Author Description

This book is an original contribution to the debates surrounding Islam and ideas of modernity. Starting from modern concerns, it examines the origins and evolution of the Shari’a (Islamic law), and the corpus of texts, concepts and practices in which it has been enshrined. Sami Zubaida considers key historical episodes of political accommodations and contests between scholars and sultans. Drawing on modern examples, mainly from Egypt and Iran, Zubaida explores how the Shari'a has evolved and mutated to accommodate the workings of a modern state by examining the reforms of the 19th and 20th centuries and the politics of the contemporary world.