This study examined the context of the Medieval Islamic qadi Ibn Taymiyyah in 14th century Bahri Mamluk Syria and Egypt and his incarcerations and death in prison by order of Sultan Nasser al-Muhammad Qalawun for ijtihad. This study demonstrated Ibn Taymiyyah practiced ijtihad, held the rank of mujtahid, and incurred the wrath of the Sultan. The evidence indicates that Taymiyyah’s independent reasoning held specific social, legal, and political threats to Qalawun, the Bahri Mamluk Sultan, during his third reign. The significant role Taymiyyah’s ijtihad played in the Sultan’s imprisonment calls for a review of previous scholarship emphasizing the role of jealousy by the religious elite and affection for Taymiyyah by the Sultan as significant factors in his conflicts. / Department of History

Si le recours au crédit est devenu aujourd’hui une banalité, la réglementation de ce secteur s’avère cependant une nécessité. Des réglementations ont donc été mises en place concernant non seulement les opérations de crédit proposées par les banquiers mais également le comportement de ceux-ci à l’égard de leurs clients lors de l’octroi de ces crédits. Le droit saoudien et le droit français ne portent pas, en la matière, les mêmes regards. Ceci est dû au fait que le droit saoudien, fondé sur le droit musulman, est tenu de respecter ses exigences lors de la distribution de crédit. Parmi celles-ci, se trouve l’interdiction du prêt à intérêt, ou du riba, ayant pour conséquence la création d’un régime original de distribution de crédit, marque de la différence essentielle avec le droit français libre de toutes exigences d’ordre religieux. Cependant, si cette divergence est inéluctable, une convergence est constatée entre le droit saoudien et le droit français quant aux obligations mises à la charge du banquier dispensateur de crédit. Toutefois, contrairement au droit français, ces obligations en droit saoudien manquent de précision et d’évolution. Ainsi, la convergence devrait encore être consolidée, et cela en s’inspirant des solutions dégagées par le droit français en la matière, notamment par la mise à la charge des banquiers dispensateurs de crédit d’un certain nombre d’obligations assurant le juste équilibre entre les intérêts du banquier et ceux de son emprunteur. / If the appeal on credit today has become somewhat trivial, the regulation of this sector however proves to be a necessity. Regulations have therefore been set up concerning not only the operations of credit offered by the bankers, but also their behaviour concerning their clients during the conferment of credits. Saudi law and French law differ in this field. This is due to the fact that the Saudi law is based on the Charia, which influences its requirements concerning the distribution of credit. Among these requirements is the ban of loans with interest, or of the riba, creator of an original regime of credit distribution, which marks the major difference to French law, free from any religious requirements. On the other hand, although this divergence is ineluctable, a convergence can be found between Saudi law and French law concerning obligations put payable to the banker providing the credit. However, contrary to French law, these obligations in Saudi law lack in precision and evolution. Therefore convergence should once again be consolidated by drawing inspiration from the solutions given by French law in the field, notably by putting obligations on bankers in order to assure a fair balance between the interests of the banker and those of his borrower.

This thesis analyzes contemporary interpretations of Islamic religious ethics regarding the environment and its problems. The first part introduces a theoretical perspective in which the analyzed problem is viewed as historico-sociological problem of interaction between the modern phenomena of environmentalism and the traditional framework of religious ethics. The object of the second part is a close analysis and summary of those parts of the religious textual tradition which are included in the contemporary ethico-religious interpretations of environmental problems. In the third part, three separate discourses of contemporary Islamic environmental ethics and two other perspectives are distinguished and analysed using texts which represent them, published on this topic in English and Arabic. On this material common features of Islamic ethical attitude towards the nature and environmental problems are demonstrated as well as notable differences between the interpretations of jurists, layman activists, institutions and other actors. Attentions is paid to various possible relations between modern environmental concepts and notions and traditional ethico- religious Islamic tenets including their possible political and social implications.

