Reconfiguring Islamic Tradition: Reform, Rationality, and Modernity (Cultural Memory in the Present) - Softcover

Haj, Samira

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0804778604 ISBN 13: 9780804778602

Publisher: Stanford University Press, 2008

Synopsis

Samira Haj conceptualizes Islam through a close reading of two Muslim reformers―Muhammad ibn 'Abdul Wahhab (1703–1787) and Muhammad 'Abduh (1849–1905)―each representative of a distinct trend, chronological as well as philosophical, in modern Islam. Their works are examined primarily through the prism of two conceptual questions: the idea of the modern and the formation of a Muslim subject. Approaching Islam through the works of these two Muslims, she illuminates aspects of Islamic modernity that have been obscured and problematizes assumptions founded on the oppositional dichotomies of modern/traditional, secular/sacred, and liberal/fundamentalist. The book explores the notions of the community-society and the subject's location within it to demonstrate how Muslims in different historical contexts responded differently to theological and practical questions. This knowledge will help us better understand the conflicts currently unfolding in parts of the Arab world.

About this title

About the Author

Samira Haj is Professor of History at the City University of New York: The Graduate Center and the College of Staten Island.

Edition details

• Publisher: Stanford University Press
• Publication date: 2008
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0804778604
• ISBN 13: 9780804778602
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 304