The Dialectical Forge identifies dialectical disputation (jadal) as a primary formative dynamic
in the evolution of pre-modern Islamic legal systems promoting dialectic from relative
obscurity to a more appropriate position at the forefront of Islamic legal studies. The author
introduces and develops a dialectics-based analytical method for the study of pre-modern
Islamic legal argumentation examines parallels and divergences between Aristotelian dialectic
and early juridical jadal-theory and proposes a multi-component paradigm-the Dialectical Forge
Model-to account for the power of jadal in shaping Islamic law and legal theory.In addition to
overviews of current evolutionary narratives for Islamic legal theory and dialectic and
expositions on key texts this work shines an analytical light upon the considerably
sophisticated proto-system of juridical dialectical teaching and practice evident in Islam's
second century several generations before the first full-system treatises of legal and
dialectical theory were composed. This proto-system is revealed from analyses of dialectical
sequences in the 2nd 8th century Kitab Ikhtilaf al-Iraqiyyin Iraqiyyayn (the subject-text)
through a lens molded from 5th 11th century jadal-theory treatises (the lens-texts). Specific
features thus uncovered inform the elaboration of a Dialectical Forge Model whose more general
components and functions are explored in closing chapters.
