Perhaps no other Western writer has more deeply probed the bitter struggle in
the Muslim world between the forces of religion and law and those of violence and
lawlessness as Noah Feldman. His scholarship has defined the stakes in the Middle East
today. Now, in this incisive book, Feldman tells the story behind the increasingly popular
call for the establishment of the shari'a--the law of the traditional Islamic state--in
the modern Muslim world.
Western powers call it a threat to democracy. Islamist movements are winning
elections on it. Terrorists use it to justify their crimes. What, then, is the shari'a?
Given the severity of some of its provisions, why is it popular among Muslims? Can the
Islamic state succeed--should it? Feldman reveals how the classical Islamic constitution
governed through and was legitimated by law. He shows how executive power was balanced by
the scholars who interpreted and administered the shari'a, and how this balance of power
was finally destroyed by the tragically incomplete reforms of the modern era. The result
has been the unchecked executive dominance that now distorts politics in so many Muslim
states. Feldman argues that a modern Islamic state could provide political and legal
justice to today's Muslims, but only if new institutions emerge that restore this
constitutional balance of power.
The Fall and Rise of the Islamic State gives us the sweeping history of
the traditional Islamic constitution--its noble beginnings, its downfall, and the renewed
promise it could hold for Muslims and Westerners alike.
Table of Contents
Introduction 1
PART I: What Went Right? 17
PART II: Decline and Fall 57
PART III: The Rise of the New Islamic State 103
Conclusion 147
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS 153
NOTES 155
INDEX 177
200 pages, Paperback