The Tafsīr works of the Ẓāhirī school are largely considered lost, except al-Baḥr al-muḥīṭ by Abū Ḥayyān al-Andalusī (d. 745 AH/1344 CE). However, we do not know whether he has written it while being a Ẓāhirī, or after the change towards the Shafi'i school. Since Goldziher's important work titled "Die Ẓâhiriten: Ihr Lehrsystem und ihre Geschichte", The majority of contemporary studies that attempt to comprehend the Ẓāhirī approach to the Quranic exegesis employ scattered texts from prominent Ẓāhirī scholars, such as Ibn Ḥazm al-Andalusī (d. 456 AH/1064 CE) and Ibn ʻArabī (d. 638 AH/1240 CE), which are insufficient for a comprehensive understanding the history of the school and their interpretive methods. A rare work by the prominent 4th-century Ẓāhirī scholar, Abū al-Ḥasan al-Karajī al-Qaṣṣāb (d. 360 AH/970 CE), titled "Nukat al-Qurʼān al-dāllah ʻalá al-bayān fī anwāʻ al-ʻulūm wa-al-aḥkām", offers valuable insights into the Ẓāhirī interpretation of Quran and the methodological diversity in the school. Not much is known about Al-Karji's life, social background, or scholarly history. For the most part, he has been neglected by most historians and Jurists, except for a few faint references to his works in the writings of later scholars like Ibn Taymīyah (d. 728 AH/1328 CE). However, we can safely assume that he has been a Ẓāhirī based on his staunch defense of Ẓāhirī principles and his rejection of analogy (al-Qiyās) and al-Raʼy. This paper aims to shed light on new trends within the Ẓāhirī school by examining al-Qaṣṣāb’s book, offering some new perspectives on the development and diversity of Ẓāhirī thought.

While most studies of epistemology and Islamic law do so through works of legal theory (usūl al-fiqh), this paper argues that the use of substantive law (furū‘ al-fiqh) has much to add to our understanding of premodern Islamic conceptions of knowledge, especially as it concerns court procedure and the testimony of witnesses. For a system of law in which evidence is equated with testimony, court procedure developed as a means of managing the uncertainty of knowledge presented by fallible, biased, socially entangled human witnesses. This relationship is especially well illustrated by early Hanafi jurists like Abu Bakr Aḥmad b. ‘Alī al-Jaṣṣāṣ (d. 370 AH/981 CE), among whose works we find both al-Fusūl fi al-usūl, the first extant, mature work of legal theory, as well as several furū‘ commentaries. By examining the discussion of testimony in one such text, al-Jaṣṣāṣ’s commentary of Aḥmad b. ‘Umar al-Khaṣṣāf’s (d. 261 AH/874 CE) Adab al-qāḍī, this paper will illustrate how Hanafi usūl’s “obsession” with substantive law, to use Murtaza Bedir’s characterization, provides a key means of understanding the definition of knowledge and its practical implications for the judicial process and protection of litigant rights in the early classical period.

Coffee culture in the Middle East experienced wide expansion throughout the region in the 15th and 16th centuries. Its early uses and functions were criticized heavily within Islamicate societies, particularly by prominent Islamic legal authorities in Mecca, Istanbul, and elsewhere. The majority of scholarship on coffee history indicates that ijmāʿ [consensus] was reached in the 16th century, marking coffee as permissible. However, a deeper dive into coffee’s history indicates that the debate about coffee’s legality in Islam continued well through the end of the 18th century, revealing that ijmāʿ regarding coffee and its consumption under Islamic law was not so straightforward. In fact, there is evidence that consumption of coffee at certain points during the Ottoman Empire was punishable by death. Today, coffee is ubiquitous throughout Islamic societies. The question remains: when was ijmāʿ about coffee universally accepted by Islamic jurists? Using content, discourse, and semiotic analyses of Islamic law manuscripts, particularly those of the 18th century, this paper will argue that the date of ijmāʿ regarding coffee consumption is, in fact, centuries later than is generally accepted by coffee historians. It will show how jurists argued both for and against the beverage for centuries, and how the politics of the time played a role in whether or not coffeehouses were banned. A treatise written by Murtada az-Zabīdī in 1758 will be particularly highlighted, revealing just how much the debate surrounding coffee was continuing in Cairo well into the 18th century. By exploring how coffee was debated, larger conclusions can be drawn about how ijmāʿ was reached in the Ottoman empire and beyond, and how its edicts were followed (or ignored) throughout their territory. Furthermore, this paper has broader implications outside of Middle Eastern studies, as the majority of coffee historians do not speak Arabic, and therefore do not have access to untranslated manuscripts regarding this issue.