Political Modernity 85Islam in their articulations towards society and politics. The main divergence
comes with the development of capitalist modernity in North West Europe,
and the processes and events that that entailed, including colonial domination
and its aftermath. Capitalist modernity reached the Ottoman lands within this
context of domination, and the traces of this origin continue to have a promi-
nent presence in their politics and ideologies, as they do in many other parts of
the world.
Summary of chapter
The pre-modern forms of politics in the Middle East were characterised by intra-elite
transactions and contests over resources extracted from the economically active
classes in agriculture, craft and trade. The political action of these classes was
largely confi ned to the support of one elite faction or another, in accordance with
considerations of patronage and advantage. Intensifi cation of fi scal oppression and
the rise of prices of basic foods could lead to riots by subordinate classes, but these
were sporadic and did not lead to any forms of lasting organisation. Religion entered
into these forms of politics in various ways, most prominently in its material aspect.
Many elements in the economy and politics of the pre-modern city were constituted
and dominated by religious institutions and personnel. Another aspect of religion in
pre-modern politics was that it provided a vocabulary of legitimacy and justice, in
terms of which different parties could articulate justifi cations and challenges, with
rhetorical appeals to divine law. Yet another aspect was religious community as a
marker of identity and solidarity when confl icts arose along sectarian lines. Confl icts
and struggles were aimed at replacing one faction, one prince or one dynasty by
another, rather than at the reform or transformation of the political system itself.
By contrast, modernity in politics has involved precisely a conception of such
systemic transformations, specifi ed in terms of political theory and ideology. It has
involved the organisation of activists in ongoing political organisation, mobilising
sectors of the ‘common people’ for political ends. Membership is typically on the
basis of ideological conversion and common interest rather than allegiance to a kin
group or a master patron. These pre-modern forms have, of course, persisted into
modernity in many parts of the world, and exist side by side with political modernity in
various combinations.
Reforms and social transformations of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries saw
the retreat of religious institutions and personnel from many political, social and
cultural spheres, including law and education. New middle and professional classes
with European education and languages assumed elite positions and constituted the
main personnel of the political and cultural fi elds. Social movements and political
parties developed as bearers of modern ideologies of nationalism, left and right, in
which religion may or may not have been assigned a role. Some rulers attempted to
counter the radical potential of this type of constitutional politics from below by appeal
to religion and tradition, calls that found ready responses among the losers of
modernity: some of the religious classes and the poor disadvantaged by the
incorporation into capitalist markets. Much of oppositional politics was nationalist and
directed against Western powers and their clients, which was sometimes expressed in
terms of religious resurgence. This was the birth of modern political Islam, which took
its place alongside secular nationalism, socialism and sometimes fascism, and