Books by Mohammad Magout
A Reflexive Islamic Modernity: Academic Knowledge and Religious Subjectivity in the Global Ismaili Community, 2020
Nizari Ismailis are one of most active Muslim communities in academic education and knowledge pro... more Nizari Ismailis are one of most active Muslim communities in academic education and knowledge production in the fields of Islamic studies and humanities. For this purpose, the community runs two academic institutions based in London: The Institute of Ismaili Studies and the Institute for the Study of Muslim Civilisations. Drawing on sociological approaches to religion and knowledge, this study examines the aca-demic discourse of these two institutes and the religious subjectivities of their international body of stu-dents. It shows that the Ismaili community is navigating challenges along three axes: its relationship to secular modernity, to mainstream Islam, and to itself (its own history and identity). The Ismaili response to this three-dimensional challenge is interpreted as a process of reflexive modernization, whereby Islam is discursively reconceptualized as culture rather than religion and uncertainty is internalized into individ-ual religious subjectivity.
Peer-reviewed Articles by Mohammad Magout
Historical Social Research, 2019
This article starts with and proceeds from empirical observations about the ways international Is... more This article starts with and proceeds from empirical observations about the ways international Isma ili students at two institutes for Islamic studies in London draw boundaries between religion and other spheres in their everyday life. According to these observations , students from Isma ili communities in Iran, Tajikistan, and Syria tend to make more explicit distinctions between a religious domain and a secular one in comparison with their Khoja coreligionists of East African descent. In order to explain this disparity, structural, ideological, and social conditions in their respective countries and communities are analyzed using the framework of multiple secularities. It is argued that while Isma ili communities in Iran, Tajikistan, and Syria have each internalized a motif of secularity from its broader national context, Khoja Isma ili communities have developed their own form of secularity, which can be described in terms of internal secularization. This article makes a contribution to the multiple secularities framework by extending its application to the transnational domain and to the analysis of secularity within religious communities. Furthermore, the article offers a comparative approach to the study the role of religion in global Isma'ilism.
Companion to the Study of Secularity, 2019
Any history of secularity in the Arab world needs to dedicate a special chapter to the Syro-Leban... more Any history of secularity in the Arab world needs to dedicate a special chapter to the Syro-Lebanese press in Beirut in the second half of the 19th century. Not only that the first explicit expressions of secularism in the region were articulated on its pages; it was the forum in which the earliest debates in Arabic about the relationship between religion and other social spheres were conducted in universal, abstract terms between members of different religious communities (as opposed to debating this relationship from within a particular religious tradition).
Papers by Mohammad Magout
Zeitschrift für Recht und Islam / Journal for Law, 2017
The Arabic Press in the 19th C: History, Development, and Impact
This proposed panel invites pap... more The Arabic Press in the 19th C: History, Development, and Impact
This proposed panel invites papers that deal with various aspects of the early Arabic press, including (but not limited to) its role in the evolution of modern Arabic sociological and political vocabulary; discourses and debates in Arabic periodicals about society, religion, science, and politics; censorship and relationship with authorities; reception among different social groups; production and networks of distribution; and finally theoretical, methodological, and comparative approaches to the study of the Arabic press.
The Nizari Ismaili Muslim community runs two London-based institutions for postgraduate education... more The Nizari Ismaili Muslim community runs two London-based institutions for postgraduate education and research in Islamic studies and social sciences: The Institute of Ismaili Studies (IIS) and Institute for the Study of Muslim Civilisations (ISMC). Through these two institutions the Ismaili community engages in a normative discourse on the nature of religion and its public relevance in contemporary societies. I will explain in this paper how this discourse employs the notion of culture as a mediator for religion in the public sphere. Culture serves to provide a legitimation for Islam in Western liberal societies by bridging the dualisms of modern secular discourse and Ismailism within the wider world of Islam as well as by deconstructing the essentialism of fundamentalist discourses. The following analysis is based on a review of a number of papers written by authors who are (or were at some point) affiliated with the IIS or the ISMC as researchers, faculty members, senior administrators, or in any other capacity.1 In addition, some promotional media from the two institutes (such as course prospectuses) have been included in the analysis.
