CSI Monday Majlis :Youssef Belal

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Is there a way to think about contemporary life with knowledge that is neither modern nor Western? Rather than confining Islam to a “religion” and shariʿa to its “law,” Youssef Belal argues that Islamic shariʿa is a mode of knowledge with its own concepts and scholarly categories through which the world and the self are grasped. The Life of Shariʿa considers two intertwined lineages: how Islamic scholars have formulated shariʿa knowledge from the classical period to today and how Westerners have understood the law and its origins. By melding these two traditions, Youssef Belal formulates a new genealogy of modern law from the perspective of shariʿa. Through a new conceptualization of shariʿa, he offers an argument for its continued relevance to the life of contemporary Muslims.

Youssef Belal is an anthropologist and a political theorist. He is also a UN diplomat who has been dealing with peace mediation in the Middle East, Central Asia and the Horn of Africa. He has taught at the University of Rabat, Columbia University and the University of California, Berkeley, and was selected as a member of the Princeton’s Institute for Advanced Study in 2016. He is author of Le cheikh et le calife: Sociologie religieuse de l’Islam politique au Maroc (The sheikh and the caliph: Religious sociology of political Islam in Morocco) published in France (Ecole Normale Editions). He is currently writing a book on Gaza.