Machine summary:
Over a decade ago, when I began writing these pages, I had not the slightest idea that, to write on Muslim international law meant describing the very first phase of this science after it became a self-contained and independent branch of learning.
ideal which has never been achieved, even for a short term, in the long annals of Man. We have, however, recognised in our definiticn that not only laws and customs of the land, but even treaties, impose obligations upon a Muslim State.
Radly-ud-Dtn as-Sarakjjsly, for instance, states in his chapter on international law : " The word Sirat, when· used without adjectives, meant the conduct of the Prophet more especially in his wars.
The second source of Muslim International Law, in order as well as importance, is the Sunnah or the ~adith which comprises what the Prophet" said, did, or tolerated.
· According to Islamic jurisprudence, whenever unanimity is reached among the Muslim jurists ofa time, this consensus has the same validity as " a verse of the Qur'an or the most reliably proved tradition of the Prophet ; and whoever denies its authority is to be considered an infidel.
Histories mention that not much difference is to be found between the pre-Islamic pagan pilgrimage and the Islamic Hajj, which is one of the five basic elements of Islam ; that the Caliph 'Urnar is reported to have adopted in toto the Persian revenue laws when that empire was absorbed into the Muslim State; that the greatest number of jurists Islam has produced came from Bukhara, Turkistan and adjoining countries where Buddhist and Chinese influence predominated ; that the pupils of the Companions of the Prophet and their pupils, the teachers of Abu-Hanifah.