ABSTRACT

Islamic legal canons are interpretive principles that represent varied conceptions of Islamic law and its values, as they developed over time and space. Scholars of Islamic law – both medieval and modern – have typically defined these legal canons narrowly, as general principles governing many particular cases, and used to derive related Islamic legal rulings. 1 I consider this definition narrow because it does not take into account the extratextual origins of or presuppositions behind many legal canons, or the ways in which some canons operate outside of the textual confines of Islamic law (qua legal rulings) and instead help structure its system. Moreover, I argue that, historically, Muslim judges and jurists used certain interpretive tools to construct Islamic law’s institutions – legal, judicial and governing—and to promote certain values or policies over others. In short, closer study of a more capacious understanding of Islamic law – drawing on insights from comparative theories of interpretation – shows the reach and significance of Islamic legal canons to be much broader than the existing literature suggests.