Christopher Melchert

Christopher Melchert is an American professor and scholar of Islam, specialising in Islamic movements and institutions, especially during the ninth and tenth centuries. A prolific author, he is professor of Arabic and Islamic studies at the University of Oxford's Oriental Institute, and is a Fellow in Arabic at Pembroke College, Oxford.

Melchert received a PhD in History (1992) from the University of Pennsylvania. His thesis was later published as a book, titled ''The Formation of the Sunni Schools of Law'', with Brill Publishers, Leiden. Melchert more recently published a book on Ahmad ibn Hanbal, the Sunni hadith-scholar and jurist.

Having written about whether women can be prayer leaders according to the early Sunni and Shii jurists, he is one of the few expert historians who has written authoritatively on the question."Whether to Keep Women out of the Mosque: A Survey of Medieval Islamic Law". Pages 59–69 in Authority, Privacy and Public Order in Islam: Proceedings of the 22nd Congress of l'Union Européenne des Arabisants et Islamisants. Edited by B. Michalak-Pikulska and A. Pikulsi. Orientalia Lovaniensia Analecta 148. Leuven: Peeters, 2006.

Selected publications

*''The Formation of the Sunni Schools of Law, 9th-10th Centuries C.E.'' (Studies in Islamic law and society, v. 4). Leiden: Brill, 1997.
**Reviewed by W. B. Hallaq in ''International Journal of Middle East Studies'' 31, no. 2, (1999): 278-280
**Reviewed by P. Sanders in ''American Journal of Legal History'' 43, Part 1 (1999): 98
*''Ahmad ibn Hanbal''. Oxford: Oneworld, 2006 and 2012. (in 116 World Cat libraries)http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/70173862&referer=brief_results ''The formation of the Sunni schools of law, ninth–tenth centuries AD''. 1992 Ph.D thesis, University of Pennsylvania
* ''Religious Policies of the Caliphs from al-Mutawakkil to al-Muqtadir, AH 232-295/ AD 847-908'', in Islamic Law and Society, 1996 - Brill
* ''The transition from asceticism to mysticism at the middle of the ninth century AD'', in Studia Islamica, 1996 - JSTOR
* ''The adversaries of Ahmad ibn Hanbal'', in Arabica, 1997 - Springer
* ''Islamic law'', in Oklahoma City University Law Review, 1998 - HeinOnline
* ''How Hanafism Came to Originate in Kufa and Traditionalism in Medina'', in Islamic Law and Society, 1999 - Brill
* '' Ibn Mujāhid and the establishment of seven Qur'anic readings'', in Studia Islamica, 2000 - JSTOR
* '' Traditionist-jurisprudents and the Framing of Islamic Law'', in Islamic Law and Society, 2001 - Brill
* ''The Ḥanābila and the Early Sufis'', in Arabica, 2001 - JSTOR
* '' Sufis and competing movements in Nishapur'', in Iran, 2001 - JSTOR
* Various additional papers.

See also

* Ahmad ibn Hanbal, Hanbali
* Islamic Law, Sources of Islamic law, Principles of Islamic jurisprudence, Muslim Islamic jurist
* Political aspects of Islam, Polygyny in Islam, Islamic feminism, Women as imams
* Islamic Golden Age (8th-13th centuries esp. 692-945CE), Abbasid Caliphate, Quran

References

External links

Melchert's Pembroke College page

Melchert's Faculty page

Melchert's CV

{{DEFAULTSORT:Melchert, Christopher
Year of birth missing (living people)
Living people
American Arabists
American Islamic studies scholars
Fellows of Pembroke College, Oxford
University of Pennsylvania alumni
Non-Muslim scholars of Islamic jurisprudence