Post-Reformation Protestant Uses of Islam

Islamic Thought Through Protestant Eyes, Routledge, 2021

Early modern Protestant scholars closely engaged with Islamic thought in more ways than is usually recognized. Among Protestants, Lutheran scholars distinguished themselves as the most invested in the study of Islam and Muslim culture. Mehmet Karabela brings the neglected voices of post-Reformation theologians, primarily German Lutherans, into focus and reveals their rigorous engagement with Islamic thought. Inspired by a global history approach to religious thought, Islamic Thought Through Protestant Eyes offers new sources to broaden the conventional interpretation of the Reformation beyond a solely European Christian phenomenon. Based on previously unstudied dissertations, disputations, and academic works written in Latin in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, Karabela analyzes three themes: Islam as theology and religion; Islamic philosophy and liberal arts; and Muslim sects (Sunni and Shi'a). This book provides analyses and translations of the Latin texts as well as brief biographies of the authors. These texts offer insight into the Protestant perception of Islamic thought for scholars of religious studies and Islamic studies as well as for general readers. Examining the influence of Islamic thought on the construction of the Protestant identity after the Reformation helps us to understand the role of Islam in the evolution of Christianity.

Jose Abraham, "Islamic Thought Through Protestant Eyes," in Renaissance and Reformation 45/1(2022): 225-227

By exploring the Protestant Reformations, in Islamic Thought Through Protestant Eyes, Mehmet Karabela is dealing with one of the critical chapters in the history of Christianity. Historians generally considered the Reformations solely a European and Christian phenomenon and, therefore, focused their attention on the Protestant-Catholic divide and the conflict between orthodox and Pietist Lutheran factions with their Calvinist opponents. A cursory look at the titles and indexes of the books on the history of the Protestant Reformations published in the last few decades reveals to us that, even in our contemporary times, the term “Islam” has not been generally associated with the study of Protestant Reformations. . . . Therefore, Islamic Thought Through Protestant Eyes is an essential resource for libraries, graduate students, and scholars interested in studying the genealogy of Orientalism, the formation of Protestant traditions, European interactions with Islamic thought, and the construction of Protestant identity in the post-Reformation periods.

Gary K. Waite, "Islamic Thought through Protestant Eyes," The Seventeenth Century, 37/2: 342-344, 2022

"Karabela’s volume is an extremely helpful resource for research and advanced-level classrooms. With an annotated bibliography of selected primary sources, a glossary of terms, and an extensive bibliography and index, Islamic Thought Through Protestant Eyes should be in every Reformation and religious studies library."

Paul Strauss, "Islamic Thought Through Protestant Eyes", Lutheran Quarterly 36/4 (2022): 444-446

Mehmet Karabela expands our understanding of how seventeenth- and eighteenth-century European Protestant scholars understood Islam and learning in the Islamic world and often deployed this understanding for their own intra-Christian debates.

"Islam and Protestantism" in A Global Sourcebook in Protestant Political Thought, Volume I: 1517–1660, 2024

This first volume of A Global Sourcebook in Protestant Political Thought provides a window into the early Protestant world, and the ways in which Protestants wrestled with politics and religion in the wake of the Reformation. This period saw political authorities and church hierarchies challenged and defended by scholars, clerics, and laypeople alike. The volume engages the full spectrum of Protestants, with reference to theology, geography, ethnicity, historical importance, socio-economic background, and gender. This diversity highlights how Protestants felt pulled towards di ering political positions and used several maps to chart their course -conscience, custom, history, ecclesiastical tradition, and the laws of God, nature, nation, or community. On most important issues, Protestants lined up on opposing sides. Additionally, Catholic and Eastern Orthodox political thought, as well as interactions with Jewish and Muslim texts and thinkers, profoundly influenced di erent directions taken in the history of Protestant political thought. Even as our own time is fraught with deep disagreement and political polarisation, so too was early modern Europe, and we might read it in the anxieties, uncertainties, hopes, and expectations that the sources vividly express. This sourcebook will enrich both research and classroom teaching in politics, theology, and history, whether geared towards general political or religious history, or towards more specialised courses on colonialism, warfare, gender, race, or religious diversity.

Summary This paper presents the ways in which prominent Muslim reformers from the 19th and 20th century mentioned Martin Luther and Reformation in their books, articles, pamhplets and essays. In most cases they wrote about Luther and Reformation positively and as a model for reforms they considered necessary for the Muslim world. The author of this paper cites the views and opinions which show that the image of Martin Luther in reformist circles in the traditional lands of Islam was one of a European reformer who drew from Islamic sources. The paper also discusses the psychological reasons which contributed to glorification of Lutherʼs personality in many books and articles written by reformist minded Islamic and Muslim intelectuals in the 19th and 20th centuries.

Church History and Religious Culture, 2021

This paper looks at how prominent Muslim reformers of the 19th and 20th century treated Martin Luther and the Reformation in their books, articles, pamphlets and essays. In most cases, they wrote on them positively and as a model for reforms they thought the Muslim world needed. The author cites their views and opinions to demonstrate that Martin Luther’s image in reformist circles in the traditional lands of Islam was as of a European reformer who drew upon Islamic sources. The paper also discusses the psychological reasons that contributed to the glorification of Luther's personality in books and articles by reformist Islamic and Muslim intellectuals of the 19th and 20th centuries.

Hussam S. Timani, Review of Islamic Thought Through Protestant Eyes, 2023

"Mehmet Karabela’s Islamic Thought Through Protestant Eyes is a welcome contribution to the fields of religious studies and Islamic studies. Karabela brings to light a topic that has long been neglected by historians and scholars of religion, one that is of great importance to Christian-Muslim relations and to our understanding of 17th- and 18th- century European views on Islam..." "This book is an excellent illustration of post- Reformation Protestant scholarly engagement with Islamic literature."