Islamic Reform: Politics and Social Change in Late Ottoman Syria

ISBN-13: 9780195061031 / Angielski / Twarda / 1990 / 224 str.

David Dean Commins

Opis

Religious community and nation have long been the chief poles of political and cultural identity for peoples of the modern Middle East. This work explores how men in turn-of-the-century Damascus dealt, in word and deed, with the dilemmas of identity that arose from the Ottoman Empire's 19th-century reforms. Muslim religious scholars (ulama) who advocated a return to scripture as the basis of social and political order were the pivotal group. The reformers clashed with their fellow ulama who defended the integrity of prevailing religious practices and beliefs. In addition to two conflicting interpretations of Islam, Arabism comprised a new strand of thought represented by young men with secular educations advancing Arab interests in the Ottoman Empire. Religious reformers and Arabists shared a political agenda that shifted focus from constitutionalism before 1908 to administrative decentralization shortly thereafter. Using unpublished manuscripts and correspondence, inheritance documents, and Ottoman-era periodicals, this work weaves together social, political, and intellectual aspects of a local history that represents an instance of a fundamental issue in modern history.

Recenzje

Commin's book provides some useful insights into how the Muslim intellectuals of Syria accepted change, maintaining the cultural continuity and unity of their society admidst political disunity ... It is indeed invigorating to see the transformation of the Muslim society in Syria studied within its own socio-economic paradigm rather than pictured as propelled out of inertia by the superior culture of the West, or by the natives' despair at losing their culture ... an exceptionally sound scholarly work ... a truly original, well-written scholarly work, ranking among the ten best books written on the topic in the last decade. It is indeed a pleasure to read it and to give it the highest possible recommendation.