• Vita

    Norbert Oberauer earned his PhD at the University of Freiburg im Breisgau with a thesis on the concept of religious obligation (taklÐf) and its theological, legal and social dimensions. He continued his academic career as a research assistant at the University of Bayreuth, where he habilitated with a study on Islamic religious foundations (waqf) in Zanzibar under colonial rule. Since 2010, he is professor for Islamic studies at the Westfälische-Wilhelms-Universität, with a special focus on Islamic law. His fields of research include Islamic contract law, Islamic legal hermeneutics, pious foundations (waqf), and generally the history of Islamic law.

     

  • Research Project

    Unity in non-centralized normative discourses: cohesion and flexibility in Islamic schools of law

    My research focusses on mechanisms that facilitate cohesion within non-centralized normative discourses. More specifically, I am interested in the techniques and strategies applied by Islamic schools of law (madhāhib, Sg. madhhab) in order to accommodate for a plurality of opinions and yet maintain a high degree of unity.

    Typically, legal systems are hierarchically structured, vesting authority in central institutions (e.g. high courts, a pope, a legislative body, etc.) that may decide in doctrinal conflicts or unify the law by way of legislation. Islamic law, in contrast, developed a markedly anti-centralist attitude during its formative phase: Legal insight was defined as an individual duty of every capable believer (viz. everyone with “knowledge”) that must not be delegated to an institution. As a result, Islamic law emerged as a non-hierarchical discourse of jurists.

    Over time, however, “schools” emerged. These schools were not defined by any ties to a place or institution (like, e.g., the School of Bologna), but rather emerged as interpretative communities spanning over many generations and referring to a common (and growing) body of literature. By the 12th century, these schooles developed a remarkably stabilized doctrine that some have described as a “canon”. My interest is in the mechanisms by which these schools – as “decentralized institutions” – generated legal unity. At the same time, I am interested in how the schools enabled the flexibility necessary to adapt a unified law to diverse and ever changing social and economical conditions.

  • Selected Publications

    Applied Legal Hermeneutics in 18th-Century Fes: Al-Tāwudī’s Treatise on the Effect of Long Duration in bayʿ al-thunyā Transactions. Islamic Law and Society (published online ahead of print 2024). https://doi.org/10.1163/15685195-bja10060

    Canonization in Islamic Law: A Case Study based on Shāfiʿī Literature. Islamic Law and Society, 29(1-2), 123-208. https://doi.org/10.1163/15685195-bja10021

    The Function of Documents in Islamic Court Procedure: a Multi-Dimensional Approach. Islamic Law and Society, 28(3), 156-233. https://doi.org/10.1163/15685195-bja10007

    Die Tiefenstruktur des Rechts. Zu Wesen und Funktion juristischer „Maximen“ (qawāʿid) im klassischen Islam, in: Mueller, Wolfgang, Christian Lange u.a. (Hg.): Islamische und Westliche Jurisprudenz des Mittelaltes im Vergleich, Tübingen 2018, 147-168.

    Islamisches Wirtschafts- und Vertragsrecht. Eine Einführung, 2. aktualisierte und erweiterte Auflage, Baden-Baden 2021.