The Ulama: History, Institutions and Modernity

Chapter 2 provides an overview of the historical status and heterogeneity of the ulama and its institutions. It outlines the ulama’s influence, particularly from the eleventh century onwards as intermediaries between state and society and its diverse function as scholars, civil servants, judges, preachers, teachers and spiritual guides. In turning to the modern period, it outlines the social, political and epistemological challenges facing the ulama in the wake of colonisation and modernisation reforms in the Muslim world. The chapter draws on comparative examples of Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Iran to illustrate the extent religious actors are silenced or co-opted by the state. This is met with the “fragmentation thesis” and arrival of new religious voices and mass proliferation of ideas about Islam. The chapter ends with a brief survey of the challenges and prospects confronting Muslim religious authorities in the West.