La tentative d'introduction de la finance islamique en droit civil nécessite une démarche analytique comparative entre droit musulman et droit civil. La gestion islamique introduit des contrats inconnus en droit civil : la mudâraba et la wakala. Ces contrats de représentation s'opposent au régime général des FCP en marquant une divergence remarquable avec le régime du mandat en droit civil. L'admission de ces contrats nécessite un aménagement du régime des FCP reposant sur la création d'un comité de représentation des souscripteurs. La qualification du fonds en copropriété par le législateur libanais et français plaît bien à la doctrine islamique. L'analyse du régime de propriété et de copropriété prouve l'absence de divergences fondamentales entre le droit civil et le droit musulman. Cependant, le régime des fonds s'approche de la nature du patrimoine d’affectation d'après la doctrine civiliste. Cette qualification est inadmissible en droit musulman adoptant une théorie personnelle du patrimoine. Notre conceptualisation du régime d'une notion juridique de droit musulman dite de Jiha assure l'admission du patrimoine d'affectation et de la personnalité morale en droit musulman. La gestion islamique renforce la gouvernance du fonds et impose des obligations supplémentaires au gestionnaire. Elle nécessite la présence des organes spécialisés dans le contrôle de la conformité de la gestion au droit musulman, ce qui dégage une structure propre au FCPls inexistante dans la pratique. La gestion islamique aboutit à un « filtrage » des titres financiers. Une première analyse juridique du filtrage islamique élabore ainsi les fondements juridiques de ce filtrage. / Any attempt to introduce lslamic finance in civil law requires an analytical approach comparing Islamic law and civil law. Islamic management services rely on types of contracts, which do not exist in civil law: namely the mudâraba and the wakâla. These agency agreements differ from the general scheme of mutual funds as the exhibit a marked difference with the civil Iaw mandate contract. In order to allow these contracts, the current regime of mutual fonds must be amended by creating a representation committee of subscribers. Classification of the mutual funds by the Lebanese and French legislators as joint ownership sound well to Islamic doctrine. Even a detailed analysis of the ownership and joint ownership regimes proves there is no fundamental difference between civil Jaw and Islamic law in this matter. However, the fund’s ownership regime is close to what is called "special-purpose assets" in the civil law doctrine. This classification is unacceptable in Islamic law, which has a persona! theory of patrimony. Our conceptualization of the regime of a legal concept of Islamic law called Jiha make it possible to acknowledge the notions of special purpose assets and legal personality in Islamic law. Islamic management services put strong requirements on the governance of the funds and additional duties for the agent. Islamic management services require the presence of specialized entities monitoring compliance of management to Islamic law: such specific entity does not exist in practice. Islamic management services then leads to a "screening" of securities. Le1rnl analysis of Islamic screening el a borates the legal basis of this screening.

Sharia or western equality? women in Egyptian legislation The Islamic law (Sharia) in most of the countries in Middle East and North Africa has been the basis for modern laws which regulate issues such as marriage, divorce and inheritance. These laws (personal status law or family law) have been debated frequently in the last decades. There are those who consider personal status law (PSL) as unjust, male-biased and discriminating against women especially in the issue of divorce. On the other hand there are voices who call to go back to the Sharia, because muslims has to follow the islamic law and its values, they are universal as they claim. In this essay I try to enlighten these two points of view which can be found in the debate in Egypt. A country witch was first among the Arabic countries to adopt a modern jurisprudence. Despite several reforms in personal status law (PSL) in the last 80 years women groups and international organisations consider that there are much more to be done. This essay gives a historical background of Islamic jurisprudence, its development and islamic political ideas behind Sharia. It also describes PSL with divorce in focus.

The dynamics of our globalised world open the way for international trade and transactions between different countries; this may lead to conflicts in laws where transactions and trade may be subject to different legal systems. One of the biggest issues in international commercial law is disputes over the charging of interest, for example with regard to late payment, interest-based loans, or compensation for damages. Interest disputes are considered to be a complex area of law and even more complex in the international field. At the international level, interest claims may be connected to many areas of commerce and thus governed by various laws, which are different from one country to another; moreover, each country has its own interest rate and such rates are changeable according to the nature of law and economics under some jurisdictions. Furthermore, the concept of interest itself is affected by influences such as religious beliefs and economic, political and cultural trends. Interest can be treated as a substantive or a procedural matter. The settlement of these disputes therefore faces difficulties. Arbitration, as a method for settlement of disputes, is characterised by special features that assist in resolving these issues; but it faces some obstructions, especially in international commercial arbitration. The practices of arbitral tribunals and national courts in this regard are different. The results of different interpretations, approaches, and theories with regard to arbitration, at the pre-arbitration, during arbitration and post-arbitration stages, may also differ widely due to the diversity of financial and legal systems such as Common Law, Civil Law and the Islamic legal system – Sharia Law – across different countries. Each legal system has a different methodology and theories, even within an individual country under one legal system, and a state within a federal system has its own laws, which may have different interpretations in this respect. The New York Convention of 1958 on enforcing foreign arbitral awards was established in favour of arbitral awards and for the purpose of unifying international rules of arbitration. This Convention provides some procedural and substantive rules for the enforcement of foreign arbitral awards, but also provides some grounds for refusal. These rules have been affected by different interpretations under different jurisdictions and legal systems, which lead to different perspectives on the matter of charging interest and settlement by arbitration. The outcome of applying the NYC under these interpretations often has the opposite of its intended effect: the rejection of foreign arbitral awards. Due to such ambiguities, courts occasionally intervene in arbitration in all its stages. The interventions of national courts occur in three stages: enforcement of the arbitration agreement, enforcement of the contract under the applicable law to the agreement, and enforcement of the foreign arbitral award. The confusion between substantive and procedural laws also creates confusion with respect to public policy, non-arbitrability and enforceability. In addition, there may be a lack of clarity on the scope of arbitration with respect to the parties’ agreement, whether or not the parties have agreed to the interest rates and periods and whether or not they have agreed to the authority of the arbitrator. These issues affect the enforceability of an arbitration agreement, the law applicable to the disputed contract, the freedom of parties, the authority of the arbitrators and the enforceability of the awarded interest. The thesis studies how arbitral awards containing interest have been interpreted across the three aforementioned legal systems under the NYC 1958 in Saudi Arabia, Egypt, the UAE, England, France, and the US and the enforceability of such awards.

