Sarah Islam

Princeton University, Department of Near Eastern Studies

2024 Honorable Mention (Humanities)

Blasphemy (Sab al-Rasul) as a Legal Category in Early and Medieval Islamic History (1st/7th-13th/19th Centuries) 

Sarah Islam's dissertation, “Blasphemy (sabb al-rasūl) as a legal category in early and medieval Islamic history," is a historically rich and comprehensive analysis of shifts in legal approaches to the act of reviling the Prophet. Her diachronic analysis complicates ahistorical notions of law and dismantles narratives of juridical consensus (ijma') through investigating deliberate uses of Sunni law to navigate contextually-specific sociohistorical circumstances. The dissertation makes use of an array of legal texts, judicial opinions, and historical chronicles across thirteen centuries and all four dominant Sunni schools of law to highlight the performative role of ijma' and the extent of sociopolitical influence on seemingly static legal categories. The dissertation thus inspires inspires re-examination of long-held assumptions regarding the function and application of Islamic jurisprudence amidst the intricate historical circumstances of pre-modern Islamicate societies. 

The dissertation was completed at Princeton University in the Department of Near Eastern Studies under the supervision of Michael Allan Cook.

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