Islamic Ethos and the Specter of Modernity

Farzin Vahdat is a sociologist working on conditions and notions of modernity and their applications to Iran, Islam and the Muslim world. Vahdat has taught at Tufts, Harvard and Yale Universities, as well as Vassar College.

“Vahdat introduces a broad range of carefully selected source material for English readers to contribute to current debates in the social sciences, specifically the nature and scope of modernizing change, as well as its intellectual and institutional contributions and impediments. This book will be of interest to those studying these issues at a more specific level in the Muslim world, as well as those who work more generally on theoretical debates in comparative politics and democratization.” —Ali Gheissari, University of San Diego

• Introduction; 1. Sir Muhammad Iqbal: The Dialectician of Muslim Authenticity; 2. Sayyid Abul ‘Ala Maududi: A Theorist of Disciplinary Patriarchal State; 3. An Islamic Totality in the Ideology of Sayyid Qutb; 4. Fatima Mernissi: Women, Islam, Modernity and Democracy; 5. Mehdi Haeri Yazdi and the Discourse of Modernity; 6. Postrevolutionary Islamic Modernity in Iran: The Intersubjective Hermeneutics of Mohamad Mojtahed Shabestari; 7. Religious Modernity in Iran: Dilemmas of Islamic Democracy in the Discourse of Mohammad Khatami; 8. Seyyed Hossein Nasr: An Islamic Romantic?; 9. Mohammed Arkoun and the Idea of Liberal Democracy in Muslim Lands; Conclusion; Bibliography; Index