I. Brief Introduction to the History of the Egyptian Legal System

The student of the history of Egyptian law in the Islamic era is faced with two problems:

First, the dearth of historic documents which illustrate how law applied to social relations and hence the correlation between the Islamic (Koranic Sunni) text and the social structure, and eventually the relationship between tradition and innovation.

Second, the scarcity of historic studies specializing in Egyptian Islamic law and establishing the link between this system and the socio-political edifice in its various dimensions.

As a matter of fact, these difficulties are bound to have a negative impact on our endeavour to get acquainted with the distinctive features of the Egyptian identity in its interaction with Islamic law, Shari'a, which prevailed over this society until the emergence of the movement of modernization or “revival” in modern times.

This study will focus on the most fundamental historical changes, rather than on the historical, political and economic realities. Moreover, this study is meant to highlight the structure of the national legal system and its components within the framework of the theory of the source of law during the Islamic era. It is common knowledge that when Egypt became one of the administrative provinces (wilaya) in the Abode of Islam this resulted in the application of Shari'a on a regional level.

As for personal status, the phenomenon of legal duality continued to govern this vital area of legislation up to modern times. This was the result of the Islamic theory which governed the relationship between the Islamic state and the People of the Covenant (non-Moslems) and the legal model which was established to delineate the limits of the relationship between the majority and the minority. This development had its repercussions on the enforcement of both the Christian and Jewish laws within the framework of the law on personal status, these laws being considered as one of the sources of the comprehensive legal structure of the Egyptian society.

In view of the preceding facts we shall examine the Egyptian legal system during the Islamic era in the light of the theory of the sources of law prevailing in Egypt at the time. We shall also discuss customs, non-Moslem laws, Jewish laws and the legislations promulgated by the authorities, as well as Islamic law, Shari'a.