The Premodern Origins of Jihadi-Salafism

For scholars of Islamic law, political theology, Salafism, jihad studies and the history of Sunni thought, this is an indispensable book. Even readers who remain unconvinced by every aspect of its argument will come away with a far deeper appreciation of the complexity of the intellectual traditions that continue to shape contemporary debates. The hallmark of truly important scholarship is not that everyone agrees with it, but that nobody who has read it can continue thinking about the subject in quite the same way. By that standard, The Premodern Origins of Jihadi-Salafism is an outstanding achievement. -- Dylan Evans * CAGE *
Few subjects in contemporary scholarship have generated as much confusion as the intellectual foundations of jihadist movements. The dominant tendency in terrorism studies has been to treat these movements either as products of modern political grievance or as doctrinal aberrations with shallow historical roots. The Premodern Origins of Jihadi-Salafism pushes back against both tendencies with considerable force, and the result is one of the more consequential contributions to the study of Islamic political thought in recent years. Unlike the security studies scholarship of Thomas Hegghammer, Joas Wagemakers, Shiraz Maher, and Daniel Lav, Islam takes a different path altogether, looking for shared jurisprudential ground across the premodern Sunni tradition. In doing so, he traces how concepts such as jihad and Divine Sovereignty are rooted in the intellectual traditions of Muslim jurisprudence, exegesis, and theology, across the Seljuq, Mamluk, Ottoman, and British Indian periods, reflecting a methodological commitment to Islamic intellectual history. -- Ahmed Sahal K P * Politics, Religion & Ideology *
Perhaps the book’s most important intervention is its sustained critique of the liberal secular imagination through which Islam has frequently been interpreted in contemporary scholarship. Rather than reproducing familiar binaries between moderate and extremist Islam, rational and irrational religion, or traditional and radical Muslims, the author reveals the multilayered and internally contested character of Islamic intellectual traditions. This represents an important corrective to the tendency within terrorism studies to reduce the figure of the mujahid to one-dimensional representations of irrational violence. -- Syed Hammaad Mehraj * Small Wars & Insurgencies *
This iconoclastic book mounts a multi-pronged challenge against the field of "jihad studies" - a field that all too often serves to provide scholarly cover for Western imperial adventurism abroad and Islamophobic securitisation at home. This is the rare kind of book that combines rigorous intellectual history with significant potential for positive social impact. As well as critique, it offers a careful historical genealogy for the doctrine of jihad in Islam, as well as its controversial deployment in the context of contemporary coloniality. While the argument may elicit opposition, it cannot and should not be ignored. -- Usaama al-Azami, Hamad Bin Khalifa University