turning to ijtihad (individual legal reasoning) for
the interpretation of Islam’s legal requirements and
prohibitions. Such developments not only helped
Muslims adapt to the rapid changes their societies
were undergoing, but they also helped defend them
from Christian missionaries and foreign governors
who wanted to convert and rule them.
None of these developments escaped notice of
the Europeans. A new branch of knowledge about
Middle Eastern and Islamicate societies called ori-
entalism was born in the colonial era. It involved
the study of the languages, institutions, history, and
religions of colonized subjects in order to under-
stand them and govern them more effectively. In
India, the British studied Muslim and Hindu laws
in order to codify them and use them to help
administer the country. The French collected
extensive information about Sufi brotherhoods in
North Africa in order to identify resistance lead-
ers and enlist cooperation of religious authorities.
Likewise, the Dutch monitored the flow of Indo-
nesian pilgrims to and from Mecca, suspecting
they were involved in anticolonial movements.
The scientific study of the Middle East and Islam,
however, was not only for the pragmatic purpose
of colonial governance. It also was driven by a
curiosity about the origins of Western civilization.
Gaining knowledge about the Orient was a way for
Europeans to create knowledge about themselves
and, aided by theories of race and civilizational
progress, to represent themselves as better and as
more advanced than non-Europeans.
The golden age of European colonialism was
brought to an end in 1945 by World War II,
which had devastated the populations of Europe
and loosened the hold of the colonial powers over
African, Asian, and Middle Eastern peoples. Nev-
ertheless, colonialism has left a profound imprint
on the world and on Muslims, one that is still very
much in evidence in the early 21st century. Many
Muslims today consider themselves to be citizens
of nation-states that were created in the 20th
century, and the boundary lines that define these
countries were drawn by the colonial powers or
by native elites to whom they delivered the reigns
of government. Moreover, many of the major
conflicts that have shaken the world since 1945
have roots in the colonial era: the arab-israeli
conFlicts, wars between India and Pakistan, and
the gUlF Wars involving Iraq and Iran. It is also
widely recognized that the currents of religious
radicalism, reform, and revival present in Muslim
societies today were born during that era. Today
the economic life and security of many of the
former colonized regions remain dependent upon
Europe and the United States as well as multina-
tional corporations. Some historians and political
scientists have therefore coined the term neocolo-
nialism to describe the new system of global and
international relations that emerged during the
cold war (post-1945). The invasion of Iraq by
the United States and Britain in 2003 is but one
example of this new form of international power
relations, and it has already demonstrated an
impact on political Islam and the ways Muslims
understand and practice their religion.
See also aFghani, Jamal al-din al-; ahmad
khan, sayyid; christianity and islam; civil soci-
ety; deoband; edUcation; islamism; politics and
islam; reneWal and reForm movements; Wah-
habism.Further reading: Albert Hourani, A History of the Arab
Peoples (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press,
1991); Rashid Khalidi, Resurrecting Empire: Western
Footprints and America’s Perilous Path in the Middle East
(Boston: Beacon Press, 2004); Charles Kurzman, et al.,
eds. Modernist Islam, circa 1840–1940: A Sourcebook
(New York: Oxford University Press, 2002); Thomas
Metcalf, Ideologies of the Raj (Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press, 1998); Michael Rywkin, ed., Russian
Colonial Expansion to 1917 (London: Mansell Publish-
ing, 1988).comic strips and comic books
Comic strips are a popular art form consisting of a
sequence of framed cartoons that tell a story, usu-K 158 comic strips and comic books