Islam Is Not a “Religion” – Global Religious History and Early Twentieth-Century Debates in British Malaya

2021 ◽  
Vol 33 (3-4) ◽  
pp. 345-380
Author(s):  
Giovanni Maltese
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Religious Studies ◽  
Southeast Asian ◽  
Religious History ◽  
Conceptual Tool ◽  
Islamic Studies ◽  
Global Negotiation ◽  
Negotiation Processes ◽  
History Approach ◽  
Malaysian Politics

Abstract Lately, Islamicists have called to discard “religion” as a conceptual tool and/or to use the “Qurʾānic term” dīn instead, arguing that “religion” entails Eurocentric bias. Analyzing how Fazl-ur-Rahman Ansari conceptualized Islam and religion in the late 1930s and early 1940s, this article presents a threefold argument. Firstly, I argue that a global history approach which examines in a poststructuralist framework how “Islam” and “religion” are used in concrete contexts is better suited to address the problem of Eurocentrism in both Religious Studies and Islamic Studies. Secondly, I challenge the scholarly thesis that twentieth-century Southeast Asian intellectual debates which referred to Islam as religion were mere emulators of debates conducted in the “West.” Instead of assuming isolated histories and ignoring Southeast Asian debates, I contend that the current use of and debates about conceptualizations of Islam as/and religion are the product of one and the same discourse – a result of global negotiation processes in which Europeans were as involved as Southeast Asia-based non-Europeans, even if they did not speak from the same position of power. Finally, I submit that the approach of global religious history opens new perspectives on contemporary Malaysian politics.

scholarly journals Rethinking 'Religious' Cognition: The Eliadean Notion of the Sacred in the light of the Legacy of Uno Harva

2007 ◽  
Vol 43 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
VEIKKO ANTTONEN
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Religious Studies ◽  
Religious History ◽  
Mircea Eliade ◽  
Similarities And Differences ◽  
Protestant Theologian ◽  
Academic Study

The article discusses methodological similarities and differences between Uno Harva and Mircea Eliade, with the objective of reassessing the value of their comparativist programs for the study of religion in general and of 'religious' cognition in particular. The Finnish scholar Uno Holmberg-Harva (1882-1949) was a predecessor to Eliade as a scholar of Asian and European religious history. During the first three decades of the twentieth century, when the academic study of religion was still maturing in Europe, Harva expanded considerably the field of the ethnological study of religion with his religio-phenomenological monographs Der Baum des Lebens (1922), Finno-Ugric, Siberian Mythology (1927) and Die Religiösen Vorstellungen der Altaischen Völker (1938). Harva was a towering figure in Finnish scholarship. Originally a Protestant theologian and Lutheran minister, he resigned from his ecclesiastical position to become a historian of religion, field ethnographer, ethnosociologist and folklorist under the tutelage of Edward Westermarck and Kaarle Krohn. Harva's influence on the work of Eliade has been almost entirely ignorant by historiographers of Religious Studies.

scholarly journals The Islamic Studies and the Study of Religions by the Early Indonesian Muslim Scholars

2021 ◽  
Vol 8 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Alfina Hidayah ◽  
Hamdan Maghribi
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Literature Review ◽  
Qualitative Methods ◽  
Research Process ◽  
Religious Studies ◽  
Muslim Scholar ◽  
Islamic Studies ◽  
Indonesian Archipelago ◽  
Broad Outline ◽  
Muslim Scholars

This research is an effort to raise the development of religious studies (Islamic Studies) and the study of religions that already emerged and developed in the archipelago before the twentieth century. This can be known through the figures of previous Muslim scholars and their works on these topics. The research process uses qualitative methods on a literature review which will be delivered descriptively. While the aim of the research is to find out how the Muslim scholars of the Indonesian Archipelago have contributed in various aspects particularly in the field of knowledge and intellectually supported by their extraordinary works in the form of books, poems, etc. As a manifestation of their role in da'wah in addition to enriching the scientific treasures. So it can be concluded in a broad outline that additionally to the Nine Saints (Wali Sanga), the archipelago has Muslim scholars who have taken part in Islamic preaching and furthermore they explored their teachings into wonderful works, both on Islamic (religious) studies as well as the study of religions.Keywords:Islamic Studies, Study of Religions, Indonesian Muslim Scholar

The Birth of the Prophet Muhammad

2009 ◽  
Vol 26 (1) ◽  
pp. 97-99
Author(s):  
Frederick S. Colby
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Middle Eastern ◽  
Formative Period ◽  
Central Importance ◽  
Islamic Studies ◽  
Critical Scholarship ◽  
History Of ◽  
Late Twentieth ◽  
Modern Era ◽  
Late Twentieth Century

Despite the central importance of festival and devotional piety to premodernMuslims, book-length studies in this field have been relatively rare.Katz’s work, The Birth of the Prophet Muhammad, represents a tour-deforceof critical scholarship that advances the field significantly both throughits engagement with textual sources from the formative period to the presentand through its judicious use of theoretical tools to analyze this material. Asits title suggests, the work strives to explore how Muslims have alternativelypromoted and contested the commemoration of the Prophet’s birth atdifferent points in history, with a particular emphasis on how the devotionalistapproach, which was prominent in the pre-modern era, fell out of favoramong Middle Eastern Sunnis in the late twentieth century. Aimed primarilyat specialists in Middle Eastern and Islamic studies, especially scholarsof history, law, and religion, this work is recommended to anyone interestedin the history of Muslim ritual, the history of devotion to the Prophet, andthe interplay between normative and non-normative forms ofMuslim beliefand practice ...

