The Late Ottoman Empire and Egypt ─ Hybridity, Law and Gender

This book contributes to a vibrant strand of global history that places law and other social structures at the heart of competing imperial colonial projects- British, Ottoman, Egyptian, French and Italian among them. Relying heavily on laws, edicts, consular records and court cases, it shows that judicial reform led to shifting venues, identities and authorities, which resulted from bargains struck with various local actors who were able to capitalize on their European-Orientalist hybridity. Over time, acting in their own self-interests, these actors exploited, often through arbitration, a fragmented system whereby a legal form of imperialism took root in Egypt.

Elizabeth H. Shlala is a fellow at Harvard University. Her work explores the nexus of modern migration and law in the Middle East. Her main research areas are two-fold: legal imperialism and colonial hybridity in the late Ottoman period and the social and economic impact of contemporary global migration.