Original Islam

<p><em>Original Islam</em> investigates the primacy of Madinan Islam and the madhhab (school of law) of its main exponent Malik ibn Anas. It contains an annotated translation of <em>Intisar al-faqir al-salik li-tarjih madhhab al-Imam al-kabir Malik</em> which was written by al-Ra'i a fifteenth-century Andalusian scholar resident in Cairo.</p><p>This book includes:</p><ul> <li>a comprehensive section on the scholarly credentials of the great eighth-century Madinan jurist Malik ibn Anas </li> <li>a detailed examination of a number of theoretical and practical disputed legal issues </li> <li>examples of the inter-<em>madhhab </em>rivalry and prejudice prevalent in fifteenth-century Cairo </li> <li>an extensive introduction giving background information on al-Ra’i and his life and times. </li> </ul><p>It also highlights the significance of the text for contemporary Muslim discourse in which both modernist and fundamentalist elements often equate the concept of <em>madhhab</em> with an outmoded tradition which must be rejected as irrelevant to the practice of Islam in a globalized world. This book aims to put this ongoing controversy about madhhab particularly the Maliki <em>madhhab</em> and its pre-<em>madhhab</em> Madinan origins on a surer footing. <em>Original Islam</em> provides access to a hitherto little known area of Islamic law and is essential reading for those with interests in this area. </p>