The Division of the Seas in International and Islamic Law and the Concept of Ḥarīm al-Baḥr: A Comparative Fiqh Study

Year 2021, , 143 - 184, 31.12.2021

Anke Iman Bouzenıta

https://doi.org/10.12730/13091719.2021.122.225

Abstract

This original research paper investigates how the division of the seas between international (the high seas) and territorial waters is approached in Islamic law as compared to international law. It describes the conceptualization of the seas against the background of contemporary international and Islamic law and analyses the Islamic legal concept of the appurtenance of the sea, ḥarīm al-baḥr, as a suitable vehicle to accommodate the modern division. The paper draws on source material from different Islamic schools, with a focus on the Ibāḍī school, which historically has paid relatively more attention to the seas. It suggests legal mechanisms that may be activated with regard to notions of territorial and international waters in Islamic law. The study arrives at the conclusion that some modern representations of ḥarīm al-baḥr are not commensurable with its intended legislative purpose (ʿillah).

Keywords

International law, fiqh, territorial seas, high seas, ḥarīm al-baḥr, Ibāḍism

References

• ʿAbd al-ʿAlīm, Anwar. al-Milāḥah wa-ʿulūm al-biḥār ʿinda l-ʿArab. Vol. 13, ʿĀlam al-Maʿrifah. Kuwait: al-Majlis al-Waṭanī li-l-funūn wa-l-thaqāfah wa-l-ādāb, 1979.
• Abou-El-Wafa, Ahmed. “Ibāḍī Jurisprudence and the Law of the Sea.” In Ibadi Jurisprudence, Origins, Developments and Cases. Vol. 6, Studies in Ibadism and Oman. Edited by Barbara Michalak-Pikulska and Reinhard Eisener. Hildesheim: Olms Verlag, 2015, 257-264.
• Abū l-Wafā’, Aḥmad. Aḥkām al-qānūn al-duwalī wa-l-ʿalāqāt al-duwaliyyah fī l-fiqh al-Ibāḍī. Muscat: Wizārat al-Awqāf wa-l-shu’ūn al-dīniyyah, 1434/2013.
• Acevedo, Juan and Inês Bénard. “Indian Ocean Arab Navigation Studies Towards a Global Perspective: Annotated Bibliography and Research Roadmap.” RUTTER Technical Notes 2, Version 3. University of Lisbon: ERC RUTTER Project, 31 December 2020. https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.12389855.
• Ali, Omar H. Islam in the Indian Ocean World: A Brief History with Documents. The Bedford Series in History and Culture. MacMillan, 2016.
• Armitage, David. Introduction to The Free Sea by Hugo Grotius, xi-xx. Indianapolis: Liberty Fund, 2004.
• Aust, Anthony. Handbook of International Law. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2005.
• al-ʿAwtabī, Abū l-Mundhir Salām ibn Muslim. Kitāb al-ḍiyāʾ. Edited by al-Ḥāj Sulaymān ibn Ibrāhīm Bābzīz and Dāwūd ibn ʿUmar Bābzīz. Muscat: Wizārat al-Awqāf wa-l-Shu’ūn al-Dīniyyah, 1436/2015.
• Azeem, Tuba. “Muslims’ Share of the Waves: Law, War and Tradition.” Policy Perspectives 17, no. 2 (2020): 67-82. https://doi.org/10.13169/polipers.17.2.0067
• Baatz, Yvonne, ed. Maritime Law. 5th ed. London: Routledge, 2020. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003046943.
• Bashir, Khaled Ramadan. International Islamic Law: Historical Foundations and Al-Shaybani’s Siyar. Cheltenham: Edward Elgar, 2018. https://doi.org/10.4337/9781788113861.
• al-Baṭṭāshī, Sayf ibn Ḥamūd ibn Ḥāmid. Itḥāf al-aʿyān fī tārīkh ba‘ḍi ʿulamā’ ʿUmān, 2nd ed. Oman: Maktabat al-Mustashār al-Khāṣṣ li-Jalālat al-Sulṭān li-l-Shu’ūn al-Dīniyyah wa-l-Tārīkhiyyah, 1425/2004.
