Department of Near Eastern Studies

Overview

David S. Powers (Ph.D., Princeton, 1979) is a native of Cleveland, Ohio and long-suffering Cleveland Indians fan. He received his Ph.D. from Princeton in 1979 and began teaching at Cornell in the same year. His courses deal with Islamic civilization, Islamic history and law, and classical Arabic texts, and his research focuses on the history of Islamic law and its application in Muslim societies. Powers is the author of Studies in Qur'an and Hadith: The Formation of the Islamic Law of Inheritance (California, 1986), Law, Society, and Culture in the Maghrib, 1300-1500 (Cambridge, 2002), and Muhammad is Not the Father of Any of Your Men: The Making of the Last Prophet (University of Pennsylvania, 2009). He is founding editor of the journal Islamic Law and Society and Sectional Editor (Law) of the third edition of the Encyclopaedia of Islam.

Research

• Islam, Qur'an, Hadith, Law, Gender, the Maghrib

Courses

NES 3677 - Search for the Historical Muhammad | spring 2010 class

Selected Publications

Edited Volumes:

• Dispensing Justice in Muslim Courts: Qadi and their Courts, ed. M. Khalid Masud, Rudolph Peters, David S. Powers (E.J. Brill, 2006)
• Islamic Legal Interpretation: Muftis and their Fatwas, ed. M. Khalid Masud, Brinkley Messick and David Powers (Harvard University Press, 1996)

Awards and Distinctions

• Carnegie Corporation of New York Fellowship, 2007-08
• Lady Davis Fellowship, 1996-97 (Hebrew University, Jerusalem)
• Travel Grant, American Institute for Maghribi Studies, 1997
• Merrill Presidential Teaching Award, spring, 1992  
• National Endowment for the Humanities Research Fellowship, fall, 1991
• National Endowment for the Humanities Summer Research Grant, 1989
• Cornell Faculty Research Grant, 1983, 1980