Meet the Faculty

R. Kevin Jaques

  • Associate Professor, Department of Religious Studies
  • Director, Middle Eastern and Islamic Studies Program

Education

  • Ph.D. at Emory University, 2001

Contact Information

Sycamore Hall, Rm. 223
(812) 855-6907

Background

Kevin Jaques

I have taught at IU since 2001 after completing my Ph.D. from Emory University's West and South Asian Religions program. I am interested in medieval Muslim biography,especially Tabaqat literature, and the rhetorical methods used by authors to shape their histories of the development of religious-intellectual disciplines, especially Islamic law and theology.

 

My first book, Authority, Conflict, and the Transmission of Diversity in Medieval Islamic Law (Brill, 2006) looks at the Tabaqat al-fuqaha'al-Shafi'iyahby Ibn Qadi Shuhbah (d. 851/1448). In it I explore Ibn Qadi Shuhbah’s presentation of Islamic legal history and the trends in legal thinking indicated in the biographies of the legal authorities mentioned in his text. My current book, Ibn Hajar al-‘Asqalani (Oxford University Press, in press) examines that life and impact of Ibn Hajar al-‘Asqalani (d. 852/1448), the last of the great scholars of prophetic traditions in the medieval period. I am also currently working on a book project that explores the nature of juridical authority during the Circassian Mamluk period (c. 1382-1517) in Egypt and Syria. The book, tentatively titled Murder in Damascus, examines the life of the jurist Najm al-Din Ibn Hijji and the circumstances of his murder in 830/1427 at the hands of his political and juridical opponents.

My long-term goal is to develop an historical account of the Shafi’i school of legal thought from its origins in the 3rd/9th century, its development and rise to prominence in the late medieval Middle East, its eventual spread across the Indian Ocean to SE Asia, and its modern articulation in Indonesian society.

Research Interests

  • Islamic legal history
  • Islam in Southeast Asia and Indian Ocean communities
  • Religious authority in times of social and cultural upheaval
  • Methods and methodologies in the academic study of religion

Courses Recently Taught

  • Introduction to Islam
  • Religions of the West
  • Life & Legend of Muhammad
  • Prophets, Gods and Demonds: Islam in SE Asia
  • Knowing the Will of God in Islam: Law
  • Knowing the Will of God in Islam: Theology

Publication Highlights

Books

Authority, Conflict, and the Transmission of Diversity in Medieval Islamic Law (Brill, 2006).

Ibn Hajar al-‘Asqalani, The Oxford Centre for Islamic Studies Makers of Islamic Civilization Series (Oxford University Press, in press).

Articles

“Belief,” in Critical Terms in the Study of Islam, ed. Jamal Elias (One World, forthcoming).

"The Contestation and Resolution of Inner and Inter-School Conflicts through Biography," in Plurality and Pluralism in Muslim Contexts, ed. Zulfikar Hirji (I.B. Tauris, forthcoming).

“The Other Rabi’: Biographical traditions and the Development of Early Shafi’i Authority,” Islamic Law and Society 14, no. 2 (July, 2007): 143-79.

"Arabic Islamic Prosopography: The Tabaqat Genre," in Prosopographica et Genealogica, ed. Katherine Keats-Rohan (Oxford: Occasional Publications of the Unit for Prosopographical Research, forthcoming).

“Sajarah leluhur: Hindu Cosmology and the Construction of Javanese Muslim Genealogical Authority,” Oxford Journal of Islamic Studies, forthcoming.

“Fazlur Rahman: Prophecy, the Qur’an, and Islamic Reform.” Studies in Contemporary Islam 4, no. 2 (2004): 47-69.