• Beaujard, Philippe. The Worlds of the Indian Ocean: A Global History. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2019. https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108341004.
• Bouzenita, Anke Iman. “The siyar – An Islamic Law of Nations?” Asian Journal of Social Science 35, no. 1 (2007): 19-46. https://doi.org/10.1163/156853107X170150.
• Bouzenita, Anke Iman. “The principles of Territoriality and Personality in Islamic Law: Is There a Locus Regit Actum in Shari'ah?” International Journal of the Humanities 9, no. 7 (2011): 185-195. https://doi.org/10.18848/1447-9508/cgp/v09i07/43287.
• Bouzenita, Anke Iman. “A Reading in the Applied Ibāḍī Fiqh of International Relations: The Directive of Imām al-Ṣalt (d. 275/888) to His Army Concerning Socotra.” Ilahiyat Studies 10, no. 1 (2019): 7-45. https://doi.org/10.12730/13091719.2019.101.188.
• Bouzenita, Anke Iman. “Transgressing the Terms of Covenant in the Islamic Jurisprudence of International Relations: The Cases of Socotra and Cyprus in Comparison.” Intellectual Discourse 28, no. 2 (2020), 459-486.
• Bouzenita, Anke Iman and Saʿīd al-Ṣawāfī. “ʿUmān wa-l-qarṣanah al-baḥriyyah.” al-Tajdīd [refereed Arabic biannual, IIUM, Kuala Lumpur] 25, no. 49 (2021): 215-247.
• al-Būsaʿīdī, Muhanná ibn Khalfān ibn Muḥammad. Kitāb Lubāb al-athār al-wāridah ʿalá l-awwalīn wa-l-muta’akhkhirīn al-akhyār. Muscat: Wizārat al-Turāth al-Qawmī wa-l-Thaqāfah, 1405/1985.
• Çelik, Nihat. “The Black Sea and the Balkans under Ottoman Rule.” Karadeniz Araştırmaları 6, no. 24 (2010): 1-27.
• al-Dawsarī, Nā’if ibn ʿUmār ibn Watyān. “al-Ikhtiṣāṣ al-qaḍā’ī ʿalá al-miyāh al-iqlīmiyyah wa-al-dawliyyah: dirāsat fiqhiyyah muqāranah.” Majallat Kulliyyat al-sharīʿah wa-l-dirāsāt al-Islāmiyyah (2013) [Qatar University], 279-319.
• al-Faṭṭānī, Luṭfī Ismāʿīl. Ikhtilāf al-dārayn wa-atharu fī aḥkām al-munākaḥāt wa-l-muʿāmalāt. Cairo: Dār al-Salām, 1998.
• Fāyiʿ, ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Aḥmad ibn Muḥammad. “Aḥkām al-baḥr fī l-fiqh al-Islāmī.” In al-Rasā’il al-jāmiʿiyyah, XXII. Beirut: Dār al-Andalus al-Khaḍrāʾ & Dār Ibn Ḥazm, 1421/2000.
• al-Fazārī, Abū Isḥāq. Kitāb al-Siyar li-shaykh al-Islām Abī Isḥāq al-Fazārī. Edited by Fārūq Ḥamādah. Beirut: Muʾassasat al-Risālah, 1408/1987.
• al-Fursuṭā’ī al-Nufūsī, Abū l-ʿAbbās Aḥmad ibn Muḥammad. al-Qismah wa-uṣūl al-araḍīn: Kitāb fī fiqh al-ʿimārah al-Islāmiyyah. Edited by Bakīr ibn Muḥammad al-Shaykh Belḥāj and Muḥammad ibn Ṣāliḥ Nāṣir. al-Qarārah: Nashr Jamʿiyyat al-Turāth, 1997.
• Grotius, Hugo. The Free Sea. With William Welwod’s Critique and Grotius’s Reply. Translated by Richard Hakluyt. Edited by David Armitage. Natural Law and Enlightenment Classics. Indianapolis: Liberty Fund, 2004.
