A01=Tamara Sonn
Abd Al Hamid II
Abd Al Rahman Al Kawakibi
Abd Al Raziq
Abd Al Wahhab
Arab nationalism
Arab Unity
Author_Tamara Sonn
Category=JP
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eq_isMigrated=1
eq_isMigrated=2
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eq_non-fiction
eq_society-politics
General Syrian Congress
Hasan Al Banna
Hasan Al Hudaybi
Hasan Al Turabi
Henry III
Hubb Al Watan
Ibn Taymiyya
Innocent III
Islamic political theory
Islamic realism in governance
Islamic traditionalism
Islamic Unity
Islamic universalist dogma
King Faruq
Lutfi Al Sayyid
Muslim Brothers
Muslim World
Mustafa Kamil
National Library
Ottoman empire
Ottoman Empire history
Pope Innocent III
postcolonial state formation
Qur'anic Arabic
Rashid Rida
religious legitimacy
secularism in Middle East
Sultan Selim III
Sykes Picot Agreement
Syrian Nationalism
Western colonialism
Product details
- ISBN 9780367012182
- Weight: 520g
- Dimensions: 147 x 229mm
- Publication Date: 07 Jun 2019
- Publisher: Taylor & Francis Ltd
- Publication City/Country: GB
- Product Form: Hardback
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The struggle for political legitimacy in many Middle Eastern countries today poses a dilemma for ruling elites. In order to maintain authority, leaders often must capitulate to Islamic universalist dogma, which may conflict with their own views of the state as well as threaten the legitimacy of other leaders in the region who are attempting to establish a secular, national basis for government. Tracing the roots of this dilemma in Middle Eastern history and Islamic philosophy, Dr. Sonn compares the contemporary Middle Eastern period to Europe’s “Age of Religious Wars†that preceded the emergence of the Western secular state. She describes how a process similar to the organic development of the secular state in Europe was interrupted in the Middle East by oppressive Western colonialism, which eventually led to the Muslim rejection of nationalism and all things “Western†and to the reassertion of Islam as the sole source of political legitimacy. The author shows how the philosophy of Islamic traditionalism opposes the two fundamentals of stable national political systems—a geographical limitation of authority and an institutionalized process for regular changes in leadership. Dr. Sonn bases her argument on an insightful examination of Middle Eastern history, from the formation and disintegration of the Ottoman Empire in the late nineteenth century to the present, and caps it with a detailed look at a possible solution to the dilemma: the teachings of modern scholars who advocate a new “Islamic realism†incorporating a limited definition of national identity and interests while retaining Islamic social goals.
