Throughout the book, there is a tangible point of reference that informs the whole study: Pakistan’s foundational identity as a would-be cradle of “Islamic modernism.” The latter is a broad category that refers loosely to the kinds of religion held to by a range of Pakistani intellectuals and the governing elite, who have aspired to formulate a form of Islam defined by a particular progressive “ethic” or “spirit” that is responsive to changing conditions. In doing so, he produces a rich intellectual history, focusing upon a range of Muslim thinkers and figureheads who inhabit the religious landscape of Pakistan and situating their formulations of Islam within Pakistan’s evolving social and political topography. Trying to elucidate a subject so broad and complex is a feat so ambitious that no previous author has attempted it, and Zaman tries to make sense of this complex panorama through a series of densely detailed chapters. How can Islam in Pakistan, with its overwhelming heterogeneity, be discussed meaningfully within a single study, if indeed it can be defined as a coherent enquiry at all? These are the questions hinted at by Muhammad Qasim Zaman in the early pages of this encyclopedic work. Reviewed by Justin Jones (University of Oxford)Ĭommissioned by Sumit Guha (The University of Texas at Austin) Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2018.
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