The State of the Field

Most publications on the theme of justice in Islam are concerned with its theo­logical dimension.i² They generally address both modern debates/³ as well as conceptualizations of justice within Islamic scripture: Quran and hadιth.^v, Other works have analysed the political dimensions of justice in Islami⁵ and the role of justice in inter-religious dialogue/⁶ Several studies have also dis­cussed justice within the context of modern, legal, and social concerns.¹⁷ What is lacking however, is research on justice as a central and socially decisive concept within Muslim communities of the Middle Ages, with a specific focus on al- Mawardi.

Numerous works about al-Mawardi and his thought have been published. Their focus, however, is usually on his main work concerning constitutionality/⁸ al-Ahkam al-sultaniyya (The Ordinances of Government). The principal themes in these publications are his political thought/⁹ his political activities under the

und christlicher Perspektive: 1. Iranisch-Osterreichische Konferenz, Teheran, 25. bis 28. Februar 1996, Referate - Anfragen - Gesprdchsbeitrdge, ed. Andreas Bsteh and Seyed A. Mirdamadi (Modling: St. Gabriel, 1997); Andreas Bsteh and Seyed A. Mirdamadi, eds., Gerechtigkeit in den internationalen und interreligiosen Beziehungen in islamischer und christlicher Perspektive: 1. Iranisch-Osterreichische Konferenz, Teheran, 25. bis 28. Februar 1996, Referate - Anfragen - Gesprdchsbeitrdge (Modling: St. Gabriel, 1997).

17 Fazlur Rahman Malik, ‘Islam and the Problem of Economic Justice', Journal of Islamic Eco­nomics 1 (1995); Baber Johansen, ‘The Constitution and the principles of Islamic normativity against the rules of fiqh: A judgment of the Supreme Constitutional Court of Egypt', in Dispens­ing Justice in Islam: Qadis and their Judgments, ed.

18 The description is from Irene Schneider, ‘Vernunft oder Tradition: Abu al-Hasan ‘All al-Ma- wardis (d. 49/1058) Hermeneutik des Korans im Spiegel seiner Zeit', Zeitschrift der Deutschen Morgenldndischen Gesellschaft 156 (2006), especially 59.

19 Norman Calder, ‘Friday prayer and the juristic theory of government: Sarakhsi, Shirazi, Mawardi', Bulletin of the School of the Oriental and African Studies 49 (1986); Patricia Crone, Me­dieval Islamic Political Thought (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2004), 259 - 285; Ham­ilton A.R. Gibb, ‘Al-Mawardi's Theory of the Caliphate', in Studies on the Civilization of Islam, ed. Hamilton A.R. Gibb (Boston: Beacon Press, 1962); Eltigani Abdulqadir Hamid, ‘Al-Mawardi's theory of state: Some ignored dimensions', American Journal of Islamic Social Sciences 18, no. 4 (2001); Hanna Mikhail, Politics and Revelation: Mawardi and After (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 1995); Henri Laoust, ‘La pensee et l'action politiques d'al-Mawardi (364-450/ 974-1058)', Revue des etudes islamiques 36 (1968); Erwin Rosenthal, Political Thought in Medi­eval Islam: An Introduction Outline (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1958), 27- 37; and Maria G. Stasolla, ‘Some considerations on the second chapter of the Kitab al-Ahkam al-sulta- niyyah. Research Prospective', in Studies in Arabic and Islam: Proceedings of the 19th congress, Abbasids,²⁰ his theological insights,²¹ his method of Quranic exegesis,²² his ac­tivities as a legal scholar, and his thoughts on particular juridical bodies?³ There is no publication, however, that specifically addresses al-Mawardi’s con­ceptualization of justice in his work Adab al-dunya wa al-din.