@book{0e68e53049ea48a1be3b27b9a7b98ede,
title = "Another Road to Damascus: An Integrative Approach to 'Abd al-Qadir al-Jaza'iri (1808-1883)",
abstract = "This text challenges existing writing on {\textquoteleft}Abd al-Qādir al-Jazā'irī which divides his life into two juxtaposed phases separated by narratives of conversion: from Francophobia to Francophilia, from militarism to pacifism, from activism to quietism, from Islamism to pluralism, from politics to religion. This work's interdisciplinary approach demonstrates that these narratives cannot be sustained in light of the evidence. Rather, they can be shown to originate in specific historical, cultural, and methodological tendencies within western societies and academies. Drawing on primary materials including archival documents and selections from his own writing, it constructively critiques his reception in the literature while advancing a continuous and contextualised account of his life and ideas. These include the relating of his ethico-religious and jurisprudential concerns to his political decision-making, and a resituating of his mystical writings within a definite moral, epistemological, and political context. By problematising these interpretive issues, this thesis aims at opening new avenues for understanding even as it offers its own solutions. In so doing, this study contributes to discussions on Sufism, political Islam, and east-west relations.",
keywords = "Politics, History, Islam, Sufism, North Africa, Syria, Interdisciplinary analysis, Interculturality, mysticism, Political Islam, Algeria, post-colonial theory, Colonialism, Islamic Studies",
author = "{Woerner - Powell}, Tom",
note = "This text received the British Association for Islamic Studies De Gruyter Prize in the Study of Islam and the Muslim World. It is the inaugural publication in a new series devoted to recipients of this prize. The Prize Committee's reviewers gave the following account of the text: 'The submission is original, highly readable, and goes against the grain of current scholarship. It marries rigorous analysis to important theoretical insights, and makes use of a wide range of sources in several languages. It makes a broad contribution to Islamic Studies, and these aspects of the manuscript should be highlighted in the eventual publication. For instance, this work would benefit other Islamicists as a critique of approaches to modern figures who combine appeals to the modern with indebtedness to classical conventions and structures of thought. This manuscript demonstrates the highest levels of scholarship, based on the following criteria: Originality of Thesis: The subject of this work, the 19th-century North African anti-colonial activist known as `Abd al-Qadir, is broadly familiar to students of the modern Middle East and Islamic thought. That broad familiarity generally incorporates modern European conversion tropes as well as distinctions between `Abd al-Qadir{\textquoteright}s religious and political activities, and between his legal and mystical orientations. The author challenges these elements of standard Orientalist analysis. To our knowledge, the author of this manuscript is the first to do so. Use of Primary and Secondary Sources: The thesis makes excellent use of primary sources, examining all of `Abd al-Qadir{\textquoteright}s available works. It also relies on extensive research in British and French archives. Its secondary bibliography is expansive and well chosen. Of particular merit is the author{\textquoteright}s choice of theoreticians of religion. Persuasiveness of Argument: The argument presented in this work hinges on profound awareness of the distinctions between modern European and classical Islamic hermeneutics. Specifically, it argues that imposition of distinctions between religious and political spheres in 19th-century Islamic thought is anachronistic. It also appropriately and effectively questions the Orientalist elision between mystical and private religiosity. The resulting characterization of `Abd al-Qadir{\textquoteright}s actions as consistent, based on a coherent approach to the Islamic thought that shaped him, is highly persuasive. Style: The manuscript{\textquoteright}s style is clear and precise, unburdened by jargon. It is exceptionally readable. Contribution and Impact: The manuscript{\textquoteright}s presentation of `Abd al-Qadir is a major contribution to studies of anti-colonial and post-colonial Islamic thought. It is a welcome correction to Orientalist portrayals of a conflicted and compromising `Abd al-Qadir. It is also extremely timely. The challenges encountered in `Abd al-Qadir are of a piece with those encountered by contemporary Syrians and Iraqis, inter alia. Readers will be fascinated to find precedents to several aspects of al-Qa`ida and Islamic State ideology in `Abd al-Qadir{\textquoteright}s work. As a result, in addition to illuminating a 19th-century North African activist{\textquoteright}s life, the manuscript sheds light on aspects of today{\textquoteright}s global jihadis. Recommendation: We cannot recall reading a better dissertation. Not only do we recommend it highly for the BRAIS-De Gruyter Prize, we recommend its publication.' ",
year = "2017",
month = apr,
language = "English",
isbn = "978-3-11-049699-4",
publisher = "de Gruyter, Walter GmbH & Co",
address = "Germany",
}