Faculty Bibliography

The incorporation of references to Islam and Islamic law (such as the establishment of Islam as the state religion, or the “establishment clause”) in modern constitutions is now a recognized phenomenon. The scholarship on these clauses has been focused on an examination of their judicial interpretations, with some attention to the historical contexts of their adoptions. A deeper contextual inquiry into the adoption, or rejection, of these clauses promises a more meaningful understanding of the phenomenon of constitutional Islam—in historical and contemporary settings—than has yet been achieved. This article proposes a contextual approach to constitutional Islam and uses it to examine the making of the Federation of Malaya independence Constitution of 1957. In examining both the dynamics within the country and the international context in which the constitutional drafting process took place, this article shows that the establishment clause was attached to debates about many other constitutional issues and that its adoption was ultimately an attempt to provide another avenue of constitutional advantage for ethnic Malays.

"This volume explores the form and function of constitutions in countries without the fully articulated institutions of limited government. Comparative constitutional law is an intellectually vibrant field that encompasses an increasingly broad array of approaches and methodologies. This series collects analytically innovative and empirically grounded work from scholars of comparative constitutionalism across academic disciplines. Books in the series include theoretically informed studies of single constitutional jurisdictions, comparative studies of constitutional law and institutions, and edited collections of original essays that respond to challenging theoretical and empirical questions in the field"

A dynamic account of the practice of Islamic law, this book focuses on the actions of a particular legal official, the muhtasib, whose vast jurisdiction included all public behavior. In the cities of Cairo and neighboring Fustat during the Mamluk period (1250-1517), the muhtasib is best described as a regulator of markets and public spaces. They traversed the city carrying out their duties to forbid wrongful acts and require mandatory ones, and were as much a part of the legal landscape as the better-known figures of judge and mufti. Taking direction from the rulers, the sultan foremost among them, they were also guided by legal doctrine as formulated by the jurists, combining these two sources of law in one face of authority. The daily workings of law are illuminated by the reports of the muhtasib in the rich chronicles of the Mamluk period, which also record the responses of the individuals who encountered him. The book is organized around actions taken by the muhtasib in the areas of Muslim devotional and pious practice; crimes and offenses; the management of Christians and Jews; market regulation and consumer protection; the essential bread markets; currency and taxes; and public order. These records show that legal doctrine was clearly relevant to the muhtasib's actions, but the policy demands of the sultan were also very important, and rules from both sources of authority intersected with social, political, economic, and even personal motivating factors and produce the fullest possible picture of the practice of Islamic law.