Co-Edited Special Issues and Book Volumes by Joshua Gedacht
Cosmopolitanism has emerged as a key category in Islamic Studies, defining models of Muslim mobil... more Cosmopolitanism has emerged as a key category in Islamic Studies, defining models of Muslim mobility, pluralism and tolerance that challenge popular perceptions of religious extremism. Such celebrations and valorisations of mobility and trans-regional consciousness, however, tend to conflate border-crossing with opportunity and social diversity with ethical progress. At the same time, they generally disregard the ways in which such forms of cosmopolitanism have been entwined with structures of domination, economic control and violence. Challenging Cosmopolitanism addresses these issues in ways that help to contextualize contemporary issues such as the global refugee crisis in relation to longer histories of Muslim mobility and coercion.
Featuring new historical and ethnographic research on China and Southeast Asia, this book explores how power and violence have shaped the experiences of Sufis and state-builders, as well as refugees and rebels, contributing to a more nuanced understanding of Islamic cosmopolitanism.
Table of Contents:
1 Hijra, Hajj and Muslim Mobilities: Considering Coercion
and Asymmetrical Power Dynamics in Histories of Islamic
Cosmopolitanism
R. Michael Feener and Joshua Gedacht
2 Islamicate Cosmopolitanism from North Africa to Southeast Asia 30
Bruce B. Lawrence
3 Sufi Cosmopolitanism in the Seventeenth-century Indian Ocean:
Sharia, Lineage and Royal Power in Southeast Asia and the
Maldives
A. C. S. Peacock
4 The White Heron Called by the Muezzin: Shrines, Sufis and
Warlords in Early Modern Java
Simon C. Kemper
5 Variations of 'Islamic Military Cosmopolitanism': The Survival
Strategies of Hui Muslims during the Modern Period
Tatsuya Nakanishi
6 Writing Cosmopolitan History in Nineteenth-century China: Li
Huanyi's Words and Deeds of Islamic Exemplars
J. Lilu Chen
7 The 'Shaykh al-Islam of the Philippines' and Coercive
Cosmopolitanism in an Age of Global Empire
Joshua Gedacht
8 Bordering Malaya's 'Benighted Lands': Frontiers of Race and
Colonialism on the Malay Peninsula, 1887-1902
Amrita Malhi
9 Afghanistan's Cosmopolitan Trading Networks: A View From
Yiwu, China
Magnus Marsden and Diana Ibanez-Tirado
Articles and Chapters by Joshua Gedacht
American and Muslim Worlds before 1900, 2020
,
Muslim Piety as Economy Markets, Meaning and Morality in Southeast Asia, edited by Johan Fischer, Jérémy Jammes, 2019
This chapter seeks to examine the understudied transition in the Islamic economy of the colonial ... more This chapter seeks to examine the understudied transition in the Islamic economy of the colonial age from the personalised dynamics of the village or local kingdom to a more abstracted community of the Indonesian umma. It analyses one specific case study: Muhammadiyah membership dues in the Indonesian region of Aceh. The chapter argues that the difficulties experienced by Muhammadiyah in trying to gain dues-paying members in Aceh illustrate that local, often personalised contingencies ultimately conditioned the pursuit of ‘progress’ and the transition to a novel form of Islamic economy. Muhammadiyah, by contrast, appeared to incarnate a transition to a rationalised ‘bourgeois’ capitalist economy where the dictates of a de-personalised market economy took precedence over clients and patrons. Muhammadiyah exhorted pious shop-owners, traders and civil service bureaucrats to both pay membership fees and make zakat donations to serve not just their immediate neighbours in the village, but the much more abstract needs of the wider Indonesian umma.
Challenging Cosmopolitanism: Coercion, Mobility and Displacement in Islamic Asia, 2018
This introduction lays out the argument that an exploration of Muslim mobility and diversity acro... more This introduction lays out the argument that an exploration of Muslim mobility and diversity across Asian history can help identify coercive dimensions that are often elided in dominant modern visions of ‘cosmopolitanism’. Starting with a discussion of the role that images of the premodern Muslim kingdom of al-Andalus in Spain have played in Muslim memory as a marker both of nostalgia and loss, the introduction then transitions to Asia. Specifically, the chapter traces how Islamic ideas of pilgrimage, migration, and learning shaped imaginaries of movement and of ‘opening’ frontier space defined as much by agonistic confrontation as by accommodation. These conceptual reflections build upon references to particular histories and historiographies of cosmopolitanism - including debates on the Indian Ocean, Sufism, religious ‘conscience’, and the global ‘ umma ’. Finally, this discussion sets the stage for the volume chapters to follow on coercion, asymmetrical power relations, and cosmopolitanism across diverse Asian Muslim societies.
