The Making of the Modern Muslim State - Islam and Governance in the Middle East and North Africa

An innovative analysis that traces the continuity of the state-s custodianship of Islam as the preferred religion in the Middle East and North Africa

In The Making of the Modern Muslim State, Malika Zeghal reframes the role of Islam in modern Middle East governance. Countering other accounts that claim that Middle Eastern states turned secular in modern times, Zeghal shows instead the continuity of the state-s custodianship of Islam as the preferred religion. Drawing on intellectual, political, and economic history, she traces this custodianship from early forms of constitutional governance in the nineteenth century through post-Arab Spring experiments in democracy. Zeghal argues that the intense debates around the implementation and meaning of state support for Islam led to a political cleavage between conservatives and their opponents that long predated the polarization of the twentieth century that accompanied the emergence of mass politics and Islamist move