Overview

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 the citizen and his 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.

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9789774166174

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Far more than a historical research into the past, Meshal has created a historical work of the present. Uncovering debates on authority, identity and the integral relationship between politics and religion allows for further understanding of the paramount debates of Muslim societies today.--Samantha May, Politics, Society and Ideology

Far more than a historical research into the past, Meshal has created a historical work of the present. Uncovering debates on authority, identity and the integral relationship between politics and religion allows for further understanding of the paramount debates of Muslim societies today. --Samantha May, Politics, Society and Ideology

Author Information

Reem A. Meshal is assistant professor of Islamic Studies at Louisiana State University. She has published numerous articles on Islamic social and intellectual history.

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