Islamic Law on Trial: Contesting Colonial Power in British IndiaPrior to the East India Company’s establishment in India in 1661, Islamic law was widely applied by the Mughal Empire. But as the Company’s power grew, it established a court system intended to limit Islamic law. Following the Great Rebellion of 1857, the decentralized Islamic legal system was replaced with a new standardized system. Islamic Law on Trial interrogates the project of juridical colonization and demonstrates that alongside—and despite—the violent displacement of Muslim legal sovereignty, Muslims were able to engage with and even champion Islamic law from inside the colonial judiciary. The outcome of their work was a paradoxical legal terrain that appeared legitimate to both Muslim practitioners and English colonizers. Sohaira Siddiqui challenges long-standing assumptions about Islamic law under British rule, the ways in which colonial power displaced preexisting traditions, and how local Muslim elites navigated the new institutions imposed upon them. |
Contents
| 1 | |
Laying the Foundations of the Colonial Legal Terrain | 29 |
Expanding the Colonial Legal Terrain | 45 |
Realizing the Colonial Legal Terrain Through Legal | 68 |
Responding to the Colonial Legal Terrain | 82 |
A New Paradigm of Lawyering | 112 |
Adjudication | 134 |
The AngloMuhammadan Legal Canon Refashioned | 157 |
Epilogue | 181 |
Notes | 195 |
| 223 | |
| 243 | |
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Common terms and phrases
1793 Regulations Abdul Kadir Abdur Rahman Abu Hanifa adjudication Ahl-i Hadith Al-Haj Mahomed al-harb al-islam Anglo-Muhammadan law Anglo-Muhammadan legal canon applied appointed argues Barelvi British India Calcutta chapter civil codification colonial courts colonial legal terrain colonial officials colonial power courtroom criminal dar al-harb dar al-islam debate decision Deobandi dower EIC's English established Evidence Act Farangi Farangi Mahall Fatawa Fatawa Alamgiri Fath al-Qadir Hanafi Hidaya High Court Ibn Abidin ILR-Allahabad Indian Law Indian Muslims institutions Islamic law Islamic legal issue judicial jurisdiction justice Khan law commission lawyers legal code legal reasoning legal texts madrasa Mahomedan Law Maulvi Maulvi Samee-Ullah Maulvi Yusoof Mecelle Mufassil muftis Mughal Muhammad Muhammadan law munsifs Muslim judges Muslim legal actors Muslim legal sovereignty non-Muslim opinion personal law political position qadi Quran Radd al-Muhtar religious role rule sadr amins Salima Shah sharʻi Sharia status law Syed Ameer Tareen tion translation ulama vakils