Résumé Au début du XX e siècle, lorsque l’occupation coloniale commence dans le Sahara et le Sahel central, la langue et la graphie arabes, qui sont en usage depuis plusieurs siècles dans ces sociétés islamisées, continuent d’être les médiums du droit, de la religion, des écrits personnels et de la correspondance y compris lors d’interactions avec les colonisateurs. Pourtant, l’importance des usages de la culture écrite musulmane en langue arabe et leur rôle dans les débuts de l’occupation coloniale ont longtemps été sous-estimés. Les positions des lettrés musulmans de cette région sur la colonisation, identifiables dans ces écrits, reflètent les quatre types de réponses classiques en Islam : l’évitement par la hiǧra , la soumission, la confrontation notamment par le ǧihād et l’alliance ou l’accommodement. L’analyse et la traduction d’un manuscrit composé par un lettré touareg Kel Essouk originaire du Mali actuel ayant choisi l’accommodement avec les colonisateurs et produit un texte pour répondre aux accusations de mécréance ( takfīr ), de libertinage ( tafsīq ) et d’injustice ( taǧwīr ) contre sa communauté, permettent de comprendre pourquoi certains de ces groupes lettrés ont fait ce choix.

Abstract Cairene Sufis ʿAbd al-Wahhāb al-Šaʿrānī (d. 973/1565) and his master ʿAlī l-Ḫawwāṣ (d. 939/1532) formulated an original mystical-legal theory that linked the existence of the religious obligation ( taklīf) as well as the origins of Islamic law to the myth of Adam’s Fall. Expressed in the form of a fatwā , the theory synthesized numerous Islamic legal, theological, and Sufi sources, including the Epistles of the Brethren of Purity ( Rasāʾil Iḫwān al-Ṣafāʾ ), which is widely regarded as the first Islamic philosophical encyclopedia. This article sheds light on the remarkable parallels between the Epistles and the Sufi theory, demonstrating that al-Ḫawwāṣ and his disciple utilized the Epistlesʾ ideas to articulate their teaching on Islamic law, the human deficiency, and self-reform, and to reinforce the spiritual authority of the local Sufi šayḫs . The convergence of social crisis and eschatological expectations during the times of the Brethren in the fourth/tenth century and the Cairene Sufis in the tenth/sixteenth century brought forth the enduring relevance of the Epistle ’s Adamic narratives in the late medieval period. This article delves into the Sufisʾ engagement with the Epistles within the wider scope of how the contentious works of the Brethren were received among Ottoman mystics and jurists in Cairo.

Abstract The contributions of Abū Ḥāmid al-Ġazālī (d. 505/1111) to philosophy, theology, logic, metaphysics, and Sufism have been widely analysed. However, few scholars have studied his role as a jurist, even though he authored ten works on Šāfiʿī law, works that were celebrated in contemporary and later scholarly circles, and earned him the title “the second al-Šāfiʿī.” In this article, I examine his two texts in Islamic law, the Waǧīz and Ḫulāṣa , in an effort to shed light on the history of codification in the Šāfiʿī school. I argue that al-Ġazālī wrote these texts following upon his two earlier lengthy commentaries in which he canonised school doctrine. In the Waǧīz and Ḫulāṣa , he tried to standardise school doctrine by presenting concise, structured and authoritative views, and offering straightforward rulings with little discussion of internal disagreement. Al-Ġazālī’s contributions to substantive law challenge the prevailing wisdom on the early history of legal codification. In fact, al-Ġazālī sought to codify Šāfiʿī law, and his efforts had a significant influence on the later trajectories of Islamic law, providing a blueprint for many subsequent codifications.

Abstract This article examines Abū l-Barakāt al-Nasafī’s (d. 710/1310) Kanz al-daqāʾiq , one of the most important epitomes of Ḥanafī fiqh . Widely commented upon, from the immediate post-Mongol period, into the early modern and modern eras, al-Nasafī’s muḫtaṣar represents one of the fundamental teaching texts of the Ḥanafī maḏhab to this day. The article will situate Nasafī’s muḫtaṣar in the particular context of its composition, as well as within the wider historical framework of the development of Ḥanafī doctrine in the so-called “post-classical” era. Considering earlier exponents of the genre of the muḫtaṣar in the Ḥanafī tradition, such as al-Ṭaḥāwī’s (d. 321/933) Muḫtaṣar , al-Ḥākim al-Šahīd al-Marwazī’s (d. 334/945) al-Kāfī fī-l-fiqh , al-Karḫī’s (d. 340/952) Muḫtaṣar and al-Qudūrī’s (428/1037) Muḫtaṣar , as well as the later commentarial tradition on the Kanz itself, this paper aims to situate al-Nasafī’s text within a complex web of jurisprudential discourse that developed through dialectical interplay, involving processes of standardization, through abridgement, condensation, and the seeming “reining in” of opinion, on the one hand, while continuing the explicit articulation, extension and inflection of that very diversity of opinion, on the other.