Defining Islam for the Egyptian State

Abstract

Defining Islam for the Egyptian state is an interesting historical study of an importantreligious institution in Egypt: The State Fatwa Office (Dar al lfta '). It traces this institution'sdevelopment from its inception in 1895 to the last quarter of the twentieth century,focusing on the role of official muftis and their "sometimes ungrateful task" of definingIslam for both the state and an increasingly conscious Muslim public (p. I).Uncomfortably situated between a state bureaucracy and an emerging Muslim publicconcerned with the transmission of Islamic values, occupiers of the seat of ifta' wereburdened with the task of asserting the compatibility of Islam with modern demands.Thus, their fatwas were different from those of their predecessors in that they were vestedwith new institutional authority and directed toward a Muslim public that did not existbefore the end of the nineteenth century. Therefore, this study goes beyond the office'srole as an official or state institution to analyze further its relation to Egypt's Islamicpolitical discourse. As this office occupies a well-defined position in Egyptian society,'l.A!.t'l????'l. as \he mout..tl.\)i.e