The idea of perang sabil, a hybrid Malay/Arabic term roughly translated as war in the way of Alla... more The idea of perang sabil, a hybrid Malay/Arabic term roughly translated as war in the way of Allah, persists as an enduring staple of the popular and academic literature on resistance to colonial rule in Aceh and Mindanao. However, even in the midst of a genuine conflict zone, holy war signified neither a fixed term with any preordained meaning nor a straightforward reflection of violence between implacably opposed antagonists. Drawing from the records of colonial scholars, soldiers, and officials, as well as a variety of local Southeast Asian newspapers, I argue that perang sabil emerged as a multivalent discursive weapon. The idea of perang sabil served as a contingent and contested signifier that non-Muslim colonizer and Muslim colonized alike could deploy in ongoing dialogical engagements over the proper definition of progress and reform, of “good” versus “bad” Muslims, and of the very nature of what might be called a “modern Mohammedan.” Indeed, while colonial invaders frequently portrayed perang sabil as the antithesis of modernity, logically embedded in that very rhetorical move was the necessity of acknowledging some “good” Islamic alternative, of promoting forms of piety that could eschew rebellion and serve the aspirations of the colonial state. This article will demonstrate that many Acehnese and Mindanaons seized this opening, promoting theological reform, forging new mutual aid societies, and in the process, paradoxically, leveraging the epistemic violence of colonialism to reconfigure their Muslim identity. However, such categories of progress and reform, “good Muslim” and “bad” Muslim, would not prove stable. This article will further demonstrate that the constant valuation and revaluation of holy war that arose from debates across the colonial divide often spun well beyond the control of the authorities. Indeed, even as colonial regimes sought to produce “good Muslims” in opposition to violent resistance, by the late 1930s and 40s, a fledgling cohort of nationalists moved to commemorate martyrdom and perang sabil not as the antithesis of modernity, but as its very apotheosis.
Colonial Crucible: Empire in the Making of the Modern American State, edited by Alfred W. McCoy and Francisco Scarano, 2009
Book Reviews by Joshua Gedacht
Southeast Asian Studies, Aug 2014
Bijdragen tot de Taal-, Land- en Volkenkunde
Books by Joshua Gedacht
Challenging Cosmopolitanism: Coercion, Mobility and Displacement in Islamic Asia, 2018
Cosmopolitanism has emerged as a key category in Islamic Studies, defining models of Muslim mobil... more Cosmopolitanism has emerged as a key category in Islamic Studies, defining models of Muslim mobility, pluralism and tolerance that challenge popular perceptions of religious extremism. Such celebrations and valorisations of mobility and trans-regional consciousness, however, tend to conflate border-crossing with opportunity and social diversity with ethical progress. At the same time, they generally disregard the ways in which such forms of cosmopolitanism have been entwined with structures of domination, economic control and violence. Challenging Cosmopolitanism critically addresses these issues in ways that help to contextualize contemporary issues such as the global refugee crisis in relation to longer histories of Muslim mobility and coercion.
Featuring new historical and ethnographic research on China and Southeast Asia, this book explores how power and violence have shaped the experiences of Sufis and state-builders, as well as refugees and rebels, contributing to more nuanced understandings of Islamic cosmopolitanism. For more on this volume at the Edinburgh University Press blog, see https://euppublishingblog.com/2018/10/04/challenging-cosmopolitanism/.
