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Islam in the Modern World |
| Reprinted from the Middle East Studies
Association Bulletin, Summer 2001 (with changes in orthography to HTML standards). Copyright 2001 by the Middle East Studies Association of North America |
Versicherungsvertragsrecht in den Arabischen Staaten. Der Versicherungsvertrag im islamischen Recht und den modernen arabischen Zivilrechtskodifikationen. Unter besonderer Berücksichtigung des ägyptischen ZGB (1948) und des jordanischen ZGB (1976), by Kilian Rudolf Bälz. 244 pages, appendices, table of legislations, bibliography. Karlsruhe, Germany: Verlag Versicherungswirtschaft, 1997. (Paper) ISBN 3-88487-665-1 This book is about insurance law in modern Arab states. Richly documented, it gives a thorough account of this technical issue employing a comparative perspective. Drawing upon legal texts, case law, and classical fiqh sources, it explores the complicated issue of the influence of both Islamic law and European law on the codification of the provisions concerning insurance in different Arab legal systems. In his treatment of the insurance contract in Islamic law (part I), Bälz stresses the point that his goal is to lay down the foundational basis of subsequent evolutions, mainly in Egyptian law. Insurance was a new practice in Mediterranean commerce, without an equivalent in Islamic fiqh, and one of the main problems with the insurance contract in Islamic law is related with the prohibition of usury and speculation. Scholars like Ibn `Abidin (d. 1836) found intermediate solutions, stemming from the idea of the necessary compromises that must be achieved when dealing outside the realm of Islam. During the colonial period, the insurance contract took on another dimension, as part of the economic ordering program of the colonizer. This period witnessed a blossoming of fatawa on the issue of life insurance. After the 1952 revolution in Egypt, insurance companies were nationalized. Meanwhile, a new civil code was promulgated that overtly aimed at ‘Egyptianizing’ French law. At the same time, Muslim jurists began considering the possibility of formulating the question of insurance as a form of methodically organized cooperative allocation (ta`awun). The second part addresses the Egyptian law of insurance (the Code being promulgated in 1948) and draws some comparisons with the Syrian (1949), Iraqi (1951), Libyan (1954), Somali (1973), and Kuwaiti (1980) Civil Codes, all of which were created along the lines of the Egyptian one. The author quickly reviews the process of national codifications, focuses on the codification of the insurance contract, and then proceeds to the study of the concept of insurance contract and its sources, drawing from the definition of insurance given by Article 747 of the Egyptian Civil Code. Although he does not enter into extensive discussions of individual cases, Bälz scrutinizes case law in the footnotes and tries to integrate current contractual practice. The third part deals with the Jordanian Civil Code (1978) and its influence on the Codes of Sudan (1984), the United Arab Emirates (1985), and Yemen (1992). These codes constitute attempts at better implementing Islamic law. Therefore, they slightly diverge from the Egyptian model. Bälz examines in some detail the practice of this era to introduce provisions into the constitutions and to draft new codes along allegedly more Islamic lines. So as to Islamize the law of the insurance contract, lawyers made it a cooperative contract that creates a corporation between the placer and the insurer (sharikat al-mudaraba). The author proceeds to study the fundamental elements of this type of contract in Jordanian law, stressing the fact that it draws its more casuistic style from the old Ottoman Majalla. Bälz briefly mentions the situation in states that were not influenced by the Egyptian Civil Code, that is, Tunisia, Morocco, Mauritania, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia, and Oman. Saudi Arabia receives more attention, since it combines a strong Islamic commitment to legal practices coming from all the legal traditions. His contribution to the field of Islamic law is most valuable. Beyond the boundaries of comparative law, his book also emphasizes how European (in particular French) legal scholarship has informed the thinking of jurists (like Sanhuri) and transformed Islamic jurisprudence. It is aimed at lawyers, not socio-legal scholars, and people interested in law and society and in systemic theory should refer to the many articles that Bälz has contributed to various