Mashrafi Bhuiyan
Research Mentor(s): Hasher Nisar
Mentor Department: Political Science
Authors: Hasher Nisar, Mashrafi Bhuiyan
Session: Session 3 (11:00am – 11:50am)
Presentation Type: Poster 25
Abstract
Today, Islam is the largest religion in the world, and the ulama (Islamic scholars) have articulated the religious beliefs of Muslims throughout history. Despite the significant impact of the ulama on Islamic societies and a large body of scholarship on their economic and social roles, the political involvements of these scholars in society have not been examined in a systematic manner. The biographies of the ulama can provide key insight into the development of knowledge and the political activities of Islamic scholars over time. This study examines an underutilized genre in the Arabic written tradition called Tabaqat to study the political role of Islamic scholars in society.. We read hundreds of biographical entries for Islamic scholars and coded the information about their lives within a spreadsheet. Some details that we coded for include birth/death place, birth/death year, profession, school of thought, and political association. After coding the information, we mapped the locations they visited to track scholarly migration and the rise and fall of intellectual centers. Our findings help us highlight the extent to which scholars were associated with new educational structures and the kinds of relations they had with ruling authorities. The lives of Islamic scholars add an understanding of how scholarly and political activity developed and changed over time. By learning about these developments, we hope to make inferences about how these scholars may have impacted the lives of people in Islamic countries today.
