This new edition of the authoritative English-language treatment of Islamic personal status law gives practitioners and courts throughout the world direct access to this important body of law in its most up-to-date development. All Middle Eastern and North African Arab states are covered; new to this edition is coverage of recent provisions enacted in Kuwait, Yemen, and Sudan. The chapter on dissolution of marriage has been completely revised to reflect current legal interpretation and judicial practice in this rapidly changing area of Islamic law. Also new and especially valuable are English versions, for the first time anywhere, of fundamental Shiite and Jaafari legal works with the most thorough analysis and commentary available in any non-Arabic source. Dr. Nasir's much-appreciated methodology has been continued since the very successful first edition of 1986. For each topic - e.g., marriage, dower, dissolution of marriage, parentage, inheritance, and waqf - he begins with a consideration of the subject in Sharia law, and then goes on to present legislation and contemporary views, in particular Arab countries. This approach, while it clearly manifests the continuity of Islamic law respecting personal status, is of great practical value to judges and practitioners, especially those who must resolve disputes under Islamic law in non-Muslim countries.

In The Politics of Islamic Law, Iza Hussin compares India, Malaya, and Egypt during the British colonial period in order to trace the making and transformation of the contemporary category of ‘Islamic law.’ She demonstrates that not only is Islamic law not the shari’ah, its present institutional forms, substantive content, symbolic vocabulary, and relationship to state and society—in short, its politics—are built upon foundations laid during the colonial encounter. Drawing on extensive archival work in English, Arabic, and Malay—from court records to colonial and local papers to private letters and visual material—Hussin offers a view of politics in the colonial period as an iterative series of negotiations between local and colonial powers in multiple locations. She shows how this resulted in a paradox, centralizing Islamic law at the same time that it limited its reach to family and ritual matters, and produced a transformation in the Muslim state, providing the frame within which Islam is articulated today, setting the agenda for ongoing legislation and policy, and defining the limits of change. Combining a genealogy of law with a political analysis of its institutional dynamics, this book offers an up-close look at the ways in which global transformations are realized at the local level.

Based on author's thesis (doctoral - Princeton University, 2014).

Richard A. Debs analyzes the classical Islamic law of property based on the Shari'ah, traces its historic development in Egypt, and describes its integration as a source of law within the modern format of a civil code. He focuses specifically on Egypt, a country in the Islamic world that drew upon its society's own vigorous legal system as it formed its modern laws. He also touches on issues that are common to all such societies that have adopted, either by choice or by necessity, Western legal systems. Egypt's unique synthesis of Western and traditional elements is the outcome of an effort to respond to national goals and requirements. Its traditional law, the Shari'ah, is the fundamental law of all Islamic societies, and Debs's analysis of Egypt's experience demonstrates how Islamic jurisprudence can be sophisticated, coherent, rational, and effective, developed over centuries to serve the needs of societies that flourished under the rule of law.

This book is an analysis of the contract of marriage according to the Islamic Shari'ah and of two modern Islamic states. It examines the prerequisites for marriage, the elements which go to form the contract, the processes involved in making the contract, and the institution of marriage itself. The author expresses the essential Islamic concepts of marriage faithfully whilst making the work as accessible as possible te readers of various backgrounds. It will be of interest to legal professionals, to academics and students of Islamic law, and to those interested in Islam, the Middle East and North Africa. Useful Tables of Laws ans Cases are included.

This huge piece of legislation promulgated in September 1993 represents the culmination of a major project aimed at producing comprehensive unified regulation of all areas of commercial activity. In the introductory chapter to the law, which concerns its application, it is stipulated that commercial matters with regard to which specific federal laws are promulgated shall be subject to the provisions of these laws & to such provisions of the present law as do not conflict with them (Article 3). The main body of the law commences with definitions of what constitutes commercial activity: these persons who shall be deemed to be traders, & the conditions of eligibility to engage in trade. It sets out the requirements of accounting & record keeping which are obligatory for all traders. There is comprehensive legislation of a range of general commercial matters such as commercial houses, trade names, commercial data, commercial obligations & contracts, sale on deferred terms, sale at action, international sales, commercial pledges & deposits in public depositories. Following this there is detailed regulation of several of the most important specific areas of commercial activity including the different forms of commercial agency, commercial representation, brokerage & carriage of goods & persons. The large section of banking operations is systematic & exhaustive, as is the regulation of actions & transactions involving commercial & financial documents. The last section deals with bankruptcy, composition to avert bankruptcy, the procedures & administration of bankruptcy & its consequences. Article 196 states that the establishment of a Stock Exchange will be subject to the agreement of the Council of Ministers & promulgation of a Federal Law regulating the activity of the Exchange. The Law is presented in a comprehensive & consistent manner & is clear & accessible. An invaluable reference to all those who have business interests in or with the United Arab Emirates.

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.