The Ulama in Contemporary Islam by Muhammad Qasim Zaman

Muhammad Qasim Zaman's The Ulama in Contemporary Islam: Custodian of Change (2002) and Barbara D Metcalf's Islamic Revival in British India: Deoband, 1860-1900 (2016), both published by the Princeton University Press, are two outstanding studies in this regard.

Against this backdrop, the actions, discourses, and history of the Ulama are well worth looking into. Since the 10th century, the Ulama have been exercising strong authority over religious issues yet they have been accused of failing to respond to modernity and to the changes in society. Introducing previously unexamined facets of religious and political thought in modern Islam, it clarifies the complex processes of religious change unfolding in the contemporary Muslim world and goes a long way toward explaining their vast social and political ramifications.Over the past few years, and particularly after their recent tussle with the government over the statue of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, the Ulama's involvement in politics has come back under scrutiny in Bangladesh. It shows how issues of religious authority are debated in contemporary Islam, how Islamic law and tradition are continuously negotiated in a rapidly changing world, and how the `ulama both react to and shape larger Islamic social trends. This book offers the first sustained comparative perspective on the `ulama and their increasingly crucial religious and political activism. But these discourses are equally shaped by-and contribute in significant ways to-contemporary debates in the Muslim public sphere. Their discourses are informed by a longstanding religious tradition, of which they see themselves as the custodians. He shows how their religious and political discourses have evolved in often unexpected but mutually reinforcing ways to redefine and enlarge the roles the `ulama play in society. While focusing primarily on Pakistan, Zaman takes a broad approach that considers the Taliban and the `ulama of Iran, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, India, and the southern Philippines. In doing so, it provides a new foundation for the comparative study of Islam, politics, and religious change in the contemporary world. Muhammad Qasim Zaman describes the transformations the centuries-old culture and tradition of the `ulama have undergone in the modern era-transformations that underlie the new religious and political activism of these scholars. This book helps account for the increasingly visible public role of traditionally educated Muslim religious scholars (the `ulama) across contemporary Muslim societies.

From the cleric-led Iranian revolution to the rise of the Taliban in Afghanistan, many people have been surprised by what they see as the modern reemergence of an antimodern phenomenon.

The Ulama in Contemporary Islam by Muhammad Qasim Zaman