The famed reform debates at al-Azhar Madrasa in nineteenth-century Cairo - one of the most influential centers of religious study in Sunni Islam - were enormously influential for twentieth-century Islamic thought. In this book Indira Gesink argues that narratives of these debates overemphasize the roles of famous modernists like Muhammad 'Abduh, obscuring important themes. By restoring conservative voices to the debate, she shows that conservative 'ulama engaged many of the same issues as reformers and led committees that generated and implemented reforms; ultimately, conservative leaders at...
The famed reform debates at al-Azhar Madrasa in nineteenth-century Cairo - one of the most influential centers of religious study in Sunni Islam - wer...
