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Orientalism, Colonialism, and Legal History: The Attack on Muslim Family Endowments in Algeria and India
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 03 June 2009
Extract
One of the earliest and most highly developed areas of orientalist scholarly production was the study of Islamic law. Modern western investigation of Islamic law emerged during the era of European colonial expansion, and the first studies of the subject were written by citizens of the colonial powers, many of whom had lived in the colonies for extended periods. These men produced the first translations of legal texts, the first studies of individual legal institutions, and the first comprehensive studies of Islamic law, thereby laying the foundations for the modern discipline of Islamic legal history. Surprisingly, students of orientalism have devoted little attention to the colonials' views of Islamic law—that is, to the attitudes and assumptions that underlay their writings and interpretations—or to the impact of those views on the development of Islamic legal studies as a discipline.
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References
I would like to thank Avram Udovitch and the two anonymous readers of Comparative Studies in Society and History for their helpful comments on an earlier draft of this article, and Penny Beebe for her invaluable editorial assistance.
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44 Sautayra would later become Président de Chambre of the Court of Appeals and a member of the first Council of the School of Law. See Vatin, , “Exotisme,” 166, 175.Google Scholar
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47 ibid., 375. An ascendant is a lineal or collateral relative in the ascending line. A collateral relative is one belonging to the same ancestral stock but not in a direct line of descent (e.g., a brother, cousin, uncle, or nephew). An affine is a relative by marriage (e.g., one's wife's brother).
48 ibid., 347, 375. A gift inter vivos (gift between living people) is a voluntary gratuitous alienation of property by one person to another, not made in contemplation of death.
49 ibid., 399.
50 For more on the intergenerational transmission of property, see pp. 566–8 of this article.
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60 ibid., 14–15, 45, 132. In fact, some Muslims supported family endowments, while others—especially the emerging new classes—did not. The differing attitudes of Algerian Muslims toward this institution is a subject that requires further investigation.
61 ibid., 43–45, 132.
62 ibid., 14, 132–4.
63 Morand, , “Etude,” 85–93, 127–54, published separately as Etude sur la nature juridique du Hobous (Algiers: Jourdan, 1904), reprinted in Etudes de droit musulman algerien (Algiers: Jourdan, 1910), 225–66. All references hereafter are to Etudes (1910).Google Scholar
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66 ibid.
67 ibid., 229–30.
68 ibid., 226.
69 ibid., 227.
70 ibid.
71 ibid., 226.
72 ibid., 227–28.
73 See, for example, Ishaq, Khalīl b., Mukhtasar (Paris: Matba'a al-Dawla al-Jumhūriyya, 1900), 201ff;Google Scholar Muḥummad b. Muḥammad al-Ṭarabulsī al-Maghribī, known as al-ḥaṬṭāb), Mawāhib al-Jalīl li-sharḥ mukḥtaṣar al-Khalīl (Libya: Maktabat al-Najāḥ, 1969), VI, 18ff;Google Scholaral-Shinqītī, alDāhal-Fatḥ sharḥ 'aiā naẓm risālat Ibn Abī Zayd al-Qayrawānī (Cairo: Maktaba al-Qāhira, 1969), II-III, 88ffGoogle Scholar
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79 ibid., 264–66.
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81 The institution of family endowments was not abolished until the year 1963, that is to say, not until one year after Algeria achieved its independence. The parameters of the debate over family endowments during the course of the twentieth century may be followed in Charnay, Jean-Paul, La vie musulmane en Algérie d'après la jurisprudence de la premiére moitié du XXe siècle (Paris: Presses Universitaires de France, 1965); and Borrmans, Status Personnel.Google Scholar
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102 ibid., 157–62.
103 ibid., 134–6.
104 ibid., 137.
105 ibid., 91–92, 96, 137–8.
106 ibid., 139–42.
107 ibid., 142–3.
108 It may be significant that all the lawsuits considered here involved a conflict between Muslim endowment-beneficiaries and Hindu creditors. The communal, sectarian aspect of the issue deserves further consideration.
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111 ibid., 146–50.
112 ibid., 155.
113 ibid., 165–8.
114 ibid., 168–9.
115 ibid., 169–72.
116 ibid., 178. The question was a procedural device adapted from the British Parliament, where it enabled members of the opposition party to challenge government policies and actions.
117 ibid., 178–9.
118 ibid., 181–2, 185.
119 ibid., 182–3, 185.
120 ibid., 188–9. The restrictive interpretation of the Act was subsequently overruled by the Mussalman Wakf Validating Act of 1930. See 8 Government of Pakistan Ministry of Laws, Unrepealed Central Acts (1953), 419.Google Scholar
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144 The literature on this subject is extensive. See, for example, Abdul-Rauf, Muhammad, A Muslim's Reflections on Democratic Capitalism (Washington: American Enterprise Institute, 1984), 14;Google ScholarAhmad, Shaikh Mahmud, Social Justice in Islam (Lahore: Institute of Islamic Culture, 1970), 31;Google ScholarChapra, M. Umar, “The Islamic Welfare State and its Role in the Economy,” in Studies in Islamic Economics, Ahmad, Khurshid, ed. (Delhi: Amar Prakashan, 1983);Google ScholarMannan, Muhammad Abdul, The Frontier of Islamic Economics (Delhi: Idarah-i Adabiyat-i Delli, 1984), 45, 77;Google ScholarDr. Qureshi, Anwar Iqbal, The Economic and Social System of Islam (Lahore: Islamic Book Service, 1979);Google ScholarUr-Rahman, Afzal, Economic Doctrines of Islam, 2 vols. (Lahore: Islamic Publications, 1974);Google ScholarRazzaque, M. A., “Distribution of Wealth in Islam, ” in Thoughts on Islamic Economics (Bangladesh: Islamic Economics Institute, 1980);Google ScholarSadeq, Abdul Hasan M., “Distribution of Wealth in Islam,” in Thoughts on Islamic Economics;Google ScholarSiddiqi, Muhammad Najatullah, “Muslims Economics Thinking: A Survey of Contemporary Literature,” in Studies in Islamic Economics, Ahmad, Khurshid, ed. (Delhi: Amar Prakashan, 1983).Google Scholar
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