The Politics of Knowledge in Premodern Islam

This is an excellent book. With a beautiful, exemplary scholarly style, Omid Safi treats the reader to a deep sounding of accounts of the frequently marginalized players and problems of Islamicate intellectual, religious, political, and social history. The welcome news is that we must learn to treat...

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Main Author: Todd Lawson
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: International Institute of Islamic Thought 2007-07-01
Series:American Journal of Islam and Society
Online Access:https://www.ajis.org/index.php/ajiss/article/view/1536
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author Todd Lawson
author_facet Todd Lawson
author_sort Todd Lawson
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description This is an excellent book. With a beautiful, exemplary scholarly style, Omid Safi treats the reader to a deep sounding of accounts of the frequently marginalized players and problems of Islamicate intellectual, religious, political, and social history. The welcome news is that we must learn to treat nothing as marginal in the formation of culture and thought. The audiences and conversations analyzed and interpreted here provide a previously largely unnoticed door to some very serious truths about the rise, formation, and especially the characteristic institutional formations of early and later medieval Islamicate society. While I think the title is a mistake (premodern produces inappropriate expectations), one is equally sympathetic with the author’s avoidance of the “M” word for a number of reasons. One of the most pernicious of these is that medieval frequently functions as a euphemism for Islamic or Islamicate in a milieu still disinclined to appreciate the formative, creative, and enduring genius of this great civilization and the debt that our world so profoundly owes it. Forgive the khutbah, but it seems that this cannot be repeated too often, unfortunately ...
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spelling doaj.art-a09c6f098e28467f8afe9a2a730a66bb2022-12-21T20:04:56ZengInternational Institute of Islamic ThoughtAmerican Journal of Islam and Society2690-37332690-37412007-07-0124310.35632/ajis.v24i3.1536The Politics of Knowledge in Premodern IslamTodd LawsonThis is an excellent book. With a beautiful, exemplary scholarly style, Omid Safi treats the reader to a deep sounding of accounts of the frequently marginalized players and problems of Islamicate intellectual, religious, political, and social history. The welcome news is that we must learn to treat nothing as marginal in the formation of culture and thought. The audiences and conversations analyzed and interpreted here provide a previously largely unnoticed door to some very serious truths about the rise, formation, and especially the characteristic institutional formations of early and later medieval Islamicate society. While I think the title is a mistake (premodern produces inappropriate expectations), one is equally sympathetic with the author’s avoidance of the “M” word for a number of reasons. One of the most pernicious of these is that medieval frequently functions as a euphemism for Islamic or Islamicate in a milieu still disinclined to appreciate the formative, creative, and enduring genius of this great civilization and the debt that our world so profoundly owes it. Forgive the khutbah, but it seems that this cannot be repeated too often, unfortunately ...https://www.ajis.org/index.php/ajiss/article/view/1536
spellingShingle Todd Lawson
The Politics of Knowledge in Premodern Islam
American Journal of Islam and Society
title The Politics of Knowledge in Premodern Islam
title_full The Politics of Knowledge in Premodern Islam
title_fullStr The Politics of Knowledge in Premodern Islam
title_full_unstemmed The Politics of Knowledge in Premodern Islam
title_short The Politics of Knowledge in Premodern Islam
title_sort politics of knowledge in premodern islam
url https://www.ajis.org/index.php/ajiss/article/view/1536
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