Abstract:

Legal maxims (qawāʿid) have been, especially after the contributions of Joseph Schacht to the understanding of the beginnings of Islamic Law, a popular area of research in Islamic studies. Certain scholars attempted to see Islamic legal maxims which resemble maxims of late Roman law, as indicators of the Roman origins of Islamic Law. Unfortunately there are very few comparative studies on similar maxims in both law systems, which aim to reveal the common features alongside differences to prove this assertion. This research tries to shed some light into this discussion, not only with a mere analysis of two of the most resembling maxims in both law systems, but also by comparing the terminology of al qawāʿid and al qiyās and the Roman terminus for legal maxims, named regula. Furthermore, this detailed approach aims to reveal the peculiarities of the two law systems by pointing out to their specific characters and different approaches.

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