Islamic Legal Revival: Reception of European Law and Transformations in Islamic

The book examines in detail the reception of continental European law in Egypt, a development that sparked changes in Egypt’s culture and legal education and enhanced Islamic revivalist thought there, even though many interpreted Egypt’s European law as an affront to Egypt’s religious, cultural, national, and transnational Muslim identity (p. 4). Egyptian law, with distinctly French origins, was of course engineered via complete adoption of European laws in Egypt. For this development, Édouard Lambert, a famous European comparative law scholar, was instrumental. European influence on Egypt began when the country defaulted on foreign debt owed to European creditors (p. 21). The British unilaterally occupied Egypt from 1882 until 1952, maintaining military bases there until 1956. By 1882, the number of Europeans living in Egypt had risen to 90.000. Also important was the fact that Egypt’s political, military, and commercial elites throughout the 19th century were dominated by Circassians (p. 22).