Islamic Reformism

Muhammad ‘Abduh (1849-1905) was a prominent scholar, pedagogue, mufti ‘alim,  theologian  and  reformer.  Though  trained  in  traditional  Islamic knowledge, ‘Abduh, who was influenced by the ideas of Jamal al-Din  al-Afghani,  became  discontent  with  the  existing  methods  of  traditional  Islamic learning. Based in Egypt, ‘Abduh led the late 19th-century Muslim reform to revitalize  some  aspects  of  Islamic  doctrine  and  practice  to  make  them compatible with the modern world. This reformist trend called for the reform of intellectual  stagnation,  revitalization  of  the  socio-economic  and  political conditions  of  the  ummah,  and  to  make  Islam  compatible  with  modernity. ‘Abduh’s  progressive  reformism  found  following  in  various  parts  of  the Muslim world including the Malay Archipelago. Among those influenced by ‘Abduh in the region were Sheikh Tahir Jalaluddin and Abdullah Ahmad in West Sumatra, Syed Sheikh al-Hadi in Malaya, and Kiyai Ahmad Dahlan in Yogyakarta. Though there is increasing literature on Muslim reformism, few worksexamine the social history of the transmission of ideas from one part of the  Muslim  world  to  another.  Thus,  this  study  analyzes  how  ‘Abduh’s reformism was transmitted to pre-independent Malaysia.

Modernity is one of the most intriguing concepts in modern scholarship. It means different things to different people. Its exact origins, trajectory and manifestations are often contested even among the members of a similar school of thought. In its broadest sense, modernity encompasses both a historical period, as part of man's overall cultural and civilizational evolution, and a worldview, as well as an ideology, that comprise the paradigms of human thought and behaviour. This is understandable, bearing in mind that Nasr's main focus were the philosophical dimensions of the debates. However, if he felt that making a distinction was necessary, he

This paper describes the movements, personalities and processes in Thailand’s Malay dominated provinces of Pattani, Yala, and Narathiwat that have led to unprecedented diversity within the ummah. Like the rest of Thai/Malay peninsula, although the overwhelming majority of Muslims in Thailand’s far-south are conservative traditionalists, the size and influence reformist Islam continues to increase. This is particularly the case among urban Malays. While the roots of reformism were sown in the 19th century by luminaries such as Syeikh Daud al-Fatani (1769-1847), and Syeikh Ahmed al-Fatani (1856-1908), the most important reformist personality in the early 20th centuries was Haji Sulong (1895-1945). Since his return from Saudi Arabia in the 1990s, Dr Ismail Lutfi Japakiya, the founding of rector of Yala Islamic University (Thailand’s first Islamic university) has emerged as the leader of Saudi style salafism. I conclude by considering the impact of the Tablighi Jama’at, a South Asian revival movement, on Islamic diversity in South Thailand since its arrival in the 1980s. A important point infrequently made in analysis of the Tablighi Jama’at is that both reformists and traditionalists are involved in this important revivalist movement.

Cet article tente de comprendre le wahhabisme et de suivre son évolution historique. En quoi Ibn 'Abd al Wahhab a-t-il rompu avec la tradition islamique ? Quelles sont les racines doctrinales du "jihadisme" ? Quelles mutations socio-culturelles le monde musulman a-t-il vécu au cours des trois derniers siècles qui expliquent que le wahhabisme est passé du statut de secte marginale à celui d'incarnation de l'orthodoxie islamique ? Tentative d'éclairage dans un entretien en 2 parties.
[Article paru initialement dans la revue "Querelles d'Orient"]

Recipient of the Inaugural South Asian Muslim Studies Association Book Award 2021

Centering Pakistan in a story of transnational Islam stretching from South Asia to the Middle East, Simon Wolfgang Fuchs offers the first in-depth ethnographic history of the intellectual production of Shi'is and their religious competitors in this “Land of the Pure.” The notion of Pakistan as the pinnacle of modern global Muslim aspiration forms a crucial component of this story. It has empowered Shi'is, who form about 20 percent of the country’s population, to advance alternative conceptions of their religious hierarchy while claiming the support of towering grand ayatollahs in Iran and Iraq.

