thought and practice under the Mughals, during colonial rule, and in postcolonial India and Pakistan. It seeks to put recent scholarship in Islamic Studies in conversation with law in the South Asian context and to look at Islamic law from multiple perspectives, including that of the state and its functionaries, the ulama and, where possible, the ordinary people. Topics include: slavery; marriage and divorce; violence; criminal law; and legal modernism.