Alwaleed Bin Talal Director's Series presents:

Three Strikes and She’s Out: The Origins and Expansion of a Divorce and Remarriage Stipulation in Q 2:230
Monday, November 27, 2023 | 12-1:30pm | Lewis Hall 214, Harvard Law School, 1557 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge, MA 02138 | RSVP Here
Lyall Armstrong, Associate Professor of History and Archaeology, American University of Beirut
Co-sponsor: Program in Islamic Law at Harvard Law School 

Abstract: Q 2:230 stipulates that if a man divorces his wife three times and then wants to marry her again, she must have married and divorced another man in the intervening period in order for her to be legally licit for the previous husband. This lecture will explore the origins of this divorce ruling by evaluating its relationship to divorce and remarriage law in Late Antiquity and by analyzing the Islamic tradition purported to be the source for the ruling. The lecture will then investigate how early and medieval legal scholars approached the ruling in light of its canonization in the Qur’ān. This evaluation of Q 2:230 hopes to contribute to the expansion of our understanding of the origins and applications, even in the modern period, of Islamic law.

Biography: Lyall Armstrong (PhD University of Chicago) is an Associate Professor of Islamic History at the American University of Beirut. His previous work focused on the role of “storytellers” in early Islamic history and thought leading to the publication of a monograph The Quṣṣāṣ in Early Islam (Brill 2017). His research interests are in Islamic thought, including Islamic theology, Qur’ānic interpretation, ḥadīth studies and law (fiqh).