Islamic Studies Decolonized

Forthcoming, Spring 2027

Recent years have seen calls, issued from several quarters, to decolonize the study of Islam and begin the task of replacing traditional Orientalism with more indigenous epistemological forms. This movement does not exist in isolation but rather would link the study of Islam to broader cultural forces attempting to decolonize the humanities if not the entire epistemological edifice upon which the modern university sits.

This book argues that, until now and despite the rhetoric, there has never been a systematic attempt to to do this. Islamic Studies Decolonized: An Intervention will provide the first full-scale analysis of the concept by examining its history, aims, scope, and deployment. It takes the call to “decolonize” seriously and begins from the assumption that the Christian-West has long privileged its own epistemologies over those of others and —at least until recently—has imagined non-Christian traditions as particularistic and thus of limited utility. This disparity is compounded by the hegemony of the Western university, our major site of knowledge production, mobilization and dissemination, which is largely predicated on certain agreed-upon Western systems of rationality.

At issue, then, is how to "translate" each of these epistemologies in a manner that can be mutually intelligible and beneficial. Also at issue is who gets to speak for and about these traditions.

Written in jargon-free prose with the aim of stimulating discussion in the classroom and beyond, this book unpacks the blind assumptions and obfuscating discourse that so often sabotages progress.