welcome & module overview

Announcements

assessments

Assignment 1 (AS1) 2024/25

Assignment 2 (AS2) 2024/25

AS 1 - guidelines

AS2 - guidelines

readings

Saeed, Islamic Thought, An Introduction. Routledge (2006)

Ali and Leaman, Islam. The Key Concepts. Routledge (2008)

Adamec, Historical Dictionary of Islam. Rowman &amp; Littlefield (2017)

The Qur'an. A New Translation by Abdel Haleem. OUP (2015)

important academic guides

04.10 - modernity & religion

Green, ‘Modernity.’ Jones (ed.) The Blackwell Companion to Modern Theology. Blackwell (2004)

Martin, ‘Religion and the Problem of Definition.’ A Critical Introduction to the Study of Religion. Routledge (2017)

Friedman, ‘Introduction.’ Who Wrote the Bible? HarperCollins (1997)

seminar reading: Day, ‘Comparative Ancient Near Eastern Study. The Genesis Flood Narrative in Relation to Ancient Near Eastern Flood Accounts.’ Dell &amp; Joyce (eds.) Biblical Interpretation and Method. OUP (2013)

further readings

lecture ppt

11.10 - islam: overview & academic study

Rahman, ‘Islam.’ Jones (ed.) Encyclopedia of Religion (2nd ed.). Macmillan (2005)

Said, ‘Introduction.’ Orientalism. Penguin Classics (2003)

Donner, ‘The Historian, the Believer, and the Qur’an.’ Reynolds (ed.) New Perspectives on the Qur’an (Volume II). Routledge (2011)

seminar reading: Van Bladel, ‘The Alexander legend in the Qur‘an 18:83-102.’ Reynolds (ed.) The Qur’ān in its Historical Context. Routledge (2008)

Film: 'The Message' (A relatively accurate cinematic representation of the early history of Islam and the Prophet Muhammad from a traditional Islamic perspective).

further readings

lecture ppt

18.10 - reform: from the pre-modern to the modern

Haj, ‘Rethinking Orthodoxy: Muhammad ibn ‘Abdul Wahhab.’ Reconfiguring Islamic Tradition. Stanford University Press (2009)

Delong-Bas, ‘Women and Wahhabis’. Wahhābī Islam: From Revival and Reform to Global Jihad. OUP (2004)

Al-Rasheed, ‘Symbols of Piety: Fatwas on Women in the 1980s.’ A Most Masculine State. CUP (2013)

seminar reading: Al-Atawneh, ‘Wahhabism Applied.’ Wahhābī Islam Facing the Challenges of Modernity. Brill (2010)

further readings

lecture ppt

25.10 - early-modern reform salafism

Saeed, ‘Salafiya, Modernism, and Revival.’ Esposito et al. (eds.) The Oxford Handbook of Islam and Politics. OUP (2013)

Al-Afghani, ‘Lecture on Teaching and Learning and Answer to Renan.’ Kurzman (ed.) Modernist Islam 1840-1940, A Sourcebook. OUP (2002)

Scharbrodt, ‘Abduh and the Discourse of Islamic Reform.’ Muhammad ‘Abduh. Modern Islam and the Culture of Ambiguity. I.B. Tauris (2022)

seminar reading: ‘Abduh, ‘Laws Should Change in Accordance with the Condition of Nations’ &amp; ‘The Theology of Unity.’ Kurzman (ed.) Modernist Islam 1840-1940, A Sourcebook. OUP (2002)

further readings

lecture ppt

01.11 - islamism (i): ideologues

Khan, ‘The Political Philosophy of Islamic Movements.’ Afsaruddin (ed.) Islam, the State and Political Authority. Palgrave (2011)

Khatab, ‘Ḥākimiyyah &amp; Jahiliyyah in the Thought of Sayyid Qutb.’ Middle Eastern Studies. 38. 3 (2002)

Sabet, ‘Wilayat al-Faqih and the Meaning of Islamic Government.’ Adib-Moghaddam (ed.) A Critical Introduction to Khomeini. CUP (2014)

seminar reading: Khomeini, ‘Introduction’ &amp; ‘The Necessity for Islamic Government.’ Islam and Revolution: Writings and Declarations of Imam Khomeini. Routledge (2010)

short documentary clip on Qutb and Jahiliyyah (warning: distressing cinematic scenes of torture from 6:20 to 7:10)

further readings

lecture ppt

08.11 - reading week

'Salafi'. A documentary on Egypt's 'Costa Salafis' (Arabic, with English subtitles).

further readings

15.11 - islamism (ii): organizations (& post-islamism)

Bayat, 'Post-Islamism at Large.' Bayat (ed.) Post-Islamism. The Changing Faces of Political Islam. OUP (2013)

Koss, 'The Lebanese Hezbollah. Politics Serve Resistance.' Resistance, Power and Conceptions of Political Order in Islamist Organizations. Comparing Hezbollah and Hamas. Routledge (2018)

