Islam and Modernity Flashcards
True or False: In pre-modern Islam, there were individuals who initiated change and reform in society.
True
In the Islamic tradition, what are there that anticipate reform and renewal?
Hadith
What are the Ottoman, Safavid, and Mughal dynasties examples of?
Dynasties that emerged after the Crusades to become great Muslim states and empires.
What happened around the time the Ottoman, Safavid, and Mughal dynasties emerged?
The early European explorers began to establish technology, military skills,a nd superior economic organizations that would culminate in A european monopoly on long-distance trade.
When did the European expansion to the Muslim world begin?
Began with the Portuguese and Dutch expeditions to the East Indies in the seventeenth century. Around the same period, the British East India company began to set foothold in India and control trades in the region.
Who arrived in Egypt in 1798 and controlled the sea routes to the East from the British?
Napolean
Describe “colonialism” of the muslim world
With all the military and economic skills, the European swept almost the entire Middle East and North Africa, South, and Southeast Asia.
True or False: Before their encounters with the Europeans, Muslim societies also experienced the gradual development of new social, political,and economic structures.
True
Why were Muslim development of new social, political, and economic structures not allowed to develop like they did in European societies?
Because Modernity in the muslim world was aborted by the aggressive intrusion of the European military power and superior economic organizations, aka ‘colonialism’.
How was Enlightenment posed on Muslims?
From above not below. In Europe, the people made these modern experiences themselves. In the Muslim world, they were imposed from top down.
Describe Napolean’s “civilizing mission.”
Once in Egypt, Napoleon and his official began to establish a new social and cultural engineering by settling up new hospitals, scientific laboratories, modern administrative structures. Similar policies were found practically in all European colonial territories in the Muslim world; the European introduced new technology, industrial and organizational skills.
- They were on a “civilizing mission” to save Muslims, “rationalizing” them from their intellectual stagnancy.
Why did the Europeans manage to maintain order over the Muslims?
- Due to their knowledge of “oriental society” commonly known in contemporary academia as “Orientalism”
- Knowledge produced in order to control; knowledge meant to control others.
What did top down European modernization policy in the Muslim world create?
dual societies
What were the two dual societies European modernization policy created in the Muslim world?
1) The first are the prosperous mercantile and professional class that benefit from colonial policies and Westernization
2) The second are the ‘traditional’ class, the impoverished rural and urban population that had lost their sources of income and were unable to find their place in the new social and economic order. Many of the ‘traditional’ are the ulama, who lost their independence and were no longer in the position to play their role as intermediaries between the government and common people.
What was the military ‘jihad’ responses to modernization?
Responding to the widening gap in Muslim societies, there were a series of rebellions against Europeans. These rebellions were often waged in the name of defensive “jihad.” All rebellions were crushed by the Europeans.
What was the state of the Muslim world by the turn of the twentieth century?
The majority of the Muslim world were unable to compete with the Europeans. Instead of modernizing their societies, Muslim states were under direct control of the Europeans.
What were the Muslim intellectual responses to modernization?
As Muslim rulers were desperately catching up with the European ascendancy in economy and military aspects, Muslim scholars began to critically examine their intellectual traditions.
What were the Muslim “modernists’…what did they argue?
- One group of Muslims, called the ‘modernists,’ argued that Islam could not be blamed for the current plight of Muslims.
- As Muslims failed and were humiliated by the Europeans, it was necessary to either restore Islam to its original purity or to bring it in line with the demands of modern ages. - They also lamented the lack of creative thinking among recent generation of Muslims, which prevented them from successfully meeting the challenge posed by the West.
What are the two Muslim intellectual responses to modernization who advocated for it?
1) Modernists
2) Secularists
