Islam,Religous Auth,Modernity

3 Credits · Level: Undergraduate

This course focuses on the role of the ʿulamāʾ as bearers of religious authority, on the ways and institutional settings in which their authority is constructed, perpetuated, and transformed. After studying the historical and social environment of the ʿulamāʾ in the pre-modern period, the course examines in detail the structural and institutional changes and continuities that the age of modernity brought for this group with special attention to the intellectual thought associated with renewal and reform since the 18th century. The focus of the course is the Arab Middle East and Sunni Islam.