• Hamidullah, Muhammad. Muslim Conduct of State. Lahore: Ashraf, 1945.
• Haykal, Muhammad Khayr. al-Jihād wa-l-qitāl fī l-siyāsah al-sharʿiyyah. Beirut: Dār Ibn Ḥazm, 1996.
• Hourani, George Fadlo. Arab Seafaring in the Indian Ocean and Medieval Times. Princeton Oriental Studies, 1975, vol. 13. New York: Octagon Books (1st ed. 1951).
• Ibn ʿĀbidīn, Muḥammad Amīn ibn ʿUmar. Radd al-muḥtār ʿalá l-durr al-mukhtār: Sharḥ Tanwīr al-abṣār. Special edition. Beirut: Dār al-Kutub al-ʿIlmiyyah, 1423/2003.
• Ibn Khaldūn, ʿAbd al-Raḥmān. Muqaddimat Ibn Khaldūn. Edited by ʿAbd Allāh Muḥammad al-Darwīsh. Damascus: Dār Yaʿrib, 2003.
• Ibn Mājid, Aḥmad al-Julfārī al-Saʿdī. Kitāb al-fawā’id fī maʿrifat ʿilm al-baḥr wa-l-qawāʿid. Transcribed by Nedjmeddin Bey. Damascus: Ecole Superieure d'Arabe, 1344/1926. Manuscript/Mixed material. Library of Congress no. 2008401696. https://www.loc.gov/item/2008401696/.
• Ibn Qudāmah al-Maqdisī, Muwaffaq al-Dīn Abū Muḥammad. al-Mughnī. Cairo: Maktabat al-Qāhirah, 1388/1968.
• Ibn Rushd, Abū l-Walīd Muḥammad ibn Aḥmad. al-Bayān wa-l-taḥṣīl wa-l-sharḥ wa-l-tawjīh wa-l-taʿlīl fī l-masā’il al-mustakhrajah. Beirut: Dār al-Gharb al-Islāmī, 1408/1988.
• Ibn ʿUbaydān Muhammad ibn ʿAbd Allāh. Jawāhir al-āthār. Muscat: Wizārat al-Turāth al-Qawmī wa-l-Thaqāfah, 1985.
• al-Idrīsī, Abū Isḥāq. Kitāb Nuzhat al-mushtāq fī ikhtirāq al-āfāq. Cairo: Maktabat al-Thaqāfah al-Dīniyyah, 1422/2002.
• International Court of Justice. Statute of the Court. https://www.icj-cij.org/en/statute.
• ʿĪsá, Haná Fahmī. “Ḥimāyat al-sharīʿah al-Islāmiyyah li-l-bī’ah al-ṭabīʿīyah: Dirāsah fiqhiyyah muqāranah.” Majallat Kulliyat al-Sharīʿah wa-l-qānūn bi-Ṭantá [Tanta, Egypt] 33 (2018): 144-397.
• Kaegi, Walter. E. Muslim Expansion and Byzantine Collapse in North Africa. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2010.
• al-Kasānī, ʿAlā’ al-Dīn Abū Bakr ibn Masʿūd ibn Aḥmad. Badā’iʿ al-ṣanā’iʿ fī tartīb al-sharā’iʿ, 2nd ed. 7 vols. Beirut: Dār al-Kutub al-ʿIlmiyyah, 1406/1986.
• Khadduri, Majid. War and Peace in the Law of Islam. Baltimore & London: The Johns Hopkins Press, 1955.
• al-Khalīlī, Aflaḥ ibn Aḥmad. al-Siyāsah al-sharʿiyyah ʿinda al-imāmayn al-muḥaqqiq al-Khalīlī wa-l-ʿallāmah al-Sālimī. Muscat: Dhākirat ʿUmān, 2016.
