Ph.D., Harvard University
About
I have been in love with law and legal epistemology for a long time. The questions of what law is, what it is for, where its legitimacy comes from, how it could be known, and how it evolves over time are exciting to me in their universal form. In my research and teaching, I focus on medieval Islamic law and modern Egyptian law. Law and religion in the Islamic tradition are hard to separate. And, since the establishment of the Egyptian National Courts in 1883, the government has not shied away in its legal activities from establishing religion. Being in this department has exposed me to an array of views on the intersections among law, philosophy, and social knowledge, which does not allow my excitement to run out.
Publications
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Pitfalls of Scholarship: Lessons from Islamic Studies, Palgrave Macmillan, New York, 2016. New Books Network Interview. On Maydan AAR Lecture on University/Islamic studies
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The Fatigue of the Shari’a, Palgrave Macmillan, New York, 2012. Download podcast of New Books Network Interview. Arabic translation (Arab Network for Research and Translation, Beirut, 2017). TV Interviews about translation (2018): 1 2 3
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Islam, Modernity, Violence, and Everyday Life, Palgrave Macmillan, New York, 2009.
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Structural Interrelations of Theory and Practice in Islamic Law: A Study of Six Works of Islamic Jurisprudence, Brill, Leiden (the Netherlands), 2006.
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Isti’naf al-Ahkam al-Qada’iyya wa Naqduha fi al-Tashri’ al-Islami (Review of Court Decisions in Islamic Law) (Cairo, 1997). UCSB library record. Harvard library record. UCLA library record. Sample.
Articles
Courses Taught
Graduate
- Sharia and Nations. OIELH pieces
- Research and Method in Islamic Studies
- Islamic Political Philosophy
- Apostasy and Heresy in Islam
- Fatawa Literature
- Readings in Tafsir and Hadith
Undergraduate
- RS119A: Introduction to Islamic Law
- RS119B: The Qur’an and its Interpretations
- RS119C: Jihad and Just War Theory
- RS119D: Islam and Women
- RS119E: Islam and Government
- RS2: Islam and the West
- RS6: Islam and Modernity