Indo-Muslim Thinkers of the Colonial Age
- Course Code:
- 15PSRC165
- Status:
- Course Withdrawn
- Unit value:
- 1.0
- Year of study:
- Any
The abolition of the Mughal Empire by the British EIC in 1857 created a major gap the in self-understanding of Muslim intellectual elites. In the aftermath, numerous concepts were presented, all designed to overcome what has been perceived as major crisis. At least four of them resulted in the creation of scholarly movements, one of them being the so-called Aligarh-Movement. This movement is credited with a critical analysis of the intellectual foundations of European dominance in order to assess as to what extent Muslim thought could be harmonized with the new Herrschaftswissen. After all, the message of Islam claims universal validity, styling the Muslim community as 'the best of all communities I brought forth among mankind. You enjoin the good and forbid the evil.' (Qurʾān 3:110). If a different system of thought gained dominance, it had to be analysed whether it could be fit into Muslim thought and used for the benefit of the Muslim community, or whether it had to be fought.
Objectives and learning outcomes of the course
At the end of the course a student should be able to:
- Discuss the historical and cultural contexts in which South Asian Muslim intellectual elites engaged in analyses of Modern Western thought.
- Differentiate between different approaches of Muslim intellectual elites to Modern Western thought.
- Evaluate the different degrees of the influence of Modern Western thought on various conceptions of South Asian Muslim intellectual elites.
- Assess the creative handling of Islamic philosophical and theological traditions by South Asian Muslim intellectual elites.
- Analyse critically primary source material in the field of Modern Islamic thought and of Western orientalist writing of the Colonial Age.
- Present orally an introduction and critical discussion of different problems relating to the field to an audience within a given time frame.
- Consolidate skills in academic writing in view of the upcoming MA dissertation.
Workload
2 hours per week: 1 hour - Lecture. 1 hour - Seminars/tutorials.Scope and syllabus
In this course we will, on the basis of secondary as well as translated primary readings, take a closer look on life and work of three major protagonists of this development: Sir Sayyid Aḥmad Khān (1817-1898), Sayyid Amīr ʿAlī (1849-1928) and Muḥammad Iqbāl (1877-1938). According to the typology of Wilfred Cantwell Smith, each one of them represents a particular approach to Modern Western thought, ranging from emphatic rejection to creative synthesis. These three different approaches, however, correspond to a large extent to different phases in the colonial encounter until independence in 1947. Crucial for a thorough understanding would therefore be a comprehension of the wider social, political, and intellectual context, but also a thorough knowledge of Western Orientalist approaches to the Islamic tradition by scholars like William Muir (1819-1905) and Aloys Sprenger (1813-1893) that became explicitly targeted by the three Muslim thinkers. Moreover, the course will provide an understanding of the different reference points in Western and Islamic philosophical and theological thought. Finally, we will have a look at the logical consequences of each of the three approaches, as well as on their social and political relevance.
The course will fit into the MA Religions programme. It will add a Muslim perspective to the intellectual engagement of religious thinkers with Western thought in India during the colonial period. Apart, it will deepen an understanding of the different approaches contemporary Muslim intellectuals have to the challenges of Modernity. As such it will take up a variety of issues already touched upon in the Undergraduate course 'An Introduction to Islam'.
