86 Islam and Modernity
participated in the new political fi elds in the form of modern social movements,
despite the appeal to the past and tradition.
Questions
- What are the features of political modernity, and what distinguishes it from pre-
modern forms of politics? - Which institutions dominated the economic and political life of pre-modern Muslim
cities, and what forms did political struggles take? - What roles did religion play in pre-modern urban politics? When and how did
changes in these roles occur? - What transformations of political organisation and mobilisation did the advent of
modernity bring? Give a few examples, detailing episodes of the process. - What were the chief features of the Tanzimat reforms in the Ottoman Empire?
- Outline explanations of the Iranian Revolution of 1979.
- Distinguish types of modern Islamic politics in the Middle East.
- Discuss the political aspects of transnational Islam, the militant as well as the non-
militant varieties, in recent times. How can the turn to religion among immigrant
youth in Western Europe be explained?
Notes
- For an account of this hierarchy, see Gibb and Bowen (1957: 122–6) and Faroqhi
et al. (1994: 556–61); an illustration of positions, careers and ‘nepotism’ is
afforded by a biography of Ebussuud, the Shaykh al-Islam of Suleyman, in Imber
(1997). - For an example of awqaf in an Ottoman city and its politics, see Van Leeuwen
(1999); for accounts of awqaf in more recent times, see Bilici (ed.) (1994). - On judicial institutions, see Gibb and Bowen (1957: 123–37), Faroqhi et al. (1994:
556–61) and Zubaida (2003: 60–6). - See the studies in Lifchez (1992); see further Birge (1937: 13–14), Barnes (1986),
Quataert (2000: 161–3) and Zubaida (2003: 104–7). - Najib Mahfuz’s novel Malhamat al-harafi sh (1977) presents a vivid picture of life
and politics in the old urban quarters, illustrating the role of local Sufi orders and
their shaykhs in local politics. - See the classical study of the Mahdiyya by Holt (1970).
- See Makdisi (2000) for an analysis of these events in Lebanon; Fawaz (1994) on
Lebanon and Damascus. - On the politics of Aleppo in the eighteenth century, see Thieck (1985) and Marcus
(1989). - On the economic, legal and administrative transformations in Ottoman lands, see
Mardin (1962), Quataert (1994, 2000), Deringil (1998), Berkes ([1964] 1998) and
Zubaida (2003: 121–57). On Iran, see Algar (1969), Keddie (1981) and Abrahamian
(1982). - The classic work on the Young Ottomans and their milieu is Mardin (1962).
- On Abdulhamid’s reign, see Deringil (1998).
- This is part of the continuing vitality of the bazaars in Iranian cities to the present.
See Abrahamian (1982: 432–3) and Mottahedeh (1985: 345–56). - On the Young Turks, or Committee for Union and Progress, see Ahmad (1969).