Book Reviews

Islamic Thought in the Twentieth Century
Suha Taji-Farouki and Basheer M. Nafi, eds.

London and New York: I.B. Tauris, 2004. 432 pages.

In the introduction, the editors explain that the main motivation for produc-
ing this volume is that, in the course of the last century or so, the Muslim
world has experienced unprecedented change to its societies and cultures
that, in turn, has had a tremendous impact upon its intellectual life. The
Muslim world’s encounter with modernity has been a source of tension
that has turned “Islamic discourse in the twentieth century into a crisis” (p.
3). In devising a framework for what they call the “dialectical relation-
ship” between twentieth-century Islamic thought and modernity, Suha
Taji-Farouki and Basheer Nafi have resolved to construct their account
around three themes: the emergence of new spokespersons, the diversity
of twentieth-century Muslim discourse, and the connections and disrup-
tions between Islamic thought and the rest of “the global intellectual
arena” (p. 5).

With regards to the first theme, the key observation is that a new type of
intellectual, one who is not part of the ulama’ class, has taken center stage.
The lack of consensus and almost “complete fragmentation” of present-day
Islamic thought is attributed to the external challenges that the Muslim
world has faced for the last 200 years. In fact, contemporary Islamic thought
mirrors the very nature of modernity: the loss of certainty, challenged val-
ues, relativism, and an Islamdom – formerly assumed to be invincible – that
has been shaken to its inner core. An interesting observation made in this
respect is “the blurring of the contours between expressions of Islamic intel-
lectualism and the academic study of Islam” (p. 11). As a result of their
encounter with western scholarship, Muslim intellectuals felt increasingly
compelled to respond to what they saw as Orientalist distortions. However,
as area study experts, social scientists, and specialists from the humanities –
among them increasing numbers of Muslim scholars – began to study Islam,
it became possible to discern a “meeting of the minds.”



As for the third theme: In the course of the twentieth century, such ideas
and concepts as nationalism, democracy, human rights, and civil society
were internalized in Muslim thinking with varying degrees of success. But
that acceptance has not been unanimous, for the threat perception consti-
tuted by the onslaught of western – and therefore alien – values led to a
“self-defensive cultural withdrawal” in some circles (p. 14). With regards to
the ensuing “discourses of disconnection,” the editors do not fail to notice
that these “dissenting opinions” are often coined in terms that are “con-
nected to, or … shaped, by the very West that is denied” (p. 15).

The contributions revolve around its three themes. Nafi opens by sur-
veying the emergence of Islamic reformism. He traces its development from
Ibn Taymiyya, via such sixteenth- and eighteenth-century renewers as Mulla
al-Harawi, Ibrahim al-Kurani, Shah Wali Allah Dihlawi, and Muhammad
ibn Abd al-Wahhab (who responded mainly to internal impulses), to such
leading nineteenth- and twentieth-century reformist ideologues as Sayyid
Ahmad Khan, Muhammad Abduh, and Rashid Rida (who were primarily
reacting to external challenges, particularly the political, economic, and cul-
tural encroachment of western imperialism).

The diversity of contemporary Muslim thought is further explored by
New Zealand Islamicist William Shepard. In an attempt to come to a typol-
ogy of the new Muslim intellectual, Shepard distinguishes three orienta-
tions: secularist, Islamist, and traditionalist. In the course of his essay, he
introduces some more subtle subdivisions into these very general categories.
For example, he divides Islamists into radicals and modernists, with the
latter category including such diverse figures as the late Mahmud Shaltut,
Ali Shari’ati, Mahmud Muhammad Taha, and Ziauddin Sardar. However,
Shepard places Isma’il al-Faruqi in the radical camp on account of his pro-
found restructuring of epistemology, because he bases what would become
his “Islamization of Knowledge” project on philosophical foundations
derived from within the Islamic metaphysical outlook. Concerning the radi-
cal Islamists, Shepard rightly observes that they are quite modern, for exam-
ple, in their use of state-of-the-art technology and jargon.

Shepard’s essay is followed by Elizabeth Sirriyeh’s fascinating account
of present-day Sufism, which has shown itself remarkably flexible and adapt-
able. We find it either preserved and expressed by amazingly resilient Sufi
orders or taken in new directions by such figures as Muhammad Iqbal, Said
Nursi, and Fethullah Gülen. Even the New Age seekers have appropriated
some of its rich legacy. In his extensive chapter on nationalism, Ralph Coury
makes the point that contrary to the perception of Islam as being somehow

Book Reviews 91



immune to nationalist ideology, the evidence of the last century shows that
nationalism is very much a part of the Muslim world’s political landscape.
He holds the Orientalist legacy, which still lingers in many minds, responsi-
ble for the persistence of that erroneous viewpoint.

The next three contributions discuss how Muslims had to come to terms
with notions of statehood, pluralism, and democracy (El-Affendy); eco-
nomic activity in a Muslim context (Wilson); and the gender issue (Abugi-
deiri). The author of this latter essay rightly complains that debates tend to be
confined to women’s roles as mothers and their central function in family life,
this “at the expense of women’s spiritual and legal rights” (p. 223). Such con-
stricted views of women are indicative of what is really at stake: the failure
to recognize them as integral persons and full-fledged Muslims.

The book’s remaining three chapters deal with Islamdom’s relation
with other cultures and faiths. Jacques Waardenburg, a historian of reli-
gions, examines the diverse imaginings of the West in the Muslim mindset,
which mirror the varieties in East-West encounters over time. Hugh
Goddard discusses the complexities of the Muslim-Christian relationship,
in which a number of issues intersect. Tension over Christian missionary
activity has gradually been replaced by a Christian-Muslim entente, in the
face of secularism’s common threat, and has led to a widening of opportu-
nities for interfaith dialogue. The position of Christian minorities within the
Muslim world is often blurred by facile equations of Christianity with “the
West.” Editor Taji-Farouki’s final contribution on Muslim thinking about
Jews places a centuries-old history of living in close proximity against a new
meta-narrative that is very much influenced by the more recent, and painful,
experience coming from the Zionist project.

Carool Kersten
Ph.D. Candidate, The Department of the Study of Religions

School of Oriental and African Studies
University of London, United Kingdom

92 The American Journal of Islamic Social Sciences 23:2