110-215 Muslim Intellectuals and Modernity

This subject is taught in English. It deals with Muslim intellectuals and their thought in the period 1850-2002, with particular focus on their attempts to come to terms with modernity and to deal with important issues facing Islam in the modern period, including human rights, religious pluralism, interpretation of the Qur'an, reform of Islamic thought and law, gender issues, war and peace. Texts will be selected from the works of intellectuals from a variety of backgrounds and orientations, from traditionalist, modernist, post-modernist, liberal to secular, with a view to demonstrating the diversity of approaches and positions among Muslim thinkers and intellectuals of the period. Selected texts may include, for example, extracts from the works of Abduh, Rida, Banna, Turabi, Mawdudi, Ghanushi, Qutb, Ahmad Khan, Arkoun, Khurshid Ahmad, Soroush, Mernissi, Hanafi, Mariyam Jameelah, Attas, Faruqi, Fazlur Rahman, Asad, Mutahhari, Khomeini, Shariati and Essak.

Written work totalling 4000 words.

Materials provided by the Institute.

• C Kurzman (ed), Liberal Islam: A Source Book. Oxford University Press, 1998.
• J L Esposito & J O Voll, Makers of Contemporary Islam. Oxford University Press, 2001.