Islam and the Foundations of Political Power

Islam and the Foundations of Political Power
Author: Ali Abdel Razek
Publisher: Edinburgh University Press
Total Pages: 183
Release: 2013-09-24
Genre: History
ISBN: 0748689400

The translation of an essay first published in Egypt in 1925, which took the contemporaries of its author by storm. At a time when the Muslim world was in great turmoil over the question of the abolition of the caliphate by Mustapha Kamal Ataturk in Turke

The Politics of Islamic Law

The Politics of Islamic Law
Author: Iza R. Hussin
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
Total Pages: 360
Release: 2016-03-31
Genre: Law
ISBN: 022632348X

In The Politics of Islamic Law, Iza Hussin compares India, Malaya, and Egypt during the British colonial period in order to trace the making and transformation of the contemporary category of ‘Islamic law.’ She demonstrates that not only is Islamic law not the shari’ah, its present institutional forms, substantive content, symbolic vocabulary, and relationship to state and society—in short, its politics—are built upon foundations laid during the colonial encounter. Drawing on extensive archival work in English, Arabic, and Malay—from court records to colonial and local papers to private letters and visual material—Hussin offers a view of politics in the colonial period as an iterative series of negotiations between local and colonial powers in multiple locations. She shows how this resulted in a paradox, centralizing Islamic law at the same time that it limited its reach to family and ritual matters, and produced a transformation in the Muslim state, providing the frame within which Islam is articulated today, setting the agenda for ongoing legislation and policy, and defining the limits of change. Combining a genealogy of law with a political analysis of its institutional dynamics, this book offers an up-close look at the ways in which global transformations are realized at the local level.

The Clerics of Islam

The Clerics of Islam
Author: Nabil Mouline
Publisher: Yale University Press
Total Pages: 340
Release: 2014-11-25
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 0300206615

Followers of Muhammad b. ’Abd al-Wahhab, often considered to be Islam’s Martin Luther, shaped the political and religious identity of the Saudi state while also enabling the significant worldwide expansion of Salafist Islam. Studies of the movement he inspired, however, have often been limited by scholars’ insufficient access to key sources within Saudi Arabia. Nabil Mouline was granted rare interviews and admittance to important Saudi archives in preparation for this groundbreaking book, the first in-depth study of the Wahhabi religious movement from its founding to the modern day. Gleaning information from both written and oral sources and employing a multidisciplinary approach that combines history, sociology, and Islamic studies, Mouline presents a new reading of this movement that transcends the usual resort to polemics.

The Princeton Encyclopedia of Islamic Political Thought

The Princeton Encyclopedia of Islamic Political Thought
Author: Gerhard Bowering
Publisher: Princeton University Press
Total Pages: 704
Release: 2013
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 0691134847

"In 2012, the year 1433 of the Muslim calendar, the Islamic population throughout the world was estimated at approximately a billion and a half, representing about one-fifth of humanity. In geographical terms, Islam occupies the center of the world, stretching like a big belt across the globe from east to west."--P. vii.

Islam Instrumentalized

Islam Instrumentalized
Author: Jean-Philippe Platteau
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 547
Release: 2017-06-06
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 1107155444

This book challenges the widespread view that Islam is a reactionary religion that defends tradition against modernity and individual freedom. Jean-Philippe Platteau shows how Islam is vulnerable to political manipulation and how the threat of religious extremism is especially high because Islam is not organized as a centralized church.

Islam, Authoritarianism, and Underdevelopment

Islam, Authoritarianism, and Underdevelopment
Author: Ahmet T. Kuru
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 323
Release: 2019-08
Genre: History
ISBN: 1108419097

Analyzes Muslim countries' contemporary problems, particularly violence, authoritarianism, and underdevelopment, comparing their historical levels of development with Western Europe.

Civil Democratic Islam

Civil Democratic Islam
Author: Cheryl Benard
Publisher: Rand Corporation
Total Pages: 89
Release: 2004-03-25
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 0833036203

In the face of Islam's own internal struggles, it is not easy to see who we should support and how. This report provides detailed descriptions of subgroups, their stands on various issues, and what those stands may mean for the West. Since the outcomes can matter greatly to international community, that community might wish to influence them by providing support to appropriate actors. The author recommends a mixed approach of providing specific types of support to those who can influence the outcomes in desirable ways.

Islam and Dissent in Postrevolutionary Iran

Islam and Dissent in Postrevolutionary Iran
Author: Behrooz Ghamari-Tabrizi
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
Total Pages: 320
Release: 2008-04-08
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 1786734923

The Iranian revolution of 1979 overhauled not only the foundations of Iranian society, religion and politics, but also our understanding of the role of religion in modern government. Here Behrooz Ghamari-Tabrizi takes us on an enlightening journey, showing that the revolution unintentionally opened up the public sphere to competing interpretations of Islam. Far from being the exclusive preserve of high-ranking seminarians as before, in contemporary Iran lay theologians, intellectuals, lawyers and social activists are active and influential interlocutors in debates on the meaning of Islam.A key figure is philosopher Abdolkarim Soroush, a leading force behind Iran's pro-democracy movement and vocal critic of the state. Through a close reading of Soroush's writings, and by tracing the links between Muslim intellectual critique and the realpolitik of postrevolutionary power struggles, Ghamari-Tabrizi offers nothing less than a pathbreaking reassessment of the Iranian revolution. With powerful insights, 'Islam and Dissent' is essential for an understanding of the Muslim world today, as of the new relationships between religion, politics and democracy visible across the globe.Islam and politics a very important topic, especially re. Iran. Soroush is a key figure in Iran, and in Middle East generally. This title is recommended by star academics in the field of Islam and politics.