The History of Islamic Political Thought Course Overview: Course Objectives:

Transcription

1 Course Overview: The History of Islamic Political Thought Instructor: Nura Hossainzadeh Course Meeting Times: Tuesdays and Thursdays, 1:30-3:00 p.m. Office Hours: Tuesdays and Thursdays, 5:20-6:20 p.m. This course is a survey of political thought and political history in the Islamic world. It begins at the very beginning, during the time of the Prophet Muhammad, studying the political community he struggled to create and the way in which he responded to political questions and dilemmas. It then moves to a key political moment in the history of Islam: the moment of the Prophet s death, and it examines various Sunni and Shi a formulations of the nature of political authority absent an infallible authority. Before proceeding very much through history, the course provides an overview of classical texts and theological doctrines of the Islamic tradition, since understanding Islam as a political tradition should be grounded in an understanding of Islam as a religious tradition. In this part of the course, we discuss the Quran and hadith, theological ethics, jurisprudence, and the concept of jihad. The course then follows, through the medieval, early modern, and modern eras, both Shi a and Sunni political thought, examining key thinkers in various traditions, including philosophical, mystical, and jurisprudential traditions. In addition to examining the history of political thought in the Islamic world, the course explores its political history, attentive to how successive political regimes defined their relationship with Islam and religious scholars. The final and most lengthy section of the course is spent in discussion of Islamic political thought in the modern world, beginning from the late 19 th century. We study Islamic scholars who engaged with the notion of constitutionalism and parliamentary government, as well as Islamic revivalists who insisted on the political relevance of Islam and articulated theories of the Islamic state in the modern world. The course ends with a discussion of the contemporary Islamic world, including the ideologies of contemporary states, parties, and political movements, where many of these ideologies were inspired by the revivalist and constitutionalist thinkers we studied earlier. In this last part of the course, we discuss both radical jihadist movements as well as religious reformism in the Islamic world. Jihadist groups seek to reproduce the political order that existed in Islam s early years, whereas reformists conceive of politics as a fundamentally human and broadly participatory field of action, but one which does not free itself from a consideration of religious values and law. Course Objectives: By the end of this course, you are expected to: Acquire basic knowledge of the main intellectual traditions of Islamic political thought jurisprudential, mystical, constitutional, philosophical and understand how thinkers of each of these traditions articulate differing notions of the political ideal. 1

2 Track the political history of the Islamic world, including the history of political formulations of the relationship between worldly authority and religious legitimacy. Understand the content and ambiguities of the political thought of the philosophers and thinkers we discuss, as expressed in the primary and secondary sources we read. Gain a set of analytical tools and a background in Islamic intellectual and political history to be able to then engage with contemporary political events and issues in the Islamic world. Course Requirements: Quiz (10%): To cover early Islamic (pre-medieval) political and intellectual history. Participation and attendance (10%) Two essays (25% each): One on a topic concerning medieval Islamic political thought, the other on Islam and modernity. Final exam (30%): Cumulative Required Texts: Black, Anthony. The History of Islamic Political Thought. Edinburgh, Edinburgh University Press, Kamrava, Mehran. Iran s Intellectual Revolution. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, Dahlen, Ashk. Deciphering the Meaning of Revealed Law: The Surushian paradigm in Shi i epistemology. Stokholm: Elanders Gotab, Schedule of Lectures Jan 22 nd : Introduction Part I: Early Islamic Political History Jan 24 th : The Prophet s Political Community Emel Esin, Mecca and Madinah, New York: Crown Publishers, 1963, p and Martin Lings, Muhammad S.A.W.S., His Life Based on the Earliest Sources, London: George Allen and Unwin, 1983, p

