Law And Piety In Medieval God Summary

Megan Reid is an Assistant Professor of Religion at the University of Southern California. Reid states from the beginning of her book Law and Piety in Medieval Islam that the goal of her writing is to show culture effecting law in the Medieval Islamic world using primary sources such as treaties, law manuals, and biographies. Reid uses manuals of law, fatwa collections, chronicles and obituaries to show what it meant to be a good medieval Muslim. The author states that she wants to show how ritual plays a large part in the personal life of Muslims. Piety is a big part of Reid’s book. Piety is veneration for God or a devout fulfillment of religions responsibilities. She focuses on different forms of piety and how they affected individuals as well as the whole of Islam. The goal of the book is to show how different Muslims acted in the middle ages. Reid uses the book Law and Piety in Medieval Islam to show religious practices that have been over looked by many modern scholars for medieval Islamic men and women. She shows that the rejection of temptation, worldly possessions, and society can be seen as giving favor to God.

The book opens …show more content…
She manages to have her goals clearly drawn out in the book Law and Piety in Medieval Islam. Yet, she does not offer an explanation for the questions brought up about the lives of all Medieval Muslims. Reid only focuses on piety in the Muslim community in the middle ages, which she states the book is about. However, what of the Muslims in the medieval period that were not so devout? Or did every Muslim aspire to be a great holy person? Reid’s goals are met, but many questions are left unanswered at the end of her book. By contrasting her views with that of others, her credit is almost lost. Reid should have focused completely on her own point of view that way so many questions would not be