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Books by Usaama al-Azami

Oxford University Press , 2022

For those who cannot afford the book, please email me at: usaama.al-azami@orinst.ox.ac.uk, and I'... more For those who cannot afford the book, please email me at: usaama.al-azami@orinst.ox.ac.uk, and I'll try to direct you to where you can find the most affordable version of the book.

The Arab revolutions of 2011 were a transformative moment in the modern history of the Middle East, as people rose up against long-standing autocrats throughout the region to call for ‘bread, freedom and dignity’. With the passage of time, results have been decidedly mixed, with tentative success stories like Tunisia contrasting with the emergence of even more repressive dictatorships in places like Egypt, with the backing of several Gulf states.

Focusing primarily on Egypt, this book considers a relatively understudied dimension of these revolutions: the role of prominent religious scholars. While pro-revolutionary ulama have justified activism against authoritarian regimes, counter-revolutionary scholars have provided religious backing for repression, and in some cases the mass murder of unarmed protestors.

Usaama al-Azami traces the public engagements and religious pronouncements of several prominent ulama in the region, including Yusuf al-Qaradawi, Ali Gomaa and Abdallah bin Bayyah, to explore their role in either championing the Arab revolutions or supporting their repression. He concludes that while a minority of noted scholars have enthusiastically endorsed the counter-revolutions, their approach is attributable less to premodern theology and more to their distinctly modern commitment to the authoritarian state.

Papers by Usaama al-Azami

Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society, 2022

The concept of ḥākimiyya (sovereignty), as understood by its leading proponents, refers to the n... more The concept of ḥākimiyya (sovereignty), as understood by its leading proponents, refers to the notion that it is God, rather than humans, Who possesses the prerogative to make laws. A concomitant of this is that Muslims with political power and authority must recognise the supremacy of Islamic law. This notion, perhaps most notably articulated in modern times by Abū al-Aʿlā Mawdūdı̄, may be viewed as the rearticulation of ideas latent in the premodern Islamic juristic tradition, but whose modern incarnation as ḥākimiyya emerged in response to the legislative norms of the liberal colonial state. Despite its modern articulation, and against the views of several scholars, I argue that ḥ akimiyya qua sovereignty finds its antecedents quite clearly in the Islamic scholarly tradition. Such an understanding leads into a discussion of how Islamic conceptions of sovereignty can help us reassess influential Western articulations of the concept. I also show that Mawdudı̄'s influential younger contemporary, the Islamist alim Abū al-Ḥasan ʿAlı̄ Nadwı̄, upholds ḥ akimiyya despite his critique of Mawdudı̄and Sayyid Quṭb's conceptions of it. I conclude with a brief reflection on how our understanding of ḥākimiyya as sovereignty can help us provincialise Europe in global historical studies.

Salafi Social and Political Movements: National and Transnational Contexts, 2021

In a Washington Post article from Nov 1 st 2018, a journalist interviewed people in rural Saudi A... more In a Washington Post article from Nov 1 st 2018, a journalist interviewed people in rural Saudi Arabia about the brutal murder of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi a month earlier by agents in the Saudi consulate in Istanbul. This murder set off a global media storm that was ongoing at the time of the interview. The Post's journalist comes across a young man by the name Mohsin Mohammed al-Mohsin who, having recently graduated from university in Riyadh, is seeking employment as a religion teacher. His response to the Khashoggi affair is interesting on a number of levels. The 26 year old begins by calling the killing a "mistake" and that the media was lying about it. Yet, the murder still concerned him because it contravened Islamic norms, but like many of his compatriots, al-Mohsin expressed his support for the Crown Prince Muhammad b. Salman even if he were found to be guilty of ordering the killing of his countryman. What is of interest to the present chapter, however, is an observation in this connection made by al-Mohsin. Presenting a narrative of his interview, the Post quotes him thus: "'People should not disagree with their leaders, no matter what,' [al-Mohsin] said, rubbing red prayer beads in his right hand. 'There is an Islamic saying: "To be patient and live with an unjust leader for 50 years is better than to live without a leader for one day."'" 1 This Islamicate saying and others like it have a long pedigree in Islamic thought. Something resembling this particular statement is mentioned by the Saudi Salafi movement's most important premodern antecedent, Ibn Taymiyya (d. 728/1328), who notes in his Majmuʿ al-Fatawa that "the sound of mind (al-ʿuqalāʾ) have stated: 'sixty years of a tyrannical ruler is better than a single night without a ruler'" (qad qāl al-ʿuqalā: sittūn sana min sulṭān ẓālim khayr min layla wāḥida bi-lā sulṭān.) 2 But statements like these go back far earlier in the Islamic tradition. A similar saying is attributed to the early jurists Malik b. Anas (d. 179/795) and Sufyan al-Thawri (d. 161/778) by the North African Maliki scholar Qadi ʿIyad b. Musa (d. 544/1149) as: "Tyrannical rule of seventy years is better than a leaderless umma for a moment of the day" (sulṭān jāʾir sabʿīn sana khayr min umma sāʾiba sāʿa min alnahār). 3 Going even further back in time, one finds such a sentiment attributed to the Companion of 1 Kevin Sullivan, "In the Saudi countryside, Khashoggi's death seems remote and royal involvement farfetched," The Washington Post, 11/01/18, available at: https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/in-the-saudicountryside-khashoggis-killing-seems-remote-and-royal-involvement-far-fetched/2018/10/27/083e9bc6-d920-11e8-8384-bcc5492fef49_story.html?utm_term=.79c393b36b6a.

