Salik

Dear Mimiuchi, I would second everything Samarkand has said. Reputation, prestige, financial resources and support, library collections, indeed Harvard does seem to have it all. More importantly, I have no doubt that it is the best for the area you are interested in. The only person in Chicago in Islamic law is Ahmad al-Shamsy who very recently finished his PhD from Harvard. His dissertation was very good and I am sure that he will bloom into a fine scholar, but I would recommend that you be trained by someone more senior. Stanford only allows tenured professors to take on PhD students, I don't know what Chicago's policy is. I was a NELC undergrad at Chicago and no doubt the reputation of Chicago is very strong and it has produced many graduates who have blossomed in Islamic law (Katz-NYU, Fadel-Toronto), but their Islamic thought and history is pretty slim now, only Donner and Shamsy. Princeton: If Cook is not retiring, then it would be a great opportunity to work under him. Although Islamic law is not his particular specialty, he is an excellent supervisor. And Aron Zysow is excellent in both usul and fiqh, though less so in legal history, and he is around the area (at the IAS or even at Princeton). Modarressi is overrated, as are Haykel and Zaman. Harvard: Johansen is top-notch and although he seems overcommitted at the moment as well as sidestepping into less academic interests, if you can get him interested in your particular dissertation proposal, I think he would be the best supervisor for what you want to do. Shahab is again overrated, Mottahedeh is good in history, and Heinrichs has a passing interest in usul, and is very good in grammar and literature. Moreover, Harvard's ILSP and their joint History and Middle Eastern Studies PhD show that they are strongly committed to law and the history of law and legal theory. In sum, if I were in your place, I would without a doubt choose Harvard. Princeton's reputation is earned not on merit but on elitism. And Chicago's reputation is legendary, but no longer applicable in what you want to do. All of this is if you are very sure that what you want to do is Islamic legal thought. Lastly, I was curious as to where you studied undergrad, what professors you worked with, and your level of Arabic.

Dear Mimiuchi, Could you tell us what your field is in NELC? Egyptology, Assyriology, Early Islamic, Other? Without that information, it is hard to advise you. Congrats on having such a fine selection though. Would you be willing to share your profile/stats? Best