Noah Salomon
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- January 2018
- ISBN:
- 9780691165158
- eISBN:
- 9781400884292
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Princeton University Press
- DOI:
- 10.23943/princeton/9780691165158.003.0003
- Subject:
- Anthropology, Social and Cultural Anthropology
Sudan's twenty-five-year experiment with Islamic governance not only offers the researcher a unique site to observe Islamist interventions in practice, but also allows us to observe how these ...
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Sudan's twenty-five-year experiment with Islamic governance not only offers the researcher a unique site to observe Islamist interventions in practice, but also allows us to observe how these policies are consumed within the diverse publics to which they attend, which is the goal of this chapter. A study of the regime's project of epistemological enlightenment offers a way of answering questions such as: Has the Islamic project of the Inqadh been a success? To what extent has the government of Sudan accomplished its goal of instilling its Islamic program in the citizenry? Are new Muslim subjects emerging out of the era of National Salvation, or was the Inqadh period largely one of slogans that bore little fruit among the masses? The chapter attempts to get a better a sense of the impact of the Islamic state by tracing first the nature of the regime's Islamic epistemological project and then observing how it was both inhabited and contested by the Sudanese to whom it was directed. It shows both its indelible presence in Sudanese public life and its inability to be enclosed within the agenda of its makers.Less
Sudan's twenty-five-year experiment with Islamic governance not only offers the researcher a unique site to observe Islamist interventions in practice, but also allows us to observe how these policies are consumed within the diverse publics to which they attend, which is the goal of this chapter. A study of the regime's project of epistemological enlightenment offers a way of answering questions such as: Has the Islamic project of the Inqadh been a success? To what extent has the government of Sudan accomplished its goal of instilling its Islamic program in the citizenry? Are new Muslim subjects emerging out of the era of National Salvation, or was the Inqadh period largely one of slogans that bore little fruit among the masses? The chapter attempts to get a better a sense of the impact of the Islamic state by tracing first the nature of the regime's Islamic epistemological project and then observing how it was both inhabited and contested by the Sudanese to whom it was directed. It shows both its indelible presence in Sudanese public life and its inability to be enclosed within the agenda of its makers.
John L. Esposito, Tamara Sonn, and John O. Voll
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- October 2015
- ISBN:
- 9780195147988
- eISBN:
- 9780190263799
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195147988.003.0004
- Subject:
- Religion, Islam, Religion and Society
This chapter examines the democratic process in Pakistan. Pakistan was established in the mid-20th century as a state representing the highest ideals of Islamic life; to its founders there was no ...
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This chapter examines the democratic process in Pakistan. Pakistan was established in the mid-20th century as a state representing the highest ideals of Islamic life; to its founders there was no question but that it would be a democracy. Over the years, it has adopted a number of identifiably Islamic elements, such as the incorporation of Sharia law into the legal system; prohibition of alcohol and gambling; and declaration of heterodox Muslims non-Muslim. Yet calls continue for more Islamic governance. Pakistan’s democratization can be seen as a work in progress that aspires to achieve the objectives (maqasid) of Islamic law. Achieving these objectives—preservation of life, religion, family, property, and dignity—is the ultimate challenge of Islamic governance. According to prominent scholar Wilfred Cantwell Smith, “The demand that Pakistan should be an Islamic state has been a Muslim way of saying that Pakistan should build for itself a good society.”Less
This chapter examines the democratic process in Pakistan. Pakistan was established in the mid-20th century as a state representing the highest ideals of Islamic life; to its founders there was no question but that it would be a democracy. Over the years, it has adopted a number of identifiably Islamic elements, such as the incorporation of Sharia law into the legal system; prohibition of alcohol and gambling; and declaration of heterodox Muslims non-Muslim. Yet calls continue for more Islamic governance. Pakistan’s democratization can be seen as a work in progress that aspires to achieve the objectives (maqasid) of Islamic law. Achieving these objectives—preservation of life, religion, family, property, and dignity—is the ultimate challenge of Islamic governance. According to prominent scholar Wilfred Cantwell Smith, “The demand that Pakistan should be an Islamic state has been a Muslim way of saying that Pakistan should build for itself a good society.”
Neguin Yavari
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- January 2019
- ISBN:
- 9780190855109
- eISBN:
- 9780190943219
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/oso/9780190855109.003.0005
- Subject:
- History, Middle East History
The focus in the fifth and final chapter is on the afterlife of Nizam al-Mulk, of his legacy as well as of his representations. By the late fifteenth century, in Timurid Iran, Nizam al-Mulk is ...
