This ambitious study of the development and incorporation of sharia and Islamic and customary law traditions into national legal, political, and social state structures provides an in-depth analysis of the role of sharia in the historical and legal formation of twelve representative Muslim states and explores the sensitive topic of ‘western’ human rights and rule of law standards in a Muslim world. The editor’s introduction goes to the heart of the prevailing environment in which western discourses tend to oversimplify and misrepresent the substance and effect of Islam and more specifically sharia. His analysis and the twelve chapters, each written by international scholars of law and anthropology, speak to the origin of Islamic legal trends, providing not only a comprehensive overview but a unique comparison of relevant legal domains and key issues raised by the advent of sharia. Contributors: Maurits Berger, Léon Buskens, Albert Dekker, Esther van Eijk, Andrew Harding, Mustafa Koçak, Olaf Köndgen, Martin Lau, Ziba Mir-Hosseini, Philip Ostien, Mohammad Hamid Saboory, Dorothea Schulz, Nadia Sonneveld, Nadjma Yassari.