The objective of this study was to consider stances of ulama on modern state and control over shari‘ah interpretation by the Malaysian government. This study analyzed materials on kafir （infidel） declaration including fatwas in Malaysia in the 1980s. The main focus of the study was discourses by Parti Islam SeMalaysia （PAS） or Islamic Party of Malaysia and contradictions by the government. PAS was founded by ulama in the Malay Peninsula in the 1950s. PAS played a role as a political platform of ulama to confront with the government. In the former half of the 1980s PAS attacked the government for its secular − or infidel − characteristics. In this period the conflict between ulama and the government was most fierce in the Malaysian history.

When PAS declared the Malaysian government to be infidel, the government competed by issuing fatwas by official muftis. In Malaysia there are enactments to regulate issuance of fatwa. Issuance of fatwa is monopolized by official Fatwa Committees under Majlis Agama Islam or Islamic religious Council in each state. After an official fatwa is published in a gazette, the fatwa becomes binding. All Muslims in the state must follow it. Actions or discourse against the gazetted fatwa are penalized according to the enactments. Such state control on fatwa is very rare in the history of the Muslim world.

Although the government attempted to regulate kafir declaration by PAS, the confrontation escalated and an armed conflict broke out in 1985. In Memali, state of Kedah, a PAS leader called Ibrahim Libya was swooped by security force. Ibrahim was known by his judgment against the “infidel” government. As a result of the conflict, Ibrahim himself and his 14 followers were killed. After the incident, the way of burial for victims became an issue between PAS and the government. PAS tried to mobilize ulama in Majlis Agama in Kedah, and attempted to obtain an official fatwa to bury victims as martyrs. The burial as martyrs meant that Ibrahim’s death was the result of legitimate uprising against the infidel government. However, PAS failed in the attempt. The attempt by PAS reflected ambivalent stance on the state control on fatwa. Although the fatwa control is a regulation on shari‘ah interpretation by ulama, it is also an opportunity for ulama to utilize state power to influence on the Muslim society.

The state control on fatwa was a part of the nationalization of Islamic affairs by the Malaysian government. Because of such nationalization policies, the authority of ulama declined in long term. Ulama were involved in bureaucracy and lost their own voices as teachers, scholars, and muftis. PAS can be considered as an attempt by ulama to retain their authority as shari‘ah interpreter through a political platform. However, state power was fascinating and even PAS was not necessarily against the nationalization of Islamic affairs. The controversy on kafir declaration and fatwa showed the dilemma of ulama between shari‘ah and the state.

In French Indochina, despite that the metric weights and measures system was introduced by the French colonial administration and provided by law, local indigenous systems were maintained in various regions even into the latter half of the colonial period.

The purpose of this paper is to clarify the phenomenon, along with its background, in which the individuality of local areas had been firmly prevalent in Vietnamese society, which was changing due to the colonial rule. I will discuss this issue through the French Indochina administration’s weights and measures standardization policy and the actual state of the northern provinces of Vietnam.

The following are given as the largest problems in the history of research on Vietnamese weights and measures: The systems that were used in each period and area are so diverse that the actual operation can only be assumed from fragmentary descriptions; there are not enough methodologies and historical materials to be systematically weighed against each other. In addition, Vietnamese translations of weights and measures terms in classic Chinese historical materials are not standardized, and weights and measures terms in studies conducted in European languages and Vietnamese are not standardized, and furthermore, the conversion of the amounts equivalent to each unit differ depending on the point of view of the researcher or investigation. That is, no standardized point of view has been established yet as to weights and measures.

The methodology required due to such issues in the history of research and the current state is to study by using not fragmentary, local cases but a host of systematic historical materials that allow for objective and rational comparisons. I worked on this issue by using as its homogeneous historical materials administrative documents related to weights and measures which were created all at once at the same time for the same purposes by the Résident Supérieur de Tonkin and the northern provinces.

The primary study results of this paper are as follows: Firstly, regarding the operation of weights and measures, it has been substantiated that while the metric system was prevalent in dealings with large-scale customers or foreign countries, old systems were remaining firmly on private levels. Secondly, it has become clear that the Governeur Général de Indochina and the Résident Supérieur de Tonkin were aiming to standardize weights and measures by repeated trial and error over 40 years, taking into perspective the implementation of policies tailored to local circumstances. Thirdly, a situation has also become concretely clear in which Vietnamese mandarin, who had been slighted even in previous historical studies, played a pivotal role in local administration. Meanwhile, it can also be pointed out that neither the government nor local administration actively took action throughout the colonial period. It could be said that I could also grasp a fragment of the French-style colonial management, which spent little money, and the bureaucracy, of which no one would take responsibility, from the aspects of weights and measures.

In the 18^th−19^th century Burma, a variety of metallic currencies casted freely by any individuals were circulated side by side with gold, silver, copper and lead bullion. Accordingly, people had to call assayers and weighers who gauged the quality and weight of these currencies in every commercial transaction.

An attempt at standardizing currencies was made by two kings; King Bodaw-hpaya at the end of the 18^th century and King Mindon in 1865. The first monetary reform was not successful, while the second one proved to be successful, despite the similarity in terms of policy content and methodology.

Conventional studies on these monetary reforms have failed to inquire into the causes of the failure and success of each reform. This paper argues that the first reform could not eliminate the middlemen such as brokers and assayers who played important roles in providing as well as circulating monies. As for the second reform, ironically enough, it was given a momentum by the loss of Lower Burma in the 2^nd Anglo-Burmese war in 1852. The Lower Burma, the important supplier of the staple to the Central Burma was annexed to the British India. The royal government had to procure necessary staples with the currencies acceptable to the British Burma. Only option for the government was to issue the standardized currency similar to the British Indian Rupee in terms of quality and weight.

Basing on the Burmese case study, we suggest that studies on the monetary systems would surely provide several useful insights to understand the 18−19^th century Southeast Asia.

（1）The study on monetary systems in the 18−19^th centuries reveals that the process of political integration and economic integration did not occur simultaneously. In terms of currency circulation, different areas coexisted within a politically integrated area and it was not rare such an area was connected to areas belonged to other polities.

（2）Research on Southeast Asian monetary system before the colonial period will surely provide ample opportunities for the comparative studies not only within the area but also between SEA and the neighboring countries such as China, India and Japan.

（3）The study of currencies leads us to the deeper understanding of segmented markets and the important roles of middlemen who connect demands and supplies, which we can observe up to now in many places in Southeast Asia.