The Muwatta of Imam Malik – 3 hr. class on this great book of Islamic civilization

Saturday, December 17, 2022
10:00 AM to 2:00 PM

(Includes light Breakfast and Lunch)

The Muwaṭṭaʾ, written in the eighth century CE by Mālik b. Anas—known as the Imam of Medina—is the first written treatise of Islamic law. The Prophet Muḥammad and his earliest followers immigrated to the city of Medina after they experienced severe persecution in their hometown of Mecca, establishing the first Muslim community in Medina. As the Muslim community rapidly expanded, Medina lost some of its political importance, but retained its position as the leading Muslim center of learning for over one hundred years after the Prophet Muḥammad’s death. Imam Mālik’s Muwaṭṭaʾ provides an unparalleled window into the life of this early Muslim community, and the rituals, laws, and customs they upheld.

Professor Dr. Mohammad H. Fadel is a Professor at the Faculty of Law, University of Toronto since 2006.


Professor Fadel wrote his Ph.D. dissertation on legal process in medieval Islamic law while at the University of Chicago and received his JD from the University of Virginia School of Law. Professor Fadel has published numerous articles in Islamic legal history and Islam and liberalism. He has translated Shihāb al-Dīn al-Qarāfī’s al-Iḥkām fī Tamyīz al-Fatāwā ʿan al Aḥkām wa Taṣarrufāt al-Qāḍī wa’l-Imām (The Criterion for Distinguishing Legal Opinions from Judicial Rulings and the Administrative Acts of Judges and Rulers, Yale University Press, 2017)and Mālik b. Anas’s al-Muwaṭṭaʾ Riwāyat Yaḥyā b. Yaḥyā al-Laythī (The Muwaṭṭaʾ, the Royal Moroccan Edition: the Recension of Yaḥyā b. Yaḥyā al-Laythī, Harvard Islamic Law Series, 2019).