An analysis of the connection between Islamic law (sharīʿa) and custom (ʿurf), identifying the ways in which personal and social issues are treated within contemporary Saudi and Iranian legal approaches. Approaches adopted by Saudi-Ḥanbalī and Iranian-Jaʿfarī scholars towards the sharʿī status of ʿurf in three particular categories are examined; the methodological perspective (classic and contemporary), the sharʿī opinions of scholars (fatwā) and the court verdicts of judges (aḥkām). The interaction between custom and textual authority is emphasised, developing an analytical framework of shar‘ī rules that pertain to social relations in general and marital issues in particular.

This groundbreaking study investigates theories of Islamic constitutionalism as expressed and implemented throughout the history of Islam. To achieve this, it first traces the roots of caliphate embedded within the seminal legal and political works of classical and modern Muslim thinkers. In its concluding chapters, the study maps out and discusses the subsequent transition of Islamic and Muslim governance into twentieth-century approaches to constitutionalism. Longo's resourceful and meticulous approach sheds new light on constitutionalism within the contemporary Muslim world and how it continues to be informed by, or departs from classical theories of Islamic and Muslim governance.

An English translation of the Letters from Salonika by Jelena Dimitrijević, accompanied by a substantial critical introduction and a commentary. The book comprises author’s impressions from Salonika in the summer of 1908, in the midst of the Young Turk Revolution. The narrative focuses on the question of the “unveiling” of Muslim women, but also vividly portrays the vanished cityscape of Ottoman Salonika and gives accounts of the city’s Turkish, Jewish, Mu’min, and Greek communities.