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This book underlines the mutability of Islamic law and attempts to relate its substantive and institutional varieties and transformations to social, political, economic and other historical circumstances. The studies in the book range from discussion of the received wisdom in Islamic law to studies of legal institutions and the theoretical means employed by Islamic law for the accommodation of changing historical circumstances.First published in 1988

This is a study of the structure and composition of the official learning current in medieval Arabic culture. This comprises natural sciences both exoteric and esoteric (medicine, alchemy, astrology and others), traditional and religious sciences (such as theology, exegesis and grammar), philosophical sciences such as metaphysics and ethics, in addition to technical disciplines like political theory and medicine, and other fields of intellectual endeavour.The book identifies and develops a number of conceptual elements common to the various areas of official Arabic scientific discour

The following is intended to suggest a fairly simple contention concerning a number of interconnected propositions made in connection with the debates on modernity and secularism. None of these propositions is particularly novel, nor is this the first time that they have been put forward. Yet the issues raised have remained with us and become all the more pressing; I can see that points that were made, against the flow, more than two decades ago, now stand out more cogently than ever, and are being revisited, rediscovered or simply discovered by many. The simple contention I wish to start with concerns Islamism, often brought out emblematically when secularism and modernity are discussed. Like other self-consciously retrogressive identitarian motifs, ideas, sensibilities, moods and inflections of politics that sustain differentialist culturalism and are sustained by it conceptually, Islamism has come to gain very considerable political and social traction over the past quarter of a century.

The following is intended to suggest a fairly simple contention concerning a number of interconnected propositions made in connection with the debates on modernity and secularism. None of these propositions is particularly novel, nor is this the first time that they have been put forward. Yet the issues raised have remained with us and become all the more pressing; I can see that points that were made, against the flow, more than two decades ago, now stand out more cogently than ever, and are being revisited, rediscovered or simply discovered by many. The simple contention I wish to start with concerns Islamism, often brought out emblematically when secularism and modernity are discussed. Like other self-consciously retrogressive identitarian motifs, ideas, sensibilities, moods and inflections of politics that sustain differentialist culturalism and are sustained by it conceptually, Islamism has come to gain very considerable political and social traction over the past quarter of a century. This had until recently reached the extent that it, as a perceptual grid of social and cultural purchase relating to societies and countries that many associate with Islam, has become hegemonic in public discussions about society and politics and, until recently, hegemonic without serious challenge. It has also been crucial for triggering the latest round of antisecular discussions and polemics. The following discussion will proceed in three stages. First, an overall characterisation of anti-secular polemics and motifs in their broader discursive and other contexts and motifs will be offered, with special attention to writings characterised as post-colonialist. Next will be offered a discussion of some keywords that come up in this context and which indicate the conceptual profile in question. The essay will then move on to discuss two specific methods of using history in arguments against secularism. Finally, the essay will concentrate on post-colonialist discussions of Islam and secularism, exemplified in a particular case.:1 Sentiment, Pathos, Rhetoric.4 2 Moods and Keywords.11 3 Actually Existing Secularism and the Challenge of Fate.21 4 One Genealogy of Post-colonialist Eminence.38 5 Bibliography.51

This article proposes that the history of freethinking, especially the cognitive, ethical and political critiques of religion, contained a number of basic ideas and motifs which persisted through Antiquity, Abbasid times, early modern Europe in the Age of Reason, and the Renaissance. It describes these ideas, especially in the form they took in the Abbasid era, with some indications of context, and certain elements intended to help trace the complex history of interconnections between different times and different continents.

The connection between governance and radicalization is explored in this working paper. Radicalisation requires a number of political and socio-economic conditions. In order to be effective and not remain confined to sub-cultural margins, radicalisation also requires infrastructural capacities in the forms of finance, organisational networks, and guiding ideas, perceptions and political ideologies. Counter radicalisation policy must take account of longterm developments and prospects, and must be concretely related to matters in the field which is complex and continuously changing.