The Canonization of Islamic Law: A Social and Intellectual History. By Ahmed El Shamsy. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2013. Pp. ix + 253. $90.

Guardians of Islam: Religious Authority and Muslim Communities of Late Medieval Spain. By Kathryn A. Miller. New York: Columbia University Press, 2008. Pp. xv + 276. $55, £38.

This study analyzes a poem by the Twelver Shiʿi jurist Ḥusayn b. ʿAbd al-Ṣamad al-ʿĀmilī (d. 984/1576) that has recently been discovered in a multiple-text manuscript in Iran. It is argued here that the poem dates from 961–63/1554–56 and expresses the author’s disappointment and frustrations with patrons or intermediaries in his efforts to procure a position shortly after he arrived in Safavid territory.

Flüche und unfromme Wünsche in der arabischen Sprache und Literatur. By Manfred Ullmann. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, 2020. Pp. 245. €58 (paper).