Fuchs shows how popular Pakistani preachers and scholars have boldly tapped into the esoteric potential of Shi'ism, occupying a creative and at times disruptive role as brokers, translators, and self-confident pioneers of contemporary Islamic thought. They have indigenized the Iranian Revolution and formulated their own ideas for fulfilling the original promise of Pakistan. Challenging typical views of Pakistan as a mere Shi'i backwater, Fuchs argues that its complex religious landscape represents how a local, South Asian Islam may open up space for new intellectual contributions to global Islam. Yet religious ideology has also turned Pakistan into a deadly battlefield: sectarian groups since the 1980s have been bent on excluding Shi'is as harmful to their own vision of an exemplary Islamic state.

For more info and reviews:
https://www.uncpress.org/book/9781469649795/in-a-pure-muslim-land/

A South Asian edition is published by Speaking Tiger in Delhi: https://www.speakingtigerbooks.com/shop/non-fiction/in-a-pure-muslim-land/

Using the writings of the religious scholar`Abdullahi al-Qutbi, this article examines the 'transregional' nature of Muslim reformist discourse in the early twentieth century and the way in which the trajectories of individuals, objects and ideas cut across the largely imaginary boundaries traditionally used to divide the Middle East and Africa. African Muslims have maintained intimate ties with their non-African brethren across space through various intellectual, economic and political relationships throughout the history of Islam. However, they have also remained entwined across time via engagement with the more or less commonly accepted canon of the faith and what Talal Asad has termed the 'discursive tradition.' This essay demonstrates the persistence of these processes through the age of European colonialism into the early twentieth century. But equally important is the way in which the increasingly elaborate and rapid networks of empire created in the nineteenth century facilitated and intensified the interaction of both people and ideas helping create the modern horizontally integrated community of believers.

في حوار الملف، تستضيف المجلة الباحث التونسي جمال الدين بن عبد
الجليل، الذي يوضح أن أزمة العقل الفقهي ترتبط بالمنهج الذي يحكمه، وبالتالي يدعو إلى تناول الموضوع في «مستويين اثنين يتمظهر من خلالهما ولا ينفك عنهما؛ الأول هو مستوى القواعد الأصولية، ويتعلق المستوى الثاني بالعملية الاستنباطية نفسها المتعلقة بالحكم الجز ئي  على وجه التفصيل »، كما يتحدث عن دور السياسة في أزمة العقل الفقهي، بصفتها «عاملا ملازما مؤثرا سلبا وإيجابا منذ المراحل الأولى لنشوء الخطاب الفقهي، وكذلك الشأن مبدئيا بالنسبة إلى السياق التاريخي المعاصر »، كما يتوقف عند أهمية الاستعانة «بمناهج العلوم الحديثة في مجال الألسنيات وفلسفة اللغة والحق والهرمينوطيقا ونظريات تحليل الخطاب بهدف تحقيق التجديد الاجتهادي المنشود »، ويشدد في هذا الصدد، عى أهمية تأسيس فلسفة الحق بمعناها الحديث في السياق التشريعي الفقهي الإسلامي، ويعتبرها « ضرورة حيوية يمكن أن تشكل أرضية مساعدة لتحقيق التجديد الاجتهادي ضمن أفق جديد .

Husein Đozo je jedan od najuticajnijih naših savremenih muslimanskih mislilaca. Istovremeno, on je izuzetno značajan predstavnik islamskog reformizma kod nas. Mi ćemo u ovom radu pokušati da analiziramo osnovne spoznajne principe njegovog reformističkog razumevanja islama i Kur’ana. Služeći se metodom detaljne analize najvažnijih spisa Huseina Đoze, uočićemo da se on znatno udaljava od tradicionalnog spoznajnog stadijuma islama u različitim sferama svojih ontoloških, antropoloških i epistemoloških razmišljanja. Njegova definicija odnosa između nauke i objave potpuno je zasnovana na empirističkim metodološkim principima. Zbog toga, Đozo će na temeljima empirizma i istoricizma tumačiti pojam idžtihad a i značaj predanja Verovesnika islama. U njegovim stavovima, na tom polju, jasno se prepoznaju glavne orijentacije neoselefizma i uticaj slavnih predstavnika škole al-Manar.

