What is Jihadi-Salafism and how does it relate to classical Islam? Scholars of Terrorism Studies argue that ‘Jihadism’ and Salafism are derivatives of Wahhabism and lie on the ideological margins of the Islamic tradition. This book challenges this narrative, demonstrating that concepts associated with the terms – including ‘divine sovereignty’, ‘jihad’ and ‘the caliphate’ – are utilised by Salafi Ulama in connection with the following disparate classical Islamic traditions: Shafi ite legal theory during the Mongol invasions; Ottoman and Indian anti-colonial ?anafite thought; Malikite and Shafi ite ‘political jurisprudence’; and the literalism of the Yemeni luminary Mu ammad al-Shawkani (d. 1834).
This is the first book to disaggregate linear histories of Jihadi-Salafism by shifting the focus from Wahhabism to Sunnism, including Maturidite and Ash arite doctrinal schools and the ‘four schools’ of law. Based on archival research and interviews, it examines the thought of diverse Ulama, ranging from ?Abdullah ?Azzam to Abu Mu ammad al-Maqdisi. It highlights their profound commitment to the classical Islamic sciences, as well as their distinct interpretations of historical crises that befell the premodern Umma, ultimately articulating a vision for its future.
Redefines Jihadi-Salafism by uncovering its diverse premodern influences over centuries of Islamic political thought.
Dedication
Acknowledgements
List of Figures
Note on Translation and Transliteration
1. Proposing an Alternative History of Jihadi-Salafism
2. A Brief History of Global Jihad
3. Introducing Salafi Hermeneutics: Questioning the Myth of
Jihadi-Salafism
4. Political Jurisprudence: Theorizing the Early Caliphate (Tenth to
Thirteenth Century)
5. The Convergence of Legal Theory and Exegesis: Shfi-Asharism and the
Condemnation of Secular Rulers
6. The Shara and Secularism: From the Mamlks to Modernity
7. Sultanate and Shara in Ottoman Political Thought: From Mturdite
Exegesis to post-Caliphate Nostalgia (17th-13th/14th-20th c.)
8. Indian Hanafite Origins of Hkimiyya as a Decolonial Alternative
9. Reinventing Legal Theory: The Salafi Revival of Literalism (18th c.) and
Comparative Jurisprudence
Epilogue: Retheorizing Islamic Political Thought in the Twenty-First Century
Bibliography
Index
Jaan S. Islam is an Assistant Professor of Political Science at Boaziçi University, Istanbul. He completed his PhD at the University of Edinburgh as a SGSAH Fellow and worked as a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Oxford. Dr Islams main research interests are comparative political thought, Islamic jurisprudence and decolonial theory. His recent works include Islam and the State in Ibn Taymiyya: Translation and Analysis (Routledge, 2022) and A Jihadi Critique of the Modern State published in Political Theory.
