ANR/DFG Workshop,
Ruhr University Bochum, 17-18 May 2018
Venue: Centrum für Religionswissenschaftliche Studien (CERES)
The Prophet and the Modern State
Since the emergence of the early Muslim empires, the image of the Prophet Muḥammad as a successful and divinely guided war leader and statesman became a model inspiring many Muslim communities of different times and regions in their manifold and often rivalling political projects, whether in imamates, caliphates sultanates, or in the different forms of tribal or communal confederation. More recently, the aura of the Prophet was also evoked by them for the establishment of modern nation states with their monopoly of legitimate violence, their political and bureaucratic structure, their legal and economic system, and especially for their ethical and ideological legitimation. Time and again, the Prophetic model has also been instrumental for the self-empowerment of Muslim individuals and communities in their resistance against foreign powers and, later, against their own governments, justifying an opposition that often included militant action and even terrorism. The political dimensions of the claim to Prophetic legitimacy for Muslim statehood in the 20thand 21th century, after the disempowerment of the larger Muslim states and empires and the ensuing experience of European hegemony, still need to be fully worked out within a comparative framework of study. [read more]
PROGRAMME
Thursday, 17 May 2018
9:00-9:30 Welcoming Coffee and Opening of the Workshop
Session I: The Prophet and Political Legitimation
9.30-10.00 Florian Zemmin: The Modern Prophet: Rashīd Riḍā’s Construction of Muhammad as Religious and Social Reformer
10.00-10.30 Renaud Soler: Did Muhammad found a Prophetic State? Egyptian Responses in the Inter-War Period
10.30-11.00 Discussion
11.00-11.15 Coffee Break
11.15-11.45 Alfred Bustanov: Translating Ḥadīth in the Language of Soviet Ideology
11.45-12.15 David Jordan: The Prophet in the Discourse of the Iraqi Baʿth Party, 1943-2003: From Ideal Revolutionary to Intercessor before God
12.15-13.15 Discussion
13.15-14.45 Lunch Break
14.45-15.15 Rachida Chih: Following the Way of Muhammad (al-Minhâj al-nabawī): Prophetic Authority and Politics in Contemporary Morocco
Session II: The Prophet in Public Institutions and Structures
15.15-15.45 Noah Salomon: “The People of Sudan Love you, Oh Messenger of God”: Prophecy and Politics in Pre-Partition Sudan
15.45-16.00 Coffee Break
16.00-16.30 Dilek Sarmis: Place and Function of the Prophetic Figure in Turkish Textbooks and School Education: Between Model and Legitimation
16.30-17.00 Discussion
Friday, 18 May 2018
9.00-9.30 Fritz Schulze: The Prophet Muḥammad: His Symbolic and Political Dimension in Public Ceremonies in Indonesia
9.30-10.00 Jamal Malik: The Prophet, Law, and Constitution in Pakistani Society
10.00-10.30 Discussion
10.30-10.45 Coffee Break
Session III: The Prophet and Social Mobilization and Empowerment
10.45-11.15 Jan-Peter Hartung: Muḥammad, the Warrior – On the Prophetic Image during the Afghan Resistance, 1979-1995
11.15-11.45 Alix Philippon: The Mobilization and Radicalization of the Barelwi Movement in Pakistan
11.45-12.15 Discussion
13.45-14.15 Sana Chavoshian: In the Aura of the Prophet: Dream-Images and Tropes of Connectedness in Iranian Women Pious Circles
14.15-15.45 Rüdiger Lohlker: al-Nabī al-dawlawī: The IS and its Prophet
15.45-16.15 Coffee Break
16.15-17.15 Final Discussion and Conclusion