Early Maliki Law: Ibn ‘Abd al-h akam and his Major Compendium of Jurisprudence

A biography of ‘Abd Allah b. 'Abd al-Hakam, an important figure in the nascent Maliki school, and an introduction to his compendium of law. The subject of the Arabic text is the law of slavery, and two chapters examine early Maliki slave law in the context of other Near Eastern legal codes. The narrow focus on Ibn 'Abd al-Hakam and his Compendium is used to redefine the distinction between organic and fixed editions of early legal texts, and also to argue that these texts can be used to reconstruct the thought of even earlier figures, such as Malik B. Anas. The book should be useful to legal historians, scholars of religion and all those working in the developing field of slave studies. The conclusions arising from this study of a single legal text indicate the importance of continued analysis of these early documents, both the few that have been published and the many which remain unexplored in manuscript collections.