Table of Contents

Introduction
1: Islamic Legal History
2: Introducing the Muhtasib
3: Commanding the Faithful
4: Serious Crimes or Minor Offences?
5: Managing Christians and Jews
6: Market Regulation and Consumer Protection
7: The Markets for Essential Bread
8: Currency and Taxes
9: Keeping the Peace

About the Author

Kristen Stilt is Associate Professor in the departments of Law and History at Northwestern University. She holds a J.D. from the University of Texas School of Law and a PhD. in History and Middle Eastern Studies from Harvard University. She has been named a Carnegie Scholar for her work on constitutional authority and Islamic law in the Muslim world.

Reviews

a well-documented work in which the author reconstructs the way the muhtasibs were appointed during the Mamluk period in Egypt, the legal manuals they might have used, and the conflict that prevailed between the ruler and the ulema.
*Faizal Ahmad Manjoo, The Muslim World Book Review*

Stilt's book is an important contribution to the legal and social history of the Mamluk period, and its full significance will become apparent when a comprehensive history of the hisba institution in the Islamic West and East is written.
*Yaacov Lev, Jerusalem Studies in Arabic and Islam*

The book fills one of the gaps in our knowledge of the functioning of the Islamic law in the past.
*Paulina B. Lewicka, Quaderni di Studi Arabi*