Yet it has been marginalized and neglected by legal historians. 6 In fact, Siyar is a proper system of international law, which governed the international relations of Muslim states for many centuries. This is alleged despite the fact that Siyar contained great principles on international legal relations. 4 Oppenheim and most legal historians failed to recognize the almost 1,000-year gap, thus overlooking the very existence of Siyar or Islamic international law 5 as some would now call it. 3 For example, Oppenheim held ‘that there was no international law in Europe during the Middle Ages, that there was no need of such at that time, and that there was no intermediary link between the Roman Period and Modern Times’. This book will be the first attempt to offer the reader a genuine and deep insight into the original ‘grand’ 2 book of Al-Shaybani on international law.Īs far as the history of international law is concerned, ‘writers habitually begin with the Greek City-States, describe the Roman period as immediately following, and then all of a sudden talk about modern times, neglecting the gap of almost a thousand years’. 1 However, although there have been several attempts, the English library is still poorly equipped as far as the contribution of Al-Shaybani is concerned. Noticeably, as this work was being completed, the Oxford Handbook of The History of International Law presented Al-Shaybani as the earliest among 21 names of the most important contributors to this field throughout history. By exploring Al-Siyar Al-Kabīr, I set as this book’s target an investigation of the latter claim and highlighting to what extent Al-Shaybani contributed to the field of international law and relations. They argue that the contribution of Al-Shaybani to this field is too great to be ignored. ![]() While some think that his book is based on sources of Islamic law and was intended to regulate the international affairs of a Muslim state and is therefore irrelevant to the ‘secular’ world order we live in today, others observe that such a comprehensive legal work written in the eighth century is undoubtedly a great asset to those specializing in the field of international law. In fact, the reader would be able to locate it within today’s texts and specialized books on international law. Al-Shaybani’s book Al-Siyar Al-Kabīr deals with every conceivable aspect of international law relevant to his time.
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