Introduction; Part I. The Classical Legacy: 1. A tale of two visions: Shari'a and Siyasa in early Islam; 2. The political thought of the classical period; 3. Reason and community in the classical period; Part II. The Taymiyyan Intervention: 4. Ibn Taymiyya's world; 5. Defending revelation and liberating reason; 6. Fitra, community, and Islamic politics; 7. Conclusion.
This study reassesses the influence and philosophy of Ibn Taymiyya, one of the greatest medieval Islamic theologians.
Ovamir Anjum holds the Imam Khattab Endowed Chair of Islamic Studies in the Department of Philosophy at the University of Toledo.
"Like all others, Islam’s is a storied tradition. And the manner in
which one generation receives or understands its storied legacy can
engender mutations that seemingly determine the substance and range
of possibilities handed down to posterity. At a time when scholars
of Islamic law are inviting us to close the book on Islam’s
preparedness to meet contemporary political challenges, Ovamir
Anjum brilliantly points the way to an alternative reading of the
intellectual history that allegedly produced this outcome. And in
the course of doing so, his attention to the nexus between law,
theology and political thinking point up the inadequacy of
approaches that overly isolate them. Against the tendency both to
restrict Islam to accepted medieval readings and to separate it
from its own storied metacognitions, Anjum reminds us that Islam
has never known an authority powerful enough to curtail its
perennial attempt to understand and realize its highest calling."
-Sherman A. Jackson, King Faisal Chair of Islamic Thought and
Culture, University of Southern California, author of Islamic Law
and the State: The Constitutional Jurisprudence of Shihâb al-Dîn
al-Qarâfî
"With bold and penetrating insight, Ovamir Anjum completely
reframes our understanding of the great Damascene jurist Ibn
Taymiyya’s views on politics and the caliphate. After thoroughly
documenting the pessimism permeating classical Islamic theology and
political theory, Anjum expounds Ibn Taymiyya’s contrasting
epistemological optimism and shows how this grounds a robust vision
of the Shari‘a that extends far beyond the traditional domains of
the legal scholars and the caliphate to include all the functions
of government and the Muslim community as a whole. This remarkably
wide-ranging study will spur deeper reflection on the function of
political theory in medieval Islam, and it sets the stage for an
entirely new evaluation of how modern Muslim political theorists
have appropriated Taymiyyan thought." -Jon Hoover, Lecturer in
Islamic Studies, The University of Nottingham, author of Ibn
Taymiyya’s Theodicy of Perpetual Optimism
"Finally: a study capturing the complex intersections of
jurisprudence and government in Islam before the early modern
centuries. Anjum’s Politics, Law and Community combines originality
from departure to conclusion with rootedness in primary sources and
mastery of theoretical research tools. An introduction to Islamic
political philosophy surpassing available introductions, this work
takes none of the assumptions of earlier scholarship for granted.
It ushers in a new era in the field, where new studies will be
produced with higher expectations in mind." -Ahmad Atif Ahmad,
Associate Professor of Religious Studies, the University of
California in Santa Barbara, and author of Islam, Modernity,
Violence, and Everyday Life and The Fatigue of the Shari'a
"This book is a much-needed, intellectually rigorous and very
timely revision of the standard literature on Islamic scholars and
power. It demonstrates that alongside the familiar legalistic and
elitist approach of the medieval tradition, there was also a
pragmatic strand of Sunni Islamic thought that envisioned the
community of the believers as the ultimate source of political
authority. In the aftermath of the Arab Spring, this new
interpretation of medieval Islamic political thought opens up new
ways of imagining the future of Islam in public life." -Yossef
Rapoport, Senior Lecturer in History, Queen Mary University of
London, and author of Marriage, Money and Divorce in Medieval
Islamic Society
"Boldly renegotiating our understanding of the complex
intersections of government, law, and religious sentiment in the
pre-modern Muslim world, Ovamir Anjum has produced a remarkable
study which shifts attention away from facile dichotomies by
resituating the very terms of how best to engage with the legacy of
Ibn Taymiyya, a difficult yet critical figure in Islamic legal and
intellectual history. In doing so, the implications of this study
reach far beyond its overt ambit to embrace wider questions
pertaining to how best to understand the ongoing history of such
discourse amongst Muslim thinkers from the medieval period to the
present. An important book." -Erik S. Ohlander, Associate Professor
of Religious Studies, Indiana University-Purdue University Fort
Wayne
"A real tour-de-force that brings to life the Islamic discursive
tradition on politics through an impressive analysis of
theological, literary, jurisprudential and epistemological texts of
the classical period. Using sophisticated theoretical analyses and
by paying close attention to the content and contexts of classical
works, Ovamir Anjum offers new insights into the intertextual
negotiations that led to the religious scholars’ compromises with
political authority. His analysis of Ibn Taymiyya’s works in light
of this tradition not only helps us revise our understanding of the
master critic’s project, but it also helps us situates the novelty
of his vision and proposals within the context of Mamluk society
and politics. His work thus challenges traditional portrayals of
this period as one of “decline”, and furthers our appreciation of
the intellectual vibrancy of this politically chaotic period."
-Nahyan Fancy, Assistant Professor, DePauw University, author of
Science and Religion in Mamluk Egypt (forthcoming)
"Politics, Law, and Community in Islamic Thought is a valuable
contribution to the history of Islamic political experience. It
approaches this rich history as a tradition of conflicting
interpretations and debates that culminates in a fascinating
re-examination of Ibn Taymiyya’s creative response to the politics
and thought of his turbulent time. In this account Ibn Taymiyya
emerges as an original political thinker who restored (and
elaborated on) the central role of the community in theories of
Islamic governance. This book deserves to be widely read not only
by specialists in medieval Islamic history but also by all who are
interested in contemporary Islamic thought." -Talal Asad, Professor
of Anthropology, CUNY Graduate Center
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