A longitudinal history of Islamic child custody law, challenging Euro-American exceptionalism to reveal developments that considered the best interests of the child.

Ahmed Fekry Ibrahim is Assistant Professor of Islamic Law at McGill University, Montréal. He has been writing about the theory and practice of Islamic law in the pre-modern and modern periods by examining both juristic discourse and court records. His research has been supported by numerous bodies, including the Berlin-Brandenburgische Akademie der Wissenschaften, the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada, the Max Planck Institute for Comparative and International Private Law, the American Research Center in Egypt, and the School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University in Qatar.

Part I. Child Custody and Guardianship in Comparative Perspective: 1. Child custody in civil and common law jurisdictions; 2. The best interests of the child in juristic discourse; Part II. Ottoman Egyptian Practice 1517-1801: 3. Private separation deeds in action; 4. Ottoman juristic discourse in action (1517-1801); 5. Child custody in Egypt 1801-1929; 6. Twentieth- and twenty-first-century child custody (1929-2014).