This book explores the development of Islam and the Baha'i faith in the nineteenth century via the examination of two key reformers.

Originally published in 1966, this was the first of Muhammad ‘Abduh’s works to be translated into English. Risālat al Tauhid represents the most popular of his discussion of Islamic thought and belief. ‘Abduh is still quoted and revered as the father of 20th Century Muslim thinking in the Arab world and his mind, here accessible, constituted both courageous and strenuous leadership in his day. All the concerns and claims of successive exponents of duty and meaning of the mosque in the modern world may be sensed in these pages. The world and Islam have moved on since ‘Abduh’s lifetime, but he remains a source for the historian of contemporary movements and a valuable index to the self-awareness of Arab Islam.

Muhammad Abduh (1849-1905) is widely regarded as the founder of Islamic modernism. Egyptian jurist, religious scholar and political activist, he sought to synthesise Western and Islamic cultural values. Arguing that Islam is essentially rational and fluid, Abduh maintained that it had been stifled by the rigid structures implemented in the generations since Muhammad and his immediate followers. In this absorbing biography, Mark Sedgwick examines whether Abduh revived true Islam or instigated its corruption.

Samira Haj conceptualizes Islam through a close reading of two Muslim reformers—Muhammad ibn 'Abdul Wahhab (1703–1787) and Muhammad 'Abduh (1849–1905)—each representative of a distinct trend, chronological as well as philosophical, in modern Islam. Their works are examined primarily through the prism of two conceptual questions: the idea of the modern and the formation of a Muslim subject. Approaching Islam through the works of these two Muslims, she illuminates aspects of Islamic modernity that have been obscured and problematizes assumptions founded on the oppositional dichotomies of modern/traditional, secular/sacred, and liberal/fundamentalist. The book explores the notions of the community-society and the subject's location within it to demonstrate how Muslims in different historical contexts responded differently to theological and practical questions. This knowledge will help us better understand the conflicts currently unfolding in parts of the Arab world.

"These essays by Charles Adams, a sympathetic American academic, examine Islamic reformism in Egypt through the work of 'Abduh (1849-1905), revealing the influences that moulded his thought and tracing his transformation from someone who was "buried in mystic visions" to a leading champion of Islamic reform. This work serves as an intellectual biography of a man whose thought and legacy had a profound impact on subsequent Islamic thought and political movements, even those who ostensibly reject much of what he stood for." -- BOOK JACKET.

Provides a detailed reconstruction of the heated debates between Salafis and Traditionalist over the contested role of Islamic scholarly authority.

How to approach the complex intellectual legacy of a modern Muslim thinker like Muhammad 'Abduh (1849-1905)? This book offers an answer to this question by providing a new complete intellectual biography of him. It delineates 'Abduh's formation as a reformer and activist and embeds his varied intellectual contributions in a culture of ambiguity which has marked the intellectual life of Muslim societies throughout their history. By using new sources – in particular his early mystical, philosophical and political writings – and including recent academic contributions on him, the book explores 'Abduh's complex intellectual formation, the various religious, philosophical and cultural influences that shaped him, and his changing attitudes towards “Western modernity” and its colonial manifestation in the 19th century. Oliver Scharbrodt challenges the perception in academic scholarship - and among Muslim reformers of the 20th century - that searched for intellectual coherence and biographical consistency in 'Abduh's life. Instead, this book offers a new more comprehensive reading of his intellectual legacy and highlights the variety of approaches and ideas manifest in his contributions.

First Published in 1976 The Reformers of Egypt deals with the views of three major leaders of the Reform School in Egypt - Jamal Al-Din Al-Afghani, Muhammad ’ Abduh and Rashid Ridha. The first was the Socrates of the movement. He wrote little but inspired a great deal. It is difficult to be certain, with regard to the early contributions of ’Abduh, what emanated from Al-Afghani and what’s exclusively ’Abduh’s. The relationship between ’Abduh and Ridha is even more complex, especially when it is realized that Ridha sometimes read into ’Abduh’s thought what was entirely his own. This book is a must read for scholars of Islam, Religion and Egyptian history.

This is a reprint of the late professor's work on Jamal al-Din al-Afghani (1838-1879) and his well-known Egyptian discipline Muhammad 'Abduh (1849-1905), the Mufti of Egypt. These two men have generally been seen as devout Muslims who helped rejuvenate their religion which had been stagnating for many centuries. The author provides evidence which suggests that these two men were involved in Islam's small and silent atheist movement which had a subversive rather than constructive influence on mainstream Islam. He also examines Afghani's and 'Abduh's political activities in Egypt before and during 'Urabi's revolt of 1870 and in the process throws new light on Egypt's politics during this turbulent decade. He argues that Afghani could have been a Russian agent, possibly a French one and probably offered his services to the British.

Does Islam make people violent? Does Islam make people peaceful? In this book, A. Kevin Reinhart demonstrates that such questions are misleading, because they assume that Islam is a monolithic essence and that Muslims are made the way they are by this monolith. He argues that Islam, like all religions, is complex and thus best understood through analogy with language: Islam has dialects, a set of features shared with other versions of Islam. It also has cosmopolitan elites who prescribe how Islam ought to be, even though these experts, depending on where they practice the religion, unconsciously reflect their own local dialects. Reinhart defines the distinctive features of Islam and investigates how modernity has created new conditions for the religion. Analyzing the similarities and differences between modern and pre-modern Islam, he clarifies the new and old in the religion as it is lived in the contemporary world.