Studies of Syrian politics have traditionally focused on the sectarian, military, and – to a less... more Studies of Syrian politics have traditionally focused on the sectarian, military, and – to a lesser extent – the economic foundations of al-Assad’s regime. Few studies, however, have paid attention to the cultural basis of this regime and to cultural forms of resistance against it. Indeed, I would argue in my proposed paper, it was cultural factors that triggered the current uprising and helped sustain it. The shockwave caused by the fall of the Ben Ali and Mubarak regimes in Tunisia and Egypt reached Syria in February and March 2011 transforming profoundly the way Syrians responded to very familiar and usual events, such as being humiliated by a police officer, from submissiveness to outright refusal. Building on Lisa Wedeen’s examination of the cult of Hafiz Assad, I extend her analysis to his son’s era including the recent uprising in Syria. I will try to show that her suggested “tipping model”, which states that Syrian people could be “tipped” from obedience to rebellion through little acts of transgression, may shed important light on the course of events in the beginning of the uprising.
The outbreak of the uprising in Syria has surprised most observers, both inside and outside the c... more The outbreak of the uprising in Syria has surprised most observers, both inside and outside the country. Syria, until March 2011, was thought of as an unlikely candidate to join the new-born “Arab Spring” that soon due to its presumed “stability”. Observers have often perceived Syria as a “kingdom of silence” whose population is terrified, on the one hand, of the regime’s legacy of brutality and violent repression and of experiencing a civil strife that is similar to what has happened in some neighbouring countries (i.e. Lebanon and Iraq) during the past few decades, on the other. Nevertheless, the uprising spread so swiftly throughout Syria and the regime now appears to be fighting for survival. This clearly points out to deep deficiencies in our understanding of social and political dynamics in Syria in particular and the Arab World in general, which include:
lack of research on the cultural dimensions of political power and the relationship between popular culture and politics; and lack of understanding of the relationship between sectarian and ethnic divisions, on the one hand, and political affiliations, on the other.
Metal scenes in the Middle East have recently enjoyed some exposure in international media and ac... more Metal scenes in the Middle East have recently enjoyed some exposure in international media and academic circles, which often revolved around metal music vis-à-vis Islam. In this paper I seek to show -through a comparative study of reactions to metal music in a number of Arab countries- that there are other influential factors that shape responses to metal music and its fans. These factors include a “paranoia” on the part of powerful security agencies about any collectivity in the public sphere regardless of its nature; an Arab nationalist discourse of cultural authenticity that continues to lead debates over cultural identity in most Arab countries; and finally a general rejection on the part of the Arab public of the idea of a group of youth deviating from the dominant culture of society and forming their own “subculture/scene.” Particular attention is given to the metal scene in Syria as it offers valuable insights into the situation of metal in the Arab world in general. In addition, reactions to the growing visibility of emos in some Arab metropolises are contrasted with reactions to metalheads to add a further comparative perspective.
Metal scenes in the Middle East have recently enjoyed some exposure in international media and ac... more Metal scenes in the Middle East have recently enjoyed some exposure in international media and academic circles, which often revolved around metal music vis-à-vis Islam. In this paper I seek to show -through a comparative study of reactions to metal music in a number of Arab countries- that there are other influential factors that shape responses to metal music and its fans. These factors include a “paranoia” on the part of powerful security agencies about any collectivity in the public sphere regardless of its nature; an Arab nationalist discourse of cultural authenticity that continues to lead debates over cultural identity in most Arab countries; and finally a general rejection on the part of the Arab public of the idea of a group of youth deviating from the dominant culture of society and forming their own “subculture/scene.” Particular attention is given to the metal scene in Syria as it offers valuable insights into the situation of metal in the Arab world in general. In addition, reactions to the growing visibility of emos in some Arab metropolises are contrasted with reactions to metalheads to add a further comparative perspective.
Book Reviews by Mohammad Magout
مركز دراسات الوحدة العربية, 2023
مراجعة لرواية "الدولة اليهودية" (Judenstaat) للكاتبة الأمريكية سيمون زيليتش. الرواية تندرج في خان... more مراجعة لرواية "الدولة اليهودية" (Judenstaat) للكاتبة الأمريكية سيمون زيليتش. الرواية تندرج في خانة “التاريخ البديل”، وهو جنسٌ أدبي تدور أحداث أعماله في عالمٍ اتخذت فيه واقعةٌ تاريخيةٌ ما مسارًا مختلفًا عما آلت إليه على أرض الواقع، حيث "تتخيل" الرواية إقامة الحلفاء المنتصرين في الحرب العالمية الثانية دولة يهودية على الأراضي الألمانية بدلًا من فلسطين.
