The Public Sphere in Muslim Societies

by Miriam Hoexter (Editor), Shmuel N. Eisenstadt (Editor), Nehemia Levtzion (Editor)

Overview

Challenging conventional assumptions, the contributors to this interdisciplinary volume argue that premodern Muslim societies had diverse and changing varieties of public spheres, constructed according to premises different from those of Western societies. The public sphere, conceptualized as a separate and autonomous sphere between the official and private, is used to shed new light on familiar topics in Islamic history, such as the role of the shari'a (Islamic religious law), the 'ulama' (Islamic scholars), schools of law, Sufi brotherhoods, the Islamic endowment institution, and the relationship between power and culture, rulers and community, from the ninth to twentieth centuries.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780791488614
Publisher:	State University of New York Press
Publication date:	02/01/2012
Series:	SUNY series in Near Eastern Studies
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	202
File size:	798 KB

About the Author

Miriam Hoexter is Associate Professor of Islamic and Middle Eastern Studies at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and the author of Endowments, Rulers, and Community: Waqf al-Haramayn in Ottoman Algiers. Shmuel N. Eisenstadt is Professor Emeritus of Sociology at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and Senior Fellow at the Van Leer Jerusalem Institute. He has published many books, including most recently, Fundamentalism, Sectarianism, and Revolution: The Jacobin Dimension of Modernity. Nehemia Levtzion is Fuld and Bamberger Professor of History of the Muslim Peoples at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. His most recent book, coedited with Randall L. Pouwels, is The History of Islam in Africa.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments

Note on Transliteration

FOREWORD: THE RELIGIOUS PUBLIC SPHERE IN EARLY MUSLIM SOCIETIES
Dale F. Eickelman

INTRODUCTION
Miriam Hoexter and Nehemia Levtzion

1. THE MIHNA (INQUISITION) AND THE PUBLIC SPHERE
Nimrod Hurvitz

2. RELIGIOUS LEADERSHIP AND ASSOCIATIONS IN THE PUBLIC SPHERE OF SELJUK BAGHDAD
Daphna Ephrat

3. RELIGION IN THE PUBLIC SPHERE: RULERS, SCHOLARS, AND COMMONERS IN SYRIA UNDER ZANGID AND AYYUBID RULE (1150–1260)
Daniella Talmon-Heller

4. THE PUBLIC SPHERE AND CIVIL SOCIETY IN THE OTTOMAN EMPIRE
Haim Gerber

5. THE QADI'S ROLE IN THE ISLAMIZATION OF SEDENTARY TRIBAL SOCIETY
Aharon Layish

6. THE DYNAMICS OF SUFI BROTHERHOODS
Nehemia Levtzion

7. THE WAQF AND THE PUBLIC SPHERE
Miriam Hoexter

8. CONCLUDING REMARKS: PUBLIC SPHERE, CIVIL SOCIETY, AND POLITICAL DYNAMICS IN ISLAMIC SOCIETIES
Shmuel N. Eisenstadt

WORKS CITED

LIST OF CONTRIBUTORS

INDEX

Editorial Reviews

"This book provides a fresh interpretation of well-known Muslim socio-religious institutions, stressing their autonomy from states and the protection they offered to Muslim communities." — Ira M. Lapidus, author of A History of Islamic Societies

"The authors to this volume perform a valuable service, since there have been few, if any, collaborative studies of public sphere and civil society in the field of premodern Muslim/Middle Eastern history." — Michael Bonner, author of Aristocratic Violence and Holy War: Studies in the Jihad and the Arab-Byzantine Frontier

Contributors include Dale F. Eickelman, Shmuel N. Eisenstadt, Daphna Ephrat, Haim Gerber, Miriam Hoexter, Nimrod Hurvitz, Aharon Layish, Nehemia Levtzion, and Daniella Talmon-Heller.

From the Publisher