The Sociology of Islam
Knowledge, Power and Civility
1. Edition June 2016
342 Pages, Hardcover
Wiley & Sons Ltd
ISBN:
978-1-118-66264-9
John Wiley & Sons
The Sociology of Islam is an interpretive account of Islam as a religion and civilization in world history and global society, which focuses on the notions of knowledge-culture, power and civility to provide key interpretive and analytic tools to practitioners.
* The first substantial introduction to the field of the Sociology of Islam that combines theoretical reflections with historical analysis
* Explores the original civilizational trajectory of Islam and its specific entry point into modernity
* Develops a narrative and analytic thread that makes the 'dual' role of Islam - as a religion and civilization - comprehensible to non-specialists
* Allows Islamic Studies specialists and students to locate the study of Islam in a comparative perspective with the help of simple, yet rigorous conceptual tools drawn from sociology and social theory
* The author is a scholar of both the Sociology of Islam and Comparative Civilizational Analysis and ideally placed to write this text
Preface and Acknowledgments ix
Introduction 1
Knowledge and Power in the Sociology of Islam 1
Knowledge/Charisma vs. Power/Wealth: The Challenge of Religious Movements 18
Civility as the Engine of the Knowledge-Power Equation: Islam and 'Islamdom' 23
PART I Patterns of Civility
1 The Limits of Civil Society and the Path to Civility 43
The Origins of Modern Civil Society 43
Civil Society as a Site of Production of Modern Power 50
Folding Civil Society into a Transversal Notion of Civility 57
2 Brotherhood as a Matrix of Civility: The Islamic Ecumene and Beyond 73
Between Networking, 'Charisma,' and Social Autonomy: The Contours of 'Spiritual' Brotherhoods 73
Beyond Sufism: The Unfolding of the Brotherhood 85
Rewriting Charisma into Brotherhood 92
PART II Islamic Civility in Historical and Comparative Perspective
3 Flexible Institutionalization and the Expansive Civility of the Islamic Ecumene 105
The Steady Expansion of Islamic Patterns of Translocal Civility 105
Authority, Autonomy, and Power Networks: A Grid of Flexible Institutions 114
The Permutable Combinations of Normativity and Civility 118
4 Social Autonomy and Civic Connectedness: The Islamic Ecumene in Comparative Perspective 131
New Patterns of Civic Connectedness Centered on the 'Commoners' 131
Liminality, Charisma, and Social Organization 140
Municipal Autonomy vs. Translocal Connectedness 147
PART III Modern Islamic Articulations of Civility
5 Knowledge and Power: The Civilizing Process before Colonialism 165
From the Mongol Impact to the Early Modern Knowledge-Power Configurations 165
Taming theWarriors into Games of Civility? Violence, Warfare, and Peace 176
The LongWave of PowerDecentralization 189
6 Colonial Blueprints of Order and Civility 201
The Metamorphosis of Civility under Colonialism 201
Court Dynamics and Emerging Elites: The Complexification of the Civilizing Process 218
Class, Gender, and Generation: The Ultimate Testing Grounds of the Educational-Civilizing Project 226
7 Global Civility and Its Islamic Articulations 239
The Dystopian Globalization of Civility 239
Diversifying Civility as the Outcome of Civilizing Processes 251
From Islamic Exceptionalism to a Plural Islamic Perspective 260
Conclusion 271
Overcoming Eurocentric Views: Religion and Civility within Islam/Islamdom 271
The Institutional Mold of Islamic Civility: Contractualism vs. Corporatism? 278
From the Postcolonial Condition toward New Fragile Patterns of Translocal Civility 287
Index 295
Introduction 1
Knowledge and Power in the Sociology of Islam 1
Knowledge/Charisma vs. Power/Wealth: The Challenge of Religious Movements 18
Civility as the Engine of the Knowledge-Power Equation: Islam and 'Islamdom' 23
PART I Patterns of Civility
1 The Limits of Civil Society and the Path to Civility 43
The Origins of Modern Civil Society 43
Civil Society as a Site of Production of Modern Power 50
Folding Civil Society into a Transversal Notion of Civility 57
2 Brotherhood as a Matrix of Civility: The Islamic Ecumene and Beyond 73
Between Networking, 'Charisma,' and Social Autonomy: The Contours of 'Spiritual' Brotherhoods 73
Beyond Sufism: The Unfolding of the Brotherhood 85
Rewriting Charisma into Brotherhood 92
PART II Islamic Civility in Historical and Comparative Perspective
3 Flexible Institutionalization and the Expansive Civility of the Islamic Ecumene 105
The Steady Expansion of Islamic Patterns of Translocal Civility 105
Authority, Autonomy, and Power Networks: A Grid of Flexible Institutions 114
The Permutable Combinations of Normativity and Civility 118
4 Social Autonomy and Civic Connectedness: The Islamic Ecumene in Comparative Perspective 131
New Patterns of Civic Connectedness Centered on the 'Commoners' 131
Liminality, Charisma, and Social Organization 140
Municipal Autonomy vs. Translocal Connectedness 147
PART III Modern Islamic Articulations of Civility
