Readings

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1. Ernst, Carl. “Islamic Ethics in the Colonial Age” of Following Muhammad: Rethinking Islam in the Contemporary World. Chapel Hill: The University of North Carolina Press, 2003: 127-131.
2. Ruthven, Malise with Azim Nanji. Historical Atlas of Islam. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2004: 108-111
3. Lapidus, Ira. “Confrontation with Europe” of A History of Islamic Societies 2nd Edition. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2002: 218-225.
4. Lapidus, Ira. “Introduction: Modernity and the Transformation of Muslim Societies” of A History of Islamic Societies 2nd Edition. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2002: 453-468. | Download Lapidus, pp. 453-468
5. Esposito, John. “Modern Interpretations of Islam” of The Straight Path, 3rd Edition. New York: The Oxford Press, 1988: 115-125. | Download Esposito, pp. 115-125
6. Arabia & The Wahhabi Movement: Abd al-Wahhab (1703-92) and Delong-Bas, Natana. Wahhabi Islam: From Revival and Reform to Global Jihad. Gardners Books, 2004: 7-40. | Download Wahhabi Islam, pp. 7-40
7. al-Yassini, Ayman. “Ibn Abd Al-Wahhab, Muhammad” of Oxford Encyclopedia of the Modern Islamic World, Vol. 2. Edited by John Esposito. Oxford University Press, 2001: 159-160. | Download al-Yassini, pp. 159-160
8. al-Yassini, Ayman. “Wahhabiyah” of Oxford Encyclopedia of the Modern Islamic World, Vol. 4. Edited by John Esposito. Oxford University Press, 2001: 307-308. | Download al-Yassini, pp. 307-308
9. Algar, Hamid, Wahhabism: A Critical Essay, 1-37. | Download Algar, pp. 1-37

Jihad Movement in pre-colonial West Africa

1. Lapidus, Ira. “Uthman Dan Fodio and the Central Sudan” of A History of Islamic Societies 2nd Edition. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2002: 419-428
2. Hiskett, Mervyn. “Dan Fodio, Usuman” of Oxford Encyclopedia of the Modern Islamic World, Vol. 1. Edited by John Esposito. Oxford University Press, 2001: 336-337. (Unavailable)
3. Hiskett, Mervyn, “Jihad in the Pre-colonial Period” of The Development of Islam in West Africa. London: Longman, 1984: 156-193. (Unavailable)

Indian Subcontinent

1. Lapidus, Ira. “Islam under the Mughals” of A History of Islamic Societies 2nd Edition. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2002: 374-381. | Download Lapidus, pp. 374-381
2. Hermansen, Marcia. “Wali Allah, Shah” of Oxford Encyclopedia of the Modern Islamic World, Vol. 1. Edited by John Esposito. Oxford University Press, 2001: 311-312. (Unavailable)
3. Aziz Ahmad, “Political and Religious Ideas of Shah Wali-ullah of Delhi” of Muslim World, vol. 52. Edited by Ibrahim M. Abu-Rabi and Jane Smith. Hartford Seminary, 1962: 22-30. (Unavailable)

Summary

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During the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, European economies began to expand as the need for raw materials increased. Political and economic competition forced the establishment of worldwide territorial empires. By the beginning of the twentieth century, the European powers, including Russia (and China) had completed their conquest of almost all Muslim societies. Colonialism drastically changed all aspects of the political, economic, cultural dimensions of the colonized regions. Muslim and European societies were distinctly different in their philosophies toward elites, institutions, and cultures. One of the effects of the new colonial rule was the suspension of the local legal systems and the imposition of the law of the conqueror. The establishment of the new law, however, did not impact all aspects of life in the society. Local customs still prevailed in many aspects of family life and education. Often this resulted in a more strict interpretation of Islamic law, taking away rights previously available to Muslim women.

Muslim elites generated two principal responses to European pressures. Those Muslim professionals and intellectuals who received their training in Western or Western-style educational institutions generally favored Islamic modernist or secular nationalist concepts for the future of Muslim societies, interpreting Islam in ways that were consistent with European forms of state and economy. (We will be discussing some of these intellectuals in Session Nine.) On the other hand, tribal leaders, merchants and commercial farmers, led by ulama and Sufi shaykhs, wanted a reorganization of Muslim communities and the reform of individual behavior in terms of fundamental religious principles and practices.

There was great deal of diversity of form and style among the reformist/revivalist movements that developed in the eighteenth century, depending on context and circumstance. While some movements were in response to external factors, such as the encounter with the Europeans, others arose in reaction to developments internal to their societies, particularly the decline of political institutions and what was perceived to be growing moral laxity and religious/spiritual malaise among Muslims. John Voll, who has studied these movements extensively, points out that some of these, though conceived of as “renewal” movements, were, in fact, part of the ongoing processes of Islamization of societies. Such movements of renewal and reform sometimes resulted in political conflict and the creation of new states, especially in regions beyond the central Muslim lands of the Middle East. In this session we examine the careers and thought of three prominent Muslim revivalists/reformists of the eighteenth century: Muhammad Abd al-Wahhab (1703-92) in Arabia; Usuman dan Fodio (1755-1817) in the area of the modern state of Nigeria in West Africa; and Shah Waliullah (1703-1762) in Mughal India.

Guiding Questions

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1. Muhammad ibn Abd al-Wahhab (1703-92) was trained in law, theology, and Sufism at Mecca and Medina, where he was drawn to the Hanbali school, the strictest of the Sunni law schools. He believed the political weakness of the community and its moral decline were due to a deviation from the straight path of Islam. What was his answer to this problem? What was his conception of the “correct” Islam that people should follow?
2. How did the jihad revivalist movements in West Africa redefine African Sufism? Notwithstanding his involvement with a militant jihad movement, Usuman dan Fodio is considered to be theologically conservative in his understanding of Islam. Why is this so?
3. Shah Wali Allah wanted to restore the declining power of the Mughal Empire. Why did he think that reforming the practice of Islam among Muslims in India could lead to this restoration? What were his solutions to reforming Muslim society and the Sufi tradition?
4. What similarities do you see in the ideas of Muhammad Abd al-Wahhab, Usuman dan Fodio and Shah Waliullah? Notwithstanding these similarities, each had his own distinctive vision of what constituted “correct” Islam. Can you discern the differences in their visions? What impact do you think the specific context in which each lived may have played in developing differences in their conceptions of Islam?