Islam and World History The Ventures of Marshall Hodgson by Edmund Burke III Robert Mankin

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Islam
and
World History

The Ventures of
Marshall Hodgson

Edited by
Edmund Burke III
and
Robert J. mankin

The University of Chicago Press

Chicago and London

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ISBN-13: 978-0-226-58464-5 (cloth)
ISBN-13: 978-0-226-58478-2 (paper)
ISBN-13: 978-0-226-58481-2 (e-book)
DOI: https://doi.org/10.7208/chicago/9780226584812.001.0001

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Burke, Edmund, 1940– editor. | Mankin, Robert, editor.
Title: Islam and world history : the ventures of Marshall Hodgson /
edited by Edmund Burke III and Robert J. Mankin.
Other titles: Silk roads (Chicago, Ill.)
Description: Chicago ; London : The University of Chicago Press, 2018. |
Series: Silk roads | Includes bibliographical references.
Identifiers: LCCN 2018022270 | ISBN 9780226584645 (cloth : alk. paper) |
ISBN 9780226584782 (pbk. : alk. paper) | ISBN 9780226584812 (e-book)
Subjects: LCSH: Hodgson, Marshall G. S. | Islamic countries—History.
Classification: LCC DS35.63 .I648 2018 | DDC 909/.09767—dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2018022270

♾ This paper meets the requirements of ANSI/NISO Z39.48-1992 (Permanence of Paper).

C o n t e n t s

1. The Ventures of Marshall G. S. Hodgson 1
Edmund Burke III and Robert J. Mankin

2. Islamic History and World History:
The Double Enterprise of Marshall G. S. Hodgson 16
Abdesselam Cheddadi

Hodgson’s Ghosts

3. From Gibbon to Hodgson and Back 25
Robert J. Mankin

4. Hodgson, Islam, and World History in the Modern Age 38
Christopher A. Bayly

Hodgson and the New World History

5. The Invention of World History from the
Spirit of Nonviolent Resistance 55
Michael Geyer

6. Decentering World History:
Marshall Hodgson and the UNESCO Project 82
Katja Naumann

7. Military Patronage and Hodgson’s Genealogy of
State Centralization in Early Modern Eurasia 102
Pamela Kyle Crossley

vi

Hodgson and the New Islamic Studies

8. Harems and Cathedrals: The Question of Gender and
Sexuality in the Work of Marshall Hodgson 117
Jocelyne Dakhlia

9. The Problem of Muslim Universality 145
Faisal Devji

List of Contributors 163

Contents

C h a p t e r O n e

The Ventures of
Marshall G. S. Hodgson

Edmund Burke III and Robert J. Mankin

How far over the curve of the horizon to the

future is it possible to see?

Marshall Hodgson and His Many Legacies
T
o engage with Hodgson’s thought is to apprehend the world of Islam
through different spectacles. When it appeared in 1974, Hodgson’s The
Venture of Islam: Conscience and History in a World Civilization was recognized
as a major achievement.1 For the first time an American historian cast Islam in
a world-historical frame and simultaneously asserted its moral vision. In do-
ing so, Hodgson proposed a radical response to the persistent cultural biases
that had stunted the growth of the Islamic studies field. For him Islam was not
“other”; it was a venture alongside others that marked human efforts to bring
about a just and moral world.
At present, the very idea of Islam as a monotheistic religion with a moral
vision is impossible for most people to imagine. So too is the thought that
the history of Islamic civilization is primarily the history of the Arabs. (In
fact, fully 80 percent of world Muslims do not speak Arabic.) Although many
people are aware that not all Muslims are Sunni, few know that 10–13 percent
are adherents of the Shiʿa branch. Hodgson believed that rather than being of
little consequence, these internal differences played a vital role in shaping how
Islamic civilization unfolded.
This had several consequences for Hodgson. First, to “get Islam right,” it
was necessary to rethink its place in the larger context of human history. Far
from having an autonomous history, Islamic civilization is deeply embedded
in the history of the rest of human society. Second, there would need to be a