Ključne reči: Husein Đozo, islamski reformizam, empirizam, škola al-Manar, moderna nauka, objava, idžtihad, neoselefizam

In this paper I will examine the reformist thought of Fazlur Rahman (1919–1988). The first section will contain a systematic reconstruction of Rahman’s reformist method, while the second attempts a systematic review of the major inconsistencies in Rahman’s thought processes. My key observation is that Rahman tacitly employs a normative source other than the Qurʾān, i.e. the pre-reflexive system of values shared by contemporary societies, but without accounting for this. To obfuscate this fact, Rahman legitimizes his reformist thought by means of a simple reference to the “present situation” (thesis I) and constructs a viciously circular method (thesis II), which is only able to suggest reasonable solutions to those exegetical questions for which the undefined “present situation” already provides distinct and established answers (thesis III). Thus Rahman’s normatively underdetermined method is not only deficient due to its arbitrary character, it also provides a legitimatory source for his violent opponents. Furthermore, I will review the unsatisfactory state of the secondary literature which overlooks or conceals Rahman’s problematic aspects, instead uncritically advocating superficial reform. Rather than methodically unregulated reformist discourse, I will argue for a strict distinction between the experiential or aesthetic dimension of religion and the normative questions which should be entirely delegated to the domain of the secular philosophy of human rights.

Salafism has become part of a public discourse in Cape Town since the last decade of the 20th century. Drawing on extensive interviews with a number of such Salafis and anti-Salafis, this article examines how this search was manifested and then negotiated within the local religious sphere of the city. is article confirms the view presented in the general literature that Salafism represented the aspiration of individuals who desired to chart an independent approach to Islamic practices. Nevertheless, by focussing attention on a number of individuals and measuring their successes, strategies and life-trajectories, the social dimension of Salafi practices is brought into sharp focus. Salafis were not only effective as lone figures who were prepared to break away from everybody; they were also involved in founding communities for their ideas. And in this regard, they could not escape the social contexts in which they found themselves.

What does it mean to be modern? This study regards the concept of ‘society’ as foundational to modern self-understanding. Identifying Arabic conceptualizations of society in the journal al-Manar, the mouthpiece of Islamic reformism, the author shows how modernity was articulated from within an Islamic discursive tradition. The fact that the classical term umma was a principal term used to conceptualize modern society suggests the convergence of discursive traditions in modernity, rather than a mere diffusion of European concepts.

Reconstruire la pensée religieuse de l'Islam est considéré comme l'oeuvre majeure de Mohammed Iqbal. C'est Eva de Vitray-Meyerovitch (m. 1999) qui s'est chargée de traduire, du persan au français, et de faire découvrir cette œuvre au public francophone. Comme nous allons le voir, cet ouvrage se veut être un pont entre le monde musulman et la pensée européenne, un dialogue entre deux systèmes de pensée dans les domaines de la théologie, de la philosophie sociale, de la philosophie du droit et de la philosophie des sciences. C'était pour Mohammed Iqbal un devoir impérieux que de réconcilier la vision coranique avec la structure dynamique de l'univers et les dernières avancées scientifiques, notamment celles de la physique et de la biologie. De par son immense érudition et ses connaissances scientifiques, Mohammed Iqbal va, à travers ces conférences, s'efforcer de comparer les théories de penseurs et scientifiques occidentaux et musulmans de différentes époques en vue de réfuter certains préjugés sur l'islam et par la même occasion mettre en exergue tout un pan ignoré de la civilisation islamique. Sa démarche intellectuelle va inspirer, longtemps après sa mort, un grand nombre de penseurs et d'étudiants musulmans féru de sa pensée qui, de nos jours, trouve encore toute sa pertinence.