scholarly journals and books. Baudouin Dupret Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS) Modernity and the Millennium: The Genesis of the Baha’i Faith in the Nineteenth–Century Middle East, by Juan R. I. Cole. 264 pages, notes, bibliography, index, maps, illustrations. New York, NY: Columbia University Press, 1998. $20.50 (Paper) ISBN 0 231 11081 2 Navigating scholarly studies of Baha’i history can be particularly tricky given the wide spectrum of interpretations earnest, apologetic works from the faithful, or barbed critiques by Christians and Muslims that are available to students of religion. General reference works tend to categorize Baha’u’llah as an eschatologically-obsessed Iranian preacher who simply appropriated the most appealing tenets of the surrounding major religions. With Cole’s Modernity and the Millenium we are presented with a fresh perspective which seeks to reposition nineteenth-century Baha’ism as a millenary-cum-modernity movement. Working primarily with sociological models by Alain Touraine and Anthony Giddens, Cole examines how Baha’u’llah’s teachings satisfied five key features of modernity: distancing of religion from the state, development of representational government, awareness of the nation-state, appreciation for a sense of national identity, and concerns for issues of gender. Cole’s designation of his methodology as microhistorical (p. 14) is problematic given that microhistory was originally designed as a response to the French Annales school by Italian scholars Carlo Ginzburg and Edoardo Grendi to discover the ‘lost peoples’ of Europe (heretics, rebels, criminals) and was primarily done by extrapolating information from inquisitions, judicial inquiries, and civic proceedings. What follows in Cole’s next five chapters seems more of a biographical approach that happens to work with the prolific writings of Baha’u’llah and his son, `Abdu ̉l-Baha. Having said this, Cole executes his subsequent arguments with painstaking research and admirable style. His chapter on Baha’u’llah’s contribution to the Ottoman constitutional trends of the 1860s (Baha’u’llah had been exiled to Ottoman Turkey by the Iranian Qajars) convincingly demonstrates the movement’s commitment to expressing elements of political democracy with apocryphal imagery. Key to this is the author’s interpretation of how Baha’u’llah understood hurriyyah (liberty) in writings such as Surat al-muluk and Kitab-i aqdas. Moreover, Baha’u’llah’s use of mushavarah (consultation) in his arguments against Ottoman and Qajar absolutism suggests an appreciation for representational government which was somewhat unique to the nineteenth‑century Middle East. These assertions by Cole are further concretized in his third chapter on such reforms in Iran where the preacher worked to establish local councils (shuras) to assist in regional governing. In other chapters on religious liberty, conceptions of nation-state, and the role of women in society, we find that early Baha’i teachings were just as concerned with the advent of modernity as they were with The Second Coming. The only significant point of disagreement for myself was Cole’s idea (pp. 113-14) that Baha’u’llah’s abolition of jihad could be paralleled with the Mughal emperor Akbar’s promulgation of sulh-i kul (universal peace). This domestic policy was designed by Akbar and Abū al-Fazl to mollify the Hindu majority and had little to do with a desire to promote peace in the Indian subcontinent. If anything, Akbar proved himself to be an ardent military campaigner who was astute enough to avoid problems with his Rajput nobility by simply not using orthodox terms like jihad, dar al-harb, and dar al-islam. On the whole, however, Modernity and the Millenium is an invaluable contribution which shows how early Baha’ism took innovative steps in its politico-religious struggle against Qajar absolutism and orthodox `Usuln Shi`ism. Colin Paul Mitchell University of Toronto Naqshbandis in Western and Central Asia: Change and Continuity, edited by Elisabeth Özdalga. (Transactions Vol. 9) 187 pages, figures, appendix. Istanbul: Swedish Research Institute in Istanbul, distributed by Curzon Press (Richmond, UK, 1999). £17.99 (Paper) ISBN 0-7007-1127-3 The Naqshbandiyya, a leading Sufi mystical order (tariqa) in the Muslim world, traces its origins to Sheikh Baha' al-Din Naqshband (d. 1389) in Bukhara, Khorasan. During the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries the order became a worldwide organization, spreading to diverse cultural and geographical regions throughout Central Asia, the Middle East, and into