5 Knowledge and Power: The Civilizing Process before Colonialism 165
From the Mongol Impact to the Early Modern Knowledge-Power Configurations 165
Taming theWarriors into Games of Civility? Violence, Warfare, and Peace 176
The LongWave of PowerDecentralization 189
6 Colonial Blueprints of Order and Civility 201
The Metamorphosis of Civility under Colonialism 201
Court Dynamics and Emerging Elites: The Complexification of the Civilizing Process 218
Class, Gender, and Generation: The Ultimate Testing Grounds of the Educational-Civilizing Project 226
7 Global Civility and Its Islamic Articulations 239
The Dystopian Globalization of Civility 239
Diversifying Civility as the Outcome of Civilizing Processes 251
From Islamic Exceptionalism to a Plural Islamic Perspective 260
Conclusion 271
Overcoming Eurocentric Views: Religion and Civility within Islam/Islamdom 271
The Institutional Mold of Islamic Civility: Contractualism vs. Corporatism? 278
From the Postcolonial Condition toward New Fragile Patterns of Translocal Civility 287
Index 295
Sociologists of religion have long been awaiting a successor volume to Brian Turner 's pathbreaking but now dated Weber and Islam (1974). Armando Salvatore's new book provides just this update and much more. Ranging across a host of critical case studies and theoretical issues, Salvatore provides a masterful account of religious ethics, rationalization, and civility across the breadth of the Muslim world, from early times to today. The result is a book of deep intellectual insight, important, not just for the sociology of Islam, but for scholars and students interested in religion, ethics, and modernity in all civilizational traditions.
Robert Hefner, Boston University
The sociology of Islam has been a late and controversial addition to the sociology of religion. This field of research has been the principal target of the critique of Orientalism and after 9/11 the study of Islam became heavily politicized. Terrorist attacks in Paris and Beirut have only compounded the long-standing difficulties of objective interpretation and understanding. In the first volume of what promises to be a major three volume masterpiece, Armando Salvatore steers a careful and judicious course through the various pitfalls that attend the field. The result is an academic triumph combining a sweeping historical vision of Islam with an analytical framework that is structured by the theme of knowledge-power. One waits with huge excitement for the delivery of the remaining volumes.
Bryan Turner, City University of New York
A brilliant, pioneering effort to explain the cosmopolitan ethos within Islamicate civilization, The Sociology of Islam encompasses all the terminological boldness of Marshal Hodgson, making the Persianate and Islamicate elements of civic cosmopolitanism, across the vast Afro-Eurasian ecumene, accessible to the widest possible readership in both the humanities and the social sciences.
Bruce B. Lawrence, author of Who is Allah? (2015)
Robert Hefner, Boston University
The sociology of Islam has been a late and controversial addition to the sociology of religion. This field of research has been the principal target of the critique of Orientalism and after 9/11 the study of Islam became heavily politicized. Terrorist attacks in Paris and Beirut have only compounded the long-standing difficulties of objective interpretation and understanding. In the first volume of what promises to be a major three volume masterpiece, Armando Salvatore steers a careful and judicious course through the various pitfalls that attend the field. The result is an academic triumph combining a sweeping historical vision of Islam with an analytical framework that is structured by the theme of knowledge-power. One waits with huge excitement for the delivery of the remaining volumes.
Bryan Turner, City University of New York
A brilliant, pioneering effort to explain the cosmopolitan ethos within Islamicate civilization, The Sociology of Islam encompasses all the terminological boldness of Marshal Hodgson, making the Persianate and Islamicate elements of civic cosmopolitanism, across the vast Afro-Eurasian ecumene, accessible to the widest possible readership in both the humanities and the social sciences.
Bruce B. Lawrence, author of Who is Allah? (2015)
Armando Salvatore is Professor of Global Religious Studies and Keenan Chair of Interfaith Studies at McGill University. His most recent publications are Rethinking the Public Sphere Through Transnationalizing Processes (edited with Oliver Schmidtke and Hans-Jörg Trenz, 2013), Islam and Modernity: Key Issues and Debates (edited with Muhammad Khalid Masud and Martin van Bruinessen, 2009), The Public Sphere: Liberal Modernity, Catholicism, Islam (2007, pb 2010), Islam in Process: Historical and Civilizational Perspectives (edited with Johann P. Arnason and Georg Stauth, 2006), and Religion, Social Practice, and Contested Hegemonies (edited with Mark LeVine, 2005).