• al-Khalīlī, Saʿīd ibn Khalfān. Ajwibat al-muhaqqiq al-Khalīlī. Edited by Badr ibn ʿAbd Allāh al-Raḥbī. 2nd ed. Muscat: Maktabat al-Jayl al-Wāʿid, 2011.
• Khalilieh, Hassan S. Admiralty and Maritime Laws in the Mediterranean Sea (ca. 800-1050): The Kitāb Akriyat al-Sufun vis-à-vis the Nomos Rhodion Nautikos. Vol. 64, The Medieval Mediterranean. Leiden & Boston: Brill, 2006. https://doi.org/10.1163/9789047410294.
• Khalilieh, Hassan S. Islamic Law of the Sea: Freedom of Navigation and Passage Rights in Islamic Thought. Cambridge Studies in Islamic Civilization. Cambridge & New York: Cambridge University Press, 2019. https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108630702.
• al-Khāṭiriyyah, Khulūd bint Ḥamdān. “Turāth ʿUmān al-baḥrī fī l-fiqh al-Ibāḍī min khilāl kitāb bayān al-sharʿ li-l-shaykh al-qādī Muḥammad ibn Ibrāhīm al-Kindī (t. 508 hijrī/1115 milādī).” In al-Awrāq al-ʿilmiyyah [Proceedings] li-l-mu’tamar al-dawlī: Turāth ʿUmān al-baḥrī, 23-25 October 2018, edited by Aḥmad ibn Ḥamid al-Rubʿānī, 443-463. Al Khoudh, Oman: Markaz al-Dirāsāt al-ʿUmāniyyah, Sultan Qaboos University, 2020.
• al-Kindī, Muḥammad ibn Ibrāhīm. Bayān al-sharʿ. 71 vols. Muscat: Wizārat al-Turāth al-qawmī wa-l-thaqāfah, Salṭanat ʿUmān, 1993.
• al-Kindī, Abū Bakr Aḥmad ibn ʿAbd Allāh ibn Mūsá. al-Muṣannaf. Edited by Muṣṭafá ibn Sālim Bājū. Muscat: Wizārat al-Awqāf wa-l-shu’ūn al-dīniyyah, 1437/2016.
• Kraska, James. Maritime Power and the Law of the Sea: Expeditionary Operations in World Politics. New York: Oxford University Press, 2011. doi:10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199773381.001.0001.
• Majmūʿah min al-bāḥithīna, muʿjam al-muṣṭalaḥāt al-Ibāḍiyyah, 2nd ed. Muscat: Wizārat al-Awqāf wa-l-Shu’ūn al-Dīniyyah, 1433/2012.
• Mālik ibn Anas ibn Mālik ibn ʿĀmir al-Aṣbaḥī al-Madanī. al-Mudawwanah. Beirut: Dār al-Kutub al-ʿIlmiyyah, 1415/1994.
• Manṣūr, ʿAlī ʿAlī. al-Sharīʿah al-Islāmiyyah wa-l-qānūn al-duwalī al-ʿāmm. Cairo: al-Majlis al-Aʿlá li-l-Shu’ūn al-Islāmiyyah, 1390/1971.
• al-Māwardī, Abū l-Ḥasan ʿAlī ibn Muḥammad. al-Aḥkām al-sulṭāniyyah. Edited by Aḥmad Jād. Cairo: Dār al-Ḥadīth, 1427/2006.
• Nadvi, Syed Sulaiman. The Arab Navigation. Lahore: Ashraf, 1966.
• Nordin, Mardiana. “Undang-Undang Laut Melaka: A Note on Malay Maritime Law in the 15th century.” In Memory and Knowledge of the Sea in Southeast Asia. IOES Monograph Series 3. Kuala Lumpur: Institute of Ocean and Earth Sciences (IOES), University of Malaya, 2008. ISBN 978-983-9576-36-8.
• al-Qāḍī Abū Yaʿlá, Muḥammad ibn al-Ḥusayn ibn Khalaf ibn al-Farrā’. al-Aḥkām al-sulṭāniyyah. Edited by Muḥammad Ḥāmid al-Fiqī. 2nd ed. Beirut: Dār al-Kutub al-ʿIlmiyyah, 1357/1938.
