Modern Islamic Thought in a Radical Age: Religious Authority and Internal Criticism

376 Pages·2012·3.07 MB·English

by  Muhammad Qasim Zaman

modernislamicthoughtinaradicalage
Among traditionally educated scholars in the Islamic world there is much disagree-
ment on the crises that afflict modern Muslim societies and how best to deal with
them,andthedebateshavegrownmoreurgentsince9/11.Throughananalysisofthe
workofMuhammadRashidRidaandYusufal-QaradawiintheArabMiddleEastand
anumberofscholarsbelongingtotheDeobandiorientationincolonialandcontem-
porarySouthAsia,thisbookexaminessomeofthemostimportantissuesfacingthe
Muslimworldsincethelatenineteenthcentury.Theseincludethechallengestothe
binding claims of a long-established scholarly consensus, evolving conceptions of
thecommongood,anddiscoursesonreligiouseducation,thelegalrightsofwomen,
socialandeconomicjustice,andviolenceandterrorism.Thedebates,markedbyexten-
siveengagementwithIslam’sfoundationaltextsandlegaltradition,affordvitalinsights
intotheongoingcontestationsonreligiousauthorityandonevolvingconceptionsof
Islam in theMuslimpublicsphere.Thiswide-rangingstudy by aleadingscholarof
Islamicintellectualhistoryprovidesthedepthandthecomparativeperspectiveneces-
saryforanunderstandingofthefermentthatcharacterizescontemporaryIslam.
MuhammadQasimZamanisRobertH.Niehaus’77ProfessorofNearEasternStudies
andReligionatPrincetonUniversity.HeistheauthorofReligionandPoliticsunderthe
EarlyAbbasidsandTheUlamainContemporaryIslam,amongotherworks.

Modern Islamic Thought in a Radical Age
Religious Authority and Internal Criticism
MUHAMMAD QASIM ZAMAN
PrincetonUniversity
cambridgeuniversitypress
Cambridge,NewYork,Melbourne,Madrid,CapeTown,
Singapore,Sa˜oPaulo,Delhi,MexicoCity
CambridgeUniversityPress
32AvenueoftheAmericas,NewYork,ny10013–2473,usa
www.cambridge.org
Informationonthistitle:www.cambridge.org/9781107422254
(cid:2)C MuhammadQasimZaman2012
Thispublicationisincopyright.Subjecttostatutoryexception
andtotheprovisionsofrelevantcollectivelicensingagreements,
noreproductionofanypartmaytakeplacewithoutthewritten
permissionofCambridgeUniversityPress.
Firstpublished2012
PrintedintheUnitedStatesofAmerica
AcatalogrecordforthispublicationisavailablefromtheBritishLibrary.
LibraryofCongressCataloginginPublicationData
Zaman,MuhammadQasim.
ModernIslamicthoughtinaradicalage:religiousauthorityandinternalcriticism/Muhammad
QasimZaman.
p. cm.
Includesbibliographicalreferencesandindex.
isbn978-1-107-09645-5(hardback)
1.Islam–21stcentury. 2.Islam–Doctrines. 3.Islamicsociology. I.Title.
bp161.3.z328 2012
297.09(cid:3)051–dc23 2012011716
isbn978-1-107-09645-5Hardback
isbn978-1-107-42225-4Paperback
CambridgeUniversityPresshasnoresponsibilityforthepersistenceoraccuracyofurlsforexternal
orthird-partyInternetWebsitesreferredtointhispublicationanddoesnotguaranteethatany
contentonsuchWebsitesis,orwillremain,accurateorappropriate.
Contents
Acknowledgments pagevii
ANoteonTransliteration,Spelling,andOtherConventions ix
Map x
1 Introduction 1
partone
2 RethinkingConsensus 45
3 TheLanguageofIjtihad 75
4 ContestationsontheCommonGood 108
parttwo
5 BridgingTraditions:MadrasasandtheirInternalCritics 143
6 Women,Law,andSociety 176
7 SocioeconomicJustice 221
8 DenouncingViolence:TheAmbiguitiesofaDiscourse 261
9 Epilogue:TheParadoxesofInternalCriticism 309
Bibliography 323
Index 355
v

Acknowledgments
Itwouldnothavebeenpossibleformetobegin,letalonetocomplete,thisbook
withoutthefinancialsupportofseveralinstitutions.TheseincludetheCarnegie
CorporationofNewYorkandtheInstituteforAdvancedStudy,Princeton,both
of which awarded me generous fellowships to work on this project, as well as
BrownUniversityandPrincetonUniversity,whichprovidedadditionalfundingin
the form of research leaves. I am especially grateful to Patricia Rosenfield at the
CarnegieCorporationandtoPatriciaCroneattheInstituteforAdvancedStudy
fortheirsupportandencouragement.
I have incurred many debts of gratitude in the course of my work on this
project.Fortheirmuchappreciatedhelp,comments,advice,andencouragement,
Iwouldliketomention,inparticular,LisaAnderson,ZafarIshaqAnsari,Khalid
Aziz, Thomas Biersteker, Dale F. Eickelman, Tarek Elgawhary, David Gilmartin,
M.S¸u¨kru¨Haniog˘lu,RobertW.Hefner,VinodK.Jairath,GudrunKra¨mer,Naheed
Lateef,WarisMazhari,FarinaMir,EbrahimMoosa,FahimAkhtarNadwi,Madawi
al-Rasheed,ArmandoSalvatore,AndrewShryock,AminUsmani,andAminVen-
jara.Iwouldalsoliketothankmystudents,undergraduateaswellasgraduate,for
opportunities to clarify some of the ideas set forth in this book and for helping
me make them more accessible. Above all, I am grateful to Michael Cook for a
sensitivereadingofanearlierdraft.Hisvasteruditionandhisastuteandunfail-
ingly constructive comments have helped make this a better book. I also thank
Marigold Acland, my editor at Cambridge University Press, for her interest in
thisbookandhersupport.Workingwithherhasbeenaprivilegeandapleasure.
SarikaNarulaandShanaMeyeroversawvariousstagesofthebook’sproduction
andSusanKauffmanofPETTFox,Inc.copyeditedthemanuscript.Iamdeeply
appreciativeofalltheirassistance.
Ihavereceivedagreatdealofsupportfromlibrarystaffatseveralinstitutions.
Inparticular,thelibrariansandtheinterlibraryloanandBorrowDirectofficesat
BrownUniversity,theInstituteforAdvancedStudy,PrincetonUniversity,aswell
asattheIslamicResearchInstitute,Islamabad,havebeencrucialtothisresearch.
AtPrinceton’sFirestoneLibrary,IwouldespeciallyliketothankDavidMagierand
GaryHausmanfortheirhelpwithsomehard-to-findmaterials.
I was privileged to present earlier iterations of some portions of this book at
anumberofvenues.TheseincludeDartmouthCollege;HarvardUniversity;the
vii
viii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
InstitutefortheStudyofIslamintheModernWorld,Leiden;theIslamicResearch
Institute, Islamabad; Lehigh University; Lahore University of Management Sci-
ences; Yale Law School’s Middle East Legal Studies Seminar; Oxford University;
Princeton University; the Theology Faculty of Ankara University; University of
CaliforniaLosAngeles;UniversityofHyderabad;andtheUniversityofMichigan.
Ithanktheorganizersoftheselecturesandconferencesforinvitingme,andtheir
audiences for their interest, questions, and comments. With grateful acknowl-
edgment to the publishers, I draw here on some of the material published or
forthcomingasarticlesinArmandoSalvatoreandDaleF.Eickelman,eds.,Public
Islam and the Common Good (Leiden: Brill, 2004); Gudrun Kramer and Sabine
Schmidtke, eds., Speaking for Islam (Leiden: Brill, 2006); Andrew Shryock, ed.,
Islamophobia/Islamophilia(Bloomington:IndianaUniversityPress,2010);Islamic
Studies(Islamabad),49(2010);andDavidGilmartinandUshaSanyal,eds.,Muslim
Voices(Delhi:YodaPress,forthcoming).
This book has long been in the making. I thank Shaista Azizalam, Zaynab
Zaman,andMustafaZamanfortheirforbearanceduringtheseyears,andfortheir
companionship.