Modern Islamic Political Thought: The Response of the Shi'i and Sunni Muslims to the Twentieth Century - Paperback

by Hamid Enayat (Author), Roy Mottahedeh (Foreword by)

The revival and power of religious feelings among Muslims since the Iranian revolution presents a complicated and often perplexing picture of the politics of modern Islam. What are the ideas which have influenced the direction of these trends? Here, Hamis Enayat provides an answer by describing and interpreting some of the major Islamic political ideas, especially those expressed by Iranians and Egyptians, as well as thinkers from Pakistan, India, Lebanon, Syria and Iraq. He examines the political differences between the two main schools in Islam - Shi'ism and Sunnism. Also covered in the book is: the concept of the Islamic state; and the Muslim response to the challenge of alien and modern ideologies such as nationalism, democracy and socialism - as well as notions of Shi'i modernism.

Author Biography

Hamid Enayat was Reader in Modern Middle Eastern History at Oxford University and Fellow at St. Antony's College, Oxford. Prior to his death in 1980 he was also Professor of Political Science at Tehran University where he chaired the Department of Politics.