Syrian Studies Association Bulletin, Vol 18, No 2, 2013
Religion, Culture, Society, 2021
المقالة التالية عبارة عن ملخّص لكتاب "الحياة اليومية في الجحيم: مفكّرات الإبادة 1915 – 1918"، تأل... more المقالة التالية عبارة عن ملخّص لكتاب "الحياة اليومية في الجحيم: مفكّرات الإبادة 1915 – 1918"، تأليف فاهي تاشجيان (2019، دار بيرغان، نيويورك، باللغة الإنجليزية)، والذي يتناول يوميّات (مفكّرات يومية) كتبها مهجّران أرمنيان من مدينة عنتاب (مدينة غازي عنتاب في تركيا حالياً) لدى وجودهم في منطقة حماه-سلمية أثناء أعمال الإبادة والتهجير التي تعرّض لها الأرمن العثمانيون في الحرب العالمية الأولى. هذه اليوميّات لا ترسم صورةً حيّةً عن معاناة الأرمن وصراعهم اليومي من أجل البقاء خلال تلك الفترة العصيبة فحسب، بل تتضمّن أيضاً تفاصيلاً هامّةً عن طبيعة الحياة اليومية في بلدة سلمية في تلك الفترة وأوضاعها الاقتصادية والإدارة العثمانية فيها.
Talks by Mohammad Magout
The rule of al-Asad family over Syria has completed its 4th decade this year, which was marked –u... more The rule of al-Asad family over Syria has completed its 4th decade this year, which was marked –unexpectedly– with an unprecedented popular uprising. Studies of Syrian politics have traditionally focused on the sectarian, economic, and military foundations of this regime and its opponents. Few studies, however, have paid attention to the cultural basis of Al-Asad’s regime and to cultural forms of resistance against it. Any regime, no matter how oppressive and brutal, seeks to assert its authority over the cultural field and displays its power symbolically; and al-Asad’s is no exception. In this lecture, I will try to provide an overview of political culture in Syria during the past two decades, which span the final decade of Hafiz al-Asad’s reign and the reign of his son Bashar. I will also try to make some observations about changes in this culture following the outbreak of the Arab Spring and possible future developments.
Companion to the Study of Secularity by Mohammad Magout
Companion to the Study of Secularity. Edited by HCAS “Multiple Secularities – Beyond the West, Beyond Modernities.” Leipzig University, 2019
Any history of secularity in the Arab world needs to dedicate a special chapter to the Syro-Leban... more Any history of secularity in the Arab world needs to dedicate a special chapter to the Syro-Lebanese press in Beirut in the second half of the 19th century. Not only that the first explicit expressions of secularism in the region were articulated on its pages; it was the forum in which the earliest debates in Arabic about the relationship between religion and other social spheres were conducted in universal, abstract terms between members of different religious communities (as opposed to debating this relationship from within a particular religious tradition).
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Books by Mohammad Magout
Peer-reviewed Articles by Mohammad Magout
Papers by Mohammad Magout
This proposed panel invites papers that deal with various aspects of the early Arabic press, including (but not limited to) its role in the evolution of modern Arabic sociological and political vocabulary; discourses and debates in Arabic periodicals about society, religion, science, and politics; censorship and relationship with authorities; reception among different social groups; production and networks of distribution; and finally theoretical, methodological, and comparative approaches to the study of the Arabic press.
lack of research on the cultural dimensions of political power and the relationship between popular culture and politics; and lack of understanding of the relationship between sectarian and ethnic divisions, on the one hand, and political affiliations, on the other.
Book Reviews by Mohammad Magout
Talks by Mohammad Magout
Companion to the Study of Secularity by Mohammad Magout
This proposed panel invites papers that deal with various aspects of the early Arabic press, including (but not limited to) its role in the evolution of modern Arabic sociological and political vocabulary; discourses and debates in Arabic periodicals about society, religion, science, and politics; censorship and relationship with authorities; reception among different social groups; production and networks of distribution; and finally theoretical, methodological, and comparative approaches to the study of the Arabic press.
lack of research on the cultural dimensions of political power and the relationship between popular culture and politics; and lack of understanding of the relationship between sectarian and ethnic divisions, on the one hand, and political affiliations, on the other.