Master of Arts in Islam and Global Affairs

Michael Lecker provides us with a monograph exclusively focused on a single legal document from the time of the Prophet. Among both specialists in Islamic studies and the general public, this document is commonly known as the ‘Constitution of Madina’. Yet the creators of the document called it ‘kit:b’— literally, ‘a written document’. The book derives from the author’s Ph.D. thesis submitted in Hebrew to the Hebrew University in Jerusalem, in 1982.

Popper described those who aspire to build a unified and all comprehensive theory of the world as enemies of an open society because the advocates of such theories would discriminate against alternative approaches, and their advocates, which would lead to authoritarianism if backed by the state. The solution Popper offered was to test these. theories against data or to subject them to the test of falsification.

Until the nineteenth century, at least dozen legal traditions were practised in the Ottoman Empire: five non-Islamic (Jewish, Armenian, Orthodox, Catholic, and Capt) along with four Sunni (Hanafi,Shafi'i, Maliki, and

n the last few years, issues related to human rights, including encouraging the democratization of

In recent years, Islamic fundamentalist, revolutionary, and jihadist movements have overshadowed more moderate and reformist voices and trends within

The concept of a secular state is important in many parts of Asia and how this is resolved has important implications for the social, economic and political development of various Asian countries. Unfortunately, problems of the secular state have all along been studied based on the historical experience of state formation in Europe, with little (or no) input from the Asian perspective. This book will for the very first time, present mainly Asian perspectives, while drawing on Western experience as well.