The Transformation of Islamic Property and Evidentiary Law in Colonial-era Morocco: The Case of <italic>Shufʿa</italic> as <italic>Préemption</italic>.

A cornerstone of French land policy in colonial Protectorate Morocco (1912–56) was to restrict jurisdiction of <italic>sharīʿa</italic> courts while maintaining <italic>sharīʿa</italic>-based property laws in French courts. This article examines the Islamic property concept of <italic>shufʿa</italic> (the right of “preemption” or “first-refusal” for co-owned land) as adjudicated in <italic>sharīʿa</italic> courts and French courts of colonial-era Morocco. Both jurisdictions claimed to uphold the provisions of <italic>shufʿa</italic> stipulated by the Mālikī legal school of Islamic law; however, the French courts used a codified version—<italic>le droit de préemption</italic>—while relying on property facts established by the new colonial institution of land registration (Fr., <italic>immatriculation foncière</italic>; Ar., <italic>taḥfīẓ ʿaqārī</italic>). By analyzing paradigmatic <italic>shufʿa</italic> disputes in each jurisdiction, the article argues that evidence and procedure are critical to understanding Islamic law’s encounter with the colonial state. Most importantly, French courts implemented a hybrid version of Islamic property law in which <italic>immatriculation</italic> supplanted Islamic legal modes of proof making. The French hybrid approach thus constituted a competing version of state <italic>sharīʿa</italic> that was mutually exclusive with the <italic>sharīʿa</italic> courts and persisted into the post-colonial period. This discussion more broadly seeks to center property, evidence, and judicial procedure in scholarly narratives concerning twentieth-century Islamic legal history. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]