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He Olitics of Nowledge in Remodern Islam The Politics of Knowledge in Premodern Islam Islamic Civilization and Muslim Networks Carl W. Ernst and Bruce B. Lawrence, editors he olitics of nowledge in remodern Islam Negotiating Ideology and Religious Inquiry by Omid Safi The University of North Carolina Press Chapel Hill © The University of North Carolina Press All rights reserved Set in Monotype Garamond by Tseng Information Systems, Inc. Manufactured in the United States of America The publication of this book was supported by a subvention from the Colgate University Research Council. The paper in this book meets the guidelines for permanence and durability of the Committee on Production Guidelines for Book Longevity of the Council on Library Resources. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Safi, Omid, – The politics of knowledge in premodern Islam : negotiating ideology and religious inquiry / by Omid Safi. p. cm. — (Islamic civilization and Muslim networks) Includes bibliographical references and index. --- (cloth : alk. paper) --- (pbk. : alk. paper) . Seljuks—History. Islamic Empire—Politics and government. I. Title. II. Islamic civilization & Muslim networks. .'—dc ishq ast dar āsmān parīdan ‘‘Look!Thisislove... to leap towards the heavens.’’ Dedicated to my mother and father, who taught me to leap heavenward, to my wife, who was there waiting for me, to my children, who carried me. This page intentionally left blank Contents Foreword by Carl W. Ernst and Bruce B. Lawrence xi Acknowledgments xiii Transliteration Systems and Chronologies xvii Introduction xxi Chronology of the Great Saljūqs and Abbāsids xxxvii Key Figures and Primary Sources xxxix Chapter One Deconstructing the Great Saljūq Myth Chapter Two The Niẓām’s Realm, the Orderly Realm Chapter Three Saljūq State Apparatuses Chapter Four The Shifting Politics of al-Ghazālī Chapter Five Bargaining with Baraka Chapter Six An Oppositional Sufi: Ayn al-Quḍāt Hamadānī viii Contents Conclusion Appendix: Niẓām al-Mulk’s Descendants in Saljūq Administrations Notes Bibliography Index Map and Illustrations Map of the Saljūq Empire at the death of Malik-Shāh (/) xx .. The tomb of Sultan Ṭughril in Rayy .. The dome of Niẓām al-Mulk .. The dome of Tāj al-Mulk .. Al-Ghazālī’s Naṣīḥat al-Mulūk (Counsel for Kings) .. The shrine of Aḥmad-i Jām .. A page from Majālis al-ushshāq (The Gatherings of Lovers) This page intentionally left blank Foreword The Politics of Knowledge in Premodern Islam: Negotiating Ideolo and Religious Inquiry is the fourth volume to be published in our series, Islamic Civilization and Muslim Networks. Why make Islamic civilization and Muslim networks the theme of a new series? The study of Islam and Muslim societies is often marred by an overly fractured approach that frames Islam as the polar opposite of what ‘‘Western- ers’’ are supposed to represent and advocate. Islam has been objectified as the obverse of the Euro-American societies that self-identify as ‘‘the West.’’ Po- litical and economic trends have reinforced a habit of localizing Islam in the ‘‘volatile’’ Middle Eastern region. Marked as dangerous foreigners, Muslims are also demonized as regressive outsiders who reject modernity.The negative accent in media headlines about Islam creates a common tendency to refer to Islam and Muslims as being somewhere ‘‘over there,’’ in another space and another mind-set from the so-called rational, progressive, democratic West. Ground-level facts tell another story. The social reality of Muslim cul- tures extends beyond the Middle East. It includes South and Southeast Asia, Africa, and China. It also includes the millennial presence of Islam in Europe and the increasingly significant American Muslim community. In different places and eras, it is Islam that has been the pioneer of reason, Muslims who have been the standard-bearers of progress. Muslims remain integral to ‘‘our’’ world; they are inseparable from the issues and conflicts of transregional, pan- optic world history. By itself, the concept of Islamic civilization serves as a useful counter- weight to that of Western civilization, undermining the triumphalist framing of history that was reinforced first by colonial empires and then by the Cold War. Yet when the study of Islamic civilization is combined with that of Mus- lim networks, their very conjunction breaks the mold of both classical Orien- talism and Cold War area studies.The combined rubric allows no discipline to [xi] xii Foreword stand by itself; all disciplines converge to make possible a refashioning of the Muslim past and a reimagining of the Muslim future. Islam escapes the time- less warp of textual norms; the additional perspectives of social sciences and modern technology forge a new hermeneutical strategy that marks ruptures as well as continuities, local influences as well as cosmopolitan accents. The twin goals of the publication series in which this volume of essays appears are () to locate Islam in multiple pasts across several geo-linguistic, sociocultural frontiers, and () to open up a new kind of interaction between humanists and social scientists who engage contemporary Muslim societies. Networking be- tween disciplines and breaking down discredited stereotypes will foster fresh interpretations of Islam that make possible research into uncharted subjects, including discrete regions, issues, and collectivities. Because Muslim networks have been understudied, they have also been undervalued. Our accent is on the value to the study of Islamic civilization of understanding Muslim networks. Muslim networks inform both the span and the function of Islamic civilization, while Islamic civilization provides the frame that makes Muslim networks more than mere ethnic and linguis- tic subgroups of competing political and commercial empires. Through this broad-gauged book series, we propose to explore the dynamic past, but also to imagine an elusive future, both of them marked by Muslim networks. Mus- lim networks are like other networks: they count across time and place be- cause they sustain all the mechanisms—economic and social, religious and political—that characterize civilization. Yet insofar as they are Muslim net- works, they project and illumine the distinctive nature of Islamic civilization. We want to make Muslim networks as visible as they are influential for the shaping and reshaping of Islamic civilization. Carl W. Ernst Bruce B. Lawrence Series editors Acknowledgments After the ten years of research it has taken to bring this project to fruition, these are a few lines that I have looked forward to writing. The last few years of this project have overlapped with the birth of my pre- cious girl, Roya, and my adorable son, Amir. It should not come as a total surprise that many of the metaphors that come to my mind about this project involve the painful yet joyous process of giving birth. This project has benefited from three ‘‘midwives,’’ who have each contrib- uted something unique to its delivery. I am grateful to Dr. Vincent Cornell, who has been for me something that was once thought to be extinct: an every- day mentor. Without his guidance, I would not have been in this field in the first place, nor would I have survived the long and treacherous journey. I am indebted to Dr. Bruce Lawrence, whose brilliant insights have inspired me at every turn. He has challenged me to rise to my full potential, and without that presence this project would have been much more conventional, and far less daring. In Dr. Carl Ernst I have been fortunate to find a gentle scholar of im- peccable scholarship. His close attention to the nuance of texts and theoretical frameworks for the study of religion continues to serve as a model for me. I am also thankful to other scholars from Duke who have provided me with the tools I have needed to complete this project. Rkia Cornell has shown the patience of a saint in training me to read through Arabic Sufi texts. Kathy Ewing has aided me in incorporating anthropological insights. Bill Hart has cured my critical-theory phobia. I have benefited from my association with scholars from a number of other institutions, who have also offered me support. The support of Ahmet Kara- mustafa, Jamal Elias, E. Sara Wolper, Alan Godlas, Shahzad Bashir, Ebra- him Moosa, Frank Lewis, Shahab Ahmed, Anna Gade, Qamar ul-Huda, and Carolyn Fleur-Lobban has allowed me to get through many a dark night. Hamid Algar shared with me his insightful comments on Saljūq intellectual [ xiii ] xiv Acknowledgments and Sufis in ءfigures and opened my eyes to the necessity of situating ulamā their historical context. His close attention to primary sources has motivated me in a way that perhaps is best reflected in the more than one thousand foot- notes in this project. Michael Sells continues to encourage me in believing that it is indeed possible to teach in an intimate liberal arts college (with heavy teaching demands) and still produce meticulous scholarship. His friendship and mentorship are deeply treasured. Nasrollah Pourjavady has reached back through the centuries and re-embodied Aḥmad Ghazālī for me. How I have marveled at his command of Sufi texts and his dhawq. One of the most cherished aspects of my training has been the opportu- nity to share a sense of fellowship with other students in the Islam Studies program at Duke. These friends are more than merely colleagues, they are companions of the heart: Scott Kugle, Zia Inayat Khan, Rick Colby, Rick Collier, Robert Rozehnal, Seemi Ghazi, John Lamoreaux, Kecia Ali, Hugh Talat Halman, and Jamillah Karim. I am grateful to my students over the years. I had the great privilege of teaching at Meredith College and Duke University, before taking my current position as an associate professor of philosophy and religion at Colgate Uni- versity. The opportunity of sharing my ongoing research with them has been perpetually rewarding. Teaching at a liberal arts college allows one the great joy of working closely with students in relationships that transcend the con- ventional professor-student hierarchy.
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