ABSTRACT
How much, and in what way, did the customary law of the pre-Islamic Arabs contribute to Islamic law? The consensus would appear to be that it contributed decisively for the simple reason that it continued to be practised. The legislation of the Koran, so the argument runs, was both intended and understood as a supplement to, rather than a substitute for, the ancestral law of the Arabs; and since moreover this legislation raised more questions than it answered, it had itself to be interpreted in the light of customary law. 1 Evidently, political and social change, Umayyad regulations, foreign influence, local conditions and the like all served to modify and amplify traditional law and customs, 2 and such modifications are particularly noticeable in Ḥanafī law, which reflects the metropolitan society of late Umayyad Kufa. 3 But even so, Arab law, and above all the customary law of the Ḥijāz, may still be said to be the single most important source of the substantive law of the Sharī‘a. 4 Its influence is manifest in all the schools, but especially in that of the Mālikīs which, iv_154originating in Medina, reflects a patriarchal society not far removed from that of the pre-Islamic Arabs themselves. 5
