Non­fic­tion

Jews and Islam­ic Law in Ear­ly 20th Cen­tu­ry Yemen

Mark S. Wagner

  • From the Publisher
December 22, 2015

In ear­ly 20th-cen­tu­ry Yemen, a siz­able Jew­ish pop­u­la­tion was sub­ject to sump­tu­ary laws and social restric­tions. Jews reg­u­lar­ly came into con­tact with Islam­ic courts and Mus­lim jurists, by choice and by neces­si­ty, became embroiled in the most inti­mate details of their Jew­ish neigh­bors’ lives. Mark S. Wag­n­er draws on auto­bi­o­graph­i­cal writ­ings to study the careers of three Jew­ish inter­me­di­aries who used their knowl­edge of Islam­ic law to manip­u­late the shari‘a for their own ben­e­fit and for the good of their com­mu­ni­ty. The result is a fresh per­spec­tive on the place of reli­gious minori­ties in Mus­lim societies.

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