Crime and punishment in the Sharia

The book by Rudolf Peters discusses the history of Islamic dealings with crimes specified by Sharia and their punishments. Some Islamic regimes in recent years — such as Iran, Pakistan, Sudan, and the northern states of Nigeria — have rejected Western criminal laws and replaced them with Islamic Sharia. This occurred after the abolition of Islamic criminal legislation in the 19th and 20th centuries AD. Islamic criminal legislation was applied in the pre-modern period across the Islamic world, and many examples of this are available in the archives and other sources we have from that period. Peters thoroughly studies the jurisprudence of the schools and traces the application of criminal legislation from the Ottoman era to the present day. The real cases he presents — ranging from theft to highway robbery, murder, adultery, and apostasy — shed light on the complexities of Sharia and the jurisprudence and insight of the Muslim judges who implemented it. This book is the only one authored by a single person to discuss Islamic criminal legislation in terms of theory and practice. It will be valuable for students and scholars interested in this aspect of Sharia, as well as for specialists seeking a comprehensive study of this topic.