China and India. Naqshbandis contains twelve papers presented at a conference entitled “Patterns of Transformation among the Naqshbandis in Middle East and Central Asia,” held at the Swedish Research Institute in Istanbul, 9-11 June 1997. Özdalga’s introductory remarks characterize recent culture change. Hamid Algar documents Naqshbandi roles in building and maintaining international socioreligious networks and emphasizes the teachings and legacy of Sheikh Nidai of Kashghar (d. 1760). In “The Khafi, Jahri Controversy in Central Asia Revisited,” Isenbike Togan reviews forms of performing the vocal versus the preferred silent dhikr, noting diachronic and regional distinctions. Jo-Ann Gross examines the waqf (foundation) of Sheikh Khoja Ahrar (d. 1490) in Samarqand and its reorganization after the Russian conquest of Central Asia in the 1860s. “A Note on ‘Rashahat-i `Ain al-Hayat’” by Butros Abu-Manneh is a hagiographic review of Khoja Ahrar through the writings of his disciple Kashifi, and its translations into Ottoman Turkish and Arabic. Ilber Ortayli’s contribution on the “Sublime-Porte” considers how Naqshbandi leaders and lodges received special privileges in the Ottoman state. In “Post-Soviet Hagiography and the Reconstruction of the Naqshbandi Tradition in Contemporary Uzbekistan,” Vernon Schubel assesses the post-Soviet Union independence period and the reconstruction of a non-radical, non-fanatical religious tradition in the new nation. Three subsequent chapters deal with the Naqshbandiyya outside of Central Asia. For Kurdish Iraq Ferhad Shakely’s discourse on the heritage of Khaliddiyya-Mujaddidiyya details a century of cultural and political relations among Sufi orders. Leif Stenberg examines contemporary Naqshbandis in Damascus and their responses to modern science and an expanding market economy. With “The Naqshbandiyya of Afghanistan on the Eve of the 1978 Coup d’Etat,” Bo Utas documents the Afghan branch that existed prior to the political events and civil wars that effectively destroyed much of the socioeconomic fabric of that nation. The final three chapters focus upon modern Turkey. Hakan Yavuz examines the economic, political, and intellectual life of Naqshbandi groups in the twentieth century, while Fulya Atacan characterizes Sheikh Osman Hulusi Ateş (1914-90). Lastly, Korkut Özal’s insightful “Twenty Years with Mehmed Zahid Kotku [1897-1980]: A Personal Story” documents aspects of that sheikh’s influence. These extremely specialized contributions focus on religious and cultural change in the twentieth century or are biographical accounts of sheikhs. The essays are well edited and provide only glimpses of a little-studied religious order that has significant political and economic influence locally and nationally in the Middle East and Central Asia. Charles C. Kolb National Endowment for the Humanities Revival and Reform in Islam: A Study of Islamic Fundamentalism, by Fazlur Rahman, edited by Ebrahim Moosa. 226 pages, index, bibliography. Oxford, UK: Oneworld Publications, 2000. $27.95 (Paper) ISBN 1-85168-204-X We owe this edition of an unfinished draft by Rahman to Ebrahim Moosa, who not only took the effort to search for the references, but also contributed a useful biography stretching from Rahman’s Deobandi family background to the reasons for his dismissal from the directorship of the Islamic Research Institute in Karachi and his exile in the US, and he introduces the reader to the central topics of Rahman’s thought. The leitmotiv of Revival and Reform in Islam is that the doctrine of irja’, understood as moral indifference, became the central element of Islamic thought and social life after it had been developed under the Umayyads to counter Khariji attacks on their legitimacy. Rahman himself stresses his indebtedness to the research done by van Ess on this subject. This unbiased attitude towards Western scholarship positively detaches Rahman from the bulk of contemporary Muslim authors and postmodern critics of ‘Orientalism.’ The following two chapters repeat themes that are already found in Rahman’s earlier writings, especially Islam and Islamic Methodology in History. Rahman traces the moral indifference of which he accuses the dominant trends in Muslim intellectual history, Ash`arism and Sufism, back to the irja’ doctrine. In the realm of politics irja’ led, according to him, to a lenient attitude towards despotism. Rahman’s criticism of Ibn `Arabi is devastating. In his teachings, Rahman discovers moral relativism encouraging passivity. Due to his popularity among poets, Ibn ‘Arabi’s teachings became a pervasive element in Islamic culture. In this book Rahman takes a more balanced stance on al-Ghazali. Nevertheless, he judges al-Ghazali’s attempts to reform Islamic theology and law as deficient because he puts individual ethics at the center, not the improvement of society according to the Qur’anic kerygma. The one annoying characteristic of Rahman’s earlier writings was his strong anti-Shī`ī bias. In this book, his criticism of Shī‘ism is less pronounced. Rahman even acknowledges that Shī`ī thinkers stress man’s responsibility for his acts due to the influence of Mu`tazilism and Avicennian philosophy. Chapter four contains a positive appraisal of Ibn Taymiyya. According to Rahman he did not depart from ira’'-based theological doctrines. Nevertheless, he did manage to do away with its practical consequences by unmasking determinism as a tautology. Therefore, the belief in God’s will remains an article of faith but it can no longer excuse sinful acts. The last chapter is devoted to “Indian Reformist Thought,” by Ahmad Sirhind and Shah Wala Allah, and is unconnected with the dominant irja’ theme of the book. Here the stress is laid on Wali Allah’s political theory, which Rahman unmasks as authoritarian, undemocratic and un-Qur’anic, with reference to a translation of central passages from his “Hujjat al-Islām al-baligha.” His criticism is well founded and counters widespread prejudice. Revival and Reform in Islam contains the last version of Rahman’s reformist agenda, and is not an original scholarly contribution. Therefore, its main audience is those interested in Islamic modernism. Rahman’s central thesis that the problems of the Islamic world can be traced back to a single theological doctrine seems, however, exaggerated and doubtful. Martin Riexinger Albert-Ludwigs Universität, Freiburg im Breisgau, Germany Islam and Conflict Resolution: Theories and Practices, by Ralph H. Salmi, Cesar Adib Majul, and George K. Tanham. 221 pages, appendices, notes, bibliography, index. Lanham, MD: University Press of America, 1998. $32.50 (Paper) ISBN 0-7618-1096-X Islam and Conflict Resolution attempts to explain Islam’s approaches, both modern and historical, to resolving conflict. Strategies studied include those employed both within Islam and between Islam and other religions. By ‘conflict,’ the authors mean warfare rather than domestic, legal, or community disputes. In their preface, they state that they intend their work for a Western audience, particularly an American one. They hope to help teach Westerners how to interact with Islam in a positive way. The American view of Islam as adversarial to the Western viewpoint colors their approach. The authors succinctly discuss the origins of Islamic theories of conflict in the Qur’an and in the politics of the classical Muslim era. They also discuss the Prophet Muhammad’s attitude toward conflict as reflected in the Hadiths, showing that war is no more necessary to Islam than it is to Christianity or Judaism. Salmi, Majul, and Tanham give an overview of both classical and modern Islamic jurists, although their treatment of Shi’ism is perfunctory. They focus on how Muslim jurists explain and justify (or condemn) conflict between Muslims and non-Muslims in classical Islam and the modern era. They also explore classical Muslim jurists’ recommended treatment of treaties, spies, diplomats, rebels, hostages, and prisoners of war. Finally, they examine related subjects such as slavery, acceptable acts of war, the status of non-Muslims in Muslim societies, and the ambiguous nature of jihad. Although the authors acknowledge that Western policy regarding Islam is often clouded by religious prejudice, the authors tend to describe Western reactions to Islam in secular, rationalist terms. This is the book’s main flaw. In order to maintain their proposed paradigm of conflict between a religion-dominated Islamic culture and a secular West, the authors gloss over the medieval and early modern periods, during which European culture and morality were also permeated by religion. In the process, the authors ignore formative interactions between Islam and Christianity during the Crusades era, particularly on the Iberian peninsula. These interactions, both positive and negative, still affect current Western relations with Muslims. Another problem is that Islam and Conflict Resolution neglects conflicts and interactions between modern Islam and non-Western cultures (although Appendix two mentions several). Muslim-Christian conflicts in Africa, for example, are completely ignored. The authors do mention conflict between the governments of