ABSTRACT
Few topics in the history of Islamic law have been more hotly debated than the question of its origins. All scholars, Muslim and non-Muslim, agree that the Sharia gained in detail and sophistication during the first few centuries of Islam, but there is considerable diversity of viewpoints as to when this process began and what components or influences came into play, particularly during the first two or three generations after the Prophet’s death. While standard Muslim chronology identifies the Prophet’s example, supported and enhanced by the transmissions of his Companions, as being decisive, whereupon it was collected, systematized, and theorized in the later formulations of classical law, some Western scholars proposed revisionist views that downgrade the continuity from the Prophet’s example and place greater emphasis on the adoption of non-Islamic legal practices in the regions the Muslims came to conquer in the Near East.
