Defining Islam for the Egyptian State

Book excerpt: This book traces the history of the Dār al-Iftā, the Egyptian State Mufti's administration, from its inception in the 1890s to the present. Often uncomfortably positioned between a state bureaucracy and an emerging Muslim public concerned with the transmission of Islamic values, the various State Muftis have been striving to reinterpret Islamic law and demonstrate its relevance in the modern age. The history of the Dār al-Iftā thus provides a rare insight into major themes of 20th-century Islamic thinking. Four case studies demonstrate how fatwas can be used as sources for legal, social, intellectual and mentality history. Defining Islam for the Egyptian State will be of great interest to students of Islamic law and social and intellectual history of the modern Middle East.