The pursuit of justice

Review and editing: Alaa Swifers Cover design and internal illustrations: Reem Naguib Review of appendix language: Fadi Awwad Al-Sa'y for Justice offers a new approach to studying the history of the modern Egyptian state by tracing the developments in medicine and law in the nineteenth century. Relying on the abundant records preserved at the National Archives in Cairo, the book presents the methods introduced by the Egyptian state to control the bodies of its subjects, as well as the various ways in which citizens circumvented these policies or used them in pursuit of justice. The book, in its five chapters, discusses the stages of establishing medical services and public health policies, including dissection, quarantine implementation, and smallpox vaccination; the ways in which Sharia was applied in Sharia courts and policy councils; urban planning policies; the role of the muhtasib in market regulation; and punitive policies, including retribution, imprisonment, and torture. By taking the human body as the sole unit of analysis, Al-Sa'y for Justice offers a comprehensive vision of how a distinctive Egyptian modernity was established in the nineteenth century.