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Islamic Legal Theory and the Practical Hermeneutics of Abū Jaʿfar Aḥmad Al-Ṭaḥāwī (D University of Pennsylvania ScholarlyCommons Publicly Accessible Penn Dissertations 2016 From Text to Law: Islamic Legal Theory and the Practical Hermeneutics of Abū Jaʿfar Aḥmad Al-Ṭaḥāwī (d. 321/933) Carolyn Anne Brunelle University of Pennsylvania, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://repository.upenn.edu/edissertations Part of the Islamic Studies Commons, Islamic World and Near East History Commons, and the Law Commons Recommended Citation Brunelle, Carolyn Anne, "From Text to Law: Islamic Legal Theory and the Practical Hermeneutics of Abū Jaʿfar Aḥmad Al-Ṭaḥāwī (d. 321/933)" (2016). Publicly Accessible Penn Dissertations. 1626. https://repository.upenn.edu/edissertations/1626 This paper is posted at ScholarlyCommons. https://repository.upenn.edu/edissertations/1626 For more information, please contact [email protected]. From Text to Law: Islamic Legal Theory and the Practical Hermeneutics of Abū Jaʿfar Aḥmad Al-Ṭaḥāwī (d. 321/933) Abstract Scholars of Islamic law point to the absence of any extant work of legal theory between the Risāla of al- Shāfiʿī and the Fuṣūl of al-Jaṣṣāṣ as a major barrier to reconstructing the history of Islamic legal thought. However, careful analysis of three major works of the Ḥanafī jurist al-Ṭaḥāwī, Aḥkām al-Qurʾān, Sharḥ maʿānī al-āthār and Sharḥ mushkil al-āthār, reveals the existence of myriad brief passages elaborating questions of legal theory scattered throughout their many volumes. This study reconstructs the legal thought of al-Ṭaḥāwī as a window onto legal theory in the late 3rd/9th and early 4th/10th centuries, a crucial period of transformation between late formative and post-formative Islamic law. It argues that al- Ṭaḥāwī’s works are not direct precursors to the genre of uṣūl al-fiqh, but instead eprr esent a different, previously unrecognized, type of intellectual and literary activity. This activity, here termed practical hermeneutics, is concerned with demonstrating in detail how individually coherent rules of law may be derived from the often messy texts of revelation. The integrated reading of al-Ṭaḥāwī’s entire hermeneutical corpus uncovers several areas in which his legal thought departs quite notably from that of other jurists, suggesting that al-Ṭaḥāwī was neither as dependent on al-Shāfiʿī nor as closely related to mature uṣūl al-fiqh as has been suggested in previous studies. Most crucially, al-Ṭaḥāwī’s works unsettle accepted accounts of Islamic legal theory which assign varying levels of authority to a series of clearly distinguished legal sources—Qurʾān, Sunna, consensus, etc. This study demonstrates that, in contrast to both al-Shāfiʿī and later uṣūlīs, al-Ṭaḥāwī’s legal thought blurs boundaries between these categories and instead rests upon an underlying binary concept of legal authority which draws a crucial distinction between knowledge that might permissibly be reached by inference, and knowledge that can only have come from revelation. The authority that al-Ṭaḥāwī grants any given source is therefore not a function of its formal characteristics, but rather the result of his own judgment about content and origins. Degree Type Dissertation Degree Name Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) Graduate Group Near Eastern Languages & Civilizations First Advisor Joseph E. Lowry Keywords Companions, Hermeneutics, Islamic law, Legal theory, Tahawi, Usul al-fiqh Subject Categories Islamic Studies | Islamic World and Near East History | Law This dissertation is available at ScholarlyCommons: https://repository.upenn.edu/edissertations/1626 FROM TEXT TO LAW: ISLAMIC LEGAL THEORY AND THE PRACTICAL HERMENEUTICS OF ABŪ JAʿFAR AḤMAD AL-ṬAḤĀWĪ (D. 321/933) Carolyn Anne Brunelle A DISSERTATION in Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations Presented to the Faculties of the University of Pennsylvania in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy 2016 Supervisor of Dissertation ________________________________________ Joseph E. Lowry, Associate Professor, Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations Graduate Group Chairperson ________________________________________ Grant Frame, Professor, Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations Dissertation Committee Paul M. Cobb Professor, Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations Jamal Elias Professor, Religious Studies and South Asia Studies ii Dedication For my parents, Aimée and Roger Brunelle iii Acknowledgements This dissertation represents a culmination of many years’ study of Arabic and Islamic Studies under many inspiring teachers. Special thanks are due to Rachid Aadnani at Wellesley College, who first sparked my interest in the field, and to Roger Allen, who helped me delve into Arabic literature