Professor Susan Spectorsky
E-mail: susan.spectorsky@qc.cuny.edu

Associate Professor of Arabic and Islamic Studies, emerita as of 2003. Ph.D. Columbia University

Prof. Spectorsky created and taught the entire Arabic curriculum, including language and literature-in-translation courses and the historical surveys of Islamic civilization and of revival and reform in Islam in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries; at the graduate level, she taught Islamic Spain. Her research speciality is the interpretation of the texts of Muslim jurisprudence, and the pre-modern civilization of Islam.

I am interested in the early history and civilization of Islam. My own research is in the development of Islamic legal theory as it is reflected in discussions among the jurists of the first three centuries of Islam. Their thinking has been an important influence in the development of Islamic society, and the working out of the law on the basis of their theories remains one of the most characteristic expressions of Islamic thought.

In addition to my own work, I am able to contribute to the study of Islamic law as the book review editor of the Journal of Islamic Law and Society. The journal (published by E.J. Brill) is now in its fifth year and is devoted to the publication of scholarly articles on all aspects and periods of Islamic legal theory and practice. Books chosen for review reflect a broad range of research interests and the reviewers are scholars both Muslim and non-Muslim from all over the world.

 

Recent Publications
 

 Chapters on Marriage and Divorce: Responses of Ibn Hanbal and Ibn Rahwayh - Translation with Introduction & Notes by Prof.Susan A. Spectorsky


Classic, Middle Eastern, Asian Languages & Cultures
Tel: 718-997-5570 Fax: 718-997-5577

Last Update: November 9, 2006