Book: The Expert Witness in Islamic Courts

The Writer of the book draws attention to a subject that has been noted by diverse scholars but insufficiently addressed in full, and he brings a wealth of material and issues together in a single place.

The Book “The Expert Witness in Islamic Courts: Medicine and Crafts in the Service of Law” is a significant contribution to studies of the role of expert witnesses in legal systems as well as to Islamic scholarship at large.

Islam’s tense relationship with modernity is one of the most crucial issues of our time. Within Islamic legal systems, with their traditional preference for eyewitness testimony, this struggle has played a significant role in attitudes toward expert witnesses. Utilizing a uniquely comparative approach, Ron Shaham here examines the evolution of the role of such witnesses in a number of Arab countries from the premodern period to the present.

Shaham begins with a history of expert testimony in medieval Islamic culture, analyzing the different roles played by male experts, especially physicians and architects, and females, particularly midwives. From there, he focuses on the case of Egypt, tracing the country’s reform of its traditional legal system along European lines beginning in the late nineteenth century. Returning to a broader perspective, Shaham draws on a variety of legal and historical sources to place the phenomenon of expert testimony in cultural context. A truly comprehensive resource, The Expert Witness in Islamic Courts will be sought out by a broad spectrum of scholars working in history, religion, gender studies, and law.

Ron Shaham is a senior lecturer in the Department of Islamic and Middle Eastern Studies at the Hebrew University and the author of Family and the Courts in Modern Egypt.

Table of Contents:

Introduction

Part I. The Premodern Period

1- Between a Witness, a Reporter, and a Judge: The Probative Status of the Expert

2- The Right Hand of Qadis: Male Experts in Judicial Practice

3- Agents of Patriarchy in the Secluded World of Women: Females as Expert Witnesses

Part II. The Modern Period

4- Continuity and Reform: The Egyptian Expert System in a Comparative Perspective

5- Revealing the Secrets of the Body: Litigants, Courts, and Modern Medicine in Egypt

6- From Physiognomy to DNA Testing: Developments in the Establishment of Paternity

Conclusion: Islamic Expert Witnessing in Comparative Perspective

Bibliographic Information

Title: The Expert Witness in Islamic Courts: Medicine and Crafts in the Service of Law

Author: Ron Shaham

Publisher: University of Chicago Press

Language: English

Length: 304 pages

ISBN: 9780226749334

Pub. Date: April 15, 2010