Mariam Sheibani

This edited volume surveys the transformation of Islamic legal studies over the past half century, tracing the field’s movement beyond earlier preoccupations with origins and doctrinal formation toward a more expansive and interdisciplinary terrain. It identifies three major developments shaping contemporary scholarship: evolving approaches to legal history grounded in new archival materials, the rise of sociolegal and anthropological perspectives that foreground law in practice, and sustained engagement with the political and social dimensions of Islamic law across premodern, colonial, and postcolonial contexts. The volume further reflects on emerging methodological and conceptual challenges and concludes by examining the promises and limitations of the digital turn, highlighting both the opportunities afforded by computational tools and the structural constraints that continue to shape the field’s future trajectory.