vi PREFACE

writings rarely touch Muhammadan law and jurisprudence directly, must be mentioned in the preface to a book which is to a great part concerned with the historical appreciation of Islamic 'traditions'; my investigation of legal traditions has brought me to respect and admire his critical insight whenever his ira et studium were not engaged. In the present generation, Bergsträsser, with penetrating insight, formulated the main problems posed by the formative period of Muhammadan law and offered a tentative solution. Although my results are rather different from those which he might have expected, I must pay homage to the memory of my late teacher who guided my first steps in Muhammadan jurisprudence.

All my previous studies in Muhammadan law have led, in a way, to the writing of this book. But, when I came to write it, the refusal of the Egyptian authorities to allow me to return to my work and home in Cairo in 1939 deprived me of the use of my library at the time I needed it most. I particularly regret that I was thereby prevented from consulting the Kitab al-Hujaj by Shaibani, the Kitab al-Sunan by Shafi'i, the Kitab al-Diyāt by Abū 'Āșim Nabīl, the Muntagā min Akhbar al-Aşma'ī, and the materials for my own editions, in varying stages of preparation, of the History of the Judges by Waki', of the Kitab al-Asl by Shaibani, and of the Kitab al-Masa'il by Ibn Hanbal. That I was able, notwithstanding this handicap, to use all essential texts, I owe mainly to the British Museum and to the Griffith Institute in Oxford, and to the unfailing courtesy and helpfulness of their staffs.

I wish to express my deepfelt gratitude to the Governing Body of St. John's College, Oxford, and to Mr. K. Sisam, formerly Secretary to the Delegates of the Clarendon Press, for the active interest they took in my studies in general and in this book in particular, and for the assistance they gave me. Professor F. de Zulueta has accompanied my studies in Muhammadan law and jurisprudence with sympathy and interest since the invitation given by him and by the late H. Kantorowicz to contribute to the projected Oxford History of Legal Science which unfortunately had to be abandoned. Dr. D.