The problem of periodisation of the history of islamic law

The historiography of Islamic jurisprudence (fiqh) and its periodization models have drawn scholarly interest since the 19th century, often referred to as the "century of history." During this period, numerous approaches to periodizing the history of fiqh emerged, producing over two hundred proposals based on a variety of criteria. This thesis investigates the origins, transmission processes, and methodological shortcomings of these periodization models. The analysis focuses on a selected sample drawn from the literature that the researcher defines as the "new fiqh historiography" (NFH). The first part of the study examines the historical foundations upon which periodization attempts rest and reconstructs their intellectual context. It demonstrates that the decline paradigm -dominant within the NFH literature- was employed by 19th-century Orientalist historians of Arabic literary history and was seamlessly adopted into both Orientalist scholarship and the curricula of modern universities established in the Islamic world. The study also identifies the roles played by 18th-century reformers and their intellectual school in the transmission and reproduction of this template. Furthermore, it highlights how current philosophical dilemmas in the philosophy of history, as well as problems in Turkish-Arab relations, have functioned as auxiliary factors in shaping NFH periodizations. In the second chapter, a representative sample is selected from the more than two hundred existing periodization proposals. These are evaluated chronologically, beginning with the earliest identified work and continuing up to the year 2025, when the thesis was completed. The third chapter draws upon critiques of periodization found in general philosophy of history and historiographical literature to examine the methodological weaknesses in current NFH classifications. The thesis argues that these classifications fail to meet five essential principles: conceptual simplicity, inclusiveness, referential clarity, transparency and consistency in criteria, and historically sound segmentation. The supplementary section includes tables that offer a visual summary of the study's findings Keywords: Historiography, Islamic legal history, Fiqh historiography, Periodization, New fiqh historiography. Keywords: Historiography, Islamic legal history, Fiqh historiography, Periodization, New fiqh history.