Islamic Authority in the Modern World
The coming of colonialism put paid to an arrangement that for over a millennium governed Muslim societies: the co-habitation of Muslim faith and political power. How did the qaum respond to the changes wrought by Empire? This paper, which spans, temporally, the two centuries from Napoleon’s invasion of Egypt to Erdogan’s ascent, and spatially, from Ankara to Chittagong, argues that Islamic authorities, informed by the great movements of reformism and revivalism, adapted to the modern world in creative ways, forging, as it were, a Protestant Islam; fashioning a new social role for the ulama; establishing madrasas in ever-increasing numbers; defending the autonomy of the sharia, and co-opting, and at times being co-opted by, the state. Seen together, these innovations from below have helped reinvigorate Islam, according it sustained relevance in the modern Muslim world.
Date:
13 June 2019, 17:00 (Thursday, 7th week, Trinity 2019)
Venue:
St John's College, St Giles OX1 3JP
Venue Details:
Prestwich Room
Speaker:
Prof Francis Robinson (Royal Holloway, University of London)
Organiser:
Sara Perlangeli (University of Oxford)
Organiser contact email address:
sara.perlangeli@sant.ox.ac.uk
Host:
Sara Perlangeli (University of Oxford)
Part of:
South Asian Political Thought Seminars
Topics:
Booking required?:
Not required
Audience:
Public
Editor:
Sara Perlangeli
