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Olivier Roy is one of the world's leading experts on political Islam. But he is not only a scholar - he is also a traveler. Roy's keen and iconoclastic insights emerge from a lifetime of study combined with intrepid exploration through Afghanistan and Central Asia. In this book-length interview, Roy tells the lively and colorful story of his many adventures and discoveries in a variety of social and political settings and how they have come to shape his understanding of the Islamic world and its complex recent history. In Search of the Lost Orient is a candid, personal account of the experiences that led Roy to challenge his youthful ideas of an untouched, romanticized East and build a new intellectual framework to better understand and cohabit with the religions, politics, and cultures of the East, West, North, and South.
Sommario
Foreword, by Olivier Mongin and Jean-Louis Schlegel
Part I. Preamble1. Hitchhiking from Paris to Kabul: A Look Back at a Departure
Part II. From Louis-le-Grand to Dreux Via Afghanistan2. Louis-le-Grand, the May 1968 Revolution, and Learning Persian
3. Louis-le-Grand, Normale sup¿, and the Crisis of the Humanities
4. Oriental Scents: From Yemen to China
5. Return to the Fold
6. Postcards and American Pool
7. Professor at Dreux: Leftist, Away from Paris, and Happy
8. Out of School
Part III. The Afghan Decade9. Once Again, and for Real, Afghanistan
10. On Foot, on Horseback, and Wearing a Burka in Wartime Afghanistan
11. Blue Helmets and Russian Bombs
12. The Failure of Political Islam
13. War Experience: Prisoners and Bandits
14. Jihad
15. The Afghan Circus
Part IV. The Central Asia Decade16. A Soviet Invitation to Central Asia
17. A Diplomatic Passport
18. The Expert and the Politician
19. Marriage: The Orient Lost and Found
Part V. Cultures and the Universally Human: Toward Holy Ignorance20. The Crisis of Cultures and the Universal
21. What Was Good About Orientalism
22. Against the Secularists¿ Essentialism
23. The Decade 2000¿2010: Where Were You on September 11, 2001?
Part VI. The Importance of a Religious Genealogy24. Portrait of a Young Protestant in the 1950s and ¿60s
25. Can One Think One¿s Own Life?
Epilogue: A Story to End All Stories
Notes
Info autore
Olivier Roy. Translated by C. Jon Delogu. Foreword by Jean-Louis Schlegel and Olivier Mongin
Riassunto
In this book-length interview, Olivier Roy, a leading expert on political Islam, tells the story of how his many adventures and discoveries have shaped his understanding of the Islamic world. In Search of the Lost Orient is both a significant intellectual autobiography and a compelling travelogue.
Relazione
Olivier Roy is one of the most important analysts of political Islam working today, arguably the single most insightful voice in a vast field. In Search of the Lost Orient provides a complete intellectual life story and argues that empirical research and a focus on concrete social practices must be the basis by which Islam and its intersection with politics must be understood. An engagingly written, impressive book that provides a rare and unique view of political Islam and one of its major thinkers. Benjamin Brower, University of Texas at Austin
