Bernard G. Weiss (10 August 1933 – 8 February 2018) was a

professor Professor (commonly abbreviated as Prof.) is an Academy, academic rank at university, universities and other tertiary education, post-secondary education and research institutions in most countries. Literally, ''professor'' derives from Latin ...

languages Language is a structured system of communication that consists of grammar and vocabulary. It is the primary means by which humans convey meaning, both in spoken and signed forms, and may also be conveyed through writing. Human language is ch ...

and

literature Literature is any collection of Writing, written work, but it is also used more narrowly for writings specifically considered to be an art form, especially novels, Play (theatre), plays, and poetry, poems. It includes both print and Electroni ...

at the

University of Utah The University of Utah (the U, U of U, or simply Utah) is a public university, public research university in Salt Lake City, Utah, United States. It was established in 1850 as the University of Deseret (Book of Mormon), Deseret by the General A ...

. He has an extensive publication record and is recognized as one of the foremost scholars in

Islamic law Sharia, Sharī'ah, Shari'a, or Shariah () is a body of religious law that forms a part of the Islamic tradition based on scriptures of Islam, particularly the Qur'an and hadith. In Islamic terminology ''sharīʿah'' refers to immutable, intan ...

Islamic theology Schools of Islamic theology are various Islamic schools and branches in different schools of thought regarding creed. The main schools of Islamic theology include the extant Mu'tazili, Ash'ari, Maturidi, and Athari schools; the extinct ones ...

Islamic philosophy Islamic philosophy is philosophy that emerges from the Islamic tradition. Two terms traditionally used in the Islamic world are sometimes translated as philosophy—''falsafa'' (), which refers to philosophy as well as logic, mathematics, and p ...

, Islamic political thought, Arab history and Muslim discussions of

linguistics Linguistics is the scientific study of language. The areas of linguistic analysis are syntax (rules governing the structure of sentences), semantics (meaning), Morphology (linguistics), morphology (structure of words), phonetics (speech sounds ...

and the

origin of language The origin of language, its relationship with human evolution, and its consequences have been subjects of study for centuries. Scholars wishing to study the origins of language draw inferences from evidence such as the fossil record, archaeolog ...

Life

Weiss received his PhD from

Princeton University Princeton University is a private university, private Ivy League research university in Princeton, New Jersey, United States. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth, New Jersey, Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the List of Colonial ...

in 1966.

Bibliography

* ''Studies in Islamic Law and Society'' * ''Religion and Law: Biblical-judaic and Islamic Perspectives'' * ''Studies in Islamic Legal Theory'' * ''A Survey of Arab History'', 1988 * ''The Spirit of Islamic Law'', Athens, Georgia: University of Georgia Press, 1998. * (ed. with Peri Bearman and Wolfhart Heinrichs) ''The Law Applied: Contextualizing the Islamic Shari`a'', London and New York: I.B. Tauris, 2008. * ''The Search for God's Law: Islamic Jurisprudence in the Writings of Sayf al-Din al-Amidi'', 2010 * ''Language in Orthodox Muslim Thought: A Study of "Wad Al-lughah" and Its Development''

References

1933 births 2018 deaths Linguists from the United States American scholars of Islam Princeton University alumni University of Utah faculty {{Linguist-stub