Marriage solemnization among Turks in Britain: the emergence of a hybrid Anglo‐Muslim Turkish law

Abstract

This study explains the development of a hybrid form of marriage solemnization practised among Anglo‐Turkish Muslims in London. In doing so it traces the background of most Turks who have lived under, or are aware of, a legal system in Turkey, which has been transformed by attempts at secularization within a Muslim social context. Thus, Turkish Muslims have already had some historical experiences of combining an officially secular legal system with the demands of their unofficial laws. Therefore, at least five patterns of marriage making can be discerned among Muslims in Turkey. In Britain, these patterns have altered again to lead to the creation of further hybrid forms of marriage solemnization. These various forms and the reasons for their maintenance are explored in this paper. It is argued through these observations that, far from abandoning their concern with religious and customary law coexisting with an avowedly secular official system, Turkish Muslims have been successfully re‐creating their own version of what has been termed angrezi shariat—an English/British Muslim law.