Unveiling the Lesser-Known Research Topic: A Personal Reflection on My Journey
In the pursuit of academic excellence, delving into less-obvious topics can often reveal fascinating parallels and connections. This is precisely what one Princeton senior did when they chose to explore the relatively unknown Arabic Christian legal text, the Mukhtasar al-Sharīʿa of ʿAbdallāh Qarāʄalī, from 18th-century Lebanon, as their senior thesis topic.
## Defining the Scope and Objectives
The first step in this research journey was to clearly define the scope and objectives. The student identified key questions, such as the historical context, legal implications, and linguistic features of the text, and set clear objectives, including analysing the text's influence on legal practices, its reception, or its cultural significance.
## Literature Review
The next phase involved a thorough literature review, focusing on Arabic Christian legal texts, Islamic law, and Christian-Arabic interactions. This helped the student understand the broader context and identify gaps in current research. They also sought out relevant sources, such as academic studies, books, and articles that focused on similar legal texts or historical periods, and noted any references to the Mukhtasar al-Sharīʿa and related texts.
## Access and Analysis of Primary Sources
Finding copies of the Mukhtasar al-Sharīʿa or closely related texts was the next challenge. The student accessed digitized manuscripts and legal documents through libraries and online portals. They then analysed the text's content, focusing on legal concepts, terminology, and any Christian-specific elements, and considered how it reflected interactions between Christian and Islamic legal systems.
## Historical and Cultural Context
To fully understand the text, the student researched the time period in which it was written, including political, religious, and social conditions. They also investigated the dynamics between Christian and Muslim communities during that period, including the ḏimma status and its implications for Christians under Muslim rule.
## Methodological Approach
The student approached the linguistic aspects of the text with a focus on the use of Christian-Arabic terminology and how legal concepts were translated and interpreted. They also compared the Mukhtasar al-Sharīʿa with other legal texts from the same period to identify similarities and differences.
## Organizing and Structuring the Thesis
The student structured their thesis with an introduction, literature review, methodology, analysis and results, and conclusion. They introduced the topic, its significance, and their research objectives, summarized existing research related to their topic, explained their research methods and how they analysed the text, presented their findings and analysed them in the context of their research questions, and summarised their main points and discussed the implications of their research.
Throughout this process, the student enjoyed the freedom of choosing an under-the-radar topic for their thesis and found it to be a blessing and a curse. They faced challenges such as finding an adviser for an under-the-radar topic due to its non-alignment with a professor's field of expertise, and standard library searches may not reveal under-the-radar topics. However, they found that Princeton has resources to support seniors writing their theses, and their JP adviser was their greatest ally in researching an under-the-radar topic.
The student found that little had been written about the text because scholars had treated it dismissively. Despite this, they found the process of researching a niche topic to be rewarding, and their thesis contributes to the academic understanding of under-the-radar Arabic Christian legal texts.
In the context of their junior paper and personal-growth, the student delved into education-and-self-development by choosing an under-the-radar topic for their final project, a less-obvious Arabic Christian legal text. This choice led to a fascinating exploration of the Mukhtasar al-Sharīʿa of ʿAbdallāh Qarāʄalī, its influence, reception, and cultural significance becoming the focus of their senior thesis.
