مجتمع مسلم

Cambridge Studies in Social Anthropology #32

by Ernest Gellner, أبو بكر أحمد باقادر (ترجمة)

Of all the great world religions, Islam appears to have the most powerful political appeal in the twentieth century. It sustains some severely traditional and conservative regimes, but it is also capable of generating intense revolutionary ardour and of blending with extreme social radicalism. As an agent of political mobilisation, it seems to be overtaking Marxism, arid surpassing all other religions. The present book seeks the roots of this situation in the past. The traditional Muslim society of the arid zone has, in the past, displayed remarkable stability and homogeneity, despite great political fragmentation, and the absence of a centralised religious hierarchy. The book explores the mechanisms which have contributed to this result - a civilisation in which (in the main) weak states co-existed with a strong culture, which had a powerful hold over the populations under its sway. A literate Great Tradition, in the keeping of urban scholars, lived side by side with a more emotive, ecstatic folk tradition, ill tile keeping of holy lineages, religious brotherhoods and freelance saints. One tradition was sustained by the urban trading class and periodically swept the rest of the society in waves of revivalist enthusiasm; the other was based on the multiple functions it performed in rural tribal society and amongst the urban poor. The two traditions were intertwined, yet remained in latent tension which from time to time came to tile surface. The book traces the manner in which the impact of the modern world, acting through colonialism arid industrialisation upset the once stable balance, and helped the erstwhile urban Great Tradition to become the pervasive arid dominant one, culminating in the zealous arid radical Islam which is so prominent now. The argument is both formulated in the abstract and illustrated by a series of case studies and examinations of specific aspects, and critical examinations of rival interpretations.

Genres: Islam, Sociology, Religion, Anthropology, History, Nonfiction, Middle East

433 pages, Unknown Binding

First published January 1, 1981

About the author

Ernest Gellner was a prominent British-Czech philosopher, social anthropologist, and writer on nationalism.

Reviews

[Hafid Harrous · Rating 4 out of 5]

والفكرة الرئيسية أو النظرية التي يتمحور حولها الكتاب تدول حول أن الإسلام يشكل مسودة لنظام اجتماعي لأنه يعبر عن وجود مجموعة من القواعد الأزلية والمنزلة، المستقلة عن إرادة البشر التي تحدد النظام الصحيح للمجتمع، وهي القواعد الموجودة والمحفوظة والمتاحة للجميع وليست في يد طبقة أو هرمية دينية، مما ينفي الحاجة إلى “كنيسة” دون أن يلغي هذا وجود “الفقهاء” في المجتمع. وقد اعتمد غيلنر، كما يقول أحد تلاميذه في مقدمة الطبعة العربية، في منهجه على دراسة المجتمع الإسلامي من خلال الطريقة التي يتم فيها العيش مع الدين أكثر من دراسته من خلال النصوص.
محمد م. الأرناؤوط

[Tom · Rating 3 out of 5]

The first chapter carries most of this book's value: a clear-eyed and insightful sociological analysis of the 'traditional' or 'tribal' society in the Muslim world, especially the Arab world, delivered in an sharp and entertaining style.

Gellner's theoretical approach is informed by local sources, primarily ibn Khaldun; he avoids Orientalist or other Western scholarship except to demonstrate its weakness and unreliability (a la Said). Gellner determines that ibn Khaldun provides the most robust model (as opposed to any borrowed Western models) to describe the social dynamics between tribe and city within Muslim imperial settings; however, Gellner also determines that there are so many exceptions that no model yet proposed thoroughly explains all of 'traditional Muslim society' (still true today), and perhaps there is no such model as there may be no real uniformity.

In later chapters, Gellner compares historical and anthropological approaches, contrasting the findings of specific field studies with understandings drawn from historical sources; he comes down strongly on the side of anthropology/sociology contra history, having demonstrated the latter's tendency to dogmatism.

Stylistically, Gellner is a pleasure to read. He is steady and orderly as he moves through his arguments and analysis, but also allows himself to indulge his whimsy and digress, lobbing criticisms left and right, at both his peers in the capitalist West and at Soviet Marxist sociologists, highlighting their respective ideological blinders and the consequent failures of their analysis.

The book feels dated, and the above-mentioned backgrounded Cold War debate is only one example, and perhaps the most endearing. The information Gellner had access to in 1981 is a little out-of-date in 2024, and it was problematic at the time, though he is an astute reader and thinker and so treads carefully enough to avoid embarrassing himself today.

I enjoyed the first chapter/half, but skimmed the comparative studies thereafter; they seemed of little value to a reader unfamiliar with its specific subject material. Inessential but enjoyable for an informed reader.

[Lee Wenming · Rating 4 out of 5]

a wonderfull discussion

[Serena.. Sery-ously? · Rating 1 out of 5]

Gentile signor Gellner, quando avrà trovato un senso al suo scritto, mi faccia sapere.

Con astio Cordialmente,

Serena