Book Reviews

turies of Jewish powerlessness to power. What defines a viable and secure

homeland or state might depend on the historical circumstances as well as on
any raison d’état. Moreover, Zionism’s mission civilisatrice was indeed self-di-
rected, aiming at the realization of a spiritual, social, cultural, and moral re-
newal of the battered Jewish people. But Rose tends to locate the source of
the problem in (Jewish) statehood itself rather than in the need to historicize
the founding myths of the state of Israel. Notwithstanding the seeming intrac-
table conflict with their neighbors, the majority of Israelis would still uphold
Zionism’s claim to have accomplished something approaching normalcy.
Certainly, a commitment to the principles of a civil society in which the
citizens shape their collective self-understanding rather than leave it to the
domain of the state requires a continued discussion of the increasing impact
of civil religion in Israel and beyond. Rose’s book has the merit of probing
the problematic liaison in the Jewish state between nationalism and religion,
on the one hand, and national myth and political reality, on the other. From
the perspective of the study of religion, her book challenges us to pay heed
to the fundamental conceptual difference between (religious) redemption and
(national) liberation.
MARTINA URBAN, Vanderbilt University.

HALLAQ, WAEL B. The Origins and Evolution of Islamic Law. Themes in Islamic
Law I. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2005. ix⫹234 pp. $70.00
(cloth); $24.99 (paper).

Given the centrality of law in Islamic thought and practice, the paucity of
books that offer an educated overview of its history is puzzling. Scholars of
religion as well as scholars dealing with other aspects of the Islamic tradition
should therefore hail as good news the appearance of a concise introduction
to the subject of early Islamic law by one of its most prominent contemporary
scholars, Wael B. Hallaq.
At the heart of Hallaq’s book is a coherent and, within the constraints dic-
tated by its length, remarkably comprehensive narrative of the emergence and
early development of Sunni Islamic law. In a number of ways, this work rep-
resents an advance over Joseph Schacht’s seminal 1957 book The Origins of
Muhammadan Jurisprudence, hitherto considered the standard reference work
on the subject. While Schacht limits his inquiry to an examination of theoret-
ical aspects of law, Hallaq’s analysis integrates theory with actual legal practice.
In particular, he sheds new light on areas such as the formative role of early
judges and the doctrinal evolution of the four Sunni legal schools. Further,
Hallaq’s treatment of fundamental questions such as the cultural origin of
Islamic law is more nuanced and sophisticated than Schacht’s. He convincingly
portrays Islamic law as emerging within an indigenous Arabian legal tradition
that incorporated aspects of Greco-Roman and Semitic laws. In addition, his
persuasive account of the symbiotic relationship of law and politics in the Ab-
basid period provides a robust challenge to Patricia Crone’s hypothesis of a
zero-sum competition for religious authority between scholars and rulers.
Hallaq’s historical narrative culminates in the central revisionist thesis about
what he calls the “Great Rationalist-Traditionalist Synthesis,” the emergence of
a comprehensive hermeneutic hierarchy that incorporates both the sacred
texts (Quran and prophetic Hadith) and the methods of analogical reasoning

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that permit the extension of these texts to novel situations. The standard ac-
count of Islamic scholarship—accepted by Schacht—locates this development
in the ninth century. Hallaq, however, argues that it did not in fact take place
until a century later, when Islamic law finally reached its “complete form” de-
fined by a set of “essential attributes” (3). This bold thesis, originally laid out
in a 1993 article, “Was al-Shafi’i the Master Architect of Islamic Jurisprudence?”
(International Journal of Middle East Studies 25:587–605), is likely to be the most
controversial element of the book. I will briefly mention two issues that it
raises.
First, Hallaq’s assertion that the tenth century witnessed a definitive and
simultaneous maturation of the chief elements of Islamic law remains un-
proven. In fact, there is compelling counterevidence that indicates that the
actual historical evolution of Islamic law was less orderly and more gradual
than his thesis suggests. For example, the archrationalist Wāsil lbn ‘Atā’ pro-
posed something very much like the “Great Synthesis”—a hierarchy of four
sources of law encompassing the Quran, established prophetic traditions, ra-
tional proof, and scholarly consensus—as early as the first half of the eighth
century (al-‘Askarı̄, Min Kitāb al-awā’il [Damascus, 1984]). Second, one won-
ders about the appositeness of isolating a set of timeless “essential attributes”
within a living and dynamic tradition enfolding over a period of more than a
thousand years. The precise definitions of these attributes are necessarily based
on historically specific manifestations. As a result, much of the argument de-
pends on which particular moment is chosen to represent the baseline. Still,
such a paradigm can provide a helpful mental map, particularly for students
with limited prior knowledge of the subject.
The ambitious scope of the volume has the inevitable drawback of limiting
the space available for in-depth discussion of individual topics; chapter 6,
which deals with legal theory, is likely to overwhelm the average reader by
summarizing Sunni legal theory in twenty-eight dense pages. Given this nec-
essary trade-off, some narrative details in the early part of the book that are
not crucial for the core argument (“Tamı̄m’s market, al-Mushaqqar, was held
in what is now Hufūf . . . ”; 12) could have been omitted. However, the un-
precedented comprehensiveness and conciseness of the work should make it
standard reading for novice students approaching the study of early Islamic
law. A field as underdeveloped as Islamic legal studies lacks the minimum
scholarly consensus necessary for the production of an uncontroversial text-
book. However, Professor Hallaq’s book should be welcomed as an interesting
and provocative contribution to an ongoing discussion.
AHMED EL SHAMSY, Harvard University.

MASUZAWA, TOMOKO. The Invention of World Religions; or, How European Univer-
salism Was Preserved in the Language of Pluralism. Chicago: University of Chi-
cago Press, 2005. xv⫹359 pp. $47.50 (cloth); $19.00 (paper).

In the old days “inventions” were celebrated, and they tended to refer to prac-
tical accomplishments, such as Eli Whitney’s invention of the cotton gin. Now-
adays “inventions” are scorned, and they refer to ideas. In the old days ideas
were discovered, not invented. If they turned out to be false, they were re-
jected. Nowadays ideas are invented, not discovered, and they almost always
turn out badly—not because they prove to be false but because they prove to

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