Transformations of Tradition

Transformations of Tradition probes how the encounter with colonial modernity conditioned Islamic jurists' conceptualizations of the shari'a. Focusing on the jurisprudential writings of Muhammad Bakhit al-Muti-i (1854-1935), Mufti of Egypt for a time, Junaid Quadri locates a remarkable series of foundational intellectual shifts that throw into doubt the possibility of reading the modern trajectory of Islamic law through the lens of a continuous tradition. Through close readings of complex legal texts and mining archives oft-neglected in the field, this carefully researched study uncovers a shari'a that is neither a medieval holdover nor merely a pragmatic concession to the demands of a new world, but rather is deeply entangled with the epistemological commitments of colonial modernity.