Books by Brinkley Messick

Shari'a Scripts is a work of historical anthropology focused on Yemen in the early twentieth century. Brinkley Messick uses the writings of the Yemeni past to offer a comprehensive view of the shari'a as a localized and lived phenomenon in a groundbreaking examination of the interpretative range and insights offered by the anthropologist as reader.

Combining anthropology, history, and postmodern theory, this book examines the changing relation of writing and authority in a Muslim society from the late nineteenth century onwards. It raises important issues that are of comparative significance for understanding political life in other Muslim and nonwestern states as well.