Contents -- Acknowledgments -- Introduction -- 1. Mutual Functionality between Legal History and Comparative Law -- 2. Egyptian Law and Its Arab Weight -- 3. Methodology and the Art of Borrowing -- 4. Types of Courtroom Oaths -- Chapter One The Courtroom Oath in Islamic Law, Theory and Practice -- 1. Islamic Law and Methodology: Legal History and Historical Law -- 2. Intimate Involvement of God -- 2.1 The meaning of power -- 2.2 Triple impact of anxiety -- 3. The Islamic Courtroom Oath as a Source of Legal Determination -- 3.1 The courtroom oath and the legal right -- 3.2 The binary approach: between the bayyina and the oath -- 3.3 Criticism of the binary approach -- 3.4 The paradox of the badhl and the restriction of the oath -- 4. The Types and Modalities of Islamic Oath -- 4.1 The manifestation of the oath -- 4.2 The interpretation of the future oath-objective or subjective -- 4.3 Extra-legal considerations -- 5. The Technique of the Courtroom Oath -- 6. The Positions of the Schools on the Subject of the Courtroom Oath: Malikites versus Hanafites -- 7. The Illusive Mental Dimension of the Islamic Courtroom Oath -- 8. The Scope of the Courtroom Oath: Issues That May Form the Subject of an Oath -- 9. A Confrontation between Forms of Proof and Legal Determination: The Oath versus the Bayyina -- 10. The Defendant and the Courtroom Oath -- 10.1 Affinity (khulṭa) -- 11. The Rerendering of the Oath and the Burden of Proof -- 11.1 The development of dynamic revision -- 12. The Paradox of Mutual Plaintiffs and Defendants (taḥāluf ) -- 12.1 The lot (qur'a) as a tool for courtroom determination -- 13. Cases in which the Plaintiff Takes the Oath: A Conceptual Challenge for the Hanafites -- 13.1 Rendering the oath to the plaintiff when the defendant cannot defend himself (yamīn al-qaḍā', yamīn al-'istiẓhār).

13.2 The course and outcomes of the judicial oath -- 13.3 The oath in a ḥisba suit-between human and divine order -- 13.4 The oath with a single witness -- 13.5 An oath cannot be made regarding an unknown matter -- 14. Judicial Discretion and the Decisive Oath -- 14.1 Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyya: from form to content -- 14.2 Restricted judicial space -- 14.3 Inspection of the legal competence of the parties -- 14.4 The mute's oath: when both verbal intention and inner intention are concealed -- 15. Can the Defendant Guide the Wording of the Oath in His Favor? -- 15.1 Redemption of an oath ('iftidā') as avoidance of danger -- 16. A Religious Element in the Service of Law: The Intensification of the Oath -- 16.1 The text -- 16.2 Means of swearing on the Qur'an -- 16.3 Repetition -- 16.4 Way of ceremony (ḥāl) -- 16.5 The dimension of place -- 16.6 The dimension of time -- 16.7 Non-Muslim -- 17. The Testimonial Oath -- 18. Special Types of Oaths: Curses (li'ān) and Qasāma -- 18.1 The terrible story of 'Uwaymar and his wife Khawla -- 18.2 Management of the curse procedure: the ceremony -- 18.3 The outcome of the curses procedure: Legal analysis -- 18.4 Fifty oaths as a single oath: The consequences of the qasāma -- 18.5 The course of the oath: two schools of thought -- Chapter Two Sui Generis, The Legal History of Courtroom Oath -- 1. 'Tortura Spiritualis' -- 1.1 The anxiety of the oath and the potential of self-destruction -- 1.2 Decisive and complementary courtroom oaths -- 1.3 First reference: courtroom oath in Judaism -- 1.4 Second reference: Courtroom oath in Greek and Roman law -- 1.5 Third reference: The oath in European law and criticism of the institution -- 1.6 Direct criticism of the courtroom oath -- 2. Courtroom Oath in Egyptian Legal History: Continuity and Omission -- 2.1 The 'social engineering' of the courtroom oath.

2.2 Legislative sources and the functionality approach -- 3. Reinterpretation and the 'Stifling' of the Courtroom Oath -- 3.1 Reservations concerning the decisive oath in Franco-Egyptian law -- 3.2 The imprisoning framework of modern law -- 3.3 The old Egyptian code: an individualistic declaration and the disappearance of the complementary oath -- 3.4 About-turn: from the individualistic approach to the sociological one -- 3.5 The subjection of the oath to the doctrine of the abuse of a right (ta'assuf) and the super-doctrines -- 3.6 The sociological about-turn regarding the finality of the legal hearing -- 3.7 The technique of rapprochement and distancing vis-à-vis Islamic law -- 3.8 Prevarication around the term Bayyina -- 3.9 Kaffāra (Penance) in the rule of religion and the rule of law: Imitatio Dei -- 3.10 Breaking the link with the Islamic sources: an independent entity -- 4. The Oath and 'Judicial Truth' as a Double Narrative -- 5. The Restriction of the Oath due to Injury to the Component of Legal Certainty -- 5.1 A ghost that may intervene at any stage -- 5.2 The oath and justice -- 5.3 The mechanical nature of the decisive oath -- 5.4 Extra-legal considerations -- 5.5 Custom, society and trust in the realm of the courtroom oath -- 5.6 Refusal to take the oath as a source of confession -- Chapter Three The Egyptian Courtroom Oath and its Function -- 1. The Franco-Egyptian Courtroom Oath -- 1.1 The source of the written articles -- 1.2 Doctrines of reference and Legal system -- 1.3 Active involvement by leading French jurists -- 1.4 Borrowing the major transformation undergone by the French legal system -- 2. Research Methodology -- 3. The Paradox of the Courtroom Oath -- 4. The Presentation of Courtroom Oaths: Decisive and Complementary -- 5. The Decisive Oath as a Quasi-Contractual Model -- 6. The Decisive Oath as Equity.