3 Emel Esin, Mecca and Madinah, p Jan 29 th : The Origins of the Shi a-sunni Split W.M. Watt, The Polarity of Sunnism and Shi ism, from The Formative Period of Islamic Thought, Edinburgh University Press: Edinburgh, 1981, p Patricia Crone, Ch. 2, The First Civil War and Sect Formation, and Ch. 5, The Kharijites, from God s Rule, New York: Columbia University Press, 2003, p and p Jan 31 st : The Concept of the Caliphate and Islamic Political History Crone, God s Rule, Ch. 3, The Umayyads, and Ch. 8. The Abbasids and Shi ism, p and p Anthony Black, Ch. 7, The Theory of the Caliphate, from History of Islamic Political Thought, Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2011, p Feb 5 th : The Shi a Concept of the Imamate and the Occultation of the Twelfth Imam Sayyid Muhammad Husayn Tabataba i, A Brief History of the Lives of the Twelve Imams, from Shi a Islam, Qum: Ansariyan Publications, 1981, p Abdulaziz Sachedina, The Occultation of the Imamite Mahdi, from Islamic Messianism, Albany: State University of New York Press, 1981, p Wilfred Madelung, Authority in Twelver Shi ism in the Absence of the Imam, from La notion d'autorite au Moyen Age: Islam, Byzance, Occident. Colloques internationaux de la Napoule 1978, Paris: Presses Universitaires de France, 1982, p Etan Kohlberg, Imam and Community in the Pre-Ghayba Period, from Arjomand, ed., Authority and Political Culture in Shi ism, Albany: State University of New York Press, 1988, p Part II: Islamic Intellectual History Feb 7 th : The Fundamentals of Islam: Quran and Hadith M.M. Azami, Hadith Criticism, History, and Methodology, from Studies in Hadith Methodology and Literature, Indianapolis: American Trust Publications, 1977, p

4 Muhammad Zubayr Siddiqi, The Sciences and Critique of Hadith, from Hadith and Sunnah: Selected Essays, Kuala Lumpur: Islamic Book Trust, 1996, p Mahmoud Ayoub, The Principles and Development of Tafsir, from The Quran and Its Interpreters, Albany: State University of New York Press, 1984, p Feb 12 th : Islamic Theological Ethics W.M. Watt, The Mu tazilites and al-ash ari, from Islamic Philosophy and Theology, Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 1962, p and p Ashk Dahlen, Ch. 3, Categories of Traditional Islamic Epistemology, from Deciphering the Meaning of Revealed Law: the Surushian paradigm in Shi i epistemology, Stokholm: Elanders Gotab, 2001, p Feb 14 th : The Methods of Islamic Jurisprudence N.J. Coulson, Legal Doctrine and Practice in Medieval Islam, from A History of Islamic Law, Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 1964, p Habibul Haq Nadvi, Islamic Legal Philosophy, Durban: University of Durban, 1989, p Roy Mottahedeh Introduction, from Muhammad Baqir as-sadr, Lessons in Islamic Jurisprudence, Oxford: Oneworld Publications, 2005, p Dahlen, Deciphering the Meaning of Revealed Law: the Surushian paradigm in Shi i epistemology, Ch. 4, Shi i Legal Dogmatics, p Feb 19th: Jihad in Islamic History and Thought Michal Bonner, Ch. 2, The Quran and Arabia, and Ch. 3, Muhammad and His Community, from Jihad in Islamic History, Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2006, p Rudolph Peters, Ch. 5, The Religious and Moral Doctrine of Jihad: Ibn Taymiyya on Jihad, from Jihad in Classical and Modern Islam, Princeton: Markus Wiener Publishers, 1996, p Juan Cole, Ch. 9, Sacred Space and Holy War: The Issue of Jihad, from Sacred Space and Holy War: The Politics, Culture, and History of Shi ite Islam, New York: I.B. Tauris, 2002, p

5 Part III: Medieval Islamic Political Theory Feb 21 st : Political Authority in the Absence of the Imam: Jurisprudential Formulations Ann Lambton, Ch. 13, The Shi a: The Imamiyya, Ch. 14, The Fuqaha and the Holders of Power, from State and Government in Medieval Islam, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1981, p and p Ahmad Kazemi Moussavi, Ch. 5, The Office of Vicegerency Empowered with Juristic Mandate and Ijtihad, from Religious Authority in Shi ite Islam, Kuala Lumpur: International Institute of Islamic Thought and Civilization, 1996, p QUIZ Feb 26 th : Medieval Peripatetic Islamic Political Philosophy: al-farabi and Avicenna Ibrahim Madkour, al-farabi, from Sharif, ed., A History of Muslim Philosophy, I, Karachi: Royal Book Co., 1983, p Abu-Nasr Farabi, On the Perfect State, translated by Richard Walzer, Chicago: Great Books of the Islamic World, Inc., 1985, p James Morris, "The Philosopher-Prophet in Avicenna s Political Philosophy, from Butterworth, ed., The Political Aspects of Islamic Philosophy: Essays in Honor of Muhsin S. Mahdi, Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1992, p Feb 28 th : Sunni Constitutionalist Theories: al-ghazali and Ibn Khaldun Black, The History of Islamic Political Thought, Ch. 9, Al-Ghazali: Mysticism and Politics, p Carole Hillenbrand. Islamic Orthodoxy or Realpolitik? Al-Ghazali s Views on Government. Iran 26 (1988): Selections from Ibn Khaldun s Muqaddima, First Prefatory Discussion Ch. 3.21, 3.23, Ch