The Academic Study of Sufism at American Universities

2007 ◽  
Vol 24 (3) ◽  
pp. 24-45 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marcia Hermansen
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Current Situation ◽  
Muslim World ◽  
Western Thought ◽  
Academic Institutions ◽  
Academic Context ◽  
American Universities ◽  
Islamic Studies ◽  
Academic Study

This article provides an overview of the history and current situation of the academic study of Sufism (Islamic mysticism) at American universities. It examines Sufism’s place within the broader curriculum of Islamic studies as well as some of the main themes and approaches employed by American scholars. In addition, it explains both the academic context in which Sufi studies are located and the role of contemporary positions in Islamic and western thought in shaping its academic study.1 Topics and issues of particular interest to a Muslim audience, as well as strictly academic observations, will be raised. In comparison to its role at academic institutions in the traditional Muslim world,2 Sufi studies has played a larger role within the western academic study of Islam during the twentieth century, especially the later decades. I will discuss the numerous reasons for this in the sections on the institutional, intellectual, and pedagogical contexts.

South Africa’s Institutions of Higher Learning

2014 ◽  
Vol 31 (3) ◽  
pp. 50-69
Author(s):  
Muhammed Haron
Keyword(s):  
Social Science ◽  
Religious Studies ◽  
Higher Learning ◽  
Honors Program ◽  
Islamic Studies ◽  
Institutions Of Higher Learning ◽  
The Social ◽  
Regional Universities ◽  
Muslim Communities ◽  
Insight Into

As a discipline, “Islamic studies” has attracted serious attention by a number of institutions of higher learning in predominantly nonMuslim societies. While southern Africa’s communities witnessed the inclusion of “Islam” as a subject in the faculties of theology at various regional universities as well as Christian seminaries, Muslim communities have clamored for the appointment of Muslim staff at universities to teach courses on Islam. On the whole, these educational developments bode well for the teaching and studying of Islam regionally, even though the purpose and objectives for doing so differ radically from one institution to the other. This essay first seeks to offer a brief insight into the teaching of “Islam” as a subject in theological/oriental/religious studies programs; it thereafter reflects upon “Islamic studies” as a social science discipline that has been included in the social science and humanities syllabus. It focuses on the BA Honors program to show the themes chosen for these programs and how scholars redesigned and changed these programs to meet modern needs. Apart from using “social change” as its theoretical framework, it also brings en passantinto view the insider/outsider binary that further frames the debates regarding the teaching and studying of Islam at these institutions in southern Africa generally and South Africa in particular. 

Reinventing Ramanand: Caste and History in Gangetic India

1996 ◽  
Vol 30 (3) ◽  
pp. 549-571 ◽  
Author(s):  
William R. Pinch
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
English Language ◽  
Ninth Century ◽  
Religious History ◽  
North India ◽  
Colonial India ◽  
Indian History ◽  
Early Twentieth Century ◽  
Literature And Religion ◽  
History Of

According to Sir George Grierson, one of the pre-eminent Indologists of the early twentieth century, Ramanand led ‘one of the most momentous revolutions that have occurred in the religious history of North India.’Yet Ramanand, the fourteenth-century teacher of Banaras, has been conspicuous by his relative absence in the pages of English-language scholarship on recent Indian history, literature, and religion. The aims of this essay are to reflect on why this is so, and to urge historians to pay attention to Ramanand, more particularly to the reinvention of Ramanand by his early twentieth-century followers, because the contested traditions thereof bear on the vexed issue of caste and hierarchy in colonial India. The little that is known about Ramanand is doubly curious considering that Ramanandis, those who look to Ramanand for spiritual and community inspiration, are thought to comprise the largest and most important Vaishnava monastic order in north India. Ramanandis are to be found in temples and monasteries throughout and beyond the Hindi-speaking north, and they are largely responsible for the upsurge in Ram-centered devotion in the last two centuries. A fairly recent anthropological examination of Ayodhya, currently the most important Ramanand pilgrimage center in India, has revealed that Ramanandi sadhus, or monks, can be grouped under three basic headings: tyagi (ascetic), naga (fighting ascetic), and rasik (devotional aesthete).4 The increased popularity of the order in recent centuries is such that Ramanandis may today outnumber Dasnamis, the better-known Shaiva monks who look to the ninth-century teacher, Shankaracharya, for their organizational and philosophical moorings.

