Reading Islam

Fabio Vicini is Senior Researcher in Anthropology at the University of Verona. He specializes in the study of Islam, secularism, and society, with a focus on Turkey and Italy. In the past, he has taught and conducted research at Istanbul 29 Mayis University, the Berlin Graduate School Muslim Cultures and Societies, and TÜBITAK. His work has appeared, among other places, in the British Journal of Middle Eastern Studies, Culture and Religion, and Anthropology & Education Quarterly.

‘For the better part of a century, Turkey has been a major center of intellectual, educational, and ethical reform in modern Islam. In this vividly written and theoretically sophisticated book, Fabio Vicini takes readers through a reading of the two most foundational currents in that reform movement, and shows their deep relevance for education, ethics, and civility in the broader Muslim world. This is a must-read book for all students of Islamic affairs.’Robert W. Hefner, Pardee School of Global Affairs, Boston University ‘Fabio Vicini’s Reading Islam is both methodologically careful and theoretically insightful, reflecting the best qualities of ethnographic writing on the social life of Islam in Turkey. Vicini describes in rich detail the forms of piety and intellectual development encouraged in religious communities active in Turkey. It is certainly refreshing to read an analysis of religious practice that takes seriously the practitioners’ orientation toward transcendence in developing religious knowledge and ethical reasoning.’Kim Shiveley, Kutztown University‘This perceptive study of brotherhood, ethics and self-disciplining in religious communities focused on reading Said Nursi’s Risale-i Nur draws attention to aspects of religious tradition hitherto neglected in studies of Turkish Islam. Vicini’s thoughtful analysis engages critically with a large body of contemporary social theory and provides essential new insight into the interiorizing practices of these communities and Islamic piety in general, offering a sympathetic understanding of Muslim life in modern Turkey.’ Martin van Bruinessen, Comparative Study of Contemporary Muslim Societies, Utrecht University

• AcknowledgmentsNote on Transliteration and Turkish PronunciationIntroduction: Reading Islam in Modern Times1 Reading is Transcending2 Accommodating Modernity3 Thinking Islam4 A Revival of Muslim Civility5 Fieldwork in Two Concealed Communities6 Before and after July 15 7 Outline of the Book 1 Outreaches of Religious Service1 Reading the Risale2 Reforming Society through Educational Service3 From Hizmet to Individual Duty4 Modernity and the Displacement of Islamic Ethics5 The Islamic Revival, Urban Life and Community2 Living the Brotherhood1 Daily Life in the Houses2 Discipline and Prayer3 Time and Prayer4 Living by Example5 Brotherhood between Pedagogy and Authority6 Brotherhood between Civility and Corporate Personality7 Virtues of Mutuality8 Living Sincerity3 Reading, Reflection and the Search for Transcendence1 Appealing to the Imagination2 Iterative Reading3 Reading as Cultural Practice4 Genealogies of Reflection5 Toward a Sufi Cosmology6 Reflecting on Death4 Putting Islam to Work1 Education, the Nation and the Islamic “Ethos”2 Accessing Quality Education3 Modern Times, Docile Methods4 From Jihad to Reforming Society5 Life and Tutoring in the Gülen Housings6 Romanticizing Prophethood7 Learning by Example8 Embodying Responsibility5 Politics of Brotherhood1 “You’ll Be of Service to This Country”2 The Nur Self’s Spaces of Will and Freedom3 The Relativity of the Good: On the Modern Liberal Conception of the Self4 Being an Aware and Responsible Muslim5 On Brotherhood and Moral ReasoningConclusionReferencesIndex