1st Edition
Curating Lived Islam in the Muslim World British Scholars, Sojourners and Sleuths
Beginning with the medieval period, this book collates and reviews first-hand scholarship on Muslims in the Middle East and South Asia, as noted down by eminent British travellers, sleuths and observers of lived Islam.
The book foregrounds the pre-colonial and pre-Orientalist phase and locates the multi-disciplinarity of Britain’s relationship with Muslims over the last millennium to demonstrate a multi-layered interface. Fully sensitive to a gender balance, the book focuses on specially selected individuals and their transformative experiences while living and working among Muslims. Examining the writings of male and female authors including Adelard, Thomas Coryate, Mary Montagu and Fanny Parkes, the book analyses their understanding of Islam. Moreover, the author explores the works of a salient number of representative colonial British women to move away from the imperious wives stereotype and shed light on gender and Islam in Near East and South Asia by illustrating the status of women, tribal hierarchies, historic and architectural sites and regional politics.
Going beyond familiar views about colonialism, travel writings and memsahibs without losing sight of the complex relations between Britain and Asian Muslims, this book will be of interest to academics working on British history, Imperial history, the study of religions, Shi’i Islam, Islamic studies, Gender and the Empire and South Asian Studies.
Beginning with the medieval period, this book collates and reviews first-hand scholarship on Muslims in the Middle East and South Asia, as noted down by eminent British travellers, sleuths and observers of lived Islam.
The book foregrounds the pre-colonial and pre-Orientalist phase and locates the multi-disciplinarity of Britain’s relationship with Muslims over the last millennium to demonstrate a multi-layered interface.
Going beyond familiar views about colonialism, travel writings and memsahibs without losing sight of the complex relations between Britain and Asian Muslims, this book will be of interest to academics working on British history, Imperial history, the study of religions, Shi’i Islam, Islamic studies, Gender and the Empire and South Asian Studies.
Biography
Iftikhar H. Malik is Professor of History in the School of Humanities at Bath Spa University, UK. He is also a fellow of the Royal Historical Society and an MCR at Wolfson College, University of Oxford, UK.
If ever there were a book written to elicit excitement at the Royal Society for Asian Affairs, it is Iftikhar H. Malik’s Curating lived Islam in the Muslim world. The book’s subtitle […] describes many of the Society’s founders, and the names of many past members, lecturers, and contributors to Asian Affairs pepper the pages. […] One of the many pleasures of Curating lived Islam lies in discovering extra ordinary individuals you feel almost guilty for not having known about before. […] Straddling cultures himself, and having travelled extensively in the Muslim world, Malik is well placed to author Curating lived Islam, and his own encounters, observations and experiences enhance the book. -- Sophie Ibbotson, Royal Society for Asian Affairs, Asian Affairs 54.3