Sadeq Institute, 2020

The term Islamist is used to describe both violent anti-democratic groups like Islamic State as w... more The term Islamist is used to describe both violent anti-democratic groups like Islamic State as well as non-violent democratic groups like the Muslim Brotherhood. Dr Usaama al-Azami analyses the pernicious effects of blurring the lines between these two opposed groups, arguing that this blurring plays into the hands of authoritarians.

Global Sufism: Boundaries, Structures and Politics, 2019

The Muslim World, 2019

If you would like a copy of this paper, please email me at usaama.al-azami@orinst.ox.ac.uk Neo-t... more If you would like a copy of this paper, please email me at usaama.al-azami@orinst.ox.ac.uk

Neo-traditionalism is trying to develop its own transnational Islamic political discourse, but it is struggling in the shadow of Islamism. The Arab Spring, which put forward the proposition of popular participation in the political process created the impetus for this. Islamists had a readymade discourse backed by reasonably effective civil society institutions to fall back on that helped galvanize their activists relatively successfully even if it has so far proved a mostly abortive effort. Counter-revolutionary Neo-traditionalism which has contrasted with Islamism in its statist orientation has consequently only had relatively sclerotic civil society institutional infrastructure. In the wake of the Arab revolutions, one of the most important state-backed Arab scholars to attempt to remedy this state of affairs has been 'Abdullah Bin Bayyah (b. 1935). Yet his ideas appear largely derivative of, or reactions to, Islamist ideas and institutions. This article traces the evolution of some of Bin Bayyah’s activities and ideas from the beginning of the Arab revolutions in 2011 to his decisive break with the Islamists in 2013, and finally his establishment of counter institutions and institutional initiatives to the Islamists in the years that followed. I argue that many of his ideas and initiatives appear to be little more than the repackaging of Islamist discourse in Neo-traditionalist garb. Given that counter-revolutionary Neo-traditionalism is, by design, structurally subordinate to an authoritarian state, it seems unlikely that it will develop any long-lasting and independent Islamic political discourse.

Book Reviews by Usaama al-Azami

of dissidents murdered by the state. Dignity has been evoked by mobilising the wisdom and ethics ... more of dissidents murdered by the state. Dignity has been evoked by mobilising the wisdom and ethics intrinsic to Islam. Thus, illustrating how through the struggle to reconcile the painful emotions surrounding death, peace is poignantly educed, transforming the violence surrounding their son or daughter's death into a positive force.

Translations by Usaama al-Azami

من فقه الدولة المسلمة, 1997

The attached document contains a translation of Yusuf al-Qaradawi's fatwa on democracy, as found ... more The attached document contains a translation of Yusuf al-Qaradawi's fatwa on democracy, as found in Roxanne L. Euben and M Qasim Zaman's Princeton Readings in Islamist Thought. The original Arabic follows the translation. The translation is not my own, and is only provided here for ease of access.

The following is a translation of the comments of a contemporary Mauritanian Islamic scholar and ... more The following is a translation of the comments of a contemporary Mauritanian Islamic scholar and Islamist politician made in response to an interview of Hamza Yusuf published by France 24 on 7 January 2019. The original interview appears to have been recorded in early December 2018 at the same time as the 2018 Forum for Promoting Peace in Islamic Societies, and at the same venue as the Forum that year, namely at the Jumeirah at Etihad Towers Hotel in Abu Dhabi. A recorded response from Wuld al-Ḥājj al-Shaykh was made available through social media shortly after France 24 published the interview. Wuld al-Ḥājj al-Shaykh is a Mauritanian MP and until 2018 was the deputy speaker of the Mauritanian Parliament. Born in Timbedra in south-eastern Mauritania, he pursued Islamic studies in the traditional Mauritanian maḥẓara system.

This is the translation of an Arabic statement published on June 7th 2017 from the UAE-sponsored ... more This is the translation of an Arabic statement published on June 7th 2017 from the UAE-sponsored Forum Promoting Peace in Muslim Societies Criticising Qatar. The statement was issued shortly after the blockade of Qatar began on 5th June 2017.