The Roots of ASEAN: Regional Identities in the Strait of Melaka Region Circa 1500 C.E

2001 ◽  
Vol 29 (1) ◽  
pp. 87-119 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kenneth R. Hall
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Fifteenth Century ◽  
World Order ◽  
Southeast Asian ◽  
Economic Success ◽  
Local Networks ◽  
Cultural Centers ◽  
Self Confidence ◽  
The Face

AbstractSoutheast Asian sources that report regional connection with the Majapahit and Angkor polities reflect upon a rapidly changing fourteenth and fifteenth century world order, the result of new trading opportunities as Europeans were becoming more direct participants in affairs beyond their Western home-lands. In the face of the individualistic and destructive tendencies of the wider global community circa 1500, in the Strait of Melaka region there was less dislocation and isolation than is supposed by many twentieth century scholars. Despite the number of political and religious transitions underway, in the Southeast Asian archipelago and mainland there was a sense of regional self-confidence and progress among societies who had enjoyed over two hundred years of widespread socio-economic success. These successes were the product of the functional international, regional, and local networks of communication, as well as a common heritage that had developed in the Strait of Melaka region during the pre-1500 era. This study not only addresses the role of Majapahit and Angkor in the shaping of regional inclusiveness circa 1500, but also explores the enduring (and often exclusive) legacy of these two early cultural centers among Southeast Asia's twentieth century polities.

scholarly journals The transformation of the global palm oil cluster: dynamics of cluster competition between Africa and Southeast Asia (c.1900–1970)

2018 ◽  
Vol 13 (3) ◽  
pp. 374-398 ◽  
Author(s):  
Valeria Giacomin
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Communities Of Practice ◽  
Southeast Asia ◽  
Palm Oil ◽  
Foreign Investment ◽  
Knowledge Exchange ◽  
Business Environment ◽  
Southeast Asian ◽  
Cooperation And Competition ◽  
Knowledge And Practice

AbstractThis article explains the rise of palm oil as a global commodity during the twentieth century as the result of cooperation and competition between two different clusters in former colonial territories. The connection between these two locations was mediated by Western companies, colonial officials, scientists, and businessmen. Eventually, the Southeast Asian cluster, organized on estate lines inherited from rubber, outcompeted the old one in Africa, mostly based on the farming of semi-wild trees. The article investigates the activities of scientists and businessmen exchanging information, knowledge, and practice between Africa and Asia for almost a century. It shows that cooperation among communities of practice helped to advance palm oil knowledge, but also created increased rivalry between the two locations. Thanks to the mobility of experts, and to knowledge exchange in colonial and early postcolonial times, multinationals were able to replicate clusters across locations with similar climate, taking advantage of a business environment more conducive to foreign investment.

scholarly journals “An Oriental Orientalist”: Aḥmad Zakī Pasha (1868-1934), Egyptian Statesman and Philologist in the Colonial Age

2018 ◽  
Vol 3 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 129-166
Author(s):  
Umar Ryad
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Cultural Revival ◽  
Islamic Studies ◽  
Early Twentieth Century ◽  
Late Nineteenth

AbstractThe article sheds light on an important episode of the Arab-Orientalist encounter in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century by highlighting the role of the Egyptian scholar Aḥmad Zakī Pasha (1868-1934) in Orientalist circles, his travels to Europe, and his contributions to Arabic linguistic and cultural revival as well as politics. The study looks at his contribution as a member of the international scholarly circles of Arabic and Islamic studies. It will be shown that his engagement with European Orientalists was inseparable from his endeavors to ‘revive’ the Arabic heritage (iḥyā’ al-turāth), an engagement that was rooted in his discourse of ‘Arabism’ (al-‘urūba).

Material Culture and Healing Practice

2021 ◽  
Vol 15 (2) ◽  
pp. 251-290
Author(s):  
Anna Elizabeth Winterbottom
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Sri Lanka ◽  
Material Culture ◽  
Early Modern ◽  
Art History ◽  
Religious Studies ◽  
Medical Culture ◽  
Museum Collections ◽  
Practice Of Medicine ◽  
Late Nineteenth

Abstract The practice of medicine and healing is always accompanied by a range of paraphernalia, from pillboxes to instruments to clothing. Yet such things have rarely attracted the attention of historians of medicine. Here, I draw on perspectives from art history and religious studies to ask how these objects relate, in practical and symbolic terms, to practices of healing. In other words, what is the connection between medical culture and material culture? I focus on craft objects relating to medicine and healing in Lanka during the Kandyan period (ca. 1595–1815) in museum collections in Canada and Sri Lanka. I ask what the objects can tell us, first, about early modern Lankan medicine and healing and, second, about late nineteenth- and twentieth-century efforts to reconstruct tradition. Finally, I explore what studying these objects might add to current debates about early modern globalization in the context of both material culture and medicine.

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