Political Quietism in Islam

Saud al-Sarhan (PhD, University of Exeter) is Secretary General at the King Faisal Center for Research and Islamic Studies (KFCRIS) in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. He was previously the Director of Research at KFCRIS. He is also an Honorary Senior Research Fellow in the College of Social Sciences and International Studies at Exeter University, UK, an Associate Fellow at the International Centre for the Study of Radicalisation (ICSR) at King’s College London, and a Distinguished International Affairs Fellow of the National Council on US-Arab Relations, USA.

Saud al-Sarhan has brought together an impressive array of contributors aseditor of this book, which is the first to analyse the history and meaning of politicalquietism in Islamic societies around the globe. Perhaps the most impressive aspectof the work is, indeed, its willingness to admit and impartially examine variationsin the practice and thought of Muslim societies [...] This book feels like the start of a new debate which recognizes quietism in Islam, not as a form of subservience but as political power.

• IntroductionSaud al-Sarhan, The King Faisal Center for Research and Islamic Studies, Saudi Arabia; and Faisal Abullhassan, Johns Hopkins University, USAPart I – The Concept of Political Quietism: Its Problematics and the Islamic Context1 – Making Sense of ‘Political Quietism’—An Analytical InterventionJan-Peter Hartung, University of Göttingen, Germany2 – Expressions of Political Quietism in Islamic HistoryEbrahim Moosa, University of Notre Dame, USA; and Nicholas Roberts, Sewanee: The University of the South, USAPart II – Political Quietism in Classical Islam3 – The Rightly-Guided Caliphs: The Range of Views Preserved in HadithRobert Gleave, University of Exeter, UK; and Christopher Melchert, University of Oxford, UK4 – “Patience in Our Situation Is Better than Sedition”: The Shift to Political Quietism in the Sunni TraditionSaud al-Sarhan, The King Faisal Center for Research and Islamic Studies, Saudi Arabia5 – Quietism and Political Legitimacy in Imami Shi'i Jurisprudence: al-Sharif al-Murtada’s Treatise on the Legality of Working for the Government Reconsidered Robert Gleave, University of Exeter, UKPart III – Political Quietism in Modern and Contemporary Islamic Thought6 – “I’m Only a Village Farmer and a Dervish’: Between Political Quietism and Spiritual Leadership: Early Modern Shi'i Sufism and the Challenge of ModernityAlessandro Cancian, The Institute of Ismaili Studies, UK7 – Legal Discourses on Hijra in the Caucasus after the Fall of the Caucasus Imamate: Risalat al-sharifa by the Dagestani Scholar 'Abd al-Rahman al-ThughuriMogamed Gizbulaev, Princeton University, USA8 – Constitutionalism as Quietist Strategy: The Case of Tunisia Jeremy Kleidosty, University of Helsinki, Finland9 – “Dropping a Thick Curtain of Forgetting and Disregard”: Modern Shi'i Quietism Beyond PoliticsRainer Brunner, The French National Center for Scientific Research, France10 – Public Piety and the Politics of Preaching Among Female Preachers in RiyadhLaila Makboul, University of Oslo, Norway11 – The Gülen Movement in Azerbaijan: Political Quietism or Taqiyya?Fuad Aliyve, ADA University, Azerbaijan12 – The Neo-Traditionalist Critique of Modernity and the Production of Political QuietismWalaa Quisay, University of Oxford, UK