On the 12 - 14th December 2016 several members of the USPPIP project attended a conference at Leiden University entitled: “Ocean of Law II: Islamic Legal Crossings in the Indian Ocean World”. The event was co-organised by Mahmood Kooria and explored the histories of spread and growth of Islamic law across the Indian Ocean world. It was organised in continuation to the conference “Ocean of Law: Intermixed Legal Systems across the Indian Ocean World” held in December 2015. Scholars from various countries, disciplines and expertise came together and presented their researchers on histories of Islamic law in different regions of the Indian Ocean littoral. They explored how and why did Islamic legal ideas and texts travel across borders; how did ideas and texts shape legal traditions and systems they encountered during their journey; and how and why did legal cultures negotiate, influence and contest each other at the moments and sites of their interactions; how did the unique predominance of Shāfiʿī school of Islamic law in the Indian Ocean rim have been a vital phenomenon in shaping many social, cultural, religious and political perspectives of its Muslim communities across centuries.
Mahmood Kooria presented a paper: “Afro-Asia-Arab Triangle in the Indian Ocean: Still Another View of Islamic Law” which can be found here.
Prof. Léon Buskens delivered a keynote speech: “Snouck Hurgronje, the Reinvention of Islamic Law and the Discovery of Adat Law in Indonesia” and Prof. Robert Gleave chaired one of the panels.
The conference was made possible in part by a major grant from the Leiden University Centre for the Study of Islam and Society (LUCIS) and the Institute for History.