Editorial

The question of modernity in its societal, historical, and literary unfoldingsis the underlying theme of several articles presented in this issue ofAJISS. Following in the hadition of Marshall G. S. Hodgson, John ObertVoll ventures into the history of Islam as an integral part of world history.In his numerous studies, Voll has always viewed the Muslim world from aglobal perspective, a trait that is even more evident ih his “The MistakenIdenMication of ‘The West’ with ‘Modernity.”’ Voll’s article is based on aprofound understanding of the West in t m s of the fundamental changesthat have swept human life and society during the past two or three centuries.Modemity cannot be identified with the West, Voll argues, for theWest, as a repertoire of traditions, was a concept related to the existence ofcivilizations. But “civilization,” as conceived in most of the studies andanalyses of world history, is now a societal lifestyle of the past. It thereforefollows that the transfomtion of societies and lifestyles has transcendedthe classical West and created a new world situation in which relationsbetween Islam and the West are predicated on different bases. While it istrue that Islam’s repertoire of concepts and principles is more clearlyfocused than that of the West, it is also true that, in the context of the globalcosmopolitanism of our times, Islam and the West share a similar cultural,political, and social experience:Islam and the West are no longer simply two rival and clashingcivilizations or even two different modes of modernity. They arenow interactive partners, sometimes fighting and sometimes cooperating,involved in the co-constructed reality of the contemprary world.Volls’ view of a modem shared experience is supported by SurmshIrfani’s “New Discourses and Modernity in Postrevolutionary Iran.” For asociety that has been portrayed in the most denigrating t m s by the westernmedia, Irfani presents a powerfd human and creative image of contemporaryIran that touches upon a wide range of cultural revival: printmedia, film industry, literatute, and music. A common denominator of theworks cited in his article, which is based on extensive field research, is the“aftempt to go beyond the fite!rary level ofkfeqrem‘ on and extant meaning ...