Research Fields

• Islamic law (especially modern)
• Islamic modern legal systems
• Modern Islamic thought

About

Prof. Shaham's general field is Islamic legal history (mainly modern). He has published extensively on the Sharia courts and qadis in modern Egypt, Egyptian family law reform, the legal status of non-Muslims in modern Islamic societies, the ʿulamaʾ and reform in the modern period and Islamic law in Israel.

 

Selected Publications

Family and the Courts in Modern Egypt (Brill, 1997)

The Expert Witness in Islamic Courts: Medicine and Crafts in the Service of Law (University of Chicago Press, 2010)

Rethinking Islamic Legal Modernism: the Teaching of Yusuf al-Qaradawi (Brill, 2018)

Editor of Law, Custom and Statute in the Muslim World: Studies in Honor of Aharon Layish (Brill, 2007)

 

Selected Awards

1988 DAAD (West-Germany), for research in Tubingen

Lady Davis post-doctoral fellowship

Fulbright post-doctoral scholarship

The Golda Meir Fellowship

2009  Fulbright Specialist Program; selected to spend one month at Central Lakes College, Brainerd, Minnesota

 

Teaching

Bachelor's degree courses

Introduction to Islamic Law

Islam and the State (B.A. seminar)

The Family in Modern Islamic Societies (Textual Course in Arabic)

The Modernists in Islam (Textual Course in Arabic)

Readings in Modern Legal Opinions (Fatwas)

Islamic Law in the State of Israel (Textual Course in Arabic) 

Master's degree courses

Islam and the State (M.A. seminar in English)

Islamic Attitudes to Other Religions and to Israel (Textual Course in Arabic)

The Inheritance System in Islamic Societies (Textual Course in Arabic)