• al-Qayrawānī, Abū Muḥammad ʿAbd Allāh ibn Abī Zayd. al-Nawādir wa-l-ziyādāt ʿalá mā fī l-Mudawwanah min ghayrihā min al-ummuhāt. Beirut: Dār al-Gharb al-Islāmī, 1999.
• Raffles, Stamford. “The Maritime Code of the Malays.” Journal of the Straits Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society 3 (July 1879): 62-84.
• Risso, Patricia A. Merchants and Faith: Muslim Commerce and Culture in the Indian Ocean, ebook edition. New York: Routledge, 2019. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780429498992.
• al-Riyāmī, Ḥasan ibn Khalaf ibn Saʿīd. “al-Ḥarīm wa-aḥkāmuhu fī l-fiqh al-Islāmī: Dirāsah muqāranah.” Master’s thesis. Mafraq, Jordan: Āl al-Bayt University, 1999.
• al-Saʿdī, Nāṣir ibn Sayf. “al-Baḥr min khilāl al-jawābāt wa-l-nawāzil al-fiqhiyyah al-ʿUmāniyyah: al-nuẓum, wa-l-ʿalāqāt, wa-l-ḥawādith.” In al-Awrāq al-ʿilmiyyah [Proceedings] li-l-mu’tamar al-dawlī: Turāth ʿUman al-baḥrī, 23-25 October 2018, edited by Aḥmad ibn Ḥamid al-Rubʿānī, 208-223. Al Khoudh, Oman: Markaz al-Dirāsāt al-ʿUmāniyyah, Sultan Qaboos University, 2020.
• Al-Salimi, Abdulrahman and Eric Staples. A Maritime Lexicon: Arabic Nautical Terminology in the Indian Ocean. Vol. 2, Studies in Ibadism and Oman, edited by Abdulrahman Al-Salimi and Ersilia Francesca. Hildesheim: Olms Verlag, 2019.
• al-Sālimī, Nūr al-Dīn ʿAbd Allāh ibn Ḥumayd. Tuḥfat al-aʿyān bi-sīrat ahl ʿUmān. 2 vols. Edited by Abū Isḥāq Aṭfayyish. Ruwi, Muscat: al-Maṭābiʿ al-Dhahabiyyah, 1983.
• al-Sālimī, Nūr al-Dīn ʿAbd Allāh ibn Ḥumayd. Jawhar al-niẓām fī ʿilmay al-adyān wa-l-aḥkām. Edited by Abū Isḥāq Aṭfayyish and Ibrāhīm al-ʿAbrī. 2nd ed. Muscat: Wizārat al-Awqāf wa-l-shu’ūn al-dīniyyah, 1439/2018.
• al-Ṣallābī, ʿAlī Muḥammad Muḥammad. ʿUmar ibn ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz: Maʿālim al-tajdīd wa-l-iṣlāḥ al-rāshidī ʿalá minhāj al-nubuwwah. Cairo: Dār al-Tawzīʿ wa-l-Nashr al-Islāmiyyah, 1427/2006.
• al-Sarakhsī, Muḥammad ibn Aḥmad. Kitāb al-Mabsūṭ. Beirut: Dār al-Maʿrifah, 1414/1993.
• al-Shaqṣī, Khamīs ibn Saʿīd ibn ʿAlī ibn Masʿūd. Minhāj al-ṭālibīn wa-balāgh al-rāghibīn. 10 vols. in 5 vols. Edited and annotated by Muḥammad Kamāl al-Dīn Imām. Muscat: Wizārat al-Awqāf wa-l-Shuʾūn al-Dīniyyah, 2011.
• al-Shāshī, Niẓām al-Dīn Abū ʿAlī Aḥmad ibn Muḥammad ibn Isḥāq. Uṣūl al-Shāshī. Beirut: Dār al-Kitāb al-ʿArabī, 1982.
