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ISLAM AND THE EUROPEAN EMPIRES*

  • DAVID MOTADEL (a1)
Abstract
ABSTRACT

This essay surveys literature on the engagement of different European empires, including the French, British, Dutch, Russian, and German, with Islam. While the history of Islam and empire has attracted the attention of scholars for decades, most of their studies have been written primarily as contributions to the historiography of a specific empire or a distinct geographic region and rarely refer to research on other imperial powers, even though the questions and themes raised are remarkably similar. The article brings together these studies, exploring the following topics: Islam and imperial rule and, in particular, the ways in which religious institutions were accommodated and controlled in the colonial state; Islam and anti-imperial resistance; and the relationship between Islam, information, and colonial knowledge. It assesses the dominant themes in the field and points to a number of questions that remain to be studied.

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Corresponding author
Gonville and Caius College, University of Cambridge, Cambridge CB2 1TAdm408@cam.ac.uk
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The author wishes to thank Rachel G. Hoffman, Sujit Sivasundaram, John P. Slight, and the anonymous referees for their comments on earlier versions of this article.

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This list contains references from the content that can be linked to their source. For a full set of references and notes please see the PDF or HTML where available.

Hélène Grandhomme , ‘La politique Musulmane de la France au Sénégal (1936–1964)’, Canadian Journal of African Studies, 38 (2004), pp. 237–78

Robert Launay and Benjamin F. Soares , ‘The formation of an “Islamic Sphere” in French colonial West Africa’, Economy and Society, 28 (1999), pp. 497519

Gregory Mann and Baz Lecocq , ‘Between empire, Umma, and the Muslim third world: the French Union and African pilgrims to Mecca, 1946–1958’, Comparative Studies of South Asia, Africa and the Middle East, 27 (2007), pp. 167–81

C. N. Ubah , ‘Colonial administration and the spread of Islam in Northern Nigeria’, Muslim World, 81 (1991), pp. 133–48

Andrew E. Barnes , ‘“Religious insults”: Christian critiques of Islam and the government in colonial Northern Nigeria’, Journal of Religion in Africa, 34 (2004), pp. 6281

Auwalu Hamsxu Yadudu , ‘Colonialism and the transformation of the substance and form of Islamic law in the Northern states of Nigeria’, Journal of Law and Religion, 9 (1991), pp. 1747

Jonathan Reynolds , ‘Good and bad Muslims: Islam and indirect rule in Northern Nigeria’, International Journal of African Historical Studies, 34 (2001), pp. 601–18

Michael B. Miller , ‘Pilgrims’ progress: the business of the hajj’, Past and Present, 191 (2006), pp. 189228

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A. S. Morrison , Russian rule in Samarkand, 1868–1910: a comparison with British India (Oxford, 2008), esp. pp. 5187

John Fisher , ‘British responses to Mahdist and other unrest in North and West Africa, 1919–1930’, Australian Journal of Politics and History, 52 (2006), pp. 347–61

Muhammad S. Umar , ‘Muslims’ eschatological discourses on colonialism in Northern Nigeria’, Journal of the American Academy of Religion, 67 (1999), pp. 5984

Fanny Colonna , ‘Cultural resistance and religious legitimacy in colonial Algeria’, Economy and Society, 3 (1974), pp. 233–52

Alexander Knysh , ‘Sufism as an explanatory paradigm: the issue of the motivations of Sufi resistance movements in Western and Russian scholarship’, Die Welt des Islams, 42 (2002), pp. 139–73

Michael Francis Laffan , Islamic nationhood and colonial Indonesia: the umma below the winds (London and New York, NY, 2003)

Nikki R. Keddie , ‘Pan-Islam as proto-nationalism’, Journal of Modern History, 41 (1969), pp. 1728

Dwight E. Lee , ‘The origins of pan-Islamism’, American Historical Review, 47 (1942), pp. 278–87

Albert Christiaan Niemeijer , The Khilafat movement in India, 1919–1924 (The Hague, 1972)

Umar Ryad , Islamic reformism and Christianity: a critical reading of the works of Muḥammad Rashīd Riḍā and his associates (1898–1935) (Leiden, 2009)

Jide Osuntokun , ‘Nigerias's colonial government and the Islamic insurgency in French West Africa, 1914–1918’, Cahiers d'Études Africaines, 15 (1975), pp. 8593

Holger Weiss , ‘Variations in the colonial representation of Islam and Muslims in Northern Ghana, Ca. 1900–1930’, Journal of Muslim Minority Affairs, 25 (2005), pp. 7395

Alex Padamsee , Representations of Indian Muslims in British colonial discourse (New York, NY, 2005)

Katherine Watt , ‘Thomas Walker Arnold and the re-evaluation of Islam, 1864–1930’, Modern Asian Studies, 36 (2002), pp. 198

Harry J. Benda , ‘Christian Snouck Hurgronje and the foundation of Dutch Islamic policy in Indonesia’, Journal of Modern History, 30 (1958), pp. 338–47

Ulrike Freitag , ‘Der Orientalist und der Mufti: Kulturkontakt im Mekka des 19. Jahrhunderts’, Die Welt des Islams, 43 (2003), pp. 3760

Per Hassing , ‘Islam at the German Colonial Congresses’, Muslim World, 67 (1977), pp. 165–74

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The Historical Journal
  • ISSN: 0018-246X
  • EISSN: 1469-5103
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