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

In The Making of the Modern Muslim State: Islam and Governance in the Middle East and North Africa (Princeton University Press, 2024), Malika Zeghal reframes the role of Islam in modern Middle East governance. Challenging 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, accompanied by vigorous debates as to how it should be implemented. Drawing on intellectual, political, and economic history, she traces this custodianship and attendant debates from early forms of constitutional governance in the nineteenth century through post–Arab Spring experiments in democracy. Her detailed and groundbreaking analysis, which spans Tunisia, Morocco, Egypt, Turkey, Syria, and Lebanon, makes clear the deep historical roots of current political divisions over Islam in governance.