Part I -- Chapter 1: Mourning Loss Through Debate: Pious Critique and its Limits -- Chapter 2: The Emergence of Pious Critique: a Genealogy of "Munazara" -- Chapter 3 "Why do We Debate?": Uncovering Two Discursive Foundations for Disputation -- Part II -- Chapter 4: Debating the Convert's Jizya: How the Madhhab Enabled Ijtihad -- Chapter 5: Forced Marriage in Shafi'i Law: Revisiting School Doctrine -- Chapter 6: The Case of the Mistaken Prayer Direction: Debating Indeterminate School Doctrine -- Part III -- Chapter 7: The End of Critical Islam?: Shafi'ism and Temporal Decay

"In a richly narrated historical study, Soufi excavates an Islamic legal culture of critique from the 10th-13th century. Focusing on the practice of (disputation), Soufi explores how and why oral debates became a pervasive and revered part of the intellectual legal landscape of Iraq and Persia. Pushing back against claims that classical Muslim jurists sought to weed out differences of opinion, The Rise of Critical Islam presents a community committed to the openness, fluidity, and continued exploration of the law. In uncovering this classical legal culture, Soufi invites readers to question claims about the promise of secular critique in disciplining religious passions and forging human solidarity." --Provided by publisher.