Cette étude vise à définir les caractéristiques de la pensée légale de plusieurs auteurs importants de la fin de l’époque mamelouke et du début de l’époque ottomane en Egypte et en Syrie. Tirant profit de leur positionnement original et distancié par rapport à leurs pairs, en même temps que leur insertion plus ou moins harmonieuse dans le milieu savant, elle met en lumière leur singularité, la manière dont ils adaptent celle-ci à la tradition légale ou, au contraire, leurs oppositions aux développements spécifiques parmi les savants et gens du commun de leur temps. Un examen global des sources historiques et biographiques rappelant les traits majeurs du contexte politico-juridique constitue le point de départ d’une enquête qui se poursuit sur la base d’une analyse comparative des textes d’auteurs parmi lesquels se distinguent Zakariyyā al-Anṣārī, Ǧalāl al-Dīn al-Suyūṭī, Ibn Maymūn al-Fāsī et ʿAbd al-Wahhāb al-Šaʿrānī. Les thèmes principaux sélectionnés à travers leurs œuvres offrent un éclairage sur certaines tendances juridiques de l’époque et mettent en exergue l’existence de questionnements plus intemporels à propos de la ‘‘Loi musulmane’’. C’est ainsi que ce travail posera les questions plus générales de la définition de la šarīʿa, de sa dimension intérieure et du rapport de ces savants avec la Loi révélée. / This study aims to analyze the characteristics of the legal thought of several significant authors at the end of the Mameluke era and the beginning of the Ottoman period in Egypt and Syria. The study considers the author’s original and critical position toward their peers, simultaneously with their almost harmonious integration in the scholars’ realm. It spotlights their singularity, and the way they adapt it to the legal tradition or, on the contrary, their oppositions to the specific developments among the scholars and the laypeople. A comprehensive examination of the historical and biographical sources, which retraces the major features of the political-juridical context, forms the departure point of this survey. The main part of this research is based on a comparative analysis of the texts of authors, among whom Zakariyyā al-Anṣārī, Ǧalāl al-Dīn al-Suyūṭī, Ibn Maymūn al-Fāsī and ʿAbd al-Wahhāb al-Šaʿrānī distinguish themselves the most. The main topics selected through their works shed some light on different juridical tendencies in that epoch, and throw into relief the existence of interrogations concerning ‘‘Islamic law’’ that are more timeless. Consequently, this study explores questions about the definition of šarīʿa, its inner dimension and the relation of those scholars to the revealed Law.

In my diploma thesis I focused on human rights in Islam from the universal and the culture comparative point of view. A goal of my work was to find out, whether it is possible to justify the human rights abuses under the terms of concept of cultural relativism in the Islamic civilisation. The thesis should answer a question if it is possible to apply the principles of cultural relativism in case of human rights abuses in Saudi Arabia. This was achieved by analyzing the most important international and regional tools for human rights protection. The thesis is divided into three chapters, which are dedicating to this issue.

The entire banking systems in the western societies is based on the use of interest. The bank charges the borowers interest on its loans and pays its depositors interest on their deposits. On the other hand, the Middle Eastern banking system is an interest free system that prohibits the use of interest, either in receipt or in payment.

This diploma thesis discusses phenomena of parallel legal norms applicable in the Great Britain. There is guaranteed enforceability of those parts of the Islamic law, which deals with family and inheritance matters in the United Kingdom. This phenomenon is result of decades lasting process going back to the colonialism. Given the current events such as so called migration crisis in the Europe and self-declaration of "Islamic State", the question of religious law of minorities become priority theme of public discourse and is also topic of common debates between critics and advocates of normative diversity. Crucial incident that influenced public debate, especially reflection of success rate of immigrants' integration, had been the London bombings of 7/7 2005. In the thesis are presented specific examples of clash of British Common Law and the Islamic Law. The force of disintegration is Salafism that affects Muslim minorities and which is imported to the UK primarily from Saudi Arabia. The online Fatwas, a very problematic issue, is dealt with in the end of the thesis as well. Given the impossibility to regulate influence of the internet, online fatwas have profound effect over vulnerable youngsters. Keywords: Islam, Islamic Law, Great Britain, Sharia, Islamic Family Law, Islamic Inheritance Law,...