Islamic Law and its Origins

In Our Time

BBC

History

4.6 • 9.2K Ratings

🗓️ 5 May 2011

⏱️ 43 minutes

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Summary

Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the origins and early development of Islamic law. The legal code of Islam is known as Sharia, an Arabic word meaning "the way". Its sources include the Islamic holy book the Qur'an, the words and actions of the Prophet Muhammad, and the opinions of legal scholars. In the 7th century, Sharia started to replace the tribal laws of pre-Islamic Arabia; over the next three hundred years it underwent considerable evolution as Islam spread. By 900 a body of religious and legal scholarship recognisable as classical Sharia had emerged.With:Hugh KennedyProfessor of Arabic in the School of Oriental and African Studies at the University of LondonRobert GleaveProfessor of Arabic Studies at the University of ExeterMona SiddiquiProfessor of Islamic Studies at the University of GlasgowProducer: Thomas Morris.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Just before this BBC podcast gets underway, here's something you may not know.
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0:46.3	the program. Hello in the early 7th century a new religion emerged in the Arabian
0:51.7	Peninsula this was Islam. Its spiritual leader was the
0:55.5	Prophet Muhammad, who by the time of his death in 632 had succeeded in uniting the tribes of
1:01.6	Arabia in a single political and religious community.
1:05.0	Within a century, this community had become larger still and dynamic,
1:10.0	with Muslim territories ranging as far west as the Atlantic seaboard of Africa and as far east
1:14.8	as Iran.
1:15.8	Islam brought with it not just new religious practices, but its own legal system.
1:21.1	Islamic law was rooted in the revelation of the Prophet as recorded in the holy
1:24.7	text of the Quran but over the following 200 years it continued to evolve into a
1:29.4	complex and nuanced system the system also known as Sharia. With me to discuss Islamic law and its origins
1:36.3	are Hugh Kennedy, Professor of Arabic in the School of Oriental and African Studies at the
1:40.9	University of London. Robert Gleeve, Professor of Arabic Studies at the University of London.
1:42.8	Robert Gleeve, Professor of Arabic Studies
	...

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