Cambridge University Press China and Islam: The Prophet, the Party, and Law (Cambridge Studies in Law and Society)

Product Description China and Islam examines the intersection of two critical issues of the contemporary world: Islamic revival and an assertive China, questioning the assumption that Islamic law is incompatible with state law. It finds that both Hui and the Party-State invoke, interpret, and make arguments based on Islamic law, a minjian (unofficial) law in China, to pursue their respective visions of 'the good'. Based on fieldwork in Linxia, 'China's Little Mecca', this study follows Hui clerics, youthful translators on the 'New Silk Road', female educators who reform traditional madrasas, and Party cadres as they reconcile Islamic and socialist laws in the course of the everyday. The first study of Islamic law in China and one of the first ethnographic accounts of law in postsocialist China, China and Islam unsettles unidimensional perceptions of extremist Islam and authoritarian China through Hui minjian practices of law. Review 'China, Islam, law: three major forces shaping our world encounter each other in the offices, mosques, and courtrooms of Linxia. We are fortunate to have Matthew S. Erie there to observe, record, and translate the negotiation and accommodations. If you are interested in one of the three forces mentioned above, you ought to read this book; if you are interested in any two, you must do so. A path-breaking achievement.' Tom Ginsburg, Leo Spitz Professor of International Law, University of Chicago Law School'Hui Chinese have constructed forms of Islamic education and practice in a long-term historical space shaped by the Party-State and by shifting ideas of Islamic orthodoxy. Erie brings the Hui experience into dialogue with contemporary ethnographic work on Islamic ritual, knowledge, and governance. An ethnographic tour de force.' John Bowen, Dunbar-Van Cleve Professor in Arts and Sciences, Washington University, St Louis, and author of A New Anthropology of Islam'Are Communism and Islam incompatible belief systems? In this fascinating account of Chinese Muslim law and its encounters with the state, the author demonstrates that the two manage to work together, predominantly through the middle ground of informal mediation and by ignoring sharp edges. Whether in marriage, Islamic banking, or property matters, we see in this unique and highly circumstantial analysis that the absence of state recognition belies an intriguingly complex, well-told story.' Lawrence Rosen, William Nelson Cromwell Professor of Anthropology, Princeton University, New Jersey'By carefully investigating, explaining, and analyzing the life, politics, and law of China's Muslim minority, Matthew S. Erie moves beyond the stereotypes that often dominate accounts of Islam and China. This book enables us to see both in their complexity.' Frank K. Upham, Wilf Family Professor of Property Law and Co-Director, US-Asia Law Institute, New York University School of Law'Matthew S. Erie's engaging ethnographic study brings together for the first time the rich, complicated and overlapping worlds of Chinese law and Islamic law in Northwest China. This fascinating book is a must-read for comparative legal scholars and legal anthropologists alike, illuminating paradoxes and struggles in the operation of religious law under reform-era Chinese socialism.' Teemu Ruskola, Emory University School of Law'Erie examines the intersection of Islamic revival and an assertive China, seeking to unsettle unidimensional perceptions of extremist Islam and authoritarian China and to question the assumption that Islamic law is incompatible with state law. Based on fieldwork in Linxia, 'China's Little Mecca,' he follows Hui clerics, youthful translators on the 'New Silk Road,' female educators who reform traditional madrasas, and party cadres as they reconcile Islamic and socialist laws in the course of the everyday.' Law and Social Inquiry'Islamic law, sharia, has not been central to studies of Islam in China - indeed, it often receives no mention at a