Launch of 'Waning Crescent: the rise and fall of global Islam'

Islam began to lose its meaning as a set of beliefs or practices from the middle of the 19th century. Instead of describing something that Muslims did, Islam came to be seen as an actor in its own right. Initially understood as a civilization, and later in the 20th century as an ideology, Islam became a protagonist in history. It was now capable of willing, wanting, and acting on a global stage. This happened at a time when much of the Muslim world had been absorbed into European empires, with Islam attaining its new role as a global subject by taking the place of traditional Muslim authorities, from kings to clerics and mystics to military men.

Having become an actor in global history, Islam could possess ideals and goals. But by the same token it could also be deprived of them and sink into defeat and irrelevance. Its global agency was therefore fragile and called for the loyalty and sacrifice of Muslims. And this meant that however religious they may have been, Islam itself was deprived of any metaphysical quality, with even its decline seen in profane rather than apocalyptic terms. Islam was therefore capable of casting the agency of traditional Muslim authorities into question without providing much of an alternative to them. But this did allow for the emergence of ordinary Muslims as Islam’s protectors.

Faisal Devji is Beit Professor of Global and Imperial History at the University of Oxford. He is an intellectual historian working on political thought in South Asia and the globalisation of Islam.

For information contact Katy k.pettit@bbk.ac.uk

Facilitated by the Raphael Samuel History Centre