This book, first published in 2006, is an account of the theory and practice of Islamic criminal law.

This is an apt publication for modern times, in which 'Sharia' has become a byword for an unacceptable social system, and is vilified as such; when crime is rife in communities governed by Sharia; and when in the non-Islamic West, the Islamic social and criminal justice systems are subject to intense public scrutiny and criticism, but remain little understood. The author presents a clear and factual account of the Islamic criminal justice system, expounding what he considers to be the real issues of Sharia, often ignored or misrepresented by both Islamic and Western scholars, and explaining its wider Islamic context and ethics, its Arabic roots, classical heritage and terminology, and its relevance to contemporary Muslim societies. Contents: concept of crime; features of Islamic criminal liability; defences to Islamic criminal liability; 'Hudud' crimes; 'Zina' - adultery or fornication; 'Qadhf' - slander or false accusation; 'Hadd' offence of 'al-sariqa' - theft; 'Hadd' offence of 'shurbul khamr' - wine drinking; 'Hiraba' - brigandage or highway armed robbery; 'Riddah' - apostasy; 'Baghye' - rebellion or treason; 'Qisas - retaliation; 'Ta'azir' punishment.

The Oxford Handbook of Criminal Law reflects the continued transformation of criminal law into a global discipline, providing scholars with a comprehensive international resource, a common point of entry into cutting edge contemporary research and a snapshot of the state and scope of the field. To this end, the Handbook takes a broad approach to its subject matter, disciplinarily, geographically, and systematically. Its contributors include current and future research leaders representing a variety of legal systems, methodologies, areas of expertise, and research agendas. The Handbook is divided into four parts: Approaches & Methods (I), Systems & Methods (II), Aspects & Issues (III), and Contexts & Comparisons (IV). Part I includes essays exploring various methodological approaches to criminal law (such as criminology, feminist studies, and history). Part II provides an overview of systems or models of criminal law, laying the foundation for further inquiry into specific conceptions of criminal law as well as for comparative analysis (such as Islamic, Marxist, and military law). Part III covers the three aspects of the penal process: the definition of norms and principles of liability (substantive criminal law), along with a less detailed treatment of the imposition of norms (criminal procedure) and the infliction of sanctions (prison law). Contributors consider the basic topics traditionally addressed in scholarship on the general and special parts of the substantive criminal law (such as jurisdiction, mens rea, justifications, and excuses). Part IV places criminal law in context, both domestically and transnationally, by exploring the contrasts between criminal law and other species of law and state power and by investigating criminal law's place in the projects of comparative law, transnational, and international law.

2. The origins of islamic law

The goal of this book is to minimize the misunderstandings and conflicts between International law and Islamic law. The objective is to bring peace into justice and justice into peace for the prevention of violations of human rights law, humanitarian law, international criminal law, and impunity.

In Shariʿa, Justice and Legal Order: Egyptian and Islamic Law: Selected Essays Rudolph Peters discusses in 35 articles practice of both Shariʿa and state law. The principal themes are legal order and the actual application of law both in the judiciaries as well in cultural and political debates. Many of the topics deal with penal law. Although the majority of studies are situated in the Ottoman and, especially, Egyptian period, few of them are of another region or a more recent period, such as in Nigeria or, also, Egypt. The book’s historical studies are mainly based on archival judicial records and are definitively pioneering. Although the selected articles of this book are the fruit of more than forty years of research, most of them have constantly been cited.