Table of Contents:
Preface
Contents
Contributors
Chapter 1 - Hijra, Ḥajj, and Muslim Mobilities: Considering Coercion and Asymmetrical Power Dynamics in Histories of Islamic Cosmopolitanism
R. Michael Feener & Joshua Gedacht
Chapter 2 - Islamicate Cosmopolitanism from North Africa to Southeast Asia
Bruce B. Lawrence
Chapter 3 - Sufi Cosmopolitanism in the Seventeenth-Century Indian Ocean: Shariʿa, Lineage, and Royal Power in Southeast Asia and the Maldives
Andrew Peacock
Chapter 4 - Shrines, Sufis, and Warlords in Early Modern Java
Simon Carlos Kemper
Chapter 5 - Variations of ‘Islamic Military Cosmopolitanism’: The Survival Strategies of Hui Muslims during the Modern Period
Tatsuya Nakanishi
Chapter 6 - Writing Cosmopolitan History in Nineteenth-Century China: Li Huanyi’s Words and Deeds of Islamic Exemplars
Jessica Chen
Chapter 7 - The ‘Shaykh al-Islām’ of the Philippines’ and Coercive Cosmopolitanism in an Age of Global Empire
Joshua Gedacht
Chapter 8 - Bordering Malaya’s ‘Benighted Lands’: Frontiers of Race and Colonialism on the Malay Peninsula, 1887-1902
Amrita Malhi
Chapter 9 - Afghanistan’s Cosmopolitan Trading Networks: A View From Yiwu, China
Magnus Marsden & Diana Ibañez-Tirado
Index
Uploads
Co-Edited Special Issues and Book Volumes by Joshua Gedacht
Featuring new historical and ethnographic research on China and Southeast Asia, this book explores how power and violence have shaped the experiences of Sufis and state-builders, as well as refugees and rebels, contributing to a more nuanced understanding of Islamic cosmopolitanism.
Table of Contents:
1 Hijra, Hajj and Muslim Mobilities: Considering Coercion
and Asymmetrical Power Dynamics in Histories of Islamic
Cosmopolitanism
R. Michael Feener and Joshua Gedacht
2 Islamicate Cosmopolitanism from North Africa to Southeast Asia 30
Bruce B. Lawrence
3 Sufi Cosmopolitanism in the Seventeenth-century Indian Ocean:
Sharia, Lineage and Royal Power in Southeast Asia and the
Maldives
A. C. S. Peacock
4 The White Heron Called by the Muezzin: Shrines, Sufis and
Warlords in Early Modern Java
Simon C. Kemper
5 Variations of 'Islamic Military Cosmopolitanism': The Survival
Strategies of Hui Muslims during the Modern Period
Tatsuya Nakanishi
6 Writing Cosmopolitan History in Nineteenth-century China: Li
Huanyi's Words and Deeds of Islamic Exemplars
J. Lilu Chen
7 The 'Shaykh al-Islam of the Philippines' and Coercive
Cosmopolitanism in an Age of Global Empire
Joshua Gedacht
8 Bordering Malaya's 'Benighted Lands': Frontiers of Race and
Colonialism on the Malay Peninsula, 1887-1902
Amrita Malhi
9 Afghanistan's Cosmopolitan Trading Networks: A View From
Yiwu, China
Magnus Marsden and Diana Ibanez-Tirado
Articles and Chapters by Joshua Gedacht
Book Reviews by Joshua Gedacht
Books by Joshua Gedacht
Featuring new historical and ethnographic research on China and Southeast Asia, this book explores how power and violence have shaped the experiences of Sufis and state-builders, as well as refugees and rebels, contributing to more nuanced understandings of Islamic cosmopolitanism. For more on this volume at the Edinburgh University Press blog, see https://euppublishingblog.com/2018/10/04/challenging-cosmopolitanism/.
Table of Contents:
Preface
Contents
Contributors
Chapter 1 - Hijra, Ḥajj, and Muslim Mobilities: Considering Coercion and Asymmetrical Power Dynamics in Histories of Islamic Cosmopolitanism
R. Michael Feener & Joshua Gedacht
Chapter 2 - Islamicate Cosmopolitanism from North Africa to Southeast Asia
Bruce B. Lawrence
Chapter 3 - Sufi Cosmopolitanism in the Seventeenth-Century Indian Ocean: Shariʿa, Lineage, and Royal Power in Southeast Asia and the Maldives
Andrew Peacock
Chapter 4 - Shrines, Sufis, and Warlords in Early Modern Java
Simon Carlos Kemper
Chapter 5 - Variations of ‘Islamic Military Cosmopolitanism’: The Survival Strategies of Hui Muslims during the Modern Period
Tatsuya Nakanishi
Chapter 6 - Writing Cosmopolitan History in Nineteenth-Century China: Li Huanyi’s Words and Deeds of Islamic Exemplars
Jessica Chen
Chapter 7 - The ‘Shaykh al-Islām’ of the Philippines’ and Coercive Cosmopolitanism in an Age of Global Empire
Joshua Gedacht
Chapter 8 - Bordering Malaya’s ‘Benighted Lands’: Frontiers of Race and Colonialism on the Malay Peninsula, 1887-1902
Amrita Malhi
Chapter 9 - Afghanistan’s Cosmopolitan Trading Networks: A View From Yiwu, China
Magnus Marsden & Diana Ibañez-Tirado
Index
Featuring new historical and ethnographic research on China and Southeast Asia, this book explores how power and violence have shaped the experiences of Sufis and state-builders, as well as refugees and rebels, contributing to a more nuanced understanding of Islamic cosmopolitanism.
