DOC Troubled Memory: Anne Levy; the Holocaust; and David Duke's Louisiana by Lawrence N. Powell in History

Description

The eleventh and twelfth centuries comprised a period of great significance in Islamic history. The Great Saljuqs; a Turkish-speaking tribe hailing from central Asia; ruled the eastern half of the Islamic world for a great portion of that time. In a far-reaching analysis that combines social; cultural; and political history; Omid Safi demonstrates how the Saljuqs tried to create a lasting political presence by joining forces with scholars and saints; among them a number of well-known Sufi Muslims; who functioned under state patronage. In order to legitimize their political power; Saljuq rulers presented themselves as champions of what they alleged was an orthodox and normative view of Islam. Their notion of religious orthodoxy was constructed by administrators in state-sponsored arenas such as madrasas and khanaqahs. Thus orthodoxy was linked to political loyalty; and disloyalty to the state was articulated in terms of religious heresy. Drawing on a vast reservoir of primary sources and eschewing anachronistic terms of analysis such as nationalism; Safi revises conventional views both of the Saljuqs as benevolent Muslim rulers and of the Sufis as timeless; ethereal mystics. He makes a significant contribution to understanding premodern Islam as well as illuminating the complex relationship between power and religious knowledge.