Islamic Modernism, Nationalism, and Fundamentalism

Episode and Discourse

Browse Return to Previous Page       Related Subjects All Subjects History Islamic studies Middle Eastern History Political Science/Sociology Religious studies

by Mansoor Moaddel

University of Chicago Press

Due/Published May 2005, 424 pages, paper

ISBN 0226533336

The Islamic world has experienced extensive social changes in modern times--the decline of traditional order, the rise of new social classes, the formation of massive bureaucratic and military states, and the incorporation of its economies into the world capitalist structure. Yet despite these changes, a national consensus on even the most important principles of social organization--the form of government, the relationship between religion and politics, the status of women, national identity, and rule making--has yet to emerge. Instead, Islamic countries experienced a sequence of cultural episodes that were characterized by ideological debates, religious disputations, and political conflicts, each ending with a revolution or military coup.
An ambitious comparative historical analysis of ideological production in the Islamic world from the mid-1800s to the present, Mansoor Moaddel's" Islamic Modernism, Nationalism, and Fundamentalism provides a unique perspective for understanding the social conditions of these discourses. Understanding how these discourses were produced is, for Moaddel, the key to understanding Middle Eastern history. Based on this premise, Moaddel unlocks for readers the historical process that started with Islamic modernism and ended with fundamentalism.