Islamic Law and its Origins

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.

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Guests

• Hugh Kennedy 11 episodes
  Professor of Arabic in the School of Oriental and African Studies at the University of London
• Robert Gleave 4 episodes
  Professor of Arabic Studies at the University of Exeter
• Mona Siddiqui 2 episodes
  Professor of Islamic Studies at the University of Glasgow

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Programme ID: b010t69b

Episode page: bbc.co.uk/programmes/b010t69b

Auto-category: 340 (Law)

Hello (First sentence from this episode)

Hello. In the early 7th century, a new religion emerged in the Arabian Peninsula.