A Continuity of Shari'a: Political Authority and Homicide in the Nineteenth Century

A challenge to the “end of the shari‘a” thesis in Islamic legal historiography

In the second half of the nineteenth century, states across the Muslim World developed new criminal codes and reshaped their legal landscapes, laying the foundations of the systems that continue to inform the application of justice today. Influenced by colonialism and the rise of the modern state’s desire to control its populations, many have seen the introduction of these codes as a pivotal shift and divergence f...