Islam and Modernity
Key Issues and Debates
Edited by Muhammad Khalid Masud, Armando Salvatore, Martin van Bruinessen
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Recent events have focused attention on the perceived differences and tensions between the Muslim world and the modern West. As a major strand of Western public discourse has it, Islam appears resistant to internal development and remains inherently pre-modern. However Muslim societies have experienced most of the same structural changes that have impacted upon all societies: massive urbanisation, mass education, dramatically increased communication, the emergence of new types of institutions and associations, some measure of political mobilisation, and major transformations of the economy. These developments are accompanied by a wide range of social movements and by complex and varied religious and ideological debates.
This textbook is a pioneering study providing an introduction to and overview of the debates and questions that have emerged regarding Islam and modernity. Key issues are selected to give readers an understanding of the complexity of the phenomenon from a variety of disciplinary perspectives. The various manifestations of modernity in Muslim life discussed include social change and the transformation of political and religious institutions, gender politics, changing legal regimes, devotional practices and forms of religious association, shifts in religious authority, and modern developments in Muslim religious thought.
Key Features
- Each chapter contains an overview of relevant secondary literature and concludes with a summary of the key ideas presented and a set of questions
- Contributing authors include some of the best-known academics from various disciplines in the field presenting state of the art scholarship in their specialised areas
Part 1 Conceptualising Modernity
1. Tradition and Modernity within Islamic Civilisation and the West, Armando Salvatore
2. Western Scholars of Islam on the Issue of Modernity, Muhammad Khalid Masud and Armando Salvatore
Part 2 Negotiating Modernity
3. Political Modernity in the Middle East, Sami Zubaida
4. Islam, Modernity and the Politics of Gender: Perspectives from the Middle East, Central Asia and Afghanistan, Deniz Kandiyoti
5. Sufism, 'Popular' Islam and the Encounter with Modernity, Martin van Bruinessen
6. Colonialism and Islamic Law, Ebrahim Moosa
Part 3 Debating Modernity
7. The Reform Project in the Emerging Public Spheres, Armando Salvatore
8. The Ulama and Contestations of Religious Authority under Modern Conditions, Muhammad Qasim Zaman
9. Islamic Modernism, Muhammad Khalid Masud
10. The Shifting Politics of Identity, Abdulkader Tayob
List of Contributors.
