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Faculty of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies

 
Venue: 
Pavillion Meeting Room, Newnham College
Event date: 
Wednesday, 18 May, 2022 - 19:00

The Cambridge University Arab Society is hosting an event with Professor Khaled Fahmy to talk about his recent book In Quest of Justice: Islamic Law and Forensic Medicine in Modern Egypt

How did modern hospitals, courts and institutions end up shaping the daily lives of today's Egyptians? Was this always the case? What was the "First Encounter" like? Professor Fahmy will talk about how non-elite Egyptians reacted to the introduction of new medical and legal systems. 

In his book, Professor Fahmy describes how shari’a was actually implemented, how criminal justice functioned, and how scientific-medical knowledges and practices were introduced in modern Egypt. He explores how non-elite Egyptians did not see modern practices that fused medical and legal purposes in new ways as contrary to Islam - giving us a closer understanding to how our ancestors viewed the world, and addressed the 'bigger questions' in an evolving world. Through this lens, he also describes the different philosophical and political tensions that permeated this debate.

Khaled Fahmy is His Majesty Sultan Qaboos Bin Sa'id Professor of Modern Arabic Studies at the Faculty of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies. He is a historian of the modern Middle East, with a specialty in the social and cultural history of nineteenth-century Egypt.