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This intellectual biography of Muhammad al-Shawkani, one of the founding fathers of modern Islamic reformism, is also a study of an important transitional period in Yemeni history which saw the shift from traditional Shiism to Sunni reformism. The transition propelled political, religious and social change. While Shawkani espoused a socio-religious order which echoed aspects of Western thinking, the book demonstrates that it was indigenous to Islamic thought. Shawkanis ideas remain vital to the intellectual debates happening in Islam today.
List of contents
1. Charismatic authority: the Qasimi Imamate in the seventeenth century; 2. Becoming a dynasty: the Qasimimi Imamate in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries; 3. The absolute interpreter and 'Renewer' of the thirteenth century H; 4. The triumph of Sunni traditionism and the re-ordering of Yemeni society; 5. Clashing with the Zaydis: the question of cursing the Prophet's Companions (sabb al-sahaba); 6. Riots in Sanaa: the response of the strict Hadawis; 7. Shawkani's legacy.
About the author
Bernard Haykel is Assistant Professor of Middle Eastern Studies and History in the Department of Middle Eastern Studies at New York University.
Summary
This book is an intellectual biography of Muhammad al-Shawkani, one of the founding fathers of Islamic reformism, and a history of the transition from traditional Shiism to Sunni reformism in pre-modern Yemen. The book demonstrates how Shawkani's ideas remain of central importance to modern Islamic thinking.
