This course examines the relationship between Islam and characteristically modern social and cultural forms in the present and recent past. After outlining main features of an anthropology of Islam, and reviewing the historical contingency of the emergence of these modern forms, we will examine their articulation in Muslim communities, both under European colonialism (e.g. Morocco, Egypt, India) and on the near periphery that was not colonized (e.g. Bosnia, Turkey, Iran). We will pay particular attention to the subtle shifts in the status of institutions, types of knowledge and modes of selfhood in the Muslim world as modern ways of experiencing and organizing time, space, sentiments, and perception came to intimately rework the conditions of possibility for cultural production and rework the politics of self and community. Topics to be addressed include: the emergence and expansion of capitalism; secularism, 'religion' and history; Islamic discursive traditions; power and authority; institutional reform; colonialism; print media and the public sphere; development; human sciences; resistance and liberalism; and human rights. In the process the ethical and political issues surrounding such an inquiry will also be addressed.
