The Politics of Islamic Law: Authority and Negotiation in the Colonial State
Islam has changed radically in the last century and a half. A major site and engine of its transformation has been Islamic law. The system practiced as 'Islamic law' in almost every Muslim state has changed from an uncodified and locally administered set of legal institutions and laws with wide-ranging jurisdiction to a codified, state-centered system with jurisdiction mainly over family and personal status law. For Muslims, this change was monumental, relegating Islamic law to the province of marriage, the family, religious endowments and inheritance while generally re-defining the relationship between Islam and state authority. The major question of this research is: how did Islamic law, whose classical formulation is as an all-encompassing, judge-arbitered and locally specific system, become the state-controlled and limited province it now is in the majority of Muslim states? The hypothesis of this project is that, in most cases, this remarkable change in Islamic law began in the colonial state. It did not simply occur as an imposition by colonizers, however; it was an outgrowth of complex interactions, struggles and negotiations between local elites and colonial officials. Further, the particular structure and motivation of imperial administration led to a particular designation for Islamic law in the evolving state, centered on family, personal status, ethnic identity and the 'private' domain.
Through a comparison of three different Muslim legal systems: India, Malaya and Egypt, which all came under British imperial control, this project will reinterpret the making of Islamic law in the modern nation state. British colonial agents took ideas of Islamic law and the imperial administration of religion from India to both Malaya and Egypt; in Malaya legal institutions and law closely resembled laws developed in India by the early 1900s, but in Egypt the codification and institutionalization of Muslim personal status law did not occur for another half-century, differing significantly even then, partly due to the legacy of Ottoman and French rule. A comparison of these cases (through archival research in the United Kingdom, Malaysia, Singapore and secondary research on Egypt and India) will help explain how, and why, Islamic law in the postcolonial Muslim world varies. The study will rely both upon official records, court documents, as well as unofficial documents, including travellers' accounts, letters and other media. These data will offer a view of Islamic law as locally specific, intensely political, and richly varied.
A comparison of Islamic law across the Middle East, South Asia and Southeast Asia has not been previously undertaken and will enhance significantly current understandings of Islam and the modern Muslim state. Moreover, this cross-regional comparison allows the study of Islamic law as a transnational product, rather than an Arab export, shaped by local political networks. While histories of colonialism and Malay society have dealt with interactions between Malay elites and British colonial officials, there has not been a study of their dealings with regard to law; nor has there been any extensive work on how colonial and local elites divided jurisdiction over Islam, what effects that division had, and if or how it was maintained. In all these ways, this project challenges the prevailing popular view of Islamic law as a monolith.
Recent constitutional and legal controversies in Iraq, Afghanistan, and many Muslim states demonstrate that the need for deeper understanding of the politics of Islamic law has rarely been greater. At a time when misunderstanding of the core dynamics of Muslim states and communities is prevalent, the need for systematic study of the underpinnings of contemporary Islam has rarely been more pressing. This study will, moreover, provide the basis for reinterpreting the legacies of post-colonial legal development in both formerly British and, possibly, non-British colonies. Finally our research will help to connect local communities of scholars, legal professionals, policymakers, and activists across the globe.
