Christian legal ‘distortions’ of sharia often continued preexisting Islamic customary practice

Evidence

It was not that the Christian authorities intentionally set out to subvert the sharia. The need to modify that law in some circumstances had been felt already under many Islamic regimes, so that some of the modifications employed in Valencia may well have been continuations of preexistent local practices or customs (urf, “customary law”) and not innovations of the Christian conquerors. Nevertheless, the overall effect was to create an ever increasing gap between the structures of the society in which these Spanish Muslims lived and the Islamic world proper. — L. P. Harvey, Muslims in Spain, 1500 to 1614, 454

Categorization

• XREF: Sharia modified by local custom echoes the theme of law being shaped by environment rather than pure doctrine, like the manuscript-era bespoke compilation of texts.
• DEFINE: Introduces urf (customary law) as a distinct layer beneath formal sharia.