Modern Islamic Thought in a Radical Age
Religious Authority and Internal Criticism

Among traditionally educated scholars in the Islamic world there is much disagreement on the crises that afflict modern Muslim societies and how best to deal with them, and the debates have grown more urgent since 9/11. Through an analysis of the work of Muhammad Rashid Rida and Yusuf al-Qaradawi in the Arab Middle East and a number of scholars belonging to the Deobandi orientation in colonial and contemporary South Asia, this book examines some of the most important issues facing the Muslim world since the late nineteenth century. These include the challenges to the binding claims of a long-established scholarly consensus, evolving conceptions of the common good, and discourses on religious education, the legal rights of women, social and economic justice and violence and terrorism. This wide-ranging study by a leading scholar provides the depth and the comparative perspective necessary for an understanding of the ferment that characterizes contemporary Islam.

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'For those seeking to understand debates among Muslim scholars on contemporary political and social issues, I could hardly think of a more profound study than this one. Few scholars have the depth and reach to accomplish what Zaman does here, which is nothing less than a socio-history of modern Islamic thought. [He] returns again and again to the formative debates of the late nineteenth century to discuss a wide range of issues. A tour de force.' John R. Bowen, Dunbar-Van Cleve Professor, Washington University, St Louis, and author of A New Anthropology of Islam

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Product details

• Date Published: December 2012
• format: Paperback
• isbn: 9781107422254
• length: 374 pages

• dimensions: 227 x 151 x 20 mm
• weight: 0.48kg
• contains: 1 map
• availability: Available