India and China and those countries’ sizeable Muslim minorities, but do not explore it. Nor do they discuss how the non-European, non-Christian cultures in these two countries (whose combined populations comprise a third of this planet’s population) differ from Western cultures in their interactions with Islam. Overall, this work is a competent introduction to Islamic ideas about conflict for readers with little background in Islam. But, at 221 pages (including appendices and index), it seems too thin for its subject. Readers seeking a deeper examination of the issues raised may leave dissatisfied. Paula Stiles University of St. Andrews Sufis and Anti-Sufis: The Defense, Rethinking and Rejection of Sufism in the Modern World, by Elizabeth Sirriyeh. 188 pages, notes, bibliography, index. Surrey, UK: Curzon Press, 1999. $14.99 (Paper) ISBN 0-7007-1060-4 Elizabeth Sirriyeh’s concise monograph summarizes the effects of Sufi ideas and practices on a selection of influential reformist Muslim thinkers from the Middle East, North Africa, the Indian subcontinent, West Africa, and the North Caucasus from the early eighteenth century until today. Her thesis is that Sufism, for a variety of religious, economic, and political reasons, was, and continues to be, an important element in shaping modern reformist Islamic thought. The book’s six brief and chronologically arranged chapters prove the thesis by making a number of fine points, the most salient of which are as follows. A ubiquitous argument made by Islamic reformists from pre-modern times is that certain forms of Sufism are not found in the teachings of the Koran and hadith and should therefore be rejected in Islam. Whether reformist or not, Muslim thinkers differ over what constitutes proper Sufi teachings and practices. Some praise certain aspects as reflecting legitimate Islamic interpretations while condemning other practices as corrupt accretions. Sirriyeh outlines the influences and teachings of Ibn Taymiya, Ibn Abd al-Wahhab of Saudi Arabia, and the Ahl-i Hadith of India as exponents of this point of view. The nature of anti-Sufi reformism changed after European enlightenment philosophy influenced Muslim education. Suffering from material and political inferiority in the face of colonization, certain western trained Muslims accepted ‘progress’ as an ultimate good, arguing that Islam would have become a truly progressive and ‘rational’ religion were it not for the superstitious notions maintained by Sufis. Hence, using this new anti-Sufi reasoning, reform movements arose, led by such thinkers as Muhammad Abdu, Muhammad Rashid Rida, Hassan al-Banna, and Sayyid Ahmad Khan, some of whom were themselves former Sufi practitioners. Colonization, however, also produced pro-Sufi reformist movements, some of whose founders and thinkers include Shah Wali Allah of Delhi, who lived before British colonization, but whose teachings were taken up later by his Deobandi interpreters in India. Other pro-Sufi reformist figures and movements include Ahmad Reza Khan’s Barelwis in the sub-continent, Ahmad ibn Idris in North Africa and the Middle East, Ahmad at-Tijani in North and West Africa, Usuman dan Fodio of West Africa, and Muhammad Ahmad, the Sudanese Mahdi. Some utilized the ideas of the school of Ibn al-`Arabi (d. 1240) to argue that enlightenment philosophy’s secular goal and its technologically-based notions of progress are logically opposed to the Koranic goal of attaining inherent human perfection through the inward transformation of one’s being. Critics of the volume might find that many of the referenced discussions are not new to the literature; that the book relies heavily upon English secondary sources, which probably determined the areas of investigation; that there are no definitions of the terms ‘Sufi’ or ‘modernist,’ nor discussions on their contested meanings; and that the book’s title is misleading by suggesting that there is a simple Sufi/anti-Sufi dichotomy, with the former today being ‘rejected.’ Interestingly, however, the book does argue that the Sufi/anti-Sufi relationship is complex, and that Sufism today in a number of areas is growing. While no explicit polysemous definition of Sufism is offered, the book does implicitly show its variegated character within the teachings of differing thinkers. Sufis and Anti-Sufis could be offered in a course introducing modern Islamic thought to students of Islam, the Middle East, and religious studies at both the advanced undergraduate and beginning graduate levels. David Buchman Hanover College |
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