Western imaginings : the intellectual contest to define Wahhabism / Rohan Davis.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Davis, Rohan, author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Islamic fundamentalism.

Muḥammad ibn ʻAbd al-Wahhāb, 1703 or 1704-1792.

Muḥammad ibn ʻAbd al-Wahhāb.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (233 pages)

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Cairo ; New York : The American University in Cairo Press, [2018]

Summary:

Wahhabism is often understood as a radical version of Islam responsible for inspiring and motivating Islamic terrorism. In contrast to the existing literature that treats Wahhabism as a historical phenomenon or a monolithic theological ideology, a literature often written by authors keen to promote geopolitical interests or with ideological axes to grind, Western Imaginings: The Intellectual Contest to Define Wahhabism considers Wahhabism as a discursive construct crafted and popularized by a Western intellectual elite. This comprehensive study speaks to how and why Western intellectuals have chosen to represent Wahhabism in specific ways.

Contents:

Introduction

Wahhabism as a contested category

On intellectuals, prejudice, and understanding the social world

Dialectics, ideal types, fuzzy categories, and analyzing language

Spreading the rule of reason: liberal imaginings of Wahhabism

Themata, generative metaphors, and making sense of liberal intellectuals' representations of Wahhabism

Those evil and violent savages: the neoconservative assault on Wahhabism, Saudi Arabia, and the Palestinian struggle for self-determination

Conclusion.

Notes:

Includes index.

Description based on print version record.

Includes bibliographical references.

ISBN:

9781617978777

1617978779

9781617978760

1617978760