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Ijtiha¯d against Madhhab: Legal hybridity and the meanings of modernity in early modern Daghestan

Gould, Rebecca Ruth

Authors



Abstract

This article explores the interface of multiple legal systems in early modern Daghestan. By comparing colonial engagements with legal plurality with indigenous genres of Daghestani legal discourse, I aim to shed light on the plurality of legal systems that preceded as well as informed legal discourse under colonialism. The Daghestani turn to ijtihād (independent legal reasoning) in the early modern period parallels the turn away from cādāt (indigenous law) that shaped modern Islamic as well as colonial legal regimes, albeit with radically distinctive genealogies. In tracing these internal debates, I offer a preliminary genealogy of Daghestani ijtihād that is grounded in the robust debates concerning the sources of Islamic authority that originated in Yemen and were transmitted to Daghestan by traveling scholars. This essay is a contribution to the study of legal norms on colonial borderlands, as well as to the study of Islamic modernity before colonialism.

Citation

Gould, R. R. (2015). Ijtiha¯d against Madhhab: Legal hybridity and the meanings of modernity in early modern Daghestan. Comparative Studies in Society and History, 57(1), 35-66. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0010417514000590

Journal Article Type Article
Publication Date Jan 1, 2015
Deposit Date Oct 11, 2023
Journal Comparative Studies in Society and History
Print ISSN 0010-4175
Electronic ISSN 1475-2999
Publisher Cambridge University Press
Peer Reviewed Peer Reviewed
Volume 57
Issue 1
Pages 35-66
DOI https://doi.org/10.1017/S0010417514000590