David Stephan Powers

Emeritus Professor

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dsp4@cornell.edu
607/3514998

Publications

Monographs

  • Zayd (University of Pennsylvania Press, 2014)
  • Muhammad is Not the Father of Any of Your Men: The Making of the Last Prophet (University of Pennsylvania Press, 2009)
  • Law, Society, and Culture in the Maghrib, 1300-1500 (Cambridge  University Press, 2002)
  • Studies in Qur'an and Hadith: The Formation of the Islamic Law of Inheritance. University of California Press, 1986. Translated into Bahasa Indonesia as Peralihin Kekayaan dan Politk Kekuasaan: Kritik Histois Hukum Waris (LkiS, Yogyakarta, 2001)

Articles

  • “The Finality of Prophecy,” in Oxford Bibliographies in Islamic Studies, ed. Natana DeLong-Bas, New York: Oxford University Press, 2025
  • “Law and Sufism in the Maghrib, ca. 829/1425,” in Islam on the Margins: Studies in Memory of Michael Bonner, ed. Robert Haug and Steven Judd, 147-200, Brill, 2023.
  • “In Memorium: Aharon Layish (1933-2022),” Islamic Law and Society, 29:2 (2022), 217-220. Also published in Aharon Layish, Islamic Law, Tribal Customary Law and Waqf: Studies in the Legal History of the Modern Middle East and North Africa, Brill, 2024, xi-xiv.

  • “Sinless, Sonless, and Seal of Prophets: Muḥammad and Kor 33, 36-40, Revisited,” Arabica 67:4 (2020), 338-408

  • “The Qur’ān and its Legal Environment,” in Approaching Islam: Classical Categories and Modern Scholarship, ed. Majid Daneshgar and Aaron W. Hughes (2020), 9-32.

  • “Le Coran et son environnement légal,” in Le Coran des Historiens, ed. Mohammad Ali Amir-Moezzi and Guillaume Dye, Cerf, 2019, 615-649.
  • “Adoption,” In Oxford Bibliographies in Islamic Studies. Ed. John O. Voll. New York: Oxford University Press, 2016
  • “From Nuzi to Medina: Q. 4:12b, Revisited,” in Structures of Power: Law and Gender across the Ancient Near East and Beyond, ed. Ilan Peled, Oriental Institute Seminars, vol. 12 (Oriental Institute, University of Chicago, 2016).
  • “Inheritance.” In Oxford Bibliographies in Islamic Studies. Ed. Andrew Rippin. New York: Oxford University Press (2015).
  • “Finality of Prophecy,” in The Oxford Handbook of the Abrahamic Religions, ed. A. Silverstein and G. Stroumsa, Oxford University Press, 2015.
  • “’A Bequest May Not Exceed One-Third’: An Isnād-cum-Matn Analysis – and Beyond,” in Islamic Cultures, Islamic Contexts, edited by Behnam Sadeghi, Asad Ahmed, Robert Hoyland, and Adam Silverstein.  Leiden: Brill: 2014 (co-authored with Pavel Pavlovitch)
  • “Wael B. Hallaq on the Origins of Islamic Law: A Review Essay,” Islamic Law and Society, 17:1 (2010),
  • "Demonizing Zenobia: The Legend of al-Zabba' in Islamic Sources", in Histories of the Middle East: Studies in Middle Eastern Economy, Society, and Law in Honor of A.L. Udovitch (Brill, 2010)
  • "The Abolition of Adoption in Islam, Reconsidered," in Droit et Religions Annuaire 4 (2009-10), 97-107
  • "From the Mi`yar of al-Wansharisi to the New Mi`yar of al-Wazzani," co-authored with Etty Terem, Jerusalem Studies in Arabic and Islam 33 (2007), 235-260
  • "Law and Custom in the Maghrib, 1475-1500: On the Disinheritance of Women," in Law, Custom, and Statute in the Muslim World: Studies in Honor of Aharon Layish (E.J. Brill, 2006), 17-40.
  • "Qadis and their Courts: An Historical Survey," with M. Khalid Masud and Rudolph Peters, in Dispensing Justice in Muslim Courts: Qadis and their Courts, ed. M. Khalid Masud, Rudolph Peters, David S. Powers (E.J. Brill, 2006), 1-46.
  • "Women and Courts in the Maghrib, 1100-1500, in Dispensing Justice in Muslim Courts: Qadis and their Courts, ed. M. Khalid Masud, Rudolph Peters, David S. Powers (E.J. Brill, 2006), 383-410.
  • “Women and Divorce in the Islamic West: Three Cases,” Hawwa, vol. 1:1 (2003), 29-45.
  • "Parents and their Minor Children: Familial Politics in the Middle Maghrib in the Eighth/Fourteenth Century," Continuity and Change, August 2001, 177-200.
  • "The Islamic Family Endowment (Waqf)," Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law, 32:4 (1999), 1167-90.
  • "Introduction: The Islamic Inheritance System," Islamic Law and Society, 5:3 (1998): 285-90 [theme issue]
  • "The Art of the Judicial Opinion: On Tawlij in Fifteenth-Century Tunis," Islamic Law and Society, 5:3 (1998): 359-81.

Edited Volumes

  • Islamic Ecumene: Comparing Global Muslim Societies, ed. David S. Powers and Eric Tagliacozzo (Cornell University Press, 2023)
  • Islamic Legal Thought: A Compendium of Muslim Jurists, ed. O. Arabi, D.S. Powers and S. Spectorsky (E.J. Brill, 2013)
  • Dispensing Justice in Muslim Courts: Qadi and their Courts, ed. M. Khalid Masud, Rudolph Peters, David S. Powers (E.J. Brill, 2006)
  • Islamic Legal Interpretation: Muftis and their Fatwas, ed. M. Khalid Masud, Brinkley Messick and David Powers (Harvard University Press, 1996)

Encyclopedia Entries

  • "Appeal", "Adoption", Encyclopaedia of Islam, 3nd ed.,
  • "Inheritance", "Judicial Review", "Wansharisi", Encyclopaedia of Legal History
  • "Endowments", "Inheritance", "Qadis", Medieval Islamic Civilization: An Encyclopedia
  • "Inheritance, Islamic", Encyclopaedia of the Qur’an, E-I (2002)
  • “Wakf”, Encyclopaedia of Islam, 2nd ed., vol. XI, 69-75
  • "Inheritance," "Endowment," and "Alms-Tax" in the Dictionary of the Middle Ages. New York: Scribners, 1983
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