Encyclopedia of Islam

Further reading: Benedict Anderson, Imagined Commu-

nities (New York: Verso, 1991); John L. Esposito, Islam: 

The Straight Path (New York: Oxford University Press, 

1998); Albert Hourani, A History of the Arab Peoples

(Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1991).

civil society

Civil society is located between the intimate-pri-

vate spheres of familial life and the various organs 

of the state: administrative, legislative, judicial, 

and economic. In large measure, it is beholden 

to those selfsame institutions, for the state serves 

to “frame” or structure social relations outside 

its immediate purview (for example, through the 

legal system). The nature, complexity, and differ-

entiation of power relations, nodes, and networks 

K  152