Stratification, authority, and justice in the law of the Islamic Middle East: a bibliographical essay

ion, and the notion of justice, with which Islamic law did not come to terms, status laws were widely implemented, and even where they were not followed, they remained influential as the recognized norms. Therefore, these norms must be studied in their application--whether This content downloaded from 157.55.39.35 on Fri, 02 Sep 2016 06:01:44 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms complete or partial--if the extent of their impact on status is to be assessed with any accuracy. A work that shows how essential it is to consider status norms in context is S.D. Goitein, A Mediterranean Society, ii (Berkeley, 1971), where the impact of the jizya imposed on non-Muslim tributaries is assessed with reference to the Jewish community in Fatimid Egypt. Goitein shows how the tax, far from being the relatively innocuous nuisance that one might suppose, was a burden that led to severe hardship and deprivation. Using the same Cairo Geniza records, he discusses the position of slaves in Fatimid Cairo, in his 'Slaves and Slavegirls in the Cairo Geniza', Arabica, ix (1962), pp. 1-22, suggesting there the interplay of legal and socio-economic factors affecting their status. B. The Erosion of Legal Norms Affecting Stratification The legal norms affecting stratification have been seriously affected by the encroachment of socialist and Marxist ideologies. While Islamic law does not envisage or mandate any specific economic order, it accepts economic disparities and is most solicitous of the rights of property owners. Islamic law has in the past confirmed privileges of wealth by reason of the protection it afforded to private property: it did not envisage measures that would level out disparities in wealth or wholesale redistribution of assets and resources in the common interest. The institution that has most often been pointed to by those who maintain that Islam called for a redistribution of wealth that presaged modern socialism is that of zakdt, or the alms tax, regarding which see 'Zakat', in SEI; Aghnides, pp. 207-375. However, it is clear that this one tax could not and was never intended to dismantle the hierarchy of wealth and privilege within the Islamic community. An article the title of which suggests it may be helpful but which I have been unable to consult is R. Arnaldez, 'Sur une interpretation economique et sociale des theories de la 'zakat' en droit musulman', Catalogue de l'Institut des Sciences ,conomiques Appliques, v (1960), pp. 65-86. See also G.H. Bousquet and J. Schacht (eds.), Selected Works of C. Snouck Hurgronje (Leiden, 1959), pp. 132-70. The justifications which Islam affords for inequalities of wealth and for a capitalistic ethos are provocatively discussed in M. Rodinson, Islam et capitalisme, (Paris, 1966), which has appeared in English as Islam and Capitalism, (London, 1974). In adopting socialist or Marxist approaches to property ownership, Middle Eastern governments will inevitably be led to take measures that contravene Islamic law as they move to dismantle an economic hierarchy which Islamic law props up. Highly recommended are the scholarly treatments of the conflict between the Islamic laws on property and private ownership and the exigencies of modern socialist policies in K. Dilger, 'Eigentumsordnung und Sozialismus in den arabischen Staaten', Zeitschrift fuir vergleichende Rechtswissenschaft, lxxv (1975), PP. 171-201 (bibliog.); and K. Dilger, 'Das Recht unter dem Einfluss des Sozialismus in der Volksrepublik Jemen', ibid., pp. 1-38 (bibliog.). Works that have not been available to me but which may be useful include K. Timm, 'Der moderne Islam iiber Privateigentum, soziale Gerechtigkeit, und Nationalisierung', Wissenschaftliche Zeitschrift der Humbo ldt-Universitit, Gese Ztschaftsund Sprachwissenschaft iche Reihe, xxi (1972), pp. 201-19; and W. Ule, Bibliographie zu Fragen des Arabischen Sozialismus, des Nationalismus, und des Kommunismus unter dem Gesichtspunkt des Islams (Hamburg, 1967). The fact that the old economic order is sanctioned by religious law has not been overlooked by conservative forces, who have used the weight of Islamic authority to oppose economic change.