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Islamic studies is the academic study ofIslam,[1] which is analogous to related fields such asJewish studies andQuranic studies.[2][3] Islamic studies seeks to understand the past and the potential future of the Islamic world.[4] In this multidisciplinary program,[clarification needed] scholars from diverse areas (history, culture, literature, art) participate and exchange ideas pertaining to the particular field of study.[5]
Generations of scholars in Islamic studies, most of whom studied with Orientalist mentors, helped bridge the gap between Orientalism and Religious studies. The subfield that grew out of this effort is called "Islamic studies."[6] The study of Islam is part of a tradition that started in Western academia on a professional scale about two centuries ago, and has been previously linked to social concern.[7] This academic tradition has not only led to an accumulation of knowledge, even if some of it is almost forgotten or badly neglected, but has also witnessed major changes in interests, questions, methods, aesthetics, and ethics of Islam.[7]
Many academic Islamic studies programs include thehistorical study of Islam,Islamic civilization,history of the Muslim world,historiography,Islamic law,Islamic theology andIslamic philosophy. Specialists in Islamic studies concentrate on the detailed, academic study of texts written inArabic within the fields ofIslamic theology,Islamic law, and theQur'an andHadith along with ancillary disciplines such asTafsir or Qur'an Exegesis. However, they also often apply the methods adapted from several ancillary fields, ranging fromBiblical studies andclassical philology tomodern history,legal history andsociology.
Scholars in the field of Islamic studies are often referred to as "Islamicists" and the discipline traditionally made up the bulk of what used to be calledOriental studies. The transitional generation of Islamicists were betwixt and between an era when Islamic studies were dominated by Orientalism and the post-Orientalist era of post-colonial criticism and critical theory in the social sciences and much of religious studies.[6] In fact, some of the more traditional Western universities still confer degrees in Arabic and Islamic studies under the primary title of "Oriental studies". This is the case, for example, at theUniversity of Oxford, whereclassical Arabic and Islamic studies have been taught since as early as the 16th century, originally as a sub-division ofdivinity. This latter context gave early academic Islamic studies itsBiblical studies character and was also a consequence of the fact that, throughout early-modern Western Europe, the discipline was developed by churchmen whose primary aim had been to refute thetenets of Islam.[8] Today, academic Islamic studies is usually taught and studied alongside or after an extensive study of the Arabic language, with named undergraduate and graduate degrees in Arabic and Islamic studies existing at universities such asGeorgetown University, theUniversity of Exeter,University of Oxford,University of Leeds,SOAS at theUniversity of London,Yale University and several universities in Holland and Germany (notablyLeiden University andTübingen University).
A recentHEFCE report emphasises the increasing, strategic importance for Western governments since9/11 of Islamic studies inhigher education and also provides an international overview of the state of the field.[9] With the events of 11 September 2001, Islam has become the most prominent world religion and occupies center stage in world politics.
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In Islamic Studies, there is a tendency to rely on history (as method and approach) as a reassuring scientific framework. However nowadays, besides recurrent debates within history itself, many scientists look unfavorably at a linear conception of time (Rovelli 2018).[10]
The first attempt to understandIslam as a topic of modern scholarship (as opposed to aChristologicalheresy) was within the context of 19th-century Christian EuropeanOriental studies. Examining and understanding this kind of Islam – a heterogeneous living tradition with some non-discursive elements, which is internally extremely dynamic and multifaceted – is the purview of Islamic studies in the modern world.
In the years 1821 to 1850, theRoyal Asiatic Society in England, theSociété Asiatique in France, theDeutsche Morgenländische Gesellschaft in Germany, and theAmerican Oriental Society in the United States were founded.[11]
In the second half of the 19th century, philological and historical approaches were predominant. Leading in the field were German researchers likeTheodore Nöldeke with hisGeschichte des Qorāns (History of the Quran), andIgnaz Goldziher 's work on hadith (Muslim Studies).[11]
Orientalists andIslamic scholars alike preferred to interpret the history of Islam in a conservative way. They did not question the traditional account of the early time of Islam, ofMuhammad and how theQuran was written.[11]
In the 1970s, theRevisionist School of Islamic Studies questioned the uncritical adherence to traditional Islamic sources and started to develop a new picture of the earliest times of Islam by applying thehistorical-critical method.[12][13]
To understand the history of Islam provides the indispensable basis to understand all aspects of Islam and its culture. Themes of special interest are:
The history of women and gender in Islamic studies experienced a surge of scholarly research during the early 1990's. This wave of scholarship was influenced by the growing presence of politically and religiously active women scholars with Muslim and Arab backgrounds. Additionally, there was a notable increase in the utilization of gender studies methodologies within the traditionally conservative realms of Islamic history and law.
