This collection is the first comparative and interdisciplinary study of constitutional politics and constitution-making in the Middle East. The historical background and setting are fully explored in two substantial essays placing the contemporary experience in the contexts, respectively, of the ancient Middle Eastern legal and political tradition, and of the 19th- and 20th-century legal codification and political modernization. These are followed by a general analysis of the treatment of human rights in relation to Islam in Middle Eastern constitutions, as well as a comparative scrutiny of...