Description
Book SynopsisThe Muslim community's political and socio-economic role in Jerusalem under Ottoman administration during the 1830s is analyzed in this volume from a natural law perspective. A bitter political contest between Sultan Mahmud II and Muhammad Ali Pasha resulted in the military occupation of Syria and imposition of a brutal new political and legal regime which crushed the indigenous elites of southern Syria. Through a careful analysis of the archives of the Islamic law court of Jerusalem, the study offers a fresh appraisal of how the Ottoman Empire ruled Jerusalem and considers the Muslim response, elucidating the reasons for the breakdown of their relations with non-Muslim Ottoman subjects and differentiating the Ottoman understanding of law and government from that of their enemies, the Wahhabis.
Trade Review"Sacred Law in the Holy City is an admirably researched and neatly documented study of a distinct episode in the history of […] Bilad al-Sham […] In all, the work is a solid contribution to a field and period that is underdeveloped and will be an important secondary source for future studies of modern Syria and Palestine." - Michael J. Reimer, American University of Cairo, in: Digest of Middle East Studies, no. 2 "Rood’s detailed account is one of very few published studies in English that addresses the nature of Muhammad Ali’s regime in Palestine. […] Altogether, this is a timely book that addresses a very important theme." - Adel Manna, Jerusalem van Leer Institute, in: International Journal of Middle East Studies, Vol. 38, no. 2 "This book is a remarkable piece of original work, which utilizes the rich Jerusalem Islamic court records in order to analyze an era of significant changes in the history of Palestine: the 1830's, when Egyptian rule provoked massive political disruption. Sacred Law in the Holy City breaks important new ground in showing the sources of both major changes and significant continuity in this critical period in Palestinian history, when important social and religious transformations took place." - Rashid Khalidi, Columbia University
