This book is concerned with the origins of Muhammadan jurisprudence. I shall, of course, often have occasion to refer to examples taken from Muhammadan law, which is the material of Muhammadan jurisprudence. But the history of positive law in Islam as such, and the relationship between the ideals of legal doctrine and the practical administration of justice fall outside the scope ofthe present inquiry. The sacred law ofIslam is an all-embracing body ofreligious duties rather than a legal system proper; it comprises on an equal footing ordinances regarding cult and ritual, as well as political and (in the narrow sense) legal rules. In choosing the examples I shall concentrate as much as possible on the (properly speaking) legal sphere. This course not only recommends itself for practical reasons; it is also historically legitimate. For the legal subject-matter in early Islam did not primarily derive from the Koran or from other purely Islamic sources; law lay to a great extent outside the sphere of religion, was only incompletely assimilated to the body of religious duties, and retained part of its own distinctive quality. No clear distinction, however, can be made, and whenever I use the term Muhammadan law, it is meant to comprise all those subjects which come within the sacred law of Islam.