Ahmad Atif Ahmad

Professor

Ph.D., Harvard University

Office:

HSSB 3032

Email:

aaahma@ucsb.edu

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:

Cover image of Islamic Law: Cases, Authorities, and Worldview

Cover image of Pitfalls of Scholarship

Ahmad Atif Ahmad's book, "The Fatigue of the Shari'a

Islam Modernity Violence and Islamic Law book cover

Structural Interrelations of Theory and Practice in Islamic Law book cover

Islamic Law: Cases, Authorities, and Worldview, Bloomsbury, London, 2017. Reviewed. Feb 2016 Workshop Related lectures: 1 2 3
Pitfalls of Scholarship: Lessons from Islamic Studies, Palgrave Macmillan, New York, 2016. New Books Network Interview. On Maydan AAR Lecture on University/Islamic studies
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
Islam, Modernity, Violence, and Everyday Life, Palgrave Macmillan, New York, 2009.
Structural Interrelations of Theory and Practice in Islamic Law: A Study of Six Works of Islamic Jurisprudence, Brill, Leiden (the Netherlands), 2006.
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

Do you read Arabic? 1 2 3 4 5