Several years ago we conceived the idea of a volume that would focus
on the work of significant individual jurists. We drew up a list of prominent
jurists and planned a book in which a chapter for each jurist would
include a scholarly biography along with a translated sample of his work.
We have contributed our own chapters, and twenty colleagues have joined
us by contributing a chapter on a jurist they are engaged in studying. Each
chapter offers new biographical material on a particular jurist, along with
a new translation of selections of his work. Otherwise we did not ask the
contributors to follow any particular format. Although practical considerations
made it impossible to include all major jurists from each century,
and to represent all schools, we hope that the combination of biography
and translation in these twenty-three studies will offer a new way of looking
at the development of Islamic legal thought.
All references to the Encyclopedia of Islam are to the second edition
unless otherwise noted. In general, we use the EI system of transliteration,
except that we use j instead of dj and q instead of ?. We have not
standardized translations of passages from the Qur??n. Each contributor
has used the translation he or she thinks best. Otherwise, we shortened
references in the notes and provided a complete bibliography at the end
of the volume.
We would like to thank everyone who contributed a chapter to the
volume and, at Brill, we are grateful to Ingrid Heijckers-Velt and Nicolette
van der Hoek, who guided the book to completion.