- 14 Dec 2016
MEI Arabia-Asia Cluster: Inventing the Muslim World: Race, Religion and Geopolitics
(This event is organised by MEI’s Arabia-Asia Research Cluster, as part of its quarterly public speakers series.)
Abstract:
Why do so many political leaders and scholars, both Muslim and non-Muslim, assume that the world’s 1.5 billion Muslims constitute a single religio-political entity? How did this belief arise, and why is it so widespread? The intellectual origins of this mistaken notion of global Muslim unity as well as its enduring allure for non-Muslims and Muslims alike can help us better understand some of the most pressing issues related to Muslims, from racial discrimination in the US and Europe to geopolitical chaos in the Middle East.
Conceived as the antithesis of Western Christian civilization, the idea of the Muslim world emerged in the late-nineteenth century, when European empires ruled the majority of Muslims. It was inflected from the start by theories of white supremacy, but Muslims had a hand in shaping the idea as well. Muslim intellectuals played an important role in envisioning and essentializing an idealized pan-Islamic society that refuted claims of Muslims’ racial and civilizational inferiority.
After playing a key role in reshaping the imperial politics of the Ottoman Caliphate, the idea of the Muslim world survived decolonization and the Cold War, and took on new force in conflicts of the late-twentieth century. Standing at the center of both Islamophobic and pan-Islamic ideologies, the idea of the Muslim world continues to hold the global imagination in a grip that will need to be loosened in order to begin a more fruitful discussion about politics in Muslim societies today.
About the Speakers
Cemil Aydin grew up in Turkey and studied at Boğaziçi University, İstanbul University, and the University of Tokyo before receiving his Ph.D. degree in History and Middle Eastern Studies at Harvard University in 2002. He is currently an Associate Professor of global and asian history at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill. Cemil Aydin’s publications include his book on the Politics of Anti-Westernism in Asia (Columbia University Press, 2007), “Regionen und Reiche in der Politischen Geschichte des Langen 19 Jahrhunderts, 1750-1924 (Region and Empire in the Political History of the Long 19th Century” in Geschichte Der Welt, 1750-1870: Wege Zur Modernen Welt (A History of the World, 1750-1870)“ (Beck Publishers, July 2016) pp: 35-253, and The Idea of the Muslim World: A Global Intellectual History (Harvard University Press, Forthcoming 2017 Spring)