6.1 Legal justice and imbalance -- 6.2 The 'stroll through the realms of justice' parable -- 7. Judicial Discretion and the Decisive Oath -- 8. The Motif of Equality: The Oath is Granted to Both Parties -- 9. The 'Ritual' of the Oath and the Parties -- 10. The Balance of Threat of the Renderer -- 11. The Legal Capacity Required for a Decisive Oath -- 12. The Oath as a Text -- 13. 'Public Order', the Wild Horse, and Morality -- 14. The Oath and the Role of God as a Default -- 15. The Rerendering of the Oath -- 16. The Refusal (Nukūl) to Take the Decisive Oath -- 17. The Doctrine of the Finality of the Hearing -- 18. The Decisive Oath Outside the Courtroom -- 19. The Complementary Oath -- 19.1 The management of the complementary oath -- 20. Hybrid Oaths: Between the Decisive Oath and the Complementary Oath -- 20.1 The oath of estimated value -- 20.2 The oath of affirmation -- 20.3 The oath of clarification ('istiẓhār) -- 21. The Testimonial Oath -- Chapter Four Comparative Law-Two Oaths, Two Legal Regimes -- 1. A Current Thesis -- 2. A Charged Realm of Encounter -- 2.1 A historical perspective: divergence and rapprochement -- 2.2 Two chains of transmission of knowledge -- 2.3 The oaths and legal proceeding: Four chronological developments -- 2.4 Distinct points of departure -- 2.5 Points of contact -- 2.5.1 The Egyptian shaykh and Judge Makhlūf al-Minyāwī -- 2.5.2 The footnote technique -- 2.5.3 Terminology -- 2.5.4 The Sharī 'a Courts Procedural Law -- 2.5.5 The Iraqi civil code -- 3. The Decisive Oath and the Challenge of the Legal Right -- 4. The Oath between Legal Time and Human Time -- 4.1 Human time: the Islamic courtroom oath grants legitimacy to the Franco-Egyptian oath -- 4.2 Time as an agent of mutual threat -- 5. God as a Key Player -- 6. The Approach of Comparative Justice: Involvement or Interference?.

7. Legal Reasoning and Intimidation -- 8. The Source of Authority: The Courtroom Oath as a Social Function -- 9. Judicial Discretion and the Oath -- 10. The Mental Foundation of the Oath as a Subversive Element -- 10.1 'Intention' versus 'will' in the decisive oath -- 10.2 Mala fide: The mental foundation as a source of risk -- 11. Ceremony, Mysticism, and Ritual -- 12. The Oath and the Motif of Equality -- 13. The Realm of the Oath -- 14. The Relationship Created between the Parties to the Courtroom Oath -- 14.1 Access to the institution of the oath -- 14.2 The oath as distress for the defendant -- 14.3 The oath as the progenitor of a dynamic balance of power -- 14.4 The approach to non-Muslims as a function of sovereignty -- 14.5 The oath and considerations in penalization -- 15. Differences in Technique -- 15.1 The oath and the rerendered oath -- 15.2 The formulation of the oath text: Agreement or coercion -- 15.3 The oath versus the written document -- 15.4 The utterer and the text of the oath -- 16. The Complementary Oath: From a Binary Model to a Dynamic Perspective -- Chapter Five Perjury as Ideology: The Motif of Falsehood in the Islamic and Franco-Egyptian Oaths -- 1. Introduction: The Transformation of the Perjury in Franco-Egyptian Law and the Concept of Falsum -- 1.1 'The concern of the gods' -- 1.2 Modern state and perjury -- 1.3 The changing perception of falsehood -- 2. A Proposed Model for Examining Perjury in Islamic Law -- 2.1 The component of falsum: The false oath versus the descending oath -- 2.2 The exposure of falsehood and the institution of tazkīyya -- 2.3 The use of equivocation and self-preservation -- 2.4 The spiritual dimension: The sin and its purgation -- 2.4.1 The alternative course approach -- 2.4.2 The strict approach -- 2.4.3 The lenient approach -- 2.5 The doctrine of the legal penalization of perjury in the fiqh.

3. Perjury as an Institution and a Procedure in Egyptian Civil Law.