De quoi le salafisme est-il le nom ?
Si le mot est constamment évoqué, sa réalité historique est souvent mal connue. Il s'agit pourtant de sortir des lectures uniquement géopolitiques du salafisme, pour tenter de rendre la profondeur historique de ce mouvement.
Retour sur l'évolution et les idées de ce courant de l'islam contemporain avec Daoud Riffi, historien et éditeur (éditions Tasnîm) qui prépare « Une Histoire critique du salafisme » à paraître en 2020.
[À lire en ligne : https://www.lescahiersdelislam.fr/Comprendre-le-salafisme-Rencontre-avec-l-historien-Daoud-Riffi_a1838.html]

Actes de la journée d’étude intitulée "L’humanisme en islam", 4 mai 2016, Université d’Artois (Arras), Artois Presses Université :

Il s'agit ici de présenter une tendance particulière du réformisme islamique, sa tendance libérale par quelques penseurs des 19e et 20e siècles.

Reforming Modernity is a sweeping intellectual history and philosophical reflection built around the work of the Morocco-based philosopher Abdurrahman Taha, one of the most significant philosophers in the Islamic world since the colonial era. Wael B. Hallaq contends that Taha is at the forefront of forging a new, non-Western-centric philosophical tradition. He explores how Taha’s philosophical project sheds light on recent intellectual currents in the Islamic world and puts forth a formidable critique of Western and Islamic modernities.

Hallaq argues that Taha’s project departs from―but leaves behind―the epistemological grounds in which most modern Muslim intellectuals have anchored their programs. Taha systematically rejects the modes of thought that have dominated the Muslim intellectual scene since the beginning of the twentieth century―nationalism, Marxism, secularism, political Islamism, and liberalism. Instead, he provides alternative ways of thinking, forcefully and virtuosically developing an ethical system with a view toward reforming existing modernities. Hallaq analyzes the ethical thread that runs throughout Taha’s oeuvre, illuminating how Taha weaves it into a discursive engagement with the central questions that plague modernity in both the West and the Muslim world. The first introduction to Taha’s ethical philosophy for Western audiences, Reforming Modernity presents his complex thought in an accessible way while engaging with it critically. Hallaq’s conversation with Taha’s work both proffers a cogent critique of modernity and points toward answers for its endemic and seemingly insoluble problems.

"In early 20th century Jadidism, an Islamic modernist movement aiming at the development of Islamic education and schooling, social welfare and political development, came into being in Central Asian Turkestan. The forerunners of this movement had been shaped in other regions of the Russian Empire before, namely on the Crimea and in the Volga region, already several decades before. The most prominent figure, founder and inspirer was the outstanding Crimean Tatar writer, educator and publicist Ismail Gasprinski.
Gasprinski’s thought and activity can be regarded as part of the more general Islamic modernist movements of the Middle East. On the other hand there is reason to assume that Gasprinski was also heavily influenced by Russian and European developments in pedagogy, social thought and politics. This book gives a thorough analysis not only of the “Middle Eastern” and “Islamic” elements of Gasprinski’s influence on Central Asia, but also of his role in transmitting Russian and European ideas into Turkestan. Besides, the author tried to find out how influential Gasprinskii’s ideas were among Turkestani Muslim and what role they played in the development of reformist movements in Turkestan.
His first journey to Turkestan (1893) lead him to believe that in Turkestan time had come for social and cultural change and that people were ready to believe the Russian prejudice about the cultural backwardness of Turkеstani Muslims. His second trip (1908) to Turkestan took place after the Manifesto of 1905, when the political situation in the Russian empire had significantly changed. His journey led him to many cities in Russia itself, where he aimed at reifying his weakened political reputation. In Turkestan, he had in the meantime gained the esteem and support from a broad layer of the society, which he partly lost in inner Russia.
This research shows that the place and effect which Gasprinskii has in Turkestan and among the proponents of reforms, was of different nature. On one side, Gasprinskii was not entirely successful in his endeavor to advise and shape reform in all the spheres of public life. On the other hand, his ideas, particularly those concerning education, but also his call for playing a role in the public affairs, have had a strong and durable effect on Turkestani Jadids. Undeniably education and, to a certain extent, language – that is, new teaching methods for schools and a median Turkic language for the press and the intellectual life – had been the two topics, with which the Turkestani Jadids were almost without exception in full agreement with Gasprinskii. Some of them agreed even further with his broader political agenda."

