Abd El-Razzak El-Sanhuri facts for kids

Abd el-Razzak el-Sanhuri or ‘Abd al-Razzāq al-Sanhūrī (Arabic: عبد الرزاق السنهوري) (11 August 1895 – 21 July 1971) was an Egyptian legal expert, law professor, judge, and politician. He is best known for writing the main parts of the new Egyptian Civil Code in 1948. His huge multi-volume book, Al-Wasīṭ fī sharḥ al-qānūn al-madanī al-jadīd, explains the Egyptian Civil Code and civil law in general. This book was published between 1952 and 1970 and is still very important for legal professionals in Arab countries.

Al-Sanhūrī served as the Minister of Education in Egypt from 1945 to 1946, and again from late 1946 to 1948. Later, he became the President of the Egyptian Council of State. He held this position until 1954, when he was forced to leave. People have described him as a truly unique person. Al-Sanhūrī strongly believed in Arab unity. He worked on legal changes and new laws in many Arab countries throughout his life. For example, he led a group that wrote the Civil Code for Iraq. At the same time, he was also the head of the Baghdad Law School from 1935 to 1937. He also helped create a Syrian civil code in the early 1940s. Besides these, al-Sanhūrī helped draft various public and private laws for Kuwait, Sudan, Libya, and Bahrain.

Early Life and Education

Al-Sanhūrī was born on August 11, 1895, in Alexandria, Egypt. His father had lost his wealth and worked a small job at the Alexandria Municipal Council. Al-Sanhūrī had six brothers and sisters. When his father passed away in 1900, the family became very poor.

In 1913, al-Sanhūrī finished secondary school at the ʿAbbāsiyya. He then joined the Khedival School of Law, which later became the Faculty of Law at Cairo University. He earned his bachelor's degree there in 1917. After graduating, he became a Deputy Prosecutor at the National Court of Mansura. He stayed in this job until 1919. He was dismissed because he was involved in protests during the Egyptian Revolution of 1919. After this, al-Sanhūrī briefly taught at Madrasat al-qadā al-shariyya.

In 1921, al-Sanhūrī moved to Lyon, France, to get his doctorate degree. While there, he studied under the French legal expert Édouard Lambert. Al-Sanhūrī returned to Cairo in 1926. He started working as a civil law teacher at his old university.

Work in Cairo and Baghdad (1930s)

After teaching civil law in Cairo for eight years, al-Sanhūrī moved to Baghdad in 1935. There, he became the head of the Baghdad School of Law. In February 1936, Rashid Ali al-Gaylani, who was the Minister of Interior, formed a group of legal experts. He asked al-Sanhūrī to lead this group to write a new Iraqi Civil Code. However, this project stopped because of the 1936 Iraqi coup d'état and strong disagreement from religious groups.

In 1937, al-Sanhūrī returned to Cairo. Around this time, he met members who had left the Wafd Party. He then joined the Saadist Institutional Party.

The Egyptian Civil Code

In late 1938, after two attempts to create a civil code failed, the Egyptian Minister of Justice, Aḥmad al-Khashaba, decided that two people could best write the code. He chose al-Sanhūrī and his former teacher, Lambert, for this important job. The first version of the Egyptian Civil Code was finished in 1942. Due to various delays and legal steps, the Code officially became law on October 15, 1949.

Iraqi and Syrian Civil Codes

In 1943, al-Sanhūrī left Egypt to help write the civil code for Iraq again. This time, the effort to create a code was more successful. An Iraqi Civil Code, which used both the Majalla and the Egyptian Civil Code as its main sources, became law in 1951. It officially started being used in 1953.

Al-Sanhūrī also visited Syria and helped draft a civil code there. However, his work was cut short when he returned to Cairo in 1948. Also, the parts he wrote were later replaced. The final Syrian draft, following instructions from Husni al-Za'im, ended up being very similar to the Egyptian Civil Code.

President of the Council of State

In March 1949, al-Sanhūrī became the president of the Egyptian Council of State. His time in this role happened during the Egyptian revolution of 1952. There were power struggles between Mohamed Naguib and Gamal Abdel Nasser. These struggles eventually brought the Council of State to the attention of the military.

In March 1954, the Egyptian Bar Association asked for the government to return to civilian rule. Al-Sanhūrī, who was clearly against military rule by then, was forced out of his position. Many protests followed. The Egyptian Revolutionary Command Council insisted that the military government would stay in power.

According to one account, a group of people, possibly encouraged by some army members, attacked al-Sanhūrī. One reason given for the attack was a newspaper article that claimed the Council of State was about to make decisions against the Revolution. It was also rumored that Dr. al-Sanhūrī might become Prime Minister for a few months until new elections. When Nasser visited the hospital where al-Sanhūrī was recovering from his injuries, al-Sanhūrī refused to see him. It is often said that al-Sanhūrī could not leave Egypt after this event. It is not clear if he was under house arrest. He did live in Kuwait for a short time in 1959–60 to help Kuwaiti lawmakers. It is also thought that he visited Libya again around that time to help with drafting laws.

Later Life

Most of al-Sanhūrī's later life was spent writing and publishing more volumes of his major work, Al-Wasīṭ. However, in 1959, he was appointed director of the legal department at the Arab League's Institute of Arab Research and Studies (IARS) in Cairo. This was something Nasser was not happy about. Al-Sanhūrī taught a course at the IARS that compared Islamic and Western law. In 1970, based on advice from Cairo University, Alexandria University, and Ain Shams University, the Egyptian state gave al-Sanhūrī its prize for social sciences and culture. Al-Sanhūrī passed away on July 21, 1971, at his home in Alexandria. He was buried in Heliopolis, Cairo.

Method of Work

Al-Sanhūrī's big contribution to modern Arab legal thinking was his way of updating Islamic fiqh (Islamic law) and sharia (Islamic religious law). He did this by combining rules from different Islamic Madhhabs (schools of thought) with modern European legal ideas. He used European civil law and Western legal concepts because they were very detailed and well-developed.

His approach was based on an important difference. Al-Sanhūrī believed that making laws and giving justice works best when religious scholars (ulama) and legal experts are clearly separated. The ulama are responsible for ibadat, which are the parts of Islamic law about rituals and worship. They should focus only on the religious parts of fiqh. However, legal experts should deal with the changing and specific parts of fiqh and sharia. This way, legal experts, judges, and lawmakers could keep modern Arab justice from being completely controlled by religious ideas. At the same time, they could still use Islamic legal principles. This allowed justice to stay true to its history while always aiming for fair and human goals. This was especially important when state laws, sharia, and old customs could not solve a legal problem. Al-Sanhūrī's ideas were about unity and experience. As he explained in his book Le Califat, there needs to be a careful balance between these two.

Works

• Les restrictions contracluelles a la liberle individuelle de travail dans la jurisprudence anglaise, Paris: Marcel Biard, 1925.
• Le Califat, Paris: Librairie Orientaliste Paul Geuthner, 1926.
• Al-'Aqd al-ijar. Cairo, 1930.
• Nazariyyat al-'Aqd. Cairo, 1934
• Al-Mujiz fi al-nazariyya al-'amma lil-iltizamat fi qanun al-madani al-misri. Cairo, 1936.
• Al-Wasīṭ fī sharḥ al-qānūn al-madanī al-jadīd. (10 volumes) Cairo, 1952–1970.