Body of Text The Emergence of the Sunni Law of Ritual Purity by Marion Holmes Katz (Albany, New York: State University of New York Press, 2002. 275 pages.)

Abstract

This book is perhaps the first study in English devoted to the development and rationale of ritual purity laws. The author, Marion Holmes Katz, a pro­fessor at Mount Holyoke College, chooses not to write from the traditional Muslim or Islamic jurisprudential perspectives. Though this does not invalidate an argument per se, it certainly renders her premises troublesome from a traditional Islamic legal perspective. Katz's attempt to formulate an alternative interpretive methodology, however, fails due to internal inconsistencies in her argument as well as the prevalence of poor and often speculative reasoning. 

Body of Text is divided into four chapters, an introduction, and a con­clusion. The introduction begins with a discussion of Islamic law's com­prehensive nature, noting that it even addresses washing after relieving one­self. Most interestingly, she points out similarities among various religions in matters of ritual purity, but unfortunately assumes that this necessarily is proof of simple borrowing. The author excludes the possibility that these religious rules had a common source. Katz proceeds to reconstruct Islamic law's methodological and historical development and sets out her approach to its sources. However, while asserting that relying on ahadith is inappro­ priate, she nevertheless employs ahadith as well as various athar ( deeds and precedents of the Companions) to reach several conclusions. Given that she effectively rejects the Hadith literature, as understood by Muslim jurists and Hadith scholars, the work as a whole is rendered unpersuasive ...