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by Mehrzad Boroujerdi (Editor)
In this volume, a group of distinguished scholars reinterpret concepts and canons of Islamic thought in Arab, Persian, South Asian, and Turkish traditions. They demonstrate that there is no unitary "Islamic" position on important issues of statecraft and governance. They recognize that Islam is a discursive site marked by silences, agreements, and animated controversies. Rigorous debates and profound disagreements among Muslim theologians, philosophers, and literati have taken place over such questions as: What is an Islamic state? Was the state ever viewed as an independent political institution in the Islamic tradition of political thought? Is it possible that a religion that places an inordinate emphasis upon the importance of good deeds does not indeed have a vigorous notion of "public interest" or a systematic theory of government? Does Islam provide an edifice, a common idiom, and an ideological mooring for premodern and modern Muslim rulers alike? The nuanced reading of the Islamic traditions provided in this book will help future generations of Muslims contemplate a more humane style of statecraft.
Author Biography
Mehrzad Boroujerdi is Associate Professor of Political Science at Syracuse University's Maxwell School and Director of the Middle East Studies Program. He is the series editor for the Modern Intellectual and Political History of the Middle East series. In addition to more than thirty journal articles and book chapters in English and Persian, he is the author of I Carved, Worshipped and Shattered: Essays on Iranian Identity and Politics (Tehran, 2010) and Iranian Intellectuals and the West: The Tormented Triumph of Nativism (Syracuse University Press, 1996). He is the President-elect of the International Society for Iranian Studies.
