Maaike van Berkel is professor of Medieval History at Radboud University. Her research focuses on the social and cultural history of medieval Muslim societies, with a particular interest in literacy, court culture and urban organization.Léon Buskens holds a chair for Law and Culture in Muslim societies at Leiden University and is director of the Netherlands Institute in Morocco. His research focuses on Islamic law and society, and the anthropology of Muslim societies, with a particular interest in Morocco and Indonesia.Petra Sijpesteijn is professor of Arabic at Leiden University. Her research concentrates on recovering the experience of Muslims and non-Muslims living under Islamic rule, using the vast stores of radically under-used documents surviving from the early Islamic world.

• Introduction, Maaike van Berkel, Léon Buskens and Petra M. SijpesteijnNotes on ContributorsBibliography Rudolph PetersRudolph Peters and the History of Modern Egyptian Law, Khaled FahmyI. REGIME CHANGE AND LEGAL INSTITUTIONSThe Qadis’ Justice according to Papyrological Sources (Seventh–Tenth Centuries C.E.), Mathieu TillierDelegation of Judicial Power in Abbasid Egypt, Petra M. SijpesteijnThe Mahdi’s Legal Opinion as an Instrument of Reform: Issues in Divorce, Inheritance, False Accusation of Unlawful Intercourse and Homicide, Aharon LayishII. PRACTICES OF RECORDING AND VERIFYINGIdentifying the ʿudūl in Fifteenth-Century Granada, Sergio Carro Martín and Amalia ZomeñoCrimes without Criminals? Legal Documents on Fourteenth-Century Injury and Homicide Cases from the Ḥaram Collection in Jerusalem, Christian MüllerFrom Trash to Treasure: Ethnographic Notes on Collecting Legal Documents in Morocco, Léon BuskensNotes for a Local History of Falsehood, Brinkley MessickIII. DAILY LIFEWaqf Documents on the Provision of Water in Mamluk Egypt, Maaike van BerkelOttoman amān: Western Ownership of Real Estate and the Politics of Law Prior to the Land Code of 1876, Maurits H. van den BoogertA Comparative Study of Contract Documents: Ottoman Syria, Qajar Iran, Central Asia, Qing China and Tokugawa Japan, Toru Miura