Mona Hassan
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- January 2018
- ISBN:
- 9780691166780
- eISBN:
- 9781400883714
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Princeton University Press
- DOI:
- 10.23943/princeton/9780691166780.003.0005
- Subject:
- Religion, Islam
This chapter considers a protracted poetic debate between one of the last Ottoman şeyhülislams Mustafa Sabri and the Egyptian Prince of Poets Aṭmad Shawqī, conducted through the Egyptian press in the ...
More
This chapter considers a protracted poetic debate between one of the last Ottoman şeyhülislams Mustafa Sabri and the Egyptian Prince of Poets Aṭmad Shawqī, conducted through the Egyptian press in the 1920s, to illustrate how modern regional contexts and professional affiliations created divergent interpretations of the Ottoman Caliphate's significance, even among those Muslim elites who shared an intense devotion to defending its legacy. For Mustafa Sabri, who hailed from the Ottoman religious hierarchy, the abolition of the caliphate meant a loss of the primacy of Islamic law, whereas for Aṭmad Shawqī, who assailed the British with his poetic pen, it meant the loss of the last great Muslim power in an age of colonialism.Less
This chapter considers a protracted poetic debate between one of the last Ottoman şeyhülislams Mustafa Sabri and the Egyptian Prince of Poets Aṭmad Shawqī, conducted through the Egyptian press in the 1920s, to illustrate how modern regional contexts and professional affiliations created divergent interpretations of the Ottoman Caliphate's significance, even among those Muslim elites who shared an intense devotion to defending its legacy. For Mustafa Sabri, who hailed from the Ottoman religious hierarchy, the abolition of the caliphate meant a loss of the primacy of Islamic law, whereas for Aṭmad Shawqī, who assailed the British with his poetic pen, it meant the loss of the last great Muslim power in an age of colonialism.
Mona Hassan
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- January 2018
- ISBN:
- 9780691166780
- eISBN:
- 9781400883714
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Princeton University Press
- DOI:
- 10.23943/princeton/9780691166780.003.0001
- Subject:
- Religion, Islam
This introductory chapter provides an overview of the book's main themes. This book explores the complex constellations of meanings and networks that shaped Muslim reactions to the remarkably ...
More
This introductory chapter provides an overview of the book's main themes. This book explores the complex constellations of meanings and networks that shaped Muslim reactions to the remarkably unexpected disappearance of an Islamic caliphate in the thirteenth and twentieth centuries. It probes the collective memories encircling the caliphate, as an institution enmeshed with the early history of Islam, which circulated widely across Afro-Eurasia and created a shared sense of community among disparate peoples at the same time as it gave rise to differing and competing visions of the community's past, present, and future. The book asks two essential questions: What did Muslims imagine to be lost with the disappearance of the Abbasid and Ottoman caliphates in 1258 and 1924 respectively? And how did they attempt to recapture that perceived loss, and in doing so redefine the caliphate for their times, under shifting circumstances?Less
This introductory chapter provides an overview of the book's main themes. This book explores the complex constellations of meanings and networks that shaped Muslim reactions to the remarkably unexpected disappearance of an Islamic caliphate in the thirteenth and twentieth centuries. It probes the collective memories encircling the caliphate, as an institution enmeshed with the early history of Islam, which circulated widely across Afro-Eurasia and created a shared sense of community among disparate peoples at the same time as it gave rise to differing and competing visions of the community's past, present, and future. The book asks two essential questions: What did Muslims imagine to be lost with the disappearance of the Abbasid and Ottoman caliphates in 1258 and 1924 respectively? And how did they attempt to recapture that perceived loss, and in doing so redefine the caliphate for their times, under shifting circumstances?
Mona Hassan
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- January 2018
- ISBN:
- 9780691166780
- eISBN:
- 9781400883714
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Princeton University Press
- DOI:
- 10.23943/princeton/9780691166780.001.0001
- Subject:
- Religion, Islam
In the United States and Europe, the word “caliphate” has conjured historically romantic and increasingly pernicious associations. Yet the caliphate's significance in Islamic history and Muslim ...
More
In the United States and Europe, the word “caliphate” has conjured historically romantic and increasingly pernicious associations. Yet the caliphate's significance in Islamic history and Muslim culture remains poorly understood. This book explores the myriad meanings of the caliphate for Muslims around the world through the analytical lens of two key moments of loss in the thirteenth and twentieth centuries. The book explores the rich constellation of interpretations created by religious scholars, historians, musicians, statesmen, poets, and intellectuals. The book fills a scholarly gap regarding Muslim reactions to the destruction of the Abbasid caliphate in Baghdad in 1258 and challenges the notion that the Mongol onslaught signaled an end to the critical engagement of Muslim jurists and intellectuals with the idea of an Islamic caliphate. It also situates Muslim responses to the dramatic abolition of the Ottoman caliphate in 1924 as part of a longer trajectory of transregional cultural memory, revealing commonalities and differences in how modern Muslims have creatively interpreted and reinterpreted their heritage. The book examines how poignant memories of the lost caliphate have been evoked in Muslim culture, law, and politics, similar to the losses and repercussions experienced by other religious communities, including the destruction of the Second Temple for Jews and the fall of Rome for Christians. A global history, the book delves into why the caliphate has been so important to Muslims in vastly different eras and places.Less
In the United States and Europe, the word “caliphate” has conjured historically romantic and increasingly pernicious associations. Yet the caliphate's significance in Islamic history and Muslim culture remains poorly understood. This book explores the myriad meanings of the caliphate for Muslims around the world through the analytical lens of two key moments of loss in the thirteenth and twentieth centuries. The book explores the rich constellation of interpretations created by religious scholars, historians, musicians, statesmen, poets, and intellectuals. The book fills a scholarly gap regarding Muslim reactions to the destruction of the Abbasid caliphate in Baghdad in 1258 and challenges the notion that the Mongol onslaught signaled an end to the critical engagement of Muslim jurists and intellectuals with the idea of an Islamic caliphate. It also situates Muslim responses to the dramatic abolition of the Ottoman caliphate in 1924 as part of a longer trajectory of transregional cultural memory, revealing commonalities and differences in how modern Muslims have creatively interpreted and reinterpreted their heritage. The book examines how poignant memories of the lost caliphate have been evoked in Muslim culture, law, and politics, similar to the losses and repercussions experienced by other religious communities, including the destruction of the Second Temple for Jews and the fall of Rome for Christians. A global history, the book delves into why the caliphate has been so important to Muslims in vastly different eras and places.
