Secularism in the Arab world : contexts, ideas and consequences / Aziz al-Azmeh ; [English translation, David Bond].

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

ʻAẓmah, ʻAzīz, author.

Contributor:

Bond, David (Translator), translator.

Series:

In translation, modern Muslim thinkers

In Translation: Modern Muslim Thinkers

Standardized Title:

ʻIlmānīyah min manẓūr mukhtalif. English

Language:

Arabic

English

Subjects (All):

Secularism--Arab countries.

Secularism.

Islam and politics.

Arab countries.

Islam and secularism.

Arab countries--Intellectual life--20th century.

Intellectual life.

Islam and politics--Arab countries--20th century.

Physical Description:

li, 540 pages ; 23 cm.

Place of Publication:

Edinburgh : Edinburgh University Press 2020.

Summary:

This book is a translation of Aziz al-Azmeh's seminal work Al-'Ilmaniya min mandhur mukhtalif that was first published in Beirut in 1992. Both celebrated and criticised for its reflections on Arab secularisation and secularism in the modern history of the Arab World, it is the only study to date to approach its subject as a set of historical changes which affected the regulation of the social, political and cultural order, and which permeated the concrete workings of society, rather than as an ideological discussion framed from the outset by the assumed opposition between Islam and secularism. The author takes a comprehensive analytical perspective to show that an almost imperceptible yet real, multi-faceted and objective secularising process has been underway in the Arab world since the 1850s. The early onset was the result of adapting to systemic novelties introduced at the time and a reaction to the perceived European advance and local retardation. The need for meaningful reform, and the actions taken in order to put in place a new organisation of state and society based on modern organisational and educational criteria, rather than older, religious traditions, stemmed from the perceived weakness of Arab polities and from an internal drive to overcome this situation. The book follows these themes into the close of the 20th century, marked with the rise of Islamism. A preface to the English translation takes a retrospective look at the theme from the vantage point of social, political and intellectual issues of relevance today.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

9781474447461

1474447465

OCLC:

1119870610