Originally published in 1975, this book was something of a pioneering study. It examines the three main traditions of African educational development – indigenous, Islamic and ‘Western’ – and the resulting harmonies and conflicts that arise from these traditions. Its contributors are all specialists writing about their own particular area of interest covering many countries of tropical Africa. They include a number of well-known African scholars as well as some comparatively new names in the field of African Studies at the time. A feature of the book is the attention that it gives to the education of women – an aspect of ‘nation-building’ that had often been rather neglected. This study is an inter-disciplinary work, calling into contribution History, Sociology, Anthropology, Law, Linguistics, and Medicine, as well as Education. It seeks to show how complex the educational situation is in Africa – and how this complexity needs to be appreciated as a background to educational planning. Nobody who has read this volume will be inclined to dismiss educational reform in Africa as ‘a relatively simple matter’ – a point of view too frequently implied by those who have not studied the subject in depth. ‘Off with the old – on with the new’ cannot be so easily implemented as critics within and without the continent sometimes seem to think. More constructively, however, this volume provides many useful insights into ways in which social tension may be reduced and harmony promoted in, and through, education. Although it is likely to be of most immediate value to those who are concerned with African education and its administration (especially in teacher-education), the book constitutes a significant contribution to understanding problems of ‘development’.
To judge by the dictum of al-Ja~i?: (d. A.D. 869), 'Wisdom has descended upon these three: the brain of the Byzantine, the hands of the Chinese, and the tongue of the Arab', in the great age of the
The book examines the growing tension between social movements that embrace egalitarian and inclusivist views of national and global politics, most notably classical liberalism, and those that advance social hierarchy and national exclusivism, such as neoliberalism, neoconservatism, and national populism. In exploring issues relating to tensions and conflicts around globalization, the book identifies historical patterns of convergence and divergence rooted in the monotheistic traditions, beginning with the ancient Israelites that dominated the Near East during the Axial age, through Islamic civilization, and finally by considering the idealism-realism tensions in modern times. One thing remained constant throughout the various historical stages that preceded our current moment of global convergence: a recurring tension between transcendental idealism and various forms of realism. Transcendental idealism, which prioritize egalitarian and universal values, pushed periodically against the forces of realism that privilege established law and power structure. Equipped with the idealism-realism framework, the book examines the consequences of European realism that justified the imperialistic venture into Africa, the Middle East, and Latin America in the name of liberation and liberalization. The ill-conceived strategy has, ironically, engendered the very dysfunctional societies that produce the waves of immigrants in constant motion from the South to the North, simultaneously as it fostered the social hierarchy that transfer external tensions into identity politics within the countries of the North. The book focuses particularly on the role played historically by Islamic rationalism in translating the monotheistic egalitarian outlook into the institutions of religious pluralism, legislative and legal autonomy, and scientific enterprise at the foundation of modern society. It concludes by shedding light on the significance of the Muslim presence in Western cultures as humanity draws slowly but consistently towards what we may come to recognize as the Global Age. The Open Access version of this book, available at http://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/e/9781003203360, has been made available under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives 4.0 license.
Polymaths of Islam analyzes the social and intellectual power of religious leaders who created a shared culture that integrated Central Asia, Iran, and India from the mid-eighteenth century through the early twentieth. James Pickett demonstrates that Islamic scholars were simultaneously mystics and administrators, judges and occultists, physicians and poets. This integrated understanding of the world of Islamic scholarship unlocks a different way of thinking about transregional exchange networks. Pickett reveals a Persian-language cultural sphere that transcended state boundaries and integrated a spectacularly vibrant Eurasia that is invisible from published sources alone. Through a high cultural complex that he terms the "Persian cosmopolis" or "Persianate sphere," Pickett argues that an intersection of diverse disciplines shaped geographical trajectories across and between political states. In Polymaths of Islam he paints a comprehensive, colorful, and often contradictory portrait of mosque and state in the age of empire.