What is Islamic Modernism?

Show notes

Dr Maria-Magdalena Pruß is a research fellow at ZMO and a historian of modern South Asia. She received her PhD at Princeton University in 2019. In this episode, Maria talks about doing research in Pakistan and her resulting forthcoming book, titled "Islamic Modernism and Religious Identity in Colonial Punjab", scheduled to be published with McGill-Queen's University Press later this year. The episode takes a look behind the scenes of archival work in Pakistan, how to gain access to records and source material while keeping in mind research methodology and ethics. It also focuses on the question of "What is Islamic modernism", the role of the Ahmadiyya movement, as well as regional variations and translocal connections in the history of Islamic modernism in South Asia. The episode is moderated by ZMO-affiliate Noura Chalati.

Throughout the episode, Noura and Maria speak about:

• Maria’s academic background in religious studies, her current research focuses as well as her methodological approaches and field work
• Maria’s extensive experiences of doing archival work in Pakistan
• The Do’s and Don’ts of everyday-life when visiting Pakistan
• Research in Pakistan as a young European woman
• The concept of Islamic Modernism and its meaning to South Asian Muslim communities nowadays and in the colonial era
• The quote “Islam is nature and nature is Islam” by Syed Ahmad Khan and the importance of movements such as Aligarh and Ahmadiyya
• Fragile items in archives and how to deal with them
• Useful tips for future researchers planning to work in Pakistan or India

Further information: https://www.zmo.de/forschung/hauptforschungsprogramm/umstrittene-religion/bend-over-arabic-manuscripts https://www.mariapruss.com/