This book, covering more than three centuries of legal history, presents an important account of how Islam developed its own law while drawing on ancient. Near Eastern legal cultures, Arabian customary law, and Quranic reform. The development of the judiciary, legal reasoning, and legal authority during the first century is discussed in detail, as is the dramatic rise of prophetic authority, the crystallization of legal theory, and the formation of the all-important legal schools. Finally the book explores the interplay between law and politics, explaining how the jurists and the ruling elite had a symbiotic existence and mutual dependency that - seemingly paradoxically - allowed Islamic law and its application to be uniquely independent of the "state."