Islamic International Law: Historical Foundations and Al-Shaybani's Siyar. By Khaled Bashir. Cheltenham: Edward Elgar Publishing, 2018. Pp 320. $143 (cloth). ISBN: 9781788113854 (original) (raw)

2020, Journal of Law and Religion

The history of international law is a much-contested topic, the lineage of which is often traced to certain individuals, who are often either Western male lawyers or politicians and their texts or treaties that founded the eld and its subelds. This contestation occurs because of certain uncritical Western-centric views that tend to romanticize Western scholars while ignoring non-Westerners' contributions to international law. At the heart of this history, however, is the universality of the general principles of international law, and claiming that these principles and practices and the individuals who advanced them are all Western demonstrates an ignorance of non-Western contributions to the law and, more importantly, of its colonial origins. Therefore, recent scholarship that is critical of the history of international law should be always welcomed, as it adds substance, robustness, and richness to the eld. Also to be welcomed are studies that explore the contributions of non-Western jurists to international law, such as Khaled Bashir's Islamic International Law, on Muhammad Al-Shaybani (750-805), an Iraqi Muslim theologian and jurist who authored Al-Siyar, a major treatise on international law. Bashir's book is a valuable addition to the literature of international law, as it can be regarded as the rst comprehensive English-language study of Al-Shaybani's Siyar. What distinguishes this volume from other works that feature the Siyar is Bashir's scholarly comparisons between Al-Shaybani and ve European theologians and scholars of international law: Gratian, Saint Augustine, Saint Thomas Aquinas, Francisco de Vitoria, and Hugo Grotius. Although Al-Shaybani's Siyar, as Bashir recognizes, primarily concerns the laws of war and peace, Bashir refers to it as an Islamic international law, a term agreed upon by other scholars of Al-Shaybani's work. Al-Shaybani's contributions to international law are summarized by Bashir as the following: