110-416 Islam and Questioning of Modernity

Admission to the postgraduate diploma in Islamic studies, or the postgraduate diploma or combined honours in Arabic, or the postgraduate diploma or fourth year honours in Asian studies.

This subject is a study of Islam's historical experience as a major world religion and a politically dominant force that, with the onslaught of the modern European colonial power, had to come to grips with being vanquished and subdued. This colonial experience brought with it an ambivalent attitude towards modernity within Islam. As a result two major forms of reaction developed: to adopt modernity as the very reason behind the West's conquering power; or to resent and reject modernity as a part of the West which had to be fought. These positions are represented by the Modernist and Neo-Modernist trends, and the Revivalist and Neo-Revivalist trends. This subject explains the background and the substance of these trends, as they revolve around Muslims' questioning of modernity on the one hand, and rediscovering Islam as both an intrinsically modern culture in itself, and as an alternative to a westernising model of modernity.

A 3-hour written examination and written work totalling 1000 words for 3rd year/2000 words for 4th year/masters students, or written work totalling 4000 words for 3rd year/5000 words for 4th year/masters students. Distance education students: One 3-hour written examination (65%) and a research paper of 2000 words (35%). Weekly or fortnightly assignments will be taken into account when finalising the result for the subject, even though they do not form part of the formal assessment. Masters students will be required to do some extra background reading and to present their written work in a more research-oriented mode.

Materials prepared by the institute.