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The focus in the fifth and final chapter is on the afterlife of Nizam al-Mulk, of his legacy as well as of his representations. By the late fifteenth century, in Timurid Iran, Nizam al-Mulk is already the stuff of legend. In one historian’s estimation, the vizier is a veritable eleventh-century avatar of the martyr par excellence of Shi’i lore Husayn b. ‘Ali (d. 680), and the progenitor of modern Iran. But the story of Nizam al-Mulk does not end with his metamorphosis into a crypto-Shi‘i and a proto-Iranian patriot. In the 2010s, it is Nizam al-Mulk who is the most regularly invoked exemplar of legitimate Islamic governance, exhorting prudence and expedience to guide the Iranian polity through the treacherous waters of nuclear negotiations with the West, and to domesticate outlier and extremist fervor. The Iranian invocation of Nizam al-Mulk differs radically from his depiction in modern Sunni—Arab or Turkish—historiography. That living legacy is the true history of the laureled vizier.Less
The focus in the fifth and final chapter is on the afterlife of Nizam al-Mulk, of his legacy as well as of his representations. By the late fifteenth century, in Timurid Iran, Nizam al-Mulk is already the stuff of legend. In one historian’s estimation, the vizier is a veritable eleventh-century avatar of the martyr par excellence of Shi’i lore Husayn b. ‘Ali (d. 680), and the progenitor of modern Iran. But the story of Nizam al-Mulk does not end with his metamorphosis into a crypto-Shi‘i and a proto-Iranian patriot. In the 2010s, it is Nizam al-Mulk who is the most regularly invoked exemplar of legitimate Islamic governance, exhorting prudence and expedience to guide the Iranian polity through the treacherous waters of nuclear negotiations with the West, and to domesticate outlier and extremist fervor. The Iranian invocation of Nizam al-Mulk differs radically from his depiction in modern Sunni—Arab or Turkish—historiography. That living legacy is the true history of the laureled vizier.
Amira K. Bennison (ed.)
- Published in print:
- 2014
- Published Online:
- January 2015
- ISBN:
- 9780197265697
- eISBN:
- 9780191771897
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- British Academy
- DOI:
- 10.5871/bacad/9780197265697.001.0001
- Subject:
- History, Middle East History
This volume explores how rulers in medieval Iberia and the Maghrib presented their rule and what strategies they adopted to persuade their subjects of their legitimacy. It focuses on the Naṣrids of ...
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This volume explores how rulers in medieval Iberia and the Maghrib presented their rule and what strategies they adopted to persuade their subjects of their legitimacy. It focuses on the Naṣrids of Granada and the Marīnids of Morocco who both ruled from the mid-thirteenth to the later fifteenth century. One of the book's main arguments is that the legitimating strategies of these monarchs developed out of a common political culture that straddled the straits of Gibraltar. This culture was mediated by constant transfers of people, ideas and commodities across the straits and a political historiography in which deliberate parallels and comparisons were drawn between Iberia and North Africa. The book challenges a tendency to see the Iberian and North African cultural and political spheres as inherently different and, implicitly, as precursors to later European and African identities. While several chapters in the volume do flag up contrasts in practice, they also highlight the structural similarities in the Naṣrid and Marīnid approach to legitimation in this period. The volume is divided into several sections, each of which approaches the theme of legitimation from a separate angle. The first section contains an introduction to the theme as well as analyses of the material and intellectual background to discourses of legitimation. The next section focuses on rhetorical bids for legitimacy such as the deployment of prestigious genealogies, the use of religiopolitical titles, and other forms of propaganda. That is followed by a detailed look at ceremonial and the calculated patronage of religious festivals by rulers. A final section grapples with the problem of legitimation outside the environs of the city, among illiterate and frequently armed populations.Less
This volume explores how rulers in medieval Iberia and the Maghrib presented their rule and what strategies they adopted to persuade their subjects of their legitimacy. It focuses on the Naṣrids of Granada and the Marīnids of Morocco who both ruled from the mid-thirteenth to the later fifteenth century. One of the book's main arguments is that the legitimating strategies of these monarchs developed out of a common political culture that straddled the straits of Gibraltar. This culture was mediated by constant transfers of people, ideas and commodities across the straits and a political historiography in which deliberate parallels and comparisons were drawn between Iberia and North Africa. The book challenges a tendency to see the Iberian and North African cultural and political spheres as inherently different and, implicitly, as precursors to later European and African identities. While several chapters in the volume do flag up contrasts in practice, they also highlight the structural similarities in the Naṣrid and Marīnid approach to legitimation in this period. The volume is divided into several sections, each of which approaches the theme of legitimation from a separate angle. The first section contains an introduction to the theme as well as analyses of the material and intellectual background to discourses of legitimation. The next section focuses on rhetorical bids for legitimacy such as the deployment of prestigious genealogies, the use of religiopolitical titles, and other forms of propaganda. That is followed by a detailed look at ceremonial and the calculated patronage of religious festivals by rulers. A final section grapples with the problem of legitimation outside the environs of the city, among illiterate and frequently armed populations.
