Encyclopedia of Islam

colonialism

  

157  J

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turning to 

ijtihad

 (individual legal reasoning) for 

the interpretation of Islam’s legal requirements and 

prohibitions. Such developments not only helped 

Muslims adapt to the rapid changes their societies 

were undergoing, but they also helped defend them 

from Christian missionaries and foreign governors 

who wanted to convert and rule them.

None of these developments escaped notice of 

the Europeans. A new branch of knowledge about 

Middle Eastern and Islamicate societies called o

ri

-

entalism

 was born in the colonial era. It involved 

the study of the languages, institutions, history, and 

religions of colonized subjects in order to under-

stand them and govern them more effectively. In 

India, the British studied Muslim and Hindu laws 

in order to codify them and use them to help 

administer the country. The French collected 

extensive information about Sufi brotherhoods in 

North Africa in order to identify resistance lead-

ers and enlist cooperation of religious authorities. 

Likewise, the Dutch monitored the flow of Indo-

nesian pilgrims to and from Mecca, suspecting 

they were involved in anticolonial movements. 

The scientific study of the Middle East and Islam, 

however, was not only for the pragmatic purpose 

of colonial governance. It also was driven by a 

curiosity about the origins of Western civilization. 

Gaining knowledge about the Orient was a way for 

Europeans to create knowledge about themselves 

and, aided by theories of race and civilizational 

progress, to represent themselves as better and as 

more advanced than non-Europeans.

The golden age of European colonialism was 

brought to an end in 1945 by World War II, 

which had devastated the populations of Europe 

and loosened the hold of the colonial powers over 

African, Asian, and Middle Eastern peoples. Nev-

ertheless, colonialism has left a profound imprint 

on the world and on Muslims, one that is still very 

much in evidence in the early 21st century. Many 

Muslims today consider themselves to be citizens 

of nation-states that were created in the 20th 

century, and the boundary lines that define these 

countries were drawn by the colonial powers or 

by native elites to whom they delivered the reigns 

of government. Moreover, many of the major 

conflicts that have shaken the world since 1945 

have roots in the colonial era: the a

rab

-i

sraeli

conFlicts

, wars between India and Pakistan, and 

the g

UlF

 

Wars

 involving Iraq and Iran. It is also 

widely recognized that the currents of religious 

radicalism, reform, and revival present in Muslim 

societies today were born during that era. Today 

the economic life and security of many of the 

former colonized regions remain dependent upon 

Europe and the United States as well as multina-

tional corporations. Some historians and political 

scientists have therefore coined the term neocolo-

nialism to describe the new system of global and 

international relations that emerged during the 

cold war (post-1945). The invasion of Iraq by 

the United States and Britain in 2003 is but one 

example of this new form of international power 

relations, and it has already demonstrated an 

impact on political Islam and the ways Muslims 

understand and practice their religion.

See also  a

Fghani

, J

amal

 

al

-d

in

 

al

-;  a

hmad

k

han

,  s

ayyid

;  c

hristianity

 

and

  i

slam

; 

civil

 

soci

-

ety

;  d

eoband

; 

edUcation

;  i

slamism

; 

politics

 

and

i

slam

; 

reneWal

 

and

 

reForm

 

movements

; W

ah

-

habism

.