Works such as Leila Ahmed’s Women and Gender in Islam (1992), Fatima Mernissi’s The Veil and the Male Elite (first published in English in 1991, translated from a 1987 French original), and Fedwa Malti-Douglas’s Woman’s Body, Woman’s Word: Gender and Discourse in Arabo-Islamic Writing (1991) surveyed large swathes of Islamic history and thought, suggesting structural connections between gendered religious discourses and the social and political roles and rights of women over time.[7]
The work from this era sparked a significant amount of academic research in that, in the subsequent twenty years, not only expanded and detailed the arguments put forth by these scholars, but also analyzed and improved upon their methodologies. Recent years have seen a shift towards utilizing a broader range of sources and developing more intricate interpretive frameworks, some of which have even challenged the idea of a uniform Islamic gender discourse. Following the impactful comprehensive syntheses of the early 1990's, more in-depth and context-specific studies have delved into social customs, religious beliefs, and the interplay between the two.
Sufism (تصوفtaṣawwuf) is amystictradition of Islam based on the pursuit of spiritual truth as it is gradually revealed to the heart and mind of the Sufi (one who practices Sufism).According to Renard (2021) quoted by Green the meaning ofSufism is “a strong method of Muslim’s knowledge and practice bringing proximity to or meditation with God and believed that it came from Prophet Muhammad from generation to generation who followed him” (P.8). The etymological termSuf has mysticism to the educational notion of asceticism. The ascetics and mystics have different and separate roles in each setting, and everyone needs to search the context of a given Sufi’s own time for reasons as to why he/she was known as a Sufi. Sufism is not that, they do not follow the Islam properly it’s just that they spend more time with God. It is an individual way of studying.[15]
It might also be referred to asIslamic mysticism. While other branches of Islam generally focus onexoteric aspects of religion, Sufism is mainly focused on the direct perception oftruth orGod through mystic practices based on divine love. Sufism embodies a number ofcultures, philosophies, central teachings and bodies ofesoteric knowledge.
Kalām emerged as a discipline in response to political disputes among Muslims, and then later in response to the impact of Hellenistic philosophy and the expansion of the Islamic Empire into territories previously dominated and occupied by the Sassanian and Byzantine Empires.[7] Thus, one of the first and persistent questions challenging the Islamic community was the status of a believer who committed grave sins.
The term “Islamic law” would in itself be an example of such a holistic merging of two spheres, conflating a person’s faith with his rights, or even three, if “law” is seen as a natural aspect of state politics that in a modern differentiated system should not be separated from religion, in its institutions and its rules.[7]
Islamic jurisprudence relates to everyday and social issues in the life of Muslims. It is divided in fields like:
Key distinctions include those betweenfiqh,hadith andijtihad.
Islamic studies scholars also deal with the long and rich tradition of philosophy as developed byMuslim philosophers.
It is divided in fields like:
Islamic studies scholars are also active in thehistory andphilosophy of science. Significant progress in science was made in the Muslim world during theMiddle Ages, especially during theIslamic Golden Age, which is considered a major period in the history of science.
Scholars also study the relationship betweenIslam and science, for example in the application ofIslamic ethics to scientific practice.
This field includes the study ofmodern andclassical Arabic and the literature written in those languages. It also often includes other modern, classic or ancient languages of theMiddle East and other areas that are or have been part of, or influenced by, Islamic culture, such asHebrew,Turkish,Persian,Urdu,Azerbaijanian andUzbek.
Islamic architecture is the entire range of architecture that has evolved withinMuslim culture in the course of thehistory of Islam. Hence the term encompasses religious buildings as well as secular ones, historic as well as modern expressions and the production of all places that have come under the varying levels of Islamic influence.
Islamic visualart has, throughout history, been mainly abstract and decorative, portraying geometric, floral,Arabesque, andcalligraphic designs. Unlike the strong tradition of portraying the human figure inChristian art, Islamic art is typically distinguished as not including depictions of human beings.[17] The lack ofportraiture is due to the fact that early Islam forbade the painting of human beings, especiallythe Prophet, as Muslims believe this tempts followers of the Prophet toidolatry.[citation needed] This prohibition against human beings or icons is calledaniconism. Despite such a prohibition, depictions of human beings do occur in Islamic art, such as that of theMughals, demonstrating a strong diversity in popular interpretation over the pre-modern period. Increased contact with theWestern civilization may also have contributed to human depictions in Islamic art in modern times.[citation needed]
Islamiccomparative religion is the study of the relationship between Islam and other religions.
Islamic economics studies howeconomics may be brought in accordance withIslamic law.
One field of study deals with how Islam reacts on the contact with Western modernity.
Figural representation is virtually unused in Islamic art because of Islam's strong antagonism of idolatry. It was important for Muslim scholars and artists to find a style of art that represented the Islamic ideals of unity (tawhid) and order without figural representation
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