The Pursuit of the Perak Regalia: Islam, Law, and the Politics of Authority in the Colonial State

Abstract

Islamic law changed radically in the last century and a half. It was codified and limited to the domain of personal and family law in almost all majority and minority Muslim states. The argument of this article is that this remarkable change in Islamic law began in the colonial state. Islamic law, as it functions within postcolonial Muslim states, is a product of negotiations between colonial and local elites over law, religion, culture, ethnicity, and the identity of the Muslim subject. In the case of colonial Malaya, this resulted in a codified, institutionalized legal system within a colonial state, which was critical in constructing Malay ethnic and religious identities and interpretations of Islam that prevail today.

Jihad in a World of Sovereigns: Law, Violence, and Islam in the Bosnia Crisis

“…Jurists specializing in Islamic law—legal scholars (῾ulamā᾽), jurisconsults (muftīs), and judges (qāḍīs)—are often state functionaries or work under strict state supervision and are hence unlikely to develop an institutional context for the law of jihad. Sociolegal studies of contemporary Islamic law have accordingly focused on debates around gender and instantiations of Islamic law within state legal institutions (Warrick 2005; Boellstorff 2006; Hussin 2007; Subramanian 2008; Moustafa 2013).…”

Liberal Rights versus Islamic Law? The Construction of a Binary in Malaysian Politics

“…(Roff 1967: 67). As in other Muslim-majority areas (Hallaq 2009), the colonial period marked a key turning point for the institutionalization and centralization of religious authority (Hooker 1975;Horowitz 1994;Hussin 2007;Moustafa 2013a;Roff 1967).…”

“…Instead, they were “members of village communities who, for reasons of exceptional piety or other ability, had been chosen by the community to act as imam of the local mosque …” (Roff : 67). As in other Muslim‐majority areas (Hallaq ), the colonial period marked a key turning point for the institutionalization and centralization of religious authority (Hooker ; Horowitz ; Hussin ; Moustafa 2013a; Roff ).…”

“…Two aspects of these institutional changes are especially noteworthy for our purpose. First, Islamic law was transformed from being pluralistic and socially embedded to being codified and institutionalized (Horowitz ; Hussin ; Moustafa 2013b; Roff ). Islamic law was thus “secularized” in the sense that it became an instrument of the modern, regulatory state (Asad ).…”

Religion and Place

“…Scholarship on the Islamic resurgence has primarily focused around several main themes: political Islam (Effendy 2003 ;Muzaffar 1987 ;Jomo and Cheek 1992 ;Kepel 2002 ;Tibi 2002 ;Fuller 2002 ) , sharia law (Hussin 2007 ;Henderson 2003 ;Mir-Hosseini 2006 ;Lee 2009 ) , madrasa schools (Lukens-Bull 2000 ; Daun and Arjmand 2005 ;Daun et al 2004 ;Bergen and Pandey 2006 ) and terrorist networks and Islamic militancy (Rashid 2001 ;Abuza 2002 ;Ramakrishna and Tan 2003 ;Croissant and Barlow 2007 ;Hussain 2005 ;Khan 2006 ;Hiber 2009 ;Abuza 2003 ;Speckhard and Akhmedova 2006 ) . Scholarship on the Islamic resurgence has primarily focused around several main themes: political Islam (Effendy 2003 ;Muzaffar 1987 ;Jomo and Cheek 1992 ;Kepel 2002 ;Tibi 2002 ;Fuller 2002 ) , sharia law (Hussin 2007 ;Henderson 2003 ;Mir-Hosseini 2006 ;Lee 2009 ) , madrasa schools (Lukens-Bull 2000 ; Daun and Arjmand 2005 ;Daun et al 2004 ;Bergen and Pandey 2006 ) and terrorist networks and Islamic militancy (Rashid 2001 ;Abuza 2002 ;Ramakrishna and Tan 2003 ;…”