Seminars & Symposiums

International Symposium: "Comparative Research on Major Regional Powers in Eurasia -- Islamic Institutions and Imperial Reach"

2010-1-23 (Sat) - 2010-1-24 (Sun) Society, Politics, Economics, Law 

Islamic Institutions and Imperial Reach: The Complex Articulation of Ideas, Education and Mobility


Both Islam and Empire require comparative studies, as both involve regional specifics and global interactions. Especially in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, expansion of colonial empires, brands of imperialism, radically transformed political, societal, and economic infrastructures surrounding local politics in Muslim regions and Muslim networking beyond borders. 

Today a colonial imprint significantly inflects the development of Islamic revival. While Islam has worked as a cause protesting against imperial rule, Muslims have often made use of Islam as a means of negotiating among the states. 

How have Muslims modified various Islamic terms and concepts in the course of their interactions with empires? How have they transmitted Islamic knowledge to the next generations and even expanded it to other parts of the Muslim world? How do they reconcile simultaneous belonging to the global Muslim community and "infidel" homelands? When states rely on Muslim travelers to exert their power abroad, does this mean that Muslim agents have contributed to building varieties of "imperialism" on the ground? How has the great powers' rivalry affected this setting? 

In the framework of the comparative research project "Regional Powers in Eurasia," this workshop will tackle these and other questions, enhancing dialogues between international scholars of Islam and Empire.

Islamic Institutions and Imperial Reach: The Complex Articulation of Ideas, Education and Mobility

Program
Session 1: Where is Our Homeland? 
Chair: FURUYA Daisuke, Research Institute for World Languages, Osaka University
Reports:
  • "The Idea of Dar al-Harb and Dar al-Islam: Concepts and Conflicts in British India" by Moiduddin Aqeel, International Islamic University, Pakistan
  • "The Concept of Khilafah: Spreading the Rule of Law all over the World" by NAKATA Ko, Doshisha University
Discussant: YAMANE So, Research Institute for World Languages, Osaka University

Session 2: Education Reforms between the Abode of Islam and Homeland 
Chair: MATSUZATO Kimitaka, Hokkaido University
Reports: 
  • "Islamic Awakening in Modern China: Nationalism, Education and Reforms" by MATSUMOTO Masumi, Keiwa College
  • "Madrasa Reform as a Secularizing Process: a View from the Russian Empire" by Mustafa O. Tuna, Duke University, USA
Discussant: NAGANAWA Norihiro, Hokkaido University

Session 3: Expanding Empires and the Limits of Muslim Mobility 
Chair: MORIKAWA Tomoko, Hokkaido University,
Reports:
  • "Moving People and Suspect Subjects: Russian Muslims, Travel, and the Ottoman Empire" by James H. Meyer, Montana State University, USA
  • "Making Qom the Center of the Shi'ite World: Reorganization of the Islamic Educational Network after Iran’s Islamic Revolution" by SAKURAI Keiko, Waseda University
Discussant: UYAMA Tomohiko, Hokkaido University
 

 

Date:
2010-1-23 (Sat) - 2010-1-24 (Sun)
Sponsored:
Groups 2 & 5, Scientific Research on Innovative Areas under the Grants-in-Aid for Scientific Research, "Compared Research, Major Regional Powers in Eurasia"
Venue:
Room 701, Senri Life Science Center (1-4-2, Shin-Senri-Higashi-cho, Toyonaka, Osaka)
Registration:
Registration by email is required.
URL:
http://src-h.slav.hokudai.ac.jp/rp/group_05/activities/index.html
Contact:
Project Office of Beyond the Contours of State
dai5han@world-lang.osaka-u.ac.jp