This dissertation investigates the development of legal institutions in the Far Maghrib during its unification with al-Andalus under the Almoravids (434-530/1042-1147). It posits that political unification occurred alongside urban transformation and argues that legal institutions developed in response to the social needs of the growing urban spaces as well as to the administrative needs of the state. Such social needs included the regulation of market exchange, the settlement of commercial disputes, and the privatization and individualization of property. The dissertation explores the development of these institutions though a close reading of jursconsultative texts produced through the correspondence between jurists in the Far Maghrib and Ibn Rushd al-Jadd of Cordoba. The social context for each question-and-answer text is considered, highlighting the functions served by the growing network of Mālikī jurists, where this network developed faster, and how it interacted with local custom. I argue that the discursive practices associated with this institutional development were significant to the post-Almoravid Maghrib, constituting a significant measure of continuity in the face of dynastic and ideological change.

Mālikī scholars of al-Andalus made crucial contributions to the institutional development of the Far Maghrib. This study presents a reassessment of the relationship between these two regions, specifically, by focusing on the nature of the authority that a prominent Andalusī jurist such as Ibn Rushd al-Jadd represented for the Almoravid Far Maghrib. Lastly, by focusing on Ibn Rushd al-Jadd, the dissertation serves the added function of contributing to our understanding of the legal thought of this jurist, estimation of whom has grown significantly in recent years in Western historiography. As one of the most important jurists of the Mālikī School in the Islamic West, Ibn Rusted al-Jadd's work enjoys deep and lasting influence. This dissertation examines his activities as muftī, as he responded to changes in contemporary social conditions, and describes his reasoning concerning a variety of legal topics, highlighting his contributions to the development of specific articulations within Maghribī Māliksm as well as the relationship between the process of jurisconsultation and the development of substantive law.