Preserving Islamic Tradition: Abu Nasr Qursawi and the Beginnings of Modern Reformism Nathan Spannaus

Preserving Islamic Tradition: Abu Nasr Qursawi and the Beginnings of Modern Reformism – Ebook Instant Download/Delivery ISBN(s): 9780190251789,0190251786

Product details:

• ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0190251786
• ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0190251789
• Author: Nathan Spannaus

The end of the eighteenth century was a transformational period for the Muslim communities of the Russian Empire and their relationship with the tsarist state. Though they had been under Russian rule since the sixteenth century, it was at this time that they were incorporated into the imperial bureaucracy, most significantly through the founding of an official hierarchy for the Islamic religious scholars in 1788.

The introduction of a state-backed structure for Muslim religious institutions altered Islamic religious authority and, in turn, religious discourse. One of the major figures to emerge from this new context was Abu Nasr Qursawi (1776-1812). A controversial figure who was condemned for heresy in Bukhara in 1808, Qursawi put forward a sweeping reform of the Islamic scholarly tradition. Focusing on taqlid, the principle of conformity to established doctrine, Qursawi argued that its overuse had weakened scholarship in the areas of Islamic law (fiqh) and theology (kalam) and undermined scholars’ ability to serve as religious guides.

Table contents:

1. Introduction—Historiography of Reform and Tradition

2. An ʿĀlim in the Russian Empire

3. An Epistemological Critique

4. Ijtihād and the Function of Legal Theory

5. The Question of the Divine Attributes

6. Postclassical Kalām

7. Reform Within the Scholarly Tradition

8. Modernity

9. The Transformation of the Religious Environment

10. Conclusion—Separating Qūrṣāwī and Jadidism
Bibliography
Index

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