ABSTRACT
The historiography of the early development of Islamic law, the Sharīʿa, is highly contentious both among Muslims and secular historians. Thus, it is impossible to provide a single history that all will agree to. There is, however, general agreement that the sources of revelation only formed the raw material for the law of Islam and that its formulation is the result of human endeavour by fallible scholars. Thus, the history of this human endeavour can be an object of research.
