China and Islam: The Prophet, the Party, and the Law. By Matthew S. Erie. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2016.

• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/lasr.12356
• Date: 01 September 2018
• Published date: 01 September 2018

societies. In these places, citizens use a “medieval jurisprudential”

logic—and not constitutional law and its embedded colonial

legacies—to fight for stability and moral order (177). The ideals of

constitutionalism and religion are, however, layered with tradition

and modernity, and both of these ideals may ultimately serve a

“masculinist [and reductionist] account of ” the state, law, and reli-

gion (16).

***

China and Islam: The Prophet, the Party, and the Law. By Matthew S.

Erie. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2016.

Reviewed by Arzoo Osanloo, Department of Law, Societies, and

Justice, University of Washington.

Among the many qualities and contributions of Matthew Erie’s

rich monograph on Islam, law, and legal practice in China, one of

the most significant is the breadth and depth of the ethnographic

account. The book’s portrayal of an Islam that is dynamic, and yet

not totalizing, is a difficult feat to render, one that requires sus-

tained access, deep commitment, and enduring relationships.

China and Islam: The Prophet, the Party, and the Law shows the

dynamism of Islam by providing a level of particularity about for-

mal and informal institutions and mechanisms, along with myriad

actors, animating and giving meaning to Islam and law in China.

Through seven substantive chapters that examine history, rituals,

morals, and lawfare, Erie offers nuanced contextualization of how

Hui Chinese Muslims practice Islamic law. It should not go with-

out saying that nuance, context, and detail are de rigueur in socio-

legal studies of civil and common law societies, but have not been

exactly standard fare in analyses where shari‘a is a component of

legal praxis. Ultimately, the work succeeds in providing a rich

example of what we might call Islam in practice.

By crafting vivid narratives around a range of subjects, includ-

ing the relationship and accommodations between the Hui Chinese

Muslims and the Party-State, localized Islamic orthodoxy, marriage,

dispute resolution, adoption of the hijab, and much more, Erie fash-

ions an ethnographic account of the complexity of Islam. Both by

presenting the details of what constitutes its practice and by

highlighting the forces, including individuals, that animate and give

it shape, Erie evokes Islam though a broader world of networks and

816 Book Reviews