- In The Islamic Reform Movement of the Association of Algerian ʿUlamaʾ, 1931–1954 (Brill), Shoko Watanabe (University of Tokyo) asks, “How are we to understand the internal dynamics of an Islamic reform movement that calls for nationalist rallies and joins a delegation to meet with the French Prime Minister but denies that it ‘does politics’? This book analyzes how the Association of Algerian ʿUlamaʾ, founded in 1931 as a league of Muslim scholars, addressed the peculiar situation of French laïcité in colonial Algeria and competed with Algeria’s revolutionary nationalists. It also highlights the financial basis and the grassroots organizations of the movement, from which it brought about a ‘passive’ revolution against the colonial social order.”
- In a recent podcast, Imran Mulla (Middle East Eye) discusses his new book The Indian Caliphate, Exiled Ottomans and the Billionaire Prince (Hurst): “In 1924, the Republic of Turkey voted to abolish the Ottoman caliphate, ending a 400-year-long claim by the Ottomans that they were the leaders of the Islamic world. Abdülmecid II—who had been elected to the position by the Republic of Turkey just two years before—decamped for Europe. What followed was a bold plan by Indian Muslims and the Nizam of Hyderabad, one of the world’s richest men at the time, to potentially revive the caliphate.”