Egypt’s mid-nineteenth-century adoption of French civil law restricted shari’a to family law

Evidence

The distinction Hajja Faiza makes between acts of worship Cibadat) and those actions pertaining to social transactions ( mueamalat) has been part of the Islamic juridical tradition since at least the tenth century. In the modern period, although shari ea proce.. dures ( those moral discourses and legal procedures sometimes glossed as “Is.. lamic law”) were unevenly applied in Egypt, most acts in the category of mu\imalat came to be regulated by civil law, giving the distinction between worship and social transactions a new valence and institutional force. As was the case with most non..Western nations, Egypt adopted a European legal code ( the French code) in the mid.- neteenth century, thereby restricting the application of Islamic law to matters pertaining to family law and pious en.. dowments (Hill 1 987 ). — Saba Mahmood, Politics of Piety, 326

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to the broader legal pluralism literature and the colonial codification of Islamic law in Egypt and beyond. — connects to: Modern French law long treated wives as legal dependents — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 1109
• ADDENDUM: Relevant to ‘On Sacrifice’ and the grafting article as another case of colonial legal restructuring reshaping religious practice.