Sharia and the making of the modern Egyptian
Subtitle: Islamic law and custom in the courts of Ottoman Cairo
By: Reem A. Meshal
Publisher: American University in Cairo Press
Published: 2014
Place of publication: Cairo; New York
Language: eng
Number of pages: 290
ISBN-13: 9789774166174
Subjects: Law; Islamic influences; History; Islamic law; Customary law; Islamic courts
Description: "In this new study, the author examines sijills, the official documents of the Ottoman Islamic courts, to understand how sharia law, society, and the early-modern economy of sixteenth- and seventeenth-century Ottoman Cairo related to the practice of custom in determining rulings. In the sixteenth century, a new legal and cultural orthodoxy fostered the development of an early-modern Islam that broke new ground, giving rise to a new concept of citizens and their role. Contrary to the prevailing scholarly view, this work adopts the position that local custom began to diminish and decline as a source of authority. These issues resonate today, several centuries later, in the continuing discussions of individual rights in relation to Islamic law"--Unedited summary from book jacket.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (p. 269-286) and index.
Table of contents: title: The Empire in Theory; title: Custom in Shari'a and in the Siyasati Ilahi (Celestial Siyasa); title: The Construction of Orthodoxy :  Renewal (Tajdid) & Renunciation (Takfir); title: "This Sijill is a Hujja!"  Mass Producing Documents in Ottoman-Cairo; title: The Documented Life; title: The Rights of God (Huquq Allah) :  "A Moral Transgression, not a Crime"; title: The Rights of Man (Huquq al-Adamiyyin).