In The Politics of Islamic Law, Iza Hussin compares India, Malaya, and Egypt during the British colonial period in order to trace the making and transformation of the contemporary category of 'Islamic law.' She demonstrates that not only is Islamic law not the shari'ah, its present institutional forms, substantive content, symbolic vocabulary, and relationship to state and society--in short, its politics--are built upon foundations laid during the colonial encounter.

Drawing on extensive archival work in English, Arabic, and Malay--from court records to colonial and local papers...