What is the Qurʾān for the legists (uṣūlîs)? This seminar will analyse why the Book of the legists is “in some subtle and important ways, different from the ‘textual’ Qurʾān” (A. Kevin Reinhart). It aims to answer to the three following questions: 1. How uṣūlîs define the boundaries of the “text between the two covers”?; 2. How they understand the language and the context of the Qurʾān? 3. What are the specific hermeneutical tools established to interpret the Qurʾān? More generaly, this seminar will explore the specific place of the Book in the “principles of jurisprudence”.
This seminar is organised into two general sections: The first sections (2-4) will invite three experts in the field of Islamic Law. They will explore some of the fundamental aspects of judiciary, legal reasoning, and authority in the history of Islamic Jurisprudence. The second section (5-10) will be entirely devoted to the question the Qurʾān of the legists.