Islam in World Cultures: Comparative Perspectives - Islamic Books ...

2 6Islam i n World Cult u r e sThese remarks reveal sharply the major points of debate over Islamic reformin the modern period. They show the lines between those who would bringnew life to Islam in the lives of contemporary Muslims through attempts atboth broadening and deepening Muslim appreciation and understanding ofthe richness of their tradition, and those who would pursue the same goalthrough programs of policing newly imposed borders around one particularbrand of Islam both on library shelves and in the lives of individual believers.In many parts of the world today, a form of latter-day Wahhabism is a significantforce in public debates over the interpretation of Islam. One hallmark ofsuch an orientation is a tendency to view “Islam” as one monolithic entity witha “pure” essence that must be preserved and protected from the “pollution” ofcultural and historical change. However, even in the face of the spread of suchfundamentalist visions of Islam, other Muslims argue for more subtle andadaptable approaches to defining their religion. For example, the contempora ry Iranian intellectual Abdol Karim Soroush argues:There is no such thing as a “pure” Islam, or an a-historical Islam that is outsidethe process of historical development. The actual lived experience of Islam hasalways been culturally and historically specific, and bound by the immediate circumstancesof its location in time and space. If we were to take a snapshot of Islamas it is lived today, it would reveal a diversity of lived experiences which areall different, yet existing simultaneously. (Quoted in Noor 2002, 15–16)This volume presents a series of such snapshots of contemporary Islam in geographicaland cultural contexts around the globe in order to present some senseof its richness and variety. The chapters that follow prompt us to move beyondsimplified essentializations of Islam to ask the who, what, where, and when of Islamicexpressions in working toward understandings of both historical and conte m p o r a ry phenomena. An exposure to such a comparative perspective helps ussee why abstracted or essentialized claims that Islam (or Christianity or Buddhismfor that matter) “says this” or “does that” should be viewed critically, especiallywhen they are uttered in politically charged public discourses.Political and Social Change in the Modern PeriodOne of the leading scholars of modern Islamic history, John Voll, has writtenof three major themes visible in the eighteenth century: political decentralization,a reorientation of Sufi traditions, and religious revivalist movements (Vo l l1982, 34–38). The first of these can be seen in the development of the Ottoman,Mughal, and Safavid Empires that came to power in the Middle Eastand southern Asia after the collapse and fragmentation of the AbbasidCaliphate. In the eighteenth century, these large, agrarian states witnessed a