2
Edmund BurkE III and roBErt J. mankIn

fundamental rethinking of the concept of civilization. Civilizations for Hodg-
son were not autonomous, culturally defined, and changeless spaces. Rather,
they had had historically complex and often conflicting relationships inter-
nally as well as with their neighbors.
Changing our conception of civilization meant reinventing world history
as well. Hodgson also had to reshape the field of world history. His world
history began with the notion of the interconnectedness of societies in his-
tory and the indivisibility of human experience. From this perspective, the
ascendancy of the West was not predetermined by its alleged moral and tech-
nological superiority, but drew upon the cumulative interaction of humans
across Afro-Eurasia throughout history. Hodgson’s humanistic conscience
and commitment to a nonracialist, nonteleological world history based upon
the brotherhood of all humans provide a powerful argument against episte-
mological nihilists and moral agnostics.
Islam and World History: The Ventures of Marshall Hodgson brings together
essays by American, European, and international scholars concerned with
both the intellectual legacy and the enduring relevance of Hodgson’s vision.
The time is ripe for a Hodgson revival. The world of Islam is vast (1.6 billion
persons) and complex beyond the imaginings of most Americans; Hodgson’s
world-historical vision and moral engagement have never been more relevant.
As the first volume of critical essays on this important world historian and his-
torian of Islam, this collection aims to bring Hodgson’s legacy into the twenty-
first century.
Hodgson differed from most other academics of the 1950s and 1960s in
that his writings were informed by his radical Quaker consciousness. A con-
scientious objector to World War II who was interned by the US government,
Hodgson was profoundly challenged by the war and its aftermath. The politi-
cal and moral desolation of the post–World War II era energized him as it did
few others. A kerygmatic preacher, he sought to forge a humanistic pedagogy
that would change how students/readers thought about cultural others in re-
lation to themselves. The expression of that pedagogy was The Venture of Islam.
The revolutionary cosmopolitanism of Hodgson’s ideas has brought him
the attention of a growing number of readers over the last several decades.
This is because of his exacting intellect, as well as his insistence that we locate
the history of Islam in the context of other world civilizations. In a present
moment dominated by political and moral obtuseness, the breadth of Hodgson’s
historical vision and his commitment to moral clarity speak across the years to
the post-9/11 reader and scholar, whatever her or his specialization.

thE VEnturEs of marshall G. s. hodGson
3

* * * *
When he died in 1968, Hodgson was on the verge of a major career as the author
of an important monograph, a promising start on a third book, and more than
a dozen articles.2 Instead, he is primarily known for his three-volume history of
Islamic civilization, The Venture of Islam: Conscience and History in a World Civi-
lization, an undergraduate textbook. (As a thought experiment, think of another
major scholar whose name is principally associated with a textbook.)
Why does Hodgson continue to have an important claim on our attention?
For convenience’s sake, it makes sense to think of Hodgson’s thought as having
four major aspects. These were Hodgson the orientalist, Hodgson the creator
of Islamic studies, Hodgson the world historian, and Hodgson the preacher
and pedagogue (the kerygmatic Hodgson). Let’s briefly consider each of the
four avatars of Hodgson, before turning to the essays collected in this book.
In this way, we can begin to understand some of the reasons why his work
remains current even at fifty years’ distance.

Hod gson the Or ie nta li st
Hodgson was trained in oriental studies at the University of Chicago in the
late 1940s. The field tended not to attract moral/ethical epigones. Rather,
oriental studies produced philologically trained scholars for whom the text
and the oriental language (Greek, Hebrew, Aramaic, Arabic, etc.) were the fo-
cuses. Not only did Hodgson have acknowledged language expertise, he also
had an unparalleled ability to situate ideas and events in their broader regional
and global contexts.
Hodgson’s first book, The Order of Assassins: The Struggle of the Early Nizârî
Ismâʻîlîs against the Islamic World, displayed an impressive understanding of
the complex currents of eleventh-century Abbasid history. Deeply immersed
in the mystical politics of the Nizari Ismailis, it is a tour de force well-grounded
in the complex political and intellectual worlds of thirteenth-century Shiʿism.
Had Hodgson’s career not been cut short by his untimely death, there is little
doubt that a second monograph, signaled by his article “How Did the Early
Shîʿa Become Sectarian?” would have cemented his reputation as an oriental-
ist scholar. (For more on this see below.)

Hod gson a nd Ne w I sl a m ic Hi story
Instead of another scholarly monograph, however, Hodgson embarked upon
the writing of a textbook. When The Venture of Islam appeared in 1974, it posed
a major challenge to the emergent Islamic field. Unlike his fellow orientalists