ABSTRACT
What does sharia say about blasphemy? This chapter illustrates the impossibility of answering such a question. Contrary to the general perception that the role of sharia in Muslim societies has remained fixed throughout time, from the 19th century onwards the rise of the West and the decline of the Muslim world fundamentally altered the nature and practice of sharia. What was once a pluralistic, contextual, and contingent amalgamation of the legal, the moral, the mystical, and the mundane minutia of daily living – a code of conduct guarded by scholars (ulama) – became codified and rigid during this time. The chapter starts with an account of the evolution of sharia in the first millennium of Muslim history and moves to a discussion of the Ottoman codification of sharia, the Mecelle, which resulted in a profound change in what constituted Islamic law.
