Revival and Reform in Islam: The Legacy of Muhammad Al-Shawkani

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Cambridge University Press, 2003 M05 27 - 265 pages
Revival and Reform in Islam is at once an intellectual biography of Muhammad al-Shawkani, and a history of a transitional period in Yemeni history. This was a time when a society dominated by traditional Zaydi Shiism shifted to one characterised instead by Sunni reformism. The author traces the origins and outcomes of this transition, presenting the first systematic account of the ways in which the eighteenth- and nineteenth-century reorientation of the Zaydi madhhab, and consequent 'sunnification' of Yemeni society, were intricately linked to tensions within the political realm. In advocating juridical systematization of religious belief and practice, Shawkani espoused a socio-religious order which in its dominant features echoed key aspects of Western modernity. Yet he did so in a context bereft of Western ideational influence. This study then presents a textured account of eighteenth-century Islamic reformist thought and challenges the meaning of modernity in an Islamic context.
 

Contents

Introduction
1
Charismatic Authority the Qasimi Imamate in the Seventeenth Century
25
Becoming a Dynasty the Qasimi Imamate in the Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries
47
The Absolute Interpreter and Renewer of the Thirteenth Century AH
76
The Triumph of Sunni Traditionism and the ReOrdering of Yemeni Society
109
Clashing with the Zaydis the Question of Cursing the Prophets Companions sabb alsahaba
139
Riots in Sanaa the Response of the Strict Hadawis
165
Shawkanis Legacy
190
Conclusion
230
Bibliography
235
Index
256
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About the author (2003)

Bernard Haykel is Assistant Professor of Middle Eastern Studies and History in the Department of Middle Eastern Studies at New York University.

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