Table of Contents:
1 Hijra, Hajj and Muslim Mobilities: Considering Coercion
and Asymmetrical Power Dynamics in Histories of Islamic
Cosmopolitanism
R. Michael Feener and Joshua Gedacht
2 Islamicate Cosmopolitanism from North Africa to Southeast Asia 30
Bruce B. Lawrence
3 Sufi Cosmopolitanism in the Seventeenth-century Indian Ocean:
Sharia, Lineage and Royal Power in Southeast Asia and the
Maldives
A. C. S. Peacock
4 The White Heron Called by the Muezzin: Shrines, Sufis and
Warlords in Early Modern Java
Simon C. Kemper
5 Variations of 'Islamic Military Cosmopolitanism': The Survival
Strategies of Hui Muslims during the Modern Period
Tatsuya Nakanishi
6 Writing Cosmopolitan History in Nineteenth-century China: Li
Huanyi's Words and Deeds of Islamic Exemplars
J. Lilu Chen
7 The 'Shaykh al-Islam of the Philippines' and Coercive
Cosmopolitanism in an Age of Global Empire
Joshua Gedacht
8 Bordering Malaya's 'Benighted Lands': Frontiers of Race and
Colonialism on the Malay Peninsula, 1887-1902
Amrita Malhi
9 Afghanistan's Cosmopolitan Trading Networks: A View From
Yiwu, China
Magnus Marsden and Diana Ibanez-Tirado
Featuring new historical and ethnographic research on China and Southeast Asia, this book explores how power and violence have shaped the experiences of Sufis and state-builders, as well as refugees and rebels, contributing to more nuanced understandings of Islamic cosmopolitanism. For more on this volume at the Edinburgh University Press blog, see https://euppublishingblog.com/2018/10/04/challenging-cosmopolitanism/.
Table of Contents:
Preface
Contents
Contributors
Chapter 1 - Hijra, Ḥajj, and Muslim Mobilities: Considering Coercion and Asymmetrical Power Dynamics in Histories of Islamic Cosmopolitanism
R. Michael Feener & Joshua Gedacht
Chapter 2 - Islamicate Cosmopolitanism from North Africa to Southeast Asia
Bruce B. Lawrence
Chapter 3 - Sufi Cosmopolitanism in the Seventeenth-Century Indian Ocean: Shariʿa, Lineage, and Royal Power in Southeast Asia and the Maldives
Andrew Peacock
Chapter 4 - Shrines, Sufis, and Warlords in Early Modern Java
Simon Carlos Kemper
Chapter 5 - Variations of ‘Islamic Military Cosmopolitanism’: The Survival Strategies of Hui Muslims during the Modern Period
Tatsuya Nakanishi
Chapter 6 - Writing Cosmopolitan History in Nineteenth-Century China: Li Huanyi’s Words and Deeds of Islamic Exemplars
Jessica Chen
Chapter 7 - The ‘Shaykh al-Islām’ of the Philippines’ and Coercive Cosmopolitanism in an Age of Global Empire
Joshua Gedacht
Chapter 8 - Bordering Malaya’s ‘Benighted Lands’: Frontiers of Race and Colonialism on the Malay Peninsula, 1887-1902
Amrita Malhi
Chapter 9 - Afghanistan’s Cosmopolitan Trading Networks: A View From Yiwu, China
Magnus Marsden & Diana Ibañez-Tirado
Index