Understanding Sharia : Islamic law in a globalised world / Raficq S. Abdulla and Mohamed M. Keshavjee.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Introduction: Islamic Law in the Contemporary World -- Chapter 1: Sharia – Origin through Revelation, Historical Development and Change -- Chapter 2: Legal Practice under the Umayyads -- Chapter 3: Consolidation of the Schools of Law under the Abbasids -- Chapter 4: Developments after Shafi‘I -- Chapter 5: Further Geographical Expansion and Cultural Accommodation -- Chapter 6: Call for Reform – from the Tanzimat to the Arab Spring -- Chapter 7: Shi‘i Legal Understanding and Theory of Law -- Chapter 8: The Multiple Manifestations of Sharia -- Chapter 9: Neo-Ijtihad -- Chapter 10: Sharia and Human Rights -- Chapter 11: Criminal Justice in Islam -- Chapter 12: Islam and Ethics -- Chapter 13: Critique

Sharia has been a source of misunderstanding and misconception in both the Muslim and non-Muslim worlds. Understanding Sharia: Islamic Law in a Globalised World sets out to explore the reality of sharia, contextualising its development in the early centuries of Islam and showing how it evolved in line with historical and social circumstances. The authors, Raficq S. Abdulla and Mohamed M. Keshavjee, both British-trained lawyers, argue that sharia and the positive law flowing from it, known as fiqh, have never been an exclusive legal system or a fixed set of beliefs.