A01=Ron Shaham
architects
Author_Ron Shaham
authority
Category=LAFS
Category=LNAA
control
courts
dna
egypt
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eq_nobargain
evidence
experience
expertise
eyewitness
fingerprinting
firsthand
gender
history
islam
knowledge
language
law
legal process
midwife
modernity
nonfiction
paternity
perspective
physicians
power
professionalism
reason
reform
religion
science
testimony
witness
Product details
- ISBN 9780226749334
- Weight: 567g
- Dimensions: 17 x 23mm
- Publication Date: 15 Apr 2010
- Publisher: The University of Chicago Press
- Publication City/Country: US
- Product Form: Hardback
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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.