at the MA level. I owe a great debt of gratitude to my advisor Joseph Lowry for deeply engaging with my work and for the encouragement and guidance that helped me keep going, even when the path to completion seemed unclear. I wish also to thank my committee members, Paul M. Cobb and Jamal Elias, for their investment in my work, Linda Greene, for easing many paths, and my colleagues Raha Rafii, Amanda Hannoosh Steinberg, Elias G. Saba and Alon Tam, for their essential role in my graduate education, and for being good friends. Finally, I give tremendous thanks to my family, Roger, Aimée, Kim and Gertrude Brunelle, for the unwavering support and love which have made this dissertation, and what comes afterward, possible. iv ABSTRACT FROM TEXT TO LAW: ISLAMIC LEGAL THEORY AND THE PRACTICAL HERMENEUTICS OF ABŪ JAʿFAR AḤMAD AL-ṬAḤĀWĪ (D. 321/933) Carolyn Anne Brunelle Joseph E. Lowry Scholars of Islamic law point to the absence of any extant work of legal theory between the Risāla of al-Shāfiʿī and the Fuṣūl of al-Jaṣṣāṣ as a major barrier to reconstructing the history of Islamic legal thought. However, careful analysis of three major works of the Ḥanafī jurist al-Ṭaḥāwī, ā al-Qurʾān, Shar aʿānī al-āthār and Shar mushkil al- āthār, reveals the existence of myriad brief passages elaborating questions of legal theory scattered throughout their many volumes. This study reconstructs the legal thought of al- Ṭaḥāwī as a window onto legal theory in the late 3rd/9th and early 4th/10th centuries, a crucial period of transformation between late formative and post-formative Islamic law. It argues that al-Ṭaḥāwī’s works are not direct precursors to the genre of uṣūl al-fiqh, but instead represent a different, previously unrecognized, type of intellectual and literary activity. This activity, here termed practical hermeneutics, is concerned with demonstrating in detail how individually coherent rules of law may be derived from the often messy texts of revelation. The integrated reading of al-Ṭaḥāwī’s entire hermeneutical corpus uncovers several areas in which his legal thought departs quite notably from that of other jurists, suggesting that al-Ṭaḥāwī was neither as dependent on al-Shāfiʿī nor as closely related to mature uṣūl al-fiqh as has been suggested in previous v studies. Most crucially, al-Ṭaḥāwī’s works unsettle accepted accounts of Islamic legal theory which assign varying levels of authority to a series of clearly distinguished legal sources—Qurʾān, Sunna, consensus, etc. This study demonstrates that, in contrast to both al-Shāfiʿī and later uṣūlīs, al-Ṭaḥāwī’s legal thought blurs boundaries between these categories and instead rests upon an underlying binary concept of legal authority which draws a crucial distinction between knowledge that might permissibly be reached by inference, and knowledge that can only have come from revelation. The authority that al- Ṭaḥāwī grants any given source is therefore not a function of its formal characteristics, but rather the result of his own judgment about content and origins. vi Table of Contents Dedication .......................................................................................................................... ii Acknowledgements .......................................................................................................... iii Abstract ............................................................................................................................. iv Introduction ....................................................................................................................... 1 Background and Objectives ........................................................................................... 1 Practical Hermeneutics................................................................................................... 7 Approach and Structure................................................................................................ 22 Life ............................................................................................................................... 25 An Overview of al-Ṭaḥāwī’s Works ............................................................................ 37 Theology .................................................................................................................. 38 Biography/History ................................................................................................... 39 Exegesis ................................................................................................................... 39 Ḥadīth ...................................................................................................................... 40 Law .......................................................................................................................... 42
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