This modern study on bid'ah - or heretical innovation - critically explores the boundaries of normative Islam and outlines the legal debate surrounding the subject. It examines the influence of foreign elements in Islamic thought, focusing on corrupt religious practices, as well as distorted beliefs, acts of worship and customary practices pertaining to religious expression. It emphasizes the importance of embracing normative Islamic practice, even if one has to “walk the solitary path” as a result

Эдип Юксал,  "ИСЛОМИЙ ИСЛОҲОТ МАНИФЕСТИ"
Эдип Юксал - бугун дунёда Қуръон марказли ҳаракатнинг энг танилган исмларидан бири.
Қуръонни икки тилга (турк ва инглиз тилларига) таржима қилган.
Ёзган китоблари Туркияда энг кўп сотилган китоблар қаторидан ўрин олган.  Туркияда муслималарнинг рўмол ўраш ҳаққини ҳимоя қилиб чиққан ва дунёвий тузумга қарши фаолият айблови билан қамалган, қийноқларга солинган.
1986 йил, ўз таҳлил ва изланишлари натижасида "Фақат Қуръон!" дея диндаги якуний қарорини эълон қилган.
Маҳаллий мазҳабчи ва тариқатчи муллалар тарафидан такфир этилган, қатли вожиб фатвоси чиқарилган, ҳатто бир неча марта суиқасд уюштирилган.
Оқибатда АҚШ га ҳижрат этган, бугунга қадар ўз изланишлари ва ёзувчилик фаолиятини уммон ортидан туриб давом эттиради.
"ИСЛОМИЙ ИСЛОҲОТ МАНИФЕСТИ" китоби Қуръон марказли қарашларининг сабаблари, асослари ва пировард мақсадларини баён қилади.

The twentieth century witnessed serious interest in the field of ethics, as demonstrated in the number of edited manuscripts, translated works, and newly published studies. These activities moved the field of ethics from the exclusive focus on “traditional practical ethics” which dominated the field for centuries to the level of theoretical and philosophical investigations.
This study gives a historical overview of the developments in the field of ethics, which took place in Modern Egypt since the end of the nineteenth century. The study fathoms out the motives behind this new interest in the field and the broad context in which these developments took place. Additionally, the study explores the key trends and directions, which influenced these developments or were actually produced by these developments. This historical period was specifically chosen because it represents the Renaissance epoch in the Arab world and also coincides with the movement of reviving Arabic heritage and publishing its works. The aim here is to discover new dimensions of the reform movement away from the juristic and maqasid¬-oriented endeavours, which have already received much attention.

Murad’s Commentary on the Eleventh Contentions is a rare and profound book. It consists of 100 pithy aphorisms - termed "contentions" - on a diverse array of topics ranging through ethics, cosmology, metaphysics, theology, law and history. Each contention is a terse distillation of Murad's often exquisitely crafted ruminations on a given matter followed by his own compressed elucidation (the commentary).  Though sometimes abstruse and esoteric, the book weaves itself into a dense, multi-faceted tapestry of insights into a range of contemporary issues that concern the religious mind.

