Defining Islam for the Egyptian State By Jakob Skovgaard-Petersen. Leiden: Brill, 1997, 423 pp.

Abstract

Defining Islam for the Egyptian state is an interesting historical study of an important
religious institution in Egypt: The State Fatwa Office (Dar al lfta '). It traces this institution's
development 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 defining
Islam for both the state and an increasingly conscious Muslim public (p. I).
Uncomfortably situated between a state bureaucracy and an emerging Muslim public
concerned with the transmission of Islamic values, occupiers of the seat of ifta' were
burdened 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 vested
with new institutional authority and directed toward a Muslim public that did not exist
before the end of the nineteenth century. Therefore, this study goes beyond the office's
role as an official or state institution to analyze further its relation to Egypt's Islamic
political discourse. As this office occupies a well-defined position in Egyptian society,
'l.A!.t'l????'l. as \he mout..tl.\)i.e<:.e 0ct: an offic.i.al l????lam th.at has 09ted for accommodati.on between
state and religion, and produces fatwas within the framework of existing state law, studying
Dar al Ifta' offers significant advantages. By analyzing representative samples of its
fatwas in their social and political contexts, this study demonstrates how such fatwas can
be used as a source for studying modem Islamic social and intellectual history. In this
sense, the history of Dar al Ifta' provides a rare glimpse into major themes of twentiethcentury
Islamic thinking. The main source for following its historical development is its
work-the fatwas it has issued (book cover & p. I) ...