Rudolph Peters’ book is about crimes and their punishments as laid
down in Islamic law. In recent years some Islamist regimes, such as
those of Iran, Pakistan, Sudan and the northern states of Nigeria,
have reintroduced Islamic law in place of Western criminal codes.
This was after the abolition of Islamic criminal law in the nineteenth
and twentieth centuries. Previously, during the pre-modern period,
Islamic criminal law was applied across the Muslim world, and there
are many examples of that application in the abundant archives and
other sources of the period. Peters gives a detailed account of the
classical doctrine and traces the enforcement of criminal law from
the Ottoman period to the present day. The accounts of actual cases
which range from theft to banditry, murder, fornication and apostasy
shed light on the complexities of the law, and the sensitivity and
perspicacity of the q¯ad. ¯ıs who implemented it. This is the first singleauthored
account of both the theory and practice of Islamic criminal
law. It will be invaluable for students, and scholars in the field, as well
as for professionals looking for comprehensive coverage of the topic.