several revisions before its passage in 1949. Its author, Al-Sanhuri, stayed loyal to his vision of having judges rule in accordance with the code itself before considering using Shari’a, which had not been codified for a long time. For the first time in the modern history of the Arab Middle East, the Shari’a would be used to back up a secular document. With the civil code as the principal source of law, all Shari’a courts were abolished. The writing of the civil code was an attempt on the part of Al-Sanhuri to modernize Islamic law by adopting ideas from western civil law, a concept greatly supported by the elite members of Egyptian society. Westernization meant confining certain Islamic law to mostly matters dealing with personal status such as marriage, divorce, and inheritance. British colonization led to some shift to the common law, but the common law had little long-term impact on the legal systems of many countries that fell under British rule where there was an existing codified system. Thus civil law, mostly of French origins, now prevails throughout the Middle East, and the occasional remnants of common law are likely not to survive (with the exception of Israeli law which remains largely based on common law as it pertains to non-private matters). As a result, the modern legal systems of Middle Eastern countries share the basic features of French law, such as relying on complete and logical statements of the law in codes as official sources of law, keeping a sharp division between public and private law and between commercial and private law. See also Cairo Declaration on Human Rights in Islam Application of sharia law by country Egyptian law Bibliography Bechor, Guy. The Sanhuri Code, and the Emergence of Modern Arab Civil Law (1932 To 1949), (2007), . Hoyle, Mark, The Mixed Courts of Egypt, (1991), . References External links Hans W. Baade, Transplants of Laws and of Lawyers, University of Texas colloquia paper Mohamed Mattar, Islamic Law, Common Law, and Civil Law: The Place of Islamic Law in the Legal Family Anne E. Mayer, Modern Law: Varieties in Legal Systems in Middle Eastern Countries Egypt, Arab Republic of 1949 in Egypt 1949 in law Law of Egypt Civil codes