Recasting Islamic Law: Religion and the Nation State in Egyptian Constitution Making

Rachel M. Scott

Open Access Published by Cornell University Press 2023

Recasting Islamic Law

Religion and the Nation State in Egyptian Constitution Making

Rachel M. Scott
Funded by: Virginia Tech / TOME

https://doi.org/10.1515/9781501753985

Overview
Contents

About this book

By examining the intersection of Islamic law, state law, religion, and culture in the Egyptian nation-building process, Recasting Islamic Law highlights how the sharia, when attached to constitutional commitments, is reshaped into modern Islamic state law.

Rachel M. Scott analyzes the complex effects of constitutional commitments to the sharia in the wake of the Egyptian Revolution of 2011. She argues that the sharia is not dismantled by the modern state when it is applied as modern Islamic state law, but rather recast in its service. In showing the particular forms that the sharia takes when it is applied as modern Islamic state law, Scott pushes back against assumptions that introductions of the sharia into modern state law result in either the revival of medieval Islam or in its complete transformation. Scott engages with premodern law and with the Ottoman legal legacy on topics concerning Egypt's Coptic community, women's rights, personal status law, and the relationship between religious scholars and the Supreme Constitutional Court. Recasting Islamic Law considers modern Islamic state law's discontinuities and its continuities with premodern sharia.

Thanks to generous funding from Virginia Tech and its participation in TOME (Toward an Open Monograph Ecosystem), the ebook editions of this book are available as Open Access volumes from Cornell Open (cornellpress.cornell.edu/cornell-open) and other repositories.

Author / Editor information

Rachel M. Scott is Associate Professor of Islamic Studies at Virginia Tech. She is author of The Challenge of Political Islam.

Reviews

Pieternella van Doorn-Harder, Wake Forest University, author of The Emergence of the Modern Coptic Papacy:

Recasting Islamic Law is a joy to read. Rachel M. Scott brilliantly uses the Constitution as point of departure to elucidate some complex issues and debates within Egyptian society over the course of one century within patterns of thinking concerning the role of religion, minorities, and women.

Topics

Frontmatter Open Access Download PDF	i
Contents Open Access Download PDF	vii
Acknowledgments Open Access Download PDF	ix
Note on Translation and Transliteration Open Access Download PDF	xi
Introduction Open Access Download PDF	1
Part I Constitutions and the Making and Unmaking of Egyptian Nationalism
Chapter 1 Constitutions, National Culture, and Rethinking Islamism Open Access Download PDF	15
Chapter 2 The Sharia as State Law Open Access Download PDF	34
Chapter 3 Constitution Making in Egypt Open Access Download PDF	61
Part II Recasting Islamic Law: Case Studies
Chapter 4 The Ulama, Religious Authority, and the State Open Access Download PDF	85
Chapter 5 The “Divinely Revealed Religions” Open Access Download PDF	117
Chapter 6 The Family Is the Basis of Society Open Access Download PDF	148
Chapter 7 Judicial Autonomy and Inheritance Open Access Download PDF	175
Conclusion Open Access Download PDF	203
Notes Open Access Download PDF	209
Bibliography Open Access Download PDF	243
Index Open Access Download PDF	259

(Deutsch)

Language: English
Publisher: Cornell University Press
Audience: General/trade;
Pages
- Main content: 282
Keywords: Egyptian revolution of 2011; religion and state in Egypt; Sharia; Islamic Law; religion and politics

eBook

Published: March 15, 2021
ISBN: 9781501753985