This chapter explores developments in the practice of hadith studies among Muslims in the past two centuries. It does not focus on Muslim debates on questions of authenticity, probity in law and theology, or even as sources of history, as scholarship has taken up some of these questions (D. Brown 1999; J. Brown 2007, 300–333; J. Brown 2009, 240–268; Chapter 16 of this volume). Rather, this chapter explores developments related to what Muslim students of hadith actually do when they teach, study, or spe-cialize in hadith. What institutions, if any, are available to them? What does the course of study look like, and what are some of the key teaching texts used? Who are some of the authorities who have shaped the study of hadith today? What discursive develop-ments among Muslims have contributed to the foregrounding of hadith? And how have technological advances, in print and computers, shaped the study of hadith?This chapter will focus on three modes of hadith study that Muslims engage in that, given the constraints of space, serve somewhat as ideal types. The first of the three modes is in the dawrat al-hadith in madrasas, which trace their intellectual pedigree to the Dar al-Ulum madrasa in Deoband, India. The dawrat al-hadith (“year of hadith”) is the capstone year for madrasa students during which the Six Books of the Sunni canon are covered. The institution of the dawrat al-hadith has resulted in the production of numerous commentaries, both in Arabic and in Urdu, continuing premodern traditions of commentary while also vernacularizing hadith studies. This is arguably one of the most popular ways of systematically studying the Sunni canon, given the spread of Deobandi madrasas throughout South Asia and South Asian diaspora communities, particularly in South Africa, the United Kingdom, and the United States. The second mode is concomitant with the emergence of print in the Arab world and the concern for
the production of critical editions of Islamic textual sources from manuscripts (
tahqiq al-makhtutat). Some of the foremost editors and publishers of Islamic texts in the first half of the twentieth century were affiliated with Salafism and were concerned with the authentication of hadith references, a process known as takhrij. Takhrıj entailed the studying of the isnad  and matn of hadiths and providing a ruling on their probity. Along with the critical edition of manuscripts, takhrij became an important skill taught in modern universities in the Arab world. Finally, in the last decades of the twentieth century (and seemingly in reaction to Salafi approaches to hadith), scholars of hadith began to re‐center the interpersonal transmission of hadith and the authority that pos-sessing a license (ijaza) from a hadith master conferred. As a result, a greater emphasis was placed on direct narration from hadith masters through audition (sama) of hadith and attaining licenses.Each of these three modes of hadith study have their precedents in premodern hadith culture, but given developments in Muslim societies since the nineteenth century, the emergence of new discourses, and new technologies that democratized access to hadith, some of these practices have received greater focus today than they might have had previously. The modes of hadith study described here are not mutually exclusive and students of hadith often embark upon another mode of hadith study after completing one.

Buku ini al-Manhaj al-Islahi li al-Imam Muhammad Abduh
(Manhaj Islah Imam Muhammad Abduh) adalah karya
Muhammad Imarah yang telah diterbitkan oleh Bibliotheca Alexandrina
(Maktabah al-Iskandariyah), pada tahun 2005. Ia merupakan sebahagian
daripada koleksi karya yang dimuatkan dalam al-A‘mal al-Kamilah
[himpunan karya] yang komprehensif yang telah ditahkik oleh
Muhammad Imarah dan dirangkumkan bersama dalam koleksi ini. Ia
melantarkan rujukan yang terbaik dan autoritatif tentang hasil karya
dan pemikiran Muhammad Abduh (1849-1905) dari kompilasi
penulisannya yang penting seperti al-Islam wa’l Nasraniyyah, Risalat al-
Tauhid, Risalat al-Waridah dan lain-lain. Koleksi ini sangat krusial bagi
meraih pemahaman yang analitis tentang idea dan pandangan kunci
Abduh tentang harakat islah dan tajdid yang digerakkannya di dunia
Islam. Ia telah dikumpul dan didokumentasikan dengan sebaiknya, bagi
menempatkannya pada posisinya yang sebenar sebagai revivalis yang
terpenting dalam harakat reformasi di negara Mesir moden.