Obaid, 'The Transformations of the Muslim Brotherhood.' The Muslim Brotherhood, the Salafist Call and the Orientation Towards State and Society in Egypt. Cambridge Scholars Publishing (2024)

seminar reading: Polka, 'Hamas as a Wasati (Literally Centrist) Movement. Pragmatism within the Boundaries of the Sharia.' Studies in Conflict &amp; Terrorism, 42. 7 (2019)

further readings

lecture ppt

22.11 - (neo-traditional) salafism

Wagemakers, ‘The Citadel of Salafism.’ Upal &amp; Cusack (ed.s) Handbook of Islamic Sects and Movements. Brill (2021)

Hamdeh, ‘Challenging Early Hadith Scholarship.’ Salafism and Traditionalism. CUP (2021)

Ismail, ‘Transnational Networks of ‘Ulema: Contesting the Social Sphere.’ Rethinking Salafism. OUP (2021)

seminar reading: Duderija, ‘The “Islamic State” (IS) as Proponent of Neo-Ahl Hadīth Manhāj on Gender Related Issues.’ Hawwa. Journal of Women in the Middle East and the Muslim World. 13. 2 (2015)

further readings

lecture ppt

29.11 - progressive muslims

Safi, ‘Introduction.’ Safi (ed.) Progressive Muslims. OneWorld (2003)

Rahemtulla, ‘Theology of the Margins: The Reading of Farid Esack.’ Qur’an of the Oppressed. OUP (2017)

Esack, ‘Progressive Islam – A Rose by Any Name? American Soft Power in the War for the Hearts and Minds of Muslims.’ ReOrient. 4. 1 (2018)

seminar reading: Ali, ‘Progressive Muslims and Islamic Jurisprudence: The Necessity for Critical Engagement with Marriage and Divorce Law.’ Safi (ed.) Progressive Muslims. OneWorld (2008)

further readings

lecture ppt

06.12 - neo-traditionalism

Sedgwick, ‘The Modernity of Neo-Traditionalist Islam.' Jung &amp; Sinclair (ed.s) Muslim Subjectivities in Global Modernity. Brill (2020)

Al-Azami, ‘Abdullāh bin Bayyah and the Arab Revolutions: Counter-Revolutionary Neo-traditionalism’s Ideological Struggle against Islamism.’ The Muslim World. 109 (2019)

Quisay, ‘Locating the (Neo)Traditional.’ Neo-Traditionalism in Islam in the West. Orthodoxy, Spirituality and Politics. Edinburgh University Press (2023)

seminar reading: Razavian, 'The Neo-Traditionalism of Tim Winter.' Bano (ed.) Modern Islamic Authority and Social Change (v. ii). Edinburgh University Press (2018)

Winter's 2016 lecture on modernity ('Riding the Tiger of Modernity')

Adamec, Historical Dictionary of Islam. Rowman & Littlefield (2017)

seminar reading: Day, ‘Comparative Ancient Near Eastern Study. The Genesis Flood Narrative in Relation to Ancient Near Eastern Flood Accounts.’ Dell & Joyce (eds.) Biblical Interpretation and Method. OUP (2013)

seminar reading: ‘Abduh, ‘Laws Should Change in Accordance with the Condition of Nations’ & ‘The Theology of Unity.’ Kurzman (ed.) Modernist Islam 1840-1940, A Sourcebook. OUP (2002)

Khatab, ‘Ḥākimiyyah & Jahiliyyah in the Thought of Sayyid Qutb.’ Middle Eastern Studies. 38. 3 (2002)

seminar reading: Khomeini, ‘Introduction’ & ‘The Necessity for Islamic Government.’ Islam and Revolution: Writings and Declarations of Imam Khomeini. Routledge (2010)

seminar reading: Polka, 'Hamas as a Wasati (Literally Centrist) Movement. Pragmatism within the Boundaries of the Sharia.' Studies in Conflict & Terrorism, 42. 7 (2019)

Wagemakers, ‘The Citadel of Salafism.’ Upal & Cusack (ed.s) Handbook of Islamic Sects and Movements. Brill (2021)

Sedgwick, ‘The Modernity of Neo-Traditionalist Islam.' Jung & Sinclair (ed.s) Muslim Subjectivities in Global Modernity. Brill (2020)

Duderija, ‘The Salafi Worldview and the Hermeneutical Limits of Mainstream Sunni Critique of Salafi-Jihadism.' Studies in Conflict & Terrorism (2018)

Gabon, ‘Can Mainstream Sunni Islam Counter the Islamic State? a Critique of Adis Duderija’s “The Salafi Worldview and the Hermeneutical Limits of Mainstream Sunni Critique of Salafi-Jihadism.”’ Studies in Conflict & Terrorism (2019)

Duderija ‘Rejoinder to Alain Gabon’s Critique of my “The Salafi Worldview and the Hermeneutical Limits of Mainstream Sunni Critique of Salafi-Jihadism.”’ Studies in Conflict & Terrorism (2019)

seminar reading: Oweidat, ‘Providing Context Commentary on the Debate Over the Critique of Salafi Jihadism from a Mainstream Sunni Perspective.’ Studies in Conflict & Terrorism. 45. 3 (2022)