The Collapse and Resurgence of the Muslim Ummah
InshaAllah, this summer, I’ll be trying my best to chug out some essays on a variety of topics. I’ve decided to give the highest priority to the topic of Islamic revivalism. However, one cannot discuss this topic without the backdrop of the collapse of Muslim polities and colonization. Therefore, this summer, I’m going to try to first write an essay on the history of the colonization of the Muslim world.
This is a very tricky essay since:
- different parts of the Muslim world were colonized at different times
- colonization itself went through a variety of changes;
- the revivalist movements predated colonization, yet reached their peak during colonization
- even after colonization ended after the formal independence of Muslim colonies, economic dependency, political coercion, and military interventions have marred the relationship between Western and Muslim nations leading to the conclusion that hegemony still existed
If anyone has any suggestions on how to structure the paper, by all means, please do so.
Also, any source material will be welcomed as well.
Here’s what I have so far:
“Europe: A Historyâ€
“The Modern Mind†by Peter Watson
“The Dogs of God” byi James Reston
“The Colonizer and the Colonized†by Albert Memmi
“The Wretched of the Earth†by Frantz Fanon
Works of Maryam Jameelah
“On Imperialism” by Hannah Arendt
“The Ottoman Centuries” by Lord Kinross
“A History of Islamic Societies” by Ira Lapidus
“A Peace to End All Peace” by David Fromkin
Published April 8, 2007 . Filed under: Uncategorized
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Salam ya basha,
What a lofty goal you’ve set for yourself! Your topic is more of a dissertation/life’s work kind of affair, heh. I suggest you narrow your scope or, alternatively, aim for a very simple primer (which itself might run up to 60 pgs or so).
To that end, I’d recommend skimming “Following Muhammed” by Carl Ernst; it has a lot of info pertinent to your topic, such as the fact that at one point in time 90% of all Muslims were living under the yoke of colonial rule.
I’m not sure if you wanted to touch upon the issue of nationalism at all, which is especially relevent to the final phase of colonialism, but I have a lot of good sources in that regard.
Yalla, keep up the good work :)
-Youssef
April 9, 2007 @ 3:46 pm
AA-
I’m assuming that you feel the need to analyze the colonial period of Muslim history in order to deduce where things went wrong (ie. disintegration of khilafa). However, I would venture to go much further back…all the way to the Umayyad period. Has someone studied the question of why the Sunni scholars (including great Sahabah) so willingly accepted the monarchical rule (in the guise of the khilafa) for 14 centuries? Why wasn’t there a stronger stand against the pseudo-khilafa’s? I don’t buy the popular reasoning that the ulema did not wish to cause political instability and fraction (after all, there existed multiple sultanates/empires simultaneously).
WA-
Naeem
April 10, 2007 @ 3:07 pm
Support Norm Finkelstein.
http://normanfinkelstein.wordpress.com/
April 12, 2007 @ 1:28 pm
youssef is right: this essay is going to need some serious focus….or the rest of your life (and in the case of it taking the rest of your life, it will still take some focus). pick a place, any place will do, but pick it and follow it through. qutb and masr would be an option, and has not been done to death in english and gives you someones writings to focus on which is always handy. there is basically one person writing serious studies of qutb in western academia. on the other hand, algeria or british india have a mountain of secondary literature attached to them.
second, you can’t leave sartre’s colonialism and neocolonialism collection off your list. it is such an influential set of essays in (post-)colonial theory.
April 15, 2007 @ 12:03 am
Very interesting…
absurd thought -
God of the Universe says
marry very young girl…
if it makes you HAPPY man
but wait until she is ten
.
April 15, 2007 @ 1:04 am
Youssef,
yeah, its a pretty intense project, but i’m not trying to do all-encompassing work, but merely collect information on colonialism from the perspective of Muslims; so I’m going to need the works of Muslim historians as well as thinkers and their thoughts on colonialism, not to mention a more quantitative analysis of the effects of colonialism in Muslim lands. I’m just going to try and gather some preliminary materials; a primer, for future thinkers to elaborate on.
April 16, 2007 @ 2:00 pm
Naeem
Well, the collapse of the Khalifah is a separate question of the colonization of the Muslim world. I think the colonial period is distinctly marked by the collapse of the three major Muslim polities: the Ottoman, Safavid, and Mughal empires. Its no surprise that colonization also peaked during the decline of these three entities.
April 16, 2007 @ 2:01 pm
lawrence,
thanks, but again, i’m not trying to do anything all that comprehensive, but merely a primer. if you have any sources concerning any regions that you mentioned, by all means, do share! :)
with regards to sartre, i was actually torn because i wasn’t sure if i should mention him or not. in all honesty, when i read colonialism and neo-colonialism, i felt that it was merely a remake of the works of frantz fanon and albert memmi. i dunno, i’ll take a look at his work again and see how to utilize it. thanks for the suggestion
thanks for all the advice guys, keep it up.
:)
April 16, 2007 @ 2:04 pm
JM,
I’m confused. How does the issue of the fall of the Khilafa differ from the colonization of the Muslim world? When the imperial powers came to the muslim world, that basically brought an end to the khilafa, in all but name, no?
Naeem
April 16, 2007 @ 3:03 pm
Naeem
I feel that irrespective of whether the Muslim world would’ve been colonized, the Khalifah would’ve likely collapsed anyway.
After all, all of the major Muslim powers were already in decline on the eve of colonization. Colonization merely expedited the process of termination.
April 16, 2007 @ 6:06 pm
Wow dude, I think you need to study.
Sophister.wordpress.com
May 5, 2007 @ 4:14 pm
Colonialism/Imperialism and the fight of the colonised to free themselves is something that I am deeply passionate about. Everything Fanon and Edward Said wrote will be useful as you work on your project. Also consult Walter Rodney’s “How Europe Underdeveloped Africa”. I know your scope is Muslims under colonialism but you may also want to consider skimming through seminal works by authors such as C.L.R James, Eric Williams, George Lamming, V.S Naipaul and Earl Lovelace among others as what they wrote is applicable to all people living under the yoke of colonialism regardless of their race/religion. With respect to Sartre, if you are using Fanon, his writings become irrelevant. Fanon developed his theories much more while Sartre is a poor imitation of Fanon. I also remember reading that Fanon’s wife disassociated Fanon’s estate from Sartre when Sartre spoke out in favour of Zionist oppression in Palestine.
May Allah
bless you and grant you success in your project.
May 9, 2007 @ 6:17 pm