• al-Shawkānī, Muḥammad IbnʿAlī. Nayl al-awtār: Sharḥ muntaqá l-akhbār min aḥādīth Sayyid al-akhyār. Beirut: Dār al-Kutub al-ʿIlmiyyah, 1403/1983.
• Shawmān, ʿAbbās. al-ʿAlāqāt al-duwaliyyah fī l-sharīʿah al-Islāmiyyah. Cairo: Dār al-Thaqāfah li-l-Nashr, 1999.
• Shihāb, Ṣāliḥ Aḥmad. Aḥmad ibn Mājid wa-l-malāḥah fī l-Muḥīṭ al-Hindī. Vol. 5, Silsilat Kitāb al-abḥāth. Raʾs al-Khaymah: Markaz al-Dirāsāt wa-l-Wathāʾiq, 1422/2001.
• al-Ṣiqillī, Muḥammad ibn Yūnus al-Tamīmī. al-Jāmiʿ li-masā’il al-Mudawwanah. Edited by scholars (majmūʿah min al-bāḥithīn) from Maʿhad al-Buḥūth al-ʿIlmiyyah wa-Iḥyāʾ aT-turāth al-Islāmī. Mecca: Umm al-Qurá University, 1434/2013.
• Somos, Mark and Joshua Smeltzer. “Vitoria, Suárez, and Grotius: James Brown Scott’s Enduring Revival.” Grotiana 41 (2020): 137-162. https://doi.org/10.1163/18760759-04101007.
• al-Ṭabarī, Muḥammad ibn Jarīr. Tārīkh al-rusul wa-l-mulūk. 2nd ed. Cairo: Dār al-Maʿārif, 1975.
• Tsimplis, Michael. “The Liabilities of the Vessel.” In Maritime Law, edited by Yvonne Baatz, 5th ed., 246-333. London: Routledge, 2020. https://doi.org/ 10.4324/9781003046943-7
• Tuori, Kaius. “The Savage Sea and the Civilizing Law: The Roman Law Tradition and the Rule of the Sea.” In Thalassokratographie: Rezeption und Transformation antiker Seeherrschaft, edited by Hans Kopp and Christian Wendt, 201-218. Berlin & Boston: De Gruyter, 2018. https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110571820-009.
• Tyser, Charles Robert, D. G. Demetriades, and Ismail Haqqi Effendi, trans. The Mejelle: Being an English Translation of Majallah el-Ahkam-i-Adliya and a Complete Code of Islamic Civil Law. Kuala Lumpur: The Other Press, 2001. Reprinted 2003.
• Udovitch, Abraham L. “An Eleventh Century Islamic Treatise on the Law of the Sea.” Annales Islamologiques 27 (1994): 38-39. https://www.ifao.egnet.net/anisl/027/03/.
• United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS). 10 December 1982. https://www.un.org/depts/los/convention_agreements/convention_overview_convention.htm.
• Wilkinson, John C. Ibāḍism: Origins and Early Development in Oman. Oxford University Press, 2010; Oxford Scholarship Online, 2011. doi:10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199588268.001.0001.
• Winstedt, Richard and P. E. de Josselin de Jong. “The Maritime Laws of Malacca.” Journal of the Malayan Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society 29, no. 3 (1956): 22-59. https://www.jstor.org/stable/41503096.
• Yatim, Zakaria M. “The Development of the Law of the Sea in Relation to Malaysia.” Malaysian Management Journal 1 (1992): 87–98.
• Wizārat al-Awqāf wa-l-Shu’ūn al-Islāmiyyah (Kuwait). al-Mawsūʿah al-fiqhiyyah al-Kuwaytiyyah. Kuwait: Dār al-Salāsil, 1404-1427/1983-2006.
• al-Zuḥaylī, Wahbah Muṣṭafá. al-Fiqh al-Islāmī wa-adillatuhu. 4th ed. Damascus, n.d.
• al-Zuḥaylī, Wahbah Muṣṭafá. Uṣūl al-fiqh al-Islāmī. Damascus: Dār al-Fikr, 1406/1986.