Bibliographie qui s'enrichira progressivement et qui comprend les sections suivantes :

- islam généralités & histoire
- courants revivalistes ("islam politique")
- réformismes islamiques
- production des acteurs réformistes
- méthodes & débats

Il s'agit de présenter à un public néophyte mais curieux les ouvrages et références qui l'aideront à comprendre la richesse de cet objet "islam" et de présenter également les travaux scientifiques de base concernant le domaine plus spécifique du réformisme islamique

Entretien de vulgarisation scientifique qui tente de définir le courant du réformisme islamique et ses spécificités vis-à-vis d'autres courants de l'islam contemporain et de questionner son apport potentiel au vu des défis actuels du XXIe siècle.

http://www.lesclesdumoyenorient.com/Entretien-avec-Steven-Duarte-Le-reformisme-islamique-courants-de-pensee-et.html

This important book is a collection of writings of more then 30 modern writers on Islam that were present at the 2008 conference bearing the same name. From professional Islamic scholars to individuals writers and thinkers, this collection is unique as a serious collection of 21st century Islamic thought on critical research, reform and renewal in Islamic and Qur'anic interpretation. With diverse subjects on the interpretation and message of the Qur'an and its relation to human rights, freedom and wellfare. History of Islam, society and thought. Modern experience of being a Muslim, the concept of gender and needed actions for reform. http://academia.edu/attachments/22509204/download_file

Article qui traite de la distinction méthodique entre les choses : on associe régulièrement "réforme de l'islam" à des réalités aussi différentes que la restructuration de la gestion du culte, les fondamentalismes et même jusqu'à la question du terrorisme. Cette exigence devient plus que nécessaire pour qu'un courant progressiste émerge.

Un des points centraux de la pensée islamique contemporaine tourne autour de l’idée qu’il faudrait « rouvrir les portes de l’ijtihâd » (effort de réflexion) progressivement fermées par l’establishment religieux. Partout dans le monde, y compris en France, savants et intellectuels musulmans appellent à mettre fin à la sclérose intellectuelle dont souffrirait l’Islam depuis plusieurs siècles. Cependant, par bien des aspects, les notions de « fermeture des portes de l’ijtihâd » et de déclin intellectuel sont en réalité des légendes – au sens étymologique – nées dans les cercles orientalistes et salafis, comme plus de trois décennies de recherches historiques et islamologiques le montrent

Shaykh Ṭanṭāwī Jawharī was an Egyptian exegete known for having produced a scientific interpretation of the Qurʾān. A pioneering scholar in terms of familiarising the people of his time with many previously neglected matters regarding Islam and science, his publications shocked the Cairo educational system and other Muslim places of learning in the early twentieth century.

This book examines the intersection between Ṭanṭāwī Jawharī and Egyptian history and culture, and demonstrates that his approach to science in the Qurʾān was intimately connected to his social concerns. Divided into three parts, part one contains three chapters which each introduce different aspects of Ṭanṭāwī Jawharī himself. The second part explores the main aspects of his tafsīr, discussing his approach to science and the Qurʾān, and how he presented Europeans in his tafsīr, and then addressing the impact of his tafsīr on wider Muslim and non-Muslim society. The third section draws attention to the themes from all 114 sūras of the Qurʾān that are discussed within his commentary. It then analyses the current status of his views and the post-Jawharism perspective on science and the Qurʾān, both today and in an imaginary future, in 2154.

Providing new English translations of Ṭanṭāwī Jawharī’s work, the book delivers a comprehensive assessment of this unique figure, and emphasises the distinctive nature of his reading of the Qurʾān. The book will be a valuable resource for anyone studying modern Egypt, the Qurʾān, Islam and Science, and scientific interpretation and inimitability.

Over nearly 1,500 years of history, Islam has produced extraordinary intellectual innovation, characterised by limitless curiosity and creativity. It has inspired profound theological and philosophical debate, a rich artistic legacy, and great scientific discoveries. 'The Architects of Islamic Civilisation' provides readers with a concise yet detailed range of essays sketching the life, thought and significance of forty-three prominent Muslim thinkers responsible for producing this rich tradition, individuals from as far afield as North Africa, Europe, the Middle East, India, Southeast Asia and China. Stretching from the time of the Prophet down to the late twentieth century, this book outlines the intellectual foundations of Islam, its multifaceted development through its classical period and, finally, its modern quest for reform and revival. Presenting a broad and inclusive range of Muslim thinkers, 'The Architects of Islamic Civilisation' will be of interest to both general readers and students alike.