Islamic Law, Gender and Social Change in Post-Abolition Zanzibar

Examining Islamic court records, this book sheds new light on Zanzibar's history of gender, social and racial identity.

Elke E. Stockreiter (Author)

9781107048416, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 2 March 2015

296 pages, 22 b/w illus. 1 map
23.5 x 15.7 x 2 cm, 0.52 kg

'Stockreiter has done a tremendous amount of work to pull together a detailed picture of litigants' affairs in a unique social and political setting. She is clearly at ease with the difficult records she works with, and her argument is never unclear. … specialists in Zanzibar's history will delight in Stockreiter's showcasing of a rich trove of court records.' Fahad Ahmad Bishara, Law and History Review

After the abolition of slavery in 1897, Islamic courts in Zanzibar (East Africa) became central institutions where former slaves negotiated socioeconomic participation. By using difficult-to-read Islamic court records in Arabic, Elke E. Stockreiter reassesses the workings of these courts as well as gender and social relations in Zanzibar Town during British colonial rule (1890–1963). She shows how Muslim judges maintained their autonomy within the sphere of family law and describes how they helped advance the rights of women, ex-slaves, and other marginalised groups. As was common in other parts of the Muslim world, women usually had to buy their divorce. Thus, Muslim judges played important roles as litigants negotiated moving up the social hierarchy, with ethnicisation increasingly influencing all actors. Drawing on these previously unexplored sources, this study investigates how Muslim judges both mediated and generated discourses of inclusion and exclusion based on social status rather than gender.

Introduction
1. The kadhi's courts colonised
2. Race and the impartial modern judiciary
3. The kadhis and gender
4. Litigants and the kadhi's courts
5. The kadhi's alienation and autonomy
6. Marriage, materialism and temporary compliance
7. Property, debt and inheritance
8. Bargaining for divorce
9. The kadhis, ethnicity and the perpetuation of master-slave relations
Conclusion.

Subject Areas: Islam [HRH], African history [HBJH]