From Jurists’ Law to Statute Law or What Happens When the Shari’a is Codified

Since the middle of the nineteenth century, the position of the shari’a in most Middle Eastern legal systems has changed drastically. In this essay, I want to explore this change and examine how the relationship between the state and the shari’a developed, focusing on the Ottoman Empire (including Egypt) and its successor states. Central to my analysis will be the question of who controls the production of shari’a norms, or, in other words, who has the authority to formulate the rules of the shari’a.