Product Description

The Islamic world - those countries where Islam is the dominant or most important religion - encompasses territories as far apart as Morocco, Indonesia, Somalia and Bosnia, and includes an extraordinarily diverse range of societies and cultures. Charting the 20th-century history of these societies, this book examines both what they have in common and their equally profound differences. Political change provides the chronological framework for the book, but is seen throughout in the context of culture and society. Opening with a survey of the impact of colonialism and its attendant modernism on the Islamic world, the author moves on to explore the rise of bourgeois nationalism in the 1920s and 1930s, the era of independence movements (1939-1958), the complex relationship between Islamic cultures and the "republican" political culture of the Third World (1956-1973), the reassertion of Islamic ideologies in the 1970s and 1980s, and the issues surrounding the relationship between Islamic culture and civil society that have dominated debate in the early 1990s.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1320082 in Books
• Published on: 2002-03-29
• Original language: German
• Binding: Paperback
• 400 pages

Review
'... the comprehensive history of Islamic societies in the 20th century' - Discourse

About the Author
Reinhard Schulze is an internationally acclaimed author and Professor of Islamic Studies at the University of Berne.

Customer Reviews

to be read with extreme caution
The book by the most controversial German scholar in Islamic Studies has finally been translated into English.

Since its first publication in 1995 many of the claims put forth by Schulze have been exposed as totally unfounded. This is especially true for his thesis, that due to a mysterious "world-time" the Islamic world experienced the same socio-cultural developments as the "West". In particular he claims that there was an Islamic enlightenment in the 18th century. This thesis dominates the introduction of the book and it is Schulze's explicit intention to "rewrite" Islamic history with the categories applied to describe developments in the West. Bernd Radtke "autochthone islamische Aufklärung", Utrecht, 2000, and Hagen/ Seidensticker "Reinhard Schulzes These einer islamischen Aufklärung" ZDMG (1998) that Schulze's concept is based on the deliberate mistranslation of a number of Arabic poems and mystical treatises.

Insofar the 20st century is concerned the mistakes concerning Islam in South Asia are apalling, e.g. Abdallah (correct Ubaidullah) Sindhi (b. 1871) appears as the founder of the Deoband seminary (founded 1867) (p.118). Even more stunning is the fact that these faults have not been emended in the meanwhile although the literature quoted would have provided the correct information. This observation on South Asia reflects my own preoccupations. Although I cannot dare to judge Schulze's claims concerning other regions, this observation shows that extreme caution should prevail.

The second problematic aspect of Schulze's book is the constant downplaying of the violent and totalitarian character of Islamist ideologies. He ascribes to Sayyid Qutb the wish to create a "society free from rulers", p.176. Instead of indulging into phrases Schulze should perhaps examine more closely how Qutb wants those who deviate from the "Islamic method" to be treated. Similarily stunning is the Schulze's stressing the affinities between Maududi and political modernism (whatever that may be), pp. 123f. A look at Maududi's writings shows that he promotes severe dicrimination against women, including attacks on the abolition of child marriage. Maududi even stresses that is impossible to abolish slavery according to Islamic law and he advocates the execution of apostates. Maududi is politically modern insofar he consciously drew inspiration for his theory of government from Communism and to a lesser degree fascism.

Among non-experts who do not have the possibility to check Schulze's statements against source material the reading of the book could give rise to severe misconceptions.