Early Mālikī Manuscripts: A Retrospective

Abstract In this review article, I offer an overview of research undertaken thus far on early Mālikī Manuscripts, primarily the collection from Kairouan, Tunisia. Modern attention to this collection dates from the early twentieth century, as the collection itself moved from Kairouan to Tunis and back again. While access to Qurān manuscripts has been highly restricted, select scholars had been allowed to study and make copies of a limited number of legal manuscripts, primarily from the Mālikī school of Islamic law. These limitations had an effect on scholarship, making some forms of codicological and paleographic analysis difficult at best. The last part of the article addresses very recent scholarship and work that remains to be done, including network analysis and other ways of placing these manuscripts within broader social and historical contexts. I close with a reflection on the colonial history of research into these manuscripts and the responsibilities of researchers to reflect on the ethical implications of their activities into the future.