Longing for the Lost Caliphate: A Transregional History

Description

In the United States and Europe, the word "caliphate" has conjured historically romantic and increasingly pernicious associations. Yet the caliphate's significance in Islamic history and Muslim culture remains poorly understood. This book explores the myriad meanings of the caliphate for Muslims around the world through the analytical lens of two k

Mona Hassan is an assistant professor in the departments of Religious Studies and History and the International Comparative Studies program at Duke University.

"Winner of the 2017 Award for Excellence in Religion Historical Studies, American Academy of Religion" "After a brief review of the institution of the caliphate, this exceptional monograph explores how Muslims viewed the caliphate after the Mongol destruction of the Abbasid caliphate. . . . The role of the caliph in the Ottoman Empire has also been underappreciated. Hassan explores this role but focuses her attention on how the dismissal of the caliphate in 1924 with the rise of Ataturk and Kemalism affected Muslims not only in Turkey but also in other parts of the Muslim world. She concludes her book with an examination of current movements that seek to restore the caliphate, such as ISIS and Hizb al-Tahrir." * Choice * "This book is an excellent study that represents a significant contribution to our understanding about the caliphate, and Hassan's use of memory in the study of religion provides a methodological model of inquiry for scholars to follow."---Susan Gunasti, Critical Research on Religion "Hassan is a gifted writer and does a wonderful job of evoking the melancholy and sadness attendant to loss. . . . In all these and other ways, Hassan's book is a commendable effort to rescue the caliphate from the crass and often obtuse analysis on offer in the contemporary West and to identify it properly as one of the more significant and consequential cultural symbols in the history of human civilization."---Khurram Hussain, Journal of the American Academy of Religion