Shari'a

As such judgments were in entire opposition to the sharia (or Moslem religious law) as taught, the Mahdi strictly forbade the study of theology, and ordered all books of this description to be burnt; […]

After all, Usamah had served the sadist Zangi and, if read in full, his account presents a picture of Islamic violence no less shocking to modern sensibilities: the collecting of Christian heads, the crucifying and bisections of their own soldiers and heretics, the severe punishments of Islamic sharia – and the story of how his father, in a rage, lopped off the arm of his page.

Unlike in Somalia, Iraq and Afghanistan, in Yemen they are trying to implement sharia by winning over the hearts and minds of the people.

No little of Cairo’s popularity as a winter-resort is due to its many excellent Hotels: the chief being—Grand Continental, on the west side of the Esbekia between the Sharia Bulak and Sharia El-Moghrabi, with large terrace looking directly across the Sharia Kamel-Pasha (the chief modern thoroughfare) at the Gardens; Savoy (same management) at the Rond-point intersection of the Sharias Kasr-en-Nil and Suleiman-Pasha; D’Angleterre (also same management) quieter in Sharia El-Moghrabi, prettily situated […]

The principal Sharias, as they call their streets, and the ancient Muski Bazaars, have shed their Oriental grandeur where once were displayed rich Egyptian and Persian carpets and shawls from Baghdad; […]

The desperate, little streets opening off the great Sharias delve and wander in the protective darkness; […]

But what Omdurman does not have in its sprawling loose ends of architecture and unnamed streets, Khartoum has with its cleaner named streets and sharias.

After the gritty oppressions and smells of the day, jasmine scented the night air as we clipclopped in gharries down the sharias and around the midans in a city glamorous under the sapphire glow of black-out lamps.