6 March 5th: Sunni Constitutionalist Theories: al-mawardi al-mawardi, Ch. 1 On the Appointment of the Sovereign, from Al-Ahkam al- Sultaniyya (The Ordinances of Government), Reading, UK: Center for Muslim Contribution to Civilization, 1996, p Khan, A History of Muslim Philosophy I, al-mawardi, p March 7 th : Siyassa Shar iyyah: Legitimate Discretionary Authority Sherman Jackson. From Prophetic Actions to Constitutional Theory. International Journal of Middle Eastern Studies 25, no. 1 (1993): Black, The History of Islamic Political Thought, Ch. 16, Ibn Taymiyya ( ): Shari a Governance (al-siyasa al-shar iyya), p March 12th: Mysticism and Islamic Political Philosophy: Ibn Arabi, Suhrawardi, and Mulla Sadra Ibn Arabi, Ch. 27, The Wisdom of Being in the Word of David, The Bezels of Wisdom, translated by Ralph W.J. Austin, New York: The Missionary Society of St. Paul the Apostle in the State of New York, 1980, p William Chittick. "Ibn Arabi," from Nasr and Leaman, eds., The Encyclopedia of Muslim Philosophy, Qum: Ansarian Publications, 2001, p Masataka Takeshita, Ch. 3, The Perfect Man as a Sufi Saint, from Ibn Arabi s Theory of the Perfect Man and its Place in the History of Islamic Thought, Tokyo: Institute for the Study of Languages and Cultures of Asia and Africa, 1987, p and p Hossein Ziai, The Political Aspects of Islamic Philosophy The Source and Nature of Authority: A Study of al-suhrawardi s Illuminationist Political Doctrine, p S.Y. Yasrebi. Philosophy of the Imamat according to Mulla Sadra: An Analysis of the Personality and Attributes of the Imam in Light of the Transcendent Theosophy. Journal of Shi a Islamic Studies 1, no. 1 (2008): Part IV: The Early Modern State in the Islamic World March 14 th : The Fragmentation of Political and Religious Authority in Islam; Modernism in Turkey Black, The History of Islamic Political Thought, Ch. 20, A New World Order and Ch. 21, The State of the House of Osman, p and

7 Arthur Goldschmidt Jr., The Historical Context, from Understanding the Contemporary Middle East, Boulder: Lynne Rienner Publishers, 2008, p Albert Hourani, The Ottoman Empire, from Arabic Thought in the Liberal Age: , Cambrdige: Cambridge University Press, 2011, p Black, The History of Islamic Political Thought, Ch. 24 The Decline and Reform of the Ottoman Empire, and Ch. 25, Modernism and the Ottoman Reforms to the Turkish Revolution, p and p March 19 th : Political Authority in the Safavid and Mughal Empires Lambton, State and Government in Medieval Islam, The Safawid Dilemma, p Black, The History of Islamic Political Thought, Ch. 22, The Safavids, and Ch. 23, India and the Mughals, p ESSAY NO. 1 DUE IN LECTURE March 21 st: Islam Under the Qajars Abdul-Hadi Ha iri. The Legitimacy of Early Qajar Rule as Viewed by the Shi i Religious Leaders. Middle Eastern Studies 24, no.3 (1988): Hamid Algar, "Religious Forces in Eighteenth and Nineteenth Century Iran," from Avery, Hambley, and Melville, eds., Cambridge History of Iran, VII: From Nadir Shah to the Islamic Republic, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1991, p Part V: Islam and Modernity April 2 nd : Islam and Constitutionalism in Iraq and Iran: Ayatollah Na ini Abdul-Hadi Ha iri, Ch. 6, The Function of Constitutionalism, from Shi ism and Constitutionalism in Iran, Leiden: E.J. Brill, 1977, p Muhammad Husayn Na ini, Ch. 13, Government in the Islamic Perspective, from Modernist Islam, Kurzman, ed., p April 4 th : The Iranian Constitutional Revolution of 1906 Hamid Algar, "The Oppositional Role of the ulama in Twentieth Century Iran," from Scholars, Saints, and Sufis, Keddie, ed., Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1972, p

8 Said Amir Arjomand, The ulama s Traditionalist Opposition to Parliamentarianism: , Middle Eastern Studies 17, no. 2 (1981): Constitutional Revolution. Encyclopedia Iranica. Last modified December 15, Hamid Dabashi, trans., Two Clerical Tracts on Constitutionalism, from Arjomand, ed., Authority and Political Culture in Shi ism, Albany: State University of New York Press, 1988, p April 9 th : Islamic Modernism in the Arab World Sayyid Jamal al-din Afghani, Modernist Islam, Ch. 11, Lecture on Teaching and Learning and Answer to Renan, p Hourani, Arabic Thought in the Liberal Age, Ch. 5, Jamal al-din al-afghani, p Muhammad Abduh, Modernist Islam, Ch. 3, Laws Should Change in Accordance with the Conditions of Nations and The Theology of Unity, p April 11 th : Islamic Revivalism in the Arab World : Maudoodi, Qutb Maulana Abu l A la Maudoodi, History of Muslim Philosophy, I, Economic and Political Teachings of the Quran, p Sayyed Qutb, Signposts along the Road and In the Shadow of Qur an, from Princeton Readings in Islamist Thought, Princeton and Oxford: Princeton University Press, 2009, p Roxanne Euben, Enemy in the Mirror: Islamic Fundamentalism and the Limits of Modern Rationalism, Princeton: Princeton University Press, 199, p April 16 th : Khomeini I Hamid Algar. "The Fusion of the Gnostic and the Political in the Personality and Life of Imam Khomeini." Al-Tawhid (June 2003), Vanessa Martin. Religion and State in Khumaini s Kashf-i Asrar. Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London 56, no. 1 (1993): Hamid Algar. Imam Khomeini: A Short Biography. The Institute for Compilation and Publication of Imam Khomeni s Works, 8

9 April 18 th : Khomeini II Ruhollah Khomeini, Islamic Government, from Algar, ed., Islam and Revolution, Berkeley: Mizan Press, 1981, p April 23 rd : Contemporary Islamic States, Parties, and Movements Peter Mandaville, Ch. 4, Islam in the system: the evolution of Islamism as a political strategy, and Ch. 5, Islam as the system: Islamic states and Islamization from above, from Global Political Islam, New York: Routledge, 2007, p Roxanne Euben and Muhammad Zaman, Ch.9, Yusuf Al Qaradawi, and Islam and Democracy, from Princeton Readings in Islamist Thought: Texts and Contexts from al-banna to Bin Laden, Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2009, p Euben and Zaman, Ch. 15, Hamas, and Charter of the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) of Palestine, Princeton Readings in Islamist Thought, p Euben and Zaman, Ch. 16, Muhammad Husayn Fadlallah, Islamic Unity and Political Change, and September 11th, Terrorism, Islam, and the Intifada, Princeton Readings in Islamist Thought, p April 25 th : Islamic Reformism in the Arab World: Hassan Hanafi, Muhammad Abed Jabiri Hassan Hanafi, Alternative Conceptions of Civil Society: A Reflective Islamic Approach, from Alternative Conceptions of Civil Society, Chambers and Kymlicka, eds., Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2002, p Shahrough Akhavi, The Dialectic in Contemporary Egyptian Social Thought: The Scripturalist and Modernist Discourses of Sayyid Qutb and Hasan Hanafi," International Journal of Middle East Studies 29, no. 3 (1997): Muhammad Abed Jabiri. The Formation of Arab Reason: Text, Tradition and the Construction of Modernity in the Arab World, London: IB Tauris, 2011, p April 30 th : Reformist Discourses in Contemporary Iran Abdolkarim Soroush, The Idea of Religious Democratic Government and Tolerance and Governance: A Discourse on Religion and Democracy, from Soroush and Sadri, eds., Reason, Freedom, and Democracy in Islam, p and p

10 Mehran Kamrava, Ch. 5, The Reformist Discourse, and Ch. 6, The Secular- Modernist Discourse, from Iran s Intellectual Revolution, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2008, p ESSAY NO. 2 DUE IN LECTURE May 2 nd : Contemporary Global Jihadist Movements Mandaville, Ch. 7, Radical Islamism and jihad beyond the nation-state, Global Political Islam, p Euben and Zaman, Ch. 18, Usama bin Laden, and Declaration of War against the Americans Occupying the Land of the Two Holy Places, Princeton Readings in Islamist Thought, p FINAL EXAM: WEDNESDAY, MAY 15, 2:30-5:30 P.M. 10