Chapter I: Front Matter

The Semitic Series

DEVELOPMENT OF
MUSLIM THEOLOGY, JURISPRUDENCE
AND CONSTITUTIONAL THEORY

BY DUNCAN B. MACDONALD, M.A., B.D.

SERIES OF HAND-BOOKS IN SEMITICS

EDITED BY JAMES ALEXANDER CRAIG

PROFESSOR OF SEMITIC LANGUAGES AND LITERATURES AND HELLENISTIC GREEK IN THE UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN

Recent scientific research has stimulated an increasing interest in Semitic studies among scholars, students, and the serious reading public generally. It has provided us with a picture of a hitherto unknown civilization, and a history of one of the great branches of the human family.

The object of the present Series is to state its results in popularly scientific form. Each work is complete in itself, and the Series, taken as a whole, neglects no phase of the general subject. Each contributor is a specialist in the subject assigned him, and has been chosen from the body of eminent Semitic scholars in Europe and in this country.

This Series will be composed of the following volumes:

I. HEBREWS. _History and Government._ By Professor J. F.
McCurdy, University of Toronto, Canada.

II. HEBREWS. _Ethics and Religion._ By Professor Archibald
Duff, Airedale College, Bradford, England. [_Now Ready._

III. HEBREWS. _The Social Life._ By the Rev. Edward Day,
Springfield, Mass. [_Now Ready._

IV. BABYLONIANS AND ASSYRIANS, with introductory chapter on
the Sumerians. _History to the Fall of Babylon._ By Dr. Hugo
Winckler, University of Berlin. [_In Press._

V. BABYLONIANS AND ASSYRIANS. _Religion._ By Professor J. A.
Craig, University of Michigan.

VI. BABYLONIANS AND ASSYRIANS. _Life and Customs._ By Professor
A. H. Sayce, University of Oxford, England. [_Now Ready._

VII. BABYLONIANS AND ASSYRIANS. Excavations and Account of
Decipherment of Inscriptions.

VIII. SYRIA AND PALESTINE. _Early History._ By Professor Lewis
Bayles Paton, Hartford Theological Seminary. [_Now Ready._

IX. DEVELOPMENT OF MUSLIM THEOLOGY, JURISPRUDENCE AND
CONSTITUTIONAL THEORY. By Professor D. B. Macdonald, Hartford
Theological Seminary. [_Now Ready._

The following volumes are to be included in the Series, and others may be added:

X. PHŒNICIA. _History and Government_, including Colonies,
Trade, and Religion.

XI. ARABIA, _Discoveries in, and History and Religion until
Muhammad_.

XII. ARABIC LITERATURE AND SCIENCE SINCE MUHAMMAD.

XIII. THE INFLUENCE OF SEMITIC ART AND MYTHOLOGY ON WESTERN
NATIONS.

The Semitic Series

DEVELOPMENT OF
Muslim Theology, Jurisprudence
and Constitutional Theory

BY
DUNCAN B. MACDONALD, M.A., B.D.

SOMETIME SCHOLAR AND FELLOW OF THE UNIVERSITY OF
GLASGOW; PROFESSOR OF SEMITIC LANGUAGES IN
HARTFORD THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY

NEW YORK
CHARLES SCRIBNER’S SONS
1903

COPYRIGHT, 1903, BY
CHARLES SCRIBNER’S SONS

Published; March, 1903

TROW DIRECTORY
PRINTING AND BOOKBINDING COMPANY
NEW YORK

MEMORIÆ MATRIS SACRVM