Understanding contemporary politics in Muslim world

Islam with a 1.5 billion Muslims, constituting one-fifth of humanity, is poised to exert an enduring influence during this century. Unlike other religions, Islam does not differentiate between spiritual and temporal or religious and secular. Yet, despite its fundamental principle of a unity of religion and state, Islam is striving to express a political thought encompassing inner purity, ethical strength, and personal freedom amidst its cultural and political pluralism.
“Islam is also at a crossroads, destined to play a world role in politics and to become the most prominent world religion during the 21st century. Islam is thus not contained in any national culture; it is a universal force,” says Gerhard Bowering, professor of Islamic studies at Yale University.
Largely misconstrued and often seen as a violent religion, Islam needs to be better understood. This first encyclopedia of Islamic political thought is a useful tool to understand contemporary politics in the Islamic world. It covers 14th centuries from the birth of Islam, in 632 to the present day, thus retracing the historical roots of Islamic political thought and, highlighting its actual relevance.
The “Encyclopedia of Islamic Thought”, aims to provide a solid and innovative reference work that can easily trace the historical roots of Islamic political thought and demonstrate its contemporary importance. The Encyclopedia of Islamic Thought was conceived as a combination of broad, comprehensive articles on core concepts and shorter entries on specific ideas, movements, leaders and related topics.
“We intended to make the ‘Islamic Encyclopedia of Political Thought’ accessible, informative, and comprehensive with respect to the contemporary political and cultural situation of Islam, while also providing in-depth examination of the historical roots of that situation,” explains Bowering.
For the first time, a reader can access information covering the origins and the evolution of Islamic political ideas and related topics. This includes an extensive variety of concepts, Islamic law, institutions, personalities, statesmen, movements, places and schools of thoughts. It would be interesting to know according to which criteria the statesmen were chosen. Why were Ataturk, Mustafa Kemal (1881-1938), Gamal AbdeI Nasser (1918-1970), Mu’ammar Qaddafi (1942-2011), Yasser Arafat (1929-2004) and Zia-ul-Haq (1924-1988) selected over many other possible contenders as twentieth century statesmen?
Regarding the list of thinkers and personalities, it is obvious that in any book, space is limited. However, an effort has been made to include both, non-Arab thinkers and non-Arab personalities. I found an entry about Shah Waliullah (1703-1762), one of the most outstanding religious scholars of Muslim South Asia. Another entry mentions Shamil (1797-1871), a little known leader of the Muslim resistance to the Russian conquest of Chechnya and Daghestan and ruler of the Islamic state it established.
An entry has also been dedicated to the little known Khunji, also known as Khwaja Mawlana Isfahani (1455-1521). He was an outspoken Sunni and fled to Transoxiana (present Uzbekistan) when Shah Isma’il transformed Iran into a Shi’i state. His manual of government brings a significant contribution to the development of Sunni political theory.
Muhammad Iqbal (1877-1938) is also mentioned and readers will be reminded that this poet and writer has played a significant role in both the history of Indian Muslim political thought and the history of Islamic political thought in general.
More than 400 alphabetically arranged entries focus on modern concepts, institutions, movements, Islamic legal terms, trade, schools, regions and key concepts related to Islamic political thought such as caliph, shariah, revival, reform, to name but a few.
The inclusion of non-Arabs does not only concern thinkers, personalities and statesmen but also the realm of institutions, movements and parties. Besides the famous Azhar University, the reader will learn about the importance of another Muslim university in the Indian town of Aligarh.
Located some 77 miles southeast of Delhi, Aligarh was chosen by Sayyid Ahmed Khan in 1875 for the establishment of the Muhammadan Anglo-Oriental College (MAO), dubbed a “Muslim Cambridge”. In 1920, the MAO College became the Aligarh Muslim University.
“Aligarh emerged as a crucial venue for multiple and diverse dialogues with their coreligionists, co-inhabitants, the West, and the Muslim world. In particular, it became a vehicle for conversation with modern science and education,” says Irfan Ahmad.
Fazlur Rahman went on to describe Aligarh Muslim University as the central figure of “Muslim modernism”.
Written by an international team of specialists, the entries make use of the latest research and provide useful recommendations for further reading and research through bibliographies, cross-references and an index. This first Encyclopedia of Islamic Political Thought constitutes a resourceful guide for students, researches, journalists, diplomats and anyone looking for information on the complex subject of Islam and politics.

Email: [email protected]