Modern Islamic Political Thought

Part 1: The Pre-Modern Era: A Cursory Overview

I. Introduction

Read: Bernard Lewis, The Political Language of Islam

II. The Political Career of the Prophet

Read: Montgomery Watt, Muhammad: Prophet and Statesman

Watch: The Message (1976)

Recommended: The Quran Interpreted, trans A.J Arberry, pp. 127-148, 308-309, 341-344

Ella Landau-Tasseron, The Religious Foundations of Political Allegiance: A Study of Bay‘a in Pre-modern Islam, pp. 1-19

III. The Early Muslim Community in the Post-Prophetic Era

Read: Patricia Crone, God’s Rule: Six Centuries of Islamic Political Thought, pp.17-32

The Account of the Killing of Uthman in The Annals of al-Tabari, pp.1-27

IV. Political Justice and Early Sect Formation

Read: Majid Khurdi, The Islamic Conception of Justice, pp.13-38

V. The Kharajites

Read: Crone pp. 54-64

Ann Lambton, State and Government in Medieval Islam: An Introduction to the Study of Islamic Political Theory, pp. 21-42

Recommended: Patricia Crone, A Statement by the Najdiyya Kharijites on the Dispensability of the Imamate in Studia Islamica, No. 88 (1998), pp. 55-76

VI. The Mu'tazilites

Read: Crone pp. 65-69

VII. The Imamis

Read: Crone pp.110-124

Abdulaziz Sachedina, The Just Ruler in Shiite Islam: The Comprehensive Authority of the Jurist in Imamate Jurisprudence, pp. 89-117

VIII. The Sunnis

Read: Crone pp. 125-141, 219-255

Lambton pp. 69-82

Antony Black, The History of Islamic Political Thought: From the Prophet to the Present, pp. 81-107, 154-159

Watch: The Story of Islam

The Modern Era: 1750-Present

IX. Muhammad ibn Abd al-Wahhab

Read: Netana Delong-Bas, Wahhabism, pp. 7-123

Hamid Algar, Wahhabism: A Critical Essay, pp. 1-66

Khaled Abu El Fadl, Violence and Rebellion in Islamic Law, pp. 134-150

X. Usman Dan Fodio

Read: Ibrahim Suleiman, The African Caliphate: The Life, Works, and Teachings of Shaykh Usman Dan Fodio, pp. 57-170

XI. Shah Wali Allah

Read: Muhammad al-Ghazali, The Socio-Political Thought of Shah Wali Allah, pp. 1-102

XII. Ali ‘Abd al-Raziq

Read: Message not Government, Religion Not State in Liberal Islam: A Sourcebook

XIII. Jamal al-din al-Afghani and Muhammad Abduh

Read: Ali Rahnema, Pioneers of Islamic Revival, pp. 1-63

Afghani, An Islamic Response to Imperialism, trans. Kiddie, pp. 36-45

XIV. Rashid Rida and Hasan al-Banna

Read: Rahnema pp. 125-183

Recommended: Hillel Fradkin, The History and Unwritten Future of Salafism in Current Trends In Islamist Ideology, Vol 6

Gilles Kepel, The Brotherhood in the Salafist Universe in Current Trends In Islamist Ideology, Vol 6

XV. Sayyid Abu’l –A’la Mawdudi

Read: Rahnema pp. 98-121

XVI. Ali Shari’ati

Read: Rahnema, pp. 208-251

XVII. Ruhollah Khomeini

Read: Hamid Algar, Islam and Revolution: Writings and Declarations of Imam Khomeini, pp. 13-150, 321 360

Hillel Fradkin, The Paradoxes of Shiism, in Current Trends in Islamist Ideology, Volume 8.

XVIII. Sayyid Qutb

Read: Roxanne L. Euben, Princeton Readings in Islamist Thought: Texts and Contexts from Al-Banna to Bin Laden, pp. 129-155

Recommended: Paul Berman, The Philosopher of Islamic Terror

Muqtedar Khan, Sayyid Qutb—The John Locke of the Islamic World?

Roxanne L. Euben, Comparative Political Theory: An Islamic Fundamentalist Critique of Rationalism in The Journal of Politics, Vol. 59, No. 1 (Feb., 1997), pp. 28-55

XIX. Muhammed Abd al-Salam Faraj

Read: Euben, pp. 321-327

XX.‘Umar Abd al-Rahman

Read: Euben, pp. 344-350

Roxanne L. Euben, Killing (For) Politics: Jihad, Martyrdom, and Political Action in Political Theory, Vol. 30, No. 1 (Feb, 2002), pp. 4-35

XXI. Overview of Islamism

Read: Muhammed Ayoob, The Many Faces of Political Islam, pp. 1-41

Aziz Al-Azmeh, Islamist Revivalism and Western Ideologies in History Workshop, No. 32 (Autumn, 1991), pp. 44-53

Recommended: Abdelwahab El-Affendi, The Long March from Lahore to Khartoum: Beyond the 'Muslim Reformation’ in Bulletin (British Society for Middle Eastern Studies), Vol. 17, No. 2 (1990), pp. 137-151

Guilain Denoeux, The Forgotten Swamp: Navigating Political Islam in the Journal of Middle East Policy, Vol. IX. June 2002

Gilles Kepel, Jihad: The Trail of Political Islam

Oliver Roy, The Failure of Political Islam

Oliver Roy, Globalized Islam: The Search for a New Ummah

XXII. Islamic Feminism

Read: Wael B. Hallaq, An Introduction to Islamic Law, pp. 61-71, 119-133

Khaled Abu El Fadl, Speaking in God’s Name: Islamic Law, Authority and Women, pp. 209-49

Fatimah Mernissi, A Feminist Interpretation of Women's Rights In Islam in Liberal Islam: A Sourcebook

Hibba Abugideiri, Hagar: A Historical Model for Gender Jihad in The Daughters of Abraham: Feminist Thought in Judaism, Christianity, and Islam.

Amina Wudud, The Quran and Women in Liberal Islam: A Sourcebook

Gibril Haddad, An Innovation of Misguidance: Amina Wadud’s Un-Enlightened Feminism

Tim Winter, Boys will be Boys

Tim Winter, Islam, Irigaray, and the Retrieval of Gender

Recommended: Leila Ahmed, Women and Gender in Islam: Historical roots of a Modern Debate

Fatimah Mernissi, The Veil and the Male Elite, pp. 25-61

Asma Barlas, "Believing women" in Islam: Unreading Patriarchal Interpretations of the Qur'an

Soumaya Ghannoushi, Damsels in distress? in The Gaurdian

After Islamism: Islamic Liberalism and Neo-Traditionalism

XXIII. Abdullahi Ahmed An-Na'im: Islam, The Post-Colonial State, and The Problem of Power

Read: Abdullahi Ahmed An-Na'im, Islam and the Secular State: Negotiating the Future of Shari'a

John Esposito, The challenge of creating change in The Immanent Frame

Daniel Philpott, Arguing with An-Na`im in The Immanent Frame

Recommended: Wael B. Hallaq, An Introduction to Islamic Law, pp.1-85

Seyyed Vali Nasr, Islamic Leviathan: Islam and the Making of State Power

Bertrand de Jouvenel, On Power: The Natural History of Its Growth

XXIV. Khaled Abu El Fadl

Read: Khaled Abou El Fadl/Islam & The Challenge Of Democracy/Boston Review/April-May2003

Ten Responses
Practice and Theory-John L. Esposito
Change from Within- Nader A. Hashemi
The Best Hope-Noah Feldman
Democracy and Conflict-Jeremy Waldron
The Priority of Politics- M.A. Muqtedar Khan
The Importance of Context- A. Kevin Reinhart
Questioning Liberalism, Too- Saba Mahmood
Too Far from Tradition-Mohammad H. Fadel
Popular Support First- Bernard Haykel
Islam Isn't the Problem- William B. Quandt
Khaled Abou El Fadl Replies

Link To These Responses & Fadl's Reply: Ten Responses to Fadl/Boston Review/April-May2003

XXV. Abdolkarim Soroush

Read: Adbolkarim Soroush, Reason, Freedom and Democracy in Islam, Essential writings of Adbolkarim Soroush p. 54-69, 105-122

XXVI. Abdulaziz Sachedina

Read: Abdulaziz Sachedina, The Islamic Roots of Democratic Pluralism

XXVII. Ian Dallas

Read: Ian Dallas, The Time of the Bedouin: On the Politics of Power

XXIII. Pervez Manzoor

Read: Islam and the Crisis of Modernity

Faith and Secularism: Against the Reduction of Islam as Governance

Clash of the Two Swords: Return of the Binary Theory in History, Poltics and Sociology

Theology and the Rights of Man: Islam and the Question of Liberty, Power and Coercion

Historical Order, Rational State, or Moral Community: The Problem of Politics in Modernity and in Islam

Beyond City and Civilization: Towards a Universal Vision of 'The City of Man'

XIX. Course Overview

Read: Wael B. Hallaq, Can The Shariah be Restored? in